Thankfull Thursday

There is a two new host for Thankful Thursday, this month it hosted at Spiritually Unequal Marriage her web address follows http://unequalmarriage.typepad.com/. I wasn't sure what to be thankful for today our blessing have somewhat ran together for the last couple of weeks and I didn't want to sound redundant, so I thought I would check the host blog out to get a little inspiration.

I'm thankful that the blog sphere is full of people who live there live in a real way which helps to inspire those of us who need a little encouragement and inspiration.
I'm thankful for Lynn's mom for calling her this morning with this verse Proverbs 9:10a "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom" because it inspired me to think about fear in relationship to God. We all have fears of some kind or another, but this is a different kind of fear. I'm thankful that God is patient, he waits for us to understand what it means to respect him and humble ourselves enough to learn what he has to teach us and that is what that verse means to me.

Bitter Sweet

It's something when your so blessed you can't get off your knees, but to also be so heart broken you can't get off you knees either. I've been blessed in so many ways, it's like God has decided to pour out a life time of love on me in just one simple moment, WOW!!!! Sometimes there is that one thing, that you want more then anything and the only way he can bless you is to be there to hold your hand and love on you as your going through it because for some reason that you don't know you have to go through it. My friend and I have talked about the struggles of live and she is awesome, she's like bring it on God I want to be refined in your fire. I'm like I've been there I just want to sit out this time and maybe the next too. Maybe that makes me a wimp and maybe that shows a lack of faith I don't know for sure the only thing I know for sure is God doesn't let me sit out because he knows what is best for me, he knows I need refined in the fire, to be stronger and more in love with him. Our Pastor this last week did a great sermon that you could listen to at the following website it you wonted to: http://www.wschurch.org/ In short about waisted time. He talked about how many Saturdays he had until his 16 year old left home and how many had passed by already. It made me think about my own life with my children and my own passions and desires. God has given all of us gifts, and talents to use for his kingdom, and I've spent a lot of Saturdays putting off the work that God has put in my heart. I've done a lot of what God has asked me and I've spent a lot of time with my wonderful family which I would never change. As I'm going through this struggle with my eyes and my vision getting worse and worse, I've begun to think about all the times God has given me images in my heart and mind and said paint this for me, make this for me and I tucked it away in my mind or my sketch book and said some day when life is not so crazy I'll do it. I believe God is going to take care of this problem and not let me go blind, but in the mean time I'm going to do my very best to fulfill my God given purpose as I see it and follow through on the promises I've made.

Sold

It's so amazing when life is altered unexpectedly, no! no! no! not unexpectedly but more like when you expect it but maybe not so quickly. We have a great God it just floors me to think how amazing God has worked in my life, my families life and even my friends lives. God gave me the best husband in the world, seriously the best when we meet it was unreal only God could have done that (I'll blog our story someday), Then we had two great children, my husband has had 2 great Jobs the whole time we have been married, not to mention a huge move with movers that we didn't have to pay for, and that is only the highlights.

Today the thing I'm so thankful for that I could burst is that we sold our house and in the process of buying a new one. God has been telling us for almost exactly 1 year that he wants us to sell the house, sometimes we are like children we need to know somethings in advance and be reminded enough in order to let change sink in and be comfortable with it. So around the end of January we talked with a Realtor and decided that we need one in order to get our self's moving and set the Date to put the sign out and the MLS to have our house on the Internet. Feb 16th was the day, we had two people look at the house that very same day and one of them offered us full asking price and we pay closing cost that evening. Everything was set with signatures by the 18th. When God says he is going to sell the house he is going to sell the house. Now we have to find a good house in our price range which is very low for our area, God had it all picked out for us the 2nd house we looked at was the one and now we are buying a house. In 10 days God sold our house and gave us a new one. How amazing is that especially in this day and age. The bible says he has a plan for us he knows where we will be and what we will be doing, it's true he does and I'm so thankful for a God that cares enough to know what I don't.

So Today I'm Thankful to be starting a new chapter in my life that I can see Gods hand all over.

I'm having a good day today which is not been the norm here lately. I was surfing for something new and exciting to read today and stumbled across and great post from Angela at this website http://www.5minutesformom.com/faithlifts/2009/01/14/waking-up-in-someone-elses-dream/
It's funny how dreams and desires can lead us to success, to God, to confusion, I don't think its bad to have dreams and desires, just make sure they are yours and Gods. We get ourselves into so much trouble trying to be something we aren't whether it's for ourselves like we think we would be a better person if only, or if it's for someone else. I have to say I've had a lot of dreams and desires, but the ones that mean the most have come true the others are still on the list waiting to be fulfilled or discarded. It's hard to discard of those dreams that we thought where the ones that were going to make us successful, we have to ask ourselves whose eyes are we trying to be successful? I was going to do great things like be an artist who created book covers for a publishing company, they would call me when they needed something which would be all the time, right. God had bigger and better plans for me I married the man of my dreams and had two great children who I get to spend lots of time with. I'm home when they need me and get to do my art on the side which I don't do much of, (I'm working on that). I don't think I would be as happy as I am right now if my plans had been fulfilled, I'm so glad that God knows best and leads us in the direction that he knows will make us happy.

