I know I said my next entry would have pictures, but I truly don't have the time right now. But I had to share how the Lord has blessed us so mightily this weekend.
First our ending of the week was about normal. Paul has been job hunting so much, and though he still doesn't have a job, he has put out tons of resumes, and I know the Lord will bring something soon. We finished up our lessons for the week, and the kids and I are all excited because we are taking this whole week off for Thanksgiving. We have lots of baking to do, and other things this week, so it's just a lot easier if we take the whole week off.
The kids had a great time at homeschool youth group on Friday. Paulie had a game night and Sarah went skating. This was her first time skating, and she had a great time. I do have pictures to share of her skating, which I'll try and do next time. It was a great night for them.
Then on Saturday my parents came to visit. First, they were dropping off some food that a friend of mine gave us. My friend goes to a food bank in her town, and they've been getting lots of different types of frozen french fries. So she asked if I wanted a few bags and some pinto beans. Of course I said yes, but since she was out of town, and didn't have time to come out here, my parents dropped them off. I have to laugh at what my girlfriend thinks is a 'few' bags. I'm guessing there were about 12 bags. We got them all shoved in our big freezer, barely, and immediately started thinking about friends we could give some too. Plus an over abundance of pinto beans. So if anyone has a good recipe for pinto beans, please share. I know what to do with kidney beans, but I'm not quite sure about pinto beans.
So my parents stayed and visited for a little bit. My mom was talking to me and my dad was talking to Paul. Both of them gave each of us 'some' money, and after they left we were shocked about how much they had given us all together. We prayed and thanked the Lord, and then used that time to talk with the kids about being content and thankful for what we have. I think we all needed to hear it, not just the kids.
After the talk Sarah ran out to get the mail, and their was a card in the mail, with no return address. At first I thought it was a Christmas card, then I thought it was a Thanksgiving card. It was a beautiful card with a prayer/poem in it, and when we opened it up there was a cashiers check in it. Nothing was signed and we have no idea where it came from or from who. When we added everything up, looked at our budget and our bills we found out we now have enough money to get us through the first of the year, including our December and January rent. Plus we have a little for the kids for Christmas presents, and some extra just in case utilities are higher than we expect. The Lord is so awesome in His blessings to us. I mean, truly, in one day, within about a two hour period, He took care of everything for us for the rest of the year. How do you say thank You for that? I give Him all the glory and honor, and I thank Him, for I know this all came from Him. And I had to share it so that everyone knows how much He has blessed us and how He has taken care of us.
OK, well now I have to go and get started on our yearly family letter, Christmas card and family photo. We didn't think we'd be able to send them out this year, but this again, with the Lord's blessings yesterday, we are now able to do. And I usually try to get them sent out by this Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. I don't know if that will happen or not this year (my pride wants it to happen, but I have to let it go), and if it doesn't, I'll get them out as soon as I can. I usually turn it into a family project, and we have a great time with it. So if you don't hear from me again for a few days, you'll know why.
Of course today the weather is cloudy, damp and dreary. No fun outside time to spend with him. But we'll find things to do together inside. Right now he's doing a little job hunting. There's this one business that looked interesting, so he's dropping his resume off there, and we'll see what happens. And as far as we know, the layoffs have been put off for a while, we think. So we are not going to worry about, and we are not going to keep focusing on the 'week by week' mentality. He has a job, and unless otherwise told, he goes to work everyday, which we are thankful for. And instead of worrying and wondering all the time, we are going to keep our focus on the Lord, and the other things He has for us. Thanks again for all your prayers and concerns. If anything changes, believe me I'll let you know.
He's been working part time with a friend of his, and wow that extra money has really helped. I could easily go out and get some extra things yesterday, and that was a blessing. He gets to go out to lunch with a friend today, and I'm happy for him for that. He really needs some down time. And he insisted that I go to a mom's night out tonight. A couple of ladies from our homeschool group are meeting at a local mexican restaurant for dinner tonight. Obviously, I wasn't planning on going. I'm not going to spend his hard earned part time money on me. But he has insisted that I get out for a bit, and have some down time myself. I love my husband so much.
