Deanna Doss Shrodes

I just love riding and walking through the streets of Savannah just lookin' at old homes...could do this for hours...oh wait a minute, we DID do this for hours...
The waving girl.  I love this because the pastor who did Savanna's dedication when she was a baby spoke of the waving girl in Savannah, GA.  He said the waving girl waves ships back home, but that Savanna would wave many souls to Christ back home.  I believe it.
THIS was the line at Mrs. Wilkes restaurant.  There were hundreds waiting.  We waited an hour and a half but it was totally worth it.  If you were to eat at just one restaurant in Savannah, GA I would probably recommend this one although I adore the Old Pink House.  Mrs. Wilkes is a place like NO other.  Every morning a HUGE LINE gathers.  It takes about an hour and a half no matter what time you go.  There are two small rooms of this restaurant, with four tables of ten in each room.  You wait until a table opens and then you are seated with strangers.  A lady …

I cut the "h" off the end of this so that it would match Savanna's name!  :)
Candy and I saw this sign first when we parked:  "Fabulous Finds Under $20" and we were so excited!

I love these little stones but not enough to buy them all, so I just took a photo.  I said to Candy, "let's take photos of a bunch of stuff we want but aren't going to spend our money on..." So we did. 

 [sigh]...

 Candy and I  both LOVE this t-shirt.  It says, "walk a day in my flip flops."

Is this t-shirt not HYSTERICAL?  In case you can't read it it says, "I have the body of a God.  Unfortunately, it's Buddha."  Bahahahahha!!!

A dog store...all things dogs...made me miss the babies...

O
Okay so I am officially in love with these purses.  They have multiple animal prints AND pink.

Watching taffy being made...

Love the horse and carriage rides all over this town...

Love walking along the river...watching boats, visiting shops, sipping ice cold lemon…

A few Sundays ago I was teaching my class of adults that I teach each week and I asked the question:  "When did a time come in your life when you really had to rely on the Holy Spirit for direction?"  A lady immediately raised her hand and said, "Well, many years ago when I first came to the Lord I was at another church where our pastor ran off with the piano player."  I quickly quipped, "yeah...that happened to me too."  The whole class including that lady laughed a lot -- they knew I was inferring the fact that my husband (a pastor) ran off with me (a piano player).   The amusement over my little joke didn't stop there.  A few days later we were in an ice cream shop in St. Pete with  Eddie and Candy and Todd and Bonnie.   They told the owner who was serving the ice cream that my husband was the pastor of their church and then said something about him "running off with the piano player".  When the owner looked rather shocked my husband sai…

"How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!"  Isaiah 52:7
I try to think positive everyday.  I do this despite the fact that I usually receive at least one piece of bad news a day.  Usually there's at least one e-mail in my box that says that somebody won't be able to do what they said they would do, or a voice mail that lets me know something I thought was going to happen isn't happening, or a text of the same nature.  Sometimes somebody requests a meeting where they deliver bad news.  Whatever the case I'm sure you hate bad news just as much as I do.  Even though I'm a pastor and deal with this because I lead a congregation I know I'm not the only one who gets at least a shred of bad news everyday.   Some of you probably don't want to go to your mailbox because you don't want to see your bills which represe…

 "Cast all your anxiety on Him because he cares for you."  I Peter 5:7
Every one of us has a resource 24/7 that we can completely and safely unload on, yet most people never take advantage of this great provision.

Psalm 55:22 says, "Cast your cares on the Lord, and He will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall."

I was reading something recently that Joyce Meyer wrote about worship and she said that she believes a lot of people have not had a proper emotional release in worship, therefore they release emotions improperly at other times.  I agree.

It got me to thinking that a lot of people also don't have a proper vent session with the Lord, therefore they have inappropriate vent sessions with others.  Christianity is a relationship, not a religion.  God is supposed to be our best friend.  He talks to us and we need to be listening but do we also give him all of our anxieties?  He's the only friend we're ever instructed to completely, utterly…

Ever write a draft of a blog post and then discover it was just for the purpose of you getting something off your chest but not something for you to actually post?

That happens to me all the time.  Probably at least once a week.

Twenty years ago if blogging existed, I might have published such a post.

It's probably a real good thing that blogging never existed then although I'm sure glad it exists now.  :)

That's all.  It's a Monday and I'm tired, and not in the mood to create a another post.  Yeah, you guessed it.  I wrote a rant today about something and then elected not to publish it.   So now this post concerning unpublished posts is my post. 

