Amy Scott's Thoughts

Sharing the thoughts that bounce around in my brain!

Comfort Cookies and Other Things I Need February 6, 2013

Filed under: Children's Ministry,Cooking Experiments,Women in Ministry — Amy Scott @ 3:44 pm

My day hasn’t turned out the way I expected. It hasn’t been bad, but it’s had a few bumps that I didn’t foresee. It seems like my week has been a bit bumpy as well. I keep trying to stay on top of it all and I just don’t feel like I’m keeping up.  So in order to avoid a panic attack, here are the few things keeping me together.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies!I wasn’t sure I was going to have time to make a snack for my class tonight, but things fell into place and I was able to home this afternoon. I decided to make Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies because oatmeal and chocolate are some homey and yummy and comforting. I needed to make something that would feed my soul and these cookies are the ticket. I had just enough oatmeal on hand and they turned out great. Tonight is a snack that I made for myself more than the girls and that is okay.

Prayer has been the one constant in my life over the last week. While I’m pretty routine with my prayer time, it seems like this last week I’ve stepped it up. When you’re empty, the one place to fill up is at the feet of the Father. This morning especially I took a lot of time to read my Bible and pulled out my prayer journal to pen all my thoughts to the Lord. Throughout my day, the constant connection to the Lord is what brings peace and assurance to my heart. When I talk with God it reminds me how small I am and I how I really can’t do this without him. Prayer has been sustaining my life and giving feet to my faith. Without it, I’m sure I would fall apart.

When the stress level rises I turn on the music. I’ve been listening to Switchfoot and The Rocket Summer. I love losing myself in lyrics and singing along to these heart songs. As the music fills my home I find myself relaxing and my blood pressure lowering.

I’ve been rereading some great books by authors I dearly love and have touched my heart. I’m reading both Cold Tangerines by Shauna Niequist and One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp.  Both books are celebration of life and about finding light in the dark. It’s so good for me to be reminded. God is here in the small moments of my daily life. His gifts sustain me and I continue to count them because they are like bread, they give me life. Authors can good friends and I’ve been hanging out with some the best buddies through the page.

However, I can’t spend my entire life making cookies, listening to good music and reading soulful books. Today is Wednesday which means ministry. I have dinner with a young student whose family is going through some very serious trials. I’m not exactly sure what to tell this tender heart as we converse.  I will do my best to encourage her and to give her peace. I’m praying for God’s words because mine seem so flat and not enough. This situation is bigger than us and that means we need to give it to God. I hope I can help her see that God is walking beside her each second of this difficult journey. After dinner it will be time for church and I will see my class of girls for the first time in two weeks. The cold had me down last week, so I’m happy to rejoin them. Today is a week before the sleepover deadline so I’ll be nagging them pretty hard to get those permission slips in.  I also feel like such an adult when I remind them of deadlines.

Speaking of being an adult, I still need to clean the kitchen up from my cookie baking! Signing out!

 

If I only had a brain… February 5, 2013

Filed under: Simply Me — Amy Scott @ 6:26 pm

Lately, I feel like I’ve been channeling the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz (a movie I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen in its entirety). I’ve been doing some pretty stupid stuff and it’s making me wonder if I have straw in my noggin. Here are just a few of my shining moments. I hope you find them humorous. I’m choosing to laugh, but maybe I should be concerned…

On Sunday, I was conversing with a parent about the upcoming girls sleepover. Since the mom wasn’t there to talk with me directly about helping with the sleepover, I gave my phone number and email address as a way to get in touch with me to discuss the details. Only, I couldn’t remember my phone number!!! Like an idiot with an audience I stood there apologizing. At one point I almost went to get Jeremy to help. Once I remembered  my number, the parent didn’t seem too convinced that I knew what I was talking about. Can you blame him?

Last night as I was getting ready for bed I was doing my nightly routine of adding a throw blanket to my side of the bed. I like a little extra warmth and my warm blooded hubby doesn’t. As I was putting my blanket on the bed, I managed to knock over my water glass and spill it all over my side of the bed and the surrounding floor. Now that was one of those awesome moments that I watched in slow motion. I could see it happening and yet there was nothing I could do to stop it. There is nothing like dousing your bed right before you plan to get into it. Real smooth!

This morning in the shower I ended up putting facial cleanser in my hair like it was shampoo – never done that before. Don’t know what I was thinking there. Oh wait, I’m pretty sure I wasn’t thinking. I continued on in my morning routine and was checking my emails. I had an email waiting for me saying that I got the snack rotation for my Growth Group mixed up. Sure enough, I looked at my notes and saw that I misread them the night before. It’s bad when you can’t read what you wrote properly. It’s not like it was written in sloppy handwriting. I just can’t read.

