sigh…

Whew…I’m sighing with great relief!

My kids came home with honor roll again, but thats not really why I am sighing. I am very grateful they are taking their classes seriously but… this whole middle school thing is new territory for all of us.

My son, my cute cute son broke a rule yesterday.

He asked a girl out. His words to me, “MOM< I asked her if she’d go out with me”.  Me: WHHhhhhhhhyyyyyyyyyy????

“Go where son?”

Where are you really gonna go?

pointless.

I know everyone has an opinion of when it is age appropriate for  kids to be involved in exclusive relationships.  I shouldn’t say everyone. Some parents don’t know and don’t care. sad.

BUT my opinion, lead by my own personal convictions, is flat out NO.   I am not for middle school relationships. I have held my kids from being exclusive with anyone even though the pressure  at school is great to call someone a girlfriend or boyfriend at this age.  Im not even sure I will allow it in highschool, Im just following the leading of my heart.  I will know when it is right.

I should be thankful for this small fish to fry.  I mean I know there are some kids truly struggling with so many other things SO thank GOD this is something I can work with.

My daughter has really caught on to my wisdom on this.  We have had many talks about this. She knows there’s no where to go, and mostly she knows how it ruins friendships, which is hard enough to maintain in middle school. I’ve had those talks with my son also, and the last time, a girl asked him out and his reply was,” If we break up then it will be awkward between us and I want you keep you as a friend”.  He actually said that. He does listen to my words…but this time..

Here’s the story:

A few guys dared my boy to ask this girl out and he caved.

When I told him he had to go back to school and undo this he got really upset with me. He then told me he was gonna be called a “player”.  I warned him…I so warned him..

But he went against better judgement and fell into a trap.  I am happy that he was concerned he would hurt the girls feelings but life, it…yea

The pressure to “be” was greater than he could handle.  That’s what makes me wanna..I better not say.  The boys told him he must be gay if he didn’t ask her out.  That pushed him right on over the edge..

Today, my tenderhearted boy had to face an awkward situation with a really sweet but heartbroken girl. I made him break that off and be truthful with her about the situation.

Feelings are not to be played with. That’s why I hover. { i wish more parents would}

He just came through the door with a smile on his face. Mostly from the straight A’s he earned but also from the ease at which he moved through that messy situation. {mama’s prayers}

That’s was my sigh of relief.

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{C}apacity

I’m on stand-by. That’s how I feel right now. I live…on stand-by. I am be-ing or “getting ready” to do “something”.

Its ok though. I am not complaining, just stating my thoughts on my present reality.  I just unpacked everything from our trip to St. Louis.  Five suitcases is a lot to unpack!. Well, 4.  My hubbs suitcase is still sitting by his bedside.  I think he’s just made up in his mind he is not unpacking until he has to pack again. That is coming in a few days.  Im ok with it. I have stretched. I have NEW capacity for a lot of things. Packing and unpacking is just what we do. When I was growing up, I packed  bags like maybe twice a year. Once for vacation and once for the holidays. Now, it is my job.  For real though, I like my life just the way it is. I have the grace to do this, and while I have the grace, I shall carry on!

The word capacity caught my attention last year.  Think about what you have to manage in your world.  Do you feel overwhelmed by it or a surge like you are riding the tip of a wave with a force under you.  I wont say I dont have days I feel overwhelmed, but I have discovered why I was feeling overwhelmed.

The feelings that overwhelmed me were something like this:

By the time I get around to doing what I want to do, Im too tired to do it!

It wasn’t the kids that overwhelmed me, or the high paced schedule we keep. Not even the tasks of running a household.   It was the inner turmoil of knowing there is more to produce with my life and the desire to do it before I’m empty nesting.

I remember a prayer I prayed that changed my life. At a time of frustration I found myself serving everyone else, and never paying attention to my own desires. I prayed that God would give me the “capacity” to serve others gratefully, and simultaneously find my own path to fulfillment.

