October 1 BEACH READING | Grateful for some down time over fall break to enjoy some great books! The God of the Garden by Andrew Peterson was my favorite because of the way Peterson’s memoir carefully and intentionally pointed to the hand of God at every turn in his life…through the hard things and the celebrations. It truly read like grabbing a cup of coffee with Andrew Peterson and being able to say “tell me your story.” The other books were helpful as well and I’d recommend checking them all out! #LeadersAreReaders
9 Common Lies Christians Believe by Shane Pruitt
-Don’t fall for the platitudes and pithy statements, find your hope and purpose in the truth of Scripture.
The God of the Garden by Andrew Peterson
-God turns our grief into gardens.
Before You Share Your Faith by Matt Smethurst
-We share our faith simply for the glory of God.
Leading Insights | Mental Health and Well-Being by ACSI edited by Dr. Lynn Swaner
-The care and well-being plan for your school must include faculty and staff. We weren’t designed for the pace of these last few years.
The Three Chairs by Dr. Karyn Gordon
-People in the middle chair have a growth mindset and are gritty.
October 1 FALL | October is just THE BEST and I’m so glad it’s finally here! The morning started early with a long walk all through downtown Acworth catching up with a sweet friend. I spent the morning doing yardwork while the guys ran errands and picked up mulch for me. We met dear friends for lunch on the patio at Pablanos and shared fall break stories for a couple hours. We made it home in time to cheer on Alabama football and catch up on some reading. The Strange 4 sat around the fire pit and had taco soup and white bean chicken chili for dinner. I’m sure it’s a bit early for fire pits and chili, but hey…it’s Georgia and we will probably have summer again before the week is out. Just let us enjoy our one fall day in peace. I promise no one wore flannel and no pumpkins or apple orchards were involved. #7000days 🔥 🍁
October 5 RAVING FANS | Each month when we gather for our @NCCSEagles Upper School faculty meeting, we take time to celebrate our faculty and staff who have shown Raving Fans service. A Raving Fan is a customer who is so overwhelmed and floored by the customer service they’ve received that they can’t stop telling everyone about it (from @kenblanchardcompanies book). As Christ followers, we aim to create Raving Fans by pointing people to Christ as we love and serve them well.
Some Raving Fans reports come from students and some are from parents and others are nominated within the team. It’s always a special time to recognize and reward service we’d like to see repeated. We’ve done a variety of things as the Raving Fans Award over the last several years…lunch, Amazon gift card, etc.
In this season, I’m grateful for @nsckennesaw providing the gift cards we are using. This morning we celebrated several teammates and they enjoyed giftcards from @chickfila, @starbucks, @longhornsteaks, @chipotle, and @maggianoslittleitaly. NorthStar does an incredible job of loving and serving our community. The gift cards that were given to local high school principals are a part of the church’s Be Bold campaign that is intentionally designed to be a blessing to others.
Our family is so blessed to be a part of @nccseagles and @nsckennesaw…two incredible partners to help us point people to Jesus and love and serve well in the name of Christ.
October 6 NIGHT AT THE OPRY | Congratulations to the @NCCSEagles Academy Singers and their amazing director @amykwallace and our incredible guest band led by @stevecoleman66. The Opry was a blast! So many great tunes made even better by the awesome kids that sang them. It was a packed house and a wonderful night. Well done!
Also, did anyone else notice how handsome the banjo player was??!! 💙💙
#GoEagles #WeAreNCCS #NCCSFamily @nccsarts
October 8 STRANGE SATURDAY |
+ Cinnamon rolls made by Eli for game day breakfast
+ Eli’s soccer game
+ Dropped Emma off at the Closer Middle School retreat @nsckennesaw
+ Cheered on the @nccseagles Volleyball and Cheer squads
+ Caught up with friends at the Taste of Acworth
+ Naps, Reading, and College Football at home
+ Color War at Emma’s retreat to close out the day
+ Dinner on the patio at Pablano’s
+ Headed home to cheer on Alabama football
Pretty much a perfect day with my Strange people! Grateful for days like this!
October 11 FIRST PLACE | Colossians 1 points me to what I have to be thankful for in Christ. Colossians 1:9-14 is a prayer that has been prayed over me, my own children, and the awesome kids that I’ve had the privilege to invest in during my years in student ministry and at @NCCSEagles.
The next part of this passage points me to the preeminence of Christ. That’s a fancy word that simply asks the question…What/Who has first place in your life? Everyone worships something/someone in their life. In fact, our worship can easily be thought of as “worth-ship”…what do we ascribe worth to in our lives? That’s a great question to ask the people closest to you. What do you see as the object of my worship?
October 14 VIRTUAL LEARNING | Today is a “work from home” day for our @NCCSEagles Upper School. We are grateful not to do this on a regular basis as we believe so strongly in the Acts 2 model of Christian community, but we know these are skills our students need for the world they will live, work, and play in…so it’s good to practice every once in a while. Our teachers have designed a variety of meaningful online learning experiences…some are live and some are project based. I’m enjoying a change of scenery for my office time today. Eagles, Where are you learning or working from today? Happy Friday everyone! #GoEagles #WeAreNCCS #NCCSFamily
October 14 FRONT PORCH FRIDAY | If I had my way…everyday would include some front porch sitting. Grateful for a change of pace and place today as well as lunch with dear friends. Settling in for an evening of reading and I couldn’t be more thrilled!
