One Insane Youth Pastor

My Husband is Crazy. He is a also a Youth Pastor. Those two things seem to go hand in hand. He recently just quit his daily grind job to start his own business. I have never seen him so happy and excited (except for the day he married me). He has a lot of extra time now and a flexible schedule. This leaves time for our family and ministry.

We have taken advantage of this new found freedom by having our youth group kids over a lot. They like to hang out and watch movies or go golfing or bake cookies. So the other night after a church wide activity that ended before 11 p.m., we knew we had to do something. It was the end of the summer. We can't end a party that early. School starts this week. So they all crashed at our house. And they brought a Scary Movie. Now the last scary movie I watched was Nightmare on Elm Street part one. Yes, It has been THAT long. I am a Scaredy Cat. I watched most of The Ring Part two through a blanket or watched the reflection in my fireplace screen. After the screamfest ended I had to drive a couple of the girls home. This was at about 2:30 a.m. And I couldn't take my Husband with me. I must really love those teens.

Back to Crazy Larry. The teen boys weren't ready to end the party so they stayed and I hit the sack. The girls decided to call the boys and try to scare them. What they didn't know was the boys were still at our house with Crazy Larry. (And that cell Phones have caller ID) So the boys, directed by my Husband, go over to the girls house and Larry puts on a dark coat and a blanket over his head and stands outside the girl's window and calls them. He tells them what's going inside their house with a freaky voice. Things like "Look outside your window" and "Those are nice red chairs". The girls get a little scared, but who is really upset is the girl's mom. She wakes up and hears them talking to boys on the phone at 4:30 in the morning and can only assume the worst.

Imagine her surprise when she finds out it's the Youth Pastor.

It's Official!

Our youngest is officially a Kindergartener. She had a great day. She brought home her glue sticks because she couldn't find them in her backpack. She is also officially a blonde.

OOOH! That's Scary!

There are three kinds of people that watch a scary movie:

A. The Scaredy Cat. This person watches the movie under a blanket or behind a pillow. They don't watch the really scary scenes and they scream a lot.

B. The Aggrevator. This person is not scared of the movie and generally talks through the entire show driving the other movie watchers crazy.

C. The Fan. This person truly loves a scary movie and wants to watch it and be scared.

Can you guess which group I fall into?

Something better than Calgon

I just returned from shopping at Wal-mart with four children. You would think that would stressful, but the kids were great. I saw the Calgon and was tempted to buy it. (Larry always tells me not to get to preachy on this blog thing, but sometimes I like to preach at myself so here goes.) I have something stronger than Calgon to take me away. God has written a love letter to me that I can read anytime to take me away. Nothing soothes and calms like the Word of God. Nothing brings you back to reality faster. God is so much bigger and greater than we are. He can take away all the worries and stress if I let Him. He gives me the strength and grace to clean, cook, organize, plan and discipline. Now if I can just remember that I won 't need the Calgon.

I need some Calgon

Ever have a day or week where you feel like you can't keep up with anything? Or you can't do anything right? The Castle household has been in medium level chaos most of the summer. The kids have had a great time playing outside and have forgotten what a chore is. My oldest daughter told me she forgot how to clean. My husband quit his job to begin his own company. We no longer have a paycheck coming in. He assures me this in only temporary. I believe him, but it doesn't help with the waiting. All the neighborhood children are going back to school TOMORROW! I am home schooling the oldest two this year and still haven't decided what to do. I finally got to planning yesterday and my sister-in-law calls with a kid emergency. Today I am babysitting that emergency. We ran out of milk and juice and fruit. The kids have eaten peanut butter and jelly and mac and cheese. And to top it all off my husband got a wisdom tooth pulled yesterday. He was drugged up most of the day.

I don't think even Calgon can help at this point. Unless it would help get the bathtub clean.

Paint the town . . .

I wish I had thought to take a picture! I don't think you can imagine the redness of the kitchen when I came around the corner to find the little red girl crying as she stood on the red purgo floor in front of the open red refrigerator. I didn't have a mirror handy, but I'd wager that my face turned some shade of red too when I realized what happened.

I also have to say that I deserve the Most Insensitive Dad Award for making such a big deal out of how this wouldn't have happened if she had been paying attention when I said, "just get a glass and I'll help you."

Oh well. No use crying over . . . uugh! Bad analogy. I guess one bright spot is that it gave me a chance to demonstrate what it looks like to humble yourself, admit you were wrong, and ask for forgiveness. I'm always telling the girls to do that. Yesterday I got to model it.

The other bright spot is under the base board of the fridge. :-)

Physics lesson

A six year old child has the ability to spill a pitcher of red Kool-aid to cover every square inch of a refrigerator. This also includes the area under the refrigerator.

It takes three rolls of paper towels to soak up a pitcher of Kool-aid.

