Don't get comfortable

     Been a while since I have written, and life has thrown another curve ball at us, and the best way for me to process sometimes is to write.  So here I am!  The past few months have been pretty good, finances continue to be a struggle, but other than that we have been settling in to a good routine.  I have been blessed with the great church we are in and was excited to become an "official" member.  I also was so blessed to see my best friend and her husband get baptized and dedicate their daughters to the Lord the same day.  Truly that was a day with so many happy emotions and excitement.  Just to think of all God has done in the past year for us is awesome!  I think this is a good reminder for me, of just all He has done for us!
     I heard someone preach once that either you were in the middle of a trial, coming out of one, or going into one.  How true that is!  I thought the the financial struggles we were going through were a trial, but considering all He has done for us and looking back I don't think it was really a "true" trial.  We were just settling into a comfortable place, we were in a great church, I'd been blessed with a great friend, and Greg finally started taking classes online to finish his degree.  Everything was moving forward and I was finally (after 3 years) finding contentment in Rhode Island.  But we were just on the verge of another trial.  Our lovely state, while giving itself a raise, decided to cut human services by 20%.  Of course both my husband and I work in this field, so what it looks like for us a loss of hours for both of us.   Remember when I said we were just barely making our bills every month?  Well that type of pay cut for both of us is a really big deal.  I am doing my best to give it to God, but I have to admit that I am struggling.  We aren't sure exactly what we are going to do, but I know that God must not want us to get comfortable, He wants to use us through this trial, so I am praying that I will but fear aside and let Him move. 
     I have seen Him work so many times in my life so I know that He will work it all out this time as well.  So I am just gonna take a step back and let Him move in the way He wants too.  I serve such a great God, I know that He will make a way even when I can't see it.  Like I said Greg has started classes to finish his degree, and I am so proud of him, it's been a long time coming, but God is good.   So please pray with us that he can stay diligent in his studies even with this new trial in our lives.  We are praying about what to do, weather it be a second job for him or a new job all together we don't know but we are gonna keep trusting Him for the answers! 

Go to God!

Busy life= no time to stop and reflect on the day.  I think that it should be the opposite, when life gets busy we need to take time and reflect on the day and we also need to start each day out right with prayer and the word.  I must confess, sometimes it's hard, I'm not a morning person so it's hard to get up and pray and read the word.  Waking up is now even harder now that I had to cut caffiene out of my diet.  But all those are is excuses that keep me away from what God has called us to do.  I know I need to spend more time with Him, soI just need to make it more of a priority!!  Just like I know I need to be doing better with cleaning and loosing weight, my quiet time with God needs to improve as well.  The good thing is that the days that I do get to go for a walk in the morning, I do get time with God, and those times are so wonderful!  Often I making sure no one is on the path with me and then I start singing along with my music.  Nothing beats getting excersise and being out in nature to start the day.  But even talking to God through out the day is a great thing too.  This is something I do a lot of.  Just quick little prayers up to Him as I am doing things, keeps me in constant communication with Him.  Kind of like being on facebook and chatting a few minutes here and there with your best friend, except that He is the best friend in the world! 

So keep on staying encouraged!  God is there for you all the time and loves when we take the time to spend with Him.  Make it a priority today to read his word and talk to Him, build your relationship!  We wouldn't go a whole day without talking to our best friend or spouse, so don't go a whole day without talking to Him either.  When you go through tough times the first thing we tend to do is turn to Him, so why when things are going good and you are just moving through your day do we not go to him?  He listens and is there just the same no matter what you are going through, so give your worries and your problems to Him and let Him take care of them.  Don't get so consumed with your problems that you forget to praise Him too.  He has done so much for us, how could we not give Him praise and glory?

Day 2

So I didn't get a chance to get on last night and talk about day 1 in the book.  It is such a great book so far, and we are just on day 2.  I encourage everyone to read it and take the journey.  I know it's a pain that it's only in a PDF file or on Kindle, but it's so worth it!  It only takes a few minutes to read each day, it's the applications that may take a little longer to do.  It's good to reflect on how different Mary and Martha were, but how God used them both and loved them both in their own way.  No one is alike and it's an awesome reminder to have especially when we feel inadequate!  So day one had us find a real reason for why we want to clean and to make a mission statement.  She encouraged you to write it down and put it somewhere you would see every day.  I confess, I haven't done it yet but it's in my head.  I am going to put it down here first and then, make sure it gets on paper.  So my mission statement is:  "My mission is to have a house that glorifiys God, brings peace to my marriage, cultivates a positive attitude in my children, and is welcoming haven!"  So that is it in a nutshell, anytime I get overwhelmed or become lazy(wow that was a hard thing to say)I will see it and be reminded of why I am doing it.

