Deanna Doss Shrodes

Tonight was the Harvest Carnival outreach at Northside. It went really awesome! I personally did the registration table, and the women's ministries did the cotton candy booth. We had everything from moon bounces to a dunk tank, a cake walk, a hayride, absolute TONS of candy and much more. This afternoon while I was sitting at my desk working, Larry calls me on the phone and says, "come out to the parking lot - we just got this moon bounce hooked up." (He knows, I love them.) So I came out and although I was dressed for work as I usually am - in a dress, I hopped in anyway and started to go crazy. Everything was fine until my slip fell down. (I was wearing a half slip and it's gotten kinda loose with losing more weight.) Cathy laughed so hard. I was trying to gracefully pull it back up without lifting up my dress but the thing is, it was difficult to accomplish and the guys were outside. I finally got it back up without showing anything that shouldn't be shown in p...

1) First thing I did today... Got up and let the dog out and got Savanna's breakfast for her 2) Best thing I did today so far... Got an absolute ton of work done 3) Most enjoyable thing I did so far today... Took a nap 4) Least enjoyable thing I did today... Cleaned the bathroom 5) Best thing I ate today? Two Dove sugar free chocolates 6) Most tiring thing I did today... Cleaned the kitchen 7) Most irritating thing today... how many times the phone rang 8) Best conversation I had today? with my son Dustin 9) Best song I listened to today... Vince Gill, "Whenever You Come Around" 10) Last thing I'll do tonight before I sleep... Cuddle with Larry

I found out today by reading one of my favorite blogs by Keith Drury , that most blogs don't make it! According to an article that Drury cited , since blogging began, 300 million people started blogging and 200 million of them have already given up/let their blogs go inactive. The topic of his blog was about why that happens. I found it very interesting. One reason he cited was this...he says, "People can be mean. When we put our ideas in the public domain, it opens us up for public abuse and some folk feel free to torch our ideas (and us personally) publicly. This discourages some—especially women, from continued blogging." I thought about that and realized a few things about why I'm still blogging. (By the way, I started blogging officially on December 21, 2005 on my MySpace and then transferred to here. So I've been blogging everyday for almost two years straight.) And in addition to being a writer and not just recreationally writing but having the call upon ...

Tonight was "Holy Roller Night" with Northside. For the past 3 years on the 4th Sunday in October, we go to the skating rink and have an outreach. It's one of my favorite nights of the year. It's a great time of having fun, hanging out with people, introducing some new people to our church and burning a lot of calories! At left, you'll see Savanna enjoying the night. (And there's another pic below of us in the arcade at the skating rink tonight.) We always do games and contests. Savanna won for speed skating for her age, and Jordan for his. I always worry about Jordan - I hold my breath til the race is over and he's come through it with no accidents. :-) I haven't posted anything about fitness this week, so here goes. I'm absolutely committed to being as fit as I can be. Please don't think I have this accomplished yet. It's an everyday journey that I've been on for three years now. As Pastor Lisa says, I'm absolutely committed to ...

Today was a wonderfully fantastic day off. How I love my day off when it is just that -- time off! This Fun Friday was one such glorious day. It started by Larry deciding to get up with Savanna and take her to the bus stop - instead of me having to do it. Ahhhh...bliss! Then he came back to bed for a while and we decided to get up at around 10:30. I promptly got on line at 10:30 to take care of a few things regarding Dustin's birthday and then said, "we've gotta shower and get out of here to take care of some stuff for his birthday" (more details tomorrow...) So we had to go shopping for his birthday. At this time with Dustin being a high school graduate, he is home much of the time on "fun Friday". Unless we are on one of our private dates, we usually invite him to do things with us -- so we asked if he wanted to go out with us today. He did. (He likes being with us!) We went shopping, for something for his big day tomorrow. He was none the wiser as I sho...

