A Time For Every Season....

Me and my faithful "twin" Nicole who is on this complex  parenting journey with me. She is my encourager and the brains behind many ideas, she is also the one who makes all my kids Birthday Cakes since this non-creative momma  can't! I've been to enough conferences over the years to know that the "homecoming" isn't as whimsical as I imagine, I also know that I fall into a depressed slump for about a week after returning  home. Then, what I learned sinks in and can begin to produce fruit in my life and action in my bones - maybe I'm just weird, but I roll with it! I'm back from the Sally Clarkson conference ~ it was just as good, if not better, than the last two years. I was inspired, challenged, and convicted. If you've never been to a Mom Heart Conference I can't sing enough praises about the life changes it will inspire in your life as momma! The message is very similar each year, but the stories of inspiration and the inner-worki...

So I posted the first Poverty of Spirit about 7AM this morning. From 8AM until now it has been a day of great poverty. It has been a hard day with lots of opportunity for prayer. There was no lessons, no books, nothing but unhappy children and lots of messes. Not the day I planned, but a great day for practice. Turns out after a morning of very naughty behavior, Gabe came down with some stomach bug which included lots of messes in his bed. Abby woke up with it this morning and is throwing up and has diarrhea. Such delight! Drew is bored out of his mind  because I'm busy cleaning and washing and Gabe has been sleeping most of the day. Drew has been getting into tons of trouble- not listening and wanting attention. Drew and I sat and cuddled this afternoon to talk about his behavior, he just looked at me and said. "Mom, its just so hard to obey sometimes!" I agree my son, I agree! So, today I've accomplished nothing,  But, I have kept my children alive! I am very en...

"Oh Lord, in the morning,  You hear my voice;  In the morning  I prepare a sacrifice for you  And watch." Psalms 5:3 March 2008 I set three goals - rising early, work out regularly and have frequent and intimate quiet mornings with my Father. I've always struggled with these three areas; at the time they seemed like impossible goals. I started out with a few things I knew worked - Starbucks coffee, a Kay Arthur Bible Study for accountability, and a class at the gym that was led by an instructor. It took a few months to get a good routine, but the perseverance paid off! Thanks to my love for coffee I discovered that going to a place and reading God's word early in the morning prevented me from thinking about all the distractions at home. It also allowed me to get  back right when John left for work, prepare for the kids waking up, and greet them with smiles instead of a sleep coma like grogginess. Aside from a sabbatical while on bed-rest and re...

John had a promising interview today! It was for a 7th grade Math position in Fort Worth which lasted about 4 hours. We had given up hope of him getting any more interviews for this coming teaching year, even the one he landed today had 200 people apply for the one position. That is crazy! Please pray! We've been here so many times that I'm not getting excited, but John really wants this job. It is right up his league, its for a poor school in the heart of Fort Worth - all low income and 90% of the school children are minorities. They are looking for a teacher with a heart for kids, which John has really been praying he would find. He so wants to not just teach, but help change the lives of children. The position comes with a coaching job too which he willingly agreed to take assuming he was offered the job. He had three interviews today and even took a tour and met the head coach. We're suppose to find out late next week. Just in time for our first trip to Oregon. I told J...

After 6 1/2 years of struggling our way through the seemingly endless mounds of Student loans, credit cards, auto loans, medical loans, and that nice mortgage - we had finally reached the top of our mountain called consumer debt. John and I realized the day we married that our battle would be a long and uphill battle - freeing ourselves from the debt of slavery is never an easy process, but was necessary to learn faith and master obediance ! I am so thrilled that we walked together on the journey and have finally overcome the first mountain of consumer debt! We have taken many classes through Crown Financial and listened intently to their radio broadcasts, as well as taken instruction from Dave Ramsey's program - Financial Peace University. God has more to say about how to handle money than any other topic in the bible - God has used people like Dave Ramsey, Larry Burkett , and Howard Dayton to teach Christian and Non Christians how to handle money wisely. God's plan for how we...

Tonight Drew's prayer went like this: "Thank you Jesus for my room, Thank you for the movie that mommy watched with me about Joseph and his dreams. I love movies, maybe mommy will let me watch another one tomorrow? (Said with hands folded, eyes peeking open to see my reaction.) Thank you for my books, for the grouchy lady bug and for mommy who read me 2 stories because she said only 1. Thank you for my mommy and daddy and brother gabe , oh and dog kitty. A...men!

Sunday is the National Day Of Prayer For The Persecuted Church - will you be an intercessor ? Lord God, we pray for a Your All Sufficient Light to illuminate this city, state, country, and nation. We are all lost without You. Please protect those who are persecuted, do not allow us to safely live here in this place and forget about the suffering, the killings, the martyrs who bare the beautiful scars of testing. Lord, give them peace, comfort the hurting and give them courage to "preach the gospel to the Nations." Your Word will not be silenced, for those you have called to take the harder road, give them courage and peace to run this race. Let them be without fear, because "greater is the Lord who is in us, than he who is in the world." As birth pains are screaming all over this world, Lord remind us that Your hand controls all things. May your peace that surpasses all understanding rest on those persecuted tonight. Give them hope and joy, remind them that we do ...

Friends are amazing! I spoke this Thursday at my Mom's group on frugality. My two best friends were priceless. Bethany woke at 5:30 am just to pray for me and Nicole spent her day off driving an hour up to Keller and then helped me with my props. What amazing and wonderful friends I have! I am so very blessed. (Peaceful Mommy & Son Moment) The talk went very well! I've never spoken in front of people for longer than 5 minutes, so to talk for an hour was very intimidating, but the Lord was so gracious! Everything worked just as planned, except my talk went over by about 15-20 minutes! It was great though, the audience really seemed interested and asked some great questions. I also had a game and a 4 minute video clip which broke things up. God is so gracious, I just can't tell you how nervous I was the night before, but when I woke up that morning the nerves were mostly all gone. I'll be posting in pieces my paper on frugality in the next few days. (Speaking of Frien...

