Saturday, August 23, 2008

new porch furniture...

Oh, it pains me to see the date of my last post, but it is what it is. I've had the best of intentions to get this post up before now. But well...ya'll know by now how my posting patterns run -- those that read this blog regularly (God bless ya!). So here it is, 20 days later.

My post today comes so late because I find myself in a different job for the first time in 6 1/2 years. For those last 6 1/2 years, I've been in the accounting industry, working in 2 accounting firms (first with PP&C and then with RSM McGladrey when they bought the Wilmington PP&C group out), doing primarily bookkeeping and payroll and some tax preparation (just in this last tax season). But in the last few months, God has been moving my heart toward more creative venues: working with photos and video software, web design, blogging, etc. (i.e. lots of projects!) and I found myself becoming frustrated with the lack of creative outlet that my job allowed. This was all unbeknownst to me at this point: it just came across to me as an unsettled, kind of "burned out" feeling toward my job. I was still enjoying what I did, but just not as satisfied as I once was.

I won't go into a lot of detail here (because there are A LOT of details which just go to show how amazing my God is and how He works everything to the good of those who love Him), but I was approached by one of my pastors at my church in Wilmington to consider & pray about becoming the new Worship Assistant, working with our Worship (aka Music) Pastor in the worship ministry. Over the course of the next month, meetings were held, things were discussed, there was a lot of prayer going up and at the end of the month, I found myself hired as the new Worship Assistant and resigning from my position at RSM McGladrey.

It's been 3 weeks since I began my new job and I.am.loving.it. I actually kinda feel like I'm on "vacation" just in comparison with my other job but don't get me wrong: David keeps me incredibly busy! He has such a vision for the worship ministry at SHBC and has been looking for someone with the skills & capabilities (and the TIME) to help him get to that place. We get along great and the other ladies (& men) in the church office are absolutely wonderful to work with. God has me right where He wants me...and that's where I want to be. :)

So that is the reason I really haven't gotten around to this post yet. But here I am. I wanted to show you the new furniture Jeff got me (us) for our front porch. When we moved in, we had some plastic gray adirondack chairs out on the front porch and that was sufficient for awhile. We both have been observing what everyone else had on their porches, just gathering ideas for what we wanted. I came home a few weeks ago and there was a brand new set of 2 chairs and a table on our porch! It was dark by the time I had gotten home so I flipped on the light to see them. They were really pretty. But then the next day when I saw them in the daylight, they were even prettier!

I just love how the burnt orange-ish red color looks against the blue of our house and I really have been gravitating toward dark colors for furniture lately (that used to not be the case -- I was natural wood all the way). The table is great & even has a little basket underneath to store some things. And if all that wasn't enough, the chairs are really comfortable to sit in! I love it when you don't have to sacrifice comfort for style. Jeff did really good picking these out -- he didn't run it by me or have me look at it at all before he made his purchase. Aaaaand, he got this set on clearance. I've said it before and I'll say it again: he's a keeper! :D

Sunday, August 3, 2008

bookcases...

Okay, I'm giving you guys a first glimpse into the master bedroom. For a long time, our bedroom was a sort of "catchall" and I'm not saying it's changed a whole lot, but it's starting to slowly evolve. Jeff picked up some bookcases (for free!) after I mentioned that the one bookcase in the guest bedroom wasn't gonna cut it for all the books I have (and will be purchasing in the future...). Of course, I really want him to BUILD me some bookcases (or at least one, for pete's sake!), but I don't know when that will be. I wanted to get these boxes of books unpacked to 1) see what kind of shape the books were in after being in the storage unit for awhile, and 2) to get the boxes out of the house and tidy up the guest bedroom. Mission accomplished on both accounts!

Jeff got these 2 bookcases of varying heights at Staples, I believe, when they were remodeling their print shop in the store. He just happened to be in the right place at the right time! They're not perfect but they were free and are a nice color for our bedroom. I was able to unload all of the books I had between the 3 bookcases and I still have "room to grow". I love to read and have about 4 favorite authors -- I'm planning to own most every book they write. Then I have other authors that I've read specific books by that I might want to read again some day so I keep those. I'm planning to have a pretty extensive library so I will need lots of space to store those books. I love nothing more than loaning out books to friends/family who are looking for something good to read. Jeff is a good sport about it. :)