Get ready, I'm on my soapbox again, but what's new? I'm getting ready to go off so get a Snickers. I'm so sick of hearing women say they can't date their husband, or go on couples activities because of spending time with the kids in "family time." Not that there is anything wrong with family time because we all need it and it's very valuable. But we also need "couple time". I just want to shout, YOUR HUSBAND IS YOUR FAMILY!!! I don't just suspect, I know for a fact some women do not realize that their husband IS the first and foremost definition of family. What do you do as a pastor when you see so many of your flock following this cult-like behavior among the young couples of our day that once you have kids they come first? I know, it's exalted even from some of the pulpits in our nation, "mothering is your first priority..." and "mothering is the highest calling..." NO IT'S NOT. This is a completely man made...

and it feels like I've birthed a child. I can't even express to you what a relief this is. I have also gotten a lot done today...but more on that in a minute... Lest you think I don't like to prepare messages, please realize I love it! This is what I live for! However, until the message is "ready", I'm not. Yes, the Holy Ghost can do what He wants to do and I hope He does and I'm certainly going to be prayed up, but if I don't have my notebook ready, well...I'm a mess. Sometimes even if I don't use it, (someone asked me the other day...why do you have all that written up in your sermon notebook but don't refer to it a lot? Because I've gone over it, and I know it for the most part, but I have to have my notes there as my emotional safety net.) Everyone keeps asking me, "are you ready for your trip?" Well, until today...no. I had my ticket, my shots, my gifts for the women, and I'm getting my wardrobe together. But unt...

1) Sheets that haven't been changed for a while. (For practical reasons I can't change them every day or even usually every few days. Our beds usually get changed on Fridays or Saturdays but by the time it gets to that point honestly it's hard for me to sleep. My best night of sleep is the night I change the sheets and duvet cover. It's like heaven!!!) 2) Whining. (leads to wilderness living instead of promised land living.) 3) A sense of entitlement in the church. When will people understand, it's not about what they get, it's about what they give? Everytime I hear another complaint about, "the church" not doing something for somebody and them having themselves in a tizzy about it, it doesn't make me more mindful to help them. It makes me more determined to shut my ears to this kind of stuff and focus on something else because that kind of behavior is just plain wrong and unGodly. 4) Bad pizza. I just won't "spend the points" to eat ...

Today was a dark and dreary day but I tried to make it as happy as possible. It wasn't bad with any difficult things with people or work, it was just wet and cold. Yes, we can get cold even here in Florida especially once we have adjusted to tropical living. My feet were so cold today all day, I wore my boots to church tonight! Northerners would find this humorous - it's still in the 80's here and sometimes 90's. I know, it's crazy but today I was craving heat. This morning when I got up, it was raining and I had to get ready and take the dog out in the rain. This is always a mess and is a morning I don't really enjoy, but it has to be done. Then after getting the dog out and getting myself ready, as I was making my tea Larry came out and said he wouldn't be done in time to take Savanna to the bus stop so I had to leave my tea, go out in the rain again and drive her up there. Then I came back, got my things and went out in the rain again. Rain, rain, rain. T...

Here's a meme I got from Pastor Leanne . Fun! (You can also see by the pictures just how much we have changed during the past 20 years, and...how "high" my hair was at one point. I think this not only qualifies for extreme 80's hair, but also incredibly Pentecostal. The only thing that would have been more so was if I had it up in a bun with a bunch of bobby pins...and ditched the make up...) Here we go... 1. Where did you meet this person? Valley Forge Christian College ~ Phoenixville, PA 2. What was the first thought that went through your head when you met ? He’s so funny…he makes me laugh s o much. He would make funny quips and sing me songs he made up or popular songs that he changed the words to. Being that he's not exactly skilled at singing, this was something that I really found humorous. 3. Do you remember what you or they were wearing? Very casual clothing because we were both working in the kitchen at college. 4. Where was the first time you kissed thi...