The kids seem to be flying through their work today. I think they go a bit faster on Fridays, knowing this is the end of it until Monday. Plus we let them rent some videos from the library, and they really want to watch them this afternoon. Paul and I will be working on a puzzle later. I think this is the perfect day to be doing that. Other than that, not much planned. I've been keeping busy with my crafts, and working on some websites I manage.
Oh, and before I forget, I will end this entry with an awesome blessing from the Lord. Me and the kids did go to service Wednesday night. It was a bit weird without Paul, but the worship was awesome, as was the service. During the announcements, they were talking about an upcoming woman's Christmas event. It wasn't real expensive to go, but a cost is a cost, regardless of how much. I do have a little spending money my mom gave me, but my CD/DVD drive on my laptop broke and I have to get it replaced. So all that spending money has to go to that. So I was sitting there having a pity party about not being able to afford the ticket, and wondering why the Lord didn't just give me one (I know, selfish and wrong, but I'm just being truthful). But the Lord reminded me of my spending money, so I said, yes Lord you are right. I will give up the drive I need so I can go to this event. And I left it with that, and enjoyed the service. After service I was chatting with a couple of friends. I went to find the kids, when another friend stopped me and asked me how I was doing. Then she asked, "Are you going to the woman's Christmas concert?" Truthfully I had completely forgotten about it. I told her I did plan on going, and she asked, "Can I buy your ticket for you?" Truly, even after asking for it from the Lord, I wanted to tell her no. I didn't want charity, and I didn't want people to feel like they have to take care of us. When I was asking the Lord for it (in my pity party), I didn't realize how truly humbling it would be if someone did it for me. So I swallowed my pride, and said yes. We walked up together, with lots of other people around, and I let her buy a ticket for me. Truly, a very humbling experience, but a blessing too.
Thank you all for your kind words regarding Paul. He is feeling fine, and went back to work on Wednesday. Actually by Tuesday afternoon he was feeling great, and getting very antsy sitting at home. Thankfully the kids seem fine, I on the other hand, well we'll see what happens. I'm very tired, and my stomach feels blah once and a while. But it could just be stress and not what he had, I guess we'll just see.
There's no way I could be sick today anyway. Paulie has his first homeschool junior youth group outing today. They call them tweens, but I really don't like that name. Anyway, they are going bowling today. He is so excited. It almost got canceled and just the thought of that brought him to tears. He really enjoys bowling, and if we had the finances he would go more often. Then we'll be home for about 45 minutes, and we'll have to leave again to take Sarah to a youth group double movie night with pizza. She is so very excited too. We have a busy 'youth' day going on today.
No word yet on whether Paul is laid off or not. First it was suppose to be today, now maybe not until Monday. It's not that I want him laid off, but this back and forth, not knowing, is really starting to stress both of us out. Hopefully we'll hear something, one way or another, soon. He does have a couple of job leads, so that is encouraging.
I'm not only working on some crafts for Christmas gifts, but I'm also working on some puzzles that I'll glue together when done, for pictures as gifts. I so enjoy puzzles, and they really are neat looking hanging on a wall. I haven't done this in years, and I lost my puzzle board that I used to be able to move the puzzle around on. So my mom gave me some extra money, and I went to the store and got one of those puzzle wrapping mats. Have you seen them? It's a big peice of felt, and you can roll up the puzzle in it for storage. What I didn't know is it comes with an inflatable tube to wrap the felt around, which makes sense, I just never saw it on comercials. Well I tried it out the other day, and it actually worked. Yes, I was quite skeptical, not really sure if it would work. But I rolled it up last night before our company came over for dinner, then took it out late this morning. None of the loose pieces fell out while moving it, and when I unrolled it , though a bit of the frame had unhooked from each other, they were all right where I left them, and I just pushed them together again. I'm quite happy this thing works, and it makes storing puzzles that aren't finished, very easy. Though I do wonder if you stored it for a long period of time, if the puzzle itself would start to curl. It seemed like it might, but I didn't store it that long. My mom is going to try it and store an unfinished puzzle longer, then we'll know. But I do enjoy puzzles, and I look forward to giving them away as gifts. Oh, and I found an awesome deal on puzzles. I bought a box of 10 different Thomas Kinkaid puzzles for only $13.00. And all the puzzles average 15"X18" size. Seeing that one puzzle that size usually costs anywhere from $5 - $8, I thought this was a great deal for 10 puzzles, and Thomas Kinkaid, I so like his artwork. I am now set on what gifts we'll give to family and friends, and who to give them too. I've spent less that $20 on them, and that $20 was a gift from my mom, so nothing came out of our pocket. And though for our kids it will be a bit of a 'smaller' Christmas, we do think we'll have some money to get them a few things. The Lord is so awesome in His blessings to us. I thank Him for all He continues to do in our lives. Thank you Lord.
