Good Morning Girls

Per a suggestion from Courtney at Women Living Well blog, I organized a group of ladies to form an accountability group.  We are holding each other accountable for having our "quiet time" each day.  So, every Monday-Friday we write a message on facebook to each other, telling about what we are reading in our Bibles and our thoughts on the verses.  We started on Sept 1st and it has been so great!  I love the group for several reasons:
1)  I like having other people's insights into the scriptures - it keeps me going back to scriptures I have read a dozen times and seeing something new (this happens anyways, but more so now).
2)  This group has helped increase my desire to want to have my quiet time in the morning and lessened the temptation of putting other things before it. 
3)  A great way to see how amazing God's word is and how it is live at work in other's lives. 

Here are just some of the excerpts from my morning quiet time responses:

Good morning! This morning I read Jonah chapters 1 and 2. I could have read the whole book since it is only 4 chapters long but I wanted to reflect on what God was telling me with the story of Jonah (and Lilly woke up super early this morning so my quiet time was w/ her in the bed beside me). Anyways, I was just thinking about how many times we don't do what God asks us to do, just like Jonah - how I run away and try to hide. But, you can't hide from God and He's always there - isn't that so comforting to know that God is ALWAYS there - showing us His love, giving us wisdom need, telling us when to be bold and keeping true to His promises! He is an awesome GOD!

 

I was focusing on the HW in the Beth Moore study today as well as looking up verses about my spiritual gifts that I talked about the other day. So, I was in many chapters and verses of the New Testament but I kept questioning the part about how I'm supposed to love my enemies and serve them - (like what Laurie read about last week) - this his hard for me sometimes, especially when people really hurt me. So, several verses struck me in answer to my question, "Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written:"It is mine to avenge; I will repay, "says the Lord" - so it isn't up to me to make sure people get what I think they deserve. It is up to me to "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone" both verses from Romans 12. One thing that really gave me peace was the memory verse from the Beth Moore study - They will make war against the Lamb but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings - and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful" Rev 17:14...these are my thoughts, Jesus wins no matter what so I always want to be on the side that is with him and not against Him. My life needs to be of service to Him so that I can be part of the called, chosen and faithful that are with Him in the end. I can chose to love my enemies despite my feelings, I can choose to serve people I don't care for despite how I might feel about them because it is my duty to live my life as a living sacrifice to the Lord - I can never repay Him for what He did for me on the cross but I can certainly choose to obey and choose to do what it right.

"Renewed" Spark

Recently, my husband went away on a business trip.  He was gone for 2 weeks, but I'm fairly used to him being gone for a time because since he has started working for his current company (almost 2 years ago) he has been on several trips.  Before this position, he was in the USNavy and was deployed for months at a time, so like I said I am used to it being part of our life.  However, usually, when he is gone it takes me several days to get used to sleeping by myself in the bed and up to a week to get used to a routine w/o him home.  This time while he was gone I was so at peace - I didn't have any trouble sleeping and things just seemed to fall into place.  I started to feel bad about it because I thought "how awful that I am doing so well w/o my husband."  Don't be mistaken because I did miss him, but things were not how they usually are when he is away - it was weird. 

Usually when my husband comes home from a deployment or business trip, I can't wait to pick him up because I am happy that he'll be here to help me - to watch our daughter and give me a break or to do whatever I feel stressed about at the time.  But, when my husband came home from this trip, I had butterflies in my stomach.  I was so excited to see him, kiss him and just to be near him!  I wasn't thinking about all the things I wanted him to do, I was just excited he was home.  It reminded me of the feelings I had when we were dating. 

So, I thank God that HE gave me that peace while Mark was away and that HE allowed me to have this wonderful renewed spark of passion for my husband when he returned.  I continue to pray that God would show me ways to keep that spark alive in our marriage, and HE has already made me aware of my husband's love languages so I need to make a conscious effort to show him love in the way he receives it best.

The Food Battle

For the most part, my husband and I agree on how to parent our daughter. We aren't against spanking in times of obvious defiance and we both want our daughter to have Christ-like characteristics where she cares about others and is friendly to all people. There is one area where we differ and it is when it comes to food. Of course, we want her to eat healthy, but my husband requires that she finish all her entree' before having anything else, even if it means giving her the same plate at the next meal. While I suggest that she be given the whole meal(fruit, veggie, entree') at once and she should eat most of it. I just do not see the point of forcing her to eat something she obviously doesn't like.


Now, I don't want to be disrespectful to my husband, so I try to only give my daughter what I know she likes and very small portions so she'll meet his expectations. Every once in a while, I make something new and not being sure whether she'll like it or not, I give it to her and she doesn't like it. I strongly dislike the battle between the 3 of us to get her to eat the food. He's looking at me to make her eat it, I'm feeding her like a baby (she's 2) to get her to eat it, and she's crying and upset because she doesn't want to eat it.




Does anybody have a compromise that will work in this situation?

