1. I like demolition.  PB and I have been working on a house project this month, with the help of some good friends.  With a lot of help.  From some very good friends.  It included 40 pound sledgehammers and pulling up 3.7 million screws and a dumpster filled to the brim with our blood, sweat and tears.  I loved it.  I felt like I was on an HGTV show.  Busting stuff up and getting filthy dirty was great fun.

2. I’m a journal junkie. At present, I have seven journals on my desk.  One leather bound journal for, well, journaling.  One small bound book that is a five-year/one-sentence-a-day volume.  One that keeps a list of books I’ve read for the past eleven years. Another that is titled “Pretty Good Ideas”. Then there is a spiral notebook for brain dumping, another for taking notes on podcasts and sermons, and yet another for writing reflections on scripture reading.  Oh, and one more that I use for copying down excerpts from books.  Make that eight journals.  Last week I stumbled onto something called the “bullet journal” so now I am chomping at the bit to start October so I can roll out number nine.

3. Gardening is not my strong suit, but I do like digging in the dirt.  When we moved to a new place years ago, I had a hard time adjusting.  When spring rolled around, I told a friend that it finally started to feel like home when I started digging in the dirt.  She laughed and said, “You old farmer, you.”  My thumb is not green and I can’t keep a houseplant alive, but this month I’ve pulled some weeds and took pleasure in the feel of dirt in my hands.

4. Podcasts are fun to listen to, but lots of work to create.  Our church started producing a weekly podcast with updates, announcements, sermon recaps, family devotions, etc.  It helps to have a super talented technological wizard doing all the heavy lifting.  All I have to do is push record and try to talk naturally into a microphone in an empty room.  It’s harder than you’d think.

5. Live theater makes me happy.  PB and I went to see “Newsies” this month and we’ve been seizing the day ever since.  I always leave musicals wishing I had stuck with dance lessons.  Alas, when I was five, I refused to go on stage in my tutu.  My mother walked me around the parking lot and tried to talk me into performing, but I was a no-go.  Hence, the end of my dance career.

6. Nobody’s favorite Bible verse is from the book of Nahum.  I’ve been reading through the Old Testament minor prophets this month and it’s a hard read.  Bless the people who are called to pronounce impending judgment on nations.  Bless the nations who heed the warnings.

7. September is my new favorite month.  Summertime has always been my season of choice, but this year September was spectacular.  Bring on the sweatshirts and flannel jammies.

8. I’m willing to be a fool for Christ.  Every Sunday morning we do some silly theatrics for the K-5th grade Sunday school classes.  So far I have 1) mixed a Super Hero concoction of chocolate syrup, maple syrup and cough syrup and drank it, 2) pretended I couldn’t lift a five pound weight, and 3) swallowed a packet of hot sauce.  Anything to get kids excited to come to church.

9. After observing Jesus’ habit of going outside to pray, our Bible study ladies were given an assignment to take a prayer walk.  I get it.  It was so much easier to praise God when I wasn’t distracted by the dust on my table or the streaks on my windows.  My confidence in God’s ability to hold the world together, including me, soared.  Getting out into big beautiful nature put my problems in perspective.

10. I am not prolific.  I wish I could pound out blog posts like nobody’s business.  I just can’t figure out how these people blog every day.  But then I remembered that I’m ghost writing for another blog, creating content for the new podcast, putting together a 12 week Bible study and trying to keep up with my eight journals. Make that nine journals starting tomorrow.  Bring on October!