Stronger

Lots of stuff going on lately and lots going thru my head but this has been my motto!  With God's help, I will be stronger!!!!!!!



Train up your child....

Proverbs 22:6  Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

This scripture has brought on a whole new meaning recently to me.  I have really been reflecting on how we are raising our children.  If I am doing everything I know to do to teach them about Christ and the plan of salvation that they too one day might take that step for themselves and walk in all Truth...  We recently started evening devotions with our children and it is wonderful!  We are letting Corbyn do the reading and involving him in the discussion.  What does the scripture mean to him?  How can it change his life?  And so on... Love it!  The other night when we said our prayers before bed, he prayed that God would give him the Holy Ghost one day and help him to do good!  I had to fight back tears!  It is amazing the things they pick up on and pay attention to that we don't even realize!  Today I had to take him to an ortho appt before lunch and on the way we got into a conversation about God and what it means to make heaven our home, what our part is to make sure we make it there.  I brought up the scripture about "...to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin".  And he knew that it means if he knows he is supposed to do something or not do something and does the opposite, he is sinning.  There was so much more to the conversation but it was awesome!  I love and cherish those moments!  Like light bulbs are going off and I am telling myself, "see, what you are doing does matter and he does get it!"  Just a wonderful and proud Mom moment!

Catching up

Whew, where has March went!!!!!!!!!!  It seemed to just have flown right on by!  But I am so enjoying the lovely sunny weather today!  It is beautiful out! 

There really hasn’t been much to post about lately…  Let me try and recount this past month’s events.    So the first weekend as I mentioned previously, we got away for the night/day for our anniversary.  It was wonderful!  Once you are married with children, you really cherish the time you and your spouse has together, just the two of you.  The next weekend we were at my mom’s the whole weekend.  On Thursday my husband bought an older pickup truck from someone his mom works with.  They had bought it brand new 18 years ago and then approx 3-4 years ago it started giving them some trouble so they parked it and hadn’t touched it since.  Don’t get me wrong, there is some rust and rough spots but for the most part it is a very decent truck for that old!  So that weekend hubby and bro in law went thru it.  Spark plugs, oil change, new tire, new brakes and lines,etc and got it running!  He was so happy!  Corbyn was too.  He thinks it is cool his dad has a truck now, he just isn’t fond of the rust but Andy is hoping to paint it later this year.  His parents paint and restore classic cars so all he would need to do is buy the paint.  So we will see!  The weekend of the 19^th we had no plans!  Yeah!  I kept my 7 mos old niece Friday night and Saturday, we had breakfast at Steak and Shake and ended up running into some of my husband’s family that lives in the area that we had never met!  That was neat!  Then we were just home!  The weather was awesome that weekend as well!  Last weekend we had a fellowship meeting at one of our church’s in Ohio.  We had a great service and fellowship!   (Hubby preached a good message on being “Fully Persuaded” in our walk with Jesus Christ.)  This weekend, once again we are doing NOTHING!!!!!!  I am so siked.  I am actually wanting to tear into the house and do some mega cleaning if possible.  Hopefully I can check some things off my list! 

So there you have it!  Our eventful March that went by way too quickly!  Next looking into April…

1. Shipshewana day with my dad and step-mom next weekend
2. Flying to Washington the next weekend to visit my sister and brother that lives out there
3. No plans as of now for the 23^rd
4. Fellowship meeting at our home church on the 30^th .  I take care of the kitchen so that means, delegating dishes and making sure everything runs smoothly.

My big concern and the thing I am stressing over right now is the Washington trip!  I am so excited but at the same time so nervous.  Neither the children or I have ever flown!  We are flying at night and our first layover is 28 min!!!!  Yikes!  Also, I am traveling with 2 children so it is a little more work than if it was just me.  Thankfully Jocelyn is not 2 yet so we didn’t have to purchase a ticket for her but that means she is in my lap the whole flight!  Ugh!  I know how church services go and that isn’t even sitting the whole time!  Oh well,… I am sure it will all be fine and go smooth. (I pray!)  I am just excited to see my sister and brother and their families!  If any of you have advise as far as the flying for the first time thing, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!  I am taking any and all suggestions!

Hope everyone had a wonderful March and God Bless!

ABC ME

Age: 28
Bed Size: King
Chore You Hate: folding and putting away laundry
Dogs: Siberian Husky named Joey

Essential Start of Your Day: Shower (despretly want to make reading and praying a must instead of when it works)
Favorite Color: toss up between Purple and John Deere Green (yes I am a farm girl!)
Gold or Silver: Silver (or white gold)
Height: 5'2"

Instruments I Play: None but always thought the violin looked interesting
Job Title: HR Admin Assistant (Mother and Wife too!)

Kids: 2
Live: Indiana

Mom's Name: Nelda Jane
Nicknames: Steph
Overnight Hospital Stays: only to have babies
Pet Peeve: toilet seat up
Quote From a Movie: “Baby, baby, baby….” or  "You think you can do these things ______ but you just can't!" (Any guesses?)
Right or Left Handed: right handed
Siblings: 2 sisters and 2 brothers
Time You Wake Up: 5 am
Underwear: Cotton bikinis

Veggie You Dislike: Steamed/cooked spinach
What Makes You Run Late: Pushing snooze, kids that won’t MOVE
X-Rays You Have Had: Teeth, Ultrasounds

Yummy Food You Make: hmmmm…. Not really sure.  Everyone loves my Tater Tot Casserole

Zoo Animal You Like Best: Dolphins

Heavy Hearts

Kind of how I am feeling this week.  First I hear of the horrible devastations that Japan is going thru since last Friday.  Horrible.  It is so hard to see the pictures and videos.  My heart aches and goes out to all of them.  But then my mind goes back to the Bible.  Prophesy is being fulfilled.

