"What would have to change in your life for you to experience more times of 'treasuring' your blessings, of 'meditating' on the goodness and greatness of God?" - Beth Moore - Jesus, 90 days with the One and Only
This is from my devotions today and isn't it just like God to have you studying things that say the perfect thing at the perfect time? I have been struggling with some minor adversity in my life recently and when things like this happen I try to reflect on the purpose it serves. What I have been thinking about lately is how going through painful situations usually leads in one of two directions. You can choose to ask 'why' and feel sorry for yourself, or you can choose to ask 'why' and 'what can I learn from this?'.
I have chose to ask 'what can I learn from this?'. In doing so, it has made me realize how blessed I am. It has made me see that even when things are bad, God is good. It has encouraged me to reassess what my priorities in life should be. Going through my own trials and frustrations has also given me increased empathy and compassion for those around me facing much bigger mountains. God has shown me that my trials are just really a bee sting, not an arm amputation. It still stings, but I need to keep it in perspective.
Thank you God, for helping me to keep things in perspective and for reminding me of my blessings!
Something New
For almost a year now, I have been slowly reading through the Old Testament. I had been studying the Life of Moses through Bible Study Fellowship during the 2008-2009 school year and picked up where that left off during the past year. Usually, I don't find as many life applications from the Old Testament as the New Testament, but God has been revealing a lot to me through this last year. Probably the most important thing I have learned is how patient He is. No matter how many times the Israelites turned from Him and worshiped other, false gods, He was there, waiting for them and wanting them to love Him and ready to receive them and forgive them. It is so comforting to know that God has an endless supply of love and patience for me too.
Now, I am ready for a change in my devotions for a while. I have decided to study the Beth Moore Book "Jesus - 90 days with the One and Only". I have had this book for a while and did about 20 days or so of it when I first got it, but never finished it. I'm sure it will take me more than 90 days to work through it, but I am looking forward to what it will teach me throughout the summer. Wanna join me? :)
Now, I am ready for a change in my devotions for a while. I have decided to study the Beth Moore Book "Jesus - 90 days with the One and Only". I have had this book for a while and did about 20 days or so of it when I first got it, but never finished it. I'm sure it will take me more than 90 days to work through it, but I am looking forward to what it will teach me throughout the summer. Wanna join me? :)
Catching Up
I realized recently that it has been a long time since I worked on any pages for Sage's 'First Year' scrapbook. So, I decided to start at it again.
During the first year of each of the girls lives, I tried to write down little tidbits each day. It was fun to read back through Sage's 'tidbits' three years later. My hope is that the girls will find this information fun to read and a little bit useful when they become mommies.
Layout uses: Witty Collection, ScrapSimple Digital Layout Album Templates: 12x12 Mini Clusters
Layout uses: Eclectic Collection Biggie , ScrapSimple Digital Layout Album Templates: 12x12 Mini Clusters
I haven't used layout templates in a while and forgot how much fun they can be and how quickly it makes your pages come together! :)
Hope your day is blessed!
During the first year of each of the girls lives, I tried to write down little tidbits each day. It was fun to read back through Sage's 'tidbits' three years later. My hope is that the girls will find this information fun to read and a little bit useful when they become mommies.
Layout uses: Witty Collection, ScrapSimple Digital Layout Album Templates: 12x12 Mini Clusters
Layout uses: Eclectic Collection Biggie , ScrapSimple Digital Layout Album Templates: 12x12 Mini ClustersI haven't used layout templates in a while and forgot how much fun they can be and how quickly it makes your pages come together! :)
Hope your day is blessed!
Happy Easter!
I know! I have, once again, been neglecting my blog! Since a lot has happened in the last 3 1/2 months, I will just jump in where we are now. My hope for the future is to keep this a bit more up to date! :)
Tomorrow, we look forward to celebrating Easter. We have been on an egg hunt and have painted some eggs already, now we can celebrate the true meaning of Easter - the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are hoping to get up and to our early church service tomorrow, as the other two services will be quite crowded.
In lieu of Easter baskets, I took the girls to Hobby Lobby today and gave them each $5 to spend. They combined their money together with some other money they each had for a total of $17. They do a great job of working together to buy crafts they can both share and, of course, use a 40% off coupon to stretch their dollars! LOL! Today they bought some small ceramics to paint and a big bucket of foam stickers. They spent the better part of the day working on their new projects together.
