Pastor Mom

I wish that everyone was as lucky as I am.  Why am I so lucky?  For a lot of reasons.  But, one of them is that I have the best Best Friend ever.  Chrissie and I have been friends since we were old enough to walk across the street (literally).  We grew up together.  We know so much about each other.  We are very different.  She is tall and I am not.  She is a nurse and I can not deal with blood or bodily functions.  But even with those differences, through the years we have remained friends. Now our friendship has not always been perfect.  I remember the time I spit on her (I have no idea why) and she did not talk to me for like a week.  There have been times that we have both been jealous of other friendships.  But we have experienced some amazing things together as well.  I had the privilege of dedicating her twins in Church.  I had the privilege of officiating her wedding to Dustin (who is also amazing)....

I feel like Jerry and I are pretty lucky that we have not had many clothing dilemmas.  We rarely have to give any kind of advice as the kids are getting dressed or picking out clothes to purchase.  The kids just naturally want to cover everything up when they leave the house, I guess.  Though tonight going to dance might have been the first time Gabby has put on pants since Sunday.  Hey, it is what it is. This year Emma is in Junior High.  And it is every bit as awful as I remember junior high being when I was in junior high.  Maybe boys experience this too, but I know for a fact that girls do.  People you thought you were friends with call you fat at the lunch table and then the next day want to be friends again.  Best friends find other friends they want to be "best" friends with.  It is awkward for everyone.  Bodies are changing.  Everyone is figuring out who they are and who they want to be, and yes sometimes that changes freq...

I have a lot of titles.  Sister, daughter, friend, Aunt, Cousin, Wife, Mom, Pastor, etc.  Each of these titles play an important role in my life.  I live my life a certain way, because I am a daughter.  I respond to certain things in life differently as a wife than I would if I was not married.  Titles and the roles associated with them are important. And mostly any of us can have many titles or roles and they may never conflict or collide.  But, sometimes that happens.  The two titles I have the collide the most are actually the title of my blog page.  Pastor and Mom.  Some days these things go together well.  Or one does not have much of an affect on the other.  Other days it seems like the two worlds collide in intense ways. Enter today.  Now let me be clear that I will never share names or personal information about church members, but I will at times share stories that I have been given permission to share with names r...

Snow!  There’s a certain amount of excitement that comes with snow.  It is fun  It is exciting.  We do not often get to play in the snow because of Gabby’s asthma, but there was no denying them today.  Due to our lack of spending much time in a beautiful winter wonderland, we do not own any sleds or other fun snow equipment.  So that left nothing to do, but make a snowman.  After taking 30 minutes to bundle up, out the door we went.  I had told them how deep it was.  Yet, Kota was very surprised when he couldn’t really stand up in it.   I always like to get one picture of them all standing together.  As you can see, this was not just a little snow.  There is 14 inches out there. And yes, it is a struggle to walk in.  We quickly got to work on the snowman.  It went much quicker than we expected, because this snow is awesome for packing.  I worked on the bottom, Emma did the middle, and Gabby did the top...

Mornings are rough.  They usually involve more yelling than I am proud of.  However, this is something that I have promised myself to work on in the New Year.  I am taking the whole "no matter what happens, it is only as bad as I make it" approach.  Positivity can make a difference in how you look at things, right? Well, this morning was not great.  I overslept.  Did not hear any of my three alarms.  Emma, my wonderful 12 year old, woke me up about 15 minutes later than I usually wake up.  I was immediately frantic.  Then there were so many clothing fiascos that the morning was just going downhill fast.  Kota (7) couldn't get his pants buttoned.  Gabby's (9) pants were also too small.  And for some strange reason, it was like they both forgot that yes, indeed, they do own more clothing than those pants that were too small. Then there was breakfast.  Oh Lord.  Jerry and I had a whole day where we meal prepped....