Amy J. Bennett

Extraordinary Faith for Everyday Life

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Archives for 2008

Disney March 2009

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So we’re doing it. We’ve planned a trip to Disney.  Well, Jen and all of her (free) travel planning skills have planned a trip to Disney.  I was completely clueless and  at her mercy.  It was so easy just to say here, this is what I want now tell me the best thing to do.  Fifty questions later and the trip is planned March 27th.  We’ll be there five nights.  We have a  hopper pass and a dinner plan which I hear are both good things to have.

We’ve told the kids they are going and they are really excited. I think Scott’s sister, family and their parents are going with us.  It was back and forth whether they’d go for a few days there so we invited a teenager from church to go with us.  Maybe not a must now that the whole family is going but her sister works at Disney so she’ll be to see her as well as help with the kids.   She’s a ton of fun so it will be fun to have her with us.

I’m generally excited about going.  We’re not huge Disney fans in general, Scott gets testy in crowds and lines and it’s always iffy to be going with a large group.  I sound so excited right?  But I think the kids are going to be so beside themselves it will all be worth it.

Merry Christmas and Happy Monday. Love, Scott

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I guess this is as close to a guest post from my husband as I’ll ever get.  So predictable I’m the one writing it but he did send me two of his favorite (clean) Retarded Policeman YouTube videos.  Obviously he’s allowed to make fun of cops because he is one.  I’m not really comfortable with this guy calling himself a Retarded Policeman but that’s what he calls himself so what am I to do?  (Some of the other videos of his are funnier but they can be pretty crude. But funny.). The first one is an introduction of sorts called Hi! The second one is called Sobriety Test.

Distant Memory or Instant Memory

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I jotted this down at 1am one night last week after my eyes had been closed for a good twenty minutes and I was just about ready to drift off to sleep. I wish I could stay in that state more often as it seems I get a lot of ideas just about the time I go to sleep. But for me, “Distant memory or Instant Memory” are two phrases that could describe a person’s relationship with God.
For many and I’m sure the majority, God is a distant memory. For some this distance could be measured in days, weeks, months or even years.
Maybe you attend church regularly and were in a Bible study recently and now without a strict schedule you’ve realized you’re not reading and praying every day. And all the sudden you’ve realized your Bible doesn’t move between Sundays. This distance isn’t as noticeable. You still think about God but it’s not a daily thing like it used to be.
Maybe you are a regular church attender and had a child get sick a week or two and you couldn’t go to church and then just got out of the habit. You look up and realize you haven’t been for weeks and you can feel yourself slipping from what you know you should be doing.
Maybe you moved in the past year and just never found a church. You think about God every once in awhile, maybe you even think to pray but generally, God is becoming more of a distant memory than you care to admit.
Or maybe the distance is measured in years. Your grandmother took you as a child but once you hit the teenage years you didn’t go and never looked back. Church and God could be just a distant memory from your childhood.

Whatever the reason distant isn’t what I’m striving for. I desire for God to be in my instant memory. I want church and/or a Bible study to be a regular thing for me. When I have a decision to make I want him and his opinion to be the first thing that pops in my head. When I’m tempted in a situation I want to care that He cares if I turn away.  When I get bad news I want his peace and comfort to instantly come to me. When I can’t take another minute of my kids whining I want God’s compassion and patience to overtake me.   When someone says something hurtful to me, I want to react with a soothing and kind word.  I want Him and His qualities to instantly overtake me whatever I face. In everything I do, I want to remember Him.
But the thing is it’s all up to me whether He’s a distant or instant memory. I find that church attendance DOES matter to how close I am to God. Of course there are many people attending church that are leaving a completely hypocritical life and I’m aware there are some (very dedicated) people that can walk closely to God without attending church weekly. But there’s just something about being in a group of believers and talking together or hearing from a Christian leader that brings you back on track.
Consistent prayer and reading DOES make a difference. Surrounding ourselves with good friends and making sure all of our “inputs” (music, TV, movies, magazines, books) DO make a difference. The more we are dedicated to knowing Him, the more He makes Himself known. We get to the point where we naturally and instantly think about God’s opinion, we think like God would think, and we speak and act like God desires of us.
I’m talking to myself here as much as anyone. The choice is up to us…will He be distant or instant?

