Crazy Daze

These have been such eventful days.  Yet in the middle of everything I am learning things about myself.
The one specific thing I am learning about is to let the voice of you are too sensitive or you wear you feelings on your heart sleeves go.  I have searched  the Word of God and realized that tenderheartedness is okay.  Sensitive by dictionary terms means feelings hurt or offended.  Tenderhearted shows empathy, compassion, kindness and concern.  Tears were in the Bible quite often for many different reasons.  Crying is okay.  The world  says don't cry suck it up and be tough.  I even find myself telling my children to stop crying.  An example this morning.  My little sweetie lost her hair clip down the drain while fixing her hair.  She began to cry for missing her hair clip.  I said don't cry.  Then I paused and said will you forgive me, for you see I share with my kids what God is teaching me.  The other day I went over how God understands tears.  He even puts them in a bottle. If you want to cry because you lost your hair clip that will be fine.
One of the greatest things I loved about tears is the woman in the Bible who washed Jesus feet with her tears and the precious ointment.  The bystanders called her foolish.  Jesus said no she has done good.  Tears in worshiping to our precious Savior.  In worship I am learning to get my tears back and not to hide them anymore.
God shows up right on time.  He shows me that he is real in the everyday life. So when big things get tough I can trust him.  Example:  We had gone to church to jump on the blow up toys.  We were not going to this event.  It was planned and then we needed to cancel.  We did end up going for about twenty minutes.  As we were leaving a women at church stopped me.  She is always giving little sweetie dresses of which little sweetie adores.  She said she had some more clothes in her car if I would follow her I could get them.  What you don't know is that as the mother of my household I am aware of what everyone needs and who is the priority.  In the back of my mind I knew that little sweetie would be needing some jeans soon for the weather is beginning to change.  Only God knew this information.  I had said nothing to anyone not even Leon.  So when I pulled up in my van and the women went to give me the dresses so I thought instead she gave me a boat load of jeans.  Immediately I laughed in my spirit and said thank you God.  He shows up and shows off.  I know I can trust him in anything because he is so real and working constantly. Prayers are being answered.
Now  we have a situation going on with our little man right now to others may seem little but for our family it is a struggle.  We have been taking him to God in prayer faithfully and asking for wisdom.  Wed. night Preacher Paul preached and what he had to say was everything I needed to hear.  So one more time we took out little man to Jesus in prayer and left him in his great and wonderful hands.  The next day we had unexpected phone calls concerning little man, just the right time and just the right information.  Also, he had a super experience in his Wed. night class at church.  Last night at our house was the first calming night in a very long time.  This is all God.  Give Him some praise!!!!!
Our God is huge!  Praise Him, Praise Him.  What are some things that he is doing in your life or family?  Would you give him some praise?

Sustain

                      Cast your burden, cares on the Lord and he will sustain you..... Psalm 55:22


I have a burden in my life that I keep praying about, trusting God with and giving it to him.  On some days this burden gets heavy.  I love that God knows right where I am.  He meets me with unexpected verses that meet that exact need for the day.  That was the case yesterday with the above verse.  The thought I couldn't get out of my mind was what does sustain mean.  Yes, at a quick thought I could think of a definition of sustain. I wanted to go deeper.  I was blessed by the time I had my deeper answer.  So I hope the rest of this blog brings you the same encouragement that it brought to me.

Sustain=  (verb)  strengthen or support physically or mentally
                (syn)   comfort, help, assist, encourage, support, give strength to, care, cheer up, hearten
                (slang)  buck up

When I put each of those words in the sustain part of the verse, it made my burden feel so much better.  God knows, he cares.  And, like was said last night at church by Preacher Dale, God knows just what to bring into my life to grow me and keep me close to him.

Walking

I knew when the kids both started school I wanted to do some form of exercise.  This is one thing that I have really missed doing.  With the little ones it has always been hard.  I finally decided on walking.  I have a specific place that I go every day but Saturday and Sunday.   I have found that I love to walk.  I don't necessarily like the discipline of getting up everyday and walking, but once I get going I do fine.  The place where I walk has the same people every day at pretty much the same time.  I have met several and we call each other by name or wave as we pass. There is even a couple that doesn't speak English but the man always tries to be friendly with finger motions of how many laps are you on now. It is comforting for me to go and see these people.  In my mind a new season a new ministering to different people.  This one elderly lady walks every day.  She is such an inspiration to me.  Her spine is curved, she walks with a cane and has something wrapped around her neck.  For me walking is for my mind.  I have found that walking really helps lift the mood of my mind and helps keep my anxiety under control.  Funny, even Leon can tell when I have walked and not walked.  It amazes me.  I walk as many miles as I feel that I need on that particular day.  I just know when my body has had enough miles. I read something humorous the other day that said fat crying is sweat.  I have found that walking like I do, lots and lots of sweat. More information than you probably wanted.  I never sweat so this is new for me. :)  If I loose weight while walking that will just be an extra bonus.  What I really love is the morning quiet. The beauty of the sky.  There are some beautiful flower(weeds) that bring beauty to the walk.  Leon said they just grew up by themselves and if you were to bring them home they would take over.  The colors are purple and pink.  Sometimes I listen to my music usually praise music.  I have found praying an awesome part of my walking.  For whatever reason I am really able to focus.  I thank God everyday for the opportunity to walk.  One particular day I was carrying  paper and a spiral notebook with me.  I walk by myself.  One of the women came up behind me and asked if I had my grocery list with me.  At first I didn't know what she was talking about and then I realized my papers.  I said  no this is my prayer list I have been praying very specific for an upcoming event.  I told her about Beth Moore and the scripture memory, she was not familiar with Beth Moore. She wanted me to add something to my prayer list and I did.  By the way she responded to some of the things I was saying I am not sure that she knows the Lord.  Open doors, open opportunities. I plan on continuing walking for the rest of the year. So far all I can see there are only benefits to walking.:)  Even when it gets cold I am going to find a way to continue with my walking.