We will not be purchasing Kool-aid anymore.

Canada Eh!

My husband and I just returned from a business trip to Winnipeg Canada. Being so close to America there are a lot of similarities, but it is definitely a foreign country. We must have said 50 times "Only in Canada."
We saw these signs all over the city. At first we thought these were just polite warnings. Then later on that night when we heard sirens several times we weren't so sure. We took the signs advice just in case.
This shirt is an example of Canadian humor. Larry liked this one.
Canadian technology at its best.
And where else can you find a Strip and Rip connected to a Howard Johnson's?

Kids!

We took a trip today to a HUGE mall about an hour away. Larry hooked up the laptop so the kids could watch a video while we drove. This makes the time go by so much faster. At this HUGE mall there is a glorified Chuck E. Cheese type place called Jeepers!. They have video games and rides and even a small roller coaster. There is also a carousel at the mall and a play area in the food court. We probably make it to the HUGE mall 3 times a year. The girls love going. On the way home I was thinking while we were driving around trying to find the way home about when was the first time I went to a mall. I think I was in seventh grade. My best friend Monica and I spent 10 bucks at the County Seat on matching shirts. We didn't have play areas and roller coasters or video players in the car. We didn't even have air conditioning in one of our cars. Which brings me too my point. My kids are spoiled. I bought them a little something at the Hello Kitty store for a little treat. My oldest kid says "I didn't want that." (Whine and Cry sound effects should be added here. And then Loud Sigh sounds from Mom.) I expected her to thankful that her Mommy thought to get her a small treat. It hit me then that when kids get too many treats they don't appreciate a kind gesture. Nothing is special. It is the expected. It is the norm. It creates a desire for more. What else can I get. I am trying to teach them to be selfless and giving. I didn't realize my giving to them was doing the exact opposite.

An Ironic Evening

It was a beautiful evening last night. My family and I decided to spend it outdoors at Greenfield Village. (Or The Henry Ford as they would like you to call it.) They are having special Saturday nights in the summer where the Village is open until 9 instead of the usual 5 o' clock closing time. They are also having special concerts on the Village Green. You can bring chairs or blankets and sit and listen to a live performance. They have a different group every week. This weeks group was the North Star Gospel Chorale. They were very good. The kids had a great time listening to familiar songs like "What a Friend we have in Jesus" and "God is so Good". They also sang a few Negro Spirituals and Civil War songs. The kids learned a little bit about slavery and expressed shock when we explained it to them. Larry told them about the Underground Railroad and one of them piped up with "They took the Subway?"

After we were sitting there for a while it struck me as ironic that we were listening to music about freedom and equality.

Every one around me was middle or upper class white Americans.

Like you need another hole in your head...

My two girly girls got their ears pierced today. The boyish girl would have nothing to do with it. I told her she could get a pirate tattoo instead. She said no.

How much did you say that would be?

I was just trying to be good mother by taking my children to the library. Of course they checked out a few books, but the big thrill is the free video rental. They also just started stocking DVDs. So usually our trips to the library sound something like this.

"Mom, Can we get a movie?"
"Only one per person. And you have to get some books too."

We then get to the video section and the begging begins.

"Can I get this one and this one?"
"No."

We usually come away with about 26 books and 4 videos. One educational that Mom picks out.

I try to be careful about the due dates for I have been blacklisted by the library in the past.( Another embarrassing story for another day.) The due date on the book I am reading is July 26th. So I assumed wrongly that everything was due on the 26th. What I didn't realize is that videos are 3 DAY rental. Yes, my videos were 23 days overdue. At a dollar a day that's a lotta cash. I didn't realize they were late until I received a notice in the mail on the 26th telling me they were grossly overdue. Yikes! I could have bought that Mary Kate and Ashley Video for what I was going to owe!

So I take my three super cute kids with me to the library to beg for mercy from the library gods. I tell the girls to be good and smile a lot and if need be to start crying if the librarian makes us cough up the dough.

It worked like a charm. My 33 dollar charge was reduced to 6.

I was thinking about how much more we owe to God. He paid my entire debt. He shows us mercy every day. I was so grateful to the librarian for the small amount of mercy she showed me. How thankful am I to God? And do I show that mercy to others? To my children?

Captain Claire

Ahoy there!

She did it!

This week my baby girl learned how to ride a bike without training wheels. She woke up the next day and the first thing she did was run outside and ride her bike. She then ran back inside and excitedly let me know that she still knew how to ride a bike. Maybe she thought she was dreaming. We can go on family bike rides now that all three of the girls can ride. I have fond memories of my family going on bike rides around the streets in Wyandotte. We used to ride all the way down to Bishop Park and get ice cream at Stroh's and sit by the river and watch the boats. Great memories.
Now we just need bikes.

