The Accidental Pastor's Wife

I am so compelled by this question, even though my kids are young. I should be getting the baby ready for church, but these thoughts keep swimming around in my mind after the event I attended last night.

Our town has a long standing tradition before the junior/senior prom each year: The Grand March. I'd never heard of anything like this, but all the couples gather in their finest prom attire, the whole town congregates into a gymnasium that's been decorated with the traditional prom balloons, twinkling lights, cardboard cut out decorative stands, etc. A man announces each couple by name and then the boy gives the girl a red rose and they pose for a few seconds for a photo. When that's all done, they crown the king and queen.

Remember me with the tiara?

I'm not prom queen/princess material. So I don't know if I'm just prejudiced because of my nerdiness (I didn't actually go to my senior prom-and have NO regrets. Anyway...).

I felt like the entire event was the most ridiculous waste of time. And I got to thinking about the expectations of prom night:

-appealing to a cultural standard of beauty that is all but impossible except for a few select people
-wearing an immodest dress for what purpose? ummm...I won't be crude here but I think you know what I'm meaning.
-dark room, immodest dress, boys and girls close together dancing, music that encourages what was mentioned above
-and at least when I was in high school, the culmination of prom night was a hotel room with lots of alcohol provided by some older "friend".

Am I a fuddy dud? Do I just not want kids to have fun? I mean, there was adult supervision there and an after prom party to discourage drinking and other activities. So what's the big deal? Why does this bug me? Why would I be mortified to think of my daughter in a dress like that? Why would I cringe inside if my son had one such girl on his arm and hormones coursing through his blood?

I once read somewhere that the teenage years and the college years are a time when young people are given all the privileges of adulthood with none of the responsibilities of it. In other words, they can work, earn money, go to school, have a car, go wherever they desire, expose themselves to anything under the sun, but not have a wife or husband or children who they need to take care of and be responsible for. There's no one at home wondering where they are and what they're doing. It makes no difference because everything in the single person's life is focused on themselves. *Note I am most certainly NOT calling all people who are single selfish. I've known plenty of godly, loving, pure single people.

So what's the point of all this last night?

Thoughts???

I got this from the library and just kept renewing it over and over. I'm thinking there must be some limit on the amount of times you can do that...so I found it on www.paperbackswap.com in a paperback version. On Amazon, it was only available used and Barnes and Noble didn't offer it all. But I found a photo of the cover on the author's website www.jeannejones.com.

Here's what I love about this cookbook:

1. I live in a remote part of the West so trips to the grocery are either expensive in town or only once a month out of town. Everything you need to make any recipe in this book can be stored in your pantry, freezer, or refrigerator.

2. The variety of recipes is amazing. She's got chapters of everything from breakfast foods to salads to beverages.

3. Most of the recipes call for lower sodium or lower fat ingredients.

4. The author and her husband tested these recipes on a houseboat in the middle of a lake so there was NO WAY to make a quick run to the store! Ingenious!

So thanks, Jeanne Jones, I've got this one coming to my house permanently. :)

I just love Kendra Fletcher's blog, Preschoolers and Peace. This gal is full of wisdom and great ideas for managing a large homeschooling family.

So I noticed on her sidebar the other day a button for a Motivated Moms planner and I clicked it. For $8 you can download a PDF file that serves as a 2008 planner with checklists for various chores and space to write your own stuff.

"Hmmm...I'm very unmotivated right now. Maybe I should buy that."

So I did and I started it today. I printed off 6 weeks worth of pages yesterday and will put them in a 3 ring binder. I've also decided to dump my old school planner (note: you can't plan an entire semester of homeschooling day by day. STUFF always comes up. Next year I'll plan a MONTH in advance and that's IT. Too much erasing has taken place in that planner. ANYWAY-) There's a spot for that day's menu, appointments, chores that must be done daily, and other jobs that might happen once a week, like changing sheets.

I'm excited because the worst part of pregnancy for me is the absolute lack of motivation to do anything I normally enjoy: exercise, cooking, eating, and tending my home and garden. I'm a "check it off the list" kinda gal so maybe this will help me!

