Thankfulness

This weekend I was having a conversation with some good friends. Life has been difficult for all of us lately and one of the things that came up was the question why some people seemed to be so blessed and we are struggling. Now honestly we were looking at the monetarily side of this. I don't want a whole lot, but I do want to provide for my family's needs and I believe that is what the others were expressing too.

This morning as I was reading through my Bible I read about thinking on the positive things and then I read in Lamentations 3 that in all of our struggles we have hope in God. Then I started thinking about my friend Julie. She has been struggling with where God has placed her and someone suggested she do a list of things she is thankful for. So I decided to do one. I'm not going to do 25 like she did, but I will do 10. I may also try to do this once a week. Please feel free to join me I would love to see your lists too. So leave me a comment.

1. God's mercy and grace
2. The dawn of a new day
3. The breathe of life
4. A faithful, supporting husband
5. 5 beautiful healthy children
6. A warm (cool) home
7. Enough food to feed my family for at least a month
8. A running a vehicle to get me around.
9. Good friends to laugh with me when I'm laughing and cry with me when I'm crying. ( I love you guys)
10. The doe and her small baby who ate breakfast in my backyard this morning as I was drinking my coffee.

A Little Nugget of Truth

I just love reading the Bible. I can read something a thousand times and then I'll read it and WHAM! God gives me a little nugget of truth that is so appropriate for what I need at that moment. Today that happened, it actually brought tears to my eyes.

I don't read Job much. It is rather depressing. But you know Job was an incredible man of faith. He got a little long winded and God corrected him, but aside from that his faith was amazing. He endured things that I cannot imagine and have no desire to endure, yet his faith in God remained. As my one of my favorite authors, Beth Moore, pointed out he didn't even have the Word of God to hold onto and to read over and over again the promises God makes to us.

Well in my little struggles that I'm having this quote from Job touched something deep inside me. I especially love verse 10. It is so wonderful to know when God seems so far away he knows exactly where I am and he is working on me. I hope it encourages someone else too.

Job 23:8-10 (New International Version)

8 "But if I go to the east, he is not there;
if I go to the west, I do not find him.

9 When he is at work in the north, I do not see him;
when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him.

10 But he knows the way that I take;
when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.

Tribute

Ninety-Five years ago today, a baby boy was born. It was in a very small town in Nebraska. He was raised into a fine young man who loved the Lord. He then met a beautiful, wholesome farm girl from Oklahoma who also loved the Lord. They then married on this same date 71 years ago. They then went on and raised 3 children to love the Lord. They in turn had children who were raised knowing the love of God and now those grandchildren are raising their many children to know the love of the Lord.



It is because of their faithfulness in teaching their children who then passed it on to me that I grew to know the love of God. They were also a very huge presence in my life not only in words but they were the best examples in living a Godly life that I can think of. I am trying to pass on to my children what they have taught me, but it has been hard to follow in their footsteps. I like to think though, that from somewhere up in heaven that they are looking down at me and are proud of me and of my family that Tav and I are raising. I thank God for the faithfulness of my grandparents and the previous generations who were faithful in teaching them. I pray fervently that I can pass it on and make the same impact that they have had in my life as well as my parents, siblings, cousins, and all of their offspring. It is truly amazing.

They truly have left an amazing Legacy.

What are my priorities?

Here lately I have felt like the circus act where the performer tries to keep all of the plates spinning on the sticks. One or two is ok but you keep adding and then you have to madly go back and forth keeping the first ones going as you add more. I feel as if I've come to the point where all of my plates are falling down. All of the "stuff" in my life is falling apart and breaking. My vehicles are barely going and really shouldn't be. My lawn tractor died this spring and our push mower has given all it has to give. Our new Playstation 3 we received as a gift last Christmas stopped working. Both our laptop and our desktop computers are having issues...

All of this is very frustrating to me. Especially when I look at this and decide that we really cannot shell out any money to fix any of this. Tav was out of work for about 6 weeks which used up all of our extra resources and he has now taken a job that requires him to be away and eat and sleep away from the family. But really as a contemplate this really it is "stuff". Yes, it makes my life easier, makes my yard prettier, offers us entertainment. But in the long term what does it offer? Does it show salvation to someone who needs it? Does it enhance relationships? In 50 years from now, will I still be suffering from not having any of these items? Just why is my husband working 10 - 12 hours a day doing hard physical labor for? I've told him it is to feed his family & pay for the house we live in. But in reality that is a small portion of the income he makes that slips through our fingers like sand. We have bought into what society has told us that we need to be happy: stuff, things, activities, vacations, comfort. And quite honestly I'm not happy.

Perhaps, G0d is showing me the sweet life of simplicity that we as Americans have left far behind. I really think I have missed the mark and it is time to reset the course.

Going it husbandless...

My husband's job is forever changing. Changing companies, changing locations, changing projects. He is an electrician and he goes where the work is. Being close to a large city that is the direction he usually goes and we are close enough that he can come home at night, put his feet up, play a game with the kids, hang out with his friends, and sleep in the bed at night. Well this year work is scarce. I don't know if the economy is making companies nervous about working on big projects or if as my husband says it is a presidential election year and so everyone is sitting back and watching to see what will happen. My guess is that it is both.

Well being out of work on and off for about 6 weeks he finally was called to a job. 3 HOURS away. What do you do? He took it of course. Although with the price of gas and the length of the days he puts in with hard physical labor, we decided it was best he just camp out. We are going onto our 4th week. He has come home once a week to get clean clothes and stock up on his prescription meds that he has to have. And of course to see me and the kids. Even if it is just for one night.

I know there are lots of couple out in the world who have it a lot harder and are gone for months at a time. But really, this STINKS.

