okay, forgive the extremely cheesy title, but, I have plenty of things in my head that I’d like to get out and onto the blog. a few of them are.

1. my recap of Forgotten God

2. how to change your name (the easy and cheap way) – when you get married… (I’m not quite sure how to change your name if you just feel like it, although – side note, a guy in my high school changed his name to Rubber Cactus, no joke. )

3. first 2 months of marriage: the update

4. and perhaps by that time, that I blog about the first 3, I’ll be done with my next book: A Million Miles in A Thousand Years by my fave author, Donald Miller. 

Today was the 10th anniversary and birthday celebration of Port City Community Church, so of course we celebrated with some mariachi, a rap, party hats, balloons, and some cardboard. It was incredible! There are pictures and some more videos to come, but I wanted to leave you with this…

Goin’ Back 10 Years from PC3 on Vimeo.

Oh you know, searching the web for coupons led me nowhere quick-like – and I’ve found out why. First firefox (for mac) would not let me enable the coupon printer – but when opened in Safari works fine – if you are having this problem, copy and paste the link into safari after DL the coupon printer and it will work great!

There are two hot spots on the web for manufacturer’s coupons

• Red Plum
• Proctor & Gamble

essentially these would be the inserts you would get if you were subscribed to a paper with lots of coupons!

In addition I found that in the emailed Target ad there are some great coupons for perishables as Kristin suggested, go here for this month’s coupons.

Also add Southern Savers to your RSS feed immediately. I love getting these little messages of goodness in my inbox, basically these are the people that do what I (and maybe you) don’t have time to do. They compile all of the deals and put them on the site – including grocery stores, CVS, Walgreens, and other hot spots on the web.

There are also random tips like this one: Become a fan of Edible Arrangements on Facebook and get a FREE pack of 6pk dipped fruit.  This is for the first 100,000 folks so head over and fill out the form.

Here is a great deal on buying candy – since most of you will be buying it for neighborhood trick-or-treaters, here is a good place to start:

CVS
Hershey’s Fun Size 8 bags for $1 ea or less

Rite Aid
Hershey’s Snack Size Bags $1.24 each or Free (if worked in with free deals)

Kroger
Hershey’s Snack Size bags, 10 bag $1.80 ea or 12 bags $1.62 ea

Publix
Nestle Fun Size 21-24oz., $1.99 ea
Hershey’s Snack Size $1.99 ea

I’ll continue to share more as I embark further on my coupon journey. Please share your coupon tricks with us!

Jeremy and I have given a solid “go” at couponing. In fact, we have a coupon holder that I carry around with us whenever we go out together. We heard in church once that there is a group of men that play the grocery game. And this is what they do, they try to spend no more than they save, they do the bogo’s and give the one they got free to the food bank, and they use coupons. I was amazed-I had never thought to do this. I think Jeremy and I took it as a personal challenge to be better stewards. So we’ve adopted the coupon end of things (we’re building up to it).

But, this, blows my mind – I’ve heard of the CVS magic of several of my friends, and been shocked at the free items (or next-to free items they buy). But it’s real – and I found the best article yet, on the topic and was wondering if any of you have tried it.

I’m headed straight for an extra care card. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

I’m on day 3 of my 365 day challenge – so far I haven’t done much, and admittedly I just wanted to start – somewhere, so I started with Photobooth, in my cube at work. So if, by 5:30ish I had not taken a picture – I take one, it’s working – but it’s not all of where I want to go with it.

I’ve got a challenge on my hands though, I want to use different cameras and lenses to capture different perspectives of the 365 days, but currently I have one lens for my Canon Rebel, I’d like to aquire another, but these things take time. This isn’t a cheap hobby.

The past few days have been fun with these pictures, mainly because of the descriptions and the tags you can add in on flickr.

I’ll keep going, we’ll see… this should be fun.

This is my day 3 picutre, pondering a new haircut. Should I do it? Another poll?