Here's the link: Motivated Moms.

Crummy Church Signs: Humm....are you idiots??

Couldn't pass up sharing this one today.

Someone help us! Just put Bible verses on church signs, 'kay?

I was curious about some of the Bible studies you've enjoyed. I'm in between right now and could use some recommendations. Since we've been at our church we've done Lies Women Believe, The Excellent Wife and Seeking Him. I've also recently done A 30 Day Walk With God Through the Psalms.

I'll admit I'm not a huge Beth Moore fan...I've done her Jesus and David studies. Please don't hate me fellow Southern Baptist women!

Does anyone have any other ideas???

TV Reviews

I saw this over at Christie's blog and thought it was funny. All you have to do is type in your blog address and it computes it for you. Maybe I haven't lost as many brain cells as I suspected since college... ha ha!

OK, ladies. We've got a high tea at church this afternoon and I'm suppose to wear a fancy hat. Problem is, I don't have one and I don't even wear baseball caps, AND I don't even like to wear a skirt and be all dressed up. So, a church member got me a tiara instead.

A tiara.

I just took it out of the plastic and tried it on.

I looked downright SILLY with my brown glasses and long blonde hair (of course, I was wearing my bathrobe).

So now I don't know what to do:

1. Be rebellious and wear nothing but what I'm comfortable wearing: khaki pants and a nice sweater twin set.

2. Give in and wear the tiara with my normal looking clothes.

3. Give in and wear the tiara and a find a dress to wear with terrible, horrible panty hose.

Oh, what should I do? I'm the PASTOR'S WIFE! Must I succumb to peer pressure? Or should I keep the peace and go along?

I forgot. I didn't have the MacBook and I went to the nearest biggest city to take a friend to the airport and pick up my hubby. I'm sorry. Maybe next month!

OK. You get one more since I thought Pastor Throop put it so well over at his blog. Now I have to make my house appear cleaner than it usually is for when I go pick up my friend from the airport tomorrow. And finish getting ready for church.

Or more accurately, the P has left with the "precious" (read:Macbook), for the Together for the Gospel conference.

So it shall be silent in these parts for a bit. And if you know the APW personally you can make some snarky comment about her being silent.. Ha ha. See me laughing? :)

Over at the Reformed Baptist Fellowship blog I read the most helpful article.

Here's the part that stood out from Pastor Savastio's post:

My wife told me the other day that she is concerned when she hears phrases like, “Oh this woman is so godly! She’s modest and she homeschools!” You see it is possible for a woman to do that and yet be prayerless, loveless, and graceless.

It forced me to ask myself as a homeschooling pastor's wife: Am I prayerless, loveless, and graceless? Many days, the answer is "yes". God help me if I think that I'm better, more spiritual, more devoted to my family since I homeschool and have no network TV when I can just as easily fall into despair, anger, and bitterness.

I really, really like this cookbook. It might not be the "in" thing in healthy family eating right now, when the trend is to do more sneaking and pureeing than actually cooking veggies and serving obviously healthy meals. I've had this cookbook about three years and find myself STILL making the Blueberry Banana Pancakes and Have-it-your-way tacos. Their chicken nuggets are probably the best I've ever had, too. The authors' emphasis is to take foods that kids already enjoy, like tacos and chicken nuggets, and include more veggies and whole grains and less salt, calories, and MSG. I find them to be VERY balanced.

I've tried a few of the Deceptively Delicious recipes by Jessica Seinfeld and I've looked over The Sneaky Chef's website. While the Meal Makeover Moms do a bit of sneaking, as in the Squishy Squash Lasagna, most of their recipes focus on encouraging kids to eat healthier so that they WANT to. I'm very fortunate to have good eaters, but it took months of serving green salads at dinner before they actually ate them without complaining or without much prompting on my part. We also had lots of dialogue about why we should eat healthfully. It worked!

So get this cookbook!

field stone cottage: Recipe Round Up Time!

