I Read Too Much

Last Wednesday, during the Bible study at church, we continued the discussion on How to Spend Time with God .  I know, there are some of you that are rolling your eyes and getting ready to click away from reading this and for that all I can say is, "do as you wish."  There are a few points that really stuck out to me as I went back over the outline tonight; they are: God wants to spend time with us. You cannot be a healthy Christian without it. The purpose of a daily quiet time is to express your love to God and to receive guidance from Him. Set a time and place and stick to it. There are going to be distractions; be prepared. It takes 3 weeks for you to become familiar with something new and an additional 3 weeks for it to become part of your lifestyle. You may be wondering, that is if you are still with me at this point, why on earth is she bringing this up now.  Well, last week really convicted me.  I mean, the Lord gives me 24 hours in a day,...

The process actually started last week.  First, with the supply shopping then with the clothes shopping.  Now, I do realize they didn't "need" clothes, but I had coupons and well, I always like having something special to wear on big days and thought they would too. It wasn't until last night we decided to organize the school supplies.  So there we were at 7:45pm going through stacks of notebooks, folders, pencils, erasers, markers, crayons, glue, etc deciding what was going into which backpack.  It concluded with me having  two bags of stuff to carry too.  Once we finally got through that exercise, which would have gone better had I not thrown out the supply list in the first place, it was time for the bedtime routine.  However, much to my chagrin over an hour had passed and the window of opportunity had passed for showers to be had so I made the "wise" decision to let them just take showers in the morning.  (Don't parent...

I learned a lot as I went back to school today.  Yes, here I am 33 years old and have gone back to school.  OK, I admit, I have been doing this for the better part of my adult life.  It is rather difficult to get a degree once you have already gotten married and had kids plus work a full time and part time job.  That said, I do have an Associates in Business; which, for the most part, is not worth anything more than a High School diploma in some industries; or rather most non-entry level positions in most industries.  Let's face it, with out that magical piece of paper that shows you know how to spend obscene amounts of money and dedicate scads of time doing it, you are pretty much going no where.  Now, there are exceptions to that and many people are content living in the exception or they are grandfathered into the old way of doing things.  But I am not going to sit here and split hairs and peeve many people off.  Now back to where I starte...

Think back to your childhood and the friends that you had.  Are those same people in your life today?  Do you often wonder where they are or even who they are?  What would you say or do if given the chance to meet up with them again?  That is what I want to share today. I have recently, and by that I mean in the past year or so, been given the opportunity to meet up and spend time with some fantastic women from my childhood.  OK, I'm going to use that term loosely since it was more like high school, but heaven's it's been 15+ years since that time.  Regardless, what I have learned from all of that is that these ladies are beautiful, and I don't mean from what is on the outside, though yes, they are beautiful there too, but from what is on the inside. There is something about growing into an adult along side a person and watching them transform into their grown-up versions of themselves; something almost magical.  I have a few very, very close ...

Trust is a strong word.  Trust is a hard thing to do.  Trust. The action of putting full faith into someone and giving someone full access to your heart, soul and mind.  Oh there are different ways of looking at it.  For instance I can trust the overpass I travel over twice everyday will not collapse, I can trust that sun and water will make my garden grow and I can trust that what goes up must come down.  However, trust in another person is not something I believe in nor have faith in.  Now I know I sound like a pessimist, but years of being led astray, lied to, given the once over, talked about and set up have taken that ability from me.  I know that I control it and that I have the power to look past all that ails, but at some point there comes that line that once crossed makes going back less than an easy option.  You may be thinking why this; why now?  Well yesterday I shared that I would reveal my anti-trust proces...

Some people like to watch tv, others like to customize their Pandora play lists, yet others like to exercise; what is my favorite this to do when boredom sets in? WRITE!  It is such a simple 5 letter word; write.  Webster describes it as " to  compose and produce in words or characters duly set down"; while I describe it simply as "therapy". Anyway, to my point - yes I have one.  Today, after what seemed like a month long sabbatical, I went to our Wednesday night Bible study and wouldn't you know it the subject was on the one thing that God and I have been sparring about for weeks, meh - more like months, and that is how to spend time with God. Have you ever known the right thing to do, even desperately wanted to do it, made all the plans in the world to follow out on those intentions only to end up doing exactly the opposite or not quite that thing?  GOOD!  Me too!  Now doesn't it feel good to know you aren't the only person in the world...

We returned from our whirlwind vacation yesterday afternoon.  I would be lying to you if I didn't say that I loved every minute of it. So here is a brief synopsis of the trip.  Yes, I know it reads like a log book but it is what it is.  Enjoy! 08.03.11 - 2:00ish leave the house for the final time (yes, we circled back a couple of times!) - 7:00ish we made it to the Cumberland Road Travel Plaza [250 miles into the trip there abouts] (I don't know which state IN or IL) here we had our picnic dinner and the girls got out and ran around - by design this was to wear them out so we could get in a lot of miles while they slept - 8:20PM (I think CST) we passed the Arch in St Louis - it was sunset and absolutely beautiful - followed by hours of random night driving ~ big cities passed = Rolla & Joplin, MO and Tulsa & Oklahoma City, OK. 08.04.11 - 6:30AM (CST) we entered Texas - 8:00ish we arrived at Siti & Gidi's house (for those who don't know th...

I am at a loss for what to do concerning my weight.  However, I have all these grand ideas.  For instance, I have started eating healthier - at least in my mind's eye I have.  I have increased my fresh fruits and veggies by more than double for a couple of weeks...yes, I know!  I have been power walking on average 3 days a week and have cut my diet soda intake by half (no I didn't switch to regular).  And what do I get for all these changes?  All of which I have been doing for a month now?  Easy, I gained 7 pounds.  So what is one to do? I am at a complete and total loss, oh wait, I already said that! Outside of starving myself and finding some sort of scary OTC remedy what is there?   What brought all this about you ask?  Simple, I just saw the pictures of my besties and me in our swim suits and wouldn't you know it I look the worst.  Oh, come on now, not many would dare to argue with me.  I would post one of ...