Monday Morning Update 6.28.10

Saturday night we kicked off our outdoor summer movie nights with "Star Wars" on the big screen in the Oak Hollow neighborhood. this was the first neighborhood that we went to back in our pre-launch days. It was great to be back. We enjoyed hanging out with The Crossroads family and meeting several new families from the neighborhood who joined us for a great family night.

I was utterly exhausted from a long day of cleaning and working on the house. I made it through setting up the movie screen before I crashed in my lawn chair. I didn't even budge to go get free chocolate. That's exhausted right there!

As I was sitting, desperately trying to stay awake, I looked around and realized that the teens at the movie night had congregated in my space. It feels weird to be old enough to be the mom of two middle school kids, but at the same time I enjoy visiting with the big kids. It is a new journey, but I am looking forward to the next few years.

Today at The Crossroads, we were definitely feeling the summer slump. Lots of families were out on vacation, but we also had several new families drop in to worship with us. I love seeing new faces continuing to check out The Crossroads.

Worship went well. I felt a little unsure during practice this morning since we did not get to run through the songs earlier in the week, but it all came together in the end. I've been singing Third Day's, "Your Love Oh Lord..." all week - so it was cool that it was in the set.

I was in children's again this week. We were finishing up the Boys vs. Girls series, talking about what makes girls special. I took the opportunity in my 2nd and 3rd grade small group to read, "You Are Special" by Max Lucado. It was a perfect tie-in to the big group study, and I loved getting to share one of my favorite reads with the kids.

Next week our children's coordinator will be out of town. She asked me to fill in for her. I said, "sure." (I really don't mind at all.) Then I realized that I will also be doing the singing (in the microphone) part of the worship time. I haven't sang into a microphone in over 18 years. Next I realized that all the vocalists from the praise team will be staffing small group time. Now I'm a little nervous. Why couldn't the tone deaf people be staffing children's ministry this week? But it's not about me, now is it? The kids will love me - off key or not. I'm glad that our children's coordinator will have the opportunity to go out of town with her family and have a week off.

I hope that Shawn did a good job with his sermon in the family series. I think I have missed all but one of these. I hope they are making a difference with our people in the way they relate to each other and the way they parent their children. I hope that our people are encouraged that God does not require perfection in parenting and that we all mess up and just keep on trying.

This is my last week of teaching summer school. I have enjoyed my students much more than I ever anticipated. However, I am looking forward to having a break before the fall session begins.

Other exciting news - we have an offer on our house, it was crazy low, but we countered. We will see how this all plays out. I can't wait to get moved to Anna! It will make the school year with football and volleyball practices much easier to manage.