The Accidental Pastor's Wife

It's the latest craze, it seems, so I've jumped on the running bandwagon (would that be a treadmill?). Most of the skinny people I know don't just walk, they run. So I'm now convinced, since I've received a clean bill of health from my doctor, that I will take up running. I have never been able to run. EVER. I used to do a 20 minute mile in school. You can also see from my photo down below that I'm about 40 lbs overweight (I'm the blonde one.).

I've begun. I can now run 12 minutes! I walk the rest of it uphill on the treadmill and yesterday I was so sore I had trouble walking down the steps.

But I like being sore.

And I've weighed myself this morning and I've lost 2 pounds this week!

Let's see if I can continue!

I made this up using stuff I had around and it turned out really GREAT!

10 corn tortillas cut into strips
1 cup or so canola oil
2 ears corn, kernals cut off
1/2 cup salsa
1 1/2 cups fat free ranch dressing
2 hearts of romaine lettuce, chopped and washed
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 tomato, diced
3/4 cup montery jack cheese, shredded

In a pan, heat oil and fry tortilla strips until crispy. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with salt.

In a different skillet, heat it to medium with NO oil or spray. Dry roast the corn for about 5 minutes, stirring often. Take off heat.

In a small bowl, combine salsa and ranch dressing.

In a large bowl, combine lettuce, beans, roasted corn, cheese, and dressing. Serve onto large plates and top with a few tortilla strips.

Has pulled their child out of the public school and is going to homeschool come January. They have a new baby coming soon, and their child is only 5, so they have some time. I'm very, very excited!

I was so excited that I was telling some church people about it, but they didn't seem really excited...maybe because one of those ladies is on the school board and the other is running for it...

Which makes me wonder: has homeschooling (or not homeschooling) caused any conflict in your church?

I've really enjoyed meeting new friends online. But it's even better when you get to meet those same people in person. Today I drove two hours to meet my friend from http://fritzandfran.blogspot.com. She is funny, cool, and a great conversationalist. The two hours or so flew by!

Thanks, Jenah, for meeting with me!

So I was walking home from the grocery store the other day and these two very nice young men in white shirts, dark pants and name tags stopped me with the question, "Did you know families can be forever?"

I knew what was coming next. And you know who these guys were: LDS missionaries.

Let me say that I appreciate their dedication and sincerity. And I've got a lot of respect for their focus on families and morals and all the Mormons I've met here in the West have been very nice to me.

But they claim to have some "restored" gospel, but what they are really marketing is a perverted gospel. I've decided that if they are going to proselytize me, then I'll return the favor. I am loving and kind, but I'm also quoting the Bible, the final revelation from God, sufficient to save sinners and our only hope of salvation.

I denounce Joseph Smith as a false prophet, quoting Galatians 1 that states that even if an angel of light appears to you with a different gospel than Jesus Christ crucified for sinners, he is to be accursed. A polygamist, adulterer, and false prophet, I remind them of their hymn Praise to the Man, which I posted here some time ago under the "cult" label.
Here's a snippet to remind you:

Hail to the Prophet, ascended to heaven!
Traitors and tyrants now fight him in vain.
Mingling with Gods, he can plan for his brethren;
Death cannot conquer the hero again.

Praise to his mem'ry, he died as a martyr;
Honored and blest be his ever great name!
Long shall his blood, which was shed by assasins,
Plead unto heav'n while the earth lauds his fame.

Chorus

Great is his glory and endless his priesthood.
Ever and ever the keys he will hold.
Faithful and true he will enter his kingdom,
Crowned in the midst of the prophets of old.

I remind them that Paul was thankful he had not baptized more than a few of the Christians in Corinth because he never wanted anyone to sing his praises. In 2 Corinthians 10 he shows his weaknesses and exalts His risen Savior. In Philippians 3 he says if anyone has reason to boast in his works he does, being a Jew of Jews, yet he considers all this loss for Christ. He points all attention away from himself and to Christ.

Joseph Smith holds some keys to the kingdom? Joseph Smith is anointed? Joseph Smith's blood pleads unto heaven and earth lauds his fame? I'm sorry, but this man is burning in hell. I know that's harsh and it's sad, but he was a liar.

The slickest marketing campaign of any religion in history has been the LDS church claiming to "be Christians just like you."

Christ is all. I don't need a mere man to plead for me.

"Oh! You said STUPID!" my kids would say if they read my blog...I almost titled this post Stupid Kids' Movies, but then that would imply that I was discussing movies for kids who were dumb ("MOM! You said DUMB!") Ok, ok, ok get to the point.

Yesterday at the grocery store I picked up a movie without checking it out first online at www.pluggedinonline.com (Focus on the Family's excellent online movie and music review site). It was called The Last Mimzy. I'm thinking it was one of those direct to video releases because it was just so BAD, just from a movie's standpoint. What was worse, however, was the worldview behind it.

Here's the premise of the movie: It's the future and the world's soul is sick. Unless the future people can send a stuffed bunny called a Mimzy back in time to find a good person whose love can save the world, then earth will be ruined forever. Yes, I said a stuffed bunny, with a little swirl on its belly.

Of course, two children find a strange container washed up on the beach and it contains all kinds of cool futuristic stuff that Mom can't see because to her it just looks like ordinary material. The Mimzy is inside.

What unfolds is a movie full of Eastern religion: people are inherently good, they've just made some wrong choices, the universe communicates with us by dreams and visions, the earth is our mother and cares for us, we can have power over the material world around us with our minds...

You've also got a wacky science teacher and his girlfriend living together, trying to get winning lottery numbers from his dreams, meditating before Buddhist statues and candles, men in their underwear, women with low cut shirts, the parents as clueless bystanders, cheating on tests with cell phone text messages, oh, it goes on and on.

The most incredible thing about all of this is another mom in town I saw at the store told me it was a good family movie. This gal is a Christian.

Maybe I should start posting about other stupid movies for kids I've seen. There have been too many to count, but it make for some interesting posts...

I know I whine a lot about feeling lonely, but in addition to being a pastor's wife, I'm also the only one in my town of about 2000 people who homeschools young children. We have plenty of buddies to hang out with during the summer and on weekends, but how I long for another family to do projects with, meet at the park for lunch, take turns watching each others' kids. I used to have a friend whose youngest was in half day kindergarten, so we got to go swimming or play in the afternoons sometimes, but now he's a first grader, she's working part time, and the only other homeschooling family in our church has teenagers.

I've also been feeling like I'm missing out on a lot that goes on at the school. It would be so easy to get involved, make a name for myself there. Be the parent who helps with everything and is always there. I guess I must admit that I have a need to be accepted and liked and popular.

Homeschooling here does not lend itself to those things, things I know are not important, especially when I look at eternity.

Meh.

To the file cabinet that contains every single homeschool book we need. He locked it (I don't know why.) then lost the keys.

Breathe. Count to 10.

ARG.

We got everything and more done in my planning book today.

The problem is that my dear almost 8 year old has behaviors that are difficult to describe: kind of annoying behaviors, like when I'm talking to him about something I expect him to do or I'm explaining something to him, he'll make weird faces or laugh...rather than sitting on the sofa, he climbs over the back of it and jumps down onto the cushion. Things like this. I honestly don't know what to do about it. It makes me really mad, but my anger doesn't help the situation.

To me, it communicates disrespect. He would never treat his swim coach like this.

My life WOULD be easier on some levels if I sent him to school, but I know in the long run, it wouldn't be good for any of us.

HELP!!!!!