His Will Wednesday

This Wednesday I am focusing my prayer on patience. I can be a very patient person, but there are times where i can't wait at all! As I've said before, this coming February my family and I are moving to Boston to plant a church. Lately I have been very impatient that I'm making myself anxious and very stressed out. I need to remember that everything is in God's timing and really, we only have a few more weeks to wait it out! I'm very excited to go up to Boston in a couple weeks to look for a place to live. It will be the first time for both Phil and I to visit Boston. I imagine it to be a historical and great place to live! Many people think we are crazy to up and move to a place we know basically nothing about, and have never been to. The truth is it is a little scary, but I know this is where God wants us, and it is going to be an amazing thing. 

 

Another area I need more Patience in, is with my daughter. :) She is two years old, starting to have her terrible two's every now and then, and is learning to do new things and naturally a little slow at doing them. Most times I just have to smile and realize there is plenty of time for her to do what she is doing and remember she is learning and doing a great job.

2010 coming to an end...

Wow! I really can't believe it! 2010 is almost over. I really don't know where the time goes! This past year has been a good, and not so good one! Halie turned two and now we have conversations back and forth, she is such a little person! My older brother got married, my little marine brother was sent to Japan.  My brother-in-law became cancer free (Praise God!!), and my mom enrolled in college. My Mother-in-law, 2 sister-in-laws, Halie and I had our first annual girls weekend getaway, and my husband had sinus surgery having multiple non-cancerous tumors removed. My husband also became an ordained and licensed minister through "Congregational Holiness Church", and this coming February we will be moving to Boston, MA to start a church. oh yeah! and I had a 4mm kidney stone for the first and hopefully last time! There is more of course, but all in all this year for the most part was good!

I'll be writing a post later this week about my New Year Resolution(s)

Are you spending your time wisely and doing things that really matter? days, weeks and months go by so fast.

"My Husband Rocks!!" Friday

 

Today is "Black Friday", most people love this day to find great deals and some people even enjoy the crazy shopping. My husband has to work today and thankfully it's only a regular timed shift! Phil works at Tiffany & Co. and they are expecting minimum 4,000 people to walk through their door, even though Tiffany's never has any sales and won't today. I've only gotten to talk to Phil through a few texts since he doesn't get an actual lunch break today, but through the texts he was asking me how i was doing. He wasn't complaining or thinking about himself and how miserable he must feel and be today. It just made me smile.

Yesterday we had a ton of good food, but the best in my opinion was of course the turkey! Phil was injecting that sucker with butter and juice every half hour and it was soo juicy and tender and tasted so good! Good job honey! :)

I am so thankful to have a helping and loving husband. This week especially when i needed him most he was there for me 24/7. He cares about me so much and it shows through his actions, words and love. I am truly blessed!

"His Will" Wednesday!

This Wednesday I want to focus more on praising while still praying that God continues to bless my family. When you think about, we all have a lot to be thankful for! I live in a country where my family can be free and worship God without punishment. My family eats three healthy meals a day, we live in a beautiful townhouse in a safe neighborhood. There is a lot of love surrounding me everywhere, i have a supportive and loving husband and a beautiful healthy 2 year old daughter.

I really have a lot more I am thankful for and blessed with. For the few things that i did write out that I am thankful for, a lot of people around the world and even in our own neighborhoods don't have. A lot of us take for granted the things that we do have, like a toilet and running water. A nice warm bed and washer & dryer to have clean clothes.

We are so blessed, almost too blessed if there is such a thing? It amazes me to see 7 year olds with cell phones, not just to have when they aren't with their parents for safety reasons, but for their personal use, and so many kids have their own TVs and laptops, designer clothes and etc. Yes it nice to have nice things, especially when you work hard for them, but I think we all need to remember including myself that these "things" aren't coming with us when we leave this earth. I don't know, i guess I just want our (Phil and me) time and money to go towards greater things that will make a difference in people's lives. I'm not saying that makes us better then people who don't do that either.

