Sometimes when I get really discouraged, I find it hard to read Scripture and really "see" anything that speaks to my situation.  Of course, that is only because I have the fog of discouragement blocking my vision, but when I perservere, the fog starts to lift and God never fails to speak to my heart through His Word.

Last night, I was prompted to start reading in Phillipians.  Not any particular passage, just started at chapter 1, verse 1 and read through like I would read any book.  Then, I got to verse 12.  First of all, if you don't already know, Paul wrote the book of Phillipians while he was in prison.  Now, if I were in prison, I don't know that I would even have the ability to write.  I would probably be so distraught at my circumstances that I could not focus on anything but my terrible plight (not very mature of me, I know, but the truth, nonetheless).  But Paul says in verse 12:

Now I want you to know and continue to rest assured, brethren, that what [has happened] to me [this imprisonment] has actually only served to advance and give a renewed impetus to the [spreading of the] good news (the Gospel).  Phillipians 1:12- Amplified Bible

That just really comforted me when I read it.  All these challenging times and issues that have come into my life can be used to advance the kingdom of God.  It just seemed to confirm the scripture that says all things work together for good to them that love the Lord.

In my Everyday Life Bible, there is a section called "Putting the Word to Work" and this is what it says:

Is this a challenging time in your life?  Know that God can work through you in any circumstance to further the Gospel and His purposes, just as He did for Paul in Phillipians 1:12-14.  Ask Him to help you see Him at work even through ways you will not expect.

I do know that the recent challenges have really driven me into a deeper walk with the Lord and a deeper study of His Word, all things that will manifest themselves in my being able to walk more effectively in my daily walk and in my witness of Christ to others. 

No, this is not a road I would have chosen to take had I been given a choice, but I am grateful for the lessons I am learning and the deeper walk I am developing with my wonderful Savior.  God is good!

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It is Monday - I always like Mondays because it is the first day of the week and I like firsts.  The first of a new month, the first of a new season, the first of a new year - I just like firsts.

The last few weeks have been some of the toughest I have been through in my life, which makes the "firsts" even that much sweeter.  I think it is because it reminds me that God is a God of firsts too. I know a lot of people like to use the phrase, "God is a God of second chances", and I am not disagreeing with that per se, but I got to thinking about how when we ask for forgiveness and God so graciously forgives us, He not only forgives us, but He makes us like new again, which feels the same to me as getting a "first" again.  I am probably making no sense, but that is my rambling thoughts for today.

I hope we all have a great week!

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First of all, thanks Bethany and Angela for your comments.  You are right Bethany, God has been good to me and I need to recall those to my remembrance now more than ever.  Angela, thanks so much for the scripture.  I know God is my deliverer and He is the deliverer for my daughter as well.  One thing I felt God really spoke to my heart soon after the announcement was that we serve a God of redemption and that what Satan weaves into our life for the purpose of destroying us, God re-weaves it to bring life out of death, hope and joy out of grief and heartache.  That is what I am clinging to.

I am truly learning how to take one day at a time. 

Today was Shelby's first doctor's visit.  Actually, everything at the doctor's appointment was a first for Shelby.  It was bittersweet for me.  I struggle with knowing if I should smile and feel happiness when the doctor is talking about this new life that is coming into our family.  If I smile, will that be construed as my condoning what Shelby did?  Yet, this is my grandchild, and I want it to know that it is loved and wanted and even if the first moment I knew of its existence was not necessarily the happiest moment of my life, I am committed to this child and to being the best grandmother it could ever have.  I am also committed to helping my daughter become the best mother she can be and also will not turn my back on helping her to become the wife God wants her to be at some point.  We are also committed to the father of our grandchild as well.  We have challenged him to become the man God wants him to be and we are committed to helping him do that.  It is not easy.... and no we are not condoning the sin that he and Shelby committed.  But they have both asked God to forgive them and they have asked us to forgive them.  How can we forgive them and then continue to be angry at them or try to "make them pay"?  That is not the example Jesus set for us.  But it is just so hard when you live among family and friends who feel otherwise.

