Deanna Doss Shrodes

...and all he had to do was clean the garage! I'm sure if he knew I would have reacted the way I did he would have tackled it even sooner. (GRIN) He took an entire truckload to the dump to throw away and still has a little bit of organizing to do and a few things to sell in a yard sale, but 95% of the work out there is done. We have been working on a myriad of projects around the house. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels like this cycle of house stuff will NEVER end, and really in all reality, it won't! But at times, you feel more in control of it than others. At least I do. Now is one of those times. Although the majority of my house is very together right now, I am sitting here looking at my room which is a mess but I'm too tired to do anything about it until after church tomorrow. We have been painting, doing deep cleaning, yard work and more. Plus Savanna has a school project we've got to help her with that was due this past week however she had been s...

This girl TOTALLY rocks.

I am still pinching myself that our dear friends are FINALLY here! I have been talking for a long time about this...I mean, YEARS. The word says DO NOT BE WEARY IN WELL DOING FOR AT THE PROPER TIME YOU WILL REAP A HARVEST IF YOU FAINT NOT! Well, I'm harvesting right now, PRAISE GOD! I have mentioned it here on my blog before that some friends of ours have been trying to move here to be with us. Well, the time has arrived. Our friends and parishoners from a former church we pastored, Jim and Janice Shehan, finally rolled in with their moving truck last night and they are officially Florida residents! Yay! They have bought a place here, and it's official...signed, sealed, delivered...they are here and will be in church Sunday at Northside. This is their new home. They sold their businesses back in Maryland, gave it all up to come here. We are reunited and it feels so good! It is going to be glorious to have them close to us once more...to have Janice's brilliant mind to bounc...

I have often said that pastors are presented with unique and very challenging decisions that few could ever understand or imagine. I saw this on another pastor's blog today and just had to re-post it here. This is just an example of one such difficult decision. If you were these people's pastor, would you have agreed to perform this wedding?

Just a few photos from this week so you can see how our Madeline is growing...

"If you have any poo, fling it now!" ~ from Madagascar I'm not afraid of you. I can safely say that because it doesn't matter who's reading this, I'm not afraid of you. Seriously. I have a fear of the Lord, but He is the Great I AM -- the Almighty, so He's not in the people category. I fear deep water. I fear snakes. I fear change at times especially when I'm not the one making it. But people? No. I do not fear them. One of my greatest desires is to live in a completely transparent way with others, and it's the hardest thing when I feel something or someone pressuring me not do do that. It is difficult for me in relationships if I'm expected to play games in the way we converse. I want to love people deeply. Sometimes that means loving a person enough to speak the truth. I have issue with cowards. I have never and will never back down from anything verbally. The only time I ever have refrained from saying something I feel strongly about is out...

"To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight -- and never stop fighting. " ~ E. E. Cummings *** I wish it weren't so hard. I wish the battle didn't exist. I wish I wouldn't have to fight. But it is, it does, and I have to. Or I die. I've heard it said if you keep trimming yourself down to what someone else expects you will soon whittle away to nothing. I believe it. So I keep fighting.

I have been so busy today and my work is STILL not all done but it's time to hit the sack. I started out with life coaching this morning and it was a great time as usual. I love my ladies! And what a great group of them I have this year. I taught on time management this morning. (ha! and my work still isn't all done today. I'm a work in progress, what can I say?) Savanna and Britney were playing together at the church during life coaching, and wanted to do a sleepover at our house so I said yes, as I do say yes whenever I can. We came home and worked all day on much cooking and cleaning and also getting ready for our leadership meeting tomorrow night, which is going to be our most important one EVER. Can't share any of the details yet but trust me on this, it's BIG! I can't wait. I was very busy all afternoon and evening doing more cleaning, weeding, clothes for church tomorrow. Somehow in between all that made Sunday's dinner and got the table set. (Tom and...

I've been told that I've written a ton of compelling stuff in the almost five years that I've been publicly blogging now. (Dang, has it been THAT long?!) If you've been a reader any length of time you know I write about everyday experiences ~ from what I ate when I got up this morning to leadership issues, current events, stuff that really frosts me and things I'm passionate about. Some of my best posts are from years past and if people are new readers, they may not even know these gems are lurking. (Can a post lurk?) So... I thought in honor of this fine Fun Friday that I'd just list ten of my favorite posts that I can think of off the top of my head. I know my sister is going to get to work this morning, open this up and say, "what?! nothing fresh?" Kim...don't get your panties in a bunch...just click these ten and read 'em (it will take you more time than anybody should ever spend at work) but when you're done you'll be reminded al...

The following is something my close friend, Pastor Mike Gibson , had on his blog today and I asked him if I could re-print it here on my blog as a guest blog. I have never introduced Mike here on the blog before, at least I can't remember doing so and now that I think about it, I can't believe that! Larry and I have been very good friends with Mike and his wife, Pastor Donna Gibson for some 18 years now. They are lead pastors of Victory Assembly of God in Tipp City, Ohio. Enjoy this excellent writing from Mike about, "Triangulation." TRIANGULATION by Rev. Michael Gibson, Lead Pastor, Victory AG, Tipp City, OH Some of you are saying, "What in the world is 'triangulation'?" Well, here goes. Triangulation is basically pulling somebody into something that is none of their business. Here is a simple example. After church, a member comes up to my wife and says, "Will you tell pastor....?" Or, "Pastor, I was out somewhere and I saw one of yo...

