God and (SEC) Football

"It's nice to think time will make us better Christians.  That just by waking up each morning, we're becoming the men and women God has called us to be, but I'm afraid time just makes us better fakers.  We learn the buzzwords.  We learn what we can get away with.  But that doesn't mean we are growing."
--Chad Gibbs in God and Football, Faith and Fanaticism in the SEC.

I wasn't expecting that from my easy, light beach reading.  It's true of me, except when I'm truly living in fellowship with other believers.  Then they call me on it.  Thank you to my friends and family who will call me on the carpet.  And thanks to Chad Gibbs, who has me weeping on the beach for the South  in general, because I love it deeply and struggle with it madly all in one big messy wad of emotions.

On another completely side note, please keep praying for us as we are looking for a call (job).  We need your prayers to sustain us as we wait.  Brian and I are both so eager to be serving a particular body/people...

Ahhhh...the Beach

It's been a long four years since we've seen you.  So good to be back.

I'm praying for good weather, good conversations, and a time of rest. 

I don't think I'll ever forget Brian's face when I asked him how it felt to get in the ocean that first night back.  (He took the kids and cousins down while the mammas hit the grocery store.)  It was relaxed and radiant.  He looked younger.  He LOVES it here.

And the sunset last night--I have no words, and of course no pictures.  It was just after a storm came through.  Truly amazing.

My heart is so thankful to be here.

Bananarama

I'm living on the edge--just ate half a banana, the most food I've had at one time since Sunday morning.  Here's to keeping it down!

You Down with OPD?

Over two years ago I had diverticulitis.  Now I have it again.  It hurts.  It comes from not drinking enough water (true but improved in recent weeks since I've been running more), and from stress.  I guess that means I'm not "resting" as well as I thought.  And it hurts--feels like a knife in my left side that hurts worse when I move.  Like when I breathe.  Drugs have been called in (thank you, BL!), so relief is on its way.

So don't be like me and stress out till you get an Old Person's (intestinal) Disease.  Seriously.

July 4, 2013

Jogging with a friend, parade in downtown STL where we saw Coach Yost and family, air show over the river and under the arch, Mr. Wizards on the way home, a little housework and rest, then playing and dinner with a crew of new friends in St. Charles for the evening, including a few of our own fireworks, until we drove back to Chesterfield where we parked to watch the big fireworks at the mall.  Whew!  Bone tired from a great day's fun.

But one of the best things of the day was hearing on NPR our nation's Declaration of Independence read aloud by I don't know how many people, about 20 sec./person.  It was amazing to hear all the different accents and voices reading our declaration to me.  I loved it!  I don't remember the last time I read it or heard it read.

Happy 4th, y'all!

Did You Know...

...I'm an Occupational Therapist?  I got my degree from UAB a hundred years ago.  I worked a year for a family where the wife had Alzheimer's Dz, and after that we were ready for a family.  Of course I wouldn't ever work again once we had kids (right?), so I promptly filed all things OT away in the very back corners of my brain.  Now I did have a deep-felt appreciation that I'd never be able to pass the written exam again, so I've kept my license up as much as necessary to avoid that terrible scenario.

Fast forward...our youngest is now in school all day 3x/wk.  My husband is finished with school but has not found a call (job) yet.  Two years ago I worked a half day 3x/wk.  Last year my half days were 5x/wk.  This year it seems our family has a new-found capacity (and need) for me to stretch myself a little more and enter the healthcare professionals world.

I have a lead on a job.  Please pray I get it.  If I have 2 contact hours a week, I'll bring home more than I did working 12 hours at the school.  Truth is though, it's about so much more than the income.  I'm so very, very excited about doing occupational therapy.  I'm remembering why I loved it so much.  And how much I loved it!  It's SO FUN.  (Yes, I know I'm a nerd.  Hard to deny when I took physics in college as an elective because it was SO FUN.)

What a treat--and a testimony to the Lord's working in both my and Brian's hearts--that I could have a degree/potential job that I truly enjoy, that serves families in need, that helps provide for my family,  and that Brian and I are on the same page about across the board about this.

Oh, and I'm keeping the PE job 2x/wk at the school.  Which is also exciting.  I'll be able to maintain my relationships with all the 1st-6th graders as well as teachers and staff at the school where my own kids are.  Seriously--this is the best of both worlds.  The only downside (and it is a big one) is not being with my teacher who I've worked with 3x/wk for two years now.  I'll miss our amazing conversations and keeping up with the goings on in the Kugler household.

But pray I get that job.  And praise God with me for my new friend, Jen Bensinger, a PT, who is my new friend that God provided at just the right time, who is walking me through this process and advocating for me with her contacts.  I don't think I would have had the courage to do this if she hadn't been such an encourager.  (She also does this work as a mother of 4, one who has Down Syndrome, with the heart of a servant loving her family and the families she helps treat.)

And I'll keep you posted!