blur.

This week has been a blur. I managed to get showered and in bed last night before 8 p.m. which felt like a small victory until Miles woke me at 4 a.m. pushing pencils, chapstick, and paper balls beneath my locked bedroom door. He jumped at the handle and meowed loudly, "Moooom!? Mom?!" hoping I'd get up and feed him. I won't get up until my alarm goes off; I don't want to encourage his early-morning behavior. He'll sleep in the kitchen while friends visit this weekend.

This morning I was trying to focus only on the things I needed to do today. After work, coming home to clean and do the dishes and take down the Christmas tree. Nate had to go to work at 4:30 today, so I wasn't sure I'd see him but he was waiting for me when I got home and to my very pleasant surprised he had done all the dishes and put them in the cabinets, done my laundry and folded it and put it away, emptied the trash and recycling bin, and took down the Christmas tree and put it back into the attic! Yay, yay, yay. :) He's great.

We had chapel yesterday and Dr. Rainer spoke about when your calling is greater than your comfort, and he read through Genesis 12, Abram's calling. Sometimes God might call us to do things that mean giving up things in which we are extremely happy and comfortable. God told Abram to go, and Abram didn't even know where he was going. He just went. It's kind of scary to imagine following God into the great unknown and trust Him to provide, unless you really understand how small a thing it is for him. I wonder if any of Abram's friends or family members said, "Abram! Are you an idiot? You have everything you need right here! What a comfortable life! You're going to give it all up because you think God wants you somewhere else?" But God dumped more blessing on Abram than he could have imagined. Abraham was certainly not a self-made man. What a tough lesson.

Lance Stafford (on piano) is lead vocalist for the Christian rock band, Cloverton, of Manhattan, Kansas.
His twin brother, Layne Stafford, plays bass guitar for the band.

My next interview for our devotional magazine is going to be with Cloverton. These guys hail from Manhattan, Kansas, and one of them was part of a group I hung out with a lot my last semester of college. They won Grand Prize in the 2010 Rock the Camp contest, an honor that allowed them to open for TobyMac on tour in July. Cloverton will also be on the K-LOVE music cruise in next month, playing alongside Casting Crowns, Matthew West, Leeland, Newsboys, Jonny Diaz, and more. Their music is great and they will be in Nashville in early February, so I'll get to interview them in person.

The grocery shopping/cooking has been excellent so far this month. I think I've spent about $90 and still have enough ingredients to make 7 or 8 more dinners. (I don't cook on nights that Nate works.) So Plus we usually eat leftovers at least a couple times each week. So unless we decide to eat steak the next two weeks, I think I'll be under my grocery budget for January. Woo hoo! Our most recent great experience was Asian Chicken Roll-Ups. The recipe was in my new Betty Crocker Cookbook (Bridal Edition). It's so easy to make and so yummy. In fact, we're having them again for lunch tomorrow when Evan and Jenn are here.

Tomorrow night I am planning on making Caramel Apple Pork Chops. We had them a couple of months ago with Samne. Clarissa flies in Saturday morning. I'm so excited.