God has been revealing to me the increased capacity I now have to manage things. I live by multi-tasking.  I feel like this year I am managing more than I ever have yet I have this extra hand reaching out for more.  Once you change your mindset, it becomes exciting to see how God can fill your hands. You can trust He will only give you what you have the capacity to handle. But He will also allow frustration to push your capacity larger if you allow it.

Ecc 9:10  Whatever your hands find to do, do it with your might.

What are some things you desire to make room for?

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Filed under Life, kids, ministry

Hotel-schooling

God bless the teachers.  I’m not sure who behaved worse, me or my first grader as we did a days worth of work in our hotel room.  He started out at a desk in a rotating chair…swinging side to side as I hovered over him, until my patience ran out and I jerked it out from under him.  You should thank God right now I am not your kids teacher.

We finished our assignments and Jaydon returned to me wanting help pronouncing a word from his adventure bible. Ironically it was out of a passage in Corinthians on love and patience.

The greater awareness I have right now is how many times I spun in circles while God was prodding me in the direction He so patiently waited for me to move into.

1Corinthians 13:7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.



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Filed under Faith, Life, Me, family

Weekend In St Louis

Hi. We are in St. Louis with each of our kiddos enjoying a little room time in our hotel.  We are involved in the weekend services at Faith Church with Pastors David and Nicole Crank. Several times we have visited here and I see God using not just us as worship leaders but in turn this church is grooming us for our future, our future church  {or whatever it’s gonna be called!}   And to top it off, these are some really cool peeps just to hang with.  I love the atmosphere here and Nicole Crank’s It’s A Girl Thing was pretty fun last night. She broke a heel off a really cool pair of shoes that made us all a little sad but to see her hobble around in it was pretty hilarious!  Nicole gave us a great lesson on keeping our joy and our dance through adversity.  I could add here the trending line….“That awkward moment when your daughter is sitting beside you and says, Mom you needed to hear this”. I couldn’t argue with her. She had witnessed me in a “not so happy moment” earlier in the day.  Kids keep you honest don’t they??!!

We are also excited they added Rory and Michelle Comtois to their staff!  Rory is an incredibly talented worship leader and we are having a blast together leading worship.  He and Michelle have boys the same ages as ours. They just met and they are inseperable.  They worked it out to spend the night over…..uh oh!

Look at this craziness! (Double click to play video)


We have a big day ahead tomorrow so I am signing off! Hasta La Vista

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Starting Fresh

Well…as you can see I have not made any time for this portion of my life!  Hope you are have started off your new year better than me!  I keep postponing my start.  I know the year started but somehow I didn’t.  I havn’t stopped eating like a holiday person and havn’t started a few things that I want brand new!  My site is under re-construction and I hope within the next few weeks I will have a fresh page and feel like writing over here again.

I have so many thing rolling though my head for great topics but I am journaling them for now.  We are staying so busy that I got out of synch with blogging.  It does take time to press publish on any document and I despise half-way doing anything!  Even now I am having to make this short because I am off to sing at a church in Naples.

Please stick around! I have a lot of exciting things ahead!

Blessings!

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Happy Harvest Day

{table setting Design Public}

Today is when we celebrate the Harvest of our year. That’s the way the Puritans started this tradition. The meaning of things and significance of dates has interested me more and more the past few years. Our traditional meal represents some of the things they literally planted for all year and harvested.  I have not planted any food, but the start of this year I planted some prayers and some seed that I am thankful to see today. Among all the things I am thankful for, my faith in Jesus is at the very top. He is the seed that keeps on giving.

I hope that wherever you are today you have a harvest of love, family, friends, or at least some good turkey:)

OH GIVE THANKS unto the Lord for He is good and His mercy endures forever. { Psalms 136:1}

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I Am Willing

Today I have shut myself in a room with devotions and some really good Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee.  This week I set out to believe God for some things that would be miraculous.  Quite honestly the prompting came from a service last Sunday as I made up in my mind, that I am not just gonna sing about what the Lord can do and not experience it personally.