I just know that I can only take one day at a time and try to lean completely and totally upon God and let Him lead and guide me through each day.  And also to help me remember I have 2 other daughters who need me to still be mom to them too, and a husband who needs his wife as well.  Whatever do people do who don't have the Lord?

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I had hoped this blog would have become a journal of sorts for me to record my thoughts and feelings as I walked through life, but it just hasn't happened the way I thought it would.  I find myself in a constant state of being sidetracked, or as Stephen Covey would say, reacting to the urgent, but not making time for the important.

I know the title of my blog says I am trying to reach the simple life, but in reality, my life is anything but simple.  We are a christian family, but each member of this family seems to be on a different page when it comes to being christian and I am overwhelmed and exhausted.

We just received probably the saddest news parents of a teenager could ever get, outside of the announcement that they had been killed, and that is that our 16 year old daughter is pregnant.  It has totally rocked my world.  While I know there is no perfect parent, I can't tell you how much of a failure it makes me feel.  Even though she told us it was not our fault, that it was a choice she made that we couldn't have stopped, I still feel like I could have done something to prevent it and I didn't.

Between her announcement and deepening stirrings God had started in my heart several months ago, I find myself at a place where I am re-evaluating everything in my life.  What is it I am doing?  Why am I doing it?  How do I do things different after years of doing things the wrong way?  I am overwhelmed, I am heartbroken.

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Well, I have made it through week 1 of my 90-day journey.  It has been an interesting week.  Of course, Satan has tried many tactics to distract me from this journey, and some days I allowed myself to be distracted, but overall, I feel like it was a good week.

I am always amazed when I make any committment at how little things you never notice before seem to just pop up in big and ugly ways to try and deter you from your course.  My thinking going into last week was that my oldest daughter would be gone on her senior trip, just leaving my other 2 girls and my husband at home and I thought that would ensure an "easier" week.  Wrong!  LOL  I realized then that a lot of the times I had blamed Kayla for keeping my life too busy was unfair and untrue.  As I continued to ponder on that, I realized that my life is too busy feeling because of me and my lack of choosing right priorities and my lack of being self-disciplined.  Not a pretty picture to contemplate, but a necessary one, if I truly want to become the woman I want to be.

So, Kayla is home, the busy weekend is drawing to a close and tomorrow is the beginning of week 2.  I know the areas I need to work on a little more diligently this week and I am sure there will be new lessons to learn as well.  I will end with the 1st memory verse we were to memorize and I will type it from memory:

May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through.  May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  The one who calls you is faithful and He will do it.  I Thessalonians 5:23-24

Okay, I will confess, I had to look back at the first 3 words to get started.....lol  But not too bad, huh?

And one of the attitude adjustments listed in the book during this past week was"  Seven days without God's Word makes one weak. - Greg Laurie 

What a thought to ponder! 

Here's to week 2!!!!

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Well, I obviously haven't kept up with my blog as I had "thought" I would or had hoped to.  But life is all about growing and learning and sharing and those things have been going on in my life, but I just haven't got to the "sharing" in my blog yet....:)

A good friend blessed me and a circle of our friends with a book by Donna Partow called, Becoming the Woman I Want To Be.  Today was day 1 of that 90-day journey to renewing spirit, soul, & body.  After reading the introduction, I felt a stirring in my spirit and I believe this book is going to be a turning point in my life. 

The affirmation for day 1 is this:  I forget those things that are behind me, including all of my personal shortcomings in the area of spiritual disciplines, diet, and exercise.  I am pressing toward what lies ahead:  a bright future filled with health in my spirit, soul, and body.  - Based on Philippians 3:13

As I thought on that, I realized my personal shortcomings were/are many, but God reminded me of what Jeremiah 29:11 says - For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.  How awesome is that???  My shortcomings may be numerous, but the final outcome is something to be hoped for.  What an awesome God we serve!

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Good evening my fellow bloggers! 

First of all, thanks for the comments left on my last entry and for missing me....:)  I have missed blogging!

I really had good intentions of blogging more faithfully once the new year got underway, but as is usual, life happenings got in the way.  Fortunately, none of the life happenings have been major, just minor things, and further evidence that I need to get my life more organized so I am not always reeling from the "small" things.