Measuring Love

I was just writing my Husband an e-mail at work. I didn't want to interrupt him but I was thinking of him and wonted him to know how much I love him. When I think of love I often think wow that is hard to describe different degrees of love, I tell my friend love ya, which to me is a sisterly love, I tell my sister who I don't get to see very much, I love you because I want here to know that I love her so much my heart aches when I think of her and think of how much I miss her. When I tell my children I love them it's a love that only a mother can know and understand it's a love that has no words or explanation. My compassionate and loving daughter came to me one day and said "Mom don't tell anyone (so forgive me for telling) but I love my brother so much I just can't stand it". I had to chuckle since she was born I often prayed and thought OH God Please let them love each other and be friends, the older they've gotten and the more they fight and pick at each other, the more I find myself praying that they would grow up to be sister and brother who really love each other. I think God has answered my prays. Back to my husband I just had to tell him in the e-mail I Love you so much I just can't stand it.... is there really any other way to describe the love we have for our spouses or even the love we have for God. God I love you so much I just can't stand it and more then that.
????LOVE??????

Thankful Thursday

I'm thankful to be blogging again,
I'm thankful for my family,
I'm thankful for a God who gives us peace. The thing about Gods peace is that it is a free gift he offers us all the time, it's the times that we accept it that we feel it the most and are thankful for it.

Wii Fit contest

I'm so excited 5minutes for Mom is sponsoring a contest where you could win a Wii Fit among other things. I'm mostly interested in the Wii Fit so I can't remember what else was being given away. It's very simple to enter there is a link to there page on my sidebar if your interested. One of the things you have to do to enter is sign up on Weightview.com and they have all the information about that. Basically what you do is take a picture of yourself and enter some info about yourself and tell them how much weight you would like to lose up to 50lbs. At that point with computer graphic help they create a virtual picture of you x amount of lbs. lighter. The coolest part is you get to decide after you've seen the picture if you will allow them to show it or not. If your interested in a Wii Fit or finding out what the other prizes are go to 5 Minutes for Mom.

Room Round up- I Love It

I'm so excited, it's been a great January so far. One of my favorite blogs is www.orgjunkie.com, She does this wonderful Monthly round up each month you organize different things to help de-clutter or just make life a little easier. This year she is doing smaller projects each month instead of entire rooms like last year. January is filing Cabinets. I'm a little uncertain about what I'm going to do but when I figure it out I'll post pictures. I'm afraid that in order to organize my filing cabinet I may have to enlist my dear hubby and tackle the entire office.
Stay Tuned!!!

Approval

This is a post that was in my archives since last spring I thought it was a well written post and decided to share it with whoever may read it even if I'm the only one reading it.
Isn't it funny that we all in one way or another seek out approval from others. I know there are some of us out there who would say I don't care what others think ( I tend to be one of them) but in all reality can we say that 100%, I can't. It's funny to me how this needing approval thing starts so early in age. My son who is sporting his fohawk (his words) (---A Fohawk is a Mohawk were the sides are a little longer then peers think a Mohawk should be.---) has come to me in the mornings and said very sadly I think I will leave it down today. No one likes it. I have to say do you like it -well yes he will reply--I say that is all that matters. He will say excited but nervous OK I want it pointed. I wonder out loud how is it that we can't bring ourselves to be excited for others simple because they are excited about something. Especially about things that don't really matter, like hair, most cloth, there are so many things that are very trivial in the grand scheme of things, why is it we can't just say to a 7yr old that hair cut is so cool. You look great. Even when we don't like the mohawk or fohawk? Is it better for us to build up a child's self esteem so they can make good choices when it really matters. Today he went to school with it down, It was funny he said to me I just want to be myself.

I was just looking at this post that I wrote last spring wondering why I didn't post it I just saved it as a draft in my archive. It's a insightful post which should provoke some thoughts I would think but why didn't I post it. Could it be that I was wrestling with the very thing I was writing about the approval and acceptance of others.

