Listening to..

I love Michael W. Smith's music! My neighbor knows him personally and said he is truly the nicest and most down to earth musician he's ever met!

Now reading..

This book called "A New Kind of Christian" by Brian McClaren. Brenda and I often share books after we've read a good one! She and I both share a passion for bringing others to Christ's Kingdom! We also love learning about the post-modern generation and their thoughts and ideas about Christianity! I definitely find myself agreeing with the post-modern thoughts on church! Which is why I want to plant a church in my community! I was telling someone the other day about my dreams for the future and they said, "Susan, the Tavern is going to be your church. You can bring people to Christ wherever you are at. Perhaps you'll have Bible Studies, or small groups, or whatever God leads at the Tavern." SO true!!! God has enabled this to take place! AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH He is AMAZING! I am shouting it from the rooftops. Okay..shouting it inside of my mind.. DANCING..Jumping for Joy..in the little coffee house in New Wilmington... GOD IS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A banana Cream pie!

EMILY is an incredible Pie Maker! She's been baking us some delicious pies for the restaurant this fall! OUr customers have been raving about them! Yesterday Emily baked us a Banana Cream Pie to bring home! Emily.. YOU ARE AMAZING and so GIVING and GENEROUS and THOUGHTFUL!!! WE LOVED YOUR PIE! WE LOVE YOU!!!!!! Thank you for ALL you do for me and my family! You are another person that God has put in our lives that has blessed us in many, many ways! Too many to count! Suzy

Nikki and Ally playing in the leaves!

My friend Karen

Karen came over for dinner tonight! Karen is one of the most Godly women I've ever known. She is also like a surrogate grandmother to my girls. She loves us. She loves me. I love her too. : ) Karen ministers to a lot of people. She is a Christian counselor and always has good advice. She is a great listener! I know that I can call her any time of the day and she will listen and give advice that is full of Godly wisdom! Karen also leads a Bible Study at Jameson Health place once every other week, teaches sunday school, occasionally preaches, leads a discipleship class... *phew* She's dedicated her life to the Lord!
Karen..thank you for your friendship and your love for me and my family! You are loved and appreciated so very much! Sue

Just finished reading...

Do you watch Jon&Kate plus eight? I am one of the many people who have fallen in love with that family! I bought the book for my niece Amanda who loves the show too but ended up reading it myself! Kate praises and gives glory to God all through the book! It's a beautiful testimony and praise to the Lord! It's also a great book! Go Kate! You and Jon rock!

Vote your Values!

A Radio Interview

I was interviewed by Titan Radio today! They are interested in our story about buying the Tavern. It is so much fun to share our story! There's a lot of buzz going on around town! : ) The New Wilmington boro employees came in to our restaurant for lunch today. They have been so kind to us! I feel so much pleasure and excitement being a part of this venture! Everyone around us is seems so excited too! I also made an appointment to be interviewed by the Globe newspaper in New Wilmington. They are going to tell our story! In the newspaper, I am going to not only share our testimony, but ask people to write to us about what they loved about the Tavern, What they didn't love about the Tavern, what kind of food they'd like to see us have, what kind of baked goods are they interested in..any stories..critiques.. anything they'd like to know...we are going to set up a blog, to share our story, a web site, and an email address! We want this restaurant to be LOVED by the town of New Wilmington! We want to exist for the purpose of serving good food, at a reasonable price in a friendly and clean environment! We want people to feel like they are HOME at our restaurant! We want to fall in love with people and have them fall in love with us! We want to make everyone feel loved and respected and fed well when they come through the doors of the Tavern! But most of all..Most of all, we want to give Glory and Honor to God in EVERYTHING we do with the Tavern!!! OOOOOOOOOH! I'm sooooooooooo excited!!

Anne

I had lunch with Anne last Tuesday. Anne is beautiful and intelligent and witty. Anne is creative and talented. Anne is kind and generous. Anne is giving! Anne loves Jesus : ) Anne is a leader. She is able to lead groups of people very well. She organizes the New Wilmington Business Expo each year. She leads the Bell Choir for Westminster College and for her church. She also leads the choir. Anne owns her own business and is successful. When you have a free minute please check out her site! She has beautiful floral works of art for sale!
www.annebrueningoriginals.com I am really attracted to Anne's leadership skills. I am learning from her. There is a lot more to learn..we've just touched the surface. We've been having so much fun getting to know each other through emails, through our lunches and through our mastermind group! I like how Anne lives. She doesn't need things. She's had to be dependent on God for so many things..and she will tell you that God has always provided! Anne wants to gain her financial freedom so she can give back to God what has been given to her! Anne's spreadin the love!
Today I am praying especially for you Anne! I pray that God sets you free financially. I pray that He continues to provide for you, but not only for your needs, I pray that He abundantly blesses you! Did you ever read the prayer of Jabez? I pray that He expands your territory!!! IN Jesus's name, Amen!

