Well Good morning, Today I’m going to tackle this post a tad differently. I have my post up and as I go throughout my day I will write what pops into my head and we will see how this works (hehehehe)
Student of the week letter-
As a mom, I seek to encourage my children on a regular basis and in personal ways- some of my kids are very private. Well, our youngest is “student of the week” and each Tuesday the teacher reads a special letter written by the parents. This is a super difficult challenge because other people are reading it and hearing it. I can think of a gazillion great things about each one of our kids BUT either the kids don’t want us mentioning them in public OR they aren’t “public” things. I know some kids don’t get the encouragement their little hearts crave and so this exercise is both good for the parent and the kid. The parents because they need to focus more on the positive and the kid because they need to see that the parent sees more than just an inconvenience. (That just breaks my heart to write that! So the little guy’s letter is sealed in its envelope ready to go and I hope he won’t blush too much!
Happy Accidents.
I was testing out some thoughts on a project for a friend and I tried putting vinyl on a Canvas panel. Well, It didn’t stick well So I fought through the transfer tape process and An idea popped into my head…ACRYLIC PAINT! So I painted over the vinyl and when it was dry I peeled it off. I must confess I picked red and blue and blended them together in the middle and initially I HATED it but after it was dry and I peeled off the vinyl- I decided it was what Bob Ross called a “Happy Accident! ” – And that is pretty much it for this week! How about you what kind of random is going on in your life this week
My Friend Sarah over at SINCERELY ANCHORED wrote this book last year. And it spawned interesting idea. It’s a devotional, It’s dated but it is S-I-M-P-L-E! When I received it in the mail last year I couldn’t wait to start it so….I started in September! I had just Finished Hello Mornings where the author spoke about 3 minute mornings and can I tell you THAT principle changed things for me BUT enough on that for now. I used Sarah’s book in my 3 minute morning routine and boy did I fall in love- but this isn’t a book review (That will come later)
It’s no secret that this month is February and with that comes Valentines day (I know I know insert all the yucky faces and cue the comments about it being only a commercial day and blah blah blah- People this is a no negative zone)
Well Sarah decided (perhaps as she should) to use verses based on love throughout this month- people it took me 6 days to catch on I mean REALLY?)
Anyway through some preaching (thanks hubby) and reading on my own and some circumstances in our world we live in I have been wrestling with some questions.
Now I am not going to share this questions right now with you. but as write over the coming weeks maybe you will begin to see what I have been struggling with.
As I have worked through 6 days of verses based on love I began to ask myself a different question What if we took those verses and applied them to how we love God. HMMMM! What triggered this you might ask, well First Corinthians 13 to start.
Lets start at the very beginning
LOVE IS PATIENT- when we hear this at least for me I immediately apply this to my immediate relationships MY husband and kids, but maybe for others it is your parents, or your…..whatever. But what if we looked at is as showing love to God by being patient with him timing? We so often look at a situation we have been trying to wait patiently on God for- and then one day we just decide enough is enough God needs some help- I’m just gonna give this a nudge in the right direction…..MY direction. Verse 3b says Love does not demand it’s own way! Wowsers!! That has all sorts of implications in our world today! So Many say I love God but I’m still gonna choose……you fill in the blank with a sin of choice…..But when we get to February 28th and the verse says in John 14:15 IF you love me you WILL keep my commandments.
This is just one of the areas we will touch on overs the coming weeks in February ( and one I’m sure will land in March). This isn’t going to be an everyday discussion. It will probably look like every 5 to 7 days depending on our crazy schedules!
Have you ever looks at verses about loving others and put God in that place I mean after all He is ….
the majority of our children were at camp for at least part of the week.
I am at our camper–Alone. It’s actually day four of everyone’s time away. and tomorrow it’s all over when hubby goes to pick up the last two kids at camp and makes the long drive west to pick me up!
This has been a different sort of camp week for me. Usually I come and read and write and write and read . There is usually a lot of writing going on. But over the last few months I have to be honest I have been struggling.
Struggling to know what to write and even how to write. As writers we go through dry spells. Once upon a time I could link a dry spell to not being it’s God’s word, But that was NOT the lease this time. This dry spell was different. So yes I posted two blog posts right at the very beginning of the week BUT that was a book review and just Kinda an easy post, which I love but I have not written a substantial meaty blog post in quite some time. AND I’m not sure why, and ya know what THAT’s ok!
