Illuminate the darkness

Today I feel like God has given me a bit of insight.  It isn't a new concept but rather a new way [for me] to look at an old one.
Instead of painting my world with rainbows for sin or pink, blue, or orange, for sickness, disease or injustice, I pray that God will use me to shine light into the darkness of our world. Illuminating the beauty we all posess that is the love of God, for peace, humility, healing, forgiveness,  and joy.  Beauty that can not be denied.

Get ready to save

We have entered a new season of our lives.  One of plenty. .. After so much time striving to make our savings last, we are now in a position where we can think about things a bit differently and start giving and saving at the same time!
We have never taken Dave Ramsey's financial peace University, but have several friends who have and I did take some teenage equivalent course when I was in New Zealand. .. so we are applying our knowledge.  I have set up a bank account for emergencies with a total of 3 months expenses in it.  That is done! Next step paying off the mortgage on our house in Oklahoma.  I'm not sure what our plan of action is on that just yet but that is the next step.
What else are we doing? Well we just sponsored two of the cutest kids on the planet.  They live in Indonesia,  their names are Gita and Ipung.  They are both 5 years old (same age as Caeden) I'm feeling so very blessed to be able to sponsor them!  And even more blessed that my husband was the driving force behind doing it!
I set up a budget for us to live off from. .. One that may change slightly coming up because our rental house is newly signed with a rental management company.  But that shouldn't change things too much. . Just a little.  We are actually going to be earning something from this investment now!  For the last four years we have been blessed to have a friend renting and caring for our home but now its time to start using it as an income home and though we don't like raising the rent on a friend we are happy to know that soon our house will be helping us instead of hindering us from financial peace.
Looking forward to the differences the new plan is going to be making us!

Get ready to save

We have entered a new season of our lives.  One of plenty. .. After so much time striving to make our savings last, we are now in a position where we can think about things a bit differently and start giving and saving at the same time!
We have never taken Dave Ramsey's financial peace University, but have several friends who have and I did take some teenage equivalent course when I was in New Zealand. .. so we are applying our knowledge.  I have set up a bank account for emergencies with a total of 3 months expenses in it.  That is done! Next step paying off the mortgage on our house in Oklahoma.  I'm not sure what our plan of action is on that just yet but that is the next step.
What else are we doing? Well we just sponsored two of the cutest kids on the planet.  They live in Indonesia,  their names are Gita and Ipung.  They are both 5 years old (same age as Caeden) I'm feeling so very blessed to be able to sponsor them!  And even more blessed that my husband was the driving force behind doing it!
I set up a budget for us to live off from. .. One that may change slightly coming up because our rental house is newly signed with a rental management company.  But that shouldn't change things too much. . Just a little.  We are actually going to be earning something from this investment now!  For the last four years we have been blessed to have a friend renting and caring for our home but now its time to start using it as an income home and though we don't like raising the rent on a friend we are happy to know that soon our house will be helping us instead of hindering us from financial peace.
Looking forward to the differences the new plan is going to be making us!

Get ready to save

We have entered a new season of our lives.  One of plenty. .. After so much time striving to make our savings last, we are now in a position where we can think about things a bit differently and start giving and saving at the same time!
We have never taken Dave Ramsey's financial peace University, but have several friends who have and I did take some teenage equivalent course when I was in New Zealand. .. so we are applying our knowledge.  I have set up a bank account for emergencies with a total of 3 months expenses in it.  That is done! Next step paying off the mortgage on our house in Oklahoma.  I'm not sure what our plan of action is on that just yet but that is the next step.
What else are we doing? Well we just sponsored two of the cutest kids on the planet.  They live in Indonesia,  their names are Gita and Ipung.  They are both 5 years old (same age as Caeden) I'm feeling so very blessed to be able to sponsor them!  And even more blessed that my husband was the driving force behind doing it!
I set up a budget for us to live off from. .. One that may change slightly coming up because our rental house is newly signed with a rental management company.  But that shouldn't change things too much. . Just a little.  We are actually going to be earning something from this investment now!  For the last four years we have been blessed to have a friend renting and caring for our home but now its time to start using it as an income home and though we don't like raising the rent on a friend we are happy to know that soon our house will be helping us instead of hindering us from financial peace.
Looking forward to the differences the new plan is going to be making us!

I found people like me!

I stumbled on a website full of full time rv families!  I'm so excited about this!  You should check it out!
Seriously check this out!
I am still exploring the site but hope to write more about it in the future!