So as you can see, I’m a bit brainless right now. As this cold drags on and I’m plagued by tiredness and a busy schedule, I’m wondering what is next? I keep surprising myself with all the random things I can pull off when I’m in a tired haze. Lucky for me, I have no plans for the rest of the evening and that is reassuring! My brain cells need some serious TLC before they really do resemble straw.

Oh, if I only had a brain!

Side Note – If you find my brain, please return it! I miss being a fully functioning member of society!

 

Stuff that makes me smile! February 3, 2013

Filed under: One Thousand Gifts Challenge,Simply Me — Amy Scott @ 6:40 pm

In a random attempt at blogging, I will share with you the few things that have made me smile recently. Sort of a One Thousand Gifts list, but really just silliness from my everyday life.

  • My new notepad from Shutterfly – it’s so cute! It has pictures of Jeremy, Toby and I. In pink it says “From the desk of Amy Scott”. The funny thing is I keep it on the counter and nowhere near my desk. I love adding items to my grocery list because I get to use and look at it and it’s just too cute!
  • Jeremy’s use of floor samples – Yesterday Jeremy told me that we could use all the leftover floor samples as coasters. In fact while working at the computer desk, he did just that! Now I’m not sure this is a new trend I want to start but it was funny.
  • When parent’s bring snacks to class – Last night we celebrated a student’s birthday and his parent’s brought banana pudding cups. Since I trust this family when it comes to food preparation, I enjoyed the snack. Just like a kid, I love getting a special snack.
  • Made for TV movies – Since I’ve been watching a lot of Netflix this last week, I couldn’t help but mention how love cheesy romantic comedies. Boy meets Girl. They fall in love. Something causes a bump in the road for them. They make up. They live happily ever after. While I don’t always believe in the plot – who really falls in love in a week? – I enjoy these movies.
  • Malt-0-Meal – Oh wheat cereal! It can make a mess in the microwave if you don’t catch it in time, but so far I’ve been safe this week! I’ve been eating a bowl a day with some brown sugar because it feel so good on my throat.
  • Saying good bye to the dinosaur desktop computer! Jeremy finally detached and removed the desktop computer from our house! I’m sure our energy bill will go down now! With two laptops, it made no sense to me to have a desktop. Funny thing is our desk is covered in eBay items so really it’s not like the space has been cleared. It is however a step in the right direction.
  • Jeremy’s budding eBay business – It amazes me how much random stuff my hubby has had stored around our house. I thought last year after the 7 purge that we had cleared out the house of useless stuff, but I was wrong. Jeremy has kept his stash well hidden. Now that he is parting with it, I’m amazed that people are actually buying it!
  • If I was blogging last week about this topic, I might have included Downton Abbey Season 3. I love Sunday evenings because my 2 favorite shows are on, but…. last week was tragic on DA. It hit me in the gut, made me cry and honestly, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to keep watching. Of course I will, but I get WAY too attached to TV show characters.
  • Friday I got to go to my favorite Chinese food place with my hubby, my sister and a brother-in-law. I LOVE General Tso’s Chicken. So good! Just typing about it actually making me want some… Okay, moving on before I start to drool.
  • Naps – this has been a little love-hate for me. Because I’ve been sick I’ve been taking a nap in the middle of the day. It seems though that even just a short nap makes me stay awake way late into the night. Last night I could barely go to sleep or stay asleep. Which means I’ve been super tired during the day and end up taking a nap. It’s a bad cycle I’ve started! I didn’t mean to, but I ended up sleeping most of the afternoon… Here’s hoping I can sleep tonight. However, if Downton Abbey continues it’s dramatic flare, I’m sure I’ll be emotionally drained by bedtime.

I realize that I could keep this list going. Even after a week of being sick, I can still see all the good things and the blessings that the Lord has given me. I’m thankful for this home that I get to hang out in. I am thankful that it is a place of rest. I’m thankful for the silly things that don’t seem to matter, but really when you put them together as a whole they make life worth living. All these small moments, these small things are a sign of a big God who loves me and is taking care of me. I am thankful!

 

Growth Group Time February 2, 2013

Filed under: One Thousand Gifts Challenge,Women in Ministry — Amy Scott @ 9:46 pm

It seems like time flashes forward when I blink. Or maybe it has something to do the fast that most of my life been lived on the couch since last Monday. I don’t know, but all of the sudden I find myself in the month of February with a Growth Group about to start on Monday evening. Oh my! Where did all the time go? This was always so out in the distance. Now it’s here. I’m not sure I’m ready.

