" Pause before stepping into 2010 "

There are only 4 more days left of 2009 to make your mark on the world before you enter yet another year. I have been reflecting back quite a bit on 2009 these last few weeks since I was preparing a message on this very topic for yesturdays Sunday service at our church. The message was a simple one, yet challenging for me to reflect back and take a deep look on where my heart has been focused over the last year. Three points of my message for attaining a closer walk with God were the following:

Asking God for a ....

• grateful heart
• humble heart
• discerning heart

A grateful heart ......

Reflecting on the past year, I am grateful for so many things in my life. I am grateful for our families health - and think of the answered prayer for my daughter Leah who is now seizure free and off of her medication. I am grateful for the simple things like food to eat, a warm house, jobs to work at, cuddle time with my girls this morning in bed, and as of recent the wonderful snow that covers my back yard. The gifts that God gives us each day are always before me, yet sometimes I seem to miss them when my heart is focused on what I do not have.

A Humble Heart.......

A few weeks ago I was feeling very discouraged and unworthy to deliver a Sunday message that I was preparing to give at our church on Dec. 27. I think this is right were God wanted my heart to be - totally dependant upon his strength instead of my own pride. Now this does not mean that I did not put allot of hard work into the message- There were many hours of writing and practicing the sermon on my family! Well, God showed up and he gave me a message that I could have never come up with on my own. I was a bit nervous before the service, but was surprised how comfortable I felt up on the stage. It was as if me and God were the only ones there in the sanctuary. God is good all the time!

A Discerning Heart -
I have not always made the smartest decisions in 2009, but am fortunate to have made a pretty few good ones. I am trying to seek God's discernment in knowing what to say yes and no to in the coming year as I seek to slow down my fast pace lifestyle.


Well, as I close this Pause blog - may you be challenged to reflect back on your 2009 before taking that next step into 2010. May you know that God has been right there with you through all the difficult circumstances of the past year and he will be riding tandem with you in the coming year of 2010!

Blessings and Happy New Year!

Kim Rudd

" Forty Years of Reflection "

This past weekend we had a wonderful time with family as we celebrated Craig's big day turning 40. I feel very fortunate to have been apart of at least half of Craig's life and look forward to many more years of fun filled adventures. Craig and I have a unique relationship in that we both share common passions for the outdoors and our faith in God. In the last twenty years we have enjoyed biking, skiing, canoeing, camping and many travel adventures together. Not only is he the best soul mate I could ever have hoped for, he is also and incredible father to my two girls Hannah and Leah. For Craig's birthday Hannah wrote a list of 40 reasons why she loves her dad. I thought it would be fun to share them with you..........

1. Your the best dad ever


2. You are very fun to be with


3. You pick out the best movies


4. Kind and caring


5. A great MYSL silver ski coach


6. The best homework helper


7. reliable


8. always positive


9. supportive


10. One of the best people to tuck you in at night


11. loving


12. fun to go camping with


13. makes the best grilled cheese sandwiches and soup


14. You know how to chill


15. Takes us on awesome vacations


16. A great soccer coach


17. You know how to cheer me up


18. A good tickle monster


19. Good canoe racer


20. adventurous


21. A good fixer around the house and on our bikes


22. You are good at making stuff fun


23. Loves to explore


24. Good money maker


25. A good uncle


26. Awesome ski waxer


27. Energetic


28. A go getter


29. Handsome


30. Great trampoline jumper


31. super funny


32. Giving


33. Snow lover


34. Understanding


35. You are a great hair brusher


36. Tell's awesome stories


37. Makes awesome tree houses


38. A Good friends


39. Gives the Best Hugs


40. The #1 guy in the world
    

What more can I add to the list - she said it all!

Happy 40th Birthday Craig! Look forward to being by your side in the next half of your life!

Love,

Kim

"Three minutes"

This past weekend myself, Hannah and Leah participated in the 30 hour famine event at Cornerstone Church. The Event is an international movement to fight hunger and poverty around the world. The focused is on bringing awareness to World hunger and raise funds towards World Vision to save lives of children and adults. During our church service on Sunday they had fifty candles representing 50 children. Every three seconds there is a child that dies of hunger around the globe. I was moved into tears as I watched the flames being extinguished in short three minutes.