I thought of this song Everything by Tim Hughes while writing this. It’s a wonderful worship song.

Weekend Recap and Plans for the Week

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Tonight we’re lounging around the house. It’s finally the end of our busy week. Friday went as planned with the dinner at Scott’s coworker. The boys were as silly as ever. There may or may not have been a shotgun that got fired at one point for no good reason except to scare someone.  But we were out in the boondocks.  Like WAY OUT IN THE BOONDOCKS.  So far OUT IN THE BOONDOCKS that they had no access to cable.  They still used dial-up.  Such bad living conditions.  It’s so sad.  JK.  Their house is actually really nice.  They just have to use dial-up.   Still a sad state of affairs.

Saturday we slept in and then spent the rest of the morning shopping for Christmas. We were able to get all but one present. Yesterday evening we went out to dinner with Mom, Dad and Heather.  I then spent a good hour or so at CVS.  I got a call from MIL that one of our CVS’s in town was going to allow us to do this week’s deals a night early.  They had a huge sale with 17 items for free or better.  I had to do I think 5 transactions and got over $200 worth of stuff for $1.76 out of pocket and earned $11 ECBs.

Today I was so tired from staying up last night so I took a nap as soon as I got home.  I got up (ok, was forced out of bed) in time to wrap all our presents and straighten up the house for our guests this evening.

We had Scott’s entire family over for our Christmas dinner. Scott’s grandmother’s husband is sick with pneumonia so we moved it here last minute. It turned out really nice actually.  One funny story from that is Scott decided to make the brownies for me while I wrapped presents.  Except to find a cake when he pulled it out of the oven. Yes, Scott had made a Devil’s Food Cake instead of brownies.  So I whipped up some of Mom’s chocolate icing, poured it on and called it done.  It ended up being really good.

Scott’s dad is going in for a catheter tomorrow morning so I’m guessing we’ll be visiting with him tomorrow. Besides that, this week should be relatively quiet up until Christmas day.  Scott is working Mon and Tues and I’m working through Wednesday.

After Wednesday afternoon, it might get a little crazy again.  Wednesday night we’re going to do Christmas at Mom’s.  Not really sure what’s going down Thursday exactly but I’m sure it will involved a lot of driving around town and having people over.  Friday morning we’ll be headed out to Maryland until Tuesday. I’m so excited!

Emma’s School Christmas Party 2008

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Today Emma had her Christmas party. The parents were invited 9-11 but from the schedule she had posted it looked like they were having stuff going on all day. When I was there, we rotated to four different craft sections and then were with them for snack and recess. Emma loved me there. She wanted me close although she did great at participating in the activity as well. And to be honest, I let her curl in my lap as often as possible. Her and I don’t get a lot of alone time with no other distractions. Her and her friend were almost oblivious to me at recess though. It was a nice morning with her and I was able to get some great pictures to remember her Kindergarten year.

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Lexi’s School Christmas Program

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Lexi did so well at her Christmas program this morning. She sang all the words and did all the movements. It was so sweet! We were so far back though I didn’t get very good video. I was able to sneak up to the front on the last song We Wish You a Merry Christmas. Lexi is in a white shirt near the woman’s hand.

And by the way, all the other kids are in red and green shirts but since I’m such a procrastinator I didn’t read that until after she was dressed this morning and then Lexi was too stubborn to change and really, I thought white would be just fine with red and green especially since the 4 year old class was in white. She’d just look like a badly placed four year old. And really, I was willing to deal with that a lot more than I was with Lexi at 7am. And that’s that story.