V. Joy Palmer: Bouncing/Running/Jogging from Here to There and Everywhere

Hello everyone! I hope life's been good for you since the last time we visited. :)

I've been good. Life has been busy. We are bouncing/running/jogging from one family or church event to another. But who isn't?

The kick off to my busy week.

Her.

This seemingly lovely and innocent cat, decided to eat the tinsel off my Christmas tree. (Maybe that is the reason we don't decorate early!) How do I know this? I saw her doing it, but like any sensible person, I drove her away.

Then I didn't give it any more thought.

Until later.

When my cat tried to use the litter box.

Only she couldn't...properly...go...

I will spare you descriptive details. However, upon her realization, she freaked out and ran around the house like her tail was on fire.

Getting stuff everywhere. Including all over herself. My husband had to hold her down while I whiped her off with a wet rag, which I thought was going to send her into another round of hysterics. Oddly, it did not. She liked it! I think she thought we were grooming her, because she started purring and nuzzling into my husband.

This past Sunday at youth group was just hysterical! We have a great group of kids and teens, and they are so much fun to be around. The youth pastor, my Aunt Rie and the leader I defer to in the youth group, found this awesome new game. If you thought you had trouble remembering someone's name before, play this game!

Everyone sits in a circle, but there are four chairs in a line on one side. There is one random empty chair in the circle, and you are either on team 1 or team 2. Everyone sits every other - 1, 2, 1, 2. Everyone writes their name on a piece of paper, tosses it into a bowl, and then draws out a piece of paper (Not yourself!). The object of the game is to get four people from one of the two teams in the four seats at the front. You do this by calling out names. If the empty seat was to your right, you were the caller. Instead of answering to your own name, you move when the name on your paper is called. The person whose name is called takes the empty seat, and it continues like that until a team wins.

Confused yet? We sure were! It was a lot of fun, though! You had to plot, plan, and remember everyone's fake name!

My husband taught the lesson this week at youth group, and not to brag or anything (okay, maybe a little...) I thought he did such an amazing job! His lesson was based off of a blog he did recently on Snack Time Devotions. It was about constructive criticism, and how we can sometimes take that to mean we are a terrible human being. He used Cain and Able as an example of taking that criticism the worst possible way. If you'd like to read his blog, here's the link: http://www.snacktimedevotions.blogspot.com/2014/11/constructive-criticism.html

This Monday, I had a nice long lunch with my Aunt Rie, my cousin Teal, and our missionary friend to the UK, Kenny MacKay.

From left to right: Teal, Me, Kenny, Rie

We had fun. We talked and laughed for a long time. The waitress was probably furious that we were there so long. Kenny, Teal, and I were actually all in youth group at the same time, and Rie was our youth pastor. Now, we are all involved in youth ministry, and Rie is still a youth pastor. :)

Plus, I got to order my bubble green tea, which to my knowledge, is only available at the Ninety-Nine Restaurant.

It's green tea with these little exploding mango balls. It's amazing and refreshing. Go try one. But be forewarned that my friend Kenny thought it tasted like shampoo.

Why he would know what shampoo tastes like is what we are still trying to figure out.

As I mentioned, Kenny is a missionary to the UK. If you are interested in missions, you should follow them on Facebook, under KennyandJenniferMacKay. There you can learn all about their ministry and sign up for their newsletters.

At a recent Bible study, my pastor briefly touched on fasting, and how important it is for Christians.

Let me tell you right now. I fully support the concept of fasting. I believe it is very important, and like my pastor pointed out, if you look through the New Testament, it's all over the place.

It's the execution of fasting that I have a problem with.

All I could think was "Fasting: Time with God, or the makings of a homicide?"

I get cranky when I don't eat.

Like the Hulk.

But this topic got me thinking about fasting a little more in depth. The point of fasting (at least in my mind) was that set-apart time with God.

In today's culture, there are a ton of things that we could "fast." If someone watches 24 hours of television during a week, then what would happen if they took one of those days to spend set-apart time with God?

I'm going out on a limb here, but I think awesome stuff.

Anyways. That's just one of my many musing this week. If you want to read more about my thoughts on this, head over to http://www.snacktimedevotions.blogspot.com/2014/11/reset-to-god.html

Lately, I've been reading The Covered Deep by Brandy Vallance.

This is a great book! I had the opportunity to meet Brandy briefly at the American Christian Fiction Writers Conference this past September where she gave me a copy of her book.

I won't give any spoilers, but if you like whimsy, romance, and history, then this is the book for you! The story line was truly unique with a classic type of romance. The settings were vivid and magical. The kinds of settings where you could imagine a romantic dinner party, but knew it would never be done in that type of historical setting because it just wasn't proper.

And then Brandy delivers just that!

Terrific book. Watch this author. She's new and she's going to do great things!

Speaking of authors and stories...

I wanted to give you guys a glimpse into the story I am currently writing.

You guys remember that I am a major Gilmore Girls fan, right? Well, one of the characters I am getting to know is like the Christian version of Paris Geller.

Seems like a major oxymoron, right?

Sometimes when you're reading a book, you think, "For crying out loud, get your act together! What is wrong with you? No one would make that dumb mistake. I never would!"

Well, the thing is...we do make those dumb mistakes. We make them all the time. In order for us to learn from the characters we are meeting, they have to be just like us. Including all of our fabulous flaws.

The character I am working with right now, is a little self-righteous. She can be stuck-up, snotty, and rude. She's the one who always got good grades, was dependable, and the ultimate power house.

But like all of us, she's got a past.

Getting to know this character has been so much fun! She's going to do a lot of growing before her story is over, and there is plenty of room for her to grow!

I don't want to give too much away, too soon. So stay tuned!

I hope all of you have an awesome Thanksgiving! God bless you!