Don't feed the fire

I recently built my very first fire without the help or input of anyone.  It turned out great and I jokingly called myself the fire master the rest of the evening. Fires have a lot to teach us.  One such lesson is that you can't keep feeding the fire if you want to put it out.
This morning I woke up groggy and less than than chipper, but in a good mood.  My children however were intent on making the day difficult.  This really makes me wish I had gone to sleep earlier.  First Micah woke up crying.  He wanted to nurse and go back to sleep, but Caeden woke up then too. Caeden doesn't have a mute button, or a slow down button, or a consider others button yet.  I plan to install them soon.
So Caeden hits the ground running "can I have a yogurt?"
I buy yogurts just for Caedens breakfast.  No one else eats them.  It makes mornings go smother if he can get his own breakfast while I tend to Micah.  This morning he couldn't get the silverware drawer open though so he had to wait until Micah was taken care of and this for what ever reason ticked him off.  He stamped around the 5th wheel and loudly complained and demanded that I get him a spoon.  I schooled him for his rude behavior toward me and he waited, the damage was done though because then I hear a sleepy little girl saying "can I wake up now?" She took to saying this around the same time she stopped falling asleep during her nap time.
I get Caeden a spoon, try again to get Micah to go back to sleep,  no dice,  the children are all over the place playing being loud and then fighting.  I demand they get dressed then start to read with Caeden which on a day like today is just asking to create bald spots on my head. 
After struggling through the book we finally finish and Micah is screaming for me.  Caeden is still hungry and Fia has finished her oatmeal I get Caeden a bowl of cereal and go back for a 3rd attempt at getting Micah back to sleep, and it is working until Caeden 'meant to just push Fia a little bit' but obviously pushed too hard cause she is screaming.
This is my morning. .. And it isn't even 9am. How do you not feed this fire? Oh I tell you it is a constant struggle.  Just let the little things slide and find good ways to deal with the big ones that don't involve waking up the baby I just got to sleep...
Next on my agenda grocery shopping.  On a day like today you can call me crazy. .. But we have company coming tomorrow and no more food in the house. I have no choice but to brave the stores with my motley crew and pray that God has mercy on me.

The reward system

Caeden is learning to read,  and Fia is getting a good reminder on potty training.  And we decided to go back to a big reward for each accomplishing their goals.
We took them to Walmart and let them chose a toy. .. our genius kids picked $10 toys with out any prompting!  For your understanding here are the rules.
Caeden must read 3 books to receive his dragon toy.  He can look at the toy all he wants but it can not come out of its package or be played with until he has read all three books. 
Fia must use the toilet and have no accidents for 7 straight days to receive her baby doll stroller. 
I made them each a chart and for each day Fia is accident free, and each book Caeden reads they receive a sticker for their charts.  So far Caeden just earned his first sticker this morning,  and when Sapphira wakes up she will get to put her 3rd sticker on the chart!  I'd say we are off to a very good start.
Caedens reading is actually very good if only his attention was as good as his ability he would be reading at a higher level by now.  He just gets about three quarters of the way through a book or story and starts wiggling and can no longer concentrate on what he is supposed to be doing.  It's been hard because of that to assure him that he can read and that he is doing well.  If he never finishes the book he thinks he has failed all together and doesn't want to try anymore.
Fia on the other hand, no one knows what is gong on there. She was fully potty trained and suddenly became terrified of public toilets again and went so far as not wanting to use our toilet either.  But now with that baby doll stroller sitting on the shelf she has been accident free for 3 days no problem at all.  I've decided to just continue to remind her often to use the toilet once this week is done,  I think it will help her at least at home.
So there it is.  I don't know if this is bribery, I'm going to say it isn't. When you go to work you don't just do it because your boss said to, you get a financial reward for your effort. .. so my kids are getting rewarded for their hard work.  Hopefully this proves to Caeden that he has the ability, and to Fia that she doesn't need to be afraid of the toilet. We shall see.

