Deanna Doss Shrodes

Today is Fun Friday, which means...it's my day off! I love Fridays. Adore them. Crave them. What could be better than a day to do what we want to do? (To have more time to do what you want to do, vs. what you have to do, go here , where I'm helping lots of people.) I am blogging today at Lost Daughters , one of my favorite places to be. I enjoy blogging there on occasion when I get brave enough to do so. :) More than that, I enjoy the sisterhood I've found there, with my adult adoptee friends who understand on a level that is impossible for others. Today at Lost Daughters, I'm sharing specifically about what I'm doing to help orphans. Here's my post, if you're interested in following me there today. Have a most blessed day! Much love,  

I have actually had people say to me, "so are you pumped all the time?  By your blog and facebook it appears you have a perfect life and you are always happy."  Well, yes, and..........no.  People get a little skeptical sometimes around people who are always pumped about stuff.  Well let me just say first of all that I am always pumped and hyped about SOMETHING because I have stuff to genuinely be pumped and hyped about.  That's is reality.  Second, even when I have things to be upset about, I choose joy and make a decision to respond in faith.   I always do have things to look forward to.  I'm very stoked about the weekend, excited about what's going to happen at Celebration , thrilled beyond words for what God is doing and I have the most incredible people in my life.  At the same time this wasn't the most exciting "Fun Friday".  It's the kind of Friday I normally hate.  My reality was that I spent the majority of my day at...

This morning I relaxed for a while as Mai worked her magic on my feet.  I go to my "happy place" for a few moments while my feet are soaked and massaged and feel some more strength coming into me for the journey ahead. I don't get pedicures as often as I used to but when I can...oh.............my...............is all I can say.  Or should I say, "Oh Mai"??? lol  So this is how I began my day today on this "Fun Friday"...our day off. I also had a lot of work to do today to get ready for a very special thing that is coming on Monday.  But I got to begin my day with this special way of being good to myself. The other day I began working with a job seeker (through my job at NextJob ) who was assigned to me as a very special case.  I was told this would be a challenge.  This isn't the first time I've been given such assignments.  It actually happens quite regularly that management entrusts me with these "extra special people."  Each ti...

I listened to this song over and over last night..."the Broken and the Tired" by Elevation Church Worship.  Love their worship, and love Steven Furtick's preaching! I wish I could say I'm going into Sunday rested but I'm going into it exhausted and feeling like I could sleep for  month.  I'm pushing through the extreme fatigue and I'm very excited that it's "National Back to Church Sunday" and we'll be celebrating that at the church today.  I know it's going to be a great day!  This morning we've got rehearsal, then I teach class, followed by continental breakfast in the cafe, morning worship, then a choir luncheon and another choir rehearsal, then home to sleep. I wish a sacred day of rest was in store this week but alas, it's not as Monday's going to take off like a rocket and I'm going to be speaking at The Experience Conference in Lakeland on Friday and Saturday and the next weekend is The Spice Conference ...

Yes!  I'm posting three times (at least!) today.  I desperately needed some time for me today.  Part of what I love to do is blog, so this IS relaxation for me.  People have asked me recently if I will take a break from blogging on my upcoming trip Larry and I are taking.  No.  This is something I do to relax .  Others have said, "Won't you spend that time on your husband?"   Well, seeing as my husband will probably do at least one thing without me while on the trip, I will continue to blog.  I guarantee he will watch a sports news update, or take a nap at last once.  :)    He's prone to do a few things to relax on our times away, as well he should.  So, expect my blogs to continue.  Becca says that's a good thing because some people can't live without them.  :)   Yesterday I had a full day of church work at the office, a lunch appointment, plus I was working on engaging 25 job...

After waking Savanna up for school at 6:30, we slept til' noon.  It was glorious.  There's nothing like snoozing with Maddie.  She's a great footwarmer.  Then we just stayed there, writing and listening to music, spending a quiet day together.  This to me is paradise. A perfect day off.  Larry laid there with us most of the day but then he had to get up and take the kids to the Oasis Youth Ministry hayride.  Maddie and I continued to rest, read, write, watch movies and just lay in the silence.   My Fun Fridays are best when there is NOTHING to do.  I go, go, go so much that a day just to lay there is more special to me than anything.  Tomorrow will be another day to work.

I had a good Fun Friday today. Got up late this morning (oh the bliss of the kids not having school!) right in time for a client (coaching) meeting. After that I headed to get a fill (pink) and then when I came home Larry said he wanted to go on a date to the movies. We went to see "The Proposal". I loved it!!! If you read my blog or Twitter very often you probably notice I go to the movies on a constant basis. Usually I have seen just about everything in the theatre at any given time since my son works there and our family goes for free whenever we want. It's wonderful. We picked up Savanna who has been at the Hart's all week. She and Morgan babysat twins this week, all week long and she stayed at her house since it simplified things and plus that they just love being together. After dinner tonight I walked 2 miles. Then showered and did some much needed cleaning and laundry at my house . It was a good day. On to tomorrow morning and life coaching...one of my favor...