God is faithful and has heard my cry and I feel that I am finally making progress on that area of my life.  I still have a long way to go, but I am finally moving that direction.  God has actually been moving in several areas of my life - which is a good thing, and I hope to have time to share about them more in my blog.

This month is going to be a busy one, but as I continue to work on organizing and streamlining my life, I pray that it really won't be too "mad".  Today is my youngest's birthday.  Lindsay is 13 today.  I had a nice time earlier today recalling all the details of the day she came into our lives.  And our oldest's birthday is Wednesday and she will be 18.  My biggest regret in parenting is that I didn't enjoy each stage they went through like I should have.  I spent the majority of their lives wishing they would hurry and get to the next stage.  Despite reading many books on parenting, I never figured out how to bridge the knowledge I gained from all my reading with the ability to put it into practice, so therefore, I am doing a lot of reaping now of what I sowed then in my lack of being consistent in my discipline.  It makes it hard trying to sow the right seeds now, but God is gracious and I know He is helping me each day.

We had a family party for both the girls last night and that was a lot of fun.  Then, today we let Lindsay choose the restaurant to eat at for lunch (she chose Mexican) and we let her order fried ice cream for dessert.  We had a very nice time.

Well, as I continue to make efforts at getting my life more organized, I am going to head to bed and try to get some sleep.  I will stop back in tomorrow and blog about my plan for the week and some other things on my mind, as well as check in with all of you and see what you have been up to.

Sweet dreams!

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Ever have a year that you just couldn't wait for it to be over so you could get that "clean slate" feeling that usually comes with 01-01???  Well, I have had several years like that and though 2006 was better than 2005, I was still glad to see it go and get the chance to start fresh again.

Of course, that being said, this year started off with some challenges right from the start.  But what has been different is that despite the issues and struggles, for the most part I have been able to keep my eyes, mind & heart focused on the Lord, which is where it should always be anyway. 

We are still in the adjustment mode I think with our homeschool schedule and we continue to work at tweaking it to find what works best for us.  Since the first of the year though, we have done much better and besides having a major computer meltdown and repair, I have sort of hit on a work schedule that flows well with our school schedule.

The areas we are still struggling in are the bad attitudes the girls continue to have with each other.  This really bothers me and I have been crying out to the Lord for answers and direction on how to address this with some actual success.  Sometimes though, I realize that when God turns up the heat in our lives to rid us of our impurities, the impurities are what comes to the top and have to be dealt with before getting to the pureness, so I am hoping that this is where we are right now.

I have totally missed blogging and hope to at least post twice a week and also catch up with all of my blogging friends.

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The day before Thanksgiving and all through the house.....wait!  That is the beginning of a Christmas story, isn't it????   

I can't believe tomorrow is Thanksgiving!  Life has been filled to the brim these past 2 weeks and I am just now able to come up for air a little bit.  Fortunately for us, all our family lives close by, so we don't have any traveling to do for the holidays, but we still seem to be always hurried.

I decided on doing a Thanksgiving unit study this week and to give us a break from the "regular subjects".  I bought a lapbook kit from here and the girls have really had a great time with it.  It was a little below their grade level, but who really ever outgrows cutting, pasting and coloring??? LOL

As far as the cooking goes for Thanksgiving, I am taking creamed corn, pea salad, fruity marshmallow salad, and a peaches & cream dessert to my parents' home tomorrow.  We will have dinner with my in-laws on Saturday night and I will take homemade dumplings, chinese slaw, broccoli/cheese/rice casserole and cherry cream dessert. 

I hope everyone will have a blessed Thanksgiving!!!!!

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PTL! for the weekend!

Me and the girls were ready for the weekend.  I don't know that it was such a hard week, just very busy and we were all looking forward to some down time.

Saturday's are such a fun time because they tend to be pretty spontaneous.  I never know exactly how things are going to go.  You see, we live on my Dad's small 40-acre farm and both my siblings and, of course, my parents, live right next to each other.  My brother lives down the hill from me in the house we grew up in as kids.  I live in the house on the top of the hill where my granny lived when were kids growing up and my sister and her husband live across the road from us in a house they built and my parents live about an 1/8 of mile diagonally from us in a house they built for their retirement.  I have 5 nephews and 1 niece, so their is always a bustle of activity on the weekends.  The kids are always wandering from house to house and they always end up at Grandma's eventually. As do most of us. 