Today has been a good day. Normally I work from home on Tuesdays but today was different. Ada and I met in Tampa for brunch, so that meant I needed to have the car (we still only have one). So I drove Larry to work, dropped him off and went to have brunch with Ada. Then I went and worked at the office for the rest of the day with Larry. Ada just came back from her trip to Hawaii with Chris. They were there for 10 days. She got me a necklace and bracelet there, made out of nuts. I love it! It might sound kind of strange/different but it's really beautiful and shiny. I put it on right away and am just loving it. (I'm wearing it in this photo of us, above.) We talked about everything we could cram in during our time together. We wanted to get together and spend some time before my trip to Africa. I get my hair done the day before I go but the thing is, even all that time to talk is never enough...we run out of time. Truth be told we ran out of time today but I guess perhaps any fr...

Today was a normal Monday with a ton of work on my plate when I got up...I think I started with about 28 initiatives today. I didn't get to my Africa messages as I would have liked, and we're 15 days and counting, but tomorrow's a new day. Um, CAN YOU BELIEVE I'M LEAVING IN 15 DAYS?! I'm getting ready more day by day though my most important thing - the messages - are not done yet. However, rest assured that by week's end, all 5 will be done, regardless. I got a pile of stuff done this morning...typical things - tons of mail to send out, calls to make or answer, and projects to delve into. Then we went to staff lunch and I stopped by Lifeway to get my new Bible engraved. I love it! It's just the right size for my purse and I'm taking it on the trip with me. I wanted to read the whole Message Bible during the plane ride - Pastor T figured out for me, I'd have to read 50 pages each hour. Quite truthfully I need more rest than that, so I'm not goi...

Larry brought a message to the church this morning from Acts 9, about when the people were conspiring to kill Saul and he found out about the plot and his followers helped him escape by lowering him down through an opening in the wall through a basket. Larry spoke of people being willing to be "rope holders" in the Kingdom of God and he also talked about the importance of mentoring. At the conclusion he gave an altar call for people to once again commit to being a rope holder, to be willing to also invest, mentor, etc. I normally don't answer altar calls at my church - not because I think I'm spiritually beyond it - far from it, but I usually believe my first responsibility when I am at church is not to be fed, but to feed -- to be there for the people and pray for them. So this is usually my place - functioning at the altar in ministering to the people. I'm sure it's the same way with the majority of pastors and pastor's wives - they are not "too pro...

I'm trying to spend some extra time with each of my kids before I go to Africa. The other day Dustin and I went on a lunch date. Today was Savanna's turn and in the next week or so it'll be Jordan's turn. After life coaching Savanna and I went to Michael's to look for some things for her jewelry making that she's doing. Then we went to lunch at Jersey Mike's for a sandwich and then headed over to the thrift store, one of our favorite jaunts. I was looking for a few things for Africa, and she was just looking for anything interesting. She got an adorable little purse with the tags still on for $2 - and also an adorable skirt and blouse for just a few dollars. She also found a board game and we played it when we got home. As for me, I got two shirts I'm going to wear in Africa (I've been looking for long sleeved, loose clothing that is "appropo" for the occasion ~ as I've been instructed to wear) and in addition to two shirts, I found a B...

There are three birds - sandhill cranes - that are on our Northside Church property much of the time. They are always together, the three of them. Larry calls them, "his girls" as does Dustin. This morning I was driving Dustin in to work at the church and I had life coaching class. As we pulled in to the parking lot, Dustin said, "these people better not hit one of the girls, or I'll kill them..." and I said, "why would you say that? Who is trying to hit them?" Dustin explained people just aren't careful around them. They are often found just slowly walking around the property, or across the road. Sane people stop for them, go around them or wait. Dustin must have had a premonition... During my coaching class, he walked in all upset. He had been crying. He said, "they killed one of the girls, Mom..." the whole class could see he was very upset. I was so hurt for him (and for the poor bird). Some impatient motorist was an absolute num...

I just heard from the missionary's wife in Africa, and...in addition to preaching the general sessions, they want me to speak to the leaders not just once, but...TWICE, two days in a row! Well, I do have 18 days but I'm not prepared yet ...so I'm going straight to the Word and prayer now for guidance to get ready for this additional session. I get ansty when I'm not well prepared quite a bit in advance, so...I'll keep you posted as to what I'm going to bring to the leaders in addition to "Survivor: Africa" that I told you about yesterday!