Yesterday was Fun Friday and although I had some work to do I tried my best to get some down time. One of my favorite ways to do that is by getting my nails done. I picked a brand new pretty emerald green color. That's my pedicurist, Mai, in the photo above who is doing my feet. I snapped the picture with my cell phone while she was working. Notice my pink sweats and flip flops. Yeah...my uniform on my day off. :-) If you've been reading the blog long you know that Mai does my feet and Lisa and her husband Tony do my nails. (They own the shop, A-Nails in Wesley Chapel. Great place I have been going to for five years.) I get very unique with my nail colors at times because Larry is expressly against me coloring my hair pink, which is something I've wanted to do for a long time. My friend Bobbie Hall (who also lives here in Tampa and has the same amazing hairdresser I do - Ada Alfonso) has had her hair that way for a long time now. I think it looks absolutely beautiful. Stun...

I got up early yesterday morning to try to put some finishing touches on the house for my sister's arrival from Charlotte, NC. She got here mid morning and Dustin, Larry and I picked her up and went out for a nice early lunch at Olive Garden. Dustin had to work last night so we wanted to do something special with just the four of us before he went. Good times. Shari's favorite restaurant is Olive Garden an d ever since going with her years ago she got me stuck on the pasta fagioli. Oh my. I love it. We eat the salad and that soup and dip the bread sticks in it. Fabulous! I didn't overdo it. I'm really watching what I eat, seriously watching it. We came home and spent time together all afternoon and made Jordan's graduation cake and talked and had tea, and just good conversation. Then much later tonight after Dustin went to work Larry and I, Shari, Savanna, Jordan and Emmy (Jordan's girl) went out for a bite to eat again and bowling. (Yes, bowling again...family ...

Well it's Fun Friday and for the most part it's been fun! This morning I had a client meeting (career coaching) followed by a planning meeting with some on our management team and after that I headed out to treat myself to a mani and pedi. I sat there and savored the whole thing. Larry took Maddie to the vet today for the little patches of skin she's been scratching. We thought they were fleas and kept treating her but today we found out they are not fleas. They are demodex mites and evidently this is a condition not passed to humans nor found in your home, but it's just something that dogs get that is hereditary, passed to them from their mother. (Thankfully we don't have to worry about treating the house, our furniture, clothing, her kennel, or other things like that - we just have to treat Maddie.) They said it's a common thing that puppies get and we have about four or five medicines to give her to get rid of it. I'll be glad to see this over with becaus...

Had a good Fun Friday off with my babe for the most part. The phone rang off the hook and I had to share him a little bit, but he's worth every bit of persevering and waiting for. I really expected interruptions with it being Easter weekend anyway and had braced myself for it. The thing I tell myself each week is, "oh well, next Friday is another fun Friday!" Today we did have lunch with Savanna and Dustin which was nice, and Larry went with them this morning to see Monsters vs. Aliens 3-D. Not a lot of time to blog today because we are getting our house ready today for Easter and tomorrow we'll put the finishing touches on at church. It's going to be a great weekend. I'm so excited! By the way, I have a major update coming up here on the blog after Easter. Stay tuned... much love to all my peeps.

Today is my day off and it's not so much fun as relaxing, which I really need and appreciate. At this point it's not over...but I thought I'd blog before midnight since I have been so late in posting this week, and right now I have a totally quiet house. This morning I got Jordan up for school and then went back to sleep and when I got up my husband made me pancakes. Now THAT is the life. Being honest, I have quite a bit of work left to do this weekend but the Lord has been speaking to me about that whole Sabbath thing so I am determined not to work today. After eating pancakes I took a bath and then got my nails done. It felt so good. Both my hands and feet were so overdue. Larry met me and took me to lunch afterwards at a brand new place called The Hungry Greek . This was amazing, first of all for two reasons: 1) I was hungry. 2) I'm Greek. In addition to that the food was INCREDIBLE. It was one of those places I had a really hard time selecting what to eat because th...

Photo I took of Madeline yesterday as she was taking a snooze on our bed. Isn't she adorable? Today was a good day off. I needed it. I know I always say that about every Friday that comes but the truth of the matter is each and every week without fail I really need it. Today I woke Jordan up for school and went back to bed. About half an hour later Madeline woke up to go out and was hungry and Larry got up and took care of her and then got Savanna up for school. I slept til' 10:30. Heaven. That's what that is. I got up and went to get a fill and then got home right in time to help Larry take Madeline to the vet for her initial shots. The vet ended up deciding to do just one shot and one medication to prevent worms by mouth since she is still too young for all of her initial shots. She's just going to be seven weeks old starting tomorrow. I was amazed at how she acted at the vet. She laid there totally still while getting her shot and didn't even yelp or flinch or an...

Today was a great day...the best kind of day off...the uninterrupted/catch up on sleep/no emergencies/do what you want sort of day. I think there's nothing more valuable to a pastor than to be able to get uninterrupted rest, and be with our family. Each time we have a day off or a holiday I just cross my fingers that no emergencies will happen and we can get some down time. After getting the kids off to school I went back to sleep until noon. Does anyone love sleep as much as I do? I'm not quite sure. I must still be really young! All the old people I know get up really early, like 5 am. What is up with that? If I'm getting up at 5 am, it's to catch a plane or something like that. I would never do it voluntarily. Six o'clock is plenty early enough for me and that's just when I have to during the week to get Jordan and Savanna up for school. After sleeping til' noon I got up and slowly ate breakfast instead of eating it quick like I do during the week before ...