While there are certainly challenges and sometimes difficulties with living so close to family, it is also a blessing.  As a kid growing up, we did little to nothing with any extended family so I grew up not ever really getting to know my cousins.  My girls have very close relationships with all their cousins and I am so happy that they are getting to have that.

Today most of the boys are out hunting and Shelby is waiting on Grandpa to get home from that so she can go hang out with him for the day. As of right now, my plan for the day is to "putter".  How do you all spend your Saturday's?

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My friend at "Our Happy Homeschool" is doing a contest and below is my entry into the contest.  What great timing this is in my life! 

1.  Share 1 healthy recipe that your family enjoys for dinner, along with the nutritional information if at all possible.

SPOONBURGERS BARBECUE

-Taken from the First Place cookbook

1 lb. Ground beef

2/3 cup chopped onion or celery (optional)

1 tbsp. mustard

2 tbsp. ketchup

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

1 - 10.7 oz can low-fat cream of chicken soup

6 hamburger buns

Nonstick cooking spray

In a medium skillet coated with cooking spray, brown beef and onion or celery, drain and rinse well with water.  Return to pan and add mustard, ketchup, salt and pepper; stir well and allow to cook 1-2 minutes.  Add soup and simmer 30 minutes.  Spoon onto hamburger buns.  Serves 6. 

Exchanges:  3 meats, 2 breads

2.  What is one book or website on healthy living or eating more naturally that you would recommend.

I love this book!:

Health 4 Life by Dr. Jody Wilkinson, M.S. 

The back cover reads like this:

Living a healthy, balanced lifestyle - physically, spiritually, emotionally, and mentally - is much easier, and infinitely more rewarding, than most people imagine.  Your key to reaching the goal is total wellness, which what Health 4 Life is all about.  Full of practical pointers and encouraging insights, this is a welcome resource for everyone who wants to achieve a balanced, healthy way of life.  Health 4 Life covers a full spectrum of wellness-related topics:

• How to eat healthy while traveling or dining out
• Understanding and preventing cancer, heart disease and high blood pressure
• The role of faith and prayer in a healthy lifestyle
• Overcoming stress
• Learning to control portion sizes
• Physical-fitness helps and hints
• Understanding vitamins and minerals
• Grocery shopping guidelines
• Importance of accountability groups

and much more! 

3.  Share with me one verse of encouragement from the Word of God.

These 2 verses really help me when I am focusing on making better food choices:

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?
Matthew 6:24-26

And

"My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.
John 4:33-35

4.  Which type of scale do you prefer... the face or digital and why?

I love my digital.  It has the readings in tenths of a pound and the digital is easier for me to read. 

5.  What is one food or exercise tip that you have always rememberd and tried to implement in your own life.

If I think I am hungry, drink a glass of water first because my body may just be needing water instead of food.  If I am still hungry after that, then I eat something.  I have been amazed at how many times the water was what I really needed. 

6.  Are you and your family where you would like to be in regards to your eating, exercising and feasting on the Word of God?

No. 

7.  If you answered no to question 6, tell me about it.  Where are the areas in your family that need examining.

We have developed very unhealthy habits of being sedentary in our leisure time and we tend to eat for convenience rather than for health and unfortunately, we don't spend as much time really digging into the Word as we know we should.  I believe that all these areas are tied together and when we start with feasting on the Word of God, the by-products of that will be a more active lifestyle and a more conscious effort to eat healthy. 

8.  This one is going to be by faith... but I would like to ask you to get up out of your chair and either do 10 push-ups, 10 sit-ups or 10 jumping jacks.  After you've completed this assignment you can sit back down and mark this as "done" 

Done!!!!!  Did you all feel that earthquake tremor????  (I chose the jumping jacks.) 

9.  Would you be interested in joining me on this journey?  Would you like to improve your health and that of your families? 

I will be joining you on this journey as I have been diagnosed with diabetes and my oldest daughter was just diagnosed with hyperinsulinemia, so we are both following the diabetic diet and trying to get more exercise in.  I am sure our choices will have a direct impact on my husband and other 2 children as they will be eating what we fix and my other 2 children love to exercise with us. 

