Sunday, April 13, 2008

Neglected blog

I've been so busy that I've let this go by the wayside. Not sure where to start playing catch-up. Current events need a little background, so I'll give it a shot. The events are intertwined, so to keep everything straight, I'll tell each story as a unit.

Several months ago, Mom & I were talking about a friend we hadn't seen in around 20 years. He used to be a singer in clubs & honky-tonks. Ok, so I didn't always hang out in the best places, but I did meet some great friends. Just lost track of them when the band split & everyone went separate ways. I had seen a couple of the guys since, but the lead singer just faded into the sunset. I decided to see if I could find him using the internet.

Found him. http://www.williamboydchisum.com/home.html. I sent him an e-mail through the website, not sure if he would remember me. Sort of figured he would, but you know what time can do to some of the memories. He e-mailed me back. To make a long story short, he remembered Mom & me, we talked quite a bit, then set up a concert at our church. It was awesome.

During this time, Mike & I were going to Colorado for Easter. A 12 hour ride lends itself to a lot of time to think. Since I'm not good at long periods of time with idle hands, I worked on a project that was a no-brainer. I like those while traveling because my hands stay busy, but I don't have to worry about distractions & stuff. The no-brainer stuff also gives me quiet time. This particular quiet time lended itself to God talking to me. A nice thing about it is as the girls get older, they can help with mentoring the younger ones, creating a self-supporting cycle.

The conversation started as a reminder of how women used to get together for quilting bees, then went to how women talked during the bees about their daughters who were available for marriage & then when daughters were of age, they went to the bees to learn how to quilt, but also to learn about certain adult interactions. By the time this conversation was done, I'm sitting with the idea of a "club" for the teen girls at church. In this club, the girls would keep a journal of things for the week, then on Wednesday evenings, we would discuss whatever they want to share & learn how to handle things in a Christian manner. To keep their interest, we would also teach classes on some crafts, including quilting & some sewing. We would also teach some cooking, as we get facilities to do so.

After we got home, I talked to the preacher's wife to get her take on it. She liked the idea, so I talked to the preacher. Because of everything else that is going on, I put the idea on the back burner. Last weekend, the idea resurfaced. Too much is happening for this to not be God's idea. Now, I'm in the process of organizing & trying to get some people to help.

Now that I have the teen girls part in the works, I need to figure out how to get someone to help with the teen guys, & the younger ones.

Work has been crazy. Rumors are flying & deregulation meetings are creating a stir. It was looking like they were going to close the one power plant that our group maintains. We don't have any definite news, but maybe we squeaked by again. The routine of being told to grab another job if it becomes available is getting old. I love working with these guys, but corporate is playing mind games, again.

A member of our praise team at church just had surgery for breast cancer. She's getting better by the day, but is still in a lot of pain. I wish I could take some of the pain away.

In july, our church is planning our Fandangle. It's going to be 2 evenings where we have an air castle for the kids, concerts for the adults, & food for everyone. We hope to have William Boyd Chisum back. We don't have the dates set yet, but will start working on it as soon as possible. It will probably be a Friday & Saturday night. More details as I get them.