out of commission....

209. helpful sister who watched our kids while i took the hubs to get his vascectomy, not easy with a son who bumps heads with his aunti

Let me back up, last night my sister and I went to the ceramic lodge for ladies night, we picked up appetizers before of chips and ranch dip and chips and salsa. We were the only ones who showed up, but it was nice to paint coffee cups wtih her :)

Now to today.....I woke up feeling pretty icky, my tummy was very unsettled, I went to the bathroom and thought it would be the end of it and instead have spent the entire day feeling icky and not eating much--so this would not be as big of a deal for mom to be out of commission when dad is home, but dad had surgery and is not allowed to do really anything so sick mom has to take care of the kids. God did bless us though with a long nap for K and a wonderfully well behaved T who watched movies while mom and dad slept in the living room, he got 4 poker chips :)

Started reading 1,000 gifts in the waiting room and almost cried right there, only read 1 chapter, but excited to keep going with it, I only had like 6 pages left of the "Hold onto your Kids" book and was worried I would read them too quickly and have to twittle my thumbs so i went on to start this one--also borrowed from my friend G-thanks G!

God has a familiar way of making me sit down and rest, the last time I did this I was sick for a day and spent the whole day in bed, and the time before that too....ok God I get it I need to stop going, going, going all the time I will try to stop and rest without having to feel sick to do so, and I won't be having that dip either at least for a very long time!

To count my blessings today:
210: long nap for K= me getting to sleep longer before having to do the mom work of dinner and bed time routine
211. awesome son that let us sleep while he watched mulan II
212. not throwing up at all
213. hubby's surgery went well
214. kids went down easy for us
215. not matter how hard a day may seem, it could be so much much much worse, I've said it before and I'll keep reminding myself (or rather God will remind me) I can walk, talk, eat, sleep, worship as I please, hear, see, smell, taste, feel, run, and so many many more things! God takes care of our every need and gives us too many wants to count!
216. saying yes to God, His way doesn't always make sense, but He knows what He is doing!

us celebrating a friends birthday, i sure do love this man!

our smart tanner man doing some work as he calls it, learning on his computer

this is robbie from our church home group, K loves him and he is one pretty cool dude

so sweet, a daddy and his little girl.....yah again I say God knows what He is doing!

205. Starting anew each and every day, today's good start, praise God for that!

Last night I had a good talk with my hubby and I asked for us to go to bed early (which was like 10:20---as of lately that is early) I woke up at 5:45 and almost just turned my alarm off and went back to bed and I fought the urge and hopped up and got ready, I went to the gym and worked out for a half hour then came home said good bye to my hubs, showered, did my prayer journal (including making up for the day I missed, read my Bible--all done before my son got up at 7 so yes a very good start.

I started getting tougher with my coffee, I now take a few sips of black coffee (which I am sorry, but it tastes horrible to me) then when I add creamer i can add much less and it tastes amazing! saving money, saving calories, and getting tough....love it!

After talking with my son for a bit I decided to catch up on my good friend G's blog since she posted 3 new ones yesterday and I had the privledge of showing the cool pics to Tanner--including 1 with him in it, which he found pretty cool. Then I played the video she posted from on the Rock ministries about the Phillippines (where they are going). I didn't even think about it and when T asked what it was I explained it was where our friends were going "his boys" included. He got upset at first and said "They can't go fora  long time, But I will miss them, i will be sad" I told him about how they were going to love the people and show them God's love, to feed them, etc. He saw that the kids didn't have shoes on the video and asked what happened to their shoes? I explained that they didn't have the money for shoes and a lot of them are hungry. He told me he was hungry and asked for breakfast, I told him to think about having that feeling he has in his tummy almost all the time and he said it wouldn't be fun. Then bless his precious heart he responded to me saying "we have so much food and there are people who don't have hardly any" with this: "well we should go there and give them some of our food." I said that it would be awesome to go there someday and feed people and teach them about Jesus wouldn't it? he agreed! wow talk about a great start to our day, my son's good heart showing in his actions, just as I have prayed they would, furthermore I noticed it, which is probably a bigger issue most of the time.

206. free haircuts, had to show an image of what T will look like when he is old, probably a little more wrinkley I'd imagine :)
207. visiting daddy's work as pictured first, T loves to see what daddy does and chat with all his coworkers!
208. daddy going on rides with his boy at sea world, special memories!

prayer journal

202. sharing coffee with my sissy, especially when coupled with laughs at an old favorite show or movie!
203. Walking, especially with my sissy or hubby, sunshine and fresh air is lovely and so is the knowledge of calories burned and working out your heart, a most important muscle...

