reality blog

WRITING IS HARD

/ joseph elon lillie / 6 Comments

It’s 7:15 P.M. and I am just sitting down to write. Today was a day of working on all the projects. I finished emptying out my old room and moved the rest of what’s moving into my new room.

I figured it was a good time to go through all my clothes and reorganize my draws. It was a bigger job than I thought to would be, took me most of the afternoon, and I have more to do tomorrow.

Since we are down a Sunday morning worker, and since I have Carrie Hackett preaching this week, I am taking my turn to sit with Mom tomorrow morning. I will be watching the service from home with Mom, and of course folding clothes to go to the Salvation Army.

I am tired now. Mom is really anxious to have me sit and watch TV with her. My heart has been telling me I have to get back to writing, but it’s hard. I used to be so disciplined at posting everyday, at taking at least a few minutes to practice jotting down thoughts and spinning words. I used to be so diligent about reading and building community. But I have fallen away and coming back is not as easy as I hoped it would be.

Over the last several years I have tried several times to start back to daily writing. All my attempts have ended in failure. It’s time to try again. Maybe I will end in failure again. But I have to try. This meme popped out at me the other day.

It made me decide to try again. Writing is hard. Not writing is hard. I am choosing my hard.

Currently At the Vicarage

/ joseph elon lillie / Leave a comment

We currently have a couple of big projects going on at The Vicarage. A few weeks ago Mom’s Home Health Worker for Sundays had to give her notice for health reasons. The kids and I have been covering Sunday mornings since. We are currently working through a provider to try and find another worker for Sundays. Big project number one!

The second big project is a little bigger as far as the requirement of sweat equity. Mom is entering a part of her dementia where too much noise makes her really anxious. So we need a place besides the front room right outside her room where Sevy and the girls can play without causing Mom too much anxiety. This is especially true now that the winter is setting in. I have made the decision that the dogs and I will move temporarily to the front office upstairs. My room will become Sevy’s playroom.

And Sevy

/ joseph elon lillie / 4 Comments

Putting up the Christmas tree might have been a bit premature. We didn’t calculate for a two-year-old who loves shiny Christmas bulbs. We’ve been finding them all over the house and various states of distress. So tonight, Kristine and Joe defrocked the bottom of the tree. I think it looks like the tree has no pants. What do you think?

WHAT IS THE MOST BUSY?

/ joseph elon lillie / Leave a comment

My personal schedule shifted recently and I took on more meeting ministry opportunities. Up until last April,Tuesday through Friday was probably my most busy part of the week. I did a lot of personal meetings, a staff meeting and at least one prayer service on those days.

Photo by Leeloo Thefirst on Pexels.com

But in the Spring God changed things up. The church needed another set of hands in our boys Doing Life Together Group. Then in August it became apparent that I was going to be taking over a new adult Doing Life Together group along with a return to worship ministry.

Photo by Pavel Danilyuk on Pexels.com

Now Sunday to Tuesday is my gauntlet time. Sunday morning generally starts around 4:30 A.M. This week I did morning service and an afternoon funeral (last week it was an afternoon Chili cook off). Mondays are Bible study, devotional video and worship set. Tuesdays are devotional video, staff meeting and Boys Doing Life Together group. By Wednesday I am ready to drop.

Photo by Mister Mister on Pexels.com

I have made Wednesdays an actual Sabbath where I am being very strict about not leaving the house.

WHAT IS THE MOST BUSY PART OF YOUR WEEK?

Pastor Arts and Crafts

/ joseph elon lillie / Leave a comment

Pastoring has many complexities. Most of those complexities have to do with personalities and characters. Most of the jobs I actually do are fairly simple. Today for instance, I was pastor of arts and crafts.

Our current outreach for boys, ministry, DLT is making cards for Veterans Day. I spent the morning adding stickers and gluing colored pictures to homemade cards.
This afternoon, Melanie, Kristine and I attended a harvest festival at the Winchendon community Park.
We made a life sized paper scarecrow.
We named him Lillie Lizard
And we are hanging him in our front door in honor of my birthday month

All Hallow’s Christmas Decorating

/ joseph elon lillie / Leave a comment

Halloween is not really my holiday. But it’s a big deal around here so we often try to find alternatives to celebrate the day. Over the years, we’ve done all kinds of things. We’ve done harvest parties, day, trips, to Boston, trunk or treats. One year we even got kids gospel tracks and handed them out along with the candy, anything to sort of Christianize the day.

This year we bought lots of candy, put it in big bowls on the porch for the kids out trick-or-treating, and we decorated our Christmas tree. Amanda made our traditional Christmas tree, decorating food, beef, pinwheels, and veggie pizza. Joe and Kristine bought eggnog and three different kinds of juice and soda, I made an American chop Suey and we feasted. And we put decorations on the Christmas tree while greeting our neighbors as they came around.

It was a great night, and the beginning of a wonderful family tradition

Six Baptisms, Four Members and a Chili Cook Off

/ joseph elon lillie / Leave a comment

Yesterday, was a huge day of celebration at Cornerstone Church Winchendon. WE baptized six new believers, welcomed four people into fellowship as members and we held a DLT chili cook off to help raise money towards our new parking lot. It was a great fellowship sponsored by one of our DLT groups, The Blessing Bunchg of Mixed Nuts. Here are some photos from the day.

The crowd.
The Book Club chili took third place, Andrew and Gabe.
The Steadfast Sons chili made by Mike Murphy.
Bag End Beam took first place for best decorated door. Melanie and Trinity in their Ho bit garb.
Corn bread was a big part of the day. Here are Crystal, Deb, and Sandy with their chilis
Good conversations around the table.

In the end the ladies group, Beter Together took home first prize.