[h/t:pinkhairedgirl]

Hi there.  I know it must seem strange to read something from me after not hearing from me for so long.  I can’t tell you how strange it feels to me.  As the time has stretched on from when I last wrote, I’ve felt more and more uncomfortable writing to you.  It’s like our friendship was fractured and I don’t know why.  So please forgive my silence, and know that I have thought about you nearly every single day.  I didn’t intend to stay away this long and I certainly didn’t intend to leave you in the grip of a conversation about facial hair.  Thank you for hanging in there during what has become a surprisingly provocative, yet frothy debate.

I love you.  And I’m back.

Kim

This made me laugh out loud.  This would be the EXACT picture inside my head over the past couple of weeks… in the ‘work’ category… as our church has walked through a major transition in our weekend worship services.  

There seems to be a strange absence of the ‘family’ category.  Which hopefully just means wordle pulled from the most recent posts. Or something.  Or possibly I don’t post everything that’s in my head regarding my family.   That must be it.  It can’t possibly be that I’ve been too focused on work at the expense of my family.

Check out wordle and have some fun.  I’m going to turn my attention to my family, as much as I can, for the rest of this week.

(h/t: scottmagdalein)

This post is a part of Watercooler Wednesday.  Check it out!

Like most bloggy memes, a player (that would be me) answers the questions in the meme, and at the end of the post ‘tags’ a few people (that could be you) by name, also leaving a comment on their blogs to let them know they’ve been tagged, and that they should answer the questions within 79 hours lest they be victim to 12 years of bad luck.

(Just kidding about that last part. It just sounds so much like those chain letters from back in the day, doesn’t it?)

Anyway. Here are the questions passed on to me by pete:

What was I doing 10 years ago?
I was in a fog. I had been a mommy for 3 weeks. There was a bit of physical and emotional chaos. And quite a lot of watching a baby girl sleep, breathe, and be beautiful. I was on maternity leave from my job as a physical therapist at an agency that serves kids who have developmental delays. This was my favorite of the three jobs I had in my 7-year career as a physical therapist. I visited families in their homes, working with kids under three. It was a year and a half later (or 8 ½ years ago) that I left that job in response to an impression that God was calling me to be more available for ministry. Have now focused on ministry longer than I was in PT.

Five things on my to-do list today?
- get kids to school on time (check)
- go to Best Buy to look at printers (check)
- finish prep for tonight’s rehearsal (check)
- send out May worship team schedule (oops)
- play with my son (check)

5 (or so) places I have traveled?
- China (various cities, spent most time in Chengdu)
- Cancun, Mexico
- Edisto Island, South Carolina (last week!)
- 29 states and a couple Canadian provinces

5 snacks or treats I enjoy?
- dark chocolate
- soft cookies
- chips and salsa
- peanut butter & vanilla yogurt (oh just try it…)
- granola & plain yogurt

What would I do if I were a billionaire? This same question was asked recently by a high school student to a Q&A panel I was a part of. We all ended up agreeing that if we’re honest, we know we’d want to take care of our own debt, and that of our families. Beyond that…
- be a part of making it possible for my brother to do music full time if he wants to
- help make Kalein possible
- church planting in Thailand
- hire these guys to come and haul off a million things
- I have no idea

Five of my bad habits?
- letting the ‘to file’ stack grow to ridiculous proportions
- not exercising
- mindless eating
- staying up too late
- going for the ‘jab’ at somebody in conversation just to get a laugh.

Places I have lived?
- Bean Blossom, Indiana (yes, it’s a real place)
- Indianapolis, Indiana
- Goshen, Indiana
- Phoenix, Arizona
- Wichita, Kansas

Jobs I’ve had?
- general worker bee at locally owned hardware
- lifeguard
- office assistant
- painter (interior, residential)
- physical therapist
- worship leader

People I’d think should answer these questions (which is a nice way of saying you’ve been tagged!)
- Chris Vacher
- Cynthia Cullen
- Krysta Rinke
- Todd Ramsey
- Derek Nussbaum Wagler (this one is my other brother

big decisions and big questions

How I’m doing with balance.

Cute kid stuff and great kid quotes

Upcoming transition at my church

Two posts that might underwhelm you

Thanks for being here.

in case you missed it: kimbontrager.wordpress.com

so please change your subscriptions, or get one for the first time. I love having visitors and I love it even more when you interact with what I write. I will continue writing about family stuff, ministry stuff, worship stuff, and quite a lot of random stuff.

thanks for being here.

This week Compassion took about 15 bloggers to Uganda to write about the work being done there. I have been following some of these writers for a while, and love their perspective, wisdom, humor, and openness. There are stay-at-home moms in this group, musicians, photographers, graphic designers, business people…. people just like us. I met four of them at the re:create conference last week, and can tell you that they are open to wherever God leads through this trip.

There’s a link on my sidebar that links to the blogs as well as other info about Compassion. Or, go here for a complete list of bloggers on the Compassion site. These are the blogs that I’ve been reading for a while:

Anne JacksonCarlos Whittaker
Heather Whittaker
Shaun Groves
Sophie / Boomama
Randy Elrod

Consider spending some time reading, and journey with these writers as they attempt to describe unfathomable need, and amazing stories of God’s provision.

