special Memories

I love to hear my dad sing and play the guitar. Growing up he would pull it out and we had our favoirtes: Grandma's Feather Bed, You can a Line, I'll Get a Pole, Lady, etc. I always wanted to marry a guy that could play the guitar, and have my children grow up with the same memories. Well, I did, and Izzy loves to hear Joel play. We sing Suggle Puppy, Jesus loves Me, and any others. Tuesday night we were out at my parents, and we were getting ready to leave, but before we did, I asked dad to play some guitar for Izzy. It was so precious to me to see my dad playing songs that I grew up on and my son enjoying them, and dancing to them. It almost made me cry. We have a CD of my dad singing, which I try to play for Izzy so that he will grow up knowing and loving not only the voice that I love but the man behind it. I love you dad.

The Dish Ordeal

And let me tell you, it was an ordeal. I didn't mean for it to be an ordeal but it turned into one. I have been wanting to sell my set of dishes for awhile now, and have tried to sell them on Craigslist for awhile with no takers. We had one bite, that just turned into a little nibble, but nothing came of it. That was really disappointing, but I am glad now that it didn't happen. I decided to keep most of my dishes and just go back to Pottery Barn and get the "salad" plate that is the size of a regular dinner plate. (That is what I didn't like about my dishes...that the dinner plate was so huge!) We had some extra money that we were using for household stuff and for any extra dishes that we might need, and so it worked out perfectly for me to be able to get the smaller plate. We are now just going  to sell 11 - 4 piece place settings. But the reason why it turned into such an ordeal is because I asked Joel's opinion. Usually that helps, but this time his opinion was different than what I wanted, so after buying some different dishes...that Joel wanted, I went back and exchanged them for the ones that actually matched my set. But not without hashing it out and making sure that he wasn't going to be mad at me. Anyway, it ended last night with many tears and me balling about how I was trying to make the best decision and keep everyone happy. I flet like a fool, and was convicted about making such a big deal about earthly stuff. Anyway, the ordeal is over, I have the dishes...now I just need some red cerel bowls, and sell my other dishes!!!

Goodnight Moon

I am sure that all of you have heard of the book Goodnight Moon. It is one of my favorites especially since my mom read it to us. So now I get to read it to my son. But...there is a special way to read it. There are certain voice inflections that must be followed while reading the list of things to say goodnight to. The first time Joel read it, it just didn't sound right. It almost ruined the book for me. So now I am teaching him how to read it the right way, and he is being such a good sport. I am so gald that he understand or at least humors me in this area. Tonight he was reading it to Israel, and he looked up and asked "am I doing it right?" I told him he was getting better. I know it sounds silly, but I am sure that all of you have something like this, whether it is a book that needs to be read a certain way or something else. What is one of your peculiar or special request?

Enjoying life

I am enjoying my life very much right now. I tend to live my life always for the next thing. It makes for a pretty frustrating, and discontent life. I try to say I am content, but if I am truthful with myself, I am not. Recently the Lord was so sweet to me and told me that what I want is not necessarily bad, or bad for me, but that I needed to just wait and trust Him, and enjoy my life as it is right now. I have been so happy since I resigned myself to the Lord's will. I am excited to see where He leads us as I wait for Him.

Nothing is as simple as it may first appear. We first learned that when we first bought our house and realized that what we thought would be an easy updating task, was quite a bit more involved than that. Two years later we decided to fix up the bathroom just a little bit more. The toilet paper roll was in a retarted place and we weren't using it anyway. There was an old gas hearter on the wall that we weren't using either and both of these things were just collecting dust and looking ugly. So I decided that they must come out and to simplify the covering up process I thought we could just put up some beadboard and...Tada!!!

It kind of went like that but then the painting started. I had some trim paint left over from when we did the rest of our trim so I pulled that out and started painting. Not soon after, I realized that this paint was turning out a lot brighter white than what was all over the house. Then I realized that this was a different brand of white paint than what we had origanally started with. And since I had all the window trim to paint all of the house and our new front door, I was going to have to paint all of the trim again. You might say "YOU ARE CRAZY!!" No one will notice and you are just being picky. Well, maybe, but this is my house, I can notice the difference. It seems like a daunting task, and I hope that I will never have to do this again, even though I know probably in 5 years I will, but we will not think about that right now. Right now, I am trying to just finish this "little" project so that I can move on!

We'll see!

Today Joel and I got our Baltic Amber bead necklaces. Go here to read about them. We have seen the wonders that it has done for our son, and so now we are going to try them. We are hoping that they will help with our allergies so that we don't have to spend the big bucks every month getting suppliments. I will keep you posted!

Standing Ovation

I love standing ovations. There is something about them that gives me chills. I think it is because the only reason you give a standing ovation is when someone as performed in a superb way that calls for more than just clapping. When I was performing in operas when I was younger It thrilled me to look out into the audience and see them all standing. I could barely hold it in. I am sure we all felt honored. When I stand for the Hallelujah chorus I get all choked up and can feel the excitment and joy swelling up inside of me.

Last week I was doing my bible study and this chapter was on joy. I was really enjoying it (haha) because I feel like I need a little more joy in my life especially through the trials God sends my way. I can to the second day and the passage in Philipians was being talked about and how Paul counted everything as rubbish for the joy of know Christ. Then we looked at Stephen, another man who responded to earthly circumstances with a heavenly response. in Acts 7:56 it says " I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." If you will remember, when Chirst ascended into heaven he SAT down at the right hand of God. Here Stephen was being stoned for his belief in Christ, and as he looked to heaven he saw Christ STANDING at the right hand of God. OOOH, it gave me chills! Christ was giving him a standing ovation for how Stephen was responding and the example that he was setting for the many that would follow in their footsteps.

I want to live my life in such a way that Christ is so please that he cannot but stand to his feet because he is swelling with pride! Lord may I life my life worthy of the gospel of Christ. I hope that you who read this blog know that you are precious in the sight of God and that He loved you so much as to send His son to earth to die on the cross, bearing your shame and sin so that you can have a personal relationship with Him and one day spend eternity with Him. We must deny ourselves, repent from our sins and follow Him!