So lets get on with my 5 Random Reflections from this week
Here are the state of the children and their counselors when we dropped them off at camp! They look so happy including the random child who thought it was his job to photo bomb all pictures. How do I know that he said so!
This guy only did a half week of camp, because he already did a full week of special needs camp. He rocked it but he was ready to come home mid-week. Looks like he might just go to regular camp! He has made huge strides this year!
This is old hat for Ladybug. It’s her last year in this age bracket and she turns 12 in less than a week and a half *SIGH*
And this little guy…it was his first year at cam pAnd he had a ball. Minus the fact he over did it on candy and got sick BUT he didn’t have to come home.
2. One thing I didn’t mention above about my week at camp is I almost always bring art supplies of some form. The last time I was here I brought jewelry stuff and this time it was some water colors. For the last coupe of years I have been teaching myself via Youtube videos and the like how to use water colors. Todays break was a 20 minute art Challenge from the Creative Sparks ebook. I had to set a timer and do an art project in 20 minutes. a mama robin I have been watching all week was my inspiration
I have never painted a bird before so that was all new territory
3.Usually I walk away from this week away with a bunch of writing done, and a bunch of reading done. I almost become a writing machine and that didn’t happen. I told hubby about a week ago thatI was considering giving up blogging. For various reasons. But the biggest was that I was not sure where God was directing me. wWe discussed it. and then didn’t mention it again. But I knew in my heart That this week would be a defining week for me and my blog. And then I got to camp and for four days…NOTHING. Not one blessed thing. And then last night a couple of things happened. I started reading a new ebook. and I had a phone conversation. And then I woke up this morning late. and I read some more from that ebook and the wheels started turning. and my heart and mind were flooded with experiences and sights and sounds of 38 years in CHURCH. I didn’t use any specific example because it’s not specific to any one church. Unless you make it a cumulative American Church sort of thing.I have been in churches from Vermont to Utah and two churches half way around the world. It just kinda made sense. Check out that post here.
And then something else happened…I had an IDEA!!
4. For the first time ever I will be having a guest writer every Thursday for what we are gonna call Theology Thursday. So stay tuned. In the next few weeks I will introduce said writer.
5. Another thing that is different for me on this trip is I have this massive list. It’s kinda reminiscent of the concept of a brain dump. It’s a list making technique used to unclog your brain. And in all honestly I think I would really need a milk truck dose of Drano to unclog this think tank of mine! This list contains some pretty crazy stuff. Stuff that books suggested a question my mom journal thing asked that Got my wheels turning but still don’t have an adequate answer for and so on. (OH and things that the speakers said! Ha that promises to be an interesting post for sure!)
When it comes right down to it. I have grown. just not in the usual expected ways.
and lastly there is a big announcement coming in the next week or so. Some already know it, and let’s just stop some rumors before they start:
This post has been three days in the making! No joke. I have had this post open and slowly coming up with what to write about. But as we have been talking about things this week we have been talking about a few things over and over and over again. This post has been born out of our conversations,. Conversations about a certain bucket list we have. We aren’t normal in the terms of bucket lists. Yes we have places we would love to go and see and do BUT we have some odd lists. And this week, the conversation has centered around one in particular. Then this morning I was telling hubby about this strange movie that I listened to. It was weird. And lastly there is the topic as this week has been a week of finishing things I started last year. I will go into this a smidge more in another blog post coming this evening. LET”S JUMP IN!
Bucket Lists.
So yeah I guess you could say we have bucket lists. Like we would love to continue the Trend we started on our honeymoon of visiting presidents homes. Since we have been married we have visited something like 11 or 12 presidents homes. We have visited the Eisenhower’s estate in Gettysburg. Montpelier, (Madison’t home) Ash Lawn (Monroe’s Home). Mount Vernon ( Washington’s home), Monticello (Jefferson’s home) James Buchanans home. The home of both Harrison’s, Home of Woodrow Wilson, Abe Lincoln’s Birth home, Andrew Jackson’s home in Nashville and I am sure I have missed some or two ! Not all of those were done on our honeymoon. Lincolns and Jackson’s were done with very small kids on our family vacation in 2009 to Franklin and Nashville Tennessee and Kentucky.
Another odd little bucket list is battlefields centered around the civil war.. We have been to Gettysburg , Antietam, Appomattox Courthouse and the Canton House in Franklin TN. (out of those Canton house is the CREEPIEST). Even though there aren’t any others on this list to speak o (That we went to see)f we wouldn’t necessarily turn down the opportunity either. (There is this ongoing threat that the hubby and the oldest man child are going to take me back to Gettysburg to read EVERY. SINGLE. MONUMENT. -if you have been to Gettysburg, you know how serious this could be, we may never make it home again!)