Wow

Today is January 3, 2009 it's funny I sat down at my computer and thought what am I going to do on the computer who's blog will I look at and here I am at my own blog that I haven't posted anything for 8 months. I decided 8 months ago to take a 40 day siesta from blogging I was become addicted to writing and reading a lot of others I was finding my mornings disappear as I focus on the computer screen. I was reading my last blog and thought wow why did I stop. My original goal for blogging was to have a place where my family and my husbands family could go to catch up on what is going on with us as well as to be able to write down all the uncontrollable thoughts that run through my head on a nonstop basis it seems sometimes. One of many goals I have for this year is to start blogging again, and not for anyone in particular but just for me I enjoy it very much. I hope every ones Christmas was great and the New Year as well.
It's kinda funny as I was previewing my blog post I notice that I titles this new post, this new beginning the same as my very first post ever wrote( if I'm remembering correctly) how ironic is that.

Children and summer

I'm going to tell you a real life sinario, as it plays out in my own home. Picture this last day of school children get on the school bus, only to go to school get there report cards say one last goodbye to there friends and teachers get back on the bus and start back home. They leave at 7:25, and return at 9:25. My son gets off the bus runs to the house with a grocery sack full of pencils, papers,broken crayons and color pencils, half bottles of dried up glue and markers as well as hard eraser that all gets dropped into the entry way. First thing said is can tommy come over to play (insert name of you choice) when you say not today I get I'm hungry is it lunch time yet. As the day continues on I hear I'm bored a dozen or more times, fighting between him and his sister which ends with "when will he go back to school" from the mouth of babes. And that is only the first half day of summer break. I've told my husband that school is like a double edged sword you want them to go make friends, learn, become more independent, and that happens but with that comes attiude, mouthiness, rolling of the eyes, and the inability to entertain themselves, the need to have 10 to 12 children around them at all times to play with. How do we do it. As summer break is fast approaching I've got to figure out a way to mantain my sanity and make summer enjoyable for my children which doesn't include 20 hours a day of t.v., video game and computer. So here is my goals for summer, I'm going to start the super summer Challenge Think up a great number of things my children can do to earn points but keep them learning, and having fun. When they earn a certain number of pionts they will receive a reward. The activities will be a variety of things like reading writing scrapebooking playing outside, riding your bike, playing catch taking the dog for a walk, raking leaves, scooping poop (someone has to do it) cleaning your bedroom, writing a letter to a relative. writing a story, writing book reports, reading to your little sister. With every point earned, they will get a marble and get to keep all the marbles they earn at the end of the summer. Or for my older child I may use like poker chips where he can use them to work on his math, white chip is worth 1 pt, red is 3 pts, blue is 10, green is 15 or 20 whatever we decide to make them, then he can sort them and add them up as he summer goes to see if he is getting close to earning his prize. That is what I'm going to try to do this summer I will keep everyone posted as to how it is going. It's knda like my list that I made last year about things to accomplish over the summer.

Son's and Purity

I have to say that if you have never heard of Hearts at Home It's wonderful. I just got home from there national conference Saturday and I had a great time. I will blog about some of the stuff I learned later. I spend 2 days with my sister who I don't get to see very often just a couple of times a year as well as over a 1000 other women. We were entertained my Ken Davis who is a Christian Comedian and he is wonderful. This is the second time he has been at Hearts at Home. I thought it was the sweetest thing He said I love being here, to hear a whole auditorium of women laugh is like the wind blowing through a chandelier. That was so nice, I think. My hubby and I have already implemented some of the things I learned in the seminars. There is one seminar or workshop that I went to that I wasn't signed up for, that I'm so glad I went to. It was about teaching our son purity, and that particular thing has been laying heavy on my heart lately so I went to the seminar. My son is only 8 but the world today isn't like it was when I was in school. Things start to happen and be talked about by peers way earlier then when I was a child. I try not to be a mother who thinks that's not going to effect my son like negatively. In reality men were created differently from the beginning starting with God creating Adam and Eve and what right do I have to think my son will be different and in a world that has capitalized on sexuality and the visual, I as a mother can't hide my head in the sand. So my hubby and I talked about it and decide that we needed (especially hubby) start a open communication with him so that when he starts having question about bigger things he will be comfortable coming to us to talk about it. My hubby and son had there first Man to Man talk, I just can't believe my baby is growing up so fast. I'm not certain what all they talked about, but my husband said it went well and he even opened up and asked my hubby about some words that he had heard on the bus or in school to find out if they were bad words and why. That makes me so happy, we want both of our children to feel like they can come to us in any situation and talk to us without us being upset. I hate to say it but 8,9, 10 isn't to young to start with the basics, especially in a world when statically some children are starting to have relations with one another as early as 11years old. If we talk with them and educate them maybe they wont feel the need to experiment so early, and wait until they are married. I not believe that it's enough even as christian to simply say to our child God says you have to wait until marriage we have to go deeper.

