If you could rid the world of one annoying thing (NOT a person, situation, or emotion - this is just for fun and giggles!) . . .
What would it be?!
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
Happy Monday!
It is raining, but I think today is a beautiful day!
I wanted to share a verse with you today to ponder on this Monday, the day after Easter... His Resurrection.
Jeremiah 29:11
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Isn't it nice to know that someone knows your entire story from start to finish?
Isn't it a comfort to know that He knows every word, every exclamation point, every lull in your story?
That He knows the exciting parts, that parts that while you are living through them second by second, He is enjoying seeing your joy as much as you are feeling it? He is smiling right along with you?
That at the moments of great sorrow he is feeling your pain every second you are? That when you can't possibly understand why...He is patiently showing you to trust Him and one day He will tell you why this happened?
A friend and I we were talking about how frustrating it is sometimes NOT knowing what your future holds. (This lately, has been a recurring conversation in many peoples lives.) How stressfull it can be to know if you are making the right decision for your family.
I hope she doesn't mind me sharing something that she shared with me. Wise words from a man of God. I hope you find comfort in these words.
"While on the phone the other day, I asked him “Fr. John, don’t you wish you could just know what was going to happen in the end? Don’t you wish God would just make some kind of obvious sign to tell you how this is going to end?” He wisely said “No, I’ve come to learn that the Lord only gives me what I need to know for the next step because I can’t handle knowing it all at once.” Wow… he went on to tell me that because he’s an engineer by trade, he tends to like things to be neat and tidy. God doesn’t work in the neat and tidy. He said that if he knew the “end” instead of learning along the way, he would try to work his engineer skills to make a straight line from the here and now to the end needed.
He then told me about a time he had a conversation with another priest who told him this: “Look outside- look at everything with perfectly straight lines. A building, a street, a train track, a house and so on…they are all man made. Now, look at all of the things that God made. Nothing is perfectly straight. That is how God works”
It is raining, but I think today is a beautiful day!
I wanted to share a verse with you today to ponder on this Monday, the day after Easter... His Resurrection.
Jeremiah 29:11
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Isn't it nice to know that someone knows your entire story from start to finish?
Isn't it a comfort to know that He knows every word, every exclamation point, every lull in your story?
That He knows the exciting parts, that parts that while you are living through them second by second, He is enjoying seeing your joy as much as you are feeling it? He is smiling right along with you?
That at the moments of great sorrow he is feeling your pain every second you are? That when you can't possibly understand why...He is patiently showing you to trust Him and one day He will tell you why this happened?
A friend and I we were talking about how frustrating it is sometimes NOT knowing what your future holds. (This lately, has been a recurring conversation in many peoples lives.) How stressfull it can be to know if you are making the right decision for your family.
I hope she doesn't mind me sharing something that she shared with me. Wise words from a man of God. I hope you find comfort in these words.
"While on the phone the other day, I asked him “Fr. John, don’t you wish you could just know what was going to happen in the end? Don’t you wish God would just make some kind of obvious sign to tell you how this is going to end?” He wisely said “No, I’ve come to learn that the Lord only gives me what I need to know for the next step because I can’t handle knowing it all at once.” Wow… he went on to tell me that because he’s an engineer by trade, he tends to like things to be neat and tidy. God doesn’t work in the neat and tidy. He said that if he knew the “end” instead of learning along the way, he would try to work his engineer skills to make a straight line from the here and now to the end needed.
He then told me about a time he had a conversation with another priest who told him this: “Look outside- look at everything with perfectly straight lines. A building, a street, a train track, a house and so on…they are all man made. Now, look at all of the things that God made. Nothing is perfectly straight. That is how God works”
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Missing my kids...
At 3am on Wednesday I was awakened with a pain in my stomach. Approx 1 hour later I was sick. The flu. I caught it from my boss.
I woke my husband (mainly to ask him to get up -because his side of the bed is a better place to be when you are sick - it's closer to the bathroom and you don't have to worry about hitting your head on the slope that is our roof like you do on my side), he quickly got me a bucket, wash cloth and then went away.
He called off work and took care of me, good care of me, over the next 24 hours.
He kept the kids away.
That part was hard for me. I miss my kids. I am still praying that no one else in my household gets this bug. It was pretty bad. I still ache and feel I was hit by a rather large truck.
I woke up this morning to the sounds of cabinets opening. Brenna was making us breakfast. That touched my heart. They both were so worried about their mommy.
Sometimes you don't think they get it. Sometimes you don't think they understand all that you do for them. And then you get breakfast.
Tomorrow is Good Friday. Tomorrow someone did ALOT for us. Are we going to live everyday remembering and knowing what He did.
At 3am on Wednesday I was awakened with a pain in my stomach. Approx 1 hour later I was sick. The flu. I caught it from my boss.
I woke my husband (mainly to ask him to get up -because his side of the bed is a better place to be when you are sick - it's closer to the bathroom and you don't have to worry about hitting your head on the slope that is our roof like you do on my side), he quickly got me a bucket, wash cloth and then went away.
He called off work and took care of me, good care of me, over the next 24 hours.
He kept the kids away.
That part was hard for me. I miss my kids. I am still praying that no one else in my household gets this bug. It was pretty bad. I still ache and feel I was hit by a rather large truck.
I woke up this morning to the sounds of cabinets opening. Brenna was making us breakfast. That touched my heart. They both were so worried about their mommy.
Sometimes you don't think they get it. Sometimes you don't think they understand all that you do for them. And then you get breakfast.
