Bethany's 18!

Bethany turns 18 today! Can you believe it? We went to Maggiano's yesterday to celebrate. We'll be hanging out today- Starbucks, more Heroes, etc. 

Back to Blogging

I'm returning to blogging after a three month break. I gave myself permission to let some things go when I went back to teaching and planned to slowly add them back to my life. August- (I never gave it up) cook dinner every night after work. September- running four times a week. October- cleaning my house (okay, I haven't mastered this yet). November- blogging. This is a great week to resume blogging. Tomorrow is a big day at the Barber house . . . 

Heroes

Since we're off for the week, we've resumed watching Heroes. Thanks to the writer's strike last year, we'll be able to watch all of the second season this week. We love this show! The basic theme is some people are given abilities and have to make the choice to use them for good or not so good. It makes me think of friends I know who have chosen to do extraordinary things with their life- like my brother-in-law and sister-in-law and our friends the Haldemans who foster children. Or our friend who left a good paying job in corporate America to go in the ministry (for not so good pay but many other benefits). We're blessed to have many friends doing amazing things. I'm always questioning whether I'm using my not so extraordinary gifts for selfish or selfless reasons. I think I'll always be asking this question in my journey.

Roll Tide

How 'bout them dawgs?

For those of you who have not yet heard, this past Monday (Labor Day, September 1st), we lost a very important member of the Barber family. After 12 years as a Barber, Bama passed away. He was a great dog, and well loved by all the family.

Since Bama passed, we have also added a new member to our family. Yesterday (Saturday, September 6th) we got a new puppy. Ala is a lab mix and approximately 6 weeks old.

She is a very people-friendly dog, and she's adopted to the family very well!

My Summer Reading List

I'm always having people ask what I read so here goes. I must preface this post by saying that during the summer I primarily read for entertainment and primarily read fiction. I usually don't read "churchy" type books. So here's what I've read this summer.

The Poisonwood Bible- Kingsolver (just felt like I needed to read it)
Ethan Fromme- Wharton (character development at its best)
Playing for Pizza- Grisham (I love Italy)
Christ the Lord Out of Egypt- Rice (extremely curious)
Remember Me- Kinsella (I always read some pop culture novel on the NYTimes best seller list)
Keeping Faith- Picoult (recommended by a friend)
Unchristian- Kinniman and Lyons (the only non-fiction)

On the week of the Fourth of July I went on a mission trip to Staten Island. Our team worked with Crossroads Church Staten Island. For two days we painted public schools. The church paints schools so that the schools may be more open to letting them have Sunday services in their buildings. The team also helped with an outreach event on the boardwalk that they hold every year on the Fourth of July. We handed out flyers for four days to promote the event then helped run the event. A band from our church in Newnan came and played some classic rock music while our team and members of the church in Staten Island told people about the church.