204. Text messages saying good morning from my amazing hubby, even though I would much prefer that he be here instead of training.

Last night I started my prayer journal, thanks goes out again to my good friend G for yet another great idea! I started with 25 prayers for my husband that another blogger posted and of course G shared with me. I put 5 prayers for each day of the week (mon-fri) and then I made a list of all the people/things i want to be sure to pray for and started filling in each day, praying for different things on different days, or some on multiple days. I am not even close to being done and am already seeing a need for a better way of going about this. I like the idea of the prayer binder--so you can add pages in whenever needed and move things around. I'm excited to be praying with intention, God says we should pray and we should pray specifically, which is much easier for me to do when its written down.

I have my pictures posted from my camera, but have not yet got them edited so I am still reaching for pictures to post on my blogs, if I were as awesome as G I could just take a pic and post it immediately and it would be relevant to what I am writing about....someday.....

Hope everyone is having a great Saturday and God bless!

I realized this would have gone better with my fall post, but it is still fall and I just love this pic of my little little from last fall, I've said it before and I'm saying it again there is just no denying our amazing creator God when we look upon our precious gifts we call our children :) Lord I thank you for my 2 precious gifts they are wonderfully and perfectly made!

stuff

198. Gretchen, Not sure if I have listed her as a gift yet, but she very much is to me, she speaks wisdom and Biblical truths and loves like Christ, I am inspired by her and very thankful for the blessing that is her friendship! Thanks G

We had a group meeting yesterday and it was a little uncomfortable if I am being honest, the kids were kinda extra crazy--maybe they picked up on the tension with the adults, it was palpable. We discussed the scripture on storing your treasure in heaven rather than here on earth and there was discussion about giving away stuff verses getting stuff and justifying having stuff, etc. There was discussion about how we can't judge the heart of a person because of their stuff, which is true, but I think that if we could share more of what we are blessed with there would be less people going hungry, homeless, etc.

I wish that I was better at recalling scripture to join in the dicussion more actively. I am encouraged by the strength of G to speak her heart and mind.

Great day at church though earlier that day, convicting for sure, about loving others like God the Father loves God the Son (Jesus) as well as God the Holy Spirit--the relationship between the members of the trinity is one of complete selfless love-putting the other above self. What does that look like in your relationships, your relationship to God, to your spouse, your kids, friends, neighbors, strangers....Do you love with the expectation of getting love, of your love being appreciated, or do you do it regardless of how it is received or if it is recipricated? I know that for me personally I have relationships that are not selfless, they have expectations tied to my love and it was a great reminder of the error of my ways, thanks God for the gentle spanking :)

199. Gentle reminders from God
200. feeling convicted, yet encouraged at the same time

201. The ones I love!

fall smells, colors, my favorite season!...and cleansing

191. slightly cooler weather
192. Friends across the country taking coupon tips from you and seeing success in their savings-makes all the clipping worth it!
193. Man named Russell....the name Russell is pretty awesome by the way....he said I in no way looked old enough to be my sister's mom and that I looked good......he is awesome! thanks Russell
194. Meeting new people at the park who share a love for Christ!
195. Meeting encouraging homeschool families at the park that boost my self-esteem in the matter of homeschooling my children well enough

196. Fall, so pretty, makes me think of pumpkin pie spice creamer (favorite of all time) and pumpkins and Thanksgiving dinner and sweaters (not so much so in Texas) and jeans and boots and scarves and hot cidar and warmth....its all sooooo good to me!

I'm currently roasting vegetables in my oven (smells amazing) to make a vegetable soups for my sister and I to start our cleanse/fast tomorrow.

Why? get toxins and other garbage build up out of my body, like hitting refresh on the computer right :) and to spend time in communion with God reading my Bible, praying more. Also because I want to eat to live and not live to eat (I have issues with my relationship to food--hand to mouth addiction, etc.) and I want to push myself, you never know what you are capable of until you try--if you had asked me even a few months ago to fast or have nothing but liquids for days I would have ran the other way, but I know that I may not be capable, but God is and He will use this to glorify Him and to draw closer--I have done short fasts recently and they have proved God is faithful even when I am not so here it goes, cheers to pureed soup and juices/smoothies....

Side note, My stress level has been high since planning for my sissy to come here and clearly I am not handling my stress well so maybe this will help me in that as well and if any readers think of it, maybe you could pray for me to not stress as well, my tummy and face (zits--yuck i know) woulod appreciate it greatly!

Happy Fall!

197. My little man monkeying around on a sweet branch that looks like a rope swing!