The Treasures… A Scavenger Hunt

1. Charity

2. Ohio, U.S.A.

3. Lead Pastor, Sr. Pastor, whatever you call it.  I can’t remember what he has on the website.  You can look if you want:  www.fbcnl.com

4. We move to FBCnl the last weekend of last September so around 13 1/2 months.

5. Three Children.  Madeline:  8 years old, 3rd grade.  Charles:  6 years old, Kindergarten.  Sophia:  19 months old.

6. Unique?  Not sure what qualifies as unique but here’s the list.  First Apt:  Brand new, smelled like Glade Apples & Cinnamon.  Fireplace.  Loved it.  Second Townhouse:  Maddie’s first home.  Infested by ladybugs.  If you’ve not experienced a ladybug infestation you probably still like them, I don’t.  Third House:  Our time of testing by fire.  We put our heart and soul into this house and ended up walking away brokenhearted.   Fourth Duplex:  Season of rebuilding.  Charlie’s first house.  This house was about taking the crumbles from our life and building an altar with them.  Not necessarily fun but it was refuge.  Fifth House:  “Horse House” as the kids call it.  Lived on a 8 acre stable facility and boarded horses.  A lot of work.  This house was a season of reaping and sowing.  It was a relief and an ahhhh, flop on the couch house.  It’s where we thought we knew what life held for us and we had our plans laid out.  Then…  poof.  In an instant, God redirected us.  Sometimes painfully but always sovereignly.   Sixth House:  the Yellow House.  This house, unknowingly was a transitional house.  It prepared us for the next step.   For the first 6 months we lived here all we had was subflooring on it that was painted seafoam green.  No joke.  Seventh House:  the Parsonage.  Love it.  (and for the record… we may have moved houses a lot but not jobs or areas…  our previous church we served in for eight years.)

7. Neither.  My mother-in-law cooks for us most Sundays.  We head over and have dinner as a family.

8. Nope.  I tend to run late although I must say since moving here I’ve gotten better in general but I do tend to run JUST on time which means I end up sitting down 5 minutes late.

9. Right now?  Flash Forward.  Come January?  24.  Is there any other answer.  (In my secret life I would love to be a CIA/CTU agent.  A PW would be a great cover wouldn’t it?  I drive a minivan, no one would EVER suspect me.)

10. I don’t always have it together, especially around the house…  I folded 256 PAIRS of socks the night before we left for Disney World in September.  No joke.  No lie.  No kidding.  256.

11. Big or little?  Little:  turning non-deals into deals.  Does it matter what color a wall is?  I think not.  Big:  Hearing “It’s not personal”  If it’s about family… it’s personal.

12. The extra candy that’s in my cupboards.  I eat it.  It needs to be pitched.  (Oh, and our Friends DVDs.  We’ve not watched them in four years

13. Chocolate… is there really any other answer?  Although I must say McD’s coke is a close second.

14. We are parsonage people.  The church has a great space for us and we’ve loved making it home.

15. I must admit:  Freak.  Well, that may be too strong of a word but I do check myself, the floor closest to the door and the direct views from the door.  (If I’ve ever handled your business at teh door, I’m sorry… it’s because the house wasn’t okay.  The most embarrassed I’ve ever been was when a family ‘stopped by’ (LITERALLY, no warning) to talk about a funeral for their mom.  our house was NOT okay, by any means.  From that point I really do try to make sure the house is acceptable… not perfect, but at least acceptable.  (A side story…  at our duplex we had a small group that came over each week.  Each week our house had to be perfect.  One of my close friends said one day, “my house never looks like yours.  Yours is always perfect.”  So, the next week I showed her…  i had done laundry but not folded, nor put away.  It was all shoved, literally SHOVED between our bed and the wall so that no one could see it and it went the length and height of our bed… but she needed to see that we were people and no, our house is probably never perfect.)