A few weeks ago, I reached a turning point in my attitude about our new life here in Alabama. I had been feeling lonely and a bit discontent, and I was spending quite a bit of time thinking about those feelings. I knew we had made a good decision in moving here, but I kept comparing everything new with what I was used to in Louisiana. One day, I was thinking about these things, and I realized that I really needed to let them go and turn them over to the Lord. I needed to choose to be content with my current situation, and trust God to give me what I needed. The following Sunday, the sermon mentioned something similar, and our Bible class started a new series on contentment. What a coincidence!?!
The following Wednesday night, the Ladies Bible Class I attended studied 1 Samuel 16. The chapter begins with a conversation between the Lord and Samuel. God tells Samuel to stop mourning for Saul, because his time of being king was coming to an end. God had chosen a new king, and he wanted Samuel to move on and anoint David. Samuel was afraid, but God provided what he needed. This passage really convicted me that I had been looking so much to the past, that I could not see the future. It was ok for me to miss my friends and our church, but I needed to watch and see what new things that God was ready to do in my life. I made a decision to be content right where I was, and to stop comparing everything with my "Louisiana Life."
It is amazing what a difference that simple choice made in me. I have felt so much more peace. I have started to really enjoy our new church and make friends there. I have started to be fed spiritually more than I have in a long time. I still miss my wonderful Louisiana friends and I always will, but that is not consuming my thoughts. God has blessed me with peace and contentment, and I am so thankful. I need to remember this lesson, because I am sure that I will need to learn it again!
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Where did January go?
January is almost over, and I am way behind in my blogging. It is time for some catching up!
Here goes...
--The Stuarts (good friends from Baton Rouge) came for a weekend visit. It was so good to see some Louisiana faces! Our four children and their three boys had a great time playing. We visited three different playgrounds in two days! Their oldest, Jadon, celebrated his sixth birthday while he was here. Tanya and I went for a walk each day (I had a hard time keeping up with her!) and Mark and Troy talked non-stop. The visit could not have gone any better. I am so thankful for our time together!
-- Mark and I started an eight week marriage class called Dynamic Marriage. I had seen in advertised at church, but I had doubted that we could take it because of our lack of babysitting (it is on Sunday afternoons). I prayed that God would make a way, and within five minutes of my prayer, the leader of the class told me that someone was going to arrange the babysitting for the couples taking the class. Mark and I have really enjoyed the class. It has been great for our marriage and it has also allowed us to get to know some really neat people at the same time. It has been a great blessing!
-- We had some Alabama friends over for dinner a couple of times this month. Both couples were friends that Mark knew from his college days that now live in the area. Having them over has helped our new place to feel more like home!
-- We have started participating in a Homeschool Science Coop on Thursdays. The moms take turns teaching a science lesson. Isaac and Bailey really enjoyed doing experiments with magnets in their first class. They also loved playing with their new friends in the gym after class. I am thankful for the opportunity to visit with the other moms.
-- We travelled to Georgia on Friday to visit with a neat family that we knew from our church in Baton Rouge. They moved to Georgia about a year and a half ago. They have four boys and three acres with woods, so the children had a great time playing in the "great outdoors". Olivia and Anna Grace got to gather some eggs from the chickens, which thrilled their hearts. Olivia said her favorite part of the day was jumping on "Mr. Keith's jumpoline". Isaac got to play on a Wii for the first time (he now thinks he needs one), and Bailey was asking, "When can we go back to Georgia?" before we were even home. Elizabeth spent time teaching me about organic food and how to grind my own wheat. I am now the proud owner of a Nutrimill grain mill, and three different types of wheat. That will be the subject of another post after I get it out of the box! We all enjoyed our trip to Georgia!
-- My new "hobby" is playing "The Grocery Game." It is a website that helps you match up grocery sales with coupons that have come in the paper in the past couple of months. It allows you to find some incredible deals on groceries, and stock up on things that are on sale. I am doing the trial membership, and so far, I am enjoying it. Saving money is like a game for me, and I am having fun playing it!
So, that sums up some of the high spots of our month. Life is settling down, and we are feeling more and more at home. God is so good to us!
Here goes...
--The Stuarts (good friends from Baton Rouge) came for a weekend visit. It was so good to see some Louisiana faces! Our four children and their three boys had a great time playing. We visited three different playgrounds in two days! Their oldest, Jadon, celebrated his sixth birthday while he was here. Tanya and I went for a walk each day (I had a hard time keeping up with her!) and Mark and Troy talked non-stop. The visit could not have gone any better. I am so thankful for our time together!