Maybe you’ll be inspired to participate.

But now I’m back. And all 12 of you are very relieved, I’m sure.

Despite all evidence to the contrary, I have kept a list of things I’d enjoy blogging about if I could take the time to do so. I’m not going to try to catch up with my list. So here, for your enjoyment, are the things I could have been writing about.

- Halloween….when kids dress in things that don’t look like costumes
- funny things my son has been saying
- what I’m noticing about my daughter as she grows up
- pre-school music programs and the ensuing paparazzi
- getting organized (my new allegiance to GTD and continued fascination with organizational paraphernalia)
- reflections on a Puritan prayer
- speaking about the Biblical context of worship to a group of awesome people who come from a very different place than I do
- what does it really mean to ‘do life’ with a ‘community’ of people?
- how do people find time to blog?

And finally….two items of tremendous importance that I will now explore in great detail.

1. Wall calendars.
I was looking for a 2008 wall calendar the other day. Except for celebrities , pets, and sports calendars, all the calendar artwork seems to focus on what are apparently desirable locations. Paintings or pics of beaches….. island paradises…… castles….. I’m assuming the idea is that when our eyes fall on these images, we are afforded a moment of respite from the dismal surroundings in which we actually find ourselves. Nice theory, but I’M thinking we need images that make us feel better about where we are. Solution? I propose a Department of Motor Vehicles calendar. Or artwork dedicated to dentistry tools. Or pics of hundreds of screaming toddlers. Or Richard Simmons. (That’s gold, Jerry.)

2. Candy canes.
I’ve noticed a few trends in packaging this year. Lots of packaged goods are now ‘resealable’ with a great little ziploc feature. And somebody figured out how to make it possible to open packages of batteries without the use of power tools and expletives. Awesome. And yet, still, in this year two thousand ought seven, when my kids bring me the first candy cane of the season, I am plunged into human vs. plastic hell. Seriously. There is No Way to Open a Candy Cane Without Destroying It. You almost always have to resort to using your teeth, and when you DO finally get it open, then it’s all about crumb management. Which begs the question…what is the wrapper actually doing? Somebody should fix this.

All that to say, welcome back. Be sure to let me know you stopped by.

2) I have started another blog. On account of I need more things to manage. The new blog is dedicated to thoughts and reflections from the weekly world of worship planning and leading in which I am immersed. Click here or on the link listed on the right to see the new place. It needs some work, but I can at least invite you in and offer you a beverage.

First Memory: my uncle taunting me with a HUGE balloon when I was about 4 (which means he was around 11), then popping it right in my face, thus rendering me relatively afraid of balloons for a while.

First Real Kiss: 9th grade.
First Concert: I remember going to a Gaither trio concert, and I remember going to a B.J. Thomas concert, both with my parents. I think the Gaither one was first. (and yes I’m so very proud)

First Love: books. :)

First Crush: Bo Duke, from the Dukes of Hazzard. Not John Schneider the actor, Bo Duke the character.

First thing you think in the morning: If we traded our king sized bed for a full, then will the kids stop coming in here in the middle of the night?

First book you remember loving: Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

First pet: cat named Tinker Bell

First question you’ll ask in Heaven: so how was childbirth going to work before Adam and Eve messed everything up? (look it up if you don’t understand the question)

First thing you think of when you hear the work vacation: beaches and sunshine with no humidity

First best friend: Susan Miller. My mom kept Susan every day in the pre-school years.

Last time you dressed up: if this means more dressed up than normally in a given week…. then it was probably for a wedding in May.

Last CD you bought: Albertine, by Brooke Fraser. Which I highly recommend.

Last book you read: Almost finished with They Like Jesus but Not the Church, by Dan Kimball.

Last time you cried: A week ago at a friend’s house listening to the amazing story of how God brought her adopted daughter into the life of her family.

Last movie you saw: in the theater? Ratatouille. Rental/DVD? part of 8 Seconds, which my husband rented for ‘research’ for a video project he’s starting. Best $2 ever spent (by a studio for a script, I mean).

Last time you told someone you loved them: around 7:30 this morning.

Last really funny thing you did: spoke these words (or something very close) into the mic at worship team rehearsal last night, “Thursday night rehearsal…. brought to you by the Ktel’s ‘Best Thirty Seconds of Songs from the 70s’ ” This after our keyboard player launched into one of the many obscure keyboard lines from ‘vintage’ songs that he randomly plays every week. Ok, so it was funny then.

Last Halloween costume: Wow…it’s been a while. A few years ago I dressed up as a friendly black spider when I was working at a rehab hospital. Hey, everyone was doing it.

Last concert attended: Two high school choir shows last year, does that count? Professional music concert…. honestly, I can’t remember. That’s extremely sad. I sat through a Skillet sound check at a youth event about 4 years ago….

And with that, I tag Krysta and Matt and Erin. Mu-hu-hah-ha-HA!!! (that was an evil laugh)