The Beat Goes On.....

and on and on and on.....

Just when you think life is going to get back to normal....another explosion of activity (not the normal explosion that is my life...new explosions) encompasses us (me) this week. I did have plans for a nice quiet day at home...doing school, making dessert for bible study tonight, and getting the house picked up....BUT NNNOOOOOO!!! The day started of with a bang...and it looks like the rest of the week will be that way also....of course the light at the end of my particular "tunnel" or week, is that I get to go to Medford again and see my wonderful friends!! WOOHOOO!!!
Again, I struggle for quiet time...and again, will not be denied!! I am clinging to His word...and in particular:
Psalm 16:11 You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
I am so thankful for HIS guidance, HIS joy and HIS pleasures forevermore!! I am so thankful that when I am weak...HE is strong...He is my strength and HIS joy is my strength...I just need to remember to keep every thought captive into the obedience of Christ...THEN I have HIS joy and in turn HIS strength!
I love the Lord SSSOOO MUCH!!!!
Have a wonderfully blessed day!

FINALLY!!

Man, it just seems like forever that I have been able to get on here and blog. I guess that gives you some kind of indication of how busy our lives have been for the past couple of weeks.
Well, I went to Stockton to spend a week with my sister and her family. We had a very nice time, they through a little surprise party for Noah since his birthday was coming up...he LOVED it!! We made it home, only to be bombarded with a hugely busy week...and I think today is the first day this whole week that I don't have to leave the house, and can try to get the housework caught up. WHEW!!
God has been good to us through it all. I love His peace...I covet His peace and I am so thankful to have His peace. I know that as busy as I am, if I did not have the peace of the Lord, I would lose my mind....it's not like there is much left to lose! ;-) I am still learning to stop and have some sort of quiet time with HIM...I guess I should not be surprised the the thing that brought me so much joy and peace a couple of weeks ago (finding quiet time and the value of it...) would be the primary target of my enemy, he certainly does not want me to take that quiet time and draw near to the Lord...he would much rather my focus be somewhere else, anywhere else, good or bad, as long as it is not on the Lord. Well, greater is He who is in me, than he who is in the world...and I am not going down without a fight. I will find my ways to have my quiet time, my veg out with God time...even if it means I have to wait until all my little chickadee's are in bed, and I am alone in my room at night before Erik comes to bed....if that is what my quiet time has to be...so be it...I'll take it!
Hope you are all having a great week and looking forward to a great weekend!
Have a wonderfully blessed day!

Good Times

Just a quick note...hopefully pictures later...
We (Me, Maggie, Noah, and my daughter-in-law Sarah) are all in Stockton visiting my sister and her family. We are having a great time. Yesterday, just us girls, Me, Brandy and Sarah all took a day trip into San Francisco. I very unrealistically thought it would be not too bad as far as the amount of people that would be there...but it was PACKED!! And then, being the brain children we all are, we decided to leave the Pier and Wharf at 5:00 and head to the Bay Bridge! NEVER HEAD TO THE BAY BRIDGE AT 5:00 p.m.!!!! We had a great time though.
I am so thankful that God is giving us such a nice time. I am loving spending the time with my nieces and nephews....this is the first whole week trip Sarah and I have taken together, and I am loving spending this time with her, my kids are having a great time...the only "bad" part is that our husbands are still home...working like dogs, and getting a bit stressed out...please pray for them...I don't know about Little Erik, but my Erik could have the best time ever, and still stress out if I am gone for a week...I love that he loves me...I am so thankful that God put us together...I think I am starting to ramble on now....so I will just end with my title....GOOD TIMES!!
Have a wonderfully blessed day!

Overtime

It's funny...well, not funny funny, but you know....how the enemy ALWAYS tries to suck away the joy and peace that God gives us. He has been real good with the "overtime" right now. Tomorrow, I leave with my two little ones and my daughter-in-law, down to my sister's in Stockton...and today has been stressful. I am so thankful He reminded me who HE is in my life and who I am in HIS life, last weekend....because it's those things that I can draw from when the battle seems tough. This is a joyous time for me....I got to spend an amazing weekend last weekend with some amazing ladies....and I get to spend the next week with more amazing people....Sarah, Maggie, Noah....my sister Brandy, her husband Jeff and all my nieces and nephews. I am SOO excited!!
So, even in this stressful day, with my enemy trying so hard to dislocate me....I am in awe of how much my God loves me and how much I love HIM, and He takes the stress and carries it for me, and I can just go about the business of being excited!!!
I am so thankful HE IS RISEN!!
Have a wonderfully blessed day!