-- Mark and I started an eight week marriage class called Dynamic Marriage. I had seen in advertised at church, but I had doubted that we could take it because of our lack of babysitting (it is on Sunday afternoons). I prayed that God would make a way, and within five minutes of my prayer, the leader of the class told me that someone was going to arrange the babysitting for the couples taking the class. Mark and I have really enjoyed the class. It has been great for our marriage and it has also allowed us to get to know some really neat people at the same time. It has been a great blessing!
-- We had some Alabama friends over for dinner a couple of times this month. Both couples were friends that Mark knew from his college days that now live in the area. Having them over has helped our new place to feel more like home!
-- We have started participating in a Homeschool Science Coop on Thursdays. The moms take turns teaching a science lesson. Isaac and Bailey really enjoyed doing experiments with magnets in their first class. They also loved playing with their new friends in the gym after class. I am thankful for the opportunity to visit with the other moms.
-- We travelled to Georgia on Friday to visit with a neat family that we knew from our church in Baton Rouge. They moved to Georgia about a year and a half ago. They have four boys and three acres with woods, so the children had a great time playing in the "great outdoors". Olivia and Anna Grace got to gather some eggs from the chickens, which thrilled their hearts. Olivia said her favorite part of the day was jumping on "Mr. Keith's jumpoline". Isaac got to play on a Wii for the first time (he now thinks he needs one), and Bailey was asking, "When can we go back to Georgia?" before we were even home. Elizabeth spent time teaching me about organic food and how to grind my own wheat. I am now the proud owner of a Nutrimill grain mill, and three different types of wheat. That will be the subject of another post after I get it out of the box! We all enjoyed our trip to Georgia!
-- My new "hobby" is playing "The Grocery Game." It is a website that helps you match up grocery sales with coupons that have come in the paper in the past couple of months. It allows you to find some incredible deals on groceries, and stock up on things that are on sale. I am doing the trial membership, and so far, I am enjoying it. Saving money is like a game for me, and I am having fun playing it!
So, that sums up some of the high spots of our month. Life is settling down, and we are feeling more and more at home. God is so good to us!
Friday, January 4, 2008
Working like a mad woman!
This has been my work around the house week. For some reason, I have been obsessed! We are not doing school this week (winter break!!), so I decided that I wanted to get a lot of little projects around the house accomplished. I started the week by unpacking from Christmas and putting away all of our Christmas gifts and decorations. I moved on to cleaning on my closet (still a work in progress) and hanging pictures. Yesterday I cleaned out the garage. We have been planning on buying a freezer, so I am hoping to buy it this weekend as a reward for a clean garage! I think that we can fit both vehicles in now, which is something we never achieved in our old house. We will see how long it lasts!
Today I painted Olivia and Anna Grace's room. When Mark and I went on our house hunting trip, Olivia told me she wanted a house with a big purple room for her. I have been promising to paint her room since we moved in. She has been telling everyone at church that I am going to do it, so I decided that it was about time that I made good on my promise. The children were very patient with me today (they watched a lot of television!). I was able to put a coat of purple primer on the walls before lunch and then paint during quiet time. It is a very light shade of purple, and it almost looks like pink (don't tell Olivia!). I quit after one coat of paint. I know it could use another coat, but I just don't have it in me to think about that right now!
Our French doors were installed this week --- yippee! Our guest room/office (also known as a formal living room) now has a little more privacy. We are ready for all of our friends to come visit now (shameless hinting!).
I have made a "little" husband to do list for Mark. Most of it involves drilling, which is a skill I have not acquired yet (much to Mark's relief). I am hoping he will have time to do a few items on the list this weekend.
We had an Ethernet connection put in behind our television today (thanks for the suggestion Jimmy!). Mark's tivo is officially up and running. He is a happy man!
We are going to start school again on Monday, so I will be back to just doing "normal" housework. My next big project, painting the guest room, will have to wait a few weeks. I am going to try to get everything clean this weekend (the house seems to fall apart when I am working on a project). I can focus so much better in a clean house!
Today I painted Olivia and Anna Grace's room. When Mark and I went on our house hunting trip, Olivia told me she wanted a house with a big purple room for her. I have been promising to paint her room since we moved in. She has been telling everyone at church that I am going to do it, so I decided that it was about time that I made good on my promise. The children were very patient with me today (they watched a lot of television!). I was able to put a coat of purple primer on the walls before lunch and then paint during quiet time. It is a very light shade of purple, and it almost looks like pink (don't tell Olivia!). I quit after one coat of paint. I know it could use another coat, but I just don't have it in me to think about that right now!
