Organizing, tossing, meeting

I don't know what started it, but I've been on an organizing kick recently.  I don't think we have a lot of stuff, but when I start opening closets and looking in bags and boxes, I wonder, "what is all of this?!"  In the last few days I've thrown away old school notes, random pieces of fabric, unwanted gift bags, old shoe boxes saved for shipping, etc.  And it's still not done!  Next we have to go through Amos' school notes and old bills; hopefully we'll get rid of a lot of those. ;)

In our living room, I have one and half tubs full of things to be sold.  I'm not really confident that we can sell all of it (video monitors, Madame Alexander dolls, Zeusy's old tank, etc.), but I might as well try!  Two boxes of books and sci-fi magazines are waiting to be taken to the used bookstore.  Two boxes and a bag have been dropped off at Goodwill, and I'm sure we'll fill at least one more before we are done.

Besides the organizing, Amos and I have been going to a lot of meetings, with more to come!

Wednesday: Staff meeting, 30 Days of Prayer meeting
Thursday: Girls' dinner at our small group leader's house, phone meeting for Amos
Friday: Lunch meeting with old college friend Alicia, phone meeting for Amos (canceled)
Saturday: Website meeting for Amos
Sunday: Church, The Gospel in the Muslim World meeting
Monday: Interview for Jennica, tech team meeting for Amos
Tuesday: -nothing...yet-
Wednesday: Staff meeting, interview for Jennica

It's a little crazy over here, as you can tell by the disjointed sound of this post!

Fonts and food

Not too much going on over here. I've spent the last 2.75 hours converting fonts on my missions documents for church.  Very exciting!  Our "creative media" director, Mark, came up with a style sheet for our church to follow, so I've been faithfully replacing fonts and reformatting documents.  At first I wasn't too sure about this style guide ("is it really necessary?"), but I can see that it is a good idea!  My documents look a lot better, and all I did was change the font!  Now I just have to print all these sheets out, hang them on walls, e-mail them to the missions director and the ministry assistant, clip them in clipboards, cut some of them down to size, etc...oh yeah, and finish converting my other documents. Oh dear!

In other news, I think Amos and I are going to have pancakes for dinner tonight.  Here are some of the potential toppings (not all together, of course):
+Whipped cream
+Blueberry curd
+Syrup
+Nectarines
+Pumpkin butter
+Pecans

Happy Monday!

Nebraska in July

Well, this was my sixth trip to Nebraska and the longest yet!  Amos and I went for a week and had a great time hanging out with family and eating tapioca. :)

Some of the things we did...
+ Went to Cabela's
+ Tried Jimmy John's sandwiches
+ Went to Wednesday night prayer meeting and Sunday morning church
+ Hung out with Doug and Glee and slept in their basement (the pastor and his wife)
+ Visited with Cindy, an old friend of the family and a really nice lady
+ Watched at least five firework displays, large and small (they are crazy out there!)
+ Ate a lot of tapioca; I need to find some pearls at the store and make some!
+ Walked around Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo (I saw a monkey with yellow fur!)
+ Had a siblings photo shoot
+ Went to a barbecue at Jesse and Carly's new house
+ Visited a barn sale (i.e., antique heaven; we didn't get anything)
+ Checked out Seward, NE, the Fourth of July capital of the state
+ Took pictures of everyone for a frame on Barb and Lester's wall
+ Went to the Crete Public Library and introduced Barb to The Mysterious Benedict Society
+ Looked around Lester's Shop, the gun shop that Amos' dad started
+ Listened to toooo many knock-knock jokes
+ Received a beautiful, hand-quilted, turquoise and brown quilt; a few of Amos' sisters pieced it (Julia and Sara, I think) and Amos' mom hand-quilted it, complete with little pictures!
+ Did some laundry
+ Made some homemade French onion dip
+ Met our nephew Oliver for the first time
+ Ate some venison
+ Did a lot of other things that I can't remember right now!

All in all, it was a very, very nice week.  I don't usually spend a lot of time with people, so it was overwhelming for a few days, but now I miss everyone. :P  Oh dear.

Here are some pictures!

Seward Courthouse

Cornerstone Bible Church

Lawn ornament at the barn sale

In the corn! 

An Amos in his original habitat...

A yellow-furred, blurry monkey!

Visiting with Cindy in her new house!

Our quilt, complete with photbombing Hobbes (birthday present for Amos
last year)

Around the web 5

I will get around to a post about our trip to Nebraska and our second anniversary, but for now, enjoy some links! :)

Why I Stopped Looking for the Perfect Church by Cole Jeffrey
I'm not sure that I ever actually talked to Cole, but we were a Master's for the same four years.  Some great thoughts on looking (or not looking) for the perfect church.

Teaching Children the Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones
I LOVE this article.  It really hit home with me.

The Day My Husband and I Got Inked and
Every Day Radical: To the Last Virgins Standing by Emily Wierenga
A very emotional writing style, but I really liked what she had to say.

Homemade Whole-Grain Pancakes by King Arthur Flour
I'm going to make this recipe with the whey that I've drained from my plain yogurt...I sound crazy. :P

Some children's books that I read at the Crete Public Library in Nebraska:
Boot and Shoe, Miss Moore Thought Otherwise, The Houdini Box, Sheep in a Jeep, and Here Come the Girl Scouts! (Boot and Shoe was a fun story with really cute illustrations, though it did have two parts about the little dogs "relieving themselves" on a small tree...just a warning)

EDIT
And another one: DOMA and the Rock by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield

The best pictures from the book. Click to enlarge.