So brave

Yesterday cost me about $400.  Not totally unexpected.  I had my Dr. Appointment for that ganglion cyst.  I was thrown off a bit by my doctor's appearance though. I expected an older white male,  short and chubby. I have no idea what made me expect that.  What I got was a dark skinned,  skinny,  angular nosed, young man wearing a pink Polo that made his skin really pretty.  He was gentle and funny... And professional.  I don't want anyone to think I was flirting with the man. . Lol. 
After discussing my problem and having him bend and twist and press around in my wrist he confirmed what I always thought.  The part of my wrist that sticks up is bone, not a cyst.  Which had him worried because it could have meant surgery or an eventual wrist replacement.  A wrist replacement!  I've never heard of a wrist replacement!  But he informed me that almost anything on my body could be replaced (side note, none would be better than the original though). So he sent me off to get some xrays.
I asked every person available how much those would cost me. .. No one knows!  What industry can you go to, specify exactly what you need and not be told the cost until after you agree to it.  I don't mean that they could give me a ball park figure but not an exact price. ..I mean they said it could be a few hundred or more. .. or less, but you will get 50% off cause you are self pay. .. Who cares what 50% is if you don't know what 100% is? How do I know it is actually discounted if I don't know the original cost up front?
Sorry I digress. .. Back to my wrist.
I returned to the doctor and was shown the bones in my wrist on the computer.  They both look exactly alike!  Nothing wrong with the painful one at all.  I paid, or rather will pay for something that no one could tell me the cost and in the end I didn't need. .. But I'm glad to know I don't need surgery!
After talking this over with the doctor he offered not to charge me for an ultrasound to take a look and see if there was anything he could do. 
And to our amazement there was indeed a cyst.  A tiny one under the bone sticking out, it was causing the pain and some inflammation on two of my tendons.  So then I started warning them about my extreme dislike for needles and the doctor seemed nice but perhaps didn't believe it was a serious concern, who likes needles?  The nurse however got me a cold lemonade and some peanut butter crackers, and then when I mentioned I wouldn't eat or drink until after the procedure because I might puke she offered to get me something to puke into.  I refused because I didn't think I would puke,  the only times I have ever puked was during the glucose test in pregnancy.
Then they left me in that room for a while with all the stuff they would be using in my wrist!  Nerve wracking!  But I kept from thinking about it by reading an article in a magazine about spd which I found very interesting but finished before they came back.
When the doctor returned I was still pretty calm and feeling very proud of myself.  He sprayed my wrist with something pretty cold and then injected something to numb my wrist.  I always react after the needle so trying to stay conscious I asked about the cold stuff he sprayed me with.  He said he had no idea what else it could be used for and then started reading the label and informed me it was flammable.  Lol.  I asked him not to light me on fire. He laughed and we chatted a moment while he waited for the numbing stuff to work.
Then he got the ultrasound going again and started by taking fluid out of the cyst and then injecting it with a steroid to take away any inflammation and get rid of the cyst.  And while he did that I started fighting the urge to puke.  I even asked him (mostly because I thought talking would help me stay conscious) if I passed out and convulsed would it mess up what he was doing?  He said no. Then I told him I thought I was going to puke.  He got me a trash can and then called for his nurse in a sort of panicked voice. If I had been feeling better I would have laughed at his reaction.  He found me a little plastic basin and I held it while trying to regain my balance, not puke, and not pass out.
Im happy to say that after a few minutes, a cup of cold lemonade, and some crackers, I was OK.  I didn't pass out or puke!
Then I realized I would be driving a stick shift home and wanted to cry.  Lol.
Any way. I made it through.  Pretty well too.  And the doctor when he returned to check on me picked a little about how he had never lost a patient.
  Now I am supposed to wait a few days before reporting the results but while it was really painful last night it feels almost normal today (normal as in still painful) hopefully tomorrow I can say it is normal like my other wrist.

