My niece and my sister (and of course all of us, her extended family) are really not sure what to do about this situation. Could you please go over to her blog and read her story and pray for her. She doesn't know what the next step is, and only the Lord can work this out. Thanks for taking the time to read Jessi's open heart surgery story.
On Wednesday, February 18th around 10:00am MT my sister Carrie will be having a pre-planned hysterectomy. She is o.k. with this, and it has been planned for a while. I won't go into the whys and such, but I do ask, if you read this before or around or even during that time, could you please keep my sister in prayer. I'm not sure where her walk with the Lord is, so that's a definite prayer request. But I also ask for prayer for the surgery, the doctor, her hands, the assistants etc... Thank you very much. I'll be at the hospital the next couple of days, but I'll try to do a quick update when I can. Thanks, in advance, for the prayers.
Ok, if you read my other post, you know why I've titled this post the way I did. I won't go into the whole reason again, you can read it if you want. Here are the things I want to accomplish this year. The most important things to me regardless of this list, is growing in my roles of wife and mom/homeschool mom. I want to continue to grow as the Lord shows me in those areas. But those are a bit more personal to me, and I'm not going to list specifics here.
I had some money to spend at CBD.com from Christmas and as I looked at different books to help me with different issues, problems, fears, and junk in my life I realized I'm sick of reading books that are suppose to 'help' me. Nothing wrong with them, and those who like reading them. I have books like that, and I do like reading them myself. But I'm just sick of reading about different problems and issues. I don't know about you, but with me the more I read about the issues the less I'm focused on the Lord. When I read about fears and how to get over them, I tend to focus more on my fears that I'm not getting over than I am focused on the Lord. Or if I read a book about how to get over my perfectionism, then I'm more focused on whether I'm getting over my perfectionism than I am focused on the Lord. So after accepting that from the Lord I decided to get a One Year Bible from CBD. All I want to read is the Lord's words and keep my focus on Him. I read somewhere that the more we focus on Him, the less we are focusing on our 'problems' and then miraculously our problems sometimes go away. So instead of books filled with words from men, I decided to get this book and I would like to accomplish reading through the bible in one year. I won't get the book for about 2 weeks, so I'll have start the reading schedule with my bible until I get it, but that's ok, I just want to get it started. I also bought a devotional book that is strictly just the Word of God. They take common verses, like verses on joy, and they put them together in a morning and evening readings. I'm really looking forward to reading both of these books, and I pray they help me with my desire to be the Lord's Word more.
I also want to learn more about website design. I talked with Paul about it on our lunch date the other day. I have this idea in my head that if a hobby doesn't bring in money, it's a waste of time. Paul made sure I knew that was just not a good thought, and that it's completely wrong (for us anyway). But because of that thought I was stressing about website design, about my crafts even about reading. Every time I thought of doing a craft, I would hesitate wondering if I could sell it on my Etsy account, very sad I know. So with my husbands blessings, I'm going to try and relax more and just have fun with my hobbies. The two main ones being website design and crafts. There are lots of software I would like to use that is too expensive, but I know the Lord will show me different free things I can use. And if anyone has a Photoshop program or Abode Flash program they are not using and would like to get rid of it, please think of me. (Not pirated or anything, just a program you are getting rid of). But regardless, I'm going to focus more on learning the ins and outs of website design, regardless of if it ever brings in any money for us. I'm also going to do my crafts more, and not worry about selling them. I might even close down my etsy account. I think I would just like to make them and if I don't have an immediate use for them, maybe keep them as possible gifts or something. Either way I'm not going to worry about selling them.
I would like to start playing the keyboards again. I should re-phrase that. I want to learn the keyboards and practice more. I took piano lessons when I was a kid, but don't remember hardly any of it. We no longer have a piano (I'm always bummed I got rid of it), but we do have keyboards. I know a few songs, and I have plenty of books to learn from, I just need to get in the habit of practicing it. That's something I would like to accomplish this year.