Ok, this explains exactly what I was feeling the last time I blogged. I couldn't have put it better myself, and it was so encouraging to read this blog this morning. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did.
God Bless
JoAnn
I'm a little nervous doing this, but I'm going to put my new website link out here. Believe me, it is far from being done, and actually only 2 pages are somewhat done. But I've been having fun learning true HTML and how to put together a website from scratch. The learning curve has been steep at times, but once I've learned the basics, it's been flowing pretty nice. The hardest part and what I needed to do before anything else, was the actual construction of the site. By far, my learning of all this is far from over, but I have learned the basics and I look forward to adding more things to it. Now comes the time that I have to start putting actual content like templates, graphics and such on the site. I'll put my HSB and blogging templates out there, plus different graphics I make. I'll also start working on website templates, but that will be far down the road. And eventually, prayerfully, I'll be making some more websites for people, we'll see. I truly give this site and anything that comes from it to the Lord. I'm not sure where it will lead, or if I'll even keep it all after a year when my accounts expire. But it's what I've been doing, and I am proud of what I've accomplished. I hope to make it more polished and have more content, but I wanted to share it with my friends. Let me know what you think, and if you have any ideas. So here it is.
I didn't realize how long its been since I've blog, sorry about that. Here is what we have all been up to.
We had a great night at church Saturday night, and it felt good to be back. Between going to my parents house a few weekends ago, my birthday and things like that, we haven't been to church it a couple of weeks. I so miss getting together with friends, worshiping and hearing God's word being taught. Then after that we went to the store and Paul bought me a birthday cake. I didn't really think I wanted one, and even though it was after my actual day, he insisted on getting me one. It was very yummy.
Sunday we went to a new friends house for lunch. Both the kids made good friends with the couple's kids. And we all had a nice time. The rest of the weekend we did nothing but curled up on the couch and watched the end of the Olympics. It was a very nice weekend.
This week is our second full week of school and it's going well. Paulie's allergies kicked in really bad, possibly turning into a cold, so he's had a little lighter schedule this week. But other than that, it's been good. I feel like we are in a good flow already, and I am blessed by that. I pray it continues to flow this smoothly. Even though it is running smooth, it does still take a little bit to get use to the extra work, well I guess I should say the less 'free' time I use to have.
I am still getting things done, and one of the biggest thing I've been doing, that's keeping me extremely busy, is I have made my first website. Yes, I think I feel all those expressions. I have always had a desire to work with the internet and computer, as most of you already know. I have been praying and seeking the Lord about starting to design websites. I have made our homeschool groups site, and truly want to learn more. I started looking into taking online courses on web design, but right now, the finances are not there for it. I had a time of having to let go of the dream, which was hard, but I just kept giving it to the Lord. And He has opened the door for me to be able to buy a webname and I'm in the process of finding a web host. With some of my birthday money, I am able to buy the name and hosting that will be good for a year, so I can play and learn about making and uploading websites. It's been a lot of fun for me, but it does take a lot of time. Which is one of the main reasons I haven't blogged lately. I would put a link here to the website, but it only has a 'coming soon' sign I put out there, and it's not fully functional yet. But once I get something presentable, I'll 'announce' my site.