If you are missing a real post from me today that contains something substantial, there are worse things in life to cope with.  Consider the fact that the gulf cleanup is slowing down yet again,  Perez Hilton is still writingheadlines and there's still a heat wave going across the USA.

By the way I'm making my fa…

It's going to be a great day at Celebration Church today -- I just feel it in my spirit.  You know each time we gather it's a Celebration, thus our name.  But God is doing something new all the time, and today I know He's going to show up and do His thing in a brand new way and I can't wait to see it unfold. We've been seeing some amazing stuff in people coming to Jesus, and healings and all kinds of breakthroughs and I know today will be a whole level.

Tonight we've got leadership meeting and we always have dinner together as a team before we talk.  One reason I always make sure there's food at any meeting Larry or I are leading is because we know hungry people don't listen to what anybody says.  If you are hungry your blood sugar is low all you are thinking is, "where are going to eat when we leave here and how soon is this meeting going to be over?" Well, at our meetings, nobody thinks that because it's all provided and we can just stay…

Need a fun distraction?  I sometimes do.  
For fun, google this:  your name and the word "loves".  Then write down the first ten things that come up on the google search.  I did.  My comments in parenthesis...

1)  Deanna loves guys who are sensitive but edgy and have a killer style. (lol)
2)  Deanna loves pretty things.  (Yep!)
3)  Deanna loves Billy.  (Who?)
4)  Deanna loves her thesaurus.  (I truly do.)
5)  Deanna loves Jonas.  (Man, this is makin' me sound like I really get around...lol)
6)  Deanna loves cooking and baking, as well as eating the fruits of her labour. Needless to say, she also loves working out.  (Gosh, who's been stalking me?  Well, I dunno about the "loving" to work out part..)
7)  Deanna loves Kevin.  (Who the heck is Kevin?  I have a cousin named Kevin...I do "love" him but we aren't from West Virginia or anything...)
8)  Deanna defines love as physical affection, the feeling of ’smokin hot.  (Actually...no.  But physic…

Lately these two songs have had particular significance in the Celebration Church prayer meetings and although this Youtube version is really not the best, I'm posting it anyway.   Both songs are from Pastor Mary Alessi's"More" album which is an older one, but man, oh man...SO powerful.   Get the CD to hear it clearly - you'll be so glad you did. 

Although these aren't brand new songs, God has put a fresh anointing them for us at CC right now as we push through in prayer.  As these two songs are played the spirit of God just comes into the sanctuary in such a powerful way and there's a moment in time where the anointing of God is so strong in there it's unbelievable.   There are times I've honestly thought..."Okay, the eastern sky is splitting NOW."  Last Thursday I went in to prayer meeting and it was sunny...not a cloud in the sky.  As I read my Bible that morning and got quiet before God He gave me this word that I quickly wrote down…

Do you believe in the power of prayer?   I'm not talking about well wishes or good vibrations.  (I recently saw that a friend had sent another friend who has cancer "good vibrations" on facebook.  What?!)  Um... a vibration might actually make you feel goodtemporarily but it will not heal you.  But that's another blog post for another day.   When we're sick we need healing, not a buzz.  A good vibration, a dream or a wish never healed anyone but the power of JESUS can and will heal.  Healing DID NOT END with the book of Acts!!  We are living Chapter 29!    I tell you this from experience both past and present.  I often wonder why some people worship a God who they honestly believe stopped doing things once the Bible was complete.  What a boring tragedy to serve a God who you think doesn't do stuff anymore.  I tell you, I wouldn't wake up on Sunday mornings for that.  I'm not worshipping some anemic God.  My God can do ANYTHING.   I tell our people, I …

When a cashier looks your way and directly tells you, "I can take you over on register 6..." and then as you are moving your cart there somebody else slides in front of you, even if it's just with a few items and now you have to stand there and wait because the cashier takes them first?"  (Just happened to me yesterday and it always makes me wish I would have stayed at the previous register.)   In my head I say, "if I were a cashier I would say to that person, 'hold on a moment, I just invited this lady to this register first'.  But then I realize they might be one of those people who sit in a church somewhere week after week and think, "If I were the pastor I would..."  Nah, forget it.  I'll stand there, smile, be quiet and quit thinking their job for them.

When teens ask other teens (who have never lived any longer or much longer than they have) advice about decisions that will affect their lives forever?  

