Our 2017 So Far - January

Here are a few pics to show how our 2017 is going so far. 

Jack sent us this picture of William, after he said, "Look, I'm Rebekah!"  (Look at the bracelets.)

Lydia got to drink out of the fancy glasses.

Lydia started taking guitar lessons.

I made some hats for Mary Clementine and Poppy at church.

Facebook funnies:

I made this little hat for Millie, the granddaughter of a lady at church.

Lydia's "non-messy bun." 

So, a few months ago, we had someone register for a trip to Haiti as "Lion of Peace."  David wasn't even sure how to handle that situation.  We were dealing with a lot of cultural issues with different churches, and David was trying to handle it delicately.  

And then, we get these two applications, and David's stomach dropped.  What was he going to have to deal with this time?  

Cub of Courage, and Wolf of Wisdom. Then we saw the last name!  Martin Bennett was pulling a fast one on us!!

A little throw back to my art work of New Kids on the Block.

David and Bekah being funny, making a note of when I said I liked one of David's ideas. LOL.

Helping the Rojases finish a puzzle at small group.

Got back into my prom dress from junior prom.

Fixing Up the House

We've been doing some improvements around the house.  Here's some of what we did in Lydia's room.  We put up some of her artwork, and we added some artwork to the wall.

Next up, we've done some improvements in the kitchen.  David bought me some flooring for Christmas to replace the linoleum, but I thought we should probably go ahead and repaint the walls, since we were going to have to move everything out of the kitchen anyway.  And I didn't want to get any paint on the new floors. 

So while David was in Haiti, we decided to tackle the project.  Moving the bookshelf yielded this lovely find.  Yuck!

This was the most intimidating part...all the wires connect to the computer!!

We moved everything into the living room, and then taped off the kitchen for a fresh coat of paint.

Once we got the painting done, David put up this cool map in the kitchen.

And then it was time for the new flooring!  I love it!

Here are some before and after shots.

I love the new look!

Rebekah's PSAT results

Rebekah's PSAT results came in.  She scored a composite of 1060.  

Not too shabby!!  Our smart girl!!

Celebrating Shane's Birthday

Tonight, we got to celebrate David's best friend, Shane, for his birthday.  

Somehow, we got into a special box at the Predators game, so we enjoyed being fancy for the evening...even though I know very little about hockey.  LOL

Staff Summit-Enneagram Training

This weekend, the church had a staff summit.  I thought it was just going to be a time to get together to plan for the year, but instead, it was an intensive workshop about the Enneagram. 

 

The Enneagram is an ancient personality typing system that was originally passed down orally and has now been studied in numerous cultures. 

 

The gist of it is that there are nine basic personality types. These are diagrammed in an enneagram (ennea = 9 + gram = graph) in a circle. Your dominant type is your Enneagram number.  You can be affected by the type/number on either side of your number.  Also, in times of stress or times of security, you can jump across the circle and behave like another number.  It's similar to Myers-Briggs, but with more flexibility.  It recognizes that you behave differently in different situations. 

 

 

Each number is in a triad.  Eight, Nine, and One are in the Gut Triad.  Two, Three, and Four are in the Feeling Triad, and Five, Six, and Seven are in the Thinking Triad. 

 

There are online tests which may or may not be helpful.  It depends a lot on your self-awareness.  Using the test as a guide, you can research where you scored the highest and see if that description fits you.  Teri Murphy, who led the training for us, said that if it makes you laugh and cringe, then it's probably your number.

 

David took the test and scored evenly across all the numbers. 

 

I took the test and scored highest in 1 and 2

 

After reviewing the different descriptions of each type, I believe I am a 1.  This is the Reformer, or Perfectionist. I also scored high for type 2, the Helper.  This means I'm a One wing Two (1w2). 

 

The Enneagram is about motivations.  Actions might be the same for different numbers, but the motivation is different.  For Ones, the motivation is to be right.  This type can be critical and judgmental, but is also going to be principles, always following the rules, and have attention to detail. 

 

Each type has a vice and a virtue.  The vice for Ones is Anger (Resentment).  The Virtue is Serenity (Accept others as they are).  The Fear is being bad, defective, evil, corrupt, or irresponsible.  The primary focus of attention is seeing error to reform and improve.  The core desire is to have integrity, balance, to be virtuous and ethical.

 

If you look at the lines coming from the One, it shows where my personality jumps in times of stress or security.  When stressed, I jump to Four-The Individualist/Artist, which is introspective, self-revealing, temperamental.  When secure, I jump to Seven-The Enthusiast, which is spontaneous and fun-loving.

 

Since David scored evening across all the numbers, we aren't sure what his number is, but Teri seemed to believe it was Nine - The Peacemaker.  I can totally see this for him.  In times of stress, a Nine jumps to a 6, which is a worst case scenario type of thinker (something he does on mission trips).  In times of security, a Nine jumps to Three - The Achiever.

 

It looks like Lydia is definitely an 8 (Leader/Challenger), and I'm not sure about Rebekah.  I think she might be a One like me, but she might also be a Five (Observer/Thinker).

 Here's our group that was there for the training: David, me, Kim Wascom (worship leader-3), Rebekah Boyd (children's pastor-3), James Boyd (community pastor-1), Teri Murphy, the instructor, Darren Tyler (lead pastor-5), Shannon (events/facilities-2), Amy Roberts (bookkeeper-1), Mo (associate pastor-6), Donna Henderson (youth pastor's wife-1), Jeremy Hezlep (worship pastor-9w1), Jim Henderson (youth pastor-9w8). 

 

This helps us understand the staff so much better so that we can all work together better.  This whole thing fascinates me.  I can't wait to read the book we got about it - The Road Back to You. 

New Chapter

Lunch Bunch Hang Out with Josh

Rebekah's friend, Josh, has been back and forth to Guatemala, and the old friend group got to get together to hang out with him some today.

Rebekah, Caitlin, Derrick, Josh in the back, along with two friends (I can't remember their names) and Garret.  In the front is Summer, Chase, and Lauren.

DNA Reports from 23andMe-Jayna

I got David a DNA kit from 23 and Me for Christmas.  And I got one for myself as well.  We wanted to see if they were pretty similar to the ones from Ancestry.com.

The app for this is pretty easy to use and we are enjoying using it.

Turns out I'm 99.6% European, and I can see the British and Irish (Napier, Stewart) along with the German (Bess) that I've already identified in my genealogy research.

And a little bit African and little bit Jewish...which also lines up with my genealogy research. =)

 

Mischief