I have really enjoyed my "alone" time with the Lord and he has surely blessed me in it! I am amazed at what God will show and share when we have our hearts open to it and are listening. I am thankful that I have a God who walks beside me. Yes, I have trials, but everyone does. We can choose to have God in our life through them or try to figure things out on our own. I can't even imagine my life without the Lord and don't care too. He gives me daily bread to make it day by day. I have to privilege of serving Him. I am so thankful for it!
Time to be quiet
It has been a bit since my last post, but do you ever feel it's just time to be quiet? Just be quiet and listen to the Lord. Sometimes even posting about my darling girls is just too trivial. I think Trina posted about this in the past, and I find myself mulling over her words and finding so much more depth now that she is gone.
Just Him and I. Trusting only Him. Having ALL my confidence in Him. Quiet. Listen...
Mother
Mother- A woman in relation to a child or children to whom she has given birth.
-A person who provides the care and affection associated with the female parent.
Sorry but these definitions are very shallow and lacking. They don't even begin to cover the sheer joy, abundant love, happiness, heartbreak, and continual worrying of a mother. That she, "Provides the care and affection," ok that just sounds cold and unattached. Which is completely opposite of how a mother feels.
She is filled with amazement when her 4 year old comes up to her and says, "Momma, you know "asteroids" is rocks that live in space?" And her heart is full to bursting when her 5 year old says things like, "Your the best mommy EVER!!!!" or "I love you infinity!!!!", and then gives a big bear hug with all she has. She is beaming with pride when her 20 year old picks up the check after an expensive meal. But then, her heart breaks and is full of fear when he moves out to the unknown. She has confidence that God sees her tears and hears her prayers, so she keeps praying, praying, praying...
The dictionary should be updated. I mean think about it, if it's this far off on a word we all know and understand, What about the words we are actually looking up for meaning? Is it that far off on the depth of all the meanings??
Out with the old... In with the new!!
Christmas was wonderful! We stayed home this Christmas instead of heading to Oklahoma to be with my family. We definitely missed them!! But, it was nice to celebrate for days here at home without the hustle and bustle of travel. We opened a few presents four days in a row, had a Star wars marathon, played tinker toys, made lots of goodies, laughed a lot and spent Christmas day with good friends, great food and fun games.
Now that we are done with all that, I am ready to make some changes. Some people call them New Year's resolutions, but I don't really like that term. Years ago I heard a "professional" state that if you've had the same resolution for 5 years with no results, then you should forget it cause you won't make the change. I set out to prove her wrong. At the time I had reached my all time, high weight wise. In the next 5 months I lost 30 pounds. HA!!! Take that little miss know it all... In any case I no longer like the term "New Year's resolution," but prefer to think of them as life changes.
A few years after this happened, I made another life change. (not at New Year's this time) I made a huge diet change for the sake of my health and lost another 30 pounds, a little to much. That was 8 years ago and I have slowly started letting things go and I am ready to get my body feeling good again.
I went shopping last night and got some new workout clothes and tennis shoes. (clearance $15 for shoes and $21 for 2 pants and a top!!) Then, this morning as I was browsing netflix I saw a show about food and how terrible the processed food we eat today is. So... back to my vitamix I go to create yummy healthy shakes for our family. I was so good at doing this for a few years, but sometimes I need motivation and shows like this to help remind me of what I want to do. I just made a shake with a spinach base along with bananas, oranges, strawberries, kiwi, a handful of pea pods and carrots. My girls LOVED it even though it was so green and ugly!
Although I don't have much weight to lose, I am so excited to start exercising, eating better and feeling great!
Huh?
Does anyone else ever feel like they live in a different universe than their spouse?
Recently we played the board game loaded questions. One of the cards told us to write one word that described our life. Instantly I knew what I would write...
We have been in the middle of a remodel since April. Dale started back to college last summer with some killer classes and tons of homework. He took this term off so we could focus on the remodel before he starts back in January. At the time we were playing the game we had out of town company and at one point while they were here, we couldn't take showers because of the grout in one shower and the caulk in another. We had one toilet out of commission most of the time. I was painting trim and a bathroom while they were here. So the word that came to mind was definitely CHAOTIC.
During that turn, Dale was the reader. So, he collected everyones answers to read aloud. When he saw mine he snickered and showed me his....calm. Like I said, I questioned whether we live in the same universe. CALM? CALM!! How could he say his life is calm??
He said, "Life is good. God has blessed us and we don't have any trials to speak of so I feel like my life is calm."
Well I just hope he never thinks our life is chaotic, cause that could be just too crazy for me.
My mom is here visiting and I helped her create a blog. For any friends out there interested, her url is blogginggma.blogspot.com I think she will really enjoy it especially if she can get comments (hint hint).
We have had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We were able to accomplish quite a bit on the remodel. About half of what we wanted to but isn't that how it always goes? We had some quality family time. Good stuff. Feeling very blessed.
