Cub scouts and chew toys

Well... tonight was a pretty fun evening at cub scouts! We had a local police K-9 officer come in with his dog to talk about K-9 police work and give a demonstration of some of the things the dog can do. The officer had some actual marijuana with him to hide in the classroom for the dog to find, and it was so neat to watch. The boys laughed and said, "WOW, you are a police officer bringing drugs TO school! That's kinda backwards!" But the "bad guy" demonstration was the part they liked best. My husband, Jason, got to be the dog's "chew toy". He was the bad guy, and got attacked by the dog (he had a special arm sleeve that is super thick so the dog's teeth don't actually "bite" him). The boys' eyes were wide as saucers as the dog attacked him! But Jason and this dog are well acquainted friends, and he has been the "chew toy" many times for training and demonstrations like this one! It was pretty cool!

Other than that, just a normal kind of day. *shrug* I need to finish working on my life group discussion for tomorrow night. Later!

Lighten up!

Hello all! I confess I have not been faithful to this blogging thing lately. I figured out why on Wednesday night. Pastor mentioned something about a "creative slump" during the Wednesday evening Bible study, and I just KNEW that was where I was! I talked with him after service, and he told me that I need to lighten up and have some FUN with this blog. Stop trying to be so serious! So... I have created a little collage of pictures from the pinewood derby last weekend, and here are my two very handsome sons with this year's creations! And with the tropheys, I might add. :) *brag brag* *shameless boasting* going on here! So, lightening up is not something easily done, but I know I am able. The other night before my husband left for a aconference, we spent a couple hours talking, and I was in such a giddy mood, I just giggled and laughed like I haven't done in a very, very long time! It was a blast! The Bible says "a cheerful heart is good medicine" (Prov. 17:22). How true it is! I felt sooooo much better after all that laughing! What a wise God we serve! He knows something that us dumb humans are too stubborn to grab hold of... the cares of this life choke the joy out of our lives... no laughter.... the second half of the above mentioned verse says "But a crushed spirit dries up the bones." That is exactly where Satan wants us... steals our joy and laughter, and our spirits dry up and die. We need a revival of JOY in our lives! Well, at least I do. So, I will try harder to make this a fun place to come! Thanks for not giving up on me! Lata!

PS... for a few good laughs, go to www.kendavis.com and listen to some of his comedy. He is an awesome and hysterical christian comedian... give him a listen! To get to the audio clips, just click on the "PRODUCT" tab, then click "audio". On the right hand side are links to many of his comedy CDs... many of them (but not all) have short audio clips on them you can listen to!

Where is God in this?

Wow... I am feeling extreme guilt. I have not been a consistent blogger at all lately, and I apologize to the very few people who actually take time out of their day to check on my little corner of the world here at northernapostolicmom. I am actually having an inferiority complex, if the truth be told. I am a tremendously huge fan of the wonderful bloggers "extraordinaire" over at my favorite webzine, ninetyandnine.com . Stu did such a fabulous job that I don't know how anyone could DARE follow him up! But sweet Wendy was the PERFECT choice! She is practically a pro blogger! I just LOVE her way with words! LeeAnn, the duct tape queen is a hoot, and has great life advice to offer (not to mention the inside scoop on American Idol). I despise the American Idol show, but in order to be able to talk to people in the world and forge relationships with those who don't know the Lord, ya hafta know a LITTLE BIT about these things. These great bloggers have one thing in common, besides writing talent and personality oozing from their pores... they have CONSISTENCY... which I sorely lack here at northernapostolicmom. I would like to say it is because I am too busy being an apostolic mom! But in reality, I want this to be a place where I can write about the deep spiritual side of being an apostolic mom... but there doesn't seem to be one... at least, not an interesting one that would hold a reader's attention. Because really, being an apostolic mom means being a praying mom. A mom that's there. A mom that is involved in every area of life. Routine. Life. As Bro. Trapani so eloquently preached on Wed. night. Life is life. Sometimes it is downright ordinary and BORING. It seems like all I post here is pictures of my boys and boring stories of "what I did today". Who wants to read that? People are involved in their own day to day living, and don't need my lack of drama to add to theirs. But...... as I have heard so eloquently in the past three messages I have heard preached.... the Kingdom of God will come and shake you upside down and expose all your skeletons... but you have to get back up, no matter how many times you are knocked down.... you must get up and fight ONE MORE ROUND! Every time! One more round! Don't let the drugery of life get you down so that you can't get back up. Does any of this make any sense? Or am I just rambling on aimlessly, boring you to the point of death? I am boring MYSELF! I don't even know if I will actually POST this! Ahhhh! If I do, I apologize in advance.