So that was day 1, day 2 talked about being a life giver.  As a women there are so many things that we give life in our everyday lives.  At the core is loving others with what God has give us, hmm sound a little bit like the name of my blog!  The Martha challenge today was to clean out the fridge.  I knew I had to do it, but with an extra kid in the house and 2 trips to the beach, I didn't know if I could.  But I took this journey and I wanted to stay true to it.  So once the kids were in bed I got to cleaning.  I was worn out when I was done, but the end product was so worth it.  I now have a nice clean fridge which will be good for when I go shopping next week!  I think I may sleep a little better tonight knowing I finished that project(although I may sleep better from all the running around today!)  So if you are embarking on this journey with me, keep it up!  Let me know how you are doing so that no matter where you live and even if you can't make it to my study every week, we can be an encouragement to each other!!  Remember God loves you and thinks you are a precious jewel!  He after all is the number 1 person that I am doing this for!

Joy in the midst of "Rain"

It has been raining here for a week on and off.  I love the sunshine, and especially  as a mom of 3young kids the rain gets to you. I am longing for the sunshine to come out so that I can enjoy outdoor activities with the kids.  But I have to say that these rainy days are like our lives sometimes.  We go through periods of our lives where it feels like all it does is rain and that the sun is no where in sight.  But I believe just like the rain is necessary to help the plants grow so is the "rain" in our lives.  Sometimes the "rain" is the very thing that will make us grow.  And it is through this growing that we find true joy.  KLOVE is doing a contest this week about when your faith became real.  And as I thought about the one time in my life where my faith became alive, I knew that exact moment.  I can't tell you the exact day, but that moment of time is cemented in my head.  It was sometime in early July of 1996.  I was working at Word of Life Inn, in upstate NY.  This was my 3rd summer working up there.  My sister stopped in and said she needed to talk with my brother and I. She sat us down and told me that my dad had a brain tumor.  That was the moment that my faith became real, and the beginning of the rain storm!  I was already accepted to go to Bible school the following september.  I wanted to stay home so badly so that I could be with my daddy, but he made me go to school, because he believed that is where I needed to be.  I will never forget the time where he set all 5 of us down and told us to NEVER blame God.  That is an amazing amount of faith!  He told us that he didn't understand why God was doing this, but that it was a part of God's plan and that He would be glorified!  The "rain" continued until a year later God took my daddy up to heaven.  But to the end he had an impact on the people around him! It took a while for the rain clouds to go away, and I still have days of "rain" but I know that God's plan was to make us stronger through it!  The verse that God gave me and is still my favorite verse today is:  James 1:2-4.
  "Count it all joy my bretheren when you encounter trials of many kinds, knowing that the testing of your faith develops perserverance.  But let perservance have it's perfect work so that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing."  Now that is a powerful verse and the basis of why we need to have joy in the midst of rain.  It clearly says in that verse that through those trials if we persevere that we will be complete lacking nothing.  I know that trial helped me get closer to God, and that every trial I have faced since then has developed more perservance in me and that it will help me to get stronger and not lack anything.  So that is what I challenge you with tonight.  No matter if you are in the middle of a little sprinkle or a crazy thunderstorm.  Know that having joy in it, and enduring it is going to make you stronger in the end.  Hold on to God and let Him help you through it, He is the only one that you should cling to!

I didn't get a chance to go out walking today, but I was planning on taking a day off.  Kept to what I needed to calorie wise, loving this new program on my phone.  I am praying that the rain will hold off in the morning tomorrow, but if it doesn't I'll be walking anyway, I really look forward to this time of spiritual and physical exercise.  If you are trying to eat healthy and exercise too, hang in there, it may not be easy but it's worth it.  Don't forget to get your spiritual exercise today too!!

So

So in the beginning I intended to post every day, but sometimes the days just get away from me and other times the computer is being used by my wonderful husband.  So oh well I'll take what I can get, and just post when I can.
So we made it through our first year of homeschooling.  It is so awesome since I was not the one that wanted to do it.  In most famlies that struggle with the decision to home school, typically it is the husband who is skeptical.  But that wasn't the case in ours.  I was the skeptic here, very afraid to do it and that I would mess up my kids or they would be too "sheltered."  But after one year under our belt  I am amazed at how much I enjoyed it.  I would not trade the experience that we had this year for anything.  To see the joy on the face of your child as you sit beside them and see them sound out a word is priceless.  I will never forget the look on Kalynn's face when she put the sounds together and said a word!  I can't wait to see the looks on the boys faces when they learn to read as well.  She is now sounding out so many words it is exciting to see, if it has a short vowel in it then she can read it.  I know that next year is gonna be a little more challenging, since I will have two to teach, but I am ready and excited for it!  I knew that blessings come in small packages, I am just glad I get to be there as the are opened up and learning new things!
I've been doing good with my exercise, I just hope I can keep the motivation up.  I am so thankful for a husband who lets me get out in the mornings for a walk and that we live in a place with a beautiful walking path.  I even stood up the rainy morning this morning and did it anyway.  It started to pour when I was about to step out the door, so I turned around and went back inside.  But somewhere inside me the little voice said I couldn't quit, so I bundled up for the rain and headed out.  It only rained hard for a little bit and then it was just misting.  I have a new application on my phone that tells me how far I walked and how fast I am walking.  It was awesome cause I realized that I have been walking almost 2 miles.  Today I made sure that I got to the 2 mile mark and was so encouraged.  Like I said before it really is great to get out and excersize me and the dog and exercise my spiritual self as well.  I was also blessed by His beauty today when I saw a deer walk over the path in front of me, I just smiled and thanked Him for the added blessing in the midst of the rain.  So see, even when we are doing something that may be hard God still provides the blessings so that we can smile in the midst of them!!