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Well, Monday was a tad crazy, but overall, I am off to a good start this week.

I first of all want to say thank you to Jan, Melissa and Angela for your comments, support, prayers and encouragement as I face the challenge of diabetes. I so appreciate you all! 

I have been avoiding everything that was overtly sugar-filled and/or high in carbs.  I "think" I have lost some weight in the past 11 days, but am not sure - I just got a new scale yesterday and its reading was higher than what the scale at the doctor's office said 11 days ago, but my clothes feel looser, so who knows?  I am also watching the portion size of everything I eat and trying to eat a little something every 3 hours or so.  When I called Dave yesterday to give him my sugar levels for the last several days, which were still ranging from the high 200's to high 300's, he decided to start me on a 3rd pill.  I started it yesterday afternoon and my sugar was 201 at 10 last night and 209 this morning, so I guess it is working.  It really is a new way of eating, and is what I needed to do anyway.  I had been praying and asking God to please help me to find the motivation to lose weight and get healthy, so I guess the moral of this lesson is "Be careful what you pray for!"    I am certainly motivated now....:)

Another new thing for me this week is that I am reading the book, Managers Of Their Homes by Steve & Terri Maxwell.  I had considered getting this book before, but always ended up deciding it was not necessary.  I own a LOT of home organizing books already and I subscribe to FlyLady so who needs one more book or plan, right?  Well, honestly, we have been struggling big time to get our school work done and we are behind.  Some of that, of course, has been due to my extreme fatigue and fuzzy mind, which thankfully I was diagnosed with diabetes and know the reason for those symptoms, but it sure has put us behind.  But on the other hand, I have to be honest and say that even without the diabetic challenge, I am not a very good manager of my time.  I haven't got too far in the book yet, but I already feel like there is hope for us and I discussed it with Shelby & Lindsay this morning and they are willing to create schedules with me.  That is so encouraging to me already. 

I am so glad that God meets us where we are and that He hears our heart's cry, even if it does mean getting an answer that we didn't really want.  He truly knows what is best for us and I choose to trust Him.

Blessings to all my blog friends!

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For the past few months I have not been feeling very well, but figured it was just the stress of new lifestyle changes, what with the decision to homeschool and getting all that together and dealing with the adjustment the girls were undergoing with the decision to homeschool and our oldest daughter is a Senior this year - who we left in public school - and she is stressed about decisions she needs to make regarding college, etc. and I have been stressing over all the extra expenses we have incurred, so like I said I figured my physical problems were stress-related.

Last Wednesday, my SIL insisted on checking my blood sugar and it was 318.  So, I got a doctor appointment that day and I was diagnosed with diabetes.  I am taking 2 different pills and was told to follow the diabetic diet.  I have been working hard at watching what I eat and taking the meds, but the #s are not coming down.  I need to do some more reading up and obviously fine-tuning of my eating plan. 

So, now I have yet another challenge to deal with.  Anyone have any suggestions???

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Well, we have been trying out a new cleaning plan.  Our old cleaning plan had us cleaning different rooms of the house on different days.  While I liked that plan because we didn't have to spend a lot of time each day on cleaning, the girls were wanting to try something new, so we are now making Mondays our day to clean the whole house top to bottom.  Below is a list of what we do:

• Sweep & mop kitchen/dining room
• Clean the microwave, front of fridge, dishwasher and oven and clean the range hood.
• Vacuum & dust living room/hallway
• Clean tub/shower, toilet and sink, mirror, washer and dryer in main bathroom
• Clean shower, toilet and sink and mirror in master bathroom.
• Sweep & mop both bathroom floors
• Dust & vacuum all bedrooms
• Change sheets on all beds
• Tape roll the couch and chairs in the living room - we actually do this daily as well.
• Bring trash from all rooms and bag with kitchen trash - we take out kitchen trash daily

This plan really seems to be working well for us.  I think it is because it all looks so good and smells so good that we actually are better at maintaining it than we were with the one room a day plan before.  Doing it on Monday works really for us too as we seem to be really busy, in and out on the weekends, so the house is really ready for some attention come Monday.  We do take about 30 minutes on Friday and do a "get ready for the weekend" blitz where we tidy anything out of place and use a feather duster in the living room, but that is it.