One thing is for sure, my house isn’t ready. Because of the great illness, I haven’t touched my house in a good long time. It’s not often my floors go a week without vacuuming (at this point you are either worried or impressed). My game plan for tomorrow is to clean the house and then probably take a nap. Since I’ve been down with this bug my energy level has popped back up yet. There is something about a clean house that sets my mind at ease. There are very few things I control in life and the tidiness of my house is one of them – except when I sick and that even goes out the window. I think having things fresh and tidy will signify that my days of being down are over and I’m ready to reengage in life. I keep telling myself this – here’s hoping my body agrees (as of today the bug is still slightly fighting me – I will rejoice when I no longer need kleenex handy).

Originally I was brainstorming what things to provide for food. At any social gathering, I was taught that the more food provided is better (Thanks Dad for that lesson – now I always overfeed people). I want something to be homemade because that seems thoughtful, but at the same time the only homemade things I make are baked goods and women seem to stay away from those. Maybe a plate of cookies and I’ll stop by the store for a veggie tray. I don’t know. I want to a good balance. Something sweet and something healthy. Don’t even get me started on beverages. My house is so low on liquids. We have a strange K-Cup assortment, water and A-1 sauce… Just kidding about the last one. But really water is classic, right?

As you can tell I’m over-thinking the details. It won’t be a Martha Stewart approved gathering, but who cares! The biggest things that are weighing mind would be along the lines of I really don’t know the ladies that are attending this group and from the little I do know, they are older than me. And my fear of leading adults rears its ugly head yet again. Kids are easy. Adults are scary.  I guess I’m using this blog to ask for PRAYER! I’m not sure how this is going to go, but I’m jumping in. It feels like head first. I pray that I can let my fears subside and trust God that it will all work out. I guess if I show up and engage then God will work out the rest. This could be a great opportunity to deepen relationships at Bethel Church with women who I don’t usually come in contact with.

Oh another funny thing – I have no idea what I’m going to do with the dog and the husband. Both will be home at this point. Toby can be a little crazy when guests first arrive. Dumb dog. He calms down after a while, but he really lacks in the first impressions department. Jeremy really doesn’t want to be around while his house is invaded by women. We don’t have a great man cave or spot for him to hide, so he might be in the bedroom for the evening. My guess is he’ll move the Xbox so he can play Halo and shoot people while we have our Growth Group on the other side of the wall. What a contrast!

Whatever happens, happens. God is good and it will all work out. I just need to take a few deep breaths and trust that I’m not in over my head. Even if I am in over my head, that is when God does some of his best work. So join in me in prayer as I prepare for this new experience. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes!

 

Coming Back February 1, 2013

Filed under: Cooking Experiments,Home Improvement,Simply Me — Amy Scott @ 7:19 pm
A snapshot of my week

A snapshot of my week

I finally feel like I’m coming back to life. My entire week was derailed by a head cold… Yes, the sore throat morphed and I went down hard. There is nothing like going through an entire Kleenex box by oneself. My nose isn’t thankful for this fact, but oh well. What can I do. I spent the week watching stupid movies on Netflix. We keep getting these come back emails from them and a recent one included a free month. I’ll take advantage of a free month. It’s given me something to do other then drink a lot of liquids and blow my nose.

A Herd of Floor Samples!

A Herd of Floor Samples!

Before I went down, Jeremy and I started a very exciting project. Last weekend, we drove around all the local Home Depots and Lowes’ to collect floor samples. We finally made the decision to switch to hard laminate floors in our front living space. I’ve never like having carpet in the dining room and I think that hard floors will be better with owning a doggie who occasionally has accidents and a few family members have allergies. I think this will help with the doggie dander or what not. After collecting a billion samples, we have made a decision and ordered tonight! This means that at some point this month, all the trim and flooring will be pulled up in my front living space. This will be interesting for sure. Jeremy has been great with Do-It-Yourself projects. Between him and the help of handy family members, I’m sure it will be snap. Hopefully!

Thumbprint Cookies

Thumbprint Cookies

In other news, my hubby requested cookies tonight. He very rarely wants me to make him anything sweet, so how could I refuse? After dinner I set about making Thumbprint Cookies with Jeremy’s homemade strawberry jam! They are very tasty, but I learned the hard way to let the jam cool first before eating them. It was like lava! I’ll chalk that up to a no-brainer-learning-expereince. Even at 27, common sense isn’t always working. Maybe I could blame the remnants of my head cold. Yeah, that sounds good!

I know this is sort of random blog about this and that, but I’ve been soooooo inactive the last few days I just had to write something. It’s hard to believe that I spent the last week of January on the couch and now it’s a whole new month. A very full month I might add! Between family gatherings, starting a new Growth Group, planning the biggest sleepover of the year, redoing the floors in half of our house, the usual social and mentor gatherings, I’m going to be one fast paced chica! Pray for me as I recover from this bug that I would not go down again. Who has the time!?!? Not me! Too much life to live!