Anxiously awaiting....

I miss my husband dearly when we are apart.  He doesn't travel often for work, and when he does it's normally for a short time.  This week, however, he has been gone for 6 nights!  I am so thankful that the week is almost over, and his arms will be around me in about 30 hours (not that I'm counting down or anything!).  The longer we've been married the harder it has gotten to be apart.  It is so hard to say good-bye to him when he is leaving.  He is my other half.  He completes me.  I need him.  I miss him.  Anxiously awaiting tomorrow when he will be home!

"My beloved is mine, and I am his."  Song of Solomon 2:16

Rejoice Always...

My hubby and I strive to teach character traits to our children.   We feel it is just as important, if not more important, then academics.  We decided this school year we would focus on a different character trait every month or so.  Throughout the month of August we focused on JOY! 

One of the things I've enjoyed most this month is hearing my 3 year old memorize scripture =)  Our Bible verse for JOY was "Rejoice Always" (1 Thess. 5:16).  Although it is a very short verse it was priceless to hear her say "Rejoice Always" when we would ask her what the Bible says about JOY. 

It was just amazing to read  some of the Bible stories regarding JOY.  The story that really spoke to me was the one about  Paul and Silas.  How they were thrown into prison and bound in stocks as though they were very dangerous.  What did they do?  Complain?  Whine?  Curse?  NO!  "Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises to God." (Acts 16:25)  What a lesson here.  I find it so easy to complain over much less grave circumstances.  I'm thankful that God gave us this example to learn from.

We also learned  how some animals can teach us about JOY.  We studied the chickadee and how even in the depths of winter, the chickadee still sings its cheerful song.  Definitely a good example of "rejoicing always" and not letting our environment or circumstances get us down.

Studying JOY has been an eye-opening experience to me.  I find it so easy to complain about things when they aren't going smooth/perfect.  Selfishness, I know.  The Lord is teaching me much in this area.  I'm currently suffering from extreme arm itching, sciatic nerve pain, and gestational diabetes.  Some days I feel like crying about all this .... I don't want to lose sleep from the itching, I want to get out of bed without my back side hurting, and I really don't want to poke myself 4 times a day and watch every bit of food that goes in my mouth for about 9 more weeks.  But, the Lord is working on me.  I'm trying to be JOYFUL even in these things.  Am I always?  NO.  But when I think of Paul and Silas still singing praises to God in their situation, I can't help but be thankful for even these things.  After all, who wouldn't put up with a few months of itching arms, a painful backside, and poking fingers for the GIFT OF LIFE?  Rejoice Always?  I'm working on it ... it's a work in progress!  

"Rejoice always."  1 Thessalonians 5:16

Time to catch up!

We're back in the swing of school and schedules at our house and I've decided that my blog is another thing I'm going to get back in the swing of =)  I have so many ideas of things to post about.  I'm hoping to blog more regularly ... maybe even a few times a week!  I've been having trouble getting to sleep at night after my children and husband have called it a day, so I'm planning on using some of that time for blogging.

The most exciting "thing" going on in our lives right now is the anticipation of the arrival of our newest blessing.  He/She is only 10 weeks away from their due date.  Wow - this pregnancy is going extremely fast (as they all have except the first one).  The girls are getting so excited.  My three year old tells me daily that she is going to hold the baby when it is born.  It is so sweet how my 18 month old points to my belly when I ask her where the baby is.  Although she obviously is too young to understand what is happening she loves babies.  We've had two babies born to families at our church in the last month and she can't get enough of touching them ... she loves touching their heads and their feet.  It is so precious how the mothering starts at such a young age!  I love watching all my girls and how they mother each other and how much they love to play dolls.  It was my absolutely favorite thing to do as a child too.  I always wanted a baby brother or sister, but since I didn't get that (I'm still waiting mom!) I made due with my dolls.

Anyhow, I'm planning on blogging more regularly this Fall and hope you stop by and say "hi"!   I'm already thinking about what topic to blog about first ......

Great reminder....

I just finished reading a great blog post from one of my favorite blogs.  She always has such great topics and encouragement.  I wanted to share part of it here .... click on the link below to read the entire post.  I hope you will be blessed by this reading, as I was.  There are so many distractions in this world .... may we focus on the important "things" in life!

Twenty-four hours–that’s all you get. Time is our most valuable commodity. We not only have a limited number of hours per day, but we are only given a limited number of hours to live. How we choose to spend this gift is very important. Think about your family’s purpose, your goals, your vision. What do you want to accomplish in this small space of time here? What things are the most important to you?  Which things will last? Which things will soonest be forgotten? What kind of legacy do you wish to leave?
Refusing to acknowledge that our time here is pretty limited causes most people to twitter a great deal of it away. Time is our life. Wasted time is wasted life. Ouch.
A few activities that Americans seem to adore, even to the detriment of their relationships are:  http://www.generationcedar.com/main/2011/07/simplify-time-life.html

JOYS of pregnancy!!!!

Pregnancy is such a GIFT that brings so many JOYS with it.  Yes, there is the not feeling so well stage, the  extremely tired I'm going to fall asleep standing up stage, the backaches, heartburn, and some other "hard" things (like labor!), but the JOYS far outweigh these.  I came up with a list of my top 11 things I enjoy with pregnancy -- yes, I know it should be a top 10 list but I just couldn't narrow it down =)

1. The first thing I love about being pregnant is finding out!  I can remember when, where, and how I found out with each of my babies.  What a moment of complete and utter JOY!!!!  Finding out that new life, a miracle, is growing inside my womb. 