I am grateful for the job and grateful for the income, but I am praying big time that something close by opens up soon. I miss the large man sleeping next to me at night. I could get into the whining and whimpering of this, so I'm going to sign off and go cry in my pillow for awhile.

Mommy and Me

This week I have the RARE opportunity to have some one-on-one time with my youngest sweet pea. Being the youngest of 5 kids she in her short life has had to learn to play with the big dogs or get chewed up and left behind. She has learned this lesson well. She is very opinionated, strong willed and dramatic. Not all of this is bad because everything she does, whether it be for the good or the bad, she does it with everything she has. She has a zest for life. I love it and I love her with all I have.

I am not sure what we are going to do today. We have the WHOLE day, until bedtime whole day. So far she has asked that we do math and that we have spaghetti for dinner. I think we can accomplish both. Something else about being the youngest is she entertains herself really well, in fact she is playing quietly while I'm typing this up. But I'm not going to keep her waiting we have books to read and princesses to pretend and of course MATH!

New slideshow and a question...

I have a new addiction! I am loving putting slideshows together with my pictures. Because I sort of stumbled on this a month or so ago, I don't have much know how. I googled free slide shows with music. I came upon Smilebox. It is pretty fun. But the irritating part is if I want to use my own music and have a slide show without ads I have to pay. Of course! So here is a question, what are some affordable programs that I could use that would allow me to put these slide shows together. I really like free, or if I have something all ready on my computer that can do it that I am not aware of, that would be really cool. Any suggestions? Please comment. I love comments.

Well here is my newest creation. This is of Kameron's soccer tournament he played in a couple of weeks ago. The music is loud and hard rock, so if you don't want to listen to it, turn it down. Also because these are snapshots from some of us on the sidelines some pictures are really blurry, but they would of been really cool shots. So I threw them in. I hope you enjoy!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Ranting

I have an issue. I REALLY HATE East Coast roads. I grew up in the West. I learned to drive in the West. They have W I D E roads. Not only do they have wide roads they have large shoulders on the roads (so if you need to pull over you CAN!) Their roads are also straight and tend to run North/South, East/West. It is a beautiful thing and something I totally took for granted until I moved East. I remember when I first moved here. My husband picked me up from the airport and drove me home and I literally thought we were going to die. The road was narrow, windy, twisty and people were driving 80 miles an hour.

I did become accustomed to the roads eventually. Then a few years ago I was RUN OFF the road by somebody who was in a big stinking hurry and tried to pass the car in front of them on a solid yellow line. The problem was that I was coming in there direction. I side swiped the utility pole sitting 4 feet off the road instead of hitting the car head on. I had a few aches and pains and some bruises and some pelvic problems for a years or so, but I still had my life and that of my daughter who was in the back seat.

The thing is that combined with the nasty roads has caused a phobia. Some days are not so bad other days (when I'm tired) it is horrible. My older kids give me a hard time and my husband is to the point he won't drive if I'm in the car because I totally flip out. It is pretty bad sometimes. I know it is insane but I'm convinced that they are all out to get me and want my lane to the point of putting my life and those with me in jeopardy.

Yesterday, Kameron and I went to get his drivers permit. EEKS! He then convinced me, like only Kameron can, to let him DRIVE with me in the car! He didn't do too bad actually. Well after I kicked him out of the drivers seat we headed home on one of the worst roads around our area. Guess what? there was an accident near our housing development. It wasn't bad, just a fender bender. Actually one of the cars was totaled I'm sure. But everyone looked to be ok. So we continued on. Then we went to the movies last night, on the way home guess what? There was another accident. We came upon it before the police. In fact the police car zoomed in and parked directly in front of me. On a side note the lights on those vehicles is enough to cause an accident, it took me a good 5 minutes to be able to see again without blue and red spots. That one was pretty bad, they took down the utility pole that was sitting 4 feet off the road. Then to top off the evening I had a take a detour that had me on a road that was made east coast style and that it snaked back and forth so bad that one of my kids got sick. THEN this morning I took Kameron to work and guess what? Yep! there was an accident. Again it was just a fender bender. But STILL!! within a 24 hour period I have seen 3 accidents.

I am ready to stay home and cover up my head and never head out again. What are people thinking???? We have insanely put together roads (who designs them anyway?!?!) and then insane people who push the limits to get some where 3 seconds faster at the cost of someones life!

OK I'm going to get off my soap box. If you have made it this far in my little post I congratulate you. I'm sure it was pretty lame reading. I also thank you and ask that you pray for me in this phobia. There are days I think I'm going to have a panic attack trying to get to the store.

Soccer

When growing up I didn't know much about sports. My family was not sport oriented. My brothers didn't play any sports and my dad was not into football or baseball like a lot of men are. I then married a man who is not into sports. I signed my daughter up for t-ball when she was 5 but she spent the entire time in the outfield with her mitt on her head and picking daisies. Needless to say I didn't sign her up again. So when my son turned 5 and my friend suggest I sign him up for soccer, I was dubious. I actually drug my feet and whined, but she was persuasive and I went ahead and did it.

It was amazing! He loved it. He was not the star player nor did he have natural abilities like some kids displayed, but he had a desire to play. He actually won the most improved player 2 or 3 years in a row! I have spent many seasons sitting on the sidelines watching practices and games. It went from a few cute little boys playing amoeba ball to a good size team of some good size boys that are really good players that are actually a lot of fun to watch.

A couple of weeks ago his team was in a soccer tournament. They didn't win, but they came pretty close to it. The team played hard and they played well. There were some boys that were very disappointed but they had no reason to be. They had an awesome team with some really neat coaches (I can't say that for some of the teams they were up against!)

Just letting you know, Kameron, that I'm proud of you. You played good and you are an awesome team player. I hope you keep playing and I hope you take the time to coach some amoeba ball when you have kids of your own!