Why?

I am not sure why it seems so difficult to write regular blog posts. Well, other than the fact that I don't really feel like I have all that much to say. Yet, here I am trying once again to entertain.

Things have been going great for our little family. Sweet Girl is 18 months old and as sweet as ever. Sometimes I wish I could clone her and have about 7 more, then she starts to throw a full body tantrum and I change my mind. Oh yes, the full body fits are fun to deal with and take a lot of skill on the parents' side. Not only are you trying to get your kid to stop the tantrum but you are also trying to keep the kid from hurting his or herself by banging their little heads on the floor/table/bed/wall/tub/concrete/you name it. I'm sure I never caused my mom so much trouble, she must have gotten this trait from her daddy. (I'm joking, of course.) Even despite the crazy Toddler Tantrums she is the most precious thing I've ever seen. Not biased at all here.

The past few weeks she has decided she wants to hug and kiss all.the.time. I love it! Her daddy loves it too. I see such sweetness and innocence in her and I hope she will always be that sweet and innocent.

Sweet Man and I made the decision before we even had little girl that we would homeschool her when the time comes. I have been thinking about it alot lately and trying to do a little research online for different curriculums and resources. It really is overwhelming! Now I most likely will not start anything with her until she is 3 or 4, so I have at least a year and half to get my head wrapped around the enormous responsibility this will be. Obviously, things could always change so it is not 100% definite that we will be homeschooling, but it is what we are planning on. If you have taught your children at home or have ever taken time to research the possibility you'll understand where I'm coming from when I say it is overwhelming. There is just so much information out there to weed through. I think, at least to start, what I need is curriculum that includes everything I would need for a year. Now to find a good one for preschool age. Again, I have a year and a half I just really like to be prepared.

So that is a tidbit of what has been on my mind lately. I hope your life is just as peachy.

~Lisa

Monday, Monday

It has been over a year since I worked out in the 'real world', but I still remember Mondays. Especially those Mondays after a nice long weekend. I know some people had today off since New Years day was on Sunday and your Monday will still come... tomorrow. Oh I remember how hard it was to get up those mornings and force myself to get ready and go to work. Then the day just seemed to drag on and on. Of course Monday is always the day that most everything seems to go wrong. It seems that everything just piles up over the weekend and waits for you to start your work day off and then it all falls on your lap. I don't miss 'real world' Mondays.

Mondays are now just any other day for me. I wake up to kiss my sweet husband goodbye as he leaves for work. Then I get to crawl back into my nice warm bed and sleep another hour and a half. I try to be up and about the house by 7:30 so I can get a little time in either cleaning or catching up on computer work before my sweet little one wakes up at 8:30. The funny thing about it is I actually wake up earlier now that I stay home than I did when I had to go to an office to work. I suppose it is that feeling of dread that kept me in bed all those years when I should have been getting ready for work. You know that feeling, I'm sure. It may not be for your job, you might actually love your job! But there is almost always something that we dread facing. Then it was going to work, now it is the pile of dishes in the sink. I really did enjoy working for the most part and I had a wonderful co-worker who I am happy to call my friend (and 2nd mother), but I always felt like something was missing. I don't have that feeling anymore. I feel like I am where I was meant to be and it is wonderful.

I hope your Monday was stress-free and relaxing!

~Lisa

Another Year Gone

Here we go. Another year will quickly be in our past and a new year will be in our present. We tend to look at the New Year as a chance to change things about ourselves and somehow make ourselves better. Things just feel fresh and, well, new. So my hope for you is that if you need to make changes to your life that you will take this opportunity to start new. Make 2012 your year to be the best person you can be. 

~Lisa

stuck

Have you ever been stuck? We all have at one time or another; you know the proverbial "stuck between a hard place and a rock". Sometimes it is unavoidable and sometimes it was entirely our own doing. My sweet daughter has been getting herself physically stuck a lot lately (she is only 16 months). She will see something that she just knows needs to be climbed on or needs to be moved or needs her attention and she will somehow get stuck. The awesome part (for this mommy) is that when she is stuck she cries for help and I can go and save the day! It was this morning when she climbed up into a spot, couldn't figure out how to get down, and started crying for me that I realized how much it reminded me of our relationships with God. She wasn't in any kind of pain, she was only scared.