It won't be much, but it will help me learn about web design, something I so enjoy. I am taking it step by step, and keeping it all in prayer. I get nervous sometimes, wondering where the Lord is going to lead me with this, but so very excited other times. I do enjoy it so much, and have fun finding out all the information. I was very sad when I couldn't take the online courses, but the Lord has blessed me with many leads for free courses, articles and websites that teach things about web design for free. I think it should be one way, and He blesses me with a completely new way. I mean, I just wanted some classes and He blesses me with a website and more. I can't express enough praise for His ways. I would have 'settled' for something less, but the Lord had something more for me.
Where this will go, I truly don't know. Maybe I'll play and learn for a few months and realize it's not for me. Or maybe it will be for me, and the Lord will lead me in how He wants me to use it. But now you know why I haven't been around, and what I've been up too, besides school. I have to find a balance of school, web design, blogging and other things. It will take a bit to find that balance, but I know the Lord will show me how. I just keep giving it all to Him. So I'll try to get around as much as I can, but for now, I have to run and take Sarah to her friends house for a play time. I hope to get to some blogs later.
We have had such a blessed day today. Well, its been a great weekend, but today was the topper. Our church had their yearly service in the park with a river baptism. We have never been to one before and we weren't real sure what to expect and with it starting at 9:00am we knew it would be hard to get there on time. Paul and Sarah got out early, as Paul was helping out, Paulie and I didn't get there until 8:45am. We had to park about 1/2 a mile away, carrying our chairs that distance, but we did it. And thankfully, friends where saving us some grass area for our seats, so we were still up close. It was a great service. We had some bands come in for special music, and it was a great teaching. Then it was time for the river baptism. It was very interesting and such a beautiful thing to see. Everyone went down to the rivers edge, and there were pastors in the water, with helpers and people walked up to be baptized.
Now, Paulie had given his life to the Lord about a year ago, but as not ready to be baptized. With his sensory issues, going under water was not an option. A few weeks ago he asked about getting baptized this weekend, and I told him I would talk to his dad. I talked to Paul and both him and I weren't comfortable with him being in the river. We just weren't sure about it all, and figured we would wait for another time. So we are all there watching people get baptized and we said something to Paulie about 'sometime soon', and he says, "Why not now?" Uh, well, what do you say to that? Paul and I looked at each other and I said, "Honey it's up to you, you'll be the one in the water with him." Just a side note here Paul helped baptize Sarah and had always planned to baptize Paulie too. That's why I said it was up to him. What can you say when your son knows and is ready to be baptized. Paul and I smiled at each other and he and Paulie started taking off their shoes.
I have to say it was the Lord that I even had my camera. I wasn't going to bring it because I didn't think there was a chance for him to be baptized. But thankfully I knew I needed to bring it, plus we just 'happened' to have a towel with us. So we talked to a friend of ours that was helping people in the river, and he took Paulie (who was scared of the water a bit), and helped Paul and him in the river and to a pastor friend of ours. Plus there was another helper who Paulie knew real well, all from the Lord to help him relax. And a funny part at this point, was once they got in the river they walked down to an area where there was a bush in my way of taking pictures. I run around the bush, Sarah following, asking quite loudly for people to please move so I could get through because my son was being baptized. They were all so sweet, and they said, right here honey, move here. I got some great shots. Paulie was still nervous about going backward under water, but he did it, and Paul was with him. Obviously Paul is in the white shirt, and I blurred out the faces of the other helpers since I didn't ask if I could put their pictures on the web. So here are pictures of Paulie's baptism.
Shoes are coming off.
Heading in the water.
Nervous, but in the water.
Praying.
Getting ready...
Going down...
Up...
Father and son together....Thank you Lord
I still get teary eyed thinking about it. It was so completely beautiful to see, and a blessing to know that both of our kids are walking with the Lord and have been baptized. Thank you Lord for such a great day.
