Welcome to Friday - 1.16.15

Who is like you among the gods, O LORD - glorious in holiness, awesome in splendor, performing great wonders?  Exodus 15:11

Welcome to Friday

Welcome to Friday!  I hope you got off to a great start to your day and that you are excited, ready and anticipating a wonderful weekend of joy, love and rest.  So, how are you doing today?  How was your week overall?  How did you do in regards  to your goals for the week?  I hope you were able to do what you planned and you were successful in reaching your goals for this week.  

Today is Friday, and I am ready for the weekend.  I had a great week.  I'm still calling it a great week even though I wasn't able to take off today as I had planned.  I was supposed to have the day off, but some requirements at work and a few unexpected snags and challenges forced me to cancel my day off.  That said, it has still been a week filled with fun, joy, and accomplishments.  I've been amazed by how many doors God has opened for friends, family and co-workers this week.  I've been blessed by encouraging words spoken by other people to me, and blessed to hear people encouraging one another instead of tearing each other down.  Bible study was amazing on Thursday, as my friend and co-worker continues to share insights from his study that bring me joy, and excitement.  This week he talked about how easy it is for us to think of what we lose in service to others, instead of the joy and blessings we gain when someone who was hurting is helped, someone who is lost is found, or someone who was hungry gets fed.  I had a great time this week going into the office and trying to complete a new project release ahead of schedule and with high quality, and I am slowly managing to learn the new roles and responsibilities at work. 

My blessings this week include:

• Receiving the best annual performance review since 2006
• Received accolades for my positive attitude
• Received appreciation for willingness to step into new positions
• Received appreciation for handling tough situations and difficult employees (i.e. a testament to the power of prayer)
• Finally securing compensation for some long time employees on my team
• Sydney getting honorable mention honors at the science fair
• Cassarra having a successful audition at Region Band
• Getting Cassarra to chat about school, friends, plans, challenges, and a host of things when we were out and about
• Paige returning to normal activity without any hiccups
• Lots of laughs around the dinner table on Sunday night
• My parents coming up from Georgetown to hear my share a devotional at church
• I was so nervous at first, but felt like I managed to regain composure at the end
• Emma deciding that she needed to help me preach was hilarious (she talked the entire time I talked)
• Ava running around the other morning trying to eat the middle out of everyone's cinnamon role.  She gets it honestly.
• Giving hugs and kisses during bedtime with Ava and Emma.  
• They have turned it into a game of calling their parents one at a time for a goodnight hug and goodnight kiss.
• Spending time with Cassarra and Gabbi as we dashed out for a late night snack
• Finishing my Bible reading plan from 2014

This has been a truly remarkable week and I am so thankful for all the blessings of friends, family, prayers, love, compassion and grace.  I can truly say that although the trials have come and the challenges this week were real, the blessings were also real.  The blessings and triumphs were real and really good.  

At home there were some amazing moments around the dinner table, outstanding dinners made by Trish, funny and fun moments with the girls.  Gabbi traded a week of extra chores for opting out of eating collards.  If you ask her, she'll tell you that she got the best end of the trade.  

Wednesday night we discovered that the heat upstairs was set on a balmy 75 degrees.  Which is much too high for our wallets, and explained why the upstairs felt like a small oven.  When we got to the bottom of it, we discovered Paige.  She politely confessed, "I turned it up, because my room was cold."  This coming from the girl who sleeps on top of her covers most nights. 

One night when I went out with the older girls I had a moment of bold insanity.  After sharing some "advice on boys, faith, and peer pressure," I was feeling pretty good.  The girls hadn't shut me down, they seemed engaged, asked questions, and I felt like they got the message.  Unlike sometimes past, I managed to balance between preaching, teaching and listening pretty well.  I was feeling good about our time together.  So, I looked at them and asked, "Is there anything you want to ask your parents that you were afraid to ask?"  I just knew the answer would be "No, Dad."  Or, at worst, "Why do you always.....?"  Or, even could they have something that was previously denied.  Boy was I wrong.  The first question was a zinger and suddenly the questions were coming in rapid fire mode.  It felt like Cassarra and Gabbi had been holding things in for years, waiting to ask what they thought were delicate questions.  I answered some, deferred a few until they were older, and stepped on the gas as hard as I could.  That mile from my house and Wal-mart never seemed longer. 

Another great moment happened last night, dinner was so late that when I walked in with pizza Emma immediately went to her high chair.  She actually began pushing it up to the table where we all have dinner together on Thursday night.  Ava started calling her sisters for dinner and then Emma tried to say copy her to say, "Dinner time!"  Emma was so cute trying to boss around her bigger sisters to get them to come down for dinner.  Ironically, she barely ate her dinner.  She pretended she wasn't hungry, but as it turned out she was mainly interested in eating the meat and cheese.  After eating all of the toppings from her slice, she begged Trish to eat the pepperonis and sausage off of hers.  I also had fun making dessert last night.  I made a batch of peanut butter cookies.  The first batch didn't do so well.  The looked like big saucers and tasted more like fluffy cakes with a hint of peanut butter.  The second batch was better.  The were crisp and tasted closer to Cassarra's, the gold standard.  

I'm looking forward to the weekend.  I plan to enjoy the rest, spend some time working on some more projects and figure out the next Bible plan to use for this year.  We are also going to try and potty train Emma this weekend.  I'm hoping that it goes smoother than the first try with Ava went.  The girls have their plans for the weekend.  A pair of them will be traveling and enjoying an amazing weekend away.  The middle two have been making plans all week for their weekend.  They wanted to come to work today, but my office culture has changed and Trish and I weren't sure it was a good idea.  Maybe when things settle back down.  They also have plans for breakfast tomorrow morning.  Hopefully Trish and I will get in some time over coffee and we won't be too exhausted to enjoy some conversation as well. 

I hope you have a great weekend.  I hope that you get to spend time with friends, family, loved ones, and people that make you smile.  I hope that you will have a blessed remainder of the day.  Have fun, have a great day, and...

Welcome to Friday
Life is good when lived in the safety, security, and love of the Almighty God.

God of grace, mercy and wonders divine -

bless and anoint us, help us and deliver us.

In our times of need and want, be our

all sufficient help and strength.  

In times of darkness and despair, be our

ever-shining light and all-wise guide.

In times of peace and joy, be our

God, our King and the rightful recipient of our praise.

God of grace, mercy and wonders divine -

bless, and anoint us, help us and deliver us.

With love (& in triumph),

Cassius