My surprise for them ended up paling in comparison to Daddy's though. We have been discussing the possibility of getting some baby chicks to raise and today decided to go ahead and do it. Paul made a few phone calls and found some in Holland that we could pick up. We decided 6 chicks would be a nice amount to start with. As we gathered our supplies and had the chicks boxed up for transport, we also fell in love with the baby ducks! Somehow, two of them made it home to our house as well! LOL!!
The girls are tickled and Marley (the puppy that joined our family in January) is curious beyond belief!!
Hope your Easter is filled with blessings!
Tomorrow, we look forward to celebrating Easter. We have been on an egg hunt and have painted some eggs already, now we can celebrate the true meaning of Easter - the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are hoping to get up and to our early church service tomorrow, as the other two services will be quite crowded.
In lieu of Easter baskets, I took the girls to Hobby Lobby today and gave them each $5 to spend. They combined their money together with some other money they each had for a total of $17. They do a great job of working together to buy crafts they can both share and, of course, use a 40% off coupon to stretch their dollars! LOL! Today they bought some small ceramics to paint and a big bucket of foam stickers. They spent the better part of the day working on their new projects together.
My surprise for them ended up paling in comparison to Daddy's though. We have been discussing the possibility of getting some baby chicks to raise and today decided to go ahead and do it. Paul made a few phone calls and found some in Holland that we could pick up. We decided 6 chicks would be a nice amount to start with. As we gathered our supplies and had the chicks boxed up for transport, we also fell in love with the baby ducks! Somehow, two of them made it home to our house as well! LOL!!
The girls are tickled and Marley (the puppy that joined our family in January) is curious beyond belief!!
Hope your Easter is filled with blessings!
Thoughts from Christmas Day...
I recorded these thoughts on Christmas day and thought I would share them here. Be warned that this is a bit long and there are no pictures to post...yet. I have not taken the time to get them from the camera and go through them. It has been a fun week. Hope you and yours had a wonderful Christmas holiday as well.
It's Christmas day and I thought I would record some thoughts before they escape me. This has been a really fun year for the girls. They are 3 and 6 and it is a fun age for Christmas. Regan has already told us she does not believe in Santa, yet she was very excited about spreading magic Reindeer dust and food outside on Christmas Eve. She received them from her Daisies troop and at her school party. Sage was full of questions about Santa and how he gets in the house and if she was going to get coal in her stocking or not.
This is the first year where I had the girls give gifts to each other. I took them each to the dollar store and let them pick out 5 things. They both did really well and had a lot of fun doing it. Sage gave away too many hints and Regan found out she was getting reindeer antlers. Other than that I was surprised how well she did at not telling Regan about the other four things she got her.
After sprinkling the reindeer food on Christmas eve, we sent them to bed. They were all wound up and super excited for Christmas day. I went downstairs and wiggled one of the stockings, making the bell jingle. It only took about 30 seconds for them to hear it and bust out of their room because they heard jingle bells and wanted to know if Santa was here.
The girls had been planning and practicing all week for when they would run into our room on Christmas morning and yell MERRY CHRISTMAS to wake us both up. Well, unbeknownst to me, Paul snuck in the girls bedroom at night and changed their clock so they would have to sleep in a bit in the morning. (They are not allowed to get up until their clock says 7 AM) :) With them still in bed when Paul and I woke up, we decided to turn the tables. We got dressed and snuck into their room and yelled MERRY CHRISTMAS! The look of disgust on Regan's face was priceless!! She wasn't too sure what to make of it. She sat with her hand on her hip, looking at us, not quite knowing how to respond. I thought Sage would cry, but she didn't (she was still sleeping, unlike Regan who had been awake and waiting since about 6:45 - it was after 8 am by this time).
Regan went downstairs and proceeded to hand out gifts to Paul and I in the kitchen. She was so anxious and had to be reminded that we would wait for Sage to come down and we would all go to the living room and open gifts. She was very sweet, in that she had predetermined that Paul and I should open our gifts first, since the kids opened first last year. Then, she proceeded to give Sage all her dollar store gifts before opening any of her own. I think she was genuinely as excited to give her gifts to Sage as she was about opening her own.
Sage was totally adorable, as one of the first things she did after coming downstairs was reach up and feel the contents of her stocking. She let us know that she was pretty sure she did not get any coal from Santa, as there was nothing in it that felt like rocks! Later she told us that Santa must have thought she was a really good girl!! :)
I made homemade cinnamon rolls again for breakfast. Regan had remembered that from last year and requested them again. I prepared them on Christmas eve and we baked them while opening gifts. Stockings were opened after cinnamon rolls.