Tomorrow is Good Friday. Tomorrow someone did ALOT for us. Are we going to live everyday remembering and knowing what He did.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Know Thyself
Yesterday, I shared about the book I was reading, A Family of Value, and the author, John Rosemond's, take on so much expert material available to us making us nervous Nellies as it were.
Well today, I want to share something that I learned about myself recently. It begins before recently. I like blogging and I like reading blogs. If you were to look at my MyYahoo page you will find quite a few blogs feeding their titles and first sentences to my desktop regularly. You would also find that most of them are not blogs of my friends or blogs of people telling anecdotes about their lives. Nope, those blogs are other women telling me how to be more intentional, or more professional in my motherhood.
Before these blogs, I would not have really thought about intentionality or professionalism or mission statements in relation to the way I go about my life. But these women do, so I must too! Or so I thought. In my thinking too much, I lost track of my very nature. I don't do well in the world of deliberate. I struggle in the land of planned. I find I can't breathe on the Island of professional motherhood.
Striving to do those things, in my life, takes my eyes off of the One who created me and these children and firmly on the list. So when things go wrong I don't roll with the punches well. And before intentional, professional motherhood with mission-statements, goals, and prioritized to-do lists entered my world I could roll having fun while doing it.
If you want to know the story behind the revelation and see a tree on my house, you can find it here.
Incidentally when I told Chris I thought it would be wiser for me (an education major) to buy planned curriculum for our homeschooling instead of planning it myself, he agreed. Saying I never imagined you a lesson-planning type of teacher. I must embrace it. Now for someone to tell my dear brother-in-law planning a weekend to see another brother-in-law graduate graduate school in six weeks. We have a place to stay. I'm good.
Well today, I want to share something that I learned about myself recently. It begins before recently. I like blogging and I like reading blogs. If you were to look at my MyYahoo page you will find quite a few blogs feeding their titles and first sentences to my desktop regularly. You would also find that most of them are not blogs of my friends or blogs of people telling anecdotes about their lives. Nope, those blogs are other women telling me how to be more intentional, or more professional in my motherhood.
Before these blogs, I would not have really thought about intentionality or professionalism or mission statements in relation to the way I go about my life. But these women do, so I must too! Or so I thought. In my thinking too much, I lost track of my very nature. I don't do well in the world of deliberate. I struggle in the land of planned. I find I can't breathe on the Island of professional motherhood.
Striving to do those things, in my life, takes my eyes off of the One who created me and these children and firmly on the list. So when things go wrong I don't roll with the punches well. And before intentional, professional motherhood with mission-statements, goals, and prioritized to-do lists entered my world I could roll having fun while doing it.
If you want to know the story behind the revelation and see a tree on my house, you can find it here.
Incidentally when I told Chris I thought it would be wiser for me (an education major) to buy planned curriculum for our homeschooling instead of planning it myself, he agreed. Saying I never imagined you a lesson-planning type of teacher. I must embrace it. Now for someone to tell my dear brother-in-law planning a weekend to see another brother-in-law graduate graduate school in six weeks. We have a place to stay. I'm good.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
On Thinking
So I'm reading a book, a parenting book. The author's premise is that we are nervous mothers as a rule because of modern psychology. It is an interesting read, John Rosemond's A Family of Value.
But that isn't what I want to start here (a debate about child-rearing, don't think so). My question for this Tuesday is. . . (drum roll)
Do you think we (as women with vast informational resources at our very finger tips) think too much about our lives?
It is something Rosemond brings up. That essentially our lives are made more difficult by the amount of expert-written material we have available because it makes us think too much about what we are doing. Thereby making us all wonder constantly if we are good wives and good mothers and good neighbors and, well, the list goes on.
What is your take?
But that isn't what I want to start here (a debate about child-rearing, don't think so). My question for this Tuesday is. . . (drum roll)
Do you think we (as women with vast informational resources at our very finger tips) think too much about our lives?
It is something Rosemond brings up. That essentially our lives are made more difficult by the amount of expert-written material we have available because it makes us think too much about what we are doing. Thereby making us all wonder constantly if we are good wives and good mothers and good neighbors and, well, the list goes on.
What is your take?
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Being an avid reader, I think everyone loves to read as much as I do. When, in conversation, I find they don't, I fear I may look at them as if they have just grown two extra heads right before my eyes. There is a quote I love, "The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." - Jane Austen (Northanger Abbey) Okay, so that may be a bit harsh. It certainly isn't a true statement. It's just very hard for me to comprehend how anyone can not LOVE to read. My husband is one of those three-headed freaks! Reading is something that I started immediatley doing with both of my children. They both have their favorite books. It seems each year they each have a different favorite. I try and save those books and put them aside to give to them when they are older. Sharing something you are passionate about with your child, and then slowly realizing that they love it too...what a great feeling that is! Their love of books does seem to come and go a bit, but I am confident it is here to stay. Inspite of the 50-50 shot of them growing two more heads. Tonight, Brenna and I spent some time together snuggled on the chair reading the first chapter of a new "Chapter Book" that we got for her. Now being a big-time first grader, she really knows the adventure that awaits her in a book. Soon, very soon, she will be reading that entire book on her own, without my help, and not in my lap. I hope this Chapter Book never ends. . . I am still waiting patiently for the right moment to introduce Brenna to Anne (of Green Gables that is!). Not just yet. It will come at the right time, and when it does, another memory we can share together!
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
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