I suppose I can do anything for a year. Or at least that’s the phrase I fed myself everytime things got hard when I lived in Slovakia or while I was raising support. But, the new challenge is on flickr: Take one self portrait each day for a year. Each day, take a self portrait, tag it with “365days”, and submit it to the pool. It’s that simple! I attempted this once before (and I know, I lasted 9 days)- while I was in Slovakia, but now with my new DSLR – I’m thinking it’s highly possible.

So, What do you think?

(rss readers live poll below)

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I suppose I don’t have much to contribute on the subject of the Spirit, other than to recognize and point out the fact that the way that we describe Him, is what He is – Holy. I guess I’ve sort of taken that for granted and almost considered it to be His first name – Holy, last name Spirit. Of course, this is silly, and Holy here is an adjective and a noun.

From reading, Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit by Francis Chan, I’ve realized that I’ve somewhat boxed the Spirit in. Now, mind you, I’m only through chapter 3 and have 4 more to go before this book is closed.

A few things that strike me from reading this book is that the way I “see” the Spirit is due to my walk early on. I’ve been bruised pretty deeply by going through years of reciting a small booklet with the word, “Satisfied?” emblazened across the center. And upon flipping the book over you see the word, “Satisfied.” Just a bit of punctuation, but I think at this point in my life I can say has given me the wrong understanding of who the Holy Spirit is. As if, MY SATISFACTION had anything to do with it. I understand though the famous quote,

“God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him”

Being satisfied IN God, is so very different than getting what I want (I’ve learned over my 29 years that these are two totally different things.

Now, let me say that I am not bashing this booklet or the organizations that choose to use said booklet, I am however, stating that this booklet did not teach me all I ever needed to know about living a life dedicated and submitted to the Holy Spirit.

While going through chapter 3 of Chan’s book, I came across this bulleted list that hit me as surprisingly refreshing and freeing, maybe just seeing things put a different way, or reading them back to back, not sure, regardless I feel enlivened to these truths and wanted to share them with you here to encourage your hearts. “… but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrew 10:25

Here is that list:

• The Spirit helps us speak when we are in precarious situations and need to bear witness (Mark 13:11; Luke 12:12)
• The Counselor teaches and reminds us of what we need to know and remember. He is our comforter, our advisor, our encourager, and our strength. He guides us in the way we should go (Ps. 143:10; John 14-16; Acts 9:31; 13:2;15:28; 1 Cor 2:9-10; 1 John 5:6-8).
• From the Spirit we receive power to be God’s witness to the ends of the earth. It is the Spirit who draws people to the gospel, the Spirit who equips us with the strength we need to accomplish God’s purposes. The Holy Spirit not only initially draws people to God, He also draws believers closer to Jesus (Acts 1:8; Rom 8:26; Eph. 3:16-19).
• By the power of the Spirit we put to death the misdeeds of the body. The Spirit sets us free from the sins we cannot get rid of on our own. This is a lifelong process we entered into, in partnership with the Spirit, when we first believed (e.g., Rom 8:2).
• Through the Spirit we have received a spirit of adoption as children, which leads us into intimacy with the Father, instead of a relationship based on fear and slavery. The Spirit bears witness to us that we are His children.
• The Holy Spirit convicts people of sin. He does this both before we initially enter into right relationship with God and as we journey through this life as believers (John 16:7-11; 1 Thess 1:5).
• The Spirit brings life and freedom. Where the Spirit is, there is freedom, not bondage or slavery. In our world that is plagued with death, this is a profound truth that points to real hope (Rom 8:10-11; 2 Cor 3:17).
• By the power of the Holy Spirit we abound with hope because our God is a God of hope, who fills His children with all joy and peace (Rom 15:13).
• As members of God’s kingdom community, each of us is given a manifestation of the Spirit in our lives for the purpose of the common good. We all have something to offer because of what the Spirit gives us (1 Cor 12:7).
• The fruit of being led by the Spirit includes love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These attitudes and actions will characterize our lives as we allow ourselves to be grown and molded by the Spirit. The Spirit is our sanctifier (2 Cor. 3:18; Gal.5:22-23).

It felt so good to type those – to be liberated by the Spirit is freedom, indeed! I’m praying that my life will reflect the deepness and holiness of the Spirit, as I continue to walk with God – and praying that yours will as well.