During this event we fasted from food and participated in several service projects around our community. The girls and I took part in the food drive walking door to door collecting food ( about 2500 pounds ) and clothing for PRISM a local food shelf located in Golden Valley. Other groups baked items to sell at the bake sale and the proceeds went to World Vision. Some worked on houses in Minneapolis through Urban Home Works. The last group went to serve at the Marie Sanvick center.The event had a huge impact on myself and the girls. It was a great reminder that we are truly blessed living in America with food, housing and medical help.

If you would like to donate to World Vision here are some simple ways:

• $30 can help feed and care for a child for a month
• $180 can help feed and care for a child for six months
• $360 can help feed and care for a child for a year

All you need to do is go to www.30hourfamine.org or call 1800-732-6463 and make your donations today!

Have a blessed Thanksgiving Holiday,

Kim Rudd

" Striving versus Striding with God"

Sunny November Monday.........

I feel very tired from the whirlwind of activities over the weekend. We had over 100 women attend the Espresso Yourself event that I was in charge of at our church. The brunch, comedy/drama show and crafts were enjoyed by many women and children. I began to panic early Saturday morning that I would not have enough food to serve so I decided last minute to whip up one hundred scones for the event. Why do I do these things?

Turns out we had plenty of food without the added scones ( although they were a big hit ). So many times I make more effort than is needed. I could have slept in and spent more time in prayer with God, but instead I was busy doing. It is so much easier for me to " do " than to "be". Don't get me wrong, I believe God desires us to serve and " do", but there are times when I know that I should just rest and learn how to " be".

One of the ladies from the show said a quote that stuck with me, " stop striving with God and start striding with God". So often I try to please God and others by what I do when all along I could be resting in His unconditional love.

My to do list is very long today, but I am going to give that list to God and start striding with him. He will show me what is most important and what can wait.

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

O.k. So it took me awhile to get in the groove of writing on this blog. Better late than never. I am taking up the endeavor of writing a book so I thought it would be good practice to start writing weekly blog updates about the Rudd families whereabouts. Since is has been a long while I will fill you in a bit.

Today was a lazy Sunday afternoon. The girls and I enjoyed a nice walk through the woods and played at a nearby park in the wonderful 60 degree temps. We came back home and baked some pumpkin apple bread and home made apple sauce. After dinner the family enjoyed some fun board games. This is what Sundays are for!

Hannah
is 11 years old and just finished her first quarter at Plymouth junior high school. Yikes! Junior high. Can you all remember your junior high experiences. Thank goodness it has been a positive experience for Hannah. The best part is that she can sleep in later than most students who take the bus since she is in walking distance. Hannah still continues three classes in Spanish immersion in Social studies, Science and Spanish reading. She is very grateful that math is now in the English language. One of her favorite classes is English writing. She is quite the writer with a mind full of imagination and lots of words ( us women have many of them). Hannah also enjoyed traveling summer and fall soccer where she enjoys playing the midfield position. She is looking forward to the snow falling so she can start getting her skiing kilometers in at Minnesota Youth Ski League. Next year she will start skiing at Armstrong high school. How did my baby grow up so fast! She is also starting to take on lots of babysitting jobs around the neighborhood.

Leah ....

Is eight going on eighteen and is currently in the third grade at Spanish immersion school. Almost every morning she comes out with some new fashion statement either by fixing her hair or clothes in a unique "Leah style". Both girls enjoy taking piano and recently played at a nursing home dressed in their Halloween costumes. Leah had the privilege of having Dad be her head soccer coach this past summer and fall. The team has lots of aggressive little girls and they were quite successful. Mom is going to take over coaching in the spring. Leah is very social and loves to talk a lot. One of my recent favorite Leah sayings came when we were departing from Animal Kingdom in Disney World when she stated, " Get me out of this character world". Craig and I just looked at each other and laughed. The trip to Florida was a Christmas present from Craig's parents. We went with his parents and sisters family for a week to Disney and Cocoa beach. It was a fabulous week, especially surfing on the waves and running on the beach at low tide.

