One of THOSE days...

Today was just one of those days....I had my highly anticipated doctors appointments....I know that sounds weird, but they were just highly anticipated because I wanted to get an answer to what was going on. Well, I got some good news, but the bad news was it didn't really solve the issue either... I just now know some things it is not. So of course, they would like me to go to another specialist....after some thought....NOPE!, not gonna do it!  Instead I am going to try an appointment at an eastern medicine doctor and other than that am just going to pray and ask for prayer.....afterall our God is the great healer right? (and to be honest, my problem isn't anything painful, just not normal at all) And other than that it's just been one of those days where I just feel like I had gotten worn down over time with multiple things and I just kinda cracked a little bit today. I know I will be fine and what makes me more upset is that I am upset! hahaha, make sense!? I know that I just have to give things to God and just simply live day to day, but it's hard to do that sometimes. I know what things I need to change in my life, but as we all know change is hard and it takes time. Sometimes I lose sight of what is really important and allow things to upset me that really shouldn't. My main goal right now is just to spend more time reading God's word and praying because I believe that will make things more clear for me. Alright, I am really tired and worn out so I am going to end this one and will make the next one hopefully more upbeat :o) sorry.
May God our Father give you grace and peace.

Things I have loved.....

Things I have loved about Christmas break so far......
1. Learning how to use the trolley system here in Scottsdale....I will admit learning has not been the most seemingly smooth learning curve, but I still like it. :o) (& I think it's really cool that it's free)
2. Spending extra time with my kids and seeing more of their sense of humor and silly antics. --Malaki is on a kick of wanting to pick out his own shoes & socks which he loves to do unmatched ones and I just don't care so I let him go out like that & he is a really great big brother to Jaylee--- Jaylee sings & dances & is just hilarious & also simply the sweetest thing I could ever imagine!)
3. Getting to spend time with one of my sisters and realize how much we still have in common even though from the outside we may seem different.
4. Spending more time with Floyd & beginning out new book together.
5. Purging more things from the house.....I might actually like purging things as much as I like purchasing them....hmmmmm.
6. Eating good food!!! I went out to a few places while Kim was here and then also have made some good food at the house. :o)
7. Having time to just relax....get in some more walks, runs, and watch some T.V.

Things I have not loved over break....
1. I must admit with all this extra time I think I got a little bit lazy.
2. I am having some physical/medical kind of issues.--(pls. pray for that-dr. appt. next Tues.)

I know I have been slacking on this blog majorly! But I promise sometime within the next couple days I will write a real one. :o)
May God our Father give you grace & peace.

Christmas Break begins....

I am very excited that today marks the start of my Christmas break. I didn't finish everything I needed to at school so I will still need to stop back in to do some things, but at least it will be at my leisure and I can take the kids with me too because they love to go to Mommy's work. Tomorrow my sister Kim comes which I am pretty excited for since she is the only family I will see over my Christmas break. I am a little nervous though because I have been having some lower abdominal cramps the last couple of days.....(I don't think I mentioned before, but I didn't have some lady troubles about a month or so back and did find that I have a cyst on my ovary that has to be looked at again the first week of Jan.)...but anyways the cramping hurts fairly bad and I am afraid it may me the cyst will burst or something....I dunno. But if this cyst has any consideration for me it will wait to do what it needs to do after my sister leaves so that I can have fun with her. :o) On a way seperate note I joined this practical saver online sight that helps who you where the best sales are for groceries and what coupons you can use, etc... Well anyways....I typically spend about $120 on all groceries (including pull-ups, cleaning supplies, & toiletries) I really wanted to trim this down, so goal #1 is to get it down to $100 a week & ultimately I would like to get it down to $80 a week. The last two weeks I have gotten to the $100 goal. I do the bulk of my shopping at Frys and always look at the percent I save....typically if I got a 30% I was happy, last week I got a 38% and today I got a 41%!woohoo! So we will see how things continue, but I think I am getting better and this whole grocery shopping thing. Well I am off to do some more cleaning, but I will try to write more on this blog over break....no promises though :o)
May God our Father give you grace and peace.

Still thankful after Thanksgiving....

