Resurrection Reflection

I was asked to share a story of resurrection this morning in church. The assignment was: What does resurrection mean for us in our lives in this time and place? How have we experienced the new life and promise of resurrection in our lives in the past? Where has God raised up something unexpected and new in us? The theme of the season is “Practice Resurrection”—because we recognize that it’s not a one-time thing that happened to Jesus, but is the reality at the heart of who we are as Christians.

I stood in front of the congregation and told the story below, which Hubs thought my blog readers may appreciate as well. Enjoy :) 

Hi! I’m Jess. Many of you know me as wife to Bill and Mom to Billy, and of course, soon I’ll also be Mom to Simon. However, many of you may not know that I am actually accident prone. 

I’m not sure when it began, but I feel like it happened around the time I started regularly coming back to church. Wait, what? Yes, you heard me. My firm belief and love of Jesus came with consequences. Yet still, I keep coming back. Let me explain. 

In the summer of 2011, months before Bill and I got married, I was in a serious horse back riding accident. One evening, my horse broke loose and began heading for Crystal Lake Avenue - where traffic was moving at a brisk 55mph. Grabbing the closest horse to me, I hopped on and started galloping off to catch the runaway. 

Horses sometimes don’t get the memo, unfortunately…that it’s time to work and be serious. The horse I grabbed wanted to have fun instead, and it sent me over her ears, yet trapped with my feet in the stirrups. Dangling and being kicked back and forth as she continued to gallop through the field, eventually, I was drug and broke myself free. I landed face first in the turf and the mare trampled me as she ran away. 

Against all odds, not a single bone in my body was broken. 

Fast forward nearly four years to February 2015. After a wonderful weekend away, I was on my way home when I lost control of my car in the snow. My car hit the snow like a ping pong ball – it bounced and rolled all the way down a highway median - probably 30 feet or so. And, after a weekend-long blizzard, no one was on the roads to witness what had happened to me that Monday morning. 

As my car tumbled and rolled down into the median, I wasn’t scared. I wasn’t nervous or afraid or worried about what would happen. It was such a “Jesus Take The Wheel” moment…I just remember thinking, “Oh. Here we go.” 

It was as though someone held me through the whole accident. I wasn’t jarred or bumped or bounced around. I just felt suspended, mid-air as my car tumbled, I sat still. 

Yet, this time I didn’t only have myself to worry about. I had sweet, precious, unborn Simon in my womb to stress over. 

I remember gasping in the emergency room. The moment I finally heard his heartbeat and knew he was healthy and safe inside of me, I gasped. I gasped and cried and I thanked God.

The greatest things in my life have happened since I have been a member of this church. Before then, I didn’t have faith. I didn’t believe in grace or the journey or the light. While nothing *that* terrifying may have happened to me before, nothing this wonderful happened either. I believe I was saved by Jesus. Emotionally to start, and physically since then. If that isn’t resurrection, I don’t know what is. 

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Pregnancy: 22 Week Update

Well, now that you know where I was during week 21 and why I missed the update, I'll fill you in on week 22.

How far along? 22 Weeks

Size of Baby:  Spaghetti Squash! I've never eaten one, but it's on my list of things to try eventually. 

Weight Gain: Don't know. Don't care :) 

Nursery: No progress. As you know, we've been a little preoccupied this week. 

Movement: He kicked like CRAZY (more than ever before) the day of the accident. Probably all that adrenaline had him going. Since then it's just been the normal movements, usually at night or if my feet are up. When I'm relaxed I feel him thumping away in there. 

Symptoms: I have had a bit of RLP lately and some growing pains through my low pelvis. It feels like he's getting heavier. Thankfully, I still feel pretty great. I was just telling Hubs the other night that at this point with LW I remember feeling like a complete whale and this time I'm so much smaller. It is so much more pleasant! 

Cravings: Weeks 20-beginning of 22 were ALL about the JJ #6 and BBQ chips. As in I probably ate that combo 6-10 times in those two weeks. And LOVED every minute of it. Last night we went to Red Robin for dinner to celebrate Pete joining our family and I had their turkey burger. I only ate half and saved half for lunch...and I probably will order it to go at least 5 more times in the near future because it tastes unbelievable right now.  