Our French doors were installed this week --- yippee! Our guest room/office (also known as a formal living room) now has a little more privacy. We are ready for all of our friends to come visit now (shameless hinting!).
I have made a "little" husband to do list for Mark. Most of it involves drilling, which is a skill I have not acquired yet (much to Mark's relief). I am hoping he will have time to do a few items on the list this weekend.
We had an Ethernet connection put in behind our television today (thanks for the suggestion Jimmy!). Mark's tivo is officially up and running. He is a happy man!
We are going to start school again on Monday, so I will be back to just doing "normal" housework. My next big project, painting the guest room, will have to wait a few weeks. I am going to try to get everything clean this weekend (the house seems to fall apart when I am working on a project). I can focus so much better in a clean house!
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Happy New Year!
Last night we entered a new phase of New Year's celebrations. Several weeks ago, I promised Isaac that he could stay up until midnight to celebrate the New Year. This is a bit of a stretch for me. I typically like all of the children to be in bed by 8:00. We are a little wild on Friday nights and allow them to stay up until 9:00. I start to twitch a bit if they are up much later than that. So, I had a few second thoughts after I made the promise, especially since I am not even sure that I have stayed up to bring in the new year since I have had children. But, I stuck to my promise.
We started our evening with a "special" dinner. I had thrown a few frozen food items in the shopping cart this week that we do not usually have. We ate bean and cheese burritos, curly fries, onion rings, barbecue pork, and Totino's pizza rolls. The pizza rolls were the hit of the evening! We finished our meal with chocolate ice cream topped with sprinkles. While we were eating, we talked about many of the things that happened in 2007. The first things Isaac mentioned was our move and his broken arm. I mentioned that we had gone to the beach, and they were amazed that we did it this year. June seemed like such a long time ago. We also talked about things that we hope happen in 2008. Bailey hopes she has a birthday and Christmas. Olivia wants more pizza rolls in the new year. Mommy wants to go to Disney World. We all agreed that we hope to make new friends and feel more at home here in our new city.
After dinner, we played Simon Says, which was a hoot. Everyone took a turn being Simon, even Anna Grace. We sang songs and watched television. Anna Grace was the first to head to bed. I tucked her in at 10:00. Olivia made it until around 11:15, and Bailey followed about fifteen minutes later. Isaac was determined to make it, and he was victorious! His proud little head hit the pillow at about 12:02. I had dreams about the children sleeping late, but Anna Grace and Bailey were up by 7:00, and everyone was up by 8:00.
We spent the day hanging out at home. Mark "enjoyed" the Tennessee football game and the children played. Everyone was a little crankier than normal after the late night. We headed to Cracker Barrel for supper and Starbucks for a little dessert for Mommy and Daddy.
I am thankful for the feeling of newness that comes with the January 1. Happy New Year!
We started our evening with a "special" dinner. I had thrown a few frozen food items in the shopping cart this week that we do not usually have. We ate bean and cheese burritos, curly fries, onion rings, barbecue pork, and Totino's pizza rolls. The pizza rolls were the hit of the evening! We finished our meal with chocolate ice cream topped with sprinkles. While we were eating, we talked about many of the things that happened in 2007. The first things Isaac mentioned was our move and his broken arm. I mentioned that we had gone to the beach, and they were amazed that we did it this year. June seemed like such a long time ago. We also talked about things that we hope happen in 2008. Bailey hopes she has a birthday and Christmas. Olivia wants more pizza rolls in the new year. Mommy wants to go to Disney World. We all agreed that we hope to make new friends and feel more at home here in our new city.
After dinner, we played Simon Says, which was a hoot. Everyone took a turn being Simon, even Anna Grace. We sang songs and watched television. Anna Grace was the first to head to bed. I tucked her in at 10:00. Olivia made it until around 11:15, and Bailey followed about fifteen minutes later. Isaac was determined to make it, and he was victorious! His proud little head hit the pillow at about 12:02. I had dreams about the children sleeping late, but Anna Grace and Bailey were up by 7:00, and everyone was up by 8:00.
We spent the day hanging out at home. Mark "enjoyed" the Tennessee football game and the children played. Everyone was a little crankier than normal after the late night. We headed to Cracker Barrel for supper and Starbucks for a little dessert for Mommy and Daddy.
I am thankful for the feeling of newness that comes with the January 1. Happy New Year!
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