1. Matthew 24:7
   For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
2. Mark 13:8  
   For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
3. Luke 21:11  
   And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

 

Don’t get me wrong, reading this and seeing what is going on in the world today, scares the flesh.  Scared I am not doing everything I know to do to make Heaven my home.  Like I have pointed out in previous posts, James 4:17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.  Ephesians 5:27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.  If we are in sin, we are not spotless, therefore will not make it.  Am I doing everything God is calling me to do?  Am I reading, praying, and fasting enough?  Am I being a light in this dark and dying world? Am I doing all I know to do to lead the lost to Christ?    To be honest, I think I have a lot of room for improvement.  I am not perfect, obviously.  I make mistakes, we all do.  Jesus Christ doesn’t ask us to be perfect, He just wants us to take up our cross and follow Him.  To die out to sin and the old flesh by repentance and water baptism in the name of Jesus Christ.  To rebuke the devil daily and live our lives for Him according to the scriptures.  Paul said in I Corinthians 15, I die daily.  We must choose daily to die out to sin, to rebuke it and to follow Him.

This might be overwhelming and I apologize, I am just very passionate at the moment and don’t mean to be confusing.  If you need clarification of anything or our beliefs, please don’t hesitate to contact me.  I am no Bible scholar and have learned everything I know in the recent years.  I just know time is short, He is coming quickly and if we are not ready to meet Him we will not make it.  There are no second chances on the Judgment day.

The second thing that has me feeling gloomy is I found out today that one of my coworkers lost their battle to cancer today.  It is a very somber day here at work and has me thinking on my walk that much more.  We don’t know the day or hour that the Lord is coming for HIS CHURCH.  Nor do we know when our final breath here on earth will be.  But I know the ONE who does, do you KNOW him?

God Bless each and every one of you!

Menu Plan

Tuesday – Baked Potato Bar (we didn’t get to this last week)

Wednesday –

            Breakfast: french toast bake, bacon, yogurt

            Dinner: Chicken n rice in the crock-pot

Thursday-Saturday – will be at mom’s while Andy works on his “new” truck there.  But I am planning on helping with some of the meals.  Thinking of Straw-Hats one of the days.  Let me know if you need clarification on that one!  Ha-ha!

Sunday –

Lunch: Tatar Tot Casserole, bread

Dinner: Leftovers, whatever…

Monday – White Chicken Chili, corn bread

Tuesday – brats, salad

Weekend Recap

We had a really good weekend!  Right before I left work on Friday, my sister called and wanted to meet us for lunch.  Since we had no deadlines, we decided to take her up on it!  If was really nice to just sit and chat awhile!  Then we went home grabbed our bags and the kids stuff, dropped Jocelyn off at my wonderful sister-in-law’s and chatted there for awhile!  It was equally nice!  Then off to Ft. Wayne we went!  First we went thru the Botanical Gardens.  It was neat.  There was a lot that wasn’t in bloom but there was still quite a bit that was blooming.  Very refreshing to see color and life! J After that we were hungry for ice cream so we headed to Stone Cold Creamery.  OMG!!!!!!  That stuff is awesome and I am sure so bad for you!  But we just sat there and talked.  Might I add that we did a lot of that this weekend and it was wonderful?  While I love my children dearly, it is so nice to be able to finish my sentence with out pausing to correct someone or getting interrupted, etc…  After ice cream we went to Family Christian Bookstore!  Hubby and I could live in that store!  We love it!  We got each of us a book and the children each a book plus a couple other items.  Then we headed to Wal-Mart to grab some snacks and drinks for the room.  Finally we were on our way to the room!  It was so nice!  We ended up getting a whirlpool suite and it was beautiful!  They had chocolates in champagne flutes and sparkling apple cider in the fridge waiting on us!  It was so peaceful!  Also we didn’t grab dinner before because the room service for our hotel was Applebee’s so we just ordered room service, a first for me!!!!!!  And we relaxed!!!!!!!  Wonderful!!!!  Something I think every married couple needs to do once in awhile, especially if you have children!  It is almost like recharging a battery!!!!!!  Anyway, we slept in the next morning and then went down to the lobby for our “free” breakfast that was included in our package.  They had a little restaurant and we ordered omelets and had biscuits and gravy, yogurt, pastries, oatmeal bar, etc….  It was really nice, especially being free!  Then we went back to the room, finished getting ready and packed up and headed out.  From there we stopped by Goodwill and I got some pants and shorts to make 4 toddler skirts out of for Jocelyn and her friends at camp.  I will post pics to let you know how I do it.  Then we headed to Burlington’s where we got the kids new church clothes and hubby new shoes and shirts.  Then we were off to the Home and Garden show!  It was really cool.  I remember going when I was a kid but haven’t been there since.  The only complaint I had was they have now started walking around with beer carts!  L  We don’t drink or go to places that serve it so it was quite a surprise to us!  I was really disappointed.  I guess since I don’t drink, I just don’t understand why you need to have beer at a home and garden show?  Especially for the price they were selling it at?  I don’t know, I guess it was just a big turn off but we both still had fun looking at all the cool things that we could do, both inside and outside our home!  Lots of dreaming!!!!!!! LOL!  After that we went to Don Hall’s Prime Rib House.  Yummmmm!!!!!!  It had been a long time since I had Prime Rib.  It was very good.  And then it was off to get the kiddos!  (Whom I missed very much!)

Needless to say, it was a much needed restful weekend!  Hope everyone else enjoyed theirs as well!  This week hubby is getting a “new” old truck to fix up and tinker with!  He is so pumped and excited!  Corbyn is equally excited.  So that will be our weekend but it should be enjoyable!