Kristin McLendon: November 2008

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Introducing...

MY NEW NEPHEW!!!!!

PLEASE MEET FOREST....

PROUD PARENTS ARE BRETT & JOCELYN

PROUD BIG SISTER IS CHLOE

PROUD GRANDPARENTS: ROY & SANDI

PROUD AUNT & UNCLE: US!!

BIRTHDAY: OCTOBER 3, 2008

HOMECOMING: NOVEMBER 28, 2008

WEIGHING 10.8 LBS

He didn't like the first pic I took of him...notice my camera cord in his mouth in this next close up! :)

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Saturdays with Ashley

Raking

This week I got to go home, while I was home I decided me, Brooks, and Savannah should go rake all the leaves outside for mom and dad before they got home from shopping. There weren't a ton of leaves, but a pretty good amount. In the end I think 8 bags were filled up, just to give you a visual. There was one problem, we have a dog who poops (i know gross but stay with me here) a lot. So I asked Brooks to go out and scoop up all the poop before we started picking up all the leaves. He finished and came back inside to finish making posters for sis, I went outside and started raking. I was maybe two minutes into my raking when i raked through a big pile of dog poop (yeah it was real gross). So I called Brooks back out and we took care of that. Needless to say that wasn't the only pile of poop that he missed, there were tons more and I even had the pleasure of stepping in one (yup that's the worst).

Now was Brooks lazy? Did he not do what I asked him to do? No, he really did go outside and he thought he did the job 100%. He was actually shocked that he had missed any. The problem was that he couldn't scoop all the poop because it was covered up by leaves. Now lets look at this through our spiritual lenses. Poop is obviously sin, when we become christians we get rid of all the really obvious stuff (what Brooks did the first time). The obvious stuff being not cursing, getting drunk, watching bad stuff, hanging out with the wrong people, ect. Then God calls us a level higher, He tells us to start raking. So we start raking by reading the word, going to church, having a quiet time, fasting, surrounding ourselves with good influences, ect. Then once we start raking we find more "poop." It could be that someone came up to you and said something, and you blew up at them. We say uh....where did that come from? We begin to notice the little things we say that are really hurtful to others. We begin to notice how we treat others, and how we should treat others. We feel convicted about how much time we waste. We see the relationships that need to be weeded out. We go back and confess things that we would normally let slide. You get the point. So what is going on? Well the closer we get to God the more we are able to see our darkness. Because He is light, and we are dark, when we spend time with Him, He reveals more of our darkness to us. Not all at once, or else we'd be overwhelmed, but a little bit at a time. Once we rake that area, and then see the sin, then we need to take care of it.

Often times we rake, and see the sin and do nothing about it. We either purposefully ignore it or we don't know how to take care of it. That's where the shovel comes in handy aka the Holy Spirit. He helps us through and helps us get rid of all the "poop." His job is to make us full mature lovers, so that we will be ready as a bride. We are to be equally yoked with Jesus. First we have to get all of this "poop" out of our lives. It's not done easily, it takes time, and we have to remember to rake. If we don't rake, spend time with the Lord, then we'll think everything is fine. When really we have a lot of trouble underneath all the leaves. Satan uses the leaves to deceive us. We to Americanize our religion and what we believe. So that we hid our sin, and we say it really is ok. We think it's ok because we're comparing it to this world. When really we should be comparing ourselves to Jesus. We need to go to the light in order to find the darkness in our lives, not go to the dark hoping it will reveal what the problem is. If we continue to go to the dark we'll come back feeling like we did nothing wrong, and still have an emptiness inside of us.

So in conclusion we need to first get rid of the obvious, then begin to rake, then take care of it. Go to what is biblically right, not what the world says is right.

God Bless,
Ashley

p.s.- sorry momma for saying poop so many times :) love you

Friday, November 28, 2008

Things I Am Thankful For

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Presents...

Robert & I made our first attempt at Christmas Shopping today--I know, some of you have been shopping since July--okay maybe even since holiday sales last year--but I'm just not that type of girl. I bought a present for River in March for a shower that would be held in August and a present for Heather in June for when River was going to be born in October and when both August and October came around it took me three days to find both of those presents on two different accounts....granted we did move in the middle of that time frame, but still. All that to say, if I bought Christmas presents ahead of time, most people would not be getting presents until they were discovered again....which would probably be months after Christmas....can we say birthday presents?