When people rant about the im…

When I'm riding along and take a different turn than the GPS told me to, it recalculates the route.  In a few moments time, it comes up with a way to still get to the original destination albeit just a little bit later.

Recalculation is something I apply to my personal weekly agenda when I am given an opportunity to do something special with my family or friends.  I don't want to live so rigidly that I can't ever accept a last minute invitation.  My family members are very spontaneous and it's very common for them to decide just moments before that they're going to go to the movies, or for ice cream, or pretty much anywhere.  I am not very spontaneous myself, but flow with people who are.  My husband has decided at the last minute that we'll go away overnight.  Taking advantage of any of this requires an immediate recalculation for me.  It's important to me to work it out if at all possible because I want to enjoy life and do things with those I love.

Look…

On Mondays I pretty much feel like I've been run over by a truck.

It doesn't matter whether Sunday was amazing or difficult.  Either way, the run-over-by-a-truck-feeling is there simply because I give Sunday it all I've got whether things are good or bad.  (Yesterday was an excellent day at Celebration Church, by the way.  Still the wrung out feeling remains.)

Right now I'm especially busy because in addition to all of the other roles that I've been fulfilling for a long time we're also without an administrative assistant in our office  and I'm covering the tasks of that job too as well as all of my other stuff, until we hire.  At one point in the past I did the admin job for a whole year and a half  in addition to mine, while we were waiting to hire and I thought it would be the end of me some days.  One of the keys to making it through is that I didn't overthink it and just jumped in to do what had to be done.

A friend posted last night on his faceboo…

Celebration Churchis having a game night tonight and this is the Shrodes family contribution. (We're having appetizers and desserts along with games.) Yes, I know the combination of strawberries and pretzels might seem strange, but if you have never had this before, try it just once...I promise you, it's absolutely moan-worthy. You will thank your lucky stars that I gave you this recipe.  


Strawberry Pretzel Jello Dessert

2 c. pretzels, crushed
4 tbsp. sugar
1/2 - 3/4 c. butter, melted
8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
1/2 c. sugar
8 oz. carton Cool Whip
1 lg. box strawberry Jello
2 c. boiling water
2 pkgs. strawberries (frozen), thawed and drained

Mix pretzels, 4 tablespoons sugar, and butter together; press into bottom of 9 x 13 inch pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 6 minutes; cool. In mixing bowl, fold Cool Whip into cream cheese and 1/2 cup sugar. Spread over cooled crust. Dissolve Jello into boiling water. Add strawberries to Jello and pour over cream cheese. Chill and let se…

This morning is our monthly  life coaching meeting at Celebration Church.  We've gotten in the habit of eating brunch at these meetings, and the natural and spiritual food is just wonderful.  Today God has given me a very powerful word for them, and I know we're going to have an amazing time.  I can just feel the "next level" coming on!!! 

My food contribution for this morning's meeting is hash brown potato casserole.  If you've never tried this, oh MY, you need to.  It's UH-May-Zing!!! 

Hash Brown Potato Casserole

1 (32 oz.) package of frozen hash brown potatoes
1/2 cup of butter  (1 stick)
8 ounces of shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup of onions, chopped
1 pint of sour cream
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of garlic salt (or I use fresh garlic)
1 cup of corn flakes
1/4 cup of melted butter
Partially defrost hash browns. Mix potatoes, 1/2 cup margarine, cheese, onions, sour cream, soup, and spices. Put into greased 9 x 13 dish.…

Savanna took this photo of Maxie this week.  I can never have enough photos of my dogs or my kids!  Okay, today here on the blog it's FUN FRIDAY (can't describe how excited I am about that either!) and nothing super deep here today, just a few thoughts I'll share on this great day off (fingers crossed that it will be a day off -- you never know in a pastor's home...) 
Greatest way to relax ~ stay home Greatest vacation memory ~when we went back for Larry's high school reunion.   Greatest success ~ my kids Greatest regret ~ some hiring decisions in the past Greatest resource ~ prayer/fasting  Greatest personal attribute ~ strong work ethic Greatest personal weakness ~ anger Greatest way to work off steam ~ bicycle ride Greatest surprise ~ 30th b'day party from Larry Greatest way to relax ~ moonlight path bubble bath or writing Greatest comfort ~ prayer/worship Greatest stress ~ the phone  Greatest irritation ~ lazy people or those who feel entitled. Greatest joy ~ seeing li…