We all really enjoy the clean house on Monday nights and my husband really notices now when we clean, which is nice....:)

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Hello.....

Life has been life....what can I say?  We did get Kayla's senior pictures picked out and the order placed.  That was a tough thing to do.  She is very photogenic and I wanted 1 of every pose....:)  I am looking forward to getting the order in.

Also of note this week, the mother board got fried on my computer.  The tech guy thinks it was 1 too many power surges that got it and possibly a lightning hit from a few weeks ago when a storm went through.  Anyway, I was without my computer for 4 days.....it was not fun.  LOL

We did try a new cleaning schedule this week at the girls' request and I have to admit it worked much better than I thought it would.  And the house even stayed cleaner longer it seemed - well, until today....lol

Last night when going to bed around midnight, I heard the sinks in the kitchen making a "glug glug" sound.  I knew the washer was running so didn't get too concerned, but this morning when I got up and was running water in the bathroom sink to wash my face and brush my teeth, my toilet water kept "bubbling".  Long story short, we had a major drain clog.....:(  We dug a hole just on the outside of the house where the pipe goes out to the lagoon and drilled a hole in the pipe to run a snake through it.  The one we had wasn't long enough so we had to go rent one.  After multiple attempts and several of us stationed on the lagoon bank to watch for anything resembling a blockage being unblocked, we got it unclogged.    What a mess it was though....:(

The weather has been really nice here today, a warm day with a cool breeze, which was wonderful, so we decided to grill steaks for supper and just relax this evening.  Lindsay went to spend the night with a neighbor friend and after supper, Shelby and Kayla went to the movies.  They should be home in the next 20 minutes or so.

I am not nearly as good at keeping up with this blog as I want to be.  It just seems like life keeps interrupting me.  Maybe this next week will be more even-keeled.  I sure hope so.

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Well, my weekend was chaotic to say the least, but I survived it.

We had a great visit with my uncle from Kansas City and my uncle and his wife from California.  The Pioneer Days Festival that our town holds annually was a lot of fun too.  The only blight to our weekend was that my sister's FIL passed away Saturday morning.  He had been diagnosed with cancer 3 weeks earlier.  He was 71, but the best thing to come out of this was that he finally accepted Christ as his Savior!  He had been very resistant to the Lord all his life, but God is faithful and never quits trying to woo us to Him.

So, I have been busy helping take care of things at my sister's house while they have been gone dealing with all that.  I feel like I can't catch up on my sleep I am so tired, but at the same time, my soul feels good and I know God is giving me the strength I need to keep on keeping on.

I am so glad fall is here, though this week, it seems the sun forgot to check the calendar as we are experiencing near record high temps - 94 is the expected high today....:(  The nights cool off really nice though and I LOVE it.  I am hoping to get some straw bales and pumpkins to decorate my porch and deck with this week.  I love to decorate for fall and I am hoping to have a fall party again this year, if I can find a date to work for all of us.  We had so much fun when we had a fall party a couple of years ago.

Well, I am off to get busy for the day. 

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Fall is really here, at least it was for today....:)  Last night we had rain and this morning was very cloudy and our temperature only reached in the mid 60s.  It was awesome!  I really enjoy all the seasons, but I am always ready for the next one to arrive.

It seems we have stumbled upon the 2nd of the twice yearly trip to the mechanic shop for our van.  I think I mentioned in a previous post that our van blew a head gasket.  We spent $700 and got the van back last Friday and then Tuesday evening the check engine light came on.  Sigh.....:(  This is our lovely Fix Or Repair Daily van.  In the past 18 months we have spent $3700 on it.  So, to make a long sad story short, I am taking it to the transmission shop tomorrow.  Yep, a transmission shop.  It is a sad day in America when the only honest mechanic you can find specializes in transmissions, but is also better capable of diagnosing non-transmission problems and for a fraction of the cost than a mechanic who is supposed to know the other stuff.  Anyway, I am hoping whatever code we find tomorrow is not a major cost and is something that my husband can fix himself.  Then, maybe we can get back to saving up for the next big expense to come with this van.  I know, I know, that doesn't sound very positive does it.  My mom tells me I am snared by my words, but I tried saying, "I will have no more problems with this van" repeatedly, but that didn't work, so I decided that instead of thinking nothing else would go wrong and then end up disappointed, I should save up money and expect something to happen like it has been doing and then if it doesn't by some chance, then I can enjoy being pleasantly surprised.....