Spread the Love!

I'm going to go one step beyond my previous post...

SPREAD THE LOVE! You do it too! I have an average of 13 readers a day at my blog. That's thirteen on average of you who can also spread some love around! Come on..choose one act of kindness that you can do this week for someone, and then send me an email of what you did, and I will post it in my blog! It will be fun to think of something you can do, and I promise you..it will feel sooooo good, for you to something for someone else! Come on readers....let's do it!!! Join with me to create A Love Movement!!!

Spreadin' the Love!

I call my neighbor Jim, Santa Clause. He works for the largest Christian Record Label in the country. Jim likes to give us presents from his supplier. He gives us many presents!! Last week he gave us about 20 of the latest cds, even before they were released to the public. Last night we found a box sitting on our porch. It contained 35..YES THIRTY FIVE Instrumental, and worshipful praise and inspirational Christian CD's for us to use at the Tavern! We like to play Christian Music at our restaurant. Today Jim calls over from across the street.. "Susan did you hear the latest Michael W. Smith Cd?" "no, but I'd love to!!!" He brings it over..here ya go You can have it! I said, "Thanks Santa Clause." He is so wonderful. It's the love of Christ inside of people that pour out onto others... That's what I'm talking about. Do you know what I mean? That's how I felt when Terri showed up at my restaurant to help out!! So now it's my turn.. I've had so many blessing bestowed upon me lately it's time for me to pass it on...
Hmmmmm.. I am going to try to do two acts of kindness this week. Something unexpected..something above and beyond the norm.. It's going to be fun thinking of what I can do!! I'll keep ya'll posted when I spread the love!!

Lauri Mackaness

Lauri is the real estate agent who handled the sale of The Tavern to us. She wasn't our real estate agent. She was the sellers agent. But.. we spent a lot of time together, and Lauri spent a lot of time taking care of us..talking to us..explaining things to us, and walking us through this whole journey of buying our new restaurant. It felt like she became an advocate for us...maybe not an advocate..but I don't know...friend? Helper? In our corner? She didn't just help us..she was definitely *in my opinion* fair to both parties! She helped the seller get his real estate sold!
Lauri is an INCREDIBLE woman. Not just an amazing real estate agent, which she is..but she is also a wonderful mother and a loving wife. She is a community leader and a beautiful, beautiful Christian woman. I have so much respect for her not only as a business woman, but as a person. Lauri, I hope you see this post someday if you google yourself. : ) You have been so wonderful to us. Thank you so very much. I pray that God pours His blessings all over you and your family. I know He has already and I know that He surrounds you with His love because He lives inside of your heart! Remember to always seek and trust Him in EVERYTHING you do! Don't second guess yourself. Trust your instinct which comes from the Lord!
God Bless You and Thank you Lauri! Susan

Should we have a huge menu with many choices or a smaller menu with fewer choices?

A few years ago, a professor from Columbia University completed a series of studies that resulted in an article “When Choice is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing?” In one experiment, they set up a tasting booth at a grocery store. They offered 24 different exotic flavors of jams for people to taste in one instance. In a separate instance, they only offered 6 varieties. Customers who stopped by the booth received a coupon for a dollar off the purchase of a jar. In this experiment:

More people stopped at the booth that offered more choices; however, folks tasted the same number of jams in both locations.
More importantly, 30% of the people with a choice of 6 jams actually purchased a jar. Only 3% of the people with a choice of 24 jams made a purchase. Fewer choices generated more purchases.
Barry Schwartz wrote in his book The Paradox of Choice:

When people have no choice, life is almost unbearable. As the number of available choices increases, as it has in our consumer culture, the autonomy, control, and liberation this variety brings are powerful and positive. But as the number of choices keeps growing, negative aspects of having a multitude of options begin to appear. As the number of choices grows further, the negatives escalate until we become overloaded. At this point, choice no longer liberates, but debilitates.