Paul surprised me with an ipod. It will be a really nice gift for using at the gym and even at home. We got daddy a duck hunting game for the Wii. The girls got books from Mima and Papa. Regan got Scrapbooking stuff from Grandma and Grandpa B and Sage got a new lady bug lifejacket. She was quite excited about that and said it was the best gift ever! I bought the girls all new art supplies as their main gift - new markers, twisty crayons, playdoh, jewels, scissors. Their stockings were filled with stickers, toothbrush, toothpaste, fingernail stickers and dry erase markers. Daddy's stocking held the traditional bag of peanut m&ms. Despite his many attempts to trick them, the girls even kept from telling him about them before Christmas.
We will buy another year to the Aquatic Center as our big family gift. We kept our things to the girls pretty minimal, as they really don't need much.
I feel so blessed this Christmas season. God has been good to us, despite a difficult economy. Our needs are always provided for and then some. Our health has been great, besides a few sniffles. It is good to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. There were days in the past few weeks when I lost sight of that, but today has been a good time of reflection.
It's Christmas day and I thought I would record some thoughts before they escape me. This has been a really fun year for the girls. They are 3 and 6 and it is a fun age for Christmas. Regan has already told us she does not believe in Santa, yet she was very excited about spreading magic Reindeer dust and food outside on Christmas Eve. She received them from her Daisies troop and at her school party. Sage was full of questions about Santa and how he gets in the house and if she was going to get coal in her stocking or not.
This is the first year where I had the girls give gifts to each other. I took them each to the dollar store and let them pick out 5 things. They both did really well and had a lot of fun doing it. Sage gave away too many hints and Regan found out she was getting reindeer antlers. Other than that I was surprised how well she did at not telling Regan about the other four things she got her.
After sprinkling the reindeer food on Christmas eve, we sent them to bed. They were all wound up and super excited for Christmas day. I went downstairs and wiggled one of the stockings, making the bell jingle. It only took about 30 seconds for them to hear it and bust out of their room because they heard jingle bells and wanted to know if Santa was here.
The girls had been planning and practicing all week for when they would run into our room on Christmas morning and yell MERRY CHRISTMAS to wake us both up. Well, unbeknownst to me, Paul snuck in the girls bedroom at night and changed their clock so they would have to sleep in a bit in the morning. (They are not allowed to get up until their clock says 7 AM) :) With them still in bed when Paul and I woke up, we decided to turn the tables. We got dressed and snuck into their room and yelled MERRY CHRISTMAS! The look of disgust on Regan's face was priceless!! She wasn't too sure what to make of it. She sat with her hand on her hip, looking at us, not quite knowing how to respond. I thought Sage would cry, but she didn't (she was still sleeping, unlike Regan who had been awake and waiting since about 6:45 - it was after 8 am by this time).
Regan went downstairs and proceeded to hand out gifts to Paul and I in the kitchen. She was so anxious and had to be reminded that we would wait for Sage to come down and we would all go to the living room and open gifts. She was very sweet, in that she had predetermined that Paul and I should open our gifts first, since the kids opened first last year. Then, she proceeded to give Sage all her dollar store gifts before opening any of her own. I think she was genuinely as excited to give her gifts to Sage as she was about opening her own.
Sage was totally adorable, as one of the first things she did after coming downstairs was reach up and feel the contents of her stocking. She let us know that she was pretty sure she did not get any coal from Santa, as there was nothing in it that felt like rocks! Later she told us that Santa must have thought she was a really good girl!! :)
I made homemade cinnamon rolls again for breakfast. Regan had remembered that from last year and requested them again. I prepared them on Christmas eve and we baked them while opening gifts. Stockings were opened after cinnamon rolls.
Paul surprised me with an ipod. It will be a really nice gift for using at the gym and even at home. We got daddy a duck hunting game for the Wii. The girls got books from Mima and Papa. Regan got Scrapbooking stuff from Grandma and Grandpa B and Sage got a new lady bug lifejacket. She was quite excited about that and said it was the best gift ever! I bought the girls all new art supplies as their main gift - new markers, twisty crayons, playdoh, jewels, scissors. Their stockings were filled with stickers, toothbrush, toothpaste, fingernail stickers and dry erase markers. Daddy's stocking held the traditional bag of peanut m&ms. Despite his many attempts to trick them, the girls even kept from telling him about them before Christmas.
We will buy another year to the Aquatic Center as our big family gift. We kept our things to the girls pretty minimal, as they really don't need much.