Friends were in town today and got to see Paulie baptized. They came over for a lovely visit after the service and my nephew came over and played video games with us. Now we are watching some of the olympics and just hanging together. What a day.
I'm not sure how much I'll be on this week. Tomorrow is our normal cleaning day and my nephew will probably come over again tomorrow night. Then Tuesday is Sarah's birthday and playgroup, so I'll be busy baking that day. I want to try to start school this week (I know, it's starting to sound a bit crazy, busy, so it might not happen). If we start school this week it will be on Wednesday through Friday. But we also just made plans to go see my family this weekend. We'll be leaving Friday night, and coming home on Sunday. We need to help my parents with their yard, and my sister is having a wood cutting day at her house, which Paul has always helped at. It will be a busy weekend, but a fun one. So on Friday I'll be doing laundry and packing, which means we might have our first day off of school, on our first week. That's why I'm trying to decide if I should just wait until the following week before I start. But I probably will start on Wednesday and we'll see what we get done on Friday. I'm the type that does better deciding on that day, not five days before, on what I will actually do. But through it all, I'm just not sure how much I'll be on. But I had to share the blessed news with you and my plans for the week. I hope you are all having a blessed day and will have a great week.
Well, I guess I should have been a bit more clear in my other post, no I haven't had my birthday yet, it's not until August 20th. Paul had just given me my birthday present early. So sorry for confusing some of you and making you think my birthday had passed, nope it's another 15 days away. But I will be turning the big 40 on it, so I guess that is a milestone. Sometimes I feel like it's old, other times not so much. I guess we'll see after my actual birthday.
We had a great weekend. Saturday night service was really nice. And I don't think I've mentioned it before, but our church has one Saturday night service and three Sunday morning services, which are the same services, just different times. Once our new sanctuary is done, it will be two Sunday morning services, with the one Saturday night service. Then there is the Wednesday night service and different bible studies. We just choose to go on Saturday night because it works better for us. Though there are times we go on Sunday morning.
Sunday was a great day. We relaxed most of the day, then toward the evening we went to a friend's birthday party. It's a couple we have been getting to know for a few months now, and they have kids our kids ages. Actually, she's the leader of the bible study I go too. Anyway, it was her husbands birthday, and she had a cookout party. The Lord is so blessing us with getting to know more and more people. Remember months ago I wrote that it was so hard to get to know people, but we just kept praying? Well, the Lord is definitely answering those prayers. It's been such a blessing. But we did get home and in bed late, then up early for our normal Monday things. We were all very tired.
Another blessing we found out yesterday is our landlord said we can stay another year and he won't raise the rent! That is such an answer to prayer. We really couldn't afford our rent going up, and would have had to move if they did raise it. So between that possibility and not knowing if he even wanted us to stay past our lease (which ends in October), we really weren't sure if we'd be moving soon. And not really looking forward to it if we had to, but we knew the Lord was in control, and if we had to move, that would have been a blessing too. But it's nice to know that we are settled and can stay, and that financially things won't change. Thank you Lord.
Other than that, not much going on. We've been busy, but not with anything worth blogging about. We are not going to play group today, which is nice. The kids are a little bummed, but no one else is going to be there, and truly I just don't feel like hanging at a park today. Though we might go to the library. I was waiting for a service man that has to come today and look at one of our appliances, and he just called and said he would be here around 4:00pm. So that gives me plenty of time to go to the library this morning. So I think that's what we are going to do. I'm going to go get some bread started in the bread maker for dinner tonight, maybe read a couple of blogs, then off to the library. I hope you are all having a great start to your week.
We've had a good week. It's been busy, but things have gone well. Bible study was different this week. None of the other ladies showed up (there's usually about 5 or 6 of us). So since it was just the host and me, she decided to just have a fellowship time instead. It was great. We just talked and got to know each other for a couple of hours. It was truly a blessing and a great night. When I got home, I found out our nephew had come by and hung out with Paul and the kids. They had a great time.
