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Responding to God in TrialsJohn Hever has been taking us through a series at H2O titled Life Lessons. Part 5, Responding to God in Trials, stuck it to me in the most personal way. My notes from John's teaching are as follows: "One of the greatest effects of the gospel message is that, in a horribly tragic and fallen world, the gospel invites and enables us to enter difficulty... with hope" - John Hever
Psalm 119:92 - If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. Let's Say Thanks!The mission of Let's Say Thanks is to provide a way for individuals across the country to recognize U.S. troops stationed overseas. By submitting a message through this site you will send a free personalized postcard greeting to deployed servicemen and women. It only took me a few seconds to look through the cards and sentiments to send a service person my thanks. Please take a few seconds right now and do the same! My GuestbookI'd love to hear from you! Just add a comment below. I check this page often and I read all my messages. If you sign here, I will come and visit your space. Please make sure your space settings are set to "Public" if you want people like me to be able to see your space and write back to you. Go to Settings/Permissions to set who can visit your space. I look forward to hearing from you! Information JunkieGuilty as charged. Team HoytAn absolutely fascinating story of a father/son team competing together in Ironman triathalons was posted today by techy at AboutLife. I love how techy summarized at the end...
We have a Dad who goes to even more extreme levels.. Lets put our faith in him, and follow him on whatever adventure he may send us. Stamina - from the MOM-E-Mail, August 7, 2006There's an e-mail story that lands in my inbox every few months about a man who comes home from work to a messy house. The children are still in their pajamas, there are toys everywhere, food isn't put away and dirty dishes are still on the kitchen table. He finds his wife sitting calmly in bed reading a book. When he asks what happened she replies, "You ask me every day when you come home, what I did that day, today I didn't do it." This story resonates well with me because I find it to be so true. Our work as mothers is never done. Laundry is never fully caught up. No matter how often we clean the kitchen, in a few hours there will be dirty dishes again. Being a mom requires an enormous amount of self-discipline and stamina to keep doing the same tasks over and over again. Each of us is hand-picked by God to care for the precious people in our homes. Daily chores allow us the opportunity to show our love through our actions. It's easier to view a "special" act as a loving one, like when I take the extra time to make my husband's favorite meal. But it's also picking up the dirty socks, washing the dishes and every other little daily act that shows our love. And although it may sometimes seem, we are not defined by all the things that we do, but by our love. By Jill Arnold, MOPS Area Coordinator No Pain, No GainEvers and Lois Ding write one of my very favorite blogs. While I can identify with their immediate circumstance of raising young children, I appreciate most their effort to look at everything through the lens of the Holy Spirit. In their most recent post, Lois considers the one of God's purposes for her life: refining her character to become more like his Son. He just happens to be using her daily circumstances with little ones. I can identify. 25 Questions1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, find line 4 and write what it says. “…voluntary control elimination. This means that true bladder…” (from Potty Training 1-2-3) 2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What can you touch? My desk lamp 3. What is the last thing you watched on TV? Part of a “How it’s Made” show on glue. Joel was watching it with Jason. 4. Without looking, guess what time it is. 8:45 PM 5. Now look at the clock. What is the actual time? 8:57 PM 6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear? Fish tank water filter, a great CD - America The Beautiful: Songs and Hymns from the Amderican Soul 7. When did you last step outside? What were you doing? After dinner, taking stuff to the compost pile 8. Before you started this survey, what did you look at? Xanga 9. What are you wearing? Grey tank top and a green shorts 10. Did you dream last night? Yes, but I don’t remember what it was about 11. When did you last laugh? Playing with my kids before their bedtime 12. What is on the walls of the room you are in? Train pictures, nautical maps, clock 13. Seen anything weird lately? Pretty much just usual stuff 14. What do you think of this quiz? ok 15. What is the last film you saw? Pride & Prejudice (the old mini-series one) 16. If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy? Major mission funding, perhaps fund a local home for severely retarded adults w/o government help, set some aside for the kids future, help my siblings get started in life, keep enough on hand to travel around the world (mainly to Poland) as often as possible 17. Tell me something about you that I don’t know. hmmmm.......I've never had a cavity. 18. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do? Get Christians to work together in love to reach the world around them 19. Do you like to dance? No, I feel so clumsy! 20. Comment to George W. Bush: Please keep seeking God’s approval and not man’s. 21. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her? Cora –A Full Heart 22. Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him? Jason - Healer 23. Would you ever consider living abroad? yep 24. What do you want God to say to you when you reach the pearly gate? "Welcome Home, my good and faithful servant. I’ve been looking forward to this day since I created you!” 25. 3 people who you would like to do this quiz in THEIR blog: Gretchen, Megan, Roz
Where's My Porridge?Baby Bear goes downstairs and sits in his small chair at the table, he looks into his small bowl. It is empty. "Who's been eating my porridge?!!," he squeaks. Papa Bear arrives at the big table and sits in his big chair. He looks into his big bowl, and it is also empty. "Who's been eating my Porridge?!!," he roars. Momma Bear puts her head through the serving hatch from the kitchen and yells, "For Pete's sake, how many times do we have to go through this? "It was Momma Bear who got up first, it was Momma Bear who woke everyone in the house, it was Momma Bear who made the coffee, it was Momma Bear who unloaded the dishwasher from last night, and put everything away, it was Momma Bear who went out in the cold early morning air to fetch the newspaper, it was Momma Bear who set the table, it was Momma Bear who put the cat out, cleaned the litter box, and filled the cat's water and food dish, and, now that you've decided to drag your sorry bear-butts downstairs, and grace Momma Bear's kitchen with your grumpy presence, listen good, cause I'm only going to say this one more time... "I HAVEN'T MADE THE PORRIDGE YET!!"
Thanks, GCFL!
Free trees to Orange Co residents!This coming Saturday, July 15, Orange County residents can receive two free 3-gallon native trees through the Streetscape Adopt-a-tree program between 9:00 AM and 12:00 noon at Bear Creek Park. Trees are available first come, first serve, so arrive early!
Caffeinated DissonanceA new stumbling block opened just down the street: Starbucks.
I am not usually a big fru-fru coffee drinker. Usually the blacker the better for me. But I'm not against the occasional Carmel Macciato either. Oooh - just looked up the nutritional info (250 calories, 9 grams of fat). Ouch. Maybe I'll take that into consideration a little more often...
Honestly, the calories aren't the thing that bothers me most.
It's driving up in my mini-SUV, ordering a $3.89 grande drink, paying by credit card, then rolling out from the overhang with my steaming cuppa' joe only to pass a homeless man dripping in the rain. What do I do with that?
I know there are a lot of reasons he could be homeless. Probably some wrong choices, maybe a little bad luck. Maybe mental health issues. And there are lots of places that offer assistance. Churches, missions, shelters, even the government for crying out loud! And don't I deserve an occasional indulgence? After all, I try to be a good steward of the finances entrusted to me, don't make a lot of extra or rash purchases. And besides I'm tired from a long day with two little ones. Wouldn't a little sweet caffeinated pick-me-up be alright once in a while?
I know the answers to a lot of these questions. But tonight there was just a little bit of dissonance in my heart as I drove by that man. I think the Lord is asking me to search my heat here. I want to have His heart. Blogging StyleI tend to think that I need to write a book everyday to keep things interesting here. However as I read other blogs I realize that most people don’t have the time to write a book either. So, what to post? Some ideas:
Any more ideas? I think I’ll run with this for a while. HALT - a repost from my old blogEven though I had very few actual posts on My Father's Daughter this was one of my favorites. I am mainly posting it here for my own reminder.