   

Taking A Poll

The Fall season has begun.  All the pumpkin recipes are coming out fast and furious.  This is one I found the other day and thought it look good, easy and yummy.

These are the ingredients above, just a cake mix and a can of pumpkin.

Mix

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes

I know these would have looked beautiful in a fall basket setting, but they tasted just as good cooling on my stove while real life was happening.

What about the poll you say?  I was the first to taste them hot out of the oven.  I loved them.  Next was my older boy, he had just woken up and needed breakfast fast and out the door for school.  He acted like he loved them he ate two.  Although it just could have been that there were hot muffins and he likes anything to do with food. :).  Next, my husband he tried a tiny bite.  He is not a fan of pumpkin.  He said they were good but he never ate any more.  He was a very good sport just to try the muffins.  My little ones came next.  Little sweetie didn't like them at all.  Little man said he liked them as he proceeded to make little balls out of the muffin.  I'm not even sure if he took a bite.  I love to share things that I bake so mom and dad got a taste of the muffins.  Dad ate the muffin and said it was good. He was looking forward to finding some pumpkin recipes of his own to begin baking.  Mom took a bite and began shaking her head immediately with the comments, "Oh, no, I don't like these at all."  I could live with not eating them again.  I told my mother in law about them and the recipe she said she would like to try and make some.  So there you have the results of the pumpkin muffins.  Maybe you will try and make them and maybe you won't.  No matter.  I have another cake mix and can of pumpkin and I plan to make another batch in the near future.

Seasons

Back to blogging!!!!! Yea.  I have missed just writing tidbits of life that are happening during our day. We have entered a new season.  Summer is over and little sweetie and little man are both in school.  At first I wasn't too fond of the idea being alone, but now I see things differently. :)  A little me time has been good.  

Here they are on picture day this morning.  They have grown so much on the inside as well as on the outside.  We are so proud of them.  

Little man in learning the books of the Bible in Sunday School.  I love to hear them say those big names of the O.T..  Too cute.  So this morning we took the opportunity since it was picture day to talk about how cute they were and also about how God looks at our hearts and not on our outward beings.  Talked about how we could find that verse in the book of 1 Samuel.  Nobody acted like they were even listening.  So I said I know God looks at my shoes right?  They both busted out with smiles and said, Nooooooo, God looks at our hearts.  Yea, they actually were listening.

In the days to come I will blog about little man's sixth birthday, walking, pumpkin muffins (yum) and whatever other tidbits come our way.

Today's verse is Psalm 89:15  Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim (praise God in all things) you, who WALK IN THE LIGHT OF YOUR PRESENCE, O LORD.

For me this means if I am walking with him I will respond, talk, act, love and be like Him.  a big challenge for today.  But I am up to the challenge are you?

Summer Time

Our Summer calendar has been penned down.  Fun, inexpensive activities have been planned to keep our little ones busy for this summer.  We picked verses for our little ones for the beginning of our school year.  A verse that we felt was needed in their lives.  We were not really planning on a summer verse but felt that this was what was needed.  Obedience is still the very issue that we are trying to get across to our little ones.  Obeying the authority that is over them as well as obeying right away.  In our home you are allowed to voice how you feel in a respectful way.  Our purpose in teaching obedience is ultimately that they will learn to obey God.  I heard a really great Bible teaching on the radio today.  The speaker was talking on this very topic obedience with our children. A great thing he said was not to ask our children why they did something wrong.  But to ask what questions.  It was to teach to take responsibility for their actions.  So example, What did you do wrong?  What did we say the consequences were going to be?  What could you have done differently?  They already know that we are not happy about what they have done, but to let them know that they have broken our heart.  Letting them know that when they sin, they ultimately break the heart of God.

 This is little man's verse.  He already knows this verse.  Obedience comes a little easier for him than little sweetie.

This is little sweeties verse, because as she stated, she already knows the other verse.  I also wanted her to know that there is more that one verse in the Bible about obedience.  It was so funny.  The other day we went to this verse MANY times.  Whenever we had trouble obeying we would go look at and discuss.  One day this week we had an unexpected little friend come over.  Little sweetie brought him to look at her verse. When she did this I then realized she is getting the point of the verse and what we are teaching her.

Hopefully we will have some cucumbers this summer.  They are coming along great.  :)

So Thankful

Do you see this young man?  Here he is with his new girlfriend.  Oh the prayers and worries.  You raise them, pray for them and then you have to let them go and find their own way.  So many times I have been concerned about all of the Biblical teaching that has been imparted.  Are we listening or not.  Today after a great conversation my heart was blessed.  He was listening and is following those Biblical teachings.  He is growing up.  I am so thankful that he is pursuing a girl with a God desire.