Ministry

Middle school ministry has been super fun for me lately. Every Thursday and Sunday I get to hang out with a whole bunch of middle schoolers who are trying to figure out who they are. It's an interesting time for girls especially (boys too, but since I'm a girl, I know what they're going through more than boys) because of the insecurities that surround pre-teen and early teen years.

My observations about middle school girls:

The sixth graders come in each year as energetic little ones who just want to have lots of fun, want you to love them, and sometimes want to cause lots of trouble (mainly for attention seeking reasons).

When they get to seventh grade, they grow (a lot), they start seeing that boys are there, they develop their little cluster of friends, and they generally start liking you as a volunteer leader, not just someone to pay attention to them.

By the time they're in eighth grade, they have a much better sense of self, they can think more abstractly, and they start becoming little adults.

It's hard to say which stage is my favorite because I like them all for different reasons. I'm just so blessed to be working with the kids here in Stayton, and I'm blessed to have a husband who loves them so much and is passionate for their hearts.

It's been way too long...

I really need to blog more. I guess I'm not too much of a writer... and I've been really busy... and my life's not that interesting... and... I'm running out of excuses.

So to update on our lives, I guess I'm just working a lot. I got a new position at Norpac in June as the Records Center Supervisor. So now I have two employees, and I'm in charge of keeping all of the important records and destroying them when their retention is up. It's going really well and it's nice that it's right up my alley.

The significant pay raise was very helpful in our family's goal of getting out of debt asap. We've paid off about $12,000 so far this year, which sounds like a huge amount, and it definitely is. Dave Ramsey is so motivating, and his program actually works!! We live on a cash only basis (Andy actually forgot his debit card pin# because he hasn't used it in months). That helps us stick to our budget really well. I'm just excited to not owe anything to anyone. Our cars are paid off and everything else is but some student loans.

So here's to Dave Ramsey and his baby steps!!