I am sure that's still allowed....to be thankful after Thanksgiving...right!? ;o) Well one thing I was particularly thankful for by Mon. evening was to be able to eat!!!! For almost 5 days I was not able to eat much & what I did eat was a very bad idea due to me being very sick. Anyone who knows me knows that I just really love food. Although I didn't even really have an appetite it still bothered me to see other people enjoying food. Even while waiting my turn at the Walgreens clinic last weekend (with major stomach pains) a girl was chomping on some snack mix behind me and I was sooo jealous! So anyways.....I am now so thankful that I can simply eat again! It came at the best time too because students have started bringing in lots of holiday treats for the teachers. :o) Cue the music...."it's the most wonderful time....of the year! :o) It was however pretty funny when the nurse practitioner asked me what kinds of things I had tried to eat recently and I had to be honest that I had tried to eat a donut & then a leftover piece of pizza.....let's just say she shook her head a lot at me and then explained the BRAT diet to me....which helped over the next day and a half while I finished recovering. :o) AND....what a small world...the nurse practitioner's nephew was an RA of mine during the Summer Honors program I went to when I was 17. weird.
Soooo....I have been continuing to read my power of a praying wife & holy cow is there so much stuff I should be praying for all the time! I have been missing a whole bunch of stuff until now! yeesh! I don't know why someone didn't tell me sooner :o) Just kidding, people probably did, I just didn't listen. I am also just finishing Revelations & whoa! Talk about a creepy book right now! Anybody else think so? I think that's about the scariest thing you could read cuz it's REAL!!! But NEways...things are good....I missed church last week due to sickness & am excited to go back next Sunday!
This Sat. is a Christmas party with some of my girl friends. I was supposed to find a red dress for it which didn't happen for multiple reasons....BUT I did at least buy a lacey black skirt to go with a red shirt I already had so I will be somewhat festive. Perhaps I will remember to post a pic next week. I have pretty much my whole outfit picked out, but REALLY wish I had some cute black boots to go with it instead of the black shoes I currently have laying out with it. I am just soooo picky with boots and have searched high and low and CANNOT find black boots that I consider both cute and affordable in my size!blah! Well it's way late so I gotta go to bed! Hope you enjoyed the randomness that was tonight's post. :o)
May God our Father give you grace and peace.

what to blog about....

So I have been an absent blogger again.....not because I didn't have time, but more so because I didn't know what to write. I've been going through some "life" things that could provide for various discussions on my feelings and new realizations, but it's another one of those situations where I don't feel like I can expose much without also involving other peoples' personal business. What I can say is that I have learned that there are many more things in my life than I realized, that I really have no power over other than the power of prayer. I have always prayed, but to be honest with you I never really thought it did much....I felt of it more as a formality & I felt like God was just gonna do whatever he had preplanned whether I prayed or not. Well through my experiences and my wonderful book I have been reading I no longer feel this way. I am going to make praying a large priority in my life now because I believe so strongly in it. I am also thinking I may still do my prayer walk & a prayer journal because sometimes I feel like I would like to write my words down to pull more out. Another issue that has been swirling around in my head is also something I cannot specifically write because I don't want to expose anyone or hurt anyone's feelings, but I would still appreciate prayer. When I was growing up at our church people would sometimes have "unspoken" prayer requests....so people would know to pray that God's hand would be at work in their lives where they needed it even if they did not know specifically what they were praying for. Soooo....that's what I am saying.....I have an unspoken prayer request.  :o).....
On a seperate note....I had a great Thanksgiving weekend full of relaxation, food, family/friends, & good deals shopping. :o) Also happy to say I have less than 3 weeks until my Christmas break starts! That is all!
May God our Father give you grace and peace.

Witnessing.

few examples of definitions from dictionary.com:
a person or thing that affords evidence.

a person who gives testimony.

 

Simply hearing the word witnessing can make many believers uncomfortable. Why? Well in my case it's because it's one thing to personlly believe in something, another thing to want to tell people about it, and a whole other thing to feel confident that I would be able to answer any questions that someone may have for me while I'm telling them about Christ. In the past I would have normally rather eaten a few rocks than have to witness to someone because I was so afraid of what they would think of me. I didn't want people to think I was a freak. Now, I would love to share Christ with others, but still feel a little unsure of how to go about it. I don't want to offend others, but I also do not want to minimize anything about Christ. (does that make sense?) As I have previously mentioned, I also need to beef up on some of my knowledge and Bible references. The question came up in Bible study about how we are to witness to others. It's hard to say how, but we should be ready when opportunities present themselves. One thing my pastor mentioned is that the way we live our every day lives should be a testimony and a witness to others. I really, really want my life to be a good testimony and witness for Christ and I often think about it. I think I have already changed the way I handle myself in different situations and I even find myself much less bothered by things that used to really bother me.I know there is a lot more I can do, but for me it is very beneficial to remind myself that I am a witness for Christ every day that I am living on earth.

"For wherever your treasure is....

there the desires of your heart will be also." Luke 12:34
I love this verse even though it's one that can often be convicting for me. It's convicting because another saying that goes along with this verse is that where your mind wanders is where your heart is. When your mind wanders where does it most often go? It shows you if you are focused on earthly things or are you focused on God and his will for you? I wish I could say my mind always wanders to Godly things, but I would be totally lying. My mind often wanders to earthly desires and it often disgusts me when I actually think about it. I am hoping that as I spend more time in the word and in prayer God will reveal to me what it is that he wants most of me and I can focus myself on that.
On a seperate note....I head to the Dr. tomorrow morning, hoping all goes well....been having some issues. Felt better today though after prayer with the pastor's wife yesterday. And I am going to leave you all with another verse I read today.....(comforting knowing that there is one thing that is constant)...Revelation 1:8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega-the beginning and the end. I am the on who is, who always was, and who is still to come-the Almighty One."