“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” – Anne of Green Gables
October 14 DATE NIGHT | My favorite fourth grader is very convincing. He told me that he thought it would be fun if just he and I could go to the @NCCSEagles Fall Festival for a little while. And..he gave me his very best smile…so how could I say no? 😍
I’m so grateful for the hard work of our NCCS PTF to put on this event to raise funds to purchase lots of fun things for our school. It was a blast to see so many of our Upper School students serving at the games, rides, and serving dinner. It’s always great to catch up with lots of parents as well!
On the way home, Eli even let me run him through Dairy Queen for his all-time favorite dinner: a cheeseburger with ketchup only and a blizzard. Thankful for these days! #7000days
October 15 TIM CRUNK RACE | We had a blast with tons of friends honoring our dear friend Tim Crunk in the 11th annual Tim Crunk 5K @cedarcrestchurch this morning. The heart behind this race has always been to point to God’s faithfulness and provision in our lives that gives us the opportunity to send money to our friends in Haiti so they can have Christian education and healthcare. Will you join us in praying for our friends in Haiti who are dealing with so many struggles? 🇭🇹 #HopeForHaiti
October 17 BIG ORANGE BIRTHDAY | POV…When your birthday falls on the same weekend as the weekend your beloved Alabama Football team gets beaten by Tennessee for the first time in 16 years. So thankful for sweet friends who dropped off this very thoughtful Big Orange gift. Thank you Swansons! Well played!
October 17 TENNIS | The @NCCSEagles Middle School Tennis season got underway today and my favorite eighth grader partnered with a friend to play first line doubles. They won their match and then spent the evening cheering on their teammates. It was a beautiful afternoon to be outside! #GoEagles #WeAreNCCS #NCCSFamily 🎾 #7000days
October 20 TREASURES | These two babies are growing up too fast! This morning was an early one. Emma had basketball tryouts at school at 6:30am. I knew that my mom would have gotten up extra early to have a special breakfast for me, so I thought it would be a fun treat for my two as well. I scrambled some eggs and made our family’s homemade cinnamon rolls (from a can…but that recipe is now on it’s third generation in our family). They were both pleasantly surprised to come in the kitchen at 5:45am to find breakfast made. Eli even exclaimed “I’ve never had cinnamon rolls in the middle of the night before!” 😂😂 #7000days #TheseAreTheDays
October 21 OH WHAT A NIGHT | Our @NCCSEagles put a bow on the last regular season home game with a 36-0 win over @mtparanschool. We honored our fall senior athletes before the game and at halftime…a spectacular group of guys and girls headed to do great things for the glory of God. Then we celebrated a successful Eagles Tackle Breast Cancer fundraiser where our schools partnered to raise over $10,000 for @sistersbychoice1989atl. My dear friend and counterpart at Mt. Paran, @principalrusk, and I had the privilege of being pied by our student government leaders as the “reward” for raising so much money. We are so proud of the way our school communities used our common Christian mission and competitive rivalry for good. A great night was had by all! Excuse me while I hit the showers…I have pumpkin in my ear and whip cream in my hair. #AnythingForTheKids #SheReallyDidntHitMeThatHard
#ILoveMyStudents https://www.instagram.com/p/Cj_7fXhDpUi/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
October 23 FALL IN ACWORTH | I love living in a place where you can enjoy the beautiful fall colors while golfcarting in shorts! A scene for a @netflix movie is being filmed at Lake Acworth tomorrow and it was cool to see some of the setup today. Can’t wait to see what they do with that. Precious time with my adventure sidekick Eli and it only cost me one oreo ice cream waffle cone. #WorthEveryPenny #7000days
October 24
PRAYER | Grateful for the opportunity we had @nsckennesaw yesterday just to have a dedicated time of prayer. @mikelinch has been teaching through the book of Acts in a variety of series over the past year and this one is called “How to Get Through What You’re GoingThrough.” Yesterday’s message was entitled Hope in the Storms. 1 Timothy 2 reminds us why we pray…we pray because God cares. We don’t pray to notify Him of our needs and concernes. God is all knowing. We pray to show submission to His authority and because we have access to approach God’s throne of grace with confidence (Hebrews 4:16).
Many people flooded the altar yesterday and prayed with some of our church staff and prayer team. I don’t know their needs, but I saw anguish on many faces, and will continue to pray that the Lord would move in whatever each of their circumstances are. As Pastor Mike reminded us yesterday, “No great work was accomplished apart from prayer”…often quoted by the late Dr. Falwell.
October 31 ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN | As always, this little guy asked to stay up a little while to read. The snoring started at 8:20…and it’s pretty solid snoring. Just this weekend he’s discovered he loves the Encyclopedia Brown books. Do we have any friends whose kids have outgrown them that wouldn’t mind loaning yours out for our speedy little reader to borrow?
Including this picture because the cuteness is just too much. In so many ways the “little boy” is turning into a “young man”, so I’ll take as many nights as he wants to lay down and read with Mom! 💙🤍💙🤍 #7000days