We spend our lives running around, having fun, getting into things, and then suddenly we are stuck. Through all that "fun" we were having we might have stopped occasionally to acknowledge God, we may have said a prayer, sung a hymn, or attended a worship service. We knew He was there, somewhere, so we were content to live our lives exactly how WE wanted to. But then, we got stuck. Suddenly we need Him. We need Him to get us out of this situation, whatever it may be. We expect Him to drop everything and come running to save us like a mommy drops everything to save her child. We deserve it, right? Don't we? Honestly we don't. Thankfully God loves us anyways, even though we mock Him, abuse Him, ignore Him, and curse Him. He loves us so much that He gave us a way out of sin, He gave for us His Son. This sacrifice is infinitely more important than whatever physical needs you have for it transcends the time we spend on this earth and gives us an opportunity to spend eternity in Heaven. 

Most of us have heard the saying "this too shall pass". Whatever our physical woes, our financial troubles, our emotional turmoil, it will all pass one day. Either we will get through the tough times or we will pass from this physical life. This life and its problems are only temporary. But so are its opportunities. We only have one life to get it right, only one life to live as God desires, only one life to do our best. 

Despite all we say and do that is contrary to God's will, He still desires us to come to Him changed. He still has grace and mercy on our sinful souls. Let us not let this life pass without helping ourselves by becoming Christians and living as God commands. It is time to stop this "me first" mentality and to live for something bigger and eternally more important.

The other morning I was talking with my daughter and asked her if she loves me, she said 'nooooo', then I told her I love her and she responded 'I Know'. Apply this to yourself: Do you love God? God loves you.

~Lisa
Now the important stuff:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, I Pet 3:18

The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, Acts 17:30

And Peter said to them, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:38

And he said to them, Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. Mark 16:15-16

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Titus 2:11-14

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. John 14:15

Sunday

Today was another great day! We have another new brother in Christ, that makes 2 this weekend!! Always wonderful to welcome a new Christian to the fold.

Here is a quick rundown of the day:
I taught sweet girl's Bible class this morning since her regular teacher has lost her voice. My husband preached the sermon this morning and did great as always. We went to lunch with some of the members at Smithfield church of Christ and had fun getting to know them a little bit better. Everyone at Smithfield has been so friendly and we are really enjoying worshiping and working with them all. This evening we had a guest preacher and he did a great job too, then we went out to dinner with some more friends from Smithfield. It is such a blessing to have christian friends we can fellowship with and enjoy ourselves without having to worry about worldy influences.

Sweet girl is fast asleep and I think sweet man is probably getting close to that point too, so I better get myself in bed. Have a wonderful night!

~Lisa

Great Day!

It has been a great day, we have a new brother in Christ! That is what it is all about, isn't it? Loving God and doing His will. Sure we go about our busy lives pretending that our worldly struggles are important, but in the end they aren't. Well, not entirely, I do suppose that how we react to our struggles is important. Anyway, I am continually amazed with how my husband can sit down with someone and freely share the Gospel. I want to be able to do that. I need to be able to do that. I need to know the Scriptures and I need to share them. That is the difficult part for me, the sharing. Not because I don't care, because I do. My problem is I don't always see the opportunities and even when I do I cannot get up enough nerve to take them. Being as reserved as I tend to be makes sharing what needs to be shared hard for me. I hope to change that.

As I said, today was a great day! I got to sleep in for like an hour this morning while my husband took care of our sweet girl (thank you, honey!). Tried to clean up a little around the house and do some laundry in the morning and then went to a baby shower in the afternoon. We are changing some things to the house we are living in, so the house is a bigger wreck than normal. I'm so thankful for family who are willing and able to help with building walls, installing bathtubs, and all the other things. The house is going to look great when we are done with everything.

Have a great night!
~Lisa

Wow

Like so many others, when I started this blog I thought I would write such wonderful posts on a regular basis. Wow, was I ever wrong... So, here I am giving it another try.

It looks like the last post I made was well over a year ago and a lot has changed. Since then we have moved a couple times and have recently settled back into the north Texas area. We absolutely love where we are living now!

My sweet baby girl has grown so much and we are loving every moment with her. She is 15 months old and loves to talk up a storm. I don't know exactly how many words she can say now (way more than 20), when I try to list them out I always forget quite a few. She's definitely a talker.

Well, my plan is to make this a regular occurrence, so we'll see. Hope to see you soon.

~Lisa