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.