But the bucket list we have been discussing all week is concerts. After being to our second Newsboys concert in two years and a Mercy Me concert in October, we are discussing what’s next. There is one man child who wants to see Mandisa (I’m with him). And there is one Man child who wants to see Toby Mac ( I’m with him). and there is a hubby who wants to see Casting Crowns (I’m with him). HMMMM I think I can’t loose! I would then add Francesca Battisstelli., Chris Tomlin, Matthew West and Brandon Heath and Jamie Grace. I’ve been scratching concerts off my list for a LONG time, so these would. be icing on the cake. (oh and since I just got to see the Old Sschool Newsboys- I can now hold out hope for a DC Talk reunion concert ..hint hint hint!!)
Strange Movie
So often times while I am working on house work I will have a movie playing in the background. Yesterday I pulled up PUREFLIX and scrolled through some movies. and I landed on a newly added movie called THE LIST. There are actually two movies called this and I had already listened to the other one. This particular one starts out in colonial times (Remined me a lot of the NATIONAL TREASURE movies. ). It has Christian themes and gets really weird. Basically a young man gets caught up in a secret society/ cult. And there is spiritual warfare BUT they aren’t really forthcoming with info needed to explain what exactly is going on. The focus was on Prayer and breaking free from the grip, but from what? It was just an odd movie, and if you didn’t know what was really being said ( as in an unbeliever or a baby Chirstian). you would be severely confused!
Finishing What I Started.
In the next blog post (Five Minute Friday ). I will be talking about the one word prompt for today : STUCK. And that is exactly how I was feeling from November of 2017 til March of 2018. It didn’t seem to matter what I was doing, I felt like I was dragging a 250 pound weight behind me. And yes I was completely immersed in play season for two of those months but generally I can still manage life along with the Christmas play for church. Well just over the last couple of weeks I feel like I have finally had my head come up above the water. And in the last few weeks I have completed some things I started last year. Like my One Thousand Gifts Study, The Hebrews Study I had been working though and I finished the Lies Young Women Believe study. And I am really on track for finishing this years first Study of Esther and completing the study portions of Hello Mornings (my review book from the beginning of the year).
I also want to finish up the women’s leadership video series that I started last year on Right Now Media.
When these things are all caught up I will begin tackling my rating list for 2018. Let’s be honest I know it’s not all going to happen AND THAT’S OK. The point is to grow, not perfection. But it was really important to me that I finish these things. I want to be a woman who is known for finishing well. Finishing well isn’t a time frame either. It’s not gauged by years but by doing your best with what you have . This is all part of the reason why I evaluate my goals so often because sometimes goals need to be taken off the list. It’s just not what can happen in this moment of time.
Well That’s about it for this week! I hope you have have a wonderful weekend. What are some of your Random Reflections from this week? Share them in the comments below!
So while scrolling through Facebook the other day I came across this meme and since there is snow falling today I thought it might be fitting to share:
“April Showers bring snow plowers”.
There was a huge snow plow plowing through feet of snow. though there are no feet of snow, or inches of snow, I did go to bed to the sound of a snowplow last night salting the roads. and this is what I woke up to this morning….
those little white specks in the air are you guessed it snow. And we have had quite the heavy snow showers this morning. now it’s not sure if it wants to be snow or rain. It’s been doing both. I struggle with the cold and gray of New York. As a girl from Pennsylvania. I am not used to winters like this even after living here for nearly 17 years.
Leave of Absence
This last week I took a leave of absence from the pregnancy center. I love it and my clients, but for the time being I need to deal with smoother things. Somethings good, somethings hard, somethings just a must. I will miss everyone and hope to be back very very very soon.
Let. It. Go.
Our ladies Bible study will be gearing up for it’s next study. We picked the book a few weeks ago Let. It. Go. by Karen Ehman. I have already read the book but I think it is time for a revisit. The subtitle is How to Stop running the show and start walking in Faith. All I can say is DID YA READ MY LAST BLOG POST?
I’m looking forward to diving into this study soon..
I know that’s not very much but it is what it is. I hope you have a spectacular day and if you live where it is warm and sunny go out and enjoy some vitamin D for me
And that is pretty much it for this week! How about you what kind of random is going on in your life this week