So Robert and I have been having the discussion of what to do when we have kids---and let me just put the baby rumor to rest right now....we are in no way ready to have kids. Yes, we love River (and love blogging about him!!!!) and do all that we can do to get a glimpse of this little man (we got a glimpse today--be looking for pictures!), but we will not be having children anytime soon. We can't even agree right now on having a puppy--so kids, not so much...okay, all that said, we are still having this discussion because I think it is important for us to decide--or at least be discussing--these types of things now. We've been asking our believing friends and relatives--do you do Santa? Do you not do Santa? How do you not do Santa and not have that kid in his class that ruins it for all the other children???? These are the type of questions that run through my mind? In my friends blog she talks about the tradition of giving their kids 3 presents each--for each wise man. That's an interesting concept--one we might just use.

My same friend has two little girls and she recently wrote a blog asking for advice on this topic. To see her full blog on this and to read about the three wise men tradition, click here. In this blog she put a piece in from the blog she had written the year before and it's especially what I want to share with you, so I hope she doesn't mind that I'm about to cut and paste! Thanks Randel!

Here are her thoughts:

here's an excerpt from a blog i wrote last december:

the national retail federation estimates that americans spent 457.4 BILLION DOLLARS at christmas in 2006. just 10 of those billion if put towards bringing clean water across the globe would solve the water crisis. 18 of those billion would bring food to every hungry child and adult on the planet. can you imagine if we began to look outside of ourselves during this season? what if we gave sacrificially to those truly in need, to show the love of jesus to those who are the least of these in our communities and around the world?

here's an excerpt from the website adventconspiracy.org:
"part of saying "yes" to Jesus means that we say "no" to over-spending. we say "no" to overconsumption. we say "no" to those things so we can create space to say "yes" to jesus and his reign in our lives. after the holidays we work for months to get out of debt, only to find that the presents we bought in the name of Christ furthered a consumerist mentality in us and our children and took our focus off of the greatness of Jesus. as Christ-followers, the advent conspiracy starts with us resisting a culture that tells us what to buy, wear and spend with no regard to bringing glory to jesus."

So what do you do? We would love to hear your thoughts on presents and shopping and what you do for your kids and for the kids out there--what your parents did for you--did you feel deprived if you didn't have Santa?--we can use all the advice out there! We can't wait to hear back from all of you!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Yummy Tomato Soup

So I am not a tomato fan--well I like ketchup and I like raw tomatoes...but stewed tomatoes, I could do with out. I was not a fan of tomato soup growing up--unless mom cut up hot dogs and put them in the soup (Robert thinks the thought of this is gross--I thought this was a common thing--hmmmm, let us know what you think!)

Awhile back I discovered the most amazing Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese at our favorite little cafe in the SAV, the Soho Cafe. Now I'm not one for Tomato Soup or grilled cheese, but man we've been missing it since we moved.

So we have been on a hunt for some good Tomato Soup. V8 makes a Tomato Herb that's not that bad--but we found a recipe on Rachel Rays blog about the time we were searching for a good recipe....I made it for a cold Saturday while we were watching some good ole Georgia Football (well it was the Auburn game and in that few hours I decided my heart really couldn't handle football....) but the soup was YUMMY!!!

Here's Rachels recipe:

In a big pot, I sauteed 1/2 of a chopped large yellow onion and one clove smashed garlic until translucent. Then I added 1 16 ounce can of crushed tomatoes, a handful of fresh basil, a teaspoon of dried dill, lots of black pepper and a few shakes of salt. You could add a cup of broth or water, but I added low-fat milk. I cooked this for a few minutes, let it cool a bit, then stuck it in the blender and pureed the mixture. Then, to give it a rich flavor, I added 2 tablespoons of sour cream and mixed it up.

**Okay, so of course I have to put my own twist on things--I could not find a 16 oz. can of crushed tomatoes---so I got the smallest can--which resulted in me doubling the entire recipe. The tomatoes was the only thing I had to buy--I had everything else in the pantry--which means I used dried basil--but I'm sure the fresh is better--but it worked for us! We used skim milk. Then I had a parmesan blend of cheeses and some croutons that I threw on top! It was good!!!! Not perfect like Soho's, but the closest we've gotten so far. Does anyone else have a tomato soup recipe they want to pass along? :)

Monday, November 24, 2008

On the road again...

