Amy J. Bennett

Weekend Recap

June 4, 2012 by Amy 1 Comment

Scott the DRE

Good morning. This weekend was best of all because Scott came home! He reached his goal of becoming a Drug Recognition Expert. Just like an officer can do a few tests on the side of the road to determine if someone is under the influence of alcohol, he has learned a set of tests that can determine what category of drug someone is on, be it stimulant, depressant, etc. As I type this, he is at the hospital after being called in to test someone they had arrested. He will be considered an expert now in that court case.

He spent two weeks in Columbia last month learning all kinds of medical stuff and then just spent a week in Arizona in a jail testing people and then doing a 6 hour long test. We’re all very proud to say the least. That said, I was VERY happy to have all that over and done with and have him home last night.

Gluten-Free Expo

While he was away this weekend, a few highlights included attending a gluten-free expo in Charlotte. Normally, no matter where we go I am always on alert about food. I have to question everything and feel like I’m running defense for Emma to protect her from eating something that might make her sick. We walked into the expo where about 50 vendors, including the likes of Glutino and Udi’s, had samples out and I leaned down to Emma and said, “You can eat ALL of this!” Not since we’ve started have we been anywhere where every morsel of food was gluten-free. It was divine.

Let Me Run Race

Saturday evening I was able to attend a local race for an organization called Let Me Run via our big volunteer day with my work. Let Me Run is sort of like Girls on the Run but for boys. I volunteered as the Social Media Ambassador as let me tell you, I loved it. My job was purely to post pictures and statuses to Twitter and Facebook as the event went along. I mean, how fun is that? I also pitched in to organize bags and put tattoos on some kids and that was super fun too. Seriously, does anyone have a Social Media position open because I am ON IT. The end of the race was pretty spectacular too. A finish line never fails to bring tears to my eyes. As I watched the kids coming in knowing all the work they had put into it, I couldn’t help but clap and holler for them in celebration. Doesn’t it remind you of the race we are running and that “well done” we strive for at our heavenly finish line? Gah, I love that.

Man Card

Sunday we kicked off a fantastic service called Man Card. It’s all about biblically manhood. I’m telling you, even after just the first service, I know every male needs to hear this one. Seriously, if you’re a guy, hightail it over here and if you’re a gal, send all your favorite boys and men over there too.

Summer of 7

And finally, I wanted to touch on the first few days Summer of 7. This week is food week for me. No dessert. No take-out. Nothing but water. I think I somewhat failed at the expo and didn’t even realize it. A lot of the samples were cupcakes, cookies and brownies so technically that fell in the dessert category but I gave myself a pass since I wasn’t eating it with the intent of having a treat, just to sample food I would not otherwise.

Saturday night after the race was super hard not to eat dessert. I’d had a long day, the kids were spending the night elsewhere and it just would have been the perfect time to eat a bowl of ice cream. I felt sorry for myself and then remembered that some people didn’t even have dinner that night and quit my whining.

Sunday morning I missed not having coffee at church. No compensation there. I just missed it. Sunday dinner I sat down and drank a few sips of sweet tea before I realized what I was doing. I changed it out for water and kept going. As I drank I thought of all the people who don’t have clean water to enjoy. As fate would have it, on the way home we passed a homeless person asking for money. My friend Dani had put the word out just a few days ago to help if we had seen this one particular lady so I grabbed all the cash I had and gave it to her. It’s not the first time I’ve done that but it was a well-timed reminder that what we do with our money and how we view food matters. It still has not left me thinking about her living outside and worrying about every meal. Drinking water and eating as many meals and snacks as I want doesn’t seem so bad anymore. If anyone should eat a bowl of ice cream, it ought to be her.

Have you thought about joining us for Summer of 7? I can honestly say in just a few days it’s made an impact and it’s not too late!

I’m looking forward to the rest of the week as we’re headed out to Hilton Head this weekend! Hope you had a great weekend and have a great week!

Summer of 7: The Why

June 1, 2012 by Amy 10 Comments

My mom left a very concerned message yesterday on my post announcing Summer of 7. I trust her a lot so it got my attention. I’ll admit I had to take a step back and say why is this important? Why am I really pushing myself here? I thought it was worth sharing so you don’t misconstrue what’s happening here.

The first thing I want to touch on is surprisingly a quote from Downton Abbey from the beloved Mr. Carson “What would be the point of living if we didn’t let life change us?”

