Menu Plan Monday

So I'm determined to get back into the groove of keeping up this blog. I'm thinking blog parties will be a good way for me to get back on track posting. I've been lazy with planning our meals anyway, so this will be good for our budget as well!

I'm trying to save money for the next few weeks so we're going to be eating from what we already have, at least as much as we can. Also, Chayton is playing in an out of town tournament so he and Scott will be gone all weekend. Our church is having an outreach Saturday, so I will be there most of the day with the kiddos.

Monday - roast in the crock
Tuesday - Grilled Cheese or bbq sandwiches(I'll be gone so they are fending for themselves!)
Wednesday - hot dogs (church night)
Thursday - Bacon and Eggs
Friday - Hamburgers, baked beans
Saturday - pot pie using leftover roast
Sunday - chicken and noodles

Snacks are usually fruit or homemade bread. It's been too hot to bake, so no cookies lately.


That's it for us! This is a really simple week because of everything that is going on. Next week should be back to a more normal week.

For more menu ideas, visit the blog party!

Sunday Setlist

Jeff's opening remarks before prayer: "These are all familiar songs, we should be able to find excellence on these." HA. My two hours of sleep must have effected (affected?) my brain, because I tried to start two of them at the wrong places. I caught myself before I actually said anything, but it was pretty obvious by my face that I was about to sing. At the wrong time. I could see Shelby laughing at me, lol.

Sing to the King
Everyday
Shout of the King
Lord I Give You My Heart
Above All

Communion - Because He Lives

Of course, God doesn't need me, and for that I'm grateful! People were obviously, actively worshiping in spite of my humanness. Once again I couldn't be in the sanctuary, so I'm not sure what the sermon was or how people responded.

This post is part of Sunday Setlits, found here Check it out!

Hard week

I work for a ministry that provides support to Christians who are persecuted for their faith. Over the past few weeks it has been discovered that one of the men with which I work has made some poor choices. Choices which are going to cost him his ministry, his reputation, and most probably his family. He lives in a very poor country, and I truly believe that desperation causes people to do things that they wouldn't normally do. He has been mis-using funds. The temptation is just so powerful when there is access to large amounts of money and little accountability put into place. We never want our people to feel like we don't trust them. What I think we have been slow to realize is that those accountability measures protect them also. Even if it is just from themselves.

Anyway, in a way I have become his prosecutor, being saddled with the job of assembling the evidence and making the accusations clear and easily understandable. This is unbelievable difficult for me. Although the evidence is irrefutable and I know that he has done wrong and should face consequences, for many years I have considered him my friend. It hurts to have to do this and I grieve for his family as well.

I'll be so glad when this is over and I can go back to my regular, boring work. . .

Keeping us Humble

There is no chance that our worship team will ever get the big head. If we have more than a few weeks of good, solid, strong music, we will invariable "go big" in a mistake. This week we had a guest missionary/evangelist speak and lots of visitors who had come to hear him. No pressure, lol.


1. Awesome in this Place
2. God is Great
3. Let the Praises Ring
4. Great in Power

I don't choose our Sunday setlists and here in the honesty of this blog I will say that I really didn't like this group of songs. The first and last need to be re-keyed. They are too high for me to even have a hope of singing them. I'm more than happy to take alto, but both of the other sopranos were no shows, so I was stuck. I've never really been too fond of God is Great. No matter what we do, we can't seem get it to be anything more than a big mush of sound. I think it might be the key. Some songs just work better in certain keys. Let the Praises Ring is one of my favorites, so I was glad to see it on the list.

Guess where we had our moment of humiliation? Yep, of course. Let the Praises Ring (well, I was personally humiliated in the first and last songs, but at least noone else was sharing that with me, lol). My son takes lead on this song and many others and usually does a fantastic job. He also plays acoustic. He completely spaced this morning and at one point skipped a chorus repeat and went back to the verse. So he's leading, the band all catch what he did and follow him, which is excellent. I'm so proud that they were able to do that. It's been something they've struggled with and it's cost us a lot of freedom in the past. So that's wonderful! BUT none of the other vocalists realized what was happening and so we all just kept on with the original arrangement. Rehearsal got started late that morning and we didn't have time to go over the sound very well. I couldn't really hear E OR any of the instruments, so we were pretty oblivious. When E realized what he did and saw that we weren't following, he went back to where we were. Ended up the band pretty much stopped and restarted to get back with the singers. Nightmare of embarrassment. We laughed about it later.

We just won't talk about when I almost dropped my microphone during the offering prayer. It was only a little deafening.

Want to add something about your Church's music? It's here at FredMcKinnon.com

I'm opinionated

Gee, like no one knows that about me. We had our ladies meeting for church last night. It was fun and confirmed something I've been mulling for a while now. I think churches separate people too much. This is the first stage of my life where I've really had the opportunity to make friends across all age groups. When I was a kid and teen I was always in age appropriate classes. After I married and started having children I missed out on a lot of fellowship because children often weren't welcome. The women with young children tended to hang together because the regular women's meetings, bible studies, etc were always for adults and children were a distraction and a nuisance.

I'm blessed to be able to do these things now because of a flexible work schedule and a husband with an odd work schedule, but otherwise I would still be missing out. And that's sad. There's so much to learn from the Titus 2 women of our churches. I grew up thinking that older people were dreary and boring. I'm 34 years old and just now learning how far that is from the truth. Crazy? I know! And I'm more than a little afraid that my kids (and the others in my church) are getting that same message.

How do we fix that?

Easter!

Great Sunday at church today.

My Redeemer Lives
My Savior Lives
Mighty to Save
Amazing Love
Because He Lives

Had to work the nursery today so I didn't get to hear the sermon yet. I'll get the CD Wednesday.

As always, other great stuff to be found at FredMcKinnon.com

Palm Sunday

Yay! Two weeks in a row of doing my part over at Sunday Setlists

Our church doesn't really emphasize Palm Sunday, at least musically.

It's All About You
Let It Rise
Days of Elijah
It Is You
Hungry

This definitely isn't one of my favorite set lists. I don't care for It's All About You at all, and It Is You doesn't top my list either. OTOH, Days of Elijah is one I really enjoy singing, at least at my church. There are several people who are always powerfully moved by it, and seeing them worship so unabashedly moves me to worship more freely.

All in all, a nice but uneventful Sunday. I had to leave after P&W to teach, so I'm not really sure how the rest of the service went. In my 4 and 5 year old world, we had 13 kids! We've had 9 new families start attending our church in the last few months and I think all of them have kiddos in this age group. They are too fun! Literally, sometimes they are really too fun. . .



Wednesdays service: I think I'll post that here too. I keep a spreadsheet but never really write the details of how it goes. This will be good for me to look back on.

Oh I Want to See Him
When the Roll is Called Up Yonder
We Will Glorify the Lord of Lords
O How I Love Jesus

I accidentally started off on the wrong song, so that was fun. Once we got going, we had a great time of worship. It's really amazing how much difference having instruments can make. We had almost a full band and it was wonderful. I am so blessed to have the most amazing pianist and vocalist play for me when she is able. She is an amazing worship leader in her own right and I would be thrilled to have her leading instead of me. I am so grateful and humbled at how she allows the Lord to use her to help me.