As far as blogging, Facebook and Twitter, I want to make a better balance. I do seem to be on Facebook and Twitter far more than I've been blogging, I think mainly because Facebook and Twitter is so much quicker. But I like writing and so I will continue blogging too. I think the biggest balance I will make is I will clean up my blog reader and take lots of blogs off of there that are not ones I visit much. That seems to take up most of my time. If I miss one day of reading my blog reader I have over 30 blogs to try and catch up on. Multiply that by a couple of days, and I feel completely overwhelmed when I miss a day or two. It's taking way too much time. So I will clean that up a bit, so that my blog reading time shortens up and I have more time to do the other things I want to do on the computer.
A couple of odd and end things. I want to put my laptop down more and read more of the books I've been blessed with. I've never finished the Anne of Green Gables series I was blessed with, plus I have some other leasure books I want to read. I just need to set down this laptop more. I'm thinking about a garden this year, but still not sure if its what I want to do, praying about that one. And I would like to get up and move more and eat less. I want to watch my portion size on food, my biggest problem. And though I don't have the Wii Fit, and won't be getting one anytime soon, I can still keep active with wii. I try to walk 4 days a week, I want to keep that going. But I also want to do some of the boxing on Wii, play on the Dance Praise pad my kids have and just move around more.
So there is my list of what I would like to accomplish this year. I leave them all in the Lord's hands because utimately I only want to do what He has for me to do. I want to grow more in Him, and I pray that this list will help me in that. Thanks for reading my list.
Yep, you read it right, Paul is officially laid off. And to make matters a bit worse, instead of 4 weeks it could be 6 weeks. They don't expect to ask him back until after the first of the year. We wanted to apply for unemployment right away so it wouldn't mess up our budget too much, but they won't let us apply the same week that he's worked a full week. We have to wait until he hasn't worked for about three days, Wednesday, before we can apply for benefits. Which means that the money will start coming later than expected. That will hurt a bit.
OK, I'm done crying, I just needed to get that out. The Lord is in control and this wasn't a surprise to Him. I know all of that, but trusting is hard sometimes. Now that it's official, and I know we won't be getting money right away, and maybe way lower than I thought, I'm feeling more stressed. We have a little extra coming in that we thought would go to buying some Christmas presents for the kids, but now with this wrinkle in the unemployment date and amount, that might have to go toward bills. I know the kids will understand, but not being able to get them even one gift, that will be hard. We just have to leave it in the Lord's hands and know that He will provide what we need, but not always want we want.
OK, well, I'm not going to type much more, the more I type it and think about it, the more bummed I get. Thank you all for your prayers, and if you can continue them whenever you think about us we would appreciate it. I'll try and blog in a day or so when I'm feeling better.
In a word, no. But there is a reason why, not just because I didn't want to. I had talked to Paul on the phone, and he thought I should stay home and rest. So I was seriously thinking of staying home, but I kept looking outside and thought, well maybe. So I got up to go check on my banana bread that had been sitting on the counter and cooling for the past two hours. I walked into the kitchen and all three loaves had sunken in the middle, I checked the middles and they weren't cooked. Now, before you think that I took out banana bread without checking the middle first to see if it was done, let me tell you, I did check them with toothpicks. But I realized later that the top had been a bit crunchy and when I pulled the toothpicks out, the crunchy top seemed to clean them off. What I thought was a clean toothpick, and a brown, crunchy top made me think they were done. So obviously going to the park at that point in time was not going to happen. I turned the oven back on and put the loaves back in for a while. The center rose a bit, and it did cook all the way through, but it was not my best loaves by any means. They tasted good, and I still gave them to Paul to bring to work, though I really didn't want to. But I had committed and I didn't have any thing else to give them, so Paul took them. They were a hit. Everyone loved them. I was quite shocked, but very happy too. That took up the rest of my afternoon.