And that brings up a sad event, our nephew is moving back home to his mom's house. Right now he lives only 5 minutes from us and comes over a lot to play video games with the kids and hang out with us. But for the things he wants to do and cost wise, it is cheaper for him to move back home. Which means he'll now be over an hour away from us. We will miss him greatly, and before he goes he is going to come over a bit more, so that will be nice. And it's not like we won't see him again, it's just missing the evenings he comes over to just hang with us.
Paul was home from work yesterday, that was fun and a blessing. Having the OT money would have been nice, but since his work has said no to OT, we were blessed with him being home. He also had gotten some extra money from work for some mileage compensation, and he gave it to me for my birthday to spend freely. It was very hard for me to spend it on me, since we have bills and such, but he insisted. So we went birthday shopping yesterday, that was a lot of fun. It was just great having him home.
Today has been pretty mellow. Paul had some yard work, some craft things I have to do, things like that. Thanks for praying last week for my unmentioned prayer request. I do have an answer, which isn't exactly what I wanted, but the Lord is faithful and showing me some other things He has for me. It's been an emotional few weeks, but the Lord has been with me through it all. And in all of that, there are a few more things I'm doing right now, and will continue to be absent from blogland off and on. Someday, when things are more 'set', I'll blog in more detail what's going on with me. But for now, I'm off to enjoy my day. I hope you are having a great weekend.
It's been quite an interesting week this week. It has been filled with lots of emotional time, crying, heartache along with growth, healing and blessings. I'm not going into all the details, but I do what to share of the Lord's blessing through it all. So sorry if this is vague.
It began toward the beginning of the week. A misunderstanding, an expectation that was not met and a dream that was shattered. And then through the emotions, the ups and downs during those events, feeling, hurts and emotions from my past came back and compounded things. At a point during it all I was mad, mad at the person with the misunderstanding, mad the situation and mad at God. Yes, I was mad at God. I felt like He allowed a dream to start growing, just to pull the rug out from underneath me. I felt like He was a mean God. I was mad at Him, and I told Him so. Through this pain and anger I prayed, not just angry prayers, but hurt prayers, confused about the situation prayers, needing comfort prayers.
On Thursday night I went to bible study. Nothing really settled, actually things had gotten a bit worse. This is when I was dealing with the issues and hurt from my past that seemed to come up. I was still angry at the situation and feeling the Lord did this all just to hurt me, as I went to bible study. The bible study was good, the Word encouraging. My friends prayed for me and it was sweet. But most importantly the Lord blessed me there. He blessed me with something I had wanted that I never thought I would get. He blessed me because of Him, not because of me. I was still angry, I was still hurt, and yet even though I didn't deserve it He blessed me.
I know that salvation is by faith alone, that we don't deserve it, I understand that. But I still have this thing in me that feels like He's only happy with me when I do things "right" (which in my perfectionist mind means flawless). That He'll only bless me when I'm in good standing with Him. That for Him not to be disappointed with me, I have to be perfect. But last night He showed me His blessings on me have absolutely nothing to do with me. He doesn't bless me because I'm doing things 'right' and He doesn't take things away because I'm doing things 'wrong'. He loves and accepts me despite my sin, and gives us things we don't need, just because sometimes.
I would love to say that everything is perfect and worked through. And I will say there has been some great growth and healing that has taken place through all of this. There is still an 'issue' out there that might flare up, though I pray it doesn't. But for me, most importantly, is that I have seen a part of God's love and acceptance of me I've never seen before. Thank you Lord for that and for your blessing that you've given me. I pray I will always remember what you have taught me when I use it.