Good question, Mr. Carson. Because I for one am on a journey. But it’s not just a journey to be a perfect, good-girl Christian. My journey is to be more Christ-like and that means not being perfect (it’s impossible, folks!), but loving God and other people more (Jesus says this is the most important thing!). I also believe love is a verb and so when I become more Christ-like, yes, I do believe that my character will change but that also means my actions will change. But as my former pastor Loran Livingston said, “Works are a result of our faith not a prerequisite.” In other words, I’m not going to end up doing these things so God will love me more or my good will outweigh my bad when I get to heaven. Not at all. I believe Jesus did ALL the work I will ever need on the cross for my salvation.

When I search scriptures, I see he really has a heart for the poor and the downtrodden and the people bound up. In fact, the Bible says in James, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” In Matthew it says, “I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” This is just the tip of the iceberg. These are all DOING things. But you don’t do these things so you can BECOME a Christian. It’s the things you should want do BECAUSE of what Christ did for us. Above all, I believe that’s how we show people who God is and live out the gospel.

So what does this have to do with 7? Here is just a snippet of how I think the 7 categories fit into what I talked about above:

When I eat the right foods, I’m taking care of my body. When I take care of my body, several things happen. First, I am more fit so I can physically complete the good works that God has planned for me and for much longer. Second, I am free from the financial burden of healthcare. And third, I free up my time dedicated to diagnosis, treatment and healing. Let’s not even talk about the quality of life even if you aren’t “sick”. So when I am well and have more time and money, guess what? I can help others more.
When I am less stressed, once again this can have less effects on my health and I am not thinking so much about me, me, me. I can think and pray more for OTHERS.
When I can free up my things, I can bless someone else and also not be ruled by my possessions. Possessions have a funny way of multiplying and taking over. More, more, more! When we let go of possessions we not only let go of them in our hearts but again, it frees up more finances.
When I let go of a preoccupation with clothes, I free up money, time and most of all PRIDE.
This is a huge one but spending! Wow, can we Americans get tied up in our spending. When we free up finances, we can change the world. And I don’t say that lightly. I have read too much and heard about too much not to care about where my money goes. My money needs to be funneled to the poor, mistreated and hurting.
Media. I see this simply a thief of our time that we could be doing good works. There are other downsides (you know that part of being polluted by the world?) and upsides to media (connecting with others to love them well!) but for me, it’s time. I’m not quitting media altogether but I do see it as something that needs managed well. This will certainly be a reminder of just how much I’m using media.
Waste. I think God gave us the earth to take care of it. When we take care of the earth, we’re also taking care of each other, particularly the generations that come after us.

OK, so do you see? I want to love people better and I think by reducing things in my life, I can. I’m not being legalistic. In fact, I want to be FREE from these excesses so I can help others be FREE in Christ. I want to do and be more with what God has given me. Why? Because I want people to know God’s love. I truly believe LIFE is found through his good news!

Now I am FAR from the picture of this person doing good works all the time. But I’m on the journey of loving people more. I think Summer of 7 is just a time to hop off the spinning top of life for a moment. I hope during each of these weeks the times of strain will be times of prayer and reflection in that area and as Mr. Carson said, let [Jesus] change me a bit. The VERY last thing I want to do is mark off this list and then continue exactly the way I was before. I am SO tired of those kinds of exercises. I don’t want to stay in these restrictions because I believe in God we are truly free but I don’t want to leave unchanged. Make sense?

So does that help you see where I’m going with this? And more importantly, have you gotten your book yet??

The Summer of 7: Mowing Down the Excess of an Overgrown Life

May 31, 2012 by Amy 18 Comments

A few years ago, God sort of began to wreck me a bit. With a move to a different church and then with a few well-timed books, my outlook slowly started to change. I’d say reading Crazy Love and Radical both did quite the number on me in regards to where our time and finances were going and how I looked at our possessions. In the midst of that, Dani and I started The Sisterhood of the Traveling Belt. I won’t say that all my materialism has disappeared but God is still at work.

I’d read Jen Hatmaker’s book Interrupted and then watched as her new book 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess debuted. I followed Marla Taviano’s read-along but still didn’t read the book. For whatever reason, I just didn’t feel it was my time. And then Katrina from The Poorganic Life posted about needing another blogger to help blog through the book this summer and it was like a light bulb moment and I knew I needed to be involved. It was time to meet 7.

The point of 7 is to look at 7 areas of excess in our lives and then cut it out all while realizing how we could help others with the excess and be more grateful for what we did have. It’s right on par with what God had been doing in me. She’s like a soul sister I’ve never met. I mean, really. Eating more whole foods. Wondering why we dress up for church. Putting a cap on what we spend. Watching too much TV. All these things and more hit home. Jen took it a step (or 800) further and spent 7 months on each of the 7 areas doing some cut-throat activities that challenged her. One month she only ate 7 ingredients in all her meals. In another, she only wore 7 items of clothing. And on and on it went.

