Inspiration Workshop {Week #10}: A Day In My Life

I'm linking up again this week with the Gussy Sews Inspiration Workshop! The prompt this week was: "A Day In My Life!"

My day starts early since Ben has to leave for work by around 5:45. Every morning starts the same way:


Start the kettle so that I can fix Ben some hearty oatmeal.


Hearty oatmeal
(Note the early time. They really do have one of those in the morning too!)


Make sandwiches for Ben's lunch.


Pack lunch.

Then Ben makes his way out into the kitchen to eat breakfast.


Holly-dog has to make sure that no oatmeal gets on the floor.

Ben leaves for work and Holly-dog and I go back to bed for a little while. I know. I keep saying that I'm going to try to stay up after Ben leaves for work, but it hasn't happened yet. I'm really hoping that now I'm getting a good night's sleep on our new bed (thank you, Ikea! LOVING this thing!), I will be able to do it. Monday is the day. I can feel it.

6:45 rolls around and I get up and start getting myself ready for work. Lately, it has been so hot that my hair ends up in these:


Re-purposed matchbox from my favorite curly-haired Italian.

I feed the Holly-dog:



Then it's off to work!


Trinity Presbyterian Church, I'm the Administrative Assistant.

Desk essentials:


Water and coffee (cup from Monogram Chick)

Looking in:


(Don't be confused by the Windows toolbar down there. Just running Parallels on the Mac so that I can open all of the Publisher docs that some of our staff still use.)

Looking out:


Hard at work, I'm sure.

No, really. This is what I've been working on:


The August edition of the Trinity Newsletter was mailed out on Tuesday afternoon and I just finished up the Worship Folder draft Wednesday afternoon when I took this pic.

At lunch I run home, take out the Holly-dog, and grab some lunch.


She's just too darn cute! Wish I could have her with me at work!

Wednesday night means Worship Team rehearsal:


Some of the music we're working on. For a list of all the songs that we do in Worship right now click here.

Last night I had to run to the store after rehearsal. I love my Publix supermarket.


Trying to remember to be green.

I came home to find Ben working on a tool review for a friend of ours. Pretty nice deal, actually. Ben gets some tools for work and in exchange writes the review. Holly apparently thought that the box that the tools came in was supposed to be used as a platform for her to reach the bed:


Again, could she get any cuter?

I finished up the day by doing some laundry so that Ben had clothes to wear to work:



Then I did the dishes and got coffee ready for the morning:



After that we headed to bed (in our NEW BED!) to get a good night's sleep so that we could start all over again in the morning!

It's not a very exciting life, but it's our life and I'm thankful for what God has for me right now. I need to remember that when I feel like I'm not doing a lot or that I'm not making a huge difference in the world. I'm doing the work that God has called me to right now. If I'm glorifying Him in what I'm doing, I AM making a difference, great or small.

retracing my steps...

Sometimes, the best way to gain a clear focus is to go back and trace your steps. That's what I've just been doing. I've been reading over my blogs from the last year. It's a really interesting thing to do. It's especially interesting looking at when I wrote things. I think that I can safely say that the journey that I'm tracking right now started just one week shy of a year ago. (I've rewritten that sentence four times and I'm still not sure if that's how I would say it, but you get the gist of it!) On February 26th, 2006 (technically, February 27th, by the time I actually got it posted), I wrote this blog: Invisible Children. This was my first night going to Refuge. I remember that night. I remember us watching the video. I remember Brian leading us in "You Said" and thinking what a perfect song that was to end on. I remember wanting to do something. I also remember the feeling that I couldn’t do all the things that I would want to do because of my current circumstances. I remember feeling called to do more than what I wrote about, but afraid to talk about it, because then it would be real. I remember resigning myself to the fact that I would have to simply raise awareness. It broke my heart to see the kids in Uganda. I really did just want to pick them all up and hold them. It's the way I feel about all kids. They were meant to be loved. They were meant to be protected. They were meant to be nurtured.

This weekend at the conference, they asked us to examine ourselves and find what our passion is. Mine came to me quickly: children. It always has been. I am happiest when I'm around them. The Lord speaks to me through them and they feed my soul in a way that nothing else can. I have tried to see music as my passion for a long time, but I know now that it is more of an outlet than a passion. I enjoy making music. I love being with children.

Then I found this post from September: singin' in the rain. The second half of this post was a VERY short version of all the coincidental things that happened that week. One of the things that I left out, once again, because I would then have to think about it, was something that my boss said to me the week before. She looked at me when we were in the stockroom and just stared at me for a minute. She then said something that completely shocked me. She said, "You've been thinking about missions, haven't you? I know you have. I can just tell." I had not breathed a word to anyone regarding it until then. It had been bumping around in my heart, trying to get out, but I had never let it out until then. So, that weekend, when Drew preached on Gen 12:1-10, "A Vision Worth Dying For", speaking about Abraham's call and our call as well, to leave country and our father's house, I almost couldn't handle it. That, coupled with the passages in "My Utmost For His Highest" that week almost sent me over the edge. I didn't know what to do with it all. (It didn't help that my attitude at that time was not exactly one that I am proud of.) I have been processing it all since then and have talked to a few select people about it since.

And now, here I am. Still more confused than ever. It's been a year and I still don't know what this call means. The "Next Step Lunch" that I went to yesterday at the end of Fusion was with the Rafiki Foundation, which is an organization that has set up "villages" in ten countries in Africa: Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda, and Zambia, with villages still under construction in Ethiopia, Liberia, Rwanda, and Tanzania. Right now, they take in teenagers and orphans under 6. Their mission is to educate and equip the next generation so that they can be leaders in their communities. It was a really interesting presentation, but I don't think it's an organization that I would necessarily be able to work with. Mostly, because what they need are teachers with certification. I, obviously, am not a certified teacher. So, that's that.

There is almost too much for me to process right now. I guess I felt that if I shared it, rather than keeping it inside like I normally do, maybe I can find some clarity. Right now, I'm just scared looking at all that I've just typed, knowing that I've just bared my soul. That's a new step for me. Maybe it's the first of many...