Night before my surgery

Well tommorrow at 8:15 am, I am scheduled for surgery.

Book Review- Fearless by Max Lucado

The author starts the book explaining how this world is motivated and run by fear. He uses many examples of Jesus in the boat in the middle of the storms, to signify to us how if we let fear run our life through the trials we will paralyze ourselves. He goes on to talk about what is important to us as people, that we matter, and that we are worth something.

One of the chapters is title “Sinking Fast”, and he referred to fear by describing Peter when he was caught in the storm on the boat. As long as Peter’s eyes were fixed on the Lord, he was able to walk on water. Then fear set in and Peter took his eyes of the Lord, and started to sink. I know there has been times when I was focused on God, and then something would happen, a trial and I would get caught up within myself and the problem seemed to spiral out of control. I remember as a child when I would hear a noise outside, and let my imagination and fear take over. I would literally be in hysterics. Often times, as a child I would sleep with my bible and felt safe and secure.

Fear has the ability to paralyze us, utterly preventing us from making a next move if we let it. Even though our fears are real, and litterally are a possibility, not putting our trust in the Lord will allow them to grow, and hold us back from living the life that we are suppose too. The author told of a story when he was a small boy, of riding in his fathers lap while the father drove the car. I remember doing that with my parents as well, like the author I was never concerned about wrecking the car, or going into a ditch because I knew I was under the guidance and protection from my parent. Jesus is literally that parent, if we put our trust in him to guide us like we are driving the car, we will be able to enjoy the journey.

Overall, this was a very good book with actual suggestions on how to put away the fear, putting our trust in the Lord and living our life. I recommend this book to anyone who battles this demon of fear.

Book Review- Letting Go by Sheila Walsh

In this book “Letting Go,” the author’s first comments were about receiving grace from God. Not just grace to get by a situation, but the grace needed to change your lifestyle. The common mistakes or traps that woman get caught up in, (self-doubt, unforgiveness, self loathing, fear, loneliness) are talked about in a way that you will be able to apply them to your life and be set free. God wants us to be free and full of his grace, and not lead a life that society often portays and expects us to have. All this unhappiness and misery, was redeemed by him on the cross, its up to us to accept it.

Sheila Walsh talked further about how to see God in everything that we do, and finding grace in all things.

To me this book showed a “how to approach” to finding the love and peace that we so desperately yearn for.

Forever: A poem I wrote

Forever

I give you my heart, through laughter, and tears

Dedicated to you until our golden years.

I promise to love you and do you right

Kissing and holding you each and every night

I know there will be times I may not understand

But I will nurture, caress you and hold your hand

I look forward to sharing our life

Respecting you always, your loving wife

College count down begins…..

Well we have finally managed to pack up Kate’s room, it looks so empty. All the boxes are loaded in the truck. We ran errands today, last minute things, prescriptions, dry cleaning, and bought her a fan! Her dorm doesn’t have AC, I guess that will build character. We will leave here around midnight tonight, and then we will be able to drop her stuff off around nine, then off to Walmart we will go! Lil Ej is not too thrilled about Kate leaving, he doesnt believe that family should leave. No matter how we try to explain its for the good thing, he is not having it…..

It looks like it is going to storm tonight, great, just what we need going up the top of the mountain… well I guess that is enough for now.

Keys to Organization

The key to organization is to break down larger projects into smaller projects, allowing each project to becoming more manageable. Today, we are talking about managing your bills, so that each month you will not have to scramble looking as to where that bill happened to be placed.

Organization of your Monthly Bills.

Setting Up Your Filing System. To start organizing your bills, you will need a small two drawer filing cabinet. The first drawer will be set up with a file for each company that you receive a bill from, in alphabetical order. The second drawer will be labeled January thru December, using the green hanging file folders with the tab listing the month, and each hanging folder you will have a manila folder with the title January 2009, or whichever month you are in when you start. Make sure that you put the year on the manila folder, for you will repeat this cycle every year.

