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And Tuesday, and probably Wednesday. Just been feeling lazy lately. I’m thinking about doing stuff, but that’s not the same as getting it done. I’ve thought about a lot of topics to blog about, but haven’t bothered to log in and write them. So I’ll just give an update on the happenings with me and my family.

Thanksgiving was good. A large breakfast, a little quiet time at home, a late lunch/early dinner at my parents, and then back home. Lots of the expected food groups, no unexpected dramas, an overall nice day.

Saturday, Ethan and I went to the store by ourselves. It was nice because he and I don’t get a lot of just us time since he started school. He was very much in awe of the enormous fake snowglobes at Walmart that are blown up and twirl the bits of styrofoam around. We bought some ‘farmer’s cheese’ for him to try out, and although he doesn’t much care for it, Josh and I really like it. It’s like a mild mozzarella. I think it’d be really good toasted on small bits of toast.

Saturday night, I took 5 hours and decorated the house for Christmas. This is after Josh and I spent an hour figuring out how to rearrange the living room, and us both trying our darndest not to get totally frustrated with each other and the process. The kids decorated their tree very quickily, and they are very proud. I, on the other hand, took a loong time to decorate the ‘family’ tree, and now think that maybe next year, I’ll go back to green trees or get crazy colored balls.

Last year, or the year before, I bought a white tree. I thought it’d be cool. But then I put my mostly clear, red, and blue ornaments on it. It looks very patriotic. Nothing wrong with that, but if I set out with a theme in mind for the tree, that wasn’t it. Those ornaments look fine on green trees, however, green trees tend to hide the ornaments. They blend in so to speak. White trees help your ornaments “pop”. Oh well.

I’m glad that when I take down all the Christmas stuff that it only takes 2 hours. *Whew!*

So Sunday, Josh was invited to preach in a small church about an hour away from our house. He had an old sermon that he felt comfortable with, and I was excited about getting Christmas money early. Maybe I can get all my shopping done before December 22nd this year! Woohoo!

We drove out to find the church after Thanksgiving dinner, and found it a mile down a dirt road. It’s a small church, about the same size as the one we go to, building size anyway. On Sunday, they had a grand attendance of 8. Ten if you include Josh and I. They were really nice, and happy to have us there.

I must admit, however, I went with some prejudices. We had been told by their semi-regular preacher that Josh was filling in for, that the congregation was small. They don’t have a piano player so everything is acapello, except the prelude and ’special music’ which is played on a cd player cranked up as high as it will go. Josh asked about picking his own song for after the sermon, but was told they use the African American hymnal which we don’t have a copy of.

That’s when my stupid ideas of what a black church will be like popped into my head. Josh asked me what he should wear, as he always does when he preaches. I wondered what I should wear. In the South, when you drive by predominantly black churches as they leave to go to lunch, you see a lot of fancy dressed people. All the men are in suits. At first glance, all the women are wearing hats. A lot of bright colored suits, matching handbags, polished shoes, that type of fancy dress. So I told Josh to wear his suit. We decided that a congregation is never going to criticize the preacher for being over dressed, but under dressed, yes.

There’s a lot of jokes about Presbyterians being called the “Frozen Chosen”. And time and time again, I have seen them live up to that joke. At the larger church we attended for years, there would be times, when they would break out into applause after special music, and times when one or two would say “amen” during a sermon. One or two. Out of hundreds. A very stoic crowd at best.

I didn’t expect this church to be a lot different, even though they were all black, because after all, they were Presbyterian! So I was glad when they sang along with the canned music, and most of them nodded and smiled during Josh’s sermon. And they were dressed the same as most churches on Sunday. With no hats. *whew!* Josh left saying it was the first time he had finished a service not feeling totally drained. I think it had to do with not being drained by the congregations response, rather instead, they affirmed and loved him, which energized him. I did have to tease him on the way home that towards the end of the sermon, he was getting a little too…quirky. There was a hint of three syllables when he said “Jesus” a couple of times. Juuhh EE Sus.

This is a really long post, but I have to share a little more since I didn’t write Monday or Tuesday. Bear with me. Let me get it out of my head, and things will be normal tomorrow. Well, maybe not normal…

So church had a gas leak or something, it was a beautiful day outside, so they left the doors open to air it out during the service. Right before the service started I noticed something on my pants. My black fancy pants, thank you. It was a lady bug. So I pushed it over onto my hand, and it crawled around on my hand and bulletin for 40 minutes. Almost all the way through the service. It was very nice. Although I say I’m not superstitious, I can’t help some of those thoughts. Like that ladybugs are good luck. Since ladybugs are good luck, if you believe that sort of thing, then I was happy to have it on my hand. I just hope the lady next to me didn’t think I was kooky if she saw it. Some crazy white girl letting a bug crawl around on her. hehe

The big news about later this week is that we might have “Winter Mix”. The first of the winter season! I’m excited to see what it does…ice…snow…sleet…melts in five minutes…stays for two hours…Anytime the weather man says “wintery mix” it’s a gamble in Arkansas. In north of the United States, you know you are in for snow a better part of the winter. In Florida, you are positive you’ll never see anything white. In Arkansas, some years it’s icy with a lot of power outages, sometimes it’s just cold with sleet that never sticks, and sometimes we have snow for two weeks. But never more than 7 inches at a time. Just don’t say never. Because you just never know. One thing you can count on is that people will be making a mad rush to the grocery store for bread and milk, and that the schools will panic and close if the buses can’t make it on their routes. So this afternoon? I’m going to pick up Ethan from school, head over the grocery store for milk and to the video store for a couple of dvds. LOL.

Have a great day whoever is reading this! Have a lazy day if you can!