I'm going to shamelessly paste someone else's thoughts here. Not that I'm taking credit. This comes from my MOPS (Mothers of PreSchoolers) e-newsletter. This week was excellent, excellent stuff. HALT Kathy Dye, Area Coordinator A whiny day. You know the kind. When everything is met with a whine. "Why do I have to eat my carrots?" "When can we go to town?" "How come I have to pick up my toys?" "I don't wanna!" "I don't need a nap!" "It's miiiiiiiiiine!" I think I am going to lose my mind! I just want to shout out, "What's the matter with you? Why are you so whiny?" Then I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror, "why" this and "how come" that? What's the matter with ME? Oh no, now I'm whining!! I read once that you should meet "whiners" head-on with the acronym HALT. H-A-L-T standing for Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired. Hungry? Angry? Lonely? Tired? Four conditions that can lead to the whines. Four conditions that can hit the very young, the very old and the in-between. Four conditions that are often relatively easy to fix. So the next time you come nose to nose (or knees to nose) with a whiner, think HALT and see if you can put a halt to the whining. My personal favorite for a cure? A nap, of course. If not for the whiner, then for me! Busy weekThe central Florida population grew by three this week, at least, three that I know of. Three of my friends delivered precious little ones over the past 7 days and I'm so excited! There's nothing like new life to remind us how good our God is! And even though babies are great, I think new mommies are the most beautiful women around....
Congratulations ladies!
Success Worth Having"There are many kinds of success in life worth having. It is exceedingly interesting and attractive to be a successful business man, or railroad man, or farmer, or a successful lawyer, or doctor, or a writer, or a president, or a ranchman, or the colonel of a fighting regiment, or to kill grizzly bears and lions. But for unflagging interest and enjoyment, a household of children, if things go reasonably well, certainly makes all other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison. It may be true that he travels farthest who travels alone; but the goal thus reached is not worth reaching." - Teddy Roosevelt
Happy Fathers Day, Joel! I love you! And there was great rejoicing... On May 23, Mayor Dyer joined IKEA for the retailer’s announcement of plans to build a store in Orlando. IKEA, the world’s leading home furnishings retailer, plans to start construction later this summer, with an anticipated opening in Fall 2007. The 310,000 square-foot IKEA Orlando will be built on 22 acres off Eastgate Drive, south of Conroy Road, at the eastern end of The Mall of Millenia Missionary BlogsI finally had Joel show me how to utilize the RSS feeds available on many websites and blogs. Nice. Now, instead of having to open each individual site to see if it contains any new content, updated content automatically appears through my reader in an outlook folder - woohoo!
(I'm sure I totally botched the explanation of RSS stuff - probably used all the wrong terminology - but that's what the web is for. Check out WiseGeek for more info. And, Honey, if I'm completely off base, maybe you could post a comment here that clarifies things for folks.)
One of my new favorite feeds is from Missionary Blogs. They have blogs from missionaries all over the world so every day I get to read a wide variety of posts from men and women serving the Lord around the world. So very interesting.
My favorite Missionary Blog today: The Cassidys in Japan
Enjoy!
Starting overI'm pretty new to blogging and this is already my third site... at least.
Welcome, Xanga folks! Welcome, Blogger friends!
Why MSN Spaces? One word: Continuity
My sweet hubby moved our family site to MSN Spaces so I could easily upload pictures for our friends and family. I had to go through Joel to do it before (way to complicated and tech-like) and that created a major bottleneck. I mean, taking any time away from out limited “alone” time just to update a website together was not real high on the priority list. So, now I can do all the updating I want whenever I find time (probably during the kids naps or late at night), and not take away from the few minutes I get to be with Joel.
So since our family site is here, I thought, Why not just get it over with and move my personal site here too? I guess they could be one and the same, but in other ways, it’s sort of nice to have a separate grown-up space just for me. Don’t worry – there will be lots of kiddo activity over on our family site.
No guarantees on how frequently I’ll work on this site. Probably less often then putting up cute kid pics at the family site. But I’ll try not to be a total slacker here either.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Ann |
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