Begin Using Your Drawer.

During the Month that you are in, when you begin receiving your monthly bills; simply place the bill in the corresponding file that it belongs in. Usually in the middle of the month, I set up the next month’s folder, for you will begin receiving bills for the upcoming month.

Setting Up an Excel Spreadsheet.

Once you have finished setting up your file system, you will create a basic list of bills using the Excel Spreadsheet. At the top of the sheet you will write Month______________. Your spreadsheet will have four columns. Listing your Bills. Starting with column one, and moving parallel ending with column four, list the following (1) the name of the bill, preferably in alphabetical order. (2) The amount due on the bill, (3) date in which the bill was paid, (4) method that was used to pay it. (I.e. credit card, online check.) Save this as and label it Master Copy- Monthly Bills.

Creating a New Month.

Begin a new month by listing the month and year at the top of your page. Begin to fill out your list using your monthly folder, by filing out each column of your spreadsheet. Once completed, save as a document, labeled May 2009, for example. Place a copy of your spreadsheet in your monthly folder. You will have this folder to reference back at a later date. After about 90 days, clean out your monthly folder by putting each bill in their labeled folder in drawer one.

This is our first lesson on getting organized.

The Poop Monster

Our two smaller children at home are 6 and 9 years old now, growing up so fast. Although I miss them being babies, I surely do not miss the bottle and diaper stages. My step-daughter has two children, and I love my grand babies who are 8 and 2 years old. I love them so much that when my daughter told me she was going to have to go to school for the summer, I naturally volunteered to keep her kids.

The summer so far has been relatively entertaining, with the extra noise and the extra activities to keep them entertained; hence, I don’t lose my sanity. Having extra children has been a lot of work and I go to bed tired. Last night after a long day, I fed the kids and they had their showers, so it was finally quiet time, my “me” time.

I was sitting on my computer, talking to a friend when all of a sudden, the two year old starts crying. While hubby was on hold with Best Buy, trying to figure out how to work a twenty five hundred dollar television that is impossible to operate. The kid’s start yelling “she pooped, she pooped,” as the baby is still crying. I came out to see what in the world was going on, the child had made a mess! Unbenounced to me, my daughter was still on the phone, but someone had laid the phone down on the floor during the commotion. I am so glad, I didn’t say anything out of the way, with my daughter listening to all of this. The kids were screaming, my husband is yelling that it is new carpet, and I am scrambling looking for wipes, and trying to keep it together. The poor baby is now traumatized.

Although this is not the way I wanted to end my day, everyone settled and the mess was cleaned up. I picked up the phone, and put the baby on the phone with her, so she would know that we were not in the process of killing her, that she was fine. I finally put the kids to bed, pondered whether or not I should take a Tylenol Pm, but decided my body was tired enough all on its own.

I thanked the Lord we got through this, and also praised that I was so happy to be passed this stage with my children, and went to bed. I am sure that today, will bring me excitement and wonders today.

Another Busy Day…

The kids went to the last day of Vacation Bible School, and they had a blast! They have learned so much this summer. Tomorrow we will probably hit the local Chuck E Cheese, I have a box full of coins from last time. Its not easy keeping four kids occupied, lol.
It rained today, Thank God, so we didn’t have to go outside to “play”. Its been well over the Ninety degree mark for the last few days.

Kate is getting packed up for college, she has boxes everywhere! I think she is excited, and I haven’t been upstairs to see her room, it will be sad enough when she leaves. I will also lose my back up babysitter, so I can go to the doctor’s appointment alone, or just need to run out errands without a car full of screaming kids!

Took Elijah today to the doctor for his school physical, he was really good even though it took them two hours almost to get out of there! I was worried about him possibly being anemic, due to the fact that he is always cold, and is a poor eater. They are doing a complete blood culture, oh he will be thrilled… and a Thyroid screening. Wow… I can hardly wait to get it done.