This weekend is going to be a busy one.  Besides dealing with the van tomorrow, I have to fix a double pot of baked beans and chinese slaw, plus buy all the accessories for dinner tomorrow night.  My dad's 2 brothers and one of their wives is coming to visit tomorrow evening and staying until Sunday morning and my mom has to work all day tomorrow and Saturday, so I am going to do the cooking for at least tomorrow night's meal.  Actually, my hubby is going to grill burgers and hot dogs so that will be less for me to deal with. 

Plus, we have to get some more school work done.  We haven't stayed on target too well this week, but my girls went to my parents' house tonight to clean and they will help me do a lot of the cooking tomorrow, so I will count some of that as home ec hours...

On Saturday, our town is having their annual Pioneer Days where there will be lots of craft booths, food and singing/dancing at the bandstand in town, along with a parade.  We will spend late morning/early afternoon there, then Saturday night, we may take a 2 hour drive to an observatory manned by a local university for their annual open to the public night.  Since this is a 2 hour drive one way, we may end up skipping it depending on how tired we all are, but if we can make it I think we would really like it. 

And of course, on Sunday we have church.  The drama team, of which all 3 of my girls are on, will be performing in both Sunday morning services, then they have an all day practice afterwards for a bigger drama they are working on, so we will have a quiet Sunday afternoon just the hubby and me...that doesn't happen often...we will probably take a nap...lol  Can you tell we have been married for almost 19 years????  Actually, Tom's work week starts on Sunday night at 10 p.m., so he always sleeps Sunday afternoons anyway.

Well, that is enough rambling for one night, huh?  I will post about our weekend on Monday.  You all have a blessed weekend yourselves!

Hugs,

Donna

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There are no words to adequately describe how blessed, refreshed and renewed I was by the Women's Conference this weekend.  It was simply amazing.

I have never been in a worship service before that was led by someone who truly had the gift of "leading" people to worship, but after this weekend where Darlene Zschech led the worship in all sessions, I was just blown away by how awesome it is to truly be "led" to the throne room of God, which is exactly how I felt.  And just like Isaiah mentions, when you are in the presence of God you do NOT come away unchanged.  I am so excited about all the fruit I will see in my life as a result of the changes God worked in my heart through this weekend. 

Also while I was away this weekend, God was busy back at home....  my husband has spent 16 of his 18 years of adult working in the hardwood flooring manufacturing industry.  While he has been very successful in that, it is not what he enjoys.  He LOVES to do carpentry work and for the past few years has worked on the side doing light carpentry/remodeling jobs and would love to do it full-time, but because there are no "benefits" when you are self-employed, he has never taken his desire to the full-time level.  Well, this weekend, he got a call from the "top" carpenter in our area.  This is a man who is so in demand that there is a waiting list of at least 6 months to a year to get him to do work for you.  Most of the carpenters in our area make $18/hour, but he gets $35/hour.  He really is just an excellent carpenter.  Anyway, he is getting close to retirement age and none of his children want the business and one of his workers that he had planned on giving his business to had a life changing situation and moved away.  He told my husband that he was thinking about who he could find to "leave his inheritance to" (his words) and that my husband's name was the 1st name that came to his mind and that it just stayed with him, so that is why he was calling to see if my husband would be interested in coming to work for him and being trained to run his business for the next couple of years, then leaving it to him.  My husband is so excited he can hardly stand it, but he is also praying about it to make sure this is truly a door God has opened for him/us.