I feel so blessed this Christmas season. God has been good to us, despite a difficult economy. Our needs are always provided for and then some. Our health has been great, besides a few sniffles. It is good to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. There were days in the past few weeks when I lost sight of that, but today has been a good time of reflection.
It's November...
I know, I've been a bad blogger! Life just seems to keep me busy with other things!
Here is a peak at our cute little kittens from Halloween night:
And one from this morning. A quick photoshoot before church. I have been waiting a long time for some sunshine to be able to shoot these. You can see their almost fresh new haircuts! I love their new do's!
Quick update on everyone. Regan is doing well, loving school and staying pretty healthy. She had a short sickness this week that kept her home one day from school. At conferences the teacher told me we have a little writer/storyteller on our hands. The teacher handed me a stack of about 20+ stories Regan had written and said by comparison, most parents would be getting about 4 or 5 for their child. She loves to write and draws some great pictures to go with them
Sage is doing well too and has been able to avoid getting sick. She still tries my patience and melts my heart on a daily, or even hourly basis. She has a ball at the activity center everyday while mommy exercises at the gym. It is her own 'preschool' of sorts.
Paul is doing pretty well too. Work is surviving, but has definitely felt the slump in the economy. He leaves next week for his annual hunting trip with his buddy Joe. They weren't sure until just a couple of days ago if they would be going.
I am doing well also! Busy, but well. I have been able to avoid all the sickness junk going around, thankfully. I am excited to have taken on a new position at Scrap Girls, as an instructor. I will be teaching my first class in November. I was able to go to Utah in October and spend real time with my 'virtual' friends from Scrap Girls. I went early this year, to be able to really enjoy the area and see some sights and spend some time with friends. I was very enjoyable.
Well! That's it for now! Hope your fall is blessed!
:)
Here is a peak at our cute little kittens from Halloween night:
And one from this morning. A quick photoshoot before church. I have been waiting a long time for some sunshine to be able to shoot these. You can see their almost fresh new haircuts! I love their new do's!
Quick update on everyone. Regan is doing well, loving school and staying pretty healthy. She had a short sickness this week that kept her home one day from school. At conferences the teacher told me we have a little writer/storyteller on our hands. The teacher handed me a stack of about 20+ stories Regan had written and said by comparison, most parents would be getting about 4 or 5 for their child. She loves to write and draws some great pictures to go with them
Sage is doing well too and has been able to avoid getting sick. She still tries my patience and melts my heart on a daily, or even hourly basis. She has a ball at the activity center everyday while mommy exercises at the gym. It is her own 'preschool' of sorts.
Paul is doing pretty well too. Work is surviving, but has definitely felt the slump in the economy. He leaves next week for his annual hunting trip with his buddy Joe. They weren't sure until just a couple of days ago if they would be going.
I am doing well also! Busy, but well. I have been able to avoid all the sickness junk going around, thankfully. I am excited to have taken on a new position at Scrap Girls, as an instructor. I will be teaching my first class in November. I was able to go to Utah in October and spend real time with my 'virtual' friends from Scrap Girls. I went early this year, to be able to really enjoy the area and see some sights and spend some time with friends. I was very enjoyable.
Well! That's it for now! Hope your fall is blessed!
:)
What's up with us??
Sunday, we made a trip to a local Cherry Orchard. We try to make it each year to pick some of the wonderful Michigan Sweet Cherries that grow here. They are so good and it makes for a fun family outing.
The cherries were $1.50/lb this year. We picked four buckets full or 30 pounds worth. What does a family of four do with 30 pounds of cherries?? Well, we eat a lot, but not that many!! LOL! We make them into sauce. We pit them and boil them down, add a little cornstarch and freeze them. Mid-winter, when it is bitter cold outside and there are no sweet cherries to be found, we enjoy a breakfast, or sometimes a dinner, treat of Belgium waffles with warm sweet cherry sauce. Yummmmy!
(And when you pick your own? Of course you have to eat a 'few' along the way! :) )
On Saturday, I finally followed through on Paul's Christmas gift...from 2007! There is a place about 30 minutes north of us that does Paraflights. Paul has been dying to go for quite some time. He absolutely loved it...even if it took a year and half!! LOL!
While we were there, we took the girls to Lewis', the local Farm Market and Petting Zoo. This place is always fun for the girls and they keep adding new things all the time. This time we paid for the girls to have wristbands so they could jump all they want on this huge 'pillow'. They also love the new tube slides that were put in this summer.
I'd say we had a pretty fun weekend. :)
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