Getting Shay signed up for school, since she is going to start school with us. Soccer sign ups are this week, but all three will be playing in only two different leagues, so that generally means only four days on the soccer field. Whew… I thought it was going to be at least five.

Anthony is coaching high school football. That really keeps him busy, four hour practices five days a week, games on Wednesday and Varsity on Friday… On top of all that, they review the tapes on Sunday…. so I think our life will be extremely hectic….
But I love it all and wouldn’t trade it for anything…….

25 Things about me…..

1. I am the mom to five kids: 20, 18, 16, 9,6 years old. I started early!

2. I am happily married to my soul mate, and we have a very busy life together.

3. I love taking classes, and learning new things, I want to finish with at least a Masters degree.

4. I love my church Calvary Revival Church. http://www.crcglobal.org

5. I love, I mean love to go shopping, and I can go through alot of money, mainly clothes.

6. I have an extreme fear of doctors and getting things done. I will avoid it as long as I can.

7. I have to have a calender, and a task list or else it doesn’t get done.

8. I love my kids, but do not like to babysit.

9. I hate cooking, and I love to eat out. My favorite restaurant is Bonefish and the
Outback. I love steak, salad and ice tea.

10. I love watching my husband coach football.

11. My kids play sports all year round, and I am always at some sort of field or
another.

12. My family is very dysfunctional, so that is why we strive to make our family
strong.

Don’t Just be a Woman… Be A Kingdom Woman

I wanted to share with you notes from my church, Calvary Revival Church… http://www.crcglobal.org. Bishop Courtney McBath. These are from his sermon.
If you would like to actually hear the sermon, here is the link

Pt 4: Don’t Just Be A Woman…Be A Kingdom Woman 

Notes taken from Joshua 2: 1-13

Bishops starts out by addressing the common view that is placed upon woman, “basically based on preference and opinion, not on truth and principle.” What does that mean to me? It makes me think that others view woman as somewhat shallow, and superficial. Bishop McBath explains this further by stating ” Too frequently the discussion of woman, is based on the lines of hair, dress, personality, and mannerisms.” Jesus never view woman as having these qualities, in fact, he went on to talk about the value, redemption and faith of kingdom woman.

It doesn’t surprise us that Rahab the harlot was the original kingdom woman in spite of or possibly because of her influential profession.

What are the characteristic of a Kingdom Woman?

1. Kingdom woman know how to pick a winner!
You change the way you pick your friends.
You change the way you pick who you love.
You change the way you choose a church.

2. Kingdom women know how to negotiate.
When you put God first, expect a blessing! MT. 6.33
When you connect with His Kingdom it saves your life.

She wasn’t religious, she was desperate to save her family!
Negotiate for more than just you- family!

Don’t Just be a woman… Be a Kingdom Woman.
Joshua 2.1-13

Hebrew 11:30-31. By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies in peace.

3. Kingdom women know what to say and when to say it. (verses 3, 4)
She was at war for her life with her enemy!

It doesn’t need to be justified what she did- God put her on the roll call of Faith! Sarah, Moses’s mother and women in general were applauded.

She used her words to turn her enemy around.

When you speak the word of faith, you turn the enemy around. You say what you believe, not what you see.

Kingdom women know how to protect the vision- words!

4. Kingdom women know how to get what they need from God! James 2:25-26

Verse 25 states, “In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 26. For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

Kingdom women know how to stay connected to God! Mt. 15.26

No man ever came to Jesus after being called a dog!

Rahab became a Jewish proselyte because the God who saved her life deserved her allegiance!

Kingdom women will talk to him about what they don’t understand. Jn. 4.7

No man ever argued with Jesus one on one!

Kingdom women put actions with their talk! Mt. 9.20

No man ever crawled to Jesus!

Joshua 2:18-19

“18, unless, when we come into the land, you tie this cord of scarlet thread in the window through which you let us down, and gather to yourself into the house your father and your mother and your brothers and all your father’s household.” NASU

Notes prepared by Bishop Courtney McBath
Calvary Revival Church

written with permission