Homegroup Blues

When my husband and I lived in Misawa, Japan, we had a small group that we were a part of and they were our lifeline. We did "life" with these people. I know it was a unique situation because we were all "stuck" in Japan so we became each others family. We met every week no matter what was going on - it was something that was a non-negotiable on our calendar, more important than even making it to the chapel service on Sunday. Our group would study God's word together, play games together, celebrate b-days and holidays together and like I said, "do life" together.


Mark and I love the church we go to now, we are fed each week by the pastor's sermons and we are able to use our spiritual gifts by serving in the church in some form or fashion. Our daughter has friends to play with there and she loves her Sunday School teachers. The only thing that was missing was that we weren't "doing life" with any of the people from church. We would see church friends at church and that was pretty much it.


At the beginning of the summer, our pastor asked us what we thought of doing a home small group...of course we jumped all over that, it was like an answered prayer. The group met for about 4 or 5 Fridays and we enjoyed every minute of that time to actually meet with our church family outside of church and get to know others better. Then, we got to a Friday where many of the people couldn't meet, so we didn't. Now, it is like the group just fell of the face of the earth.


I think, as humans, we need those connections with others and as Christians those connections should be at church. We expressed our concerns to our pastor and we may go back to having the home small group meetings but he isn't sure because of the lack of commitment from most people.


This makes me so sad, my husband and I desire to do "life" with our church family - to be involved in each other's lives so we can pray and encourage each other. A friend reminded me that it is what God desires of us as well - just look at the church in the book of Acts - they met at each other's houses, ate together, talked, prayed, encouraged and went out together to spread the word.


My husband and I are praying that this group will be implemented again and that it will be in line with God's will for us. Having these connections and a group to hold you accountable is so important.

Childless Week

Two weeks ago, I met my mom in Little Rock, Arkansas, so she could take my daughter to stay with her for about 2 weeks. My mom lives about 20 hours from us, so I wasn't sure how this was going to work but I knew it would probably be harder on me than my little girl. So, I made a list of all the things I wanted to accomplish while I was childless. I was going to clean and organize and, of course, spend some quality time with my husband.


Turns out, my husband was sick for the first week so he was home, instead of at work, and I was caring for him. As a result, I wasn't able to get nearly as much as I wanted done. Last week, I was getting a little bit frustrated because this wasn't going like I planned, but then I was reminded that the things I wanted to get accomplished were all temporal things: steam cleaning carpets, organizing closets, finishing photo albums. But the things I have had time for have been more eternal type things: caring for my husband, reading God's word, praying, spending time at Neighborhood Night Out w/ my church, and resting.


The childless time isn't over yet, but basically I am reminded that God's plan is always better for us than the plan we come up with ourselves. I'm just excited that my little girl has been able to have this time with her Nana to create some lasting memories.

Grocery Shopping Progress

I have been clipping coupons for a few months now, and at first I was getting really frustrated with the whole thing because I wasn't really saving any money. With the organizing tips from my friends at church and the continued support from my husband, I think I am starting to get the hang of it. I'm not a super saver, yet, but I am buying double the amount of food I was buying before and paying the same amount as I was before I started clipping coupons.


Yesterday, I went to Kroger and I spent $152 but I saved and $82. I think the part that I am most proud of is that I bought 107 items, so I payed like $1.50 for each item. That means I spent $1.50 on a box of slim fast drinks for my husband and $1.50 for 3 lbs of ground beef for my family and $1.50 for a 5 lb bag of chicken. I know that might not mean a lot to some people, but for me that is major progress! :)

Mini Pre-school

My daughter is only 2, but she desires to go to school already and she is like a sponge right now - always asking a million questions so...
I decided to take one of the rooms in our house (technically the breakfast room) and turn it into a school room.  The only thing that is missing is a table a chairs, but I'm just waiting for a good deal on those.  This room combined with my degree in elementary education and a preschool website I found: www.first-school.ws/INDEX.HTM will be the tools I will use to "homeschool" my daughter over the next few months.  I am probably going to homeschool her on a more structured basis when she turns 4, but I'm still praying about that. 

Here is my plan for the next 2-3 months:
Bible story and memory verse from 20 Bible Verses Every Child Should Know - focus on one story and one verse a week

Carrie the Caring Cat - character education, making things for others and helping others

Focus on the letter A - writing it, sounds of short and long, things that begin with A.  Finding the letter a in books, making a things that begin with a collage.

Apple exploration using the 5 senses, cutting open the apple and counting the seeds, apple painting, making apple trees in the different seasons, reading books on apples.

Angels - angels in the Bible, make an angel craft to give away at Christmas time, shapes

Astronaut - books about astronauts, talking about space, planets and stars, star crafts, shapes

Acorns - go out and collect some, count them, explore them

Ants - observe them, read books about them

My thought is to focus on one topic a week, with the Bible verse, character education and the letter A being a continuing focus.  Then, after finishing the A topics, I will move onto topics beginning with the letter B and change the character education topic from caring to respect.  My B topics will be: Bible, baker, bananas, broccolli, balloons, butterflies, and bats.

I hope to just give her a general overview of all these topics while incorporating science, math, and reading skills.  I'll keep you posted on how it goes.