Reunion crashers

A few weeks ago my family was invited to the home of some of the members of the church we are attending,  while we were visiting we were given an invitation to come to their family reunion... this sounds odd, but it was a party and they invited us so we went.
The reunion was held at the vacation home of an Amish man and his wife.  From what I gather the family used to be Amish but over generations they are mostly not Amish any longer for whatever reason.  So the only remaining Amish in the family (at least of those present) were the man and wife hosting the reunion.  My secret desire was that there would be more. I want to learn about all these cultures we have the privilege of seeing on all of our travels. 
I learned quite a lot about mexican food while in San Diego.  I say it was a lot but no Mexican would agree, I went from a general understanding of tacos to making and eating quesadillas, fajitas, and even once I helped to make enchiladas.  Just having these foods in our diet on a regular basis is quite a difference from my upbringing.
So now on the east coast I have the privilege of living near many menonite and Amish families. I feel excited to get to know this difference in culture. But the family reunion we crashed was not the time to learn about them I suppose.
I did have the chance to speak to a mother of 8 children soon to be nine,  the daughter of our host.  We actually had a bit in common.  Though I have only three children and live in a house on wheels, and she has 8 children and lives in a grand beautiful home on around 100 acres, we both like to sew clothing for our daughters, we both home school our children, we both want to raise God fearing children who respect and care for others. We both have experienced home birth, and in different ways have put our total trust in God, it was wonderful to get to speak to a woman who understands the important things in my life because they are important to her as well. 
I'm finally coming around to the idea that I can have a conversation with someone and know ahead of time it won't develop into a deep friendship, and still spend the time talking about whatever comes up and really enjoy the time.  I will always thirst for lasting relationships and miss my dearest friends who are not living near by (due entirely because we don't stay anywhere long enough to put down roots), but I can truely enjoy the company of strangers on a deep level and then move on perfectly Ok, probably better off for it.
I thank God for the chance to meet this family, and being included even so briefly in their family.  I look forward to the next adventure we as a family get to be part of!

I am learning

Talking to a newly homeschooling mama friend I hadn't spoken to in months reminded me of some things I said to and about myself a few years ago and made me realize just how great my God is.
When Caeden was a baby, maybe even before he was born Patrick and I started talking about how we would educate our children, home school was an option we would consider but were unsure of.  I was home schooled a few years and while I thought it could have been great, it wasn't. I was not socialized during that time and wasn't kept accountable for my school work much of the time.
Then when Caeden turned two I met a woman who was homeschooling her three children, and part of a co-op, and thought "yes I think I could do that but ONLY with a co-op". So home school became a reality to me. Something that could be done but only with support.
We moved back to Michigan for awhile and I prepared a curriculum for Caeden's preschool when he was 3.
And then Patrick got a job where I couldn't even locate a co-op.  So I learned that in deed I could homeschool without a Co-op. But that was just pre-school, surely pre-school didn't count.
Then kindergarten time came and not only did we not have a co-op but we also moved 4 times from October to the end of May.  Which is almost the whole school year and somehow we made it through.  We are done with kindergarten!
So my friend asks me "did you find a co-op? " and my answer.  "Yeah there are some out here but we aren't joining any."  HAHA!  What happened to the girl I was a few years ago?  Unsure of my abilities as a mother and teacher, unsure of what God had been leading us to all along.  Here I am, not the best mother, not the best teacher, but absolutely the best for my children, absolutely qualified for the work God has anointed me to do!  Sure is going to be rough, but I have a mighty father to lean on and he is reliable, strong, a great leader, and I know he can teach me what I need to know to give my children the life they need and grow them into God fearing,  strong caring citizens of this country who take care of themselves and others as they are able.
I am growing so much and God is leading me through this journey.  Is it about me?  Nope, but while in this life I'm determined to do my best at it.

Trouble in paradise

Sometimes it seems you get all your ducks in a row, get yourself set up, Your household is in order, and then something hits the water and starts it rippling.  That is my life.  The water never stops rippling, and if I think it might be then hang on because it won't last long.
I try to enjoy this life that I have because it is the one God has blessed me with, but if I'm honest it tires me out.  We have been playing with tests for ADD on the Internet and yesterday Patrick was answering the questions as they pertained to me.  He was answering in jest but had a story to back up every question he answered yes to.  In the end I felt like the real problem is that I am over loaded with to - do's.  I want a simple life but even though our things are few, our lives are far from simple.
I'm trying to depend on God for direction and find it hard to do as he has said because I have to find the time to do it right.  Here is an example.  I prayed the week before last that I could help Caeden realize the role he plays in our family and to take ownership of that role without complaint.  I felt the answer was to have him take on a chore of his own.  One he would do every day.  In this house the cupboards are so high I have to be selective on what my children can help with.  So again I prayed about it and felt the Lord answered that he should clean the bathroom.  This sounds perfect.  I organized the bathroom and bought baskets to make it easy on him to keep things organized.  But then I never taught him how to do it... I want to obey but I'm having a hard time doing it.  Makes me slightly more compassionate toward my children's disobedience when I can see my own so clearly.
I am determined that today will be the day that I teach him how to clean the bathroom.  Maybe we will do that even before breakfast. If not though it will be done. I will be obedient to God in the raising of my children.
And these ripples in the pool of my life, I'm trusting in God to calm them and carry us on. Wherever he leads us we will follow.