(sniff...sniff) They leave today. I can't believe it. It's gone by so fast, it's been unreal. We still have so much yet to do. So many things we had plans for. We never made it to Tarpon Springs. They'll just have to come back, soon, soon, soon...and that's all there is to it. Last night we utilized our movie pass privilege as we do so often (our son works at Cobb Theatres) and the guys went to see Pink Panther and the girls went to see Confessions of a Shopaholic. It was great! We are having lunch with Dustin and them, and then we will head to the airport and back to the church for "life as usual"...well, as usual as it can be in our household. While here my mother in law has gotten me hooked on acai, pomegranate, and blueberry juices. She drinks 8 oz of the "Fusion V-8 stuff everyday and swears she has lost over 30 pounds because of it. Geez, if that was all there was to it, why didn't somebody tell me?! Anyway, I have started drinking it but ac...

Some highlights from Sunday's youth fundraiser for fine arts...they raised a few hundred dollars and had a blast doing it! Doing their special cheer, "We got a donation..." They were having so much fun and getting such a reaction from the crowd, I had to take some photos. (I keep my camera in my purse all the time for such occasions.) Jordan led this cute little cheer each time someone donated. Some people were donating just to hear the cheer again. It was funny.   They made a mountain of food -- hotdogs, baked goods, etc. and sold it after church and during the Fireproof movie night. On Sunday night they even had empanadas homemade by Julie! They were yum. I ate two of them myself. "Hey everbody...we got a dough-nation!" Supportive parent and church member Becky Faux steps up to give a dough-nation and get something to eat. The girls ready to cheer In between customers and cheers... Dustin Shrodes...leader of this fine bunch  

“Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than You.” ~ Dr. Suess

(One of my dear mentors, The Rev. June Coker sent me this in an e-mail this week and I loved it and thought I'd post it here. Seriously folks, I've gained 15 pounds, it is not due to intelligence but my stupidity of eating instead of dealing with my issues. It does need to come off. I asked my accountability partner this week to start getting on my case about it. This cartoon is funny, however, and gave at least a moment's justification before coming back to reality.)

I am so tired but it's a good tired! I have never slept through my alarm on Sunday, but I did today. No worries, even if I got up late I wouldn't be late to church. I'd get up and go in my jammies if that's what it took to be there in my place and on time. It's just the kinda girl I am. Anyhoo, THANK GOD FOR MADDIE! She woke me up barking, 45 minutes after I had slept through my alarm. I was running 45 minutes behind my normal schedule but I sprang up, sprinted to the shower, got out and simplified my getting ready routine and walked out the door in half the time it normally takes and got there right on time. We had an extremely full day today. Larry and I did a tag team message entitled, "Reconcilable Differences." Larry's parents couldn't wait to tell me how much they loved it. There were the usual elements of the day ~ rehearsal, Christian Ed., morning worship, then the youth fine arts had a fundraiser -- and we supported that and then headed of...

Sharon J. and Michele guessed correctly where it was that my Mother-in-love (Hereafter referred to as MIL) and I were headed for our outing! It's after 1 am but right now I'm blogging about it because I'm too keyed up to go to sleep. We are getting back from the Gaither Homecoming in Orlando. This year they didn't come to Tampa. The closest concert to us this year is Orlando and somebody blessed me with two tickets! This year instead of Jordan and I going it was my MIL and he's a little peeved at me for that, but he'll get over it and we'll go again next year. (GRIN) I am NOT going to tell him that the Gaither Vocal Band sang, "Let Freedom Ring" or the boy just might go postal on me. He just may be the only 17 year old boy in America who would do that... (lol) By the way, Bill Gaither announced tonight that the new GBV DVD's have topped the billboard charts for two consecutive weeks in a row now. I am not surprised! Man o Man..........this was ...

Happy Valentines Day! If it were possible, I'd meet up with all of my blog readers today and share one of these scrumptious looking cupcakes and a coffee and talk in person. I hope you all have a fantastic Valentines Day, celebrating God's love for you ~ whether you are single, engaged, married ...remember that first and foremost it's all about his amazing, everlasting love for you! C.S. Lewis once said, "Though our feelings come and go, God's love for us does not." Remember ~ He loves you...and so do I!

My mother and father in law, painting the second color in Savanna's room...hot pink! By the way, the green does not look the way it looks in these photos. It's much brighter in person and more complimentary to the other color. Savanna was helping them but she fell asleep on her top bunk after a while. Okay folks, here's the project Larry and I worked on most of the day. In addition to the Benjamin Moore Concord Ivory Color, which is the main color in all the common areas of the house, we have added the color "coffee bean" to one wall in the kitchen. All of the other walls remain Concord Ivory. I've been wanting to do this for over a year now, and today we took the plunge. My kitchen is a coffee/tea theme and has all kinds of stuff along these lines on top of the cabinets and all over the walls. This brown color looks much richer in person but this gives an idea... And I sponged the same coffee bean color underneath the little bar/counter in the kitchen. I ...

I'm exhausted! But it's a good exhausted. We are taking a few days off with my in-love's being here. Yesterday we got the kids off to school and then ate a very late breakfast. Larry cooked it and it was delicious. Actually it was more like a brunch, but I set the kitchen table with another set of my china and a special teapot. I went to get my hair done later in the afternoon and at the same time Larry, his parents and Savanna went to Home Depot to get everything for her room makeover. She is like her momma -- has a hard time deciding things, and almost drove Larry and his parents to a mental breakdown going back and forth making her final selection of stuff. When finally getting home from my hair appointment. and some errrands, I started putting the finishing touches on dinner and making my homemade apple crisp . (By the way if you haven't tried that recipe -- you need to. I am not even a huge apple crisp fan but I sooo enjoy this recipe especially this winter it...