Looking forward to: Nothing. And I don't mean that in a bad way. I mean after the accident, I'm focusing on NOW. Today. I'm trying not to look "forward" to anything and miss today. I want to absorb and drink in every minute of today that I can. Because before you know it, you could be rolling down a ditch in a car crash. 

Things I can't stop thinking about: The accident. I'm trying my best not to dwell on it or replay it in my head anymore. Whether I am laughing about what happened because it's so absurd that I can't believe it was real, praying thanks to God that I am okay, daydreaming about my new car or thinking about the "what-ifs" of what could have happened...I haven't been able to get away from it yet. I know it was only a few days ago, but I'm struggling to just let it be. I've started hitting my stride back to "normal" with housework and errands again, and driving doesn't bother me at all (it helps that now I'm driving my dream car) but when I sit and have a minute to just think, it tends to cloud my mind. 

And turkey burgers. I can't stop thinking about turkey burgers. 

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A Wild Weekend

The month of November has F-L-O-W-N!!!! Is it just me!? I don't think it is.

Hubs asked me last night while I was writing thank you cards to my Jamberry customers why I hadn't blogged and I said I guess I'm just not inspired enough to write right now.

He said "If this week wasn't something to blog about...then I don't know what is." Let me recap:

Thursday night: LW woke at 8:45 vomiting kielbasa EVERYWHERE. Hubs and I rush in, I handle LW, Hubs handles bedding/vomit/carpet and within 25 minutes, LW is back to sleep and Hubs and I can go downstairs.
9:30 Princess starts whining and acting up...sniffing ferociously at the basement door. I said "She has something....no....there is something ALIVE under that door that she has trapped there". Hubs goes to investigate. A mouse starts hopping down the stairs. Hubs gets his "mouse catcher" (a box from new blinds and a broom) and escorts the mouse to the far side of our property.
9:35 Princess still losing her mind... I say "Can you just go down there with her and see if there are more...?" Hubs opens the door and P runs to the bottom of the stairs and into LW's play area. Where Hubs finds another mouse. This time dead, and exploded...all over LW's toys. ACK. Hubs cleans up.
9:45 Princess AGAIN losing her mind and I'm about to lose mine. She's following something that appears to be in the ceiling and as I'm sufficiently getting more and more creeped out I look, and there is a wasp on the wall – what she was following. A wasp. In Chicago. In NOVEMBER. ?!!?! Hubs kills and disposes of wasp.
11:30 Hubs and I are finally nestling into bed, drifting off to sleep and I hear that horrible, terrible, awful sound, as clear as day. LW puking. Again. Repeat steps from earlier, this time even FASTER since we were expecting it. Clean up, bathe toddler, new jammies, clean sheets, scrub carpet, new blankets, rock, rock, snuggle snuggle, out like a light. 15 minutes. Can I just reiterate how horrible the smell of vomited kielbasa is? UGH. Really horrible.

Finally, we were able to go to sleep Thursday evening. Friday Hubs was off work so he ran all of our family errands while I worked. Friday evening we moved a family heirloom from my in-laws over to our house. A 1915 Victrola. We don't have many things in our new house yet, but we are acquiring cool things!

Friday night we designed and ordered our Christmas card. CHRISTMAS!! My FAVORITE TIME OF YEAR! Some of my friends have referred to me as a "real life Buddy the Elf" because I love Santa so much. And Christmas. And snow. I can't wait to share our card with you! But, it's no fair showing you before it mails ;) Plus, it's not even Thanksgiving. I have some respect, you know.

Saturday morning I woke up feeling like it was Christmas because it was the Old Navy cardholders Black Friday Sale. WAHOO!!!! I spent way more than I planned (shocker) but I FINALLY got some real pants that fit LW and I bought myself the most comfortable PJ pants on the planet. I've asked for 150 more pairs of them for Christmas.