Craig ......
Is 39 going on 40! One of Craig's midlife crisis distractions was to finish a 120 mile canoe race across Quetico National Park in two days this past August. He and his race partner Bill Dossett finished 5th place overall! It has been a difficult year in the financial planning business, but things are finally looking more upbeat the last few months. As a family we really tried to stop spending money on anything that was not a need. It is amazing how much we were spending on " wants" versus " needs". Craig just came back from dear hunting this past weekend with his Dad and brother-in-law Kurt. Our freezers will be filled again with yummy venison meat!

Kim...
I hung out with the girls over the summer months and enjoyed swimming at the pool, bike rides and lots of fun excursions. Leah and Hannah both had days to pick what they wanted to do. Hannah picked to ride her bike down town and take the light rail transit to the mall of America. We shopped and went on some rides and had a great time. Leah chose the Minnesota State Fair. I think we ate nearly twenty different food items between the three of us. Some memorable vacation memories were the Cornerstone church bike trip up in Alexandria, BWCA trip with Papa out of East Bear Skin Lake, camping trip to Cass lake for the Chippewa Triathlon and Bemidji visiting our old stomping grounds at BSU. I have been enjoying my new coaching job every Wednesday evening through the Loppet Ski club. We have about 40 adults of all ages who come for weekly training and technique workouts. I am still working as Women's ministry director at Cornerstone where I am privileged to work with a great staff and minister to wonderful women.

Piano

Last Sunday Leah and I had a piano recital. The recital was at are piano teachers church. I played a song called Allegro fantastico, and the song Leah played was Go for the gold. Leah didn't seem to nerves but I was a little. After I played my piece we ate cookies and left the church because we had to go to ski League. After ski League our grand parents came and ate dinner with us. I love piano recitals.

Hannah

House Guest

We now are a family of 5. On January 10th we now have a teaching assistant from the girls school living in our home. Her name is Lorenie (Spelling?) and she is 27 years old and is from Guatemala. I unfortunately do not know very much about her since she is either at one of her 3 family members home who live in the area, tutoring, at English class or out with friends. Also, her English is not very good, so Hannah usually has to interpret my questions to her and then her response back to me. When she is home she is very helpful around the house, she often helps out with the girls with homework and helps with the dishes after we eat.

We have been busy skiing as much as possible this winter. Both of the girls are involved in the Minnesota Youth Ski League (MYSL) and enjoy skiing with their friends on Sunday afternoon. Hannah also skis with the advanced kids on Thursday nights working on her classical technique. Both of the girls truly seem to love skiing which is great since it is something that we can all enjoy together. The girls are signed up for a couple of events over the coming weeks, next weekend is the City of Lakes Loppet, the Mora Vasaloppet and then the Birkebeiner. All of these events have organized kids races. Kim and I both enjoy cheering our girls on.

Kim and I have raced a few times this year. Last weekend we skied the Pepsi Challenge 24k Classic and the previous weekend we raced the Boulder lake Freestyle event. All of the events we are racing this year are a part of the Minnesota Skinnyski Series, where the Male and female overall champions receive a grand prize trip to Iceland to ski in the Fossavatn Ski Marathon on May 2nd. Kim is currently in third place and has a chance to win the overall, I am currently in 11th place and would need a miracle to win the mens event.

Next weekend is the City of Lakes Loppet and normally this time of year I am sharpening my scoop shovel and organizing large groups of volunteers to shovel large portions of the ski course. As of today it looks like we will only need to touch up a few thin spots on the course. Overall we will have the best conditions ever unless the long range forecast is totally inaccurate and there is a large meltdown over the next week.

Ski racing is sooooo fun

Leah and I did a ski race at Browns creek, near Stillwater, MN. Their was about 50 kids and the 5 and under kids skied 100 meters the 6, 7, 8 and 9 year old's skied 1.5 kilometers. The 10,11,12 and13 year old's skied 3 kilometers, that was my group. I won my age group, so did my sister. At the end we all got juice and prizes.

We also celebrated New Years. We stayed at home and ate pot stickers and chicken. Then we went to the movie theater. We watched High School Musical Three. boooooo! I didn't like it because it was the same old thing. We came back

and did karaoke and a puzzle. Bye the way, my dad's singing is bad!

I have 3 hole days left in my Christmas vacation. I want to do these things:

Ski 20 more K's
Make a chocolate cake
Clean my room.
Eat Bananas.

Hannah