We (me, Robert and Abigail--which reminds me, mom is it okay if we bring home abigail??) are heading to the Hill for Turkey Day tomorrow--comment back and let us know how you are spending this special holiday! :)

Oh, and in case any of you were wondering how Abigail has been doing with the transition--we really thought she was in a state of depression for awhile there--but as of last night--this is how she looked--

She has officially taken the main chair in the house as her own...so we'd love to hear back from you in our comment section! Let us know how you are spending this holiday---and let us know if your pets go with you! :)

Sunday, November 23, 2008

A Beautiful Bride

As promised--here are pictures from this past weekend. Marynan made a beautiful bride!! Todd was handsome too! And I'm excited to have a new brother in law!

McMom and her girls at the Bridal Luncheon

Special delivery of a wedding present to Todd from Marynan!

The flowers arrived!

Isn't she beautiful!

She's officially Mrs. Todd Younts!

Congratulations Todd & Marynan! Robert & I are so incredibly excited for the two of you. It is obvious that you are marked by Jesus to bring glory to His Name and bring His Kingdom to this earth. We love you so much! Thank you for letting us be apart of your special day!

Saturday, November 22, 2008

All about a marriage...

Robert & I have spent the last few days in Perry as his sister, Marynan, got married today. We will update soon with a blog and pictures, but as promised--today is a "Saturdays with Ashley" kinda day--and she appropriately wrote about THE Marriage...so here you go...enjoy....

______

Well my roommate has recently decided to get dreadlocks. When she told me what I thought, I was all in, I think they look cool. So after a week of not washing her hair we are finally to the dreadlock stage. She went over to one of our friend’s house who knows how to do dreadlocks. She came back about four hours later; honestly I was really excited to see how they turned out. She comes into my room with half of her hair in dreads and the ones she had just looked like frizzy sticks of hair and they were sticking out to the side. Well only half of her hair was in dreads because they ran out of time, and the other half looked so bad because apparently that’s what they’re going to look like for the first few weeks and then they won’t even fully lock for three months. My response was just wow that stinks, because honestly it just looks like someone teased her hair and tied a few rubber bands in along with it.

So why am I tell you about my roommate's dreadlocks? Good question. Now I know all of you may not agree (including my mom) with the statement I'm about to make.....dreadlocks look really good when they're fully done. Ok I said it, whew that wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Now I want you to have that mindset when reading this email, even if you don't agree just pretend for this email's sake that dreadlocks look really good when they're done. Many of you know that this module I'm taking Song of Solomon which has been absolutely amazing. They have taken the book and shown us how we are the bride and Jesus is the bridegroom (this is NOT a physical thing it's spiritual we are not going to be marrying Jesus in the physical sense). So our main objective and goal in life is to become wholehearted lovers, fulfilling the first commandment. Not only is Jesus our reward, but we are His inheritance and believe it or not He is really excited about receiving us as His inheritance. Throughout the Song you see as the bride (us) first is really focused on her inheritance in Jesus, but then she shifts that focus to Jesus' inheritance in her. This makes her strive to be a wholehearted lover. The verse about being equally yoked doesn't just apply to our relationships on earth, but also to our relationship with Jesus. He longs for a bride that will be equally yoked to Him in love. Through this journey in Song of Songs this is what Jesus is bringing the maiden (us) into, full mature love.

So what does full mature love have in common with dreadlocks? Everything! Ok, you're right not everything but enough to make a good point. Just as we are striving to become mature lovers, my roommate is trying to get these dreadlocks. However at first it doesn't look like we expected. Instead it looks like a big mess, we mess up, we give ourselves to other lovers (things of this world), and no matter how hard we're trying it feels like we're just running in circles. We feel like we aren't even close to being wholehearted lovers. We expect to put ourselves in a microwave and BAM three minutes later tada we are whole hearted lovers! Well just like the dreads it doesn't really work like that, it is going to take some time. For a long time (more than three months) we're going to be a mess trying to figure out how to even love this God-man.

Want to know what keeps the maiden going in the story? The same thing that is making my roommate keep her dreads in, she knows in the end what it's going to look like. Throughout the whole story Jesus keeps reaffirming her. He tells her she has doves eyes (doves can only look straight ahead they can't look to the sides so she is only looking at Him). I could give a lot of examples about how He keep affirming her, but that would be another email all together so I just picked my favorite :). Even though the maiden keeps messing up and rejects His leadership at various parts in the story, He still looks at her and sees beauty. This is because Jesus sees the end result, He doesn't just look at the mistakes we made today, He is looking at the big picture. Even though we mess up He sees that our hearts are set on loving Him, and He loves that. He knows that one day we will be mature lovers, so He continues to speak life over us and encourage us along the way.