This would work for us in so many ways.....it would get my husband back to a day shift so he could be home in the evenings and it would also allow my husband to do what he loves the most and also, we believe it would take us to another level financially where we would be able to bless others more.  The major drawback is no insurance, but we are going to look into buying a major medical policy to cover us in the event of a major crisis.  We don't go to the doctor a whole lot, but we would need to be more diligent in creating a savings account to help cover anytime we did need to go to the doctor and/or buy medications.  It is a little scary, but I also feel like it is an area where God is saying, "Trust Me", so my husband is going to call the man back and set up a time to talk with him and if this is the way God leads, who knows what our future holds??? 

So, now I am home and today we get back to life.....:)  One awesome thing that Joyce said to all of us on Saturday was that we needed to realize that this conference was not only a time for us to just get away from "life" for a while, but that we were there to be equipped to handle "life" when we got back home.  That really stuck with me.  I am not going to just look back and say that was a great time that made me feel good for a few days, but I am going to take what I learned and what God did in my heart and mind and put it to work in my everyday life.  Don't we serve an awesome God who is so patient and loving with us as He grows us???? 

Okay.....now on to get school started.....:)

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Ahhhh, what a blessing Sunday afternoons are....:)

This week has been very stressful and I didn't handle any of the stresses very well at all, but I did learn a lot, so I guess that is good.

We made the decision to order Algebra I from A.C.E. and it arrived Friday.  We will start it tomorrow and see how that goes.  I hope that it works well for us.  This will be a short week for us as Kayla and I are going out of town to the Joyce Meyer Women's Conference in St. Louis that will be from Thursday thru Saturday.  I am really looking forward to it.  I really need a spiritual refreshing and am hoping God will use this opportunity to do some emotional healing in me, Kayla, and my mother who is going with us also.

Other things from our weekend was Lindsay's soccer game.  She is on an all girls team and their 2 games so far have been against co-ed teams and they have won both.  Lindsay constantly surprises me how aggressive she is when she plays.  I am really proud of her.

We hauled our van to the shop today and the mechanic is supposed to start work on it Tuesday.  I am really praying it won't be $1000s by the time he is finished.  So, I am without a vehicle this week so I should get a lot more done at home, which will be nice.

Well, I guess that is the news for our weekend.  Boring, huh?  :)

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Well, we made it through the day.  After last night's emotional craziness, today has been rather calm.  Shelby spent most of the day reading her book either in her room or out on the porch swing on the deck.  The weather has been gorgeous here the past few days and it makes being outdoors a pleasant experience.  Lindsay has also read a lot today, and played with our dog and my nephew's dog who comes to visit us each day when my nephews are gone to school. 

Because of the impending van repair I am trying to be extra conservative and more mindful of how much I am spending, so for supper tonight I decided to make my homemade potato soup.  It is from a recipe in an Amish cookbook I have and it is excellent.  It was certainly a hit tonight and I am inspired to find more soup recipes to try. 

We did call and find a mechanic to take our van to and he came highly recommended and has given us an estimate far lower than the other mechanic we talked with.  Of course, there are always variables, but I am praying that the final cost will still be less than $1000.  I also called and checked the prices on renting a vehicle for the weekend.  We have never done that before and we can have one for about $80 from Friday noon to Monday noon and there is no extra charge for mileage.  I think it will help us out a lot.  My husband hates to spend the money on it, but said if I really felt there was no way around it, to go for it.  I think if he only realized how much I would be asking him to run each of the kids to their various activities on Saturday, he would be insisting I rent a vehicle.....:)

Anyway, I did get some MT work done today and I did get some more lesson plans organized so I am feeling more caught up and organized, which is a nice feeling compared to the overwhelmed and always lagging behind feelings which have been the norm lately. 

The girls are going to babysit tomorrow from 11-5, so we are going to be up early in the morning to do schoolwork from 8-10:45, then when the kids go down for their naps after lunch, we will do some more school work.  The girls are excited about babysitting again.  They got really attached to the little ones this summer and the little ones got attached to them also. Their mom told me that the little ones cry almost daily when she takes them to their new sitter that they want to go to "shelby and lindsay's house"....:(

Well, anyway, that has been my day.... Much more pleasant than it has been in a while.  I am so glad that God is faithful and never gives up on us when we are struggling to find our way. 

And thanks Melissa for your prayers.....  Love ya! 

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