Highlights from the Week

I had Messiah rehearsal on Monday. So excited for the upcoming concert on December 13th. 

I worked from home a couple of days this week on Zoom and the doggos kept sitting under the desk to keep me company. 

One of the days I was working from home, Davis was sick and 

I was glad to be able to keep an eye on him. 

I've started reading the new conference wide devotional. I wrote a week of the entries for January. 

I spent Thursday in Naples. I attended a luncheon at the Grey Oaks Country Club to benefit Grace Place for Children and Families - this began as a United Methodist ministry 20 years ago and as superintendent I sit on the group's Faith Council. The chef made me a special meal to meet all of my allergies including an amazing vegan mousse! 

The highlight was having Maria Shriver as the guest speaker for the luncheon. She responded to questions from some of the Grace Place kids about being an author and her writing process. Then Maria shared a lot of reflections on her family and public service. It was absolutely wonderful. Plus we raised a lot of money for Grace Place! 

 

I finished up the day with a meeting at First Naples. Pastor Sara is retiring at the end of the year and Pastor Scott will become their new senior pastor. We did a session of goal setting for the upcoming year. 

The Christmas Tree

Before and After - all decorated. It's my favorite thing to do to look at the lit up tree each night. 

 

Birthday Celebrations

Over the weekend we did a few things to help celebrate birthdays and kick off the holiday season. We drove through the Cedar Hollow neighborhood in Sarasota to look at Christmas lights! 

We cranked up the firepit on the back porch and enjoyed the warmth and the glow for our Florida "cold" spell. 

 

And we took Daryl to dinner at Pop's Sunset Grill for his birthday next to the water in Venice. 

Short Week

Last Sunday I visited Christ Community UMC in Punta Gorda and preached about Joy. 

It was a short week for work - I was only in the office on Monday for meetings and then today again to record a couple of podcast episdoes. But I did squeeze in a a couple of trips to labyrinths - Unity in Venice and Unity in Sarasota. 

Today also was the launch of our newest conference project that I helped launch - Awakened to Grace. The biggest component is this yearlong devotional. I wrote one of the weeks for January.  

 

Daryl Birthday

Today Daryl turns 50 + 2! Wishing him a Happy Birthday and a wonderful year! 

 

Wesley Birthday

Today Wesley turned 18. So hard to believe. The days and years have just flown by. 

We had a nice relaxing day at home before going out to dinner at his choice, Oak and Stone, and then going to check out Christmas lights in one of the nearby neighborhoods. 

Here are some of our favorite pictures of Wesley from our recent family photo shoot. 

 

Thanksgiving with Family

There were 18 of us today in Seffner: Our five plus Grandmommy, Daniel, Dawn, Micah, Bethany, Kayla and her boyfriend Ab; Uncle David and Aunt Barbara, Uncle Kelly and Uncle Nam; plus Aunt Janice and her boyfriend Tom who were down from Georgia. 

Quite a spread! 

My allergy safe plate! 

And a new experiment for dessert: cranberry apple cobbler with dairy free topping 

We celebrated Wesley's 18th birthday! 

And Daryl's 52nd birthday!

Since this is the year that Grandmommy broke her hand, we spent some time afterwards getting down some of the Christmas decorations from the shelves to make setup a little easier for her.