Don't mistake your immaturity for failure, Jesus knows exactly where you are and He isn't going to expect too much out of you. Everything He does is to mature you into being a wholehearted lover. We just have to remember that it's a process, we need to keep striving and set our eyes on the goal. With a sincere heart for HIm, we have already ravished His heart. To think that He can look at the stars at night, the sunset, the sunrise, the ocean, the mountains, and every season the world goes through, yet none of that fascinates HIm. The one thing that really stirs His heart and the one thing that He sees as beautiful, is you. You are the one that has stolen His heart. He longs to be equally yoked with you, and for you to walk into this role of being a wholehearted lover. Just remember your "dreads" are going to look like a mess for a long time, but in the end they're going to look really good. It's a process.

God Bless
Ashley

Friday, November 21, 2008

Daily Devotion

CBN picked up another one our friends writings. Please click on link below for an encouraging word from the Lord today.

Crawling Through The Cracks

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Lisa Lyle's Yummy Grits

This morning I had a most amazing brunch with my Intercessor ladies to celebrate all that we are thankful for and I signed up to bring a grits casserole! If you only knew how much joy was brought to my life when I saw the sign up sheet and there was a line open for a grits casserole--oh I could hear Lisa Lyle's giggle! She'd be so proud, I know!

You see, of course there is a story behind it. During my years at RHUMC my dear friend would make these grits for me whenever there was a special occasion--but especially for the special occasions in my life--from birthdays to wedding shower--she always had a way of making me smile! I never asked for the recipe as I always just referred to them as Lisa Lyle's yummy grits. Well, then the Lord moves us and I lasted about 2 weeks before I was emailing her asking her for the recipe...I even asked if they had a bet going on how long it would take for me to ask for them! Well once I saw what was in these grits, I almost died--but I promise they are well worth the calories! :)

Well at our brunch, I had many requests for the recipe, so I thought I would share it with all of you out there! Here we go...with her notes that she passed on to me--I now pass on to you...(even if you aren't going to make them now--scroll down and read my oops rendition on the bottom!)

Lisa Lyle's Yummy Grits (I don't know if they ever had a name, but this is what I call them).

1-1/4 cups water
2 cups half & half
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup quick cooking grits
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon butter
1/3 cup diced green onions - I rarely put these in
4 ounces processed cheddar cheese, cubed (suggested: Velveeta)
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
2 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 (10-ounce) can diced tomatoes and green chilies (suggested: Ro-Tel)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a saucepan, bring the water and 1/2 & 1/2 to a boil. Add the salt and slowly add the grits and return to a boil, stirring constantly for 1 minute. While stirring the grits add the 1/2 cup of butter and stir until butter is melted. Reduce the heat, cover and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the grits are thick and creamy. Remove from heat and set aside. Using a skillet, saute the onions in the remaining tablespoon of butter for 1 minute. (only if you want to add onions) Add the processed cheese, garlic powder, 1 1/2 cups cheddar, and onions to grits, and stir until the cheese is melted. Add the tomatoes and mix well. Pour the grits into a greased 9" x 11" glass casserole pan and bake for 40 minutes. Sprinkle remaining 1 cup cheese over the casserole for the last 5 minutes of cooking time.

**My oops rendition this morning: So my most wonderful hubby made the comment that I always make this dish when I'm going somewhere and I never make it for him. Well this recipe makes a pretty big dish--way too much for the two of us...so while I was making one for the brunch this morning I was trying to do the math in my head of cutting everything in half and making him a smaller dish of the grits. All went well until the cheddar cheese came in and I didn't read the part that said put in 1 1/2 cups of cheddar cheese--saving the other cup for later...so all 2 1/2 cups went in---ooppsss!!!! So....I added an extra 1/2 can of rotel tomatoes (left over from the batch I was making hubby) and dumped it in to my big pot to try to counteract how cheesy my grits just got (I'm letting you see how my brain works--I'm sure there are many other ways to fix this and I just don't know them!) and didn't put any cheese on the top...I was told at the brunch today that you can never put in too much cheese---so I guess they turned out okay! :)

Okay, enjoy and by the way--I don't put in the green onions either! :)

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Paper Fight

So I realized that I type lots of serious blogs--especially when it comes to our Student Ministry--so I just thought I'd share this video with you--it's from Sunday morning in our Youth Room with our Middle School Ministry...I'm pretty sure the girls won! :).... enjoy! :)

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

October Recap

It's November 18th--and I'm just now blogging about October! How's that for timely!? When we first moved up here, August and September were nice slow months allowing us to get into the swing of things--which we are completely grateful for! October came and bam we were on the go!