So Katrina is having us read the book and then do 7 mini challenges for the summer called Summer of 7. She has put together 7 bloggers that will all attempt a week of challenge from each category and then we each take a week to blog about one area. Mine is possessions. I feel it’s pretty fitting.

The rules are pretty much up to each person. She realized pretty fast that with everyone’s schedule it’d almost be impossible to enforce the same schedule for everyone. I’ve put together my own schedule. My plan is to roughly do the challenge from Saturday to Friday and then post about it the following Tuesday. Here’s what we’re looking at:

June 2-8 FOOD – I feel like I’ve been on one big food challenge since we went gluten free the past few months. I’ve learned so much about food and I honestly don’t feel like food is a huge sore spot of excess for me right now. So for this week, I’m doing no take-out, no desserts and only water to drink. Those are probably the 3 areas in which I do see excess.

June 10-16 STRESS – I’m going to do the 7 prayers in the book. We will be on vacation this week so I think it’s the perfect time to de-stress.

June 17-24 POSSESSIONS – I’ve been wanting to do a major clean-out of the house and I think it’s time. I want to take a day to do one room and then at the end I will do something…either a yard sale for Jen Hatmaker’s homes in Haiti, donate to Goodwill or give to individuals as needed.

June 25-30 CLOTHES – I will wear 7 articles of clothing all week. To be honest, being in the same jean shorts and a t-shirt all week isn’t that challenging for me, so I’m going to also go without makeup all week too. Hello, my name is Amy and I’m a Mary Kay consultant.

July 1-7 SPENDING – I’m planning to only buy groceries this week. No Amazon, no Target, no Wal-Mart, no CVS, etc. Now this is something FOR ME. If the girls need Tylenol or something, I’m buying it.

There will be a gap here. It’s birthday week in this house.

July 21-July 27 WASTE – I’ve been wanting to start composting and I think this is the right week to start.

July 28-Aug 3 MEDIA – No blogging, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Reader, general browsing, no TV and no cell phone use except for calls/texting.

OK, so I would LOVE it if some of you would join me? Surely there are some of you that want to cut some excess out of your life and like a good challenge? Don’t want to do all 7? Sure! Pick one area that is a sore spot (not the easy one!) and join up. Katrina has a linky over here where you can post an intro and then sub-pages so we can link up our individual category posts as well. Below is the *same* linky that you can enter it without hopping over to hers!

Cray-Cray Wednesday

May 30, 2012 by Amy 6 Comments

OK it’s Wednesday and I’d really like to give you a super insightful post but let me tell you what life was like today.

This morning I had to not only do the get-ready-for-school deal by myself which is pretty normal but I also had to be at work first thing so I had to get up early since going to work in my snowflake pajama pants just wasn’t going to fly. Normally I go in the office the days Scott is off so he can help with the kids while I do my thing. I did have the foresight to make the girls’ lunches last night and pick out my clothes so I did have that going for me.

At work, I had to have my yearly goals meeting which really, I’d rather stick a fork in my eye than talk about what leadership goals I have in the workplace.

While I was off goal-ing, I was worried about Lexi who I had expected to have a minor meltdown at school at any minute. Since I was stuck at work and both my parents and Scott are out of town and the girls had a half day at school, I had to arrange for the girls to ride the bus home with a set of sisters they are both friends with. Normally I think this would be great. They’ve never ridden a bus aside from field trips and honestly I wouldn’t hate it if they decided they really liked the bus so I wouldn’t have to sit in the carpool line for 30 minutes every day. Well, Lexi had a major breakdown last night about riding the bus. She was scared to death and I just thought for sure she’d lose it. Not to mention an email from the teacher suggested I should have planned a wee bit more ahead of time and she hoped they had room on the bus for them. I ended up hightailing it home after my meeting and basically met the bus at their friends’ house and Lexi was totally fine except she said she hated the bus which means I’ll be sitting in a car line every 180 days of the school year for the next 10 years. ANYWAY.

When we got home we found a dead frog in the pond that I know I’m going to have to get out eventually because Scott is gone. Then we realized the cleaning ladies (bless their hearts) had locked us out of our house. I had to lift and push Lexi through an unlocked window to get us in. And THEN I found a dead BIRD in our pool (THAT IS STILL NOT CLEAR). That’ll clog a skimmer, folks.

