A couple months ago, our church started something called “Connections.”
Steve and I and the staff wanted to find a way for our congregation members to get to know each other a little better, since sitting beside someone in a pew for 90 minutes on Sunday is not really a good way to accomplish that goal.
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As I sat in the doctor’s office this past Monday, the questions came at me fast and furious:
Have you ever smoked?
Were you ever exposed to a lot of second-hand smoke?
Have you been exposed to work-related chemicals or occupational or environmental pollutants?
Have you ever had a positive blood test for the AAT gene?
As promised, today I’m featuring the video of the guys from our local faith-based rehab center who we shared Thanksgiving with.
This is Steve with Ken, the staff member who accompanied the guys. (Ken is a graduate of the program.)
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I wrote last week that we had invited the guys from Dare Challenge over to our home to share Thanksgiving with us. (Note: I received permission from each of them to post the story and pictures here.)
The day was great! And heart warming! And wonderful!
In the midst of my happy (but frantic) preparation I had just one small cooking crisis when a glass baking dish shattered in the oven. I was baking two turkey breasts and suddenly, for no reason whatsoever, one of the dishes made a terrible noise and splintered all over everything.
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Coming soon!
Pictures, stories (and even a video) of yesterday’s Thanksgiving Celebration with the men of Dare Challenge. For now though, here are a few photos of the Thanksgiving table.
Once upon a time (about a year ago), in a kingdom far away (actually, our house), we invited some friends (and their whole passel of children) over for dinner.
Somewhere in the course of Our Festive Banquet, the Royal Table got bumped and a couple of candles that had burned too far down did what all self respecting candles do when jostled—they spilled their copious quantities of wax all over the tablecloth.
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Since none of our extended family will be able to make it to Manteo for Thanksgiving, we have decided to once again host the men who live at Dare Challenge, a nearby residential substance abuse program.
If you weren’t hanging out around Smithellaneous last year at this time, you can go here to read my account of Thanksgiving a year ago when nine men came to our house for dinner. I am including an excerpt of that post below because it sums up so well how my heart feels about the privilege of hosting special men on a special day.
I posted last year about the Community Thanksgiving Service we attended and guess what? Thanksgiving just happens to be coming around again this year and so we attended another Community Thanksgiving Service.
The thing I truly, truly love about these gatherings is the variety of people who attend and the even bigger variety of people who are on the platform.
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When I was looking through my pantry this week, I realized I had a few items stashed away that really needed to be used up, specifically a graham cracker crust that I unearthed from beneath a bag of potatoes. I studied the crust carefully and judged it to be of fairly recent vintage, doubtlessly made in this century, at least.
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Tuesday night, Sarah came into my bedroom dressed like this.
Thanks to those of you who left such sweet comments on my Monday post about my back issues. Two days of rest, pain meds and muscle relaxers have brought me to a point where I’m feeling well enough to head into work in a few minutes. I’m not feeling great but I’m feeling better, and better is good!
Last Friday night, Sarah was away overnight at a youth event so Steve and I decided to make use of a restaurant gift certificate our church just gave us for Pastor’s Appreciation Day.
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I have spent the day in bed with muscle relaxers and pain killers on board. My back is doing one of its little nasty tricks which cause my every movement to be accompanied by a bad case of the The Ouchies.
Although this pictures was not taken today, it sums up quite well what a good resting companion Summer is; she helps me feel like I might just survive until tomorrow.
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Words . . . spoken, written or read, I love them all. I'm also a fan of photography, costume jewelry, thrift stores and hot peach cobbler. And? I'm a breast cancer survivor.