OK, so what was this blessing He gave me? Well if you remember from this post I wanted to set up a reading area in our bedroom. I had priced gliders and they were all well out of my reach financially. Truthfully the whole reading area was a wash, I just couldn't afford it. So at bible study I casually asked if the ladies new of anyone selling a glider cheap, would they let me know. I thought maybe I could put things together bit by bit, though truthfully I wasn't to optimistic about it. After I say this to the ladies, the leader says, "Come here. Do you mean a glider like this?" She points out this beautiful glider sitting there. I'm like, yes exactly, how much do you want for it? She responds, "Oh nothing, you can just take it." Then she says do you need a little table too? What?!?! Of course I do, oh here's one you can just take too. That was my facial expression, along with some tears. I just couldn't believe it. The Lord had given me my reading corner. Just given it to me, in the midst of my anger at Him, not because I deserved it, but because of His love for me. It still brings tears to my eyes. OK, here are the pictures of my new reading corner.
The before pictures (I didn't think of taking them until I started emptying the drawers )
This blog is so I can share my journey with the Lord, my journey as a wife and mother, and my journey as a homeschool mom. I pray that you will see the Lord in my life through happy and sad times, and that this blog glorifies the Lord.
This is an award and tag free zone, thank you.
We got them all shoved in our big freezer, barely, and immediately started thinking about friends we could give some too. Plus an over abundance of pinto beans. So if anyone has a good recipe for pinto beans, please share. I know what to do with kidney beans, but I'm not quite sure about pinto beans.
Nothing was signed and we have no idea where it came from or from who. When we added everything up, looked at our budget and our bills we found out we now have enough money to get us through the first of the year, including our December and January rent. 
Plus we have a little for the kids for Christmas presents, and some extra just in case utilities are higher than we expect. The Lord is so awesome in His blessings to us. I mean, truly, in one day, within about a two hour period, He took care of everything for us for the rest of the year. How do you say thank You for that? I give Him all the glory and honor, and I thank Him, for I know this all came from Him. And I had to share it so that everyone knows how much He has blessed us and how He has taken care of us.
But we'll find things to do together inside. Right now he's doing a little job hunting. There's this one business that looked interesting, so he's dropping his resume off there, and we'll see what happens. And as far as we know, the layoffs have been put off for a while, we think. So we are not going to worry about, and we are not going to keep focusing on the 'week by week' mentality. He has a job, and unless otherwise told, he goes to work everyday, which we are thankful for. And instead of worrying and wondering all the time, we are going to keep our focus on the Lord, and the other things He has for us. Thanks again for all your prayers and concerns. If anything changes, believe me I'll let you know. 
So all that spending money has to go to that. So I was sitting there having a pity party about not being able to afford the ticket, and wondering why the Lord didn't just give me one (I know, selfish and wrong, 
but I'm just being truthful). But the Lord reminded me of my spending money, so I said, yes Lord you are right. I will give up the drive I need so I can go to this event. And I left it with that, and enjoyed the service. After service I was chatting with a couple of friends. I went to find the kids, when another friend stopped me and asked me how I was doing. Then she asked, "Are you going to the woman's Christmas concert?" Truthfully I had completely forgotten about it. I told her I did plan on going, and she asked, "Can I buy your ticket for you?" 
Yes, I think I feel all those expressions. I have always had a desire to work with the internet and computer, as most of you already know. I have been praying and seeking the Lord about starting to design websites. I have made our homeschool groups site, and truly want to learn more. I started looking into taking online courses on web design, but right now, the finances are not there for it. I had a time of having to let go of the dream, which was hard, but I just kept giving it to the Lord. And He has opened the door for me to be able to buy a webname and I'm in the process of finding a web host. With some of my birthday money, I am able to buy the name and hosting that will be good for a year, so I can play and learn about making and uploading websites. It's been a lot of fun for me, but it does take a lot of time. Which is one of the main reasons I haven't blogged lately. I would put a link here to the website, but it only has a 'coming soon' sign I put out there, and it's not fully functional yet. But once I get something presentable, I'll 'announce' my site.
Uh, well, what do you say to that? Paul and I looked at each other and I said, "Honey it's up to you, you'll be the one in the water with him." Just a side note here Paul helped baptize Sarah and had always planned to baptize Paulie too. That's why I said it was up to him. What can you say when your son knows and is ready to be baptized. Paul and I smiled at each other and he and Paulie started taking off their shoes. 