In the meantime, I’m juggling calls from people I really want and NEED to talk to and in the back of my mind planning this:

Katrina from The Poorganic Life has invited bloggers to blog their way through Jen Hatmaker’s 7 book, taking 7 weeks of the summer to do each of the 7 challenges from the book. And I promise to have a detailed post up tomorrow about what I’m doing starting this weekend but in the meantime, you may want to sneak a peek at what’s going on because it’s coming and you’re going to want to get the book and be involved.

Oh and I’m WORKING in between all this because I have GOALS, people. So. Today was crazy and you’re not going to get a wonderfully insightful post except to say, dear single parents, I am in awe. It’s a good kind of crazy though and I’m not stressed, not worried. I love my kids and my life and so thankful I have something to be busy over. But crazy is crazy.

Weekend Recap

May 29, 2012 by Amy 4 Comments

I’d like to give you lots of pictures and a big run down of a busy Memorial Day weekend but we had one of the most relaxing, simple weekends in a while.

The kids had their cousin sleep over two nights and they were in the pool almost as soon as the sun came up and stayed put for hours. We spent two evenings watching movies (Chipmunks Shipwrecked, The Vow [depressing but engaging and pretty], We Bought a Zoo [endearing]). I cooked a lot and worked on the pool a lot and read a lot (A Prayer for Owen Meany [excellent so far]). We had a small cookout for lunch yesterday. Aside from massive amounts of towels and dishes, I didn’t even clean a whole lot. Just a nice, relaxing weekend at home.

Oh, one highlight for me is getting to harvest and eat my first head of broccoli. I was scared to death of bugs and worms but none was found and I made a simple side of broccoli and cheese. As Scott says, I completely drowned out the taste of broccoli but I figure that’s the best way to do it. I promise I won’t take pictures with all my vegetation (especially in my bathing suit with no makeup). It’s just one of those “firsts” I had to document.

And in case you missed it on Facebook and Twitter, Tucker made his debut in the pool for the year and apparently has deemed himself the lifeguard of the family. Aside from the cloudy water [that I can’t for the life of me clear up], I’m not sure what he’s saving us from exactly.

This week ends school for the girls. Lexi is going to miss her teacher but for whatever reason is really excited to have lunch at home again. I think Emma is just excited to take on any and all teacher supplies her teacher wants to get rid of so she can have a more complete school set-up here at home. Scott is off to Arizona this week to do his final testing for his drug recognition certification. Please say a prayer for his testing. I have never seen him study as hard as he has in the last weeks.

Hope you had a lovely Memorial Day weekend and have a great week!

American Idol Finale

May 22, 2012 by Amy 4 Comments

The first two rounds I think went to Jessica. Jennifer was right that it’s really hard to compare because they’re so different but I just think it’s hard to say that Phillip has better vocals than Jessica. That being said, Phillip is WAY more likable, WAY more creative, WAY more unique and generally the better artist. Still, I was a little worried going into the final round. However, when Jessica made a mess of whatever that horrible (and inappropriate) single was, I was feeling better. And then. THEN. Phillip bossed that legit new single around and it was AWESOME. By FAR my favorite new single anyone has ever chosen for the finale.

All that said, I almost don’t want Phillip to win so he doesn’t have to bend to “the machine” and he can do his own thing. Still, I really hope Phillip’s name goes down in the record books as the best of the season. It’s been a great one. Colton, Joshua, Skylar and Phillip will go down as my favorites and I just can’t wait to see what they do. Thanks for reading all my ramblings of another Idol season. Until next time!

The Stadium Pitch

May 22, 2012 by Amy 9 Comments

I sat in a two hour quarterly meeting at work this morning. To be honest I usually don’t look forward to these rah-rah business meetings. But today we had a guest speaker. Mike Lipkin is a traveling motivational speaker and while there was a lot of rah-rah, be-a-better-employee type of talk, I was feverishly taking notes. He presented his ten laws to Living Above the Line . I found that they were applicable in all sorts of ways, one of which being the why and how I manage this blog.

At one point, he asked about our 60 second stadium pitch. Many of you probably have heard of a 60 second elevator pitch. Potential authors are trained to have one. If stuck in an elevator with an agent, how can you pitch your book between floors well enough that they get what your book is about AND care about it. Well, the stadium pitch he referred to is what you’re going to say if you get 60 seconds to speak to 70,000 people in a stadium.

Image credit

I don’t know about you but that thought is pretty daunting. It made me think about this blog though. If this is my mini stadium, what, ultimately, am I trying to communicate? I haven’t come close to reaching 70,000 on this blog but what if? What if I stumble upon 70,000 viewers and they give me 60 seconds before they click the little "x"?