We will be working on the menu soon. This is something that is going to be very difficult for me. How do we choose what goes on the menu when we have so many good items? I want to have everything..but I know that's impossible! We changed something on our Neshannock Creek Inn Menu this year. Instead of having sandwiches listed by themselves, we now have them come with a choice of fries, slaw or soup. Some people seem to get exhausted having to make the choice. What kind of soup? They usually get two or sometimes three choices? I'm finding that a lot of people like the choice to be made for them. For example if they are getting a battered Cod Dinner, they like it when it says Battered Cod with homemade macaroni and cheese and a side of slaw.. instead of this.. Cod? Would you like it baked or Battered? Battered? okay.. how about scalloped potatoes, macaroni and cheese, baked potato, sweet potato, fries or potato wedges? hmmmm can you repeat those? *I say them again* ummm are your fries homemade? no.. okay sweet potato. Salad, slaw or cup of soup? What kind of soup? Wedding or French Onion. Salad. What kind of dressing on your salad? Argghhhhh!! See what I mean? It gets frustrating for the customer to have to make all those choices sometimes! What do you think? Do you like having lots of choices or do you trust an expert to make the choice for you?

Emily's Halloween Party!

We love you Emily! Thank you for loving us so much and giving so much of yourself to everyone! You are the most generous, loving Lady I have ever known! My family is blessed to have you in our life!






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It's official..

Today we finalized negotiations. : ) Our closing date is November 30th. We plan on opening in January 2009! There is such a testimony to tell. I will begin sharing with you the whole journey as soon as I have some time to write. Thank you everyone for your prayers and support. Joe and I are in awe of our God! IN AWE! Please keep praying for us, and for our future home and restaurant. Please ask God to surround us with his love and care and protection. Please pray for my family. We COVET your prayers! They are very valuable to us. We love you all. S,J,A,L

She's so beautiful.

Alexandra Nicole

"Every day you either live by priorities or you live by pressures. You either decide what is important in your life or else you let other people tell you what is most important in your life." - Rick Warren

"In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness, and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us." - Titus 2:7-8 (NIV)

Nikki

Neshannock Creek Inn Record!

We broke a record at our restaurant this weekend. Without any special events going on we had over 700 customers Fri, Sat & Sunday. Friday was the best Friday we've ever had in 18 years. God is AMAZING! I Praise you Lord for what you are doing in our lives. I tell everyone..in these times of economic woes.. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and do not lean on your own understanding!
Our restaurant is the busiest it's ever been. People are coming from all over. I am living a miracle. I feel that. I feel like I am living a miracle!
Thank you Jesus.

MasterMind Meeting Friday!

Had another great mm meeting this past Friday. Anne, Terri and I shared life stories with each other. It was wonderful learning more about these two Godly and business saavy women. I know that God has brought us together and we are going to grow and produce wonderful fruit as a group!
I have to share something that came from this group that truly Rocked my World! Anne and I are starting to grow a friendship. It is in it's early stages, but I feel a deep connection to Anne that I want to cultivate. Terri and I just met two times, but after hearing her speak..hearing her "story", I can't wait to get to know her even more, as well.
After our dinner and story telling, Friday night, I told them about a potential problem that I might encounter at work on Saturday. This is a very busy time of year for us at the restaurant, and we need as many employees to work as possible. Two of my employees are high school students. They called me up Friday and told me that their soccer coach called a surprise practice session for Saturday and they wouldn't be able to work.
I told them that they HAD to work!!!! ACK!! This would have been a disaster, if they didn't work..we needed them desperately.
I even called their coach up and begged him to release the girls to work.. (He wouldn't).
So, I told this to Anne and Terri.. Terri, who owns her own florist shop in New Wilmington (Flowers on the Vine)..said, "I'll come help you if you need me to.) I didn't take her seriously..just laughed her off. She was telling me earlier that she was busy because it was homecoming, and she had homecoming flowers to get ready. As a matter of fact, she had to leave our dinner, and go back to work after 10:ooPm!!
Saturday rolls around..and about 12:00...Terri shows up at my restaurant and asked if I needed her to help out!! I was blown away. She hardly knows me. She was willing to be put to work?? That is of God! That is a Godly witness..that is an incredible woman!! Who would do that???? I mean..it's one thing to ask..to offer help..but to really show up!!!! WOAH! Honestly..it rocked my world. It spoke a billion words of that woman's character!
Terri.. thank you for your kindness. You blew me away..and that doesn't happen very often! I am so looking forward to seeing what this group will accomplish!! : ) Susan