A Time For Every Season....

(Written for the Northwood Women's Mentoring Program in December) Psalms 12:6 “The words of the Lord are pure words; as silver tried in a furnace on the earth refined seven times.” I read Psalms 12:6 this evening, hoping to draw close to the Lord. Since the cold month of December began, my life has been filled with busyness, change and movement. My once cherished, silent, peaceful times with the Lord have begun to fade like a far off memory and mundane duty and routine have taken it’s place. As I sit quietly this evening, begging the Lord to draw me near, I opened to Psalms 12:6. This verse jogged another verse I read recently in Malachi 3:3 about the Lord sitting as a refiner and purifier of silver. Sometimes the Lord allows me to glean valuable messages through repetitious verses. So here I sit, fingers typing away meditating on purity and refinement - - the precious words of my Father. Anticipation grows as the jumbled thoughts slowly come together - the painter begins to draw ...

(Faithfully Studying) Change... it is inevitable! There are many changes that are or will take place in our family this coming year. Change is good, it gets us out of our comfort zone and makes us depend more on God. Personally, I hate change; my first recollection of change took place when I was about 7 years of age. We moved from small town H. C., population 2,000, to the big city of Beaverton. We had to leave behind the only home I remembered, friends, grandparents, and our beloved dog Jack. I remember hating my parents for making us move to a small dinky apartment and a new school with kids that hated me and a teacher that chastised me in front of the class for not knowing the answer to 7x6. Change is Good; I just didn't realize it until I matured a little. In case my parents read this blog, thanks, you were right! Moving was the best thing you could have done. If we had stayed, I probably wouldn't have found the Lord, or married the man of my dreams (who lived in Beaverton...

Well, this week has been so exhausting! Gabe decided that sleeping through the night wasn't very fun, so he has been waking up at least 3 times each night. I was so tired last night and really needed a full nights sleep. So, I gave Gabe 2 oz of Pedialite and 2 oz of formula around 11:00 pm. It did the trick! The heaviness of the formula kept Gabe asleep until 7:00 am! What a difference a good night sleep makes; I feel like my energetic self again! Gabe is growing up way too fast! He is always ready to give us smiles and watches his surroundings. His personality so far is very relaxed, he only complains when he is hungry or his plumbing is stopped up! Gabe just moved from his 0-3 months clothes to 3-6 months; it was so sad boxing up the smaller size. I spent this week writing my posts for the interactive Bible reading. I learned so much about the life of Jacob and Joseph. Take a look at the Interactive Bible Reading to the right! Our new season of mentoring is starting this Tuesday...

Our fast is going so well! This fast we are working on plumping up our savings to 3 months living expenses. I am so excited to see the only expenses in our checking account are bills! John laughs at me because yesterday I looked at our savings account balance 3 times just because I loved the large numbers! It also helped that we received our tax refund; for once we didn't have other expenses to pay! We should have our 3 months living expenses complete by the end of May. I am so excited! John has been doing super on his goals for this fast, he has prayed with me every night before bed which we are both excited about. Drew has only watched TV once and that was when he had his ear infection and felt crummy. It is a tradition that when Drew is sick he can watch a DVD on the portable DVD player. The nice thing is that Drew doesn't even ask to watch anything. He has been using his imagination a lot, playing rocket ship instead of asking to watch it on Tv. My fasting is going well, I...

John's Beautiful Workbench! It is too nice to use. Our Boys are Growing Up - 3 months and 3 years! Mat and Natalie had their little girl: Evie! She is ever so cute! I love all the pink!

Gabe and Drew and 3 Months

Guess who started asking why today? Why are you cleaning that mommy? Why are you feeding Gabe? Why do I need to put on my shoes? Why, Why, Why? Drew is also developing a creative imagination! Today while I was cleaning the kitchen, Drew took his little chairs outside and sat them next to one another. Then he came and invited me to ride the "cho cho train" with him. He then told me he was the engineer and was driving the train to see rocket, the Little Einstein ship. After our train ride, he climbed onto the pile of bricks and started patting and then yelled "Blastoff!" Too Cute!

We had a fun week here in Texas, the weather was crazy cold the first few days and crazy warm the past few days. We visited the pond this week with Kitty; Drew loves to ride his bike all the way there and back! We also baked Valentine cookies and made a mess with pudding. On Tuesday I took Drew to the doctor because he wasn't eating much and kept loosing weight. He also had a cold that was lingering. Turns out he had a double ear infection and the Doc pulled out a long strand of earwax and blood.... yucky! Needless to say it explained a lot - Drew poor attitude and clingy behavior. Gabe is a sleeping boy this week - - sleeping 20 out of 24 hours. Last week all he wanted to do was eat! Gabe is still sleeping in his swing, now located in our walk in closet. He now loves to smile at us and is especially fond of watching everything Drew does. He is sleeping through the night 9:30 pm (I feed him at 11:00 pm) and then waking around 6:00 am, then he goes back to sleep until 10:00 am, wake...

Many of you may or may now know that every February and September our family goes on a consumerism fast - not because we are more holy or strong in faith, but because we are weak and desperately need a period of refreshing and rejuvenation. Between the hours of TV, stops at McDonalds, trips to the mall and thoughts of the next drive to Starbucks we seem to loose our vibrant and constant need for our "living water" - - our savior. John and I often don't listen to what the Lord is telling us because we don't make time. Our priorities waiver and we fall into a rut of being content with God instead of Alive In Him! We miss many opportunities to show love to our children, friends and even strangers. We ignore or miss discerning moments and our prayer lives become stagnant and uniform -- boring and ineffective. For me, this current fast was much anticipated, I actually looked forward to taking a step back and really looking at the thoughts and activities that consume my day...

We had a very exhausting week! I busied myself working and keeping up with the housework. I've been preparing myself for our 30 day fast which started on February 1st - no tv, Starbucks, spending money, or eating out. I am always amazed each time we do a fast how much I learn about myself. When we eliminate tv and the desire to run out for dinner I become much more disciplined and we grow much closer as a family. Today we frosted cookies and went to the pond with Kitty. Drew has been a little under the weather so it was nice to get out into the fresh air for a while. John had back injection surgery on Wednesday, so far the tingling and numbness in his hand has gotten 75% better and his neck is just stiff instead of in pain. The shots come in a series of 3 and last around a year. So far he has had one set on each side. We are all anxious for him to finally be better. I really can't remember what John is like without being in constant pain. When we met he had lower back pain from...