2.  I love telling others our good news and especially love the excitement that our children show.  They just light up and say the most precious things.  We're raising them to view children as God does, as blessings, and they are so quick to say "I'm so excited God's blessed us again!"   It is also so fun to watch their excitement throughout the entire pregnancy. 

3.  My husband is such a part of each pregnancy, and is so supportive the whole nine months.  He goes to every Dr's appointment with me (he's missed only 1 appointment out of all 5 of my pregnancies!!!), he picks up food when I don't feel well enough to cook, and he gets so excited to see me grow and to feel the baby kicking.  It is such a GIFT to have a husband who thinks pregnancy is a beautiful thing!

4.  Pregnancy also makes me feel close to God.  I know that each baby is a GIFT from HIM and I feel so blessed when he chooses to grow another miracle in me.   Pregnancy makes GOD very real to me.

5.  I love hearing the heartbeat for the first time and confirming that there is life growing inside me.  There is no sound like hearing your newborn baby's heart beating for the first time! 

6.  I know this is an odd one to a lot of people but I actually love to show!  I love to feel my "baby bump" and to see it.  It makes baby even more real to me.

7.  It is such a GIFT to feel the baby moving around inside me.  I love feeling the kicks, turns,  and even the hiccups (although sometimes they feel a little too weird!).  I also love it when baby gets big enough for my husband and children to feel these movements with their hands on my belly. 

8.  I love seeing the baby in the ultrasound.  I never want to know if the baby is a boy or girl so I do get a bit nervous we might be able to tell.  I make it clear to the Dr. though and so far our surprise hasn't been spoiled.  It is so fun to see baby's little face, hands, feet, everything is just so cute!!!

9.  My husband and I usually have fun picking out baby names (at times this has been stressful too!).  We have just started throwing some names around and yes it did keep me up awhile last night thinking about this.  It is just so fun to come up with just the perfect name for each baby.   We have always agreed on a a girls name going into labor (I guess God was trying to tell us that is what we were having!), but have had a harder time agreeing on a boys name.  We'll see what happens this time. 

10.  Another reason I love pregnancy is it is my dream come true!  My whole life I have always wanted to be a wife and mom.  I went to college and got my degree, but my desire never changed.  I wanted to get married, have children, and stay home to raise them.  At times I just can't believe how God has blessed me.  We had some fertility issues with our first pregnancy, and it took over a year.  I wondered if I would ever be pregnant.  I am living my dream come true with each pregnancy. What a GIFT!

11.  Finally, my very favorite part of pregnancy is that final push during labor when the baby arrives!  Finally, I get to meet my precious boy or girl.  I love the little, screaming, wet newborn being laid on my chest the second they arrive.  What a very precious moment!!!   As odd as it sounds, I am always sad that my pregnancy is over, but so joyful to be holding my baby. 

Pregnancy is such a GIFT.  I would love to hear what were/are your favorite parts of pregnancy. 

"Every good and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change."  ~James 1:17

Just wanted to share....

I so enjoyed the posting at "Raising Homemakers" today and wanted to share it here.  I so often feel like a failure as a mom. I just want to get this "mom thing" right.  This article was an encouragement to me and I hope it encourages you too.  Click on the link below to read the whole article.

I’m not sure there are any words more frequently bounced around the heart of a mom than some version of “I’m a failure.” (I heard that amen.)

In fact, I am prone to wake up in the middle of the night only to start rehearsing all the ways I’m letting my kids down, all the inadequacies and deficiencies, what I’m not giving them, and on and on. Until one night around 3am, as I was praying all my fretting back to the Lord, He’d had enough.

“Are you trusting in your good parenting, or are you trusting in Me?” He asked point blank.

Um, whoopsies (to borrow daughter’s terminology.)

That night stopped me short because He had just placed His finger on an idol in my life: my self reliance and overemphasis and worry over being a good mom.

The Bible teaches it’s not my own good parenting choices or how together I am as a mom that God wants me to feel confident about. Paul said it this way, “I place no confidence in the flesh…” (Phil 3:3) I’ve learned that failure can, in fact, be very useful because it exposes the object of my faith.

God has allowed me to be utterly broken as a mom in order for me to get this lesson right. In it all, He has shown me He wants me to transfer my trust from myself (my good choices, my hard work, my skills and abilities, my wisdom, etc) to Him and His character. Because God’s good plans for my life and my children’s lives never depended upon me in the first place. 

http://raisinghomemakers.com/2011/the-making-of-a-mother-how-to-overcome-failure/



Words are so meaningful....

I just love the new song "Blessings" by Laura Story.   The words are so meaningful and so true.  I do pray for blessings, peace, comfort, protection, healing, prosperity ... for my life to be "easy" with no trials.  But what if through our trials we see HIS mercies,  that HE is made known.  As my faith has grown stronger in the last few years, I've often said I'm afraid to get too close to GOD because then I'm afraid HE'll throw a trial at me to see how I (through HIS strength) handle it.  Anyhow, I just wanted to share the words to this meaningful song and hope it blesses you too! =)   And I'm new at this blogging thing but here's the youtube video .... http://youtu.be/1CSVqHcdhXQ  ... hope it works =)

We pray for blessings, we pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
And all the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

'Cause what if Your blessings come thru raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near
What if  trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise?

We pray for wisdom, Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
And we doubt Your goodness, We doubt Your love
As if each promise from Your Word is not enough
And all the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

'Cause what if Your blessings come thru raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near
What if  trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise?

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win, we know
That pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home

'Cause what if Your blessings come thru raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near
What if  trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise?

What if my greatest disappointments
Or aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy
What if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise?

"Blessings" by Laura Story