I learned this weekend that Old Navy toddler 18-24m pants aren't as long as the "baby" 18-24 month pants. However, the toddler 18-24m pants have the zipper and button like real jeans, which helps TREMENDOUSLY in getting pants over a cloth booty. Plus, the toddler jeans come in skinny and WOW are they cute. We love Project Pomona pants but for $8/pair at Old Navy, I couldn't resist giving their jeans a shot to try with his cloth bottom.

Saturday evening we had a church pot luck and worship rather than having worship on Sunday morning so I made our favorite brisket recipe.

I usually must let it slow cook 8-10 hours because this time I only did 6 and it wasn't as tender as I like. BUT, the brisket was gone in a flash and I used the leftover BBQ sauce to make sloppy joe's on Sunday. YUM! Waste not, want not :)

For Christmas this year we have already finished our shopping for LW because he is getting the most tremendous Christmas gift ever. A SWING SET! He'll have things to "open" also, but a family member of a close friend offered us a deal we couldn't refuse on this beauty. It may not look like much now, but I can't wait to look out the window and see LW and his pals playing on it for years to come.

Finally, Sunday. We didn't have church in the morning so the plan was to "sleep in". Which, originally we laughed at the thought. "Sleep in" with an 18 month old?! HA! Well.... we've recently moved LW into a toddler bed and the beauty of that is that instead of crying when he wakes up, he gets out of bed and (typically) knocks on his door to let us know he's awake. Sunday morning he unplugged his monitor and proceeded to cruise his room. For I'm not sure how long....Hubs and I lazily opened our eyes and started chatting at 8:45am and looked at the clock. "OH NO IT'S ALMOST NINE". I leapt out of bed and ran to LW's room to make sure he was okay and sure enough, he was twirling and dancing around his room, jolly as you please. He looked up at me like, "Oh, hey! You're up!"

LW and I had a 2nd birthday party in the afternoon for a friend from the old neighborhood at this SUPER fun play spot very close to our house. If you're in the NW burbs - check out Kids Club Party & Fun! Apparently they have Groupons often and it was a FUNNNNN two hours!!

I love giving gifts that aren't toys and take a little creativity to construct. For our birthday boy friend, I built a gift basket full of all organic and gluten-free snacks! Birthday Boy's mom has Celiac's so I know diet is really important to her for her son. I had a BLAST constructing it and with a World Market coupon, it kept the gift totally within my "birthday gift" budget.

For some people on our lists that seem to have "everything", a gift basket full of treats they may not splurge on normally is a really fun and inventive gift. Hubs and I love giving baskets full of wine, cheese, crackers and sausage to his dad for Christmas every year. And every year we have such a great time building them! Then all year long when we visit, we munch on the little treats from the basket.

What's your favorite creative gift to give?

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Why I Go To Church

I'm sure you're reading the title of this post thinking, "Because God is good." - I mean, that's why most people go to church, isn't it?

I agree, God is good. All the time. But this week while I sat in the pew listening to my pastor's sermon I took a deep breath. Probably the first one I had taken in a week. I'm about to say something bold...

I go to church to get away from life. 

Don't get me wrong, my life is wonderful, beautiful and about as close to rainbows and unicorns as you can get... but sometimes I just need to breathe.

I go to church to listen to adults speak. I go to church to breathe for an hour, without a toddler tugging on my hands and arms and ears. I go to church to unwind and for an hour a week, I can have time to just be. I don't owe anyone a meal. I don't have to teach anyone life skills. I can just sing along to songs I have kept in my heart for years. I can drift into a state of consciousness that wonders and wishes.

Many days I pray throughout the day. I hear tidbits of news stories or receive texts from friends with good news and bad, and as the days progress I pray throughout. I don't go to church to pray. I go to church to think.

Of course, church is filled with other joys and concerns of the community which help encourage me to get involved or learn more about those around me. But really, I'm selfish. Sometimes I don't want to get involved, and sometimes I can't bear the weight of others. I just want an hour to escape and think. Once I have thought, I feel rejuvenated and ready to get involved.

I think I had a lightbulb moment this week. They call it a "sanctuary" for a reason.

Why do you go to church? 

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