April's Round Up is around the corner. The theme is sandwiches! I'm salivating already and can already think of a few to share. Yippee!!!! Thanks, Dorothy!

OK. I don't like to read long blog posts so I'll just give you the complaints of a woman whose 7 weeks pregnant:

1. I wake up every morning extremely queasy.

2. I have no motivation to do any of my housework.

3. Nothing sounds appetizing to me.

4. I'm hungry.

5. I'm tired and don't want to exercise (what!?).

6. My sense of smell is so sensitive I'm having a hard time changing diapers, cleaning toilets, and taking out the trash.

7. I can't sleep through the night.

8. I've already gained a pound and a half! (wah wah wah, I know).

9. I feel like I have a virus that lasts 9 months then instantly disappears when I have a baby and is replaced by weeks of sleeplessness and drastic hormonal swings.

10. I don't even have anything to blog about.

Here's a new salad I created and I've found myself wishing I could get some turkey pepperoni in town. I'm sure it would be good with the real stuff, but that's so fatty...Remember, the base of all my salads are a combination of romaine hearts chopped up and baby spinach. Both keep very well in the fridge. Sometimes I throw some shredded carrots into that basic combo, too, then add whatever extras I want.


2 romaine hearts, chopped and washed
2 c baby spinach, washed
1/2 c turkey pepperoni, chopped
1/2 c part skim mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/4 c roasted red bell peppers, chopped
1 tomato, seeded and chopped
fat free italian salad dressing (as much as you like)

Combine and enjoy! YUM.

I've been craving this lately.

"So it's God's lunch?" asks my 5 year old during worship.

So totally weird--but if you think of it maybe ask God to help me?

My beautiful platinum wedding band is STUCK on my finger. It appears I've had some kind of allergic reaction to maybe my dish soap (Palmolive with bleach alternative). I have a bad habit of filling a large soap dispenser at my kitchen sink with dish soap and I use that to wash my hands all day. It's no wonder they crack open and bleed. Anyway, my finger is so itchy, painful and swollen I can't get my ring off so could you pray that I could?? It's so weird and being pregnant I wonder if I have some kind of strange tropical finger disease...

Thanks.

I read this post by Kim over at The Upward Call, and I don't think I've ever had *my* problem so articulately expressed. I had to share it. I cannot remember kicking any kneecaps literally, but I know I have in my own mind!

I've had a few minutes to browse the headlines this morning and found this on Fox News. I know terrible, shocking things happen every day, but I think this really bothered me on a couple of levels.

The story is about a group of third graders who plotted to kill their special education teacher because she scolded a child who was standing on his chair.

I think I find this so disturbing because I have a third grader. Also, while I know this seed for destruction lies within the hearts of all sinful, depraved human beings, I cannot help but wonder if a few things help that seed to grow:

1. An entertainment industry bent on exploiting the worst of human nature and making it accessible to everyone, regardless of age or station in life, all in the name of freedom of expression.

2. Parents who refuse to discipline their children.

3. Parents who refuse to shield their children from the violence and sexuality in the media.

4. Teachers who try, and try, and try to discipline and teach children, who pour their lives into the kids, but cannot take the place of a parent who won't parent.

5. School administrators who won't/can't handle problem children.

6. Doctors, parents, and teachers who are more interested in medicating children than solving the root problems in the family (when most of these medications can often make psychotic episodes more likely!).

Something is so wrong here! I know that stuff like this has always happened somewhere or another throughout history. I know that the information is so much more accessible than in generations past.

But doesn't the culture FEEL different now than when we were in school?? What has changed?? What can we do to make it better??

*sigh* Now I'm all depressed.

One word: BUSY.

Pregnancy, kids, church commitments, schooling--I'm excited we're nearing the end of the school year!

I've had a touch of queasiness but nothing like previous pregnancies so I'm very thankful for that. I'm still not feeling totally NORMAL. I usually feel like I have some kind of virus during my entire pregnancy then suddenly, once I have the baby, I feel completely back to myself. It's so strange.

But it's made me feel not so eloquent on the blog front.

I'm hoping for some inspiration today--from somewhere...out there...