Fun times

Yesterday a family from church joined us at the campground pool for a swim.  It was lovely to meet with them and we enjoyed their company.  The children did not really play with each other but I hope one day they will become friends I really like this family.
It's hard because the kids that come to the campground are either only here for a weekend or may not be the kind of kids I want my children playing with. There is one boy that is here a lot and isn't much older than Caeden but is allowed to wander around at will much of the time, Caeden is not allowed that freedom and the other boy doesn't understand.  Caeden has twice left without permission and gotten in trouble for it, and the other boy is starting to get it I think. But the other problem is this boy seems to be a camilion, changing how he treats Caeden depending on the other children he is around.  If the child is older he acts like he doesn't know Caeden, if younger they all become friends fast. It hurts to watch this considering Caeden doesn't know why it is happening and has yet to make any other friends.
Which is why I'm so very excited to bring him to vbs at church!  I'm praying he will become friends with the children there. They are bound to be better influences on him and since we will attend church together he will see them on a regular basis.
Life for Caeden has been rough. Giving up toys,  leaving friends,  changing houses so often.  I would like to make these changes easier on him but the truth is they are not easy on any of us.  We can only pray that God will protect our hearts during the changes.
So after church today Caeden will get his very first big kid activity away from mommy and daddy.  I mean that he will be attending for a whole week.. He does go to children's church without us. I am a bit sad about this. I have not decided if Fia will attend or not but I believe her age group is included.
Ack. My babies are getting so big!

Happy 5th of July

No time to post yesterday. .. so you get a 'day after' post.
Happy 5th of July!
Yesterday was a pretty good day.  I had mini attitude issues and got through them.  I find that I'm jealous of my husband when life starts to overwhelm me and I feel like I'm running to hard for to long to keep it all going.  He works 5 days a week and then gets to come home and not work.  Lol!  At least that is my perspective,  he actually does help us out at home a lot, like yesterday he worked a half day and came home and we all went out to a park that was hosting festivities.  After that I made some hamburger patties and he grilled our dinner, built a fire so we could make smores, took care of some trash that was just laying around and then helped me get everyone in bed.  Which is a lot more than nothing. 
We intended to watch the fireworks but someone said there would be some here at the campground but didn't know if it would be today or tomorrow.  We let the kids stay up until after dark which is to say an hour and a half past bedtime, but no fireworks were going off so we concluded they must be tomorrow.  Then as in some grand joke they began the fireworks display about 3 minutes after tucking them into bed. I wasn't about to get them up again since they were both so tired that they were crying about things they wouldn't have ordinarily cried about (such as a new found hatred for helium balloons because they always fly away).
Caeden and I had a good talk about why God created things that go away but bring us joy while they last.  This life is temporary. 
This life is temporary,  do you hear that?  Only life with Jesus is forever. My children teach me that every day as I look at them and see them growing so quickly.  God gave me these babies to love, raise, and teach about his love, but they are not really mine, they are God's, and one day they will be grown.  I comfort myself knowing that we have God inspired technology that will help me to communicate with them even after they leave my home, but when they are grown I pray I have done my job for them well.
Oh how I pray I will have taught them to love the Lord with all their hearts and to love each other as themselves.  I pray they will have a steadfast joy in their hearts the kind that seeps out of them and into the hearts of those they come in contact with.
I pray that jealousy will find no place to take root in their lives, that they will be happy for the good fortune of others and content in their own good fortune.  That they will find spouses that love Jesus and walk humbly with God together.
I have always prayed for my children but now that I'm seeing Caeden starting to make his own choices in life and I know the end of a season has come for us, now I pray even harder.  I feel like prayer is my greatest weapon against the sins that my children are about to face head on.  I protect, guide, and disciple them but they make their own choices. 
My biggest prayers for them currently are obedience,  joyfulness,  and contentment.  Couldn't we all use those?
What are your prayers for your children?