11 years today

The man still has it after all these years. My husband is a Tony Hawk wannabe. We met and had our first date in ninth grade. That was 17 or 18 years ago. He is still my best friend and the nicest person anyone has ever met. I must hear at least once a month or week that he does not have a mean bone in his body. That's mostly true. Happy Anniversary Honey!

We Got Wonked!

It seems like I have been visited by the poor-customer-service fairy quite a bit lately. And I should say that I consider myself a very forgiving patron. I’ve worked on the customer service side of retail for nearly 11 years, not counting the time I spent working for my dad’s business when I was young. I understand all the factors that can contribute to a less-than-stellar experience for a customer and that often those factors can be out of your control. Keep that in mind as you read the rest of this complaint.

We took our children to see the new movie, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory last night. I realize that I evidence my inexperience with movie-going when I admit that I took my family to see a movie on a Friday night. I think the whole city was there it was so packed with people. Nevertheless, I plunked down my $35 for two adults and three children to watch the movie. About halfway through, just as they were entering the chocolate factory, the sound for the movie went silent. People started yelling, “Turn the sound back on!” After a minute the sound returned. Long story short: after four more outages in the next ten minutes, we got up and left.

We stopped at the ticket office to get a refund, which they granted- no questions asked. But as we drove off, children crying out of frustration and disappointment, I thought to myself that the movie theater missed a great opportunity to shine. Problems happen. There was probably nothing they could’ve done to prevent what happened. But it did. They refunded our money, what more could we ask? They couldn’t refund our time, could they? True enough. I think what bugged me the most is that they didn’t even acknowledge that our time had been wasted. No one said, “We’re sorry for the inconvenience” or “We’re so sorry for this bad experience you’ve had at our theater.” Really the words alone would’ve made an impression. Imagine if they had done something like give us a free snack voucher for our return visit to see the movie again. A simple gesture involving a free helping of over-priced popcorn would’ve really set them apart as a place that has good service. Imagine that, the bad experience becomes a chance to show off your good service!

Okay, sermon’s over. I just had to get that off my chest. I should also say that it gave us a chance to help our girls learn to deal with disappointment in light of God’s sovereignty. As we talked with them about that, one of the girls even said, “Yeah, maybe there was something in the movie that was bad and God didn’t want us to see it.” :-) We assured her that we looked up the movie ahead of time and wouldn’t have taken her to see it if there was anything bad in it, but at least she was getting that God has His own reason’s for what He allows and it involves His glory and our good.

So, that’s how we got Wonked. Maybe we’ll try again next week (not weekend) to see the movie with sound. We’ll probably even go to the same place to see it . . . which is, I guess, why the theater didn’t feel any compelling need to wow us with their service.

Humble Pie

Well, so much for my boycott of the lower huron metro park. Some of you have heard my story about getting denied golfing privileges at the Lower Huron Metro park's Par 3 course because my youngest daughter who is 4 years old (she turns 5 in early September) is too young to be allowed on the course. I was so disappointed and frustrated with the service we received that day from the annual pass purchase experience at the gate to the being punished for telling the truth at the course. So i decided I would not be going back. Well, today two guys from my youth group and my middle daughter and I are going to golf there. What can I say, the price is right and the course is short! I guess I have to admit that it wasn't a big enough deal to launch an all-out boycott of the metro park. I still don't think it was very nice though.

Community at Community

Well, tonight we resumed our Sunday night Community Groups after a four week break during the holidays and special meetings. It was really nice to gather together with our friends for fellowship, Bible study, discussion, and prayer after the long break.

There are so many things about worshipping and serving at Community that I love. But I was reminded tonight how much I value our group's time together on Sunday nights. I cannot imagine another way to develop the intimacy with my brothers and sisters in the Lord to the degree we have without these groups. It is just after 11:30 p.m. and the last few people just left. If you told me four years ago that I would go to a church where we would welcome 24 people (half of which are children) into our house each week who would stay 'til 11 p.m. or so and that when they left, we would be sad to see them go, I would have thought you were crazy! But here I sit, thinking about the great time we had tonight around God's Word and the joy we have as a result. Incidentally, that is what the lesson was about tonight - Nehemiah 8: Joy.

I think the community group is the missing link in many churches like ours. I'm thankful to have built into the structure of our church life a weekly opportunity to BE the body of Christ. It's part of the formula that puts the Community in Community Baptist Church!

Class of 1990 Reunion Picnic

It was really nice getting together yesterday with friends from highschool. We talked about old times and caught up with what's going on in each other's live today. We even cracked open some old yearbooks for a few minutes. Even though only a few classmates were able to make it, it was a good time. We're hoping to have another gathering in the fall. It will be nice to see everyone again.

At the tone the time will be...

Claire got a new watch from Target yesterday. We now have a talking clock in our house that announces the time every 4 minutes. Aren't we lucky.