So I stepped back to define why I’m here. And the short of why I’m here is you. If I wanted to write to myself, I’d keep all my posts on 750words.com and call it a day. For that matter, I’d start up Word and type it out to my heart’s content. But it’s about you. I want so desperately to connect with you. YOU. The one reading these words. I have this belief that God created us in such a way that we need each other and are spurred on by one another. We can’t do life in a silo. And so we must have that connection point. That one thing we have in common so we then begin exchanging. And if we’re lucky, we keep finding connection points until one day we can call each other friends. And friends are pretty great. Sometimes we connect over a TV show or sometimes we connect over a simple helpful tip. Sometimes whatever God is teaching me, is what He’s trying to teach you too. But we can’t expect to connect until one of us reaches out and shows who we really are. So this blog is my attempt to lay me on the line. To say, this is who I am, do you connect with any of it? I read blogs to find more connection points. Who are those people that I can learn from? Be encouraged by? Encourage? Support?

My ultimate hope is I am just a pass-through connection to God. A big finger pointing to Christ. Even if you don’t agree with me and find me lacking that you will see that above and through it all, God is real to me and He can be real to you too. And I suppose in the end, that defines my stadium pitch. If I had 60 seconds I’d take every one to point to Christ.

And while I get my stadium pitch is important because it tells you what I’m about, I see this blog a lot more like me walking from stadium seat to stadium seat telling you stories, looking for those connections. I’d sure love to support you, encourage you and help you in any way I can. It’s what friends do.

Your Set of Steps

May 21, 2012 by Amy 6 Comments

(image credit)

Pool, pool, pool. I have had a one-track mind over the weekend. We’ve been trying to clear up our pool now for 4 weeks and so far it’s been unsuccessful. All the yucky green stuff goes away but we are always left with milky water. Now, stay with me because this whole post is not about our pool. Although believe me, I could write a 1,000 word post on all my feelings about it right now.

One thing that always seems to hinder our pool-cleaning abilities is our steps. They’re nice steps, not just the ladder steps but that means they’re huge and hard to move. It’s imperative they get pulled out of the pool every year because algae likes to hide underneath the stairs and always starts a growth of algae even when the rest of the pool appears clean. Well, clearly we are a hard-headed couple because for every year we’ve had the pool, we’ve never wanted to take out the steps at first. The fact is the pool is always a green swamp when we open it and who in their right mind wants to climb in there, get out the 100 lbs bags of sand holding it down and then also push out the huge steps? No one that I know.

So our tactic to date has been to clear the pool up enough so you can see the bottom of the pool and then plan a big steps-removal day which completely clouds up the pool again but at least you get in a clean pool to get them out. But really. If we’d just get the steps out from the beginning we’d be so much better off. But every single year we keep trying to ignore the algae-infested steps and try to clean the rest of the pool. It never fails that it always causes so many problem after we take them out that it’s not worth ignoring them. We kick ourselves and promise we’ll get the stairs out next year.

And as frustrated as I have been over these steps somehow God is using it to show me how life can get. We try to clean up our life as best we can. We decide we’ll read our Bible and listen to the right music. We’ll get the right friends and say the right things. We even go to church and Bible study every week. But then there’s those darn steps. That big bulky thing growing yucky stuff we try to ignore. We think we can clean the rest of our life up but the truth is until we get that things out, God can’t truly do a redemptive work in our lives.

For those that have read my eBook Entangled, you can probably guess what my steps were a few years ago. I was harboring a relationship from everyone I knew. Hidden, inappropriate emails, conversations and feelings were my steps that I thought I could just ignore. I could run my life just fine while continuing this relationship. It took years but I finally hauled those steps out of my pool and only then could I see the destruction it left behind. It took years to truly clean the remnants from my emotional affair but I see now how necessary it was.

Perhaps you have your own set of steps. It’s probably that hidden thing that you’re really not too proud of but you just can’t imagine not doing. You think you can do life just fine with it but if truth be known, you know you need to cut it out. Perhaps you have your own hidden relationship, an addiction to porn or like my sister had, an addiction to a video game. Before you brush it off, let me warn you that your thing might not look too bad. Perhaps yours is a junk food problem or too much TV or even a worrisome attitude. Things in their own right are good and even necessary, but in excess cause major problems.

I don’t know what your steps are but I feel it way down deep today that someone has a set that need picked up and thrown out. Take it from someone that’s learned the hard way: jump in the nasty water and get them out stat.