Adventure awaits me

Anyone who knows me well knows I am pretty much terrified of needles.  I steeled myself against the possibility of a needle today and went into urgent care to have them tell me why my range of motion in my wrist was down to about a1/3 of what it should be.  I felt brave. I felt confident. I felt like I could handle it, or at least try to.
There are only a few possibilities of what could be wrong, one of them being a ganglion cyst.  I'm familiar with them, I have one on the other side of my wrist, both of them actually. But this seemed harder smaller and affects my movement much more than the ones I'm used to, so the idea that it could be a ganglion cyst both comforted me and terrified me.  Comfort because it is better than some of the alternatives,  terrified because the treatment for it involves a needle extracting the fluid in it and another needle putting something back into it.  Two needles sounds like just the way to get me to faint and make a complete fool of myself.
I was so brave.  I went in alone to the doctors office. I waited cheerfully to see him.  He came in took a quick look at my wrist and sent me packing with a referral to a doctor that he trusts deeply and whom he always refers these sorts of things to because he is the best. .. And as a bonus to me he is a family doctor and charges less than a surgeon would. .. yup ganglion cyst.  So lucky me I do get a needle shoved in my wrist.  Oh I'm dreading it!  But I'm brave I can do it.  But it scares me much more than having babies ever did.  I can do this!  By God's grace I will do this!

Breaking prejudice

Patrick and I have been looking for a church we could call home since arriving in Pennsylvania.  After trying two churches and not loving either of them I decided to talk to God a bit more in depth about it.  First I prayed that we would be invited to eat with people from the church we should attend. ..I prayed this during service at the second church and it was crazy after service no one talked to us at all.
Then sometime last week I wrote in my journal (which is a collection of letters I write to God) a list of things I hoped to find in the church God would have us attend. Here is my list.
1. An engaging children's service that teaches each of my children at their level about bible concepts.
2. A worship service that is engaging, uninterrupted and truely draws the presence of the Holy Spirit.
3. A pastor who preaches to the hearts of his people, calling out their sins but helping to guide them toward Christ with teaching relevant and applicable to our lives.
4. A family of believers that will become our family and one so welcoming that making friends will not take long.
5. Activities during the week that will draw us closer in the community of the church, relationships with you, and service to others. 6. A man among this church that will love Patrick as a father.  Someone who can be his mentor and friend. Someone who can also be a grandpa to our children and whose wife can do the same for me.
Each of these things have been added to a growing list of desires for the church we would one day be able to stay at.  Each of them very important to us.  Your list might look different and that isn't bad but this is ours.
Then something amazing happened.  We had two choices of churches to try this week,  one looked very up beat and new but the Web site said very little about their beliefs which worried me,  the other looked about like the last two we went to, and they both had not met our needs.  We decided to go with the one whose beliefs were posted clearly on the Web site.  Sandyhills community church is the name of it.  I'm not one to post a bad review about a church so the fact that I'm naming the church should mean a great deal.  I loved it.  As we were walking up to the doors there were two causally dressed greeters, both dressed in pants,  one male, one female, they were having a friendly competition to see who could get more people through each door.
Inside we were greeted again, this time by the pastors wife she is a grandmotherly woman with a lovely smile and so helpful! She pointed out where we needed to go to get the children situated in their classes, and answered my questions about the service.  The pastor came directly to us and introduced himself and took special care to introduce himself to our children saying they were "very important people" which I found very sweet.
Once service started we enjoyed singing songs we knew well and could really come into the presence of God.  The worship was uninterrupted, which you may have noticed was important to us.  The message was good.  It was relevant,  and I learned something I didn't know before (In case your interested he taught on Luke ch. 7 and spoke about John the Baptist).
I met a woman pregnant for her 6th child, all of those children were present for the whole service and sat right behind us and we're quiet as mice too.  After service I was invited to the park on Wednesday by this woman and she stayed to talk to us after most everyone else was gone.
Another grandmotherly woman who had sat in front of me invited us to her home that evening.  Which was such a blessing.  Her husband and his cousins were playing Bluegrass music together for fun. I sang "I'll fly away" with them.  We ate pizza, we even let Sapphira have pizza with cheese on it that night.  They took us in like family.  I have not felt so welcomed by strangers in such a long time.  They even invited us to a family reunion they are having... which is funny but I totally want to go!
The funniest thing about all of it is that our preconceived ideas would have kept us from attending at all if we had known what denomination they were before walking into the church.  I knew from the Web site that they believed the same as we did, but hadn't seen anything with a denomination on it.  But when I asked, I learned,  they are menonite (I hope I'm spelling that correctly)
In our minds the menonites were one step away from Amish, girls in dresses with coverings on their heads. .. Not bad just different,  but this church wasn't that way at all.  Girls and guys alike wore what they wanted, some dressed up a little, some a lot, some it seemed not at all... And I only saw one woman with anything on her head.  We are changing our minds about our preconceived notions.  And we are going back next week.