Last night was such a unifying experience for me. I thought McCain's concession speech was well spoken and I hope the theme of his message will be adopted by all Americans. We all need to come together - Black or While, Rich or Poor, Democrat or Republican. I am honored to live in a country that has moved beyond the horrible weight of slavery and has elected our first African American President. Though I did not vote for him I commit to pray for his leadership, his family, his visions for our nation, and for godly wisdom. Solomon, the wisest man to ever walk this earth was given the opportunity to have anything he wanted and his response to God was - Wisdom. I believe every Christian out there should commit to pray for all our leaders - especially Barack Obama - that he may rule with wisdom. A nation will prosper when its ruler is mature....” Pray for Maturity. Ecclesiastes. 10:17 When there is moral rot within a nation, its government topples easily; but with honest, sensible lea...

Tonight at bedtime Drew prayed, "Thank You Jesus, for my day Thank you for my mommy and daddy, Thank you that I played at Nana's tonight, and for my bug that I made in school, oh thank you for his wings that fly, thank you for the blinds in my room and the slimy think over there, and for my dresser with all my clothes." Amen

Lately Drew has been enjoying praying aloud. Tonight his sweet prayer went like this, "Thank you Jesus For my Mommy & Daddy And Gabe and Mrs. Bethany. And for this day. Thank you for Mickey's Townhouse, Because Mommy let me watch it today. Thank you for Daddy, He played Lego's with me today. Help me to obey my Mommy & Daddy. Amen! "The Honest Prayer Of a Righteous Man Can Accomplish Much"

A question to ponder from the "Interactive Bible Reading" Q1) What is an area in your life where God is calling you to be obedient? My Response : I am so in awe about how God reiterates his messages to me over and over again when he wants to grab my attention. The area God has really been revealing over and over through sermons, bible readings, and our Home Bible Study group, is the idea of making my life a constant prayer – not just a few 5 minutes here and a prayer or two at meals. My entire being longs to live each day in prayer or communion with my Father. Romans 12:12 says "Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer." Am I wholeheartedly pursuing making my daily life a prayer to God? Our family is trying, our goals in 2008 are to grow closer as a family spiritually and grow closer to the Lord individually, this goal can only be accomplished with constant and fervent prayer; specifically the constant fervent prayers of a mother and wife - ...

Drew loved his first day of school! He walked right in to his classroom and didn't look back - didn't even cry. On Drew's first day he played with paint and made circle art, learned the color red, went to music, ate lunch out of his Thomas lunch pale, met new friends, played in the playground, and went to Spanish class. He also loved resting on his nap mat! Drew chatted my ear off all the way home and on into the afternoon. He was so buzzed from socializing that he wanted to play more with his friends. Alas, in the evening he came down with a fever and his cold/cough became worse. Poor little guy went to bed at 7:00 pm with a decongestant and fever medicine. He woke up feeling much better this morning, but his cough is still raspy and deep. Mommy has her big DR appointment today, please pray I am not dilated and my FFN test comes back negative. My contractions are still fairly controllable , but are more frequent. In fact, all I have to do is think about contractions and I...

"Living...Laughing...Loving... Learning" is the William's Family Motto. Today we tried to laugh as Drew learned that taking a permanent marker to the seats in Daddy's car wasn't the best idea. Permanent, black ink on brown seats appears to be very noticeable. In taking an optimistic look, Daddy can see Drew's artistic flare each day as he gets into his car! John went in yesterday for a series of MRI's and CAT Scans. The doctor injected John with radioactive die and took some pictures of John standing on his head.... literally! The good news - his CAT scan showed no head trauma or brain injuries! No, the accident hurt his neck but they took a CAT Scan of his neck and the brain just so happened to be included. The bad news was given to John last week, he was instructed by his doctor not to work at all - especially on concrete. God has been so good! Our fast last month increased our savings and John has scheduled some easy handy man work with one of his Sou...

For the month of April John and I are fasting, we wanted to see what life, and our checkbook would look like without television, spending money, going to Starbucks, eating out, etc. The first week was awful, but now that we are almost two weeks into the fast some good things are happening - a few more closets are organized, our savings so far total approx. 300.00, Drew & Kitty are enjoying all the extra walks, and John's garage is actually fairly clean! My hunger for sugar has diminished and I am actually finding some fun in making meals with the ingredients I have on hand. So far we have only spent 37.50 in groceries and nothing for eating out. We have saved about 20.00 on gasoline, even with the prices rising! I wish I could say the pounds are falling off too, but it hasn't happened yet. We aren't really fasting from sugar, but trying to eat a lot of organic foods, poultry, nuts, and whole grains. I do have more energy and haven't ingested caffeine for two weeks -...

Lord, grant Drew a strong faith in You, Lord Jesus, and a love, Your love, for God's people everywhere.Oh, I thank You for this precious child; make me pray for him constantly.I ask You Lord, the Glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give Drew spiritual wisdom and insight so that he may grow in his knowledge of You, God. I pray that his heart will be flooded with light so that he can understand the confident hope You have given to those You've called.Make this family your rich and glorious inheritance. I earnestly pray that our family will understand the incredible greatness of Your power for us who believe in You.O, hear the cry of this mother's heart, and, by Your infinite grace, answer her prayer. In the precious name of Jesus, Amen.