Times: They are a Changing

I know that probably every parent feels this way, and it does not matter how much you hear it from other parents, but MAN time goes by fast with your kids! Sometimes, it feels like eternity, but then, that little baby boy you had in a little delivery room in North Carolina all of the sudden becomes a young man. He is getting ready to turn 17, which hits me the realization, we only have a little over a year left with him. As I previously posted, he has gotten his license, because God loves him, he is about to get his first vehicle (which could NOT be a more perfect truck for him), and yesterday.....yesterday waxed me VERY nostalgic. Yesterday I sat in the Army recruiters office with my little baby boy for an hour and a half and watched him sign papers to get the ball rolling for him to join up when he turns 17 (in two-ish weeks). The flood of confusion washing over me was overwhelming. Isn't this my firstborn son, who when he was six months old, we suddenly found ourselves just him and me against the world? Isn't this the little boy who used to sit in my front yard and talk out loud to Jesus? Isn't this the little boy who could weave the most fantastic tales about his day (when he was younger)...so fantastic, you almost believed him? Isn't this the little boy, who was the first real person to steal a bit of my heart away from me, and it will forever be his? YES....I have to say to my self, yes, this is still him, but now he is my young man, who runs chainsaws, clears brush, plants tree's, would help anybody with any manual labor job needed, he drives, he works, and very soon....he will be a soldier. That is when this eternity of parenthood slaps you in the face and says....NNNOOOO....you do not have them forever, they WILL grow up and make lives for themselves, and all you can do is sit back in love and watch what God has done in his life, and hope that he relies on God, for the rest of his life.
Have a wonderfully blessed day.

Retreat and Friends

Well, the retreat was wonderful. Below is a picture of all of us cabin-mates, except, somehow we did now get Tawny in the pic, so I added the one of her and I below it, and somehow I never got a picture of Jackie, but she was there in our room too. It was such a joy seeing old friends again....And making AMAZING new friends...Getting to know the newer old friends even better...

We had a blast. It is SO amazing to be in the presence of the Lord. There was good food, good fellowship, GREAT quiet time, wonderful testimonies...great weather. I don't think I could have asked for a better time, personally. I really felt like the Lord "confirmed" some things to me, and reminded me of some things I have allowed myself to forget....and I am so thankful to have made friends that I really do love quite deeply. I had to fight back the tears when I pulled away from the van full of most of them. To me, such a deep connection was made, I thank God He allows those connections in our lives. There really is not much more to say about the retreat....HE was there, HE was healing, HE was confirming, HE forged new and deeper friendships, what more could we have asked for?

Have a wonderfully blessed day!!

My Observation in the Silence

Tomorrow I will write more about the retreat...but today...today I am going to enter the poem that the Lord gave me in my quiet time with Him. He is truly amazing!

I hear the silence
and in it, peace
I feel the wind
and in it, comfort
I feel the sun
and in it feel the warmth of the Son
wrapping me in His love
I hear the ocean
and in it, Your power
I hear birds
and in them, the song of joy
I see the tree's, the lake, the grass
and in them the tender love of Your handiwork
the beauty, the splendor, the majesty
I sit in awe
of this girl You have created
more beauty, more splendor, more majesty than these
that is what You see
I sit in wonder
of how that can be possible

But then,
I hear the peace of Your silence
feel the comfort of Your wind
the warmth of Your Son
hear the power of Your ocean
the birds singing their joy
my eyes behold your creation
and I know

I know
You are not just my God
I know
You are not just my Savior
I know
You are my Abba Daddy
And I,
I am Daddy's little girl

Retreat

I am getting more and more excited about the upcoming retreat. I am living in great expectation of what God has for all of us who are going to be there. I love the fellowship, the teaching, but most of all, I LOVE the Lord's presence!!
I am working like a busy little beaver, trying to get everything done...laundry, shopping, etc...and all the while, there is this stirring in my soul....
I KNOW, it will be an amazing weekend......and it will have nothing to do with "us" and everything to do with the Lord....
I just thank You and praise You, Jesus for all you are doing in preparation for and in anticipation of this weekend.
WOOOHOOO!!!
Have a wonderfully blessed day!!