I could write a whole book about how great our faith is inside a powerful church service where corporate worship brings a heavy weighty presence of the Lord, only to find Monday a dry place, feeling spent of energy, and wondering if my faith is big enough on my own to bring forth what I personally believed for on Sunday! whew…hope you caught that

One trap of the enemy to make us doubt. One thing I have identified that I need to change,is that I believe God can do ANYTHING, but  is He always willing?

This passage messed me up this morning:

And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”  Then Jesus put our HIs hand and touched him saying, “I am willing:be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed- Matthew 8:2-3

See I know God has the power to bless, heal, deliver, protect… But we see here He is willing.

I know there are not many lepers walking around- but if you could identify with him for a minute, maybe you could relate your situation to his.

He was a leper.. ok, so he was abandoned.

He was ostracized by everyone because of his sins. {hmm, family, church friends, leaders, ooo even pastors maybe keep their distance from you.}

The leper came to worship Jesus anyway and  said, “Lord if you are willing, YOU can make me clean”.  It’s obvious that he knew he could do it because he said “YOU CAN.”

Because of the blood sacrifice of Jesus, we can be sure of God’s heart toward us.  He sees us through that precious blood and loves us with great love.  It is unmerited and it gives us favor.

How many times have you witnessed people give great testimonies of how God worked on their behalf?  How many times did you find yourself privately asking if you were worthy of that kind of reward or favor. Then you start to wonder what they did to get that kindof blessing.  Then we try to measure up and accept a mindset of condemnation and rule ourself out.

The devil is so tricky. He plays those mind games right out in our heads.  This is where we have to capture every thought! Stop it right when it comes and say YES LORD< you are willing to do the same for me.

The blood qualifies you. People may try to disqualify you, but nothing is more powerful than the blood.

Mostly, if we can believe in the fullness of the love of God, then everything will flow from that.  When we fail to believe fully in His love, then we believe partially that we will receive His benefits.

Those scriptures tells us he was instantly cleansed.  When no one would touch him, Jesus did without a second thought. This leper had more than a disease. He had years of emotional neglect. All of that melted at the touch of Jesus’ hand.

He says to me today, and He says to you,

I AM WILLING.

Don’t disqualify yourself another moment.

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I Want….

I am looking around for a cool rug and these are screaming at me! I LOVE these looks.

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A Third Charm

Third times a charm!  How about three blogs in three days and three days in a row of dinner at home! Where is my prize!

I have a new best friend. I have never had a pressure cooker and finally I bought one on a whim Monday.   My lil pressure cooker helped me put dinner on the table in 45 minutes! I threw a nice roast loaded with veggies and you would have thought it cooked all day long in a crock pot.   Earlier today I was lingering in conversation with a friend on the other side of Orlando acting like I didn’t have a family to get home to and feed.  And I will be honest and say when I walked in the door at 5 o’clock,  cooking was the last thing I wanted to do.  I was so tempted to load everyone up and go out to dinner, but I couldn’t , I had created some momentum eating at home.  It’s just a healthier choice and gives our bank accounts some relief!

I’ve got big plans for my new bestie. I’m all excited to see what else I can cook up!

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A Little Fall

This week is perfect.  I have had two nights without football practice and have actually managed  dinner at home!  We even sat at the dinner table both nights.

Right now its ten 0′clock at night, my favorite quiet time. I am curled up on the sofa with my mac and a hot cup of coffee while I blaze through the oh so many blogs I love.

My house is lit with candles and smelling pretty good by the way.  There is one good reason to fight the walmart crowd: the Better Home and Garden scented  wax burners. my fav is the spiced pumpkin pie and they work really really well.

Speaking of pumpkins, I just found a really cute blog with neat DIY if you have some spare time on your hands.

I think the pictures are pretty self explanatory.  Melt crayons and let them drip over your pumpkins!  Really cute! I know my Madison will love this.  Just click over here and see more. The Suede Records

Sooo..now I’m in the fall spirit and this blog has a lot of great ideas.

Who doesn’t love candy corn??!!  If I could keep from eating them, I know I could do this...

I was enjoying our living arrangements in our condo until I saw this. I miss decorating my front door and steps with all the fall decor.  This looks like home…

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