Davis Pictures from Family Photoshoot

Sharing these gorgeous pictures of Davis from our recent family photoshoot! 

Labyrinths Around Town

Trying to walk labyrinths again this Advent. Here's where I managed to visit this week. 

Sunday - Unity Church Sarasota  

Monday - Church of the Palms Sarasota 

Tuesday - Unity Church in Sarasota again 

Wednesday - First Congregational Church Sarasota 

Thursday - Unity Church in Naples 

Friday - Venice Church of Christ 

Saturday - First Presbyterian Sarasota

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!