So, in light of this little rant of mine, do I have anything spiritual to contribute today? Nope. Today involved going to work, going to a parent/teacher conference for my youngest son, coming home to cook dinner, painting pinewood derby cars, and putting children to bed. Nothing too spiritual about that. Where was God in my life today? Ummm...... I prayed today. I prayed with my sons tonight. I ended my day still choosing to love and serve Jesus Christ. Other than that? Hmmmmmmm.... I am feeling like I need to go pray some more. Not that the amount of time I pray earns brownie points with God... I know it doesn't. But my heart knows that when I feel this distant... it's time to reconnect. Gotta go plug in. Bye.

Need input! (ever see "Short Circuit"?)

I'm sitting here with a million thoughts running through my head at the same time, and I can't seem to make sense of them enough to get them out on screen (how weird... I wanted to say "on paper"...). I'm even feeling like no one is probably the slightest bit interested in my rambling thoughts anyway! So why bother putting them "on screen"? Why? I don't know. Maybe there is another apostolic mom out there going through the same thing I'm going through, and maybe I can help her, or MAYBE she can help me! If you relate to this, I'd love it if you would comment or email me! Here's my situation:

Our church has regional small groups called "Life Groups" that meet every other Wednesday evening in homes around the county. My husband and I are facilitators of one of these groups. It happens to be a group that does NOT include the town we live in. It also happens to be a group of people who are either older, or single... NO children in the group except ours. Adam and Nick are not particularly fond of this arrangement, and consequently they strongly dislike going to Life Group. Now... I certainly don't want my children growing up "strongly disliking" anything that is related to church or serving God. I want them to LOVE it! I love it! But a group with our dynamics basically has not much to offer them. Face it. When you were a 7-9 year old kid, did you like sitting around listening to grown-ups talk on and on about stuff you couldn't relate to for an hour? No. Mine don't either. We have been trying to tackle this issue for two years now. It has been quite honestly very frustrating... for us as parents, for them as children, and for the rest of the group that has no answers for us. The perfect solution would be to INVITE FAMILIES WITH CHILDREN! But being from a different town, our children don't KNOW any kids from the town our regional group is held in. They can't really invite their friends... it would be inconvenient to join a group that is out of town. So what do we do??? (This is where you email me or post a comment... I could sure use some help in this area! Just being honest....). Read on...

Let me tell you what I did this evening. We began our life group together in prayer, but when my husband began the adult discussion, I took my boys to the other side of the room, read them a story, and did an activity. The topic was "responsibility". You should have seen their faces! They were so thrilled that someone was paying attention to them! They were so thrilled to have something productive to do! I was totally bummed out to miss out on the adult discussion ( I thrive on adult fellowship and conversation ). But to see my children's faces was worth a million bucks! I am so glad I did it (even though that part of me that NEEDS the adult conversation is depressed now). I love my children so much, and I will do anything to make them LIKE church related activities like Life Groups.

Well, I know it is not a positive post in a lot of ways, but those are the thoughts and troubles running through my head right now. This blog is all about being an apostolic mom in the northern US. Northern apostolic moms don't always have perfect days. In fact, I don't think I've ever met a mom... apostolic or otherwise... who has all perfect days! So, you take what you get today. Ponder it. Let me know what you think. I can take constructive criticism pretty well... but not destructive criticism. Save that for someone else. In other words, if you think my thought process is wrong, tell me, but give me some helpful, positive ideas to help me out. Thanks for listening.