Quiet time with God

Today I had the opportunity to spend some time with a great group of women at our church at our "Quiet time with God" morning.  What a blessing this was, there were only 7 of us, but it was great.  We were able to share in worship and to pray with one another about our needs.  Then we had a time of prayer for the church and a time to share our praises to God.  We also got an hour to be on our own just to spend time with God.  And man what a blessing that was!  I would love to find that amount of time every day, but I think I am going to make it a weekly thing at least.  It's so refreshing to get time alone with no distractions.  It's a really hard thing to do with three young kids, but I think it is essential and needs to become a more routine part of my life!

I love to journal all of my thoughts and prayers to God, it helps keep me focused on Him and also is great for reflecting.  I tend to misplace my journals though sometimes, so I have a lot of journals that are started and never finished.  I grabbed one of those on my way out the door this morning.  What a blessing it turned out to be.  I decided in my time with God, to go back in the journal and read it.  It was such a God thing.  It just so happened to be that it was one I had written in exactly one year ago.  I was in a very emotional time in my life at that point so it was interesting to reflect on that.  The most amazing thing is that the things that I was praying for and worrying over God has changed in me over the year.  If you know me you know how I long to be in Minnesota, something about that place has captured my heart and I think a piece of me will always have a desire to be back there.  But believe it or not I can say that I am truly content with being in Rhode Island.  And wow that is something I didn't think I would ever be able to say.  But reflecting on that journal entry from last year, I realized all that God has done.  He truly has answered my prayers and helped me to find peace in where I am at.  I know that it is something that I will struggle with still, but I love seeing how He has moved in my life.

So my encouragement for you today is to strive to be content in where He has you right now!  It may not be an easy place or where you want to be, but if He hasn't moved you then you need to know His way is perfect.  This is not an easy thing to do sometimes, but it is the best way.  Human nature doesn't want to stay in things that are uncomfortable, but He give us the trials, and sometimes they are His blessings in disguise!

The little things...

Sometimes it's the little things that make my day.  So as the day ends I am gonna reflect and be thankful for the little things in my life.  I think often times we get so consumed with the things that seem like mountains to us that we forget to be thankful.  I know that I am often guilty of getting so consumed with those big things and letting them rule my life.  But even the big mountains in our life we need to be thankful for, because it is through those that God has us grow.  I think that sometimes in the midst of those he gives us the little things to just bring joy and peace into our lives.  Maybe if we are more thankful for little joys, they will consume us and make us forget about the big things.  So tonight I am going to take time to be thankful.

Here is one of the little things from today that made my day a little brighter.  My oldest son Jonah had to go to physical therapy today, he goes once a week now to help with the mild case of cerebral palsy that he has.  It was a tough day for him, he didn't get his usual nap in so he had a hard time staying on task while he was there.  On our way home we had to stop at the store and I have to admit that he was trying my patience while we were in there.  When we were almost home he says to me from the back seat "Stink I forgot to ask Megan if she loves Jesus!"  (Megan is his physical therapist)  WOW!  That was an eye opener for me!  Would I be that willing to ask her that same question.  I will remind him next week, to ask her though cause why couldn't God use a 4 year old to witness?  Now if that doesn't make me be thankful and joyful what else can!  All of my children have a story but Jonah's is quite special!  I really believe that God has a special purpose for him and this just made me remember that.  From before he was born, God was working on him.  The story of how we chose his name was such an awesome thing, and something I forget sometimes. When I was pregnant with Jonah and we found out that he was gonna be a boy, we knew we had to choose a name.  Since Greg is a Jr.  we just thought that we would make him a 3rd.  At first I was okay with that but then I had reservatioins.  I remember laying in my bed praying and asking God that he would make Greg okay with choosing a different name.  At that same exact time in the living room Greg was also praying, and felt that we needed to give him a differnt name as well.  How awesome is God in that?  Answering my prayer instantly!  But that wasn't all, Greg was reading in Jeremiah and read over the passage about Jonadab, and he felt like God was saying this is what his name should be.  But he was scared of what my reaction would be.  So I came out of the bedroom, and he tells me that we aren't going to name him Gregory the 3rd, but that God had showed him another name.  Tells me that we can call him by the nickname "Jonah" and then tells me the name.  Which I loved. Isn't God great!  I also prayed to God when I was pregnant that he would let Jonah have blue eyes just like my daddy had.  I know by the time I prayed that his eye color was already formed, but when he came out with those big blue eyes, I knew God answers prayer.  Everytime I look into those eyes now,and every time someone compliments him on them I am once again reminded of answered prayer.

Thanks for reading my ramble!  And remember to look for those little things in your life every day and be thankful for them, otherwise we might just miss them in the shadow of the mountain that consumes us!