I love Fridays. I love my job/ministry, but Fridays are what fuels me to do that even better. Because it's my day with the one I love (besides Jesus). One reason I've grown so protective of it and hate when something interferes with it is because I need it so desperately to energize. Usually each day I get Savanna up for school, feed her and do anything needed to get her ready, then Larry drives her to the bus stop. Today I did it all and let him sleep. Every once in a while he does that for me and it's a God-send. I thought he'd sleep til at least noon. I was pleasantly surprised. I was up eating oatmeal ("the right thing to do" as the commercial says...) and putzing around doing a few things and he calls to me from the bedroom and says..."Sassy...(his name for me)....please come back..." Thus begins romp-tastic Friday. Always a good time had by all. (Don't get any ideas, it's just me and him. We're all that's needed.) So af...

Today is my day off. My sabbath day. What a wonderful thing. You know I didn't used to be able to enjoy days off years ago. In fact I hated them! I couldn't wait for them to be over. This is because I honestly did not know how to enjoy relaxation. I think part of it was - I didn't see how it benefited me or got me ahead, so to speak. I felt like it was a waste of time. I thought that way until about 1999. Then some thing happened which necessitated me taking a step back and getting in touch with the "relaxation" or "sabbath" side of myself, if you will. It was either that or...continue on the crash and burn way I was headed. I had to come to the realization that relaxation DOES get me ahead, because it makes me better for the other 6 days a week and without it, everything suffers. I also realized at that time, that if I didn't develop some things outside the church, even as simple as learning to relax at least one day a week, I would have no...

...often go awry. This picture pretty much sums up the way I feel right now. So much for my day off. I have heard people say things like, "everything if Father-filtered." And..."nothing happens that doesn't go past God's desk first for His stamp of approval..." I have to wonder. Does every phone call go through His filter? I really have to question that sometimes. Even sometimes when emergencies happen, I have to wonder, "why today?" Didn't God know this in advance? And if He did, why did He allow it TODAY? Of all days. Oh well, the good thing is, there are more Fridays on the calendar to come, although next week will not be one of those for me. I'll be away with the ladies at  Women of Faith. (Which is not a break for me.) Today when I calmed down a bit, I flopped down on my bed and picked up a book that has been on my nightstand, Come Away My Beloved, by Frances J. Roberts . It's a devotional classic that has been around...

This will be my view tomorrow...on my day off. I am going to have A WHOLE DAY OFF . It's going to be so wonderful. I'm guarding it with my life! I'm going to enjoy it immensely. This is the view from my back patio. This is what I see when I sit in my jacuzzi. Right now the weather is cooling down, and it's the perfect time to sit on my swing, and read the Bible, or just think in silence. Oh, the bliss. I'm in good company because Jesus loves to do things like this too. He always guarded His boundaries. We read about it in Matthew 13:36...Jesus left the crowd and He went into the house. The crowd was still there, but He wasn't. He came apart and found a quiet place to rest. There are times even now when life gets too noisy, and I just come apart to find a quiet place to rest. As much as I enjoy people and entertaining and parties, I enjoy solitude to a great degree. Again, I'm in good company. Jesus loves it too. In Matthew 14:22, Jesus made the disciple...

Well, back on September 19 I blogged about a potential health situation in my family that had me upset although I didn't go into details. I'm happy to blog today with the results. Praise the Lord, Larry DOES NOT have cancer. To say I'm relieved?? Last year Larry had skin cancer. It took me forever to convince him in the first place that something was wrong. I saw some spots and talked to him about it. He didn't want to do anything about it. He's so stubborn about his health but friends have since told me, most men are this way. I have to drag him to the doctors for anything. He always says, "people are fine, then they go to the doctors and find out they're sick." We know that's not true - they were not fine in the first place! But whatever. Sometimes a woman just knows things. Intuition. He kept putting things off. Finally one day I went to the library to get a book and it had nothing to do with health...it was a leadership book. I brought it...

So Larry and I took the weekend off in Tampa and we are in Lakeland for the weekend. We are preaching at Keith and Joy's church on Sunday for their pastor appreciation service. We decided to make a whole weekend of it and get away together. So, we came to Courtyard Marriott to stay for a few days. Last night we met Keith and Joy for dinner at Carrabbas and hung out with them a little bit at the church and hotel. Today we are just taking the day for ourselves. Nothing to do but sleep, make love, shop, go to dinner, sit by the pool, get in the jacuzzi, watch movies, surf the net, and do all of it all over again. :-) Fun, fun, fun. I am enjoying this day so much. We decided not to get out of bed til' 11:30. Went to lunch, shopping for a little bit, then Larry wanted to sleep a few hours. I read an entire book sitting by the pool, then got in the pool about 1/2 hour, got out and dried off, then went in to the gym and worked out for 45 min. Wow, that felt good! Now he's STILL s...