Mailboxes

Who would have known that giving children there own mailboxes would be so amazing. If you what to reward your children for anything or want to think of something fun for easter maybe get something you can put there name on and call it a mailbox you will be amazed at what it brings out in them. They have come up with the idea that if the wire handle with the ribbon on it is up that they have mail, like a flag on the real mailbox. So when they put pictures or any mail in the others box they put there handle up. Elexis she yells "Mail Call". It's so cute they've spend literally hours and hours creating mail for on another.

We put together this little wall for both of our children it has there Picture at the top a Daily chore chart in a glass picture frame under the picture and then the new mailbox at the bottom.

The chore chart is great also they can mark off the items as they finish and at the end of the day we wipe it clean and it's ready for the next day. The great thing is as they get older and can do more or different chores you can change the list.

The mailbox, It's amazing the House Fairy came to check out the new mailboxes and left a note for each of the children telling them that she was so proud of the work they had done on there bedrooms and if they asked there mom to help them find places for the stuff that wasn't tiddy and clean she would come back and bring them a present for a clean and tidy room. They were so excited that they went right to there rooms and started to tidy them up. I learned about the House Fairy from Flylady.com I love it so check it out. I think it may help motivate my children to keep there rooms clean. The first question they ask my hubby and me is where our mailbox was and so I will have to make up a wall for us. We have a wall for our daughter, but my camera battery has just died and I don't have pictures of hers. I will post some later especially since the chore chart frames she decorated herself, is beyond words. She is 5yrs old and definitly has a style all her own and we let her. We feel like as long as what she wears or puts up isn't inappropriate it's ok. Sometimes she doesn't match well, or something trivial like that and that is o.k with me, as long as she likes it and knows that she is beautiful no matter what.
enough of that. Enjoy the mailboxes.

To Know and Tell

I have been blogging for a year this month, so my question is what made you start your blog?
I started my blog a little bit after you. I had been thinking about for a while a year or longer. I just didn't take the time to learn it, then when my great friend started and was telling me how much fun it was and easy I thought I'm going to do it. My main focus was to give my family who live in all directions a way to see what we were doing over the miles and to be a vessel that God could us.
Question 2
Do you speak another language? If so, why or how did you learn it? I so wish I did. I took Spanish in High School, and a semester in College I remember only a few Spanish words... I can read it better then I can speak it and I don't necessarily know what the words mean, but because I have learned the alphabet in Spanish I can usually say the words!!! Isn't that weird my son thinks I'm the bomb because I can read the words even if I don't know what it's saying. That's love!!!
Question 3
Morning person, or night owl (or somewhere in between)? If I had to pick I would have to say that since my children started school I've become a morning person, all be it a cranky morning person sometimes. When you have lunches to pack and children to get dress to catch the bus by 7:20 you get to the point that even when you could and would love to sleep in you just can't. On Saturdays my hubby and I find ourselves whispering to each other at early morning hours because we can't sleep and we don't want the kids to know we are awake. You know as soon as they hear the littlest noise from moms room your sleeping in morning is over.
Question 4
Do you exercise on a regular basis? I hate to sweat ever, but I know that is the what I need to do to get healthy so I've been sweating (walking on the treadmill) regularly 3 to 4 days a week for 5 to6 weeks. It's only the beginning I'll be doing it for the rest of my life because that is what is good for me and it's good for my children to see it and how important it is.

Bonus Questions
Question 5
If money were not an object what is one thing you would like to do for another person? What my hearts desire is to do for People you can't buy, I want to lift up the people in the world who have been over looked through education or just plain opportunity. There are those who just need to be given a chance in life to prove they have what it takes, so many times we feel the need to just label them with our little label makers and toss them in the trash heap. If money wasn't an object I would do whatever it took to help them prove to themselves and others they have what it takes to make a difference in this world. I would love to buy my mother a house also. She has sacrificed her whole life for all of her children, and she doesn't really have a nice home of her own.
Question 6
What is one of your favorite attributes of our Lord God? His Love we are taught a multitude of things through Gods love for us and if the world could clear away the fog in front of there eyes I think they would be in aw of him.
Have you ever thought about adoption or foster care? I often think of adoption I feel Like my hubby and I have so much love to give that maybe be should adopt.

Birthdays

I'm so excited our oldest son turned 8 on Friday Febuary 29th, what an exciting day for him. He is so funny he got his fathers funny Jeans, but he was telling everyone he was 2 on Friday it was kinda funny.
I still remember when I was pregnaunt for him and the Doctor told us his due date was March 1st or 3rd I can't remember that so much the part I remember is when my hubby said almost immidiately "wouldn't it be cool if he was born on leap day" I tease my hubby often about that saying "from your lips to Gods ears" becasue sure enough he was born on the 29th Leap day 2000. Back to my point I'm going to post some pictures of his party.