We've had a good few days, though we are all extremely tired. I think the stress of waiting to see exactly when Paul will be laid off is wearing on us. The Lord is faithful, and we've had some friends help us with job leads, offering a meal a week for us, and some money if needed. We could really use your prayers though. We are at a cross road, and truly not sure which way to go. I mean, this is different then before, usually we have an idea, but we are not sure at all this time. Here is our issue. Paul is suppose to be laid off next week, though they say they will hire him back in a month. Paul likes this job, and he makes ok money there, but regardless of being laid off or not, he will still have to get a part time job. Because his current job just doesn't cover all of our expenses. Despite those issues, he's been able to witness to two different people at work, especially this week with the financial mess. They don't know the Lord, and they are quite worried. Paul really got to bring the gospel to them. So this is the issue. Do we stay at on ok job, that will require Paul to get a part time job for us to make it, so that he can continue to be a witness there for the Lord. Or do we leave when he's laid off, and look for a job that has a better financial outlook for Paul's future there and probably wouldn't need a part time job? Please know I'm not asking for answers, as I know none of you can make decisions for us, but I am asking for prayer. We are trying to be faithful to the Lord, and in His will. And I know if He calls us to stay there, He will provide, even if it is using a part time job. So any prayers would be appreciated.
Other than that we are fine. I cut the guys hair tonight, and now we are watching Tampa Bay about to beat Boston to go to the world series. Well, lets just say we hope Tampa Bay wins. So I guess that's about it. I hope you are all having a blessed week.
It's been a good day today. Lessons were completed in a timely manner, and I got to see my sister and niece for a bit today. I rushed out to the store earlier this morning, since they were saying we were going to get snow today, but we had a perfectly sunny day. It was cold, only in the high 30's, but it was sunny. Now they are saying it should start late tonight through tomorrow night. I guess we'll see. Regardless it won't last long since by Tuesday we'll be back up to the mid 40's.
It does look like Paul will be laid off for about a month. His boss was nice enough to give him a bit of a warning. It will happen anywhere from now to two weeks. His boss said they really want him back after that month, and feels really bad that he even has to lay him off. We'll just have to wait and see what the unemployment amount will be. We are praying they will use his income from a year ago when he worked for the propane company. If they use that income to figure out what his unemployment amount will be, it would be a blessing. He made real good money at that company, and the unemployment benefit would be a good amount. And if that is the case, then we might actually be able to wait the whole month and Paul could go back to work. If there has to be a layoff, that would be our prayer during it. Regardless, he'll still have to get a part time job, that is bumming me out a bit. I mean I'm blessed he's willing to work an extra job for us, I'm just going to miss him so much. I get so bummed even thinking about it. I have to trust the Lord and know that things will work out.
I'm having a nice mellow evening, watching baseball with hubby, drinking some nice, warm herbal tea, and playing online. I'm about caught up with all my online things I wanted to do, so I think I'll work on my crochet a bit. I hope you are all having a great night.
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.
So instead of books filled with words from men, I decided to get this book and I would like to accomplish reading through the bible in one year. I won't get the book for about 2 weeks, so I'll have start the reading schedule with my bible until I get it, but that's ok, I just want to get it started. I also bought a devotional book that is strictly just the Word of God. They take common verses, like verses on joy, and they put them together in a morning and evening readings. I'm really looking forward to reading both of these books, and I pray they help me with my desire to be the Lord's Word more.
Paul made sure I knew that was just not a good thought, and that it's completely wrong (for us anyway). But because of that thought I was stressing about website design, about my crafts even about reading. Every time I thought of doing a craft, I would hesitate wondering if I could sell it on my Etsy account, very sad I know. So with my husbands blessings, I'm going to try and relax more and just have fun with my hobbies. The two main ones being website design and crafts. There are lots of software I would like to use that is too expensive, but I know the Lord will show me different free things I can use. And if anyone has a Photoshop program or Abode Flash program they are not using and would like to get rid of it, please think of me. 
Multiply that by a couple of days, and I feel completely overwhelmed when I miss a day or two. It's taking way too much time. So I will clean that up a bit, so that my blog reading time shortens up and I have more time to do the other things I want to do on the computer.
And to make matters a bit worse, instead of 4 weeks it could be 6 weeks. They don't expect to ask him back until after the first of the year. We wanted to apply for unemployment right away so it wouldn't mess up our budget too much, but they won't let us apply the same week that he's worked a full week. We have to wait until he hasn't worked for about three days, Wednesday, before we can apply for benefits. Which means that the money will start coming later than expected. That will hurt a bit. 
