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!   

It's been a while since I have put a blog on here.  I had a great mother's day!  I realized on mother's day as I received hand made cards from all 3 of my kids how blessed I am.  All I wanted to be when I grew up was a wife and a mom, and God has answered that prayer.  Even though some days are long and sometimes lonely, I love being a mom!  As for the housewife part, I know that I can do much better on that front.  Sometimes I am overwhelmed and I feel like a failure because my house is not clean.  How do I get past that, I haven't yet figured that out, but I know that with God's help and strength I can do it.  One way I am planning on doing that is by starting a mom's group and reading "31 Days to Clean,"  I am very excited to do this.  I am looking forward to the accountability, and the fellowship this is going to provide!  To know that I am not the only one that has a hard time in this area is encouraging.  So if you are a mom out there and want to be a part of this group let me know.  We are going to be meeting at 9:30 on Tuesday mornings at WKBC!

As far as my journey to loose weight is concerned, I think I am doing pretty good.  I talked to some people and they thought it was crazy that my doctor said I should be on a 1000 calorie diet.  Well I am not holding strictly to that, but I am getting as close as I can.  The main thing for me is not to look at it as a diet but just a change in my lifestyle.  Just being more aware of the calorie count that is going into my body.  That way, I am not consumed and there is no "cheating."  If I know that dinner is gonna be higher in calories then I make sure that my lunch is low calorie.  And can I say that apples have become my new best friend!  I eat at least one a day, when I get a craving for something sweet I just bite into one, it fills me up and satisfies my sweet tooth! So I'll keep plugging away and I am going to really get persistent about exercise to make sure that the weight comes off!  I know I can do it as long as I have self control, and lots of prayer to Him to help me stick to it!!

A great day!

Can I just say how blessed I am in my life right now?  I don't think I could have said that so easily about 6 months ago!  I am becoming more and more content with being in Rhode Island.  I never thought I would say that I am actually enjoying being here. Now don't get me wrong, I would still love to be in Minnesota, and I hope to get back there some day.  But I am enjoying living in the here and now, and not thinking about the when.  For me that is a great accomplishment.  I know it is only through God and the changes that have happened in my life.  I may sound redundant, but I just can't stop being thankful for all He is doing.  Today was just another example of that once again.  I was able to go and spend time at story time this morning, and then hang out at the park.  Then I was able to visit with a long time family friend, and just see how good God is in action.  Not only that but I was able to eat and stay close to the caloric intake that my doctor wants me on.  I impressed myself tonight by only eating one bread stick with my dinner and resisting the urge to eat another one.  For dessert when I was craving something sweet, I bypassed the leftover Easter candy and went for an apple instead! So thankfulness is once again on my mind tonight as I settle in for bed.  I love this blogging thing and how it really makes me focus on being thankful in my life! 

Wake up call!

Well today was a very full and exhausting day!  Went to the doctor and heard what I had been dreading to hear that I have gained weight.  I know I had, just didn't like seeing the numbers that proved it!  So my journey begins.  I am not one to go on any fad diet, I know that the weight will come off by changing my lifestyle and exercising. I make sure as a mom that my kids eat healthy and balanced meals, why is something that is so easy to do for them often become something I don't do for myself?  It's funny cause the other day I was talking with Greg about how when I work the two nights a week how the kids don't have dessert on those nights.  But when I am here, there is always dessert.  He didn't understand why the kids always have it.  Then I realized not only is it a motivator for them to eat all their dinner, but it's something that I enjoy.  I have a sweet tooth, so since I enjoy dessert, I want them to as well.  Is that a bad thing?  I really don't know if it is or not, but it's just part of our routine.  I don't see it changing anytime soon, although maybe we will have some healthier options!  So now I going to be looking at labels again and eating healthier!  It is something that I know I should be doing and I do try to do, but I know I need to be more diligent about it now!  I am ready for the journey, and ready to feel better about myself.  I am so thankful that I have a husband who really loves me unconditionally, and thinks I am beautiful just the way I am.  But at the same time he knows that I want to loose some weight so he is on board with helping me achieve that.  I only wish I had some exercise equipment downstairs that would make it easier to do it, but I will start with the small steps and keep moving forward.  Just like I named my blog I want to make the most of what God's given me and that includes taking care of the body that He has give me as well!!  So I am ready to do this for me, my family but ultimately for the glory of God!

I am where God has me!

     It's been a long day.  Tuesday's always are since my hubby works from 8am till 10pm.  But I am truly thankful that it is the only day that he does that.  I have a wonderful husband, who although we could use more cash, is not willing to work two jobs.  We meet our bills every month, things are extremely tight, but we do it.  He would rather be there for the kids than make tons of money and never see them.  I am so blessed to have him!  That is just a little side note tonight, as I reflect on my day.
     What has been on my mind today is being thankful for being here.  I don't love being in RI, anyone who knows me at all knows that.  But I am really starting to accept the fact that God want's me here right now!  I still don't know why doors appear to be open and then shut, but He does and I am okay with that.  He has blessed me so much in the past few months with things that I have needed and have prayed for since I came back to RI.  I am in a wonderful church, and meeting new people all the time!  My children now have friends their own ages, and God has blessed me with new friendships and a close friend that I have been praying for.  So when I get down about being here or our circumstances, I just need to remember how faithful God is!  He may not do things in Kristy's time frame, but if they are His will they will happen!  He is a God that answers prayers, and is there to listen to you!  I am so glad that He is always there, even when I wake up in the middle of the night, I know He listens to my prayers!  So go ahead and ask Him, it may take a little while or it might happen immediately, but He does answer.  It may be a no, or a wait, but I am so glad that He does answer!

Truly Thankful!!

There are so many thoughts tonight as I sit down to my computer.  I don't even know what to write about.  I have to admit that I was very overwhelmed earlier tonight once again by our needs, and what we don't have.  Sometimes it's really hard to be going through the trials that we are.  But I am so thankful for the wonderful husband that God has given me.  I know that he is doing all that he can to provide for my family and I love that.  But I will admit I was having a little pity party earlier.  And then the day is finally done and I am able to come on  and I read my niece's blog from Haiti.  She is serving the Lord on a missions trip there, and I make sure to read her blog to see how things are going.  We are so blessed here, it is unbelievable.  I know that they are seeing it first hand, but even seeing it through pictures is enough to know.  To hear that children are excited about a simple lollipop.  The same lollipop that I can get at the bank for free for my kids has them so excited.  Really puts things into perspective for me.  I need to be thankful that I am in a country where I have so much, and I am thankful for this reminder.  I have 3 beautiful and healthy kids and a house to live in with 4 walls and a roof that keeps me dry!  How much do I have!!  Wow!!