Here's our new shower :)
Dad's Birthday Today
Just remembering my dad today on his birthday. It has been a little over 2 years since he passed away. We will always love you dad. I will always be thankful for the things he taught me. He would have been 64 today.
This photo shows my dad as the kidder that he was :)
A flood of thoughts
As I cleaned this morning, the house has been quiet. Kids are still sleeping, guys are at work, tv and computer were off. Very nice. It allowed my thoughts to flow without distraction, and here they are:
Great meeting last night! We are having called meeting this week and I so enjoyed it last night. It is wonderful when God reads my mind and allows the prayers, ministry, testimonies, and even songs to coincide with what I already felt. Of course, I think He allowed me to have those thoughts in the first place so that I could have the blessing of unity in that still small voice. Enjoyed a house full of brethren yesterday. That's always good!
Part of our company last night was Bro Joe AKA The Great Appliance Guru. He fixed my dishwasher. To truly understand how this makes me feel, imagine me dancing around, jumping up and down and singing a tune while I say this again, HE FIXED MY DISHWASHER, OH YA, OH YA, DOOO AH!! So this is why when Dale and Andy left for work this morning at 5:45 I cheerfully stayed up and loaded my dishwasher instead of heading back to bed. It's amazing how excited you can get to load the dishwasher after using a crippled one for a few weeks. As I was washing the dishes, I was thinking about some of the conversations I had yesterday. Good spiritual food, but also other good and inspiring talks about how each person cleans. So armed with the motivation from having my dished done a little after 6 this morning, I took some of the advice and cleaned my ceiling fan, the top of my refrigerator, and the greasy area above my stove. And it's not even 8 yet! Feeling good :)
In the midst of all this feeling good, I must post one tiny grr... We had a good Halloween, but I have no proof because the designated picture taker fell down on the job...Well actually he failed miserably. We went to a Halloween party and he took 9 pictures of other people's children. A few shots have the side or back of Ella too, but no pictures of Samantha. In all fairness and in his defense, he says I didn't tell him to take pictures of our children and he's not a mind reader... I'm sure it was tough to figure out why I brought the camera to the party. I need to be better at communicating and not rely on Dale's psychic abilities.
And last but certainly not least, it is evident God has been working with Andy just lately. It is wonderful to be able to share in that with him and hear the humbleness in his prayers and the thankfulness of his testimonies in and out of church.
God is my heavenly father and he surely knows all about me and is so good to me, even though I am just an unprofitable servant.
First snow day fun!
We had our first snow day and here's how it went:
Last night before bed it started snowing.
This morning we had 3-4 inches covering everything and even more here and there.
Samantha and Ella were SUPER excited and gulped down their breakfast so they could head outside.
Adorned in blanket sleepers, (they will have to change when they get back in anyway, so why not stay nice and cozy in the meantime) snowsuits, boots, mittens, hats, and winter coats they scurry out.
I grabbed the camera and snapped a few shots before I headed back inside because I am a boring mom who HATES being cold.
I get all snuggled back in my bed armed with my snow pictures for a facebook share (oh and my amazon shopping cart on another page doing some Christmas shopping)
Knock, knock, "Mommy...Mommmmmy?"
I get out of my cozy bed and open the back door...BRRRRrrrrr!
"Mommy I got the wrong gloves. These is cold and wet. I need mittens like Ella."
I trapse down to the basement so my darling Samantha can have warm hands like her sister.
She goes back out and I head back to my warm comfy bed.
"Mommy, Mommy, MOMMMMMMY!"
I sadly, once again crawl out from under the warmth and head to the freeeeeeezing cold. (The girls were warned in the beginning that if they came in even one time they would be done, so they are being so good just standing at the back door yelling for me lol)
"Mommy, we have a carrot for our snowman?" They are soooo cute! Truly!
I pack a baggy with a pickle (fresh out of carrots...), olives for eyes, and raisins for a mouth. "There you go sweetie, now off with you."
Do I dare even set back on the bed? Oh yes, it is just too inviting...
"MMMMMOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMYYY!!" I should say that in all of this calling me, there is never an urgency in the tone.
Sigh..., "Yes, Samantha?" Of course it is Samantha. It is ALWAYS Samantha. Let's just say that she's the squeaky wheel.
"Mommy, you help me build the snowman? I can't get his eyes to stay on, or his nose and mouth."
"Yes, honey. Let me get my boots and coat."
We finished our snowman and then the girls decided they were cold and wanted to come inside.
All in all I think they played out in the snow about 45 minutes. It's a good thing I didn't help them sooner or it may have only been 15 minutes. LOL
I have been having some trouble with the blogger website lately, but it finally came up on my computer. Yeah!
We (or should I say Dale) is working on the remodel this weekend. It seems like so much has been going on for months now, that we haven't had much time for it. Tile being installed as we speak!!! I am a happy girl. Hopefully tomorrow we can get it grouted and paint the bathroom. It is finally coming together....