So many things happened during October that I wanted to blog about, but never got the chance to. So--here we go!

October started off with a trip to Savannah to celebrate two of my youth from my first year in ministry getting married to each other! How exciting! The Sheehan family is very special to Robert & I. This is the family that Robert lived with during the summers when he was working with the youth. We love them dearly!

Stopping by the beautiful Bride & Grooms table to say hello!

With McMom & McDad (The McLendon parents!)

Robert & Little Sheehan! Very handsome!

Me & Mama Sheehan! She's beautiful!

Me & one of my Berry's:

Robert & Stephen...I'm excited, are you excited, cause I'm excited!

While in the Hill, we were also able to visit some of our old stomping grounds--we visited Bouhan, Williams and Levy--the amazing law firm that Robert worked for while he was in Savannah. We had lunch at our absolute favorite little cafe, Soho South Cafe, then we headed out to FlightSafety International which is where I spent my summer, Christmas and spring breaks during my college years. Many of these women came to our wedding to celebrate our special day. They are such a blessing in my life and Robert had never met them--so we went out to make the official introduction. I was 17 when I started working there. I think I gave them a heart attack when I told them how old I was about to be!

We also got to visit with my dear friend Heidi. Oh, how I love this woman and love sitting over a cup of coffee and talking about Jesus! We also got to spend some time with Heather and Jason before they became parents!!!!

Upon returning home Sunday evening, we got the phone call that Heather was in labor and River was on his way!!! I did post about this event, so to see those events click here and here. I just posted his 6 week check in, so don't miss that post below! :)

As you know, the next weekend was Fall Retreat. This was mine and Roberts first official event with RiverStone Student Ministry and it was absolutely amazing! I've already posted a few videos, so if you haven't seen them yet click here or here or for the professional video, click here.

Here are some pics of the Lord's creation! I don't have a copy of our group pic--but if you watch the professional video--you'll see it in the middle! :)

The bus carrying the kids through the mountains!

The following week we had a few visits from some of our favorite people!

Tim, Robert & Andrew @ The Real Chow Baby

Notice Brian Winter on the far right--one of our girls won Homecoming Queen! Yay Kathy! It was a beautiful picture of Jesus picking His Queen!

On that Saturday--Robert and I randomly decided to take a day road trip! One of my favorite things about us is our ability to just get up and go. The road trip ended up putting us in Chattanooga, Tennessee--which I think is going to need to be a new post all in itself because this one is getting too long!

Monday, October 20th was my birthday--and I believe to be the longest day in my life. I went on a road trip with my pastor Tom and Cory, we left at 5:30am and we went to St. Simons Island for three days for a conference for Youth Pastors hosted by the Gathering Place. I was involved in this ministry while at RHUMC and it was a huge blessing to be able to go back! We went early, so that was how I got to spend those couple of hours in Richmond Hill that I mentioned in our last post!

Beautiful St. Simons Island:

Tom eating some bday cookie cake!

The next weekend, we had a SOZO conference at RiverStone Church. A team came out from Bethel Church in Redding, California. Absolutely amazing! I strongly encourage each of you to click on the link of SOZO, but basically SOZO is the Greek word for Saved, Healed, Delivered. Don't worry--the whole week the team was here I was walking around the office singing Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm yours...but on a serious note it was incredible ministry time for me. I got some personal ministry time that was really, really good! There is a 6 month waiting list to get "sozo'd" by the Bethel Team, but when our church brought out this team for the conference, they brought them in early and it was "required" for the staff to get sozo'd and our spouses! Incredible! I received lots of prayer regarding the Summer of 2007 with our bus accident which was greatly needed amongst lots of other things the Lord wanted to redeem in my life! When you get a chance, look it up! Also, during this weekend, our dear friend Kelli McCalla came to stay with us! Here's a pic of her and Robert being goofy with my spices! (Kelli is the one who wrote the song that's on the "bus accident" post linked above).

To close out our October, or should I say start our November, we had a special guest! Amelia came to stay with us as she's a dear friend of mine from RH that is now a Freshman at UGA. Oh how refreshing it was to have her in our home!

Here are some pics we took down on the Marietta Square!

And that's it folks! Thanks for being apart of our lives!

Kristin McLendon