This year, the siblings on Phil's side of the family decided to not exchange gifts for Christmas. But to instead pick a charity or organization to give to with the amount of money we would have spent towards our siblings (or more). My family gave to Samaritans Purse, Billy Graham's son (Franklin) runs it I'm pretty sure. There are ton of life saving things you can buy that will be given to a family in poverty overseas. check it out! And you know for sure that it is not a scam and will make a huge difference in someones life. https://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/Giving/gift_catalog/

Anyway that was about Christmas, but I guess to sum this up, we all have so much to be thankful for, take some time to reflect on what you have around you and thank God for what you have.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

My favorite time of the Year!!

As the Holidays are almost here, I can't help but get in the "holiday" spirit. Getting out the Christmas decorations and Halie getting excited to help, reminds me of when I was a kid and helping my parents decorate. There is just something about Christmas music that makes you feel happy and cheery! The smell of Christmas cookies....no other smell in the world! Going to the mall will let you know it's Christmas time for sure! I can't wait until we get our Christmas Tree because this will be the first Christmas that Halie will actually care. I'm really excited to drive around at night and show Halie all the Christmas lights that people put up outside their house, she is going to love it!

I think almost every family has traditions they do every year. One of the traditions I'll always remember is the night my dad would put up the Christmas tree, my mom was in the kitchen baking Christmas cookies (with us kids going back and forth helping both because both were fun to help with). The whole family would help put on the Christmas lights and decorations on the tree while playing Christmas music. We would talk about the ordimates we remember making as kids as we would get them out of the boxes.

Another tradition I won't forget is the morning of Christmas. We would all get ready in the morning and then my parents made us all sit on the stairs and wait until they had the cam recorder set up and had taken our pictures. Even when we were in college they made us do it! haha! They loved seeing our faces as we came around the corner and raced into the living room to see all the presents! Even through all the excitement of giving and receiving, my parents made sure we remembered the reason for the season and didn't lose sight of that.

I can't wait for Phil and I to start our own family traditions with Halie, since she is now old enough to kinda understand. We love going to Christmas Eve candle light service, and I will most likely continue the cookie making while decorating the tree tradition. Teaching Halie about baby Jesus and His story is very important at an early age. So excited for good food, family time, playing games, watching Parades on tv and reading about baby Jesus with Halie. I really do love this time of the year!

"My Husband Rocks" Friday!

This week my husband rocks for different reasons. One reason is he is always making sure I am happy and that I have everything I need. I have been going through some tough personal times lately and Phil has been doing everything in his power to make me feel better and show me that he loves me and just being my awesome best friend. Sometimes I think I take Phil for granted. He is such a loving husband and father, and works so hard so that I can be a stay at home mom to raise Halie. I love him so much for that, because being at home with Halie and our future kids is really important to me. On top of him working, on days I don't feel well he will even cook dinner. Mostly because he loves cooking, but because he loves me too. I could go on and on about how great he is, but that would take a really long time and a ton of typing! :) He is so amazing and I love him so much and will forever!

Parent deer going to kiss baby deer...Phil & Halie imitating it

His Will Wednesday

I saw this picture and thought from now on i can try to use it every Wednesday and write about something that is on my heart on that day.

"Not our Will, but His be done". Sometimes it's hard to actually live that way, because being human we are selfish and we have our fleshly desires of how we want to live, where we want to work and what we want to do with our lives. But if you live out His will for your life, things are always better when we do what He wants us to do.

There are times where I will hold back and say, I'll do it this way (my way) because I'll feel like I'll have more control of the situation or outcome. Those times I find myself stressed out, worried and feeling alone.  We need to take everything to prayer and give it all to God. Then have faith in Him. He knows what is best.

Side note: I want to encourage you to read "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan. He is a pastor of a church out in South California. I read this book and it really made me re-think the way I was living in different areas in my life.

This Wednesday I am going to focus my prayers on the Military. My little brother is a Marine and is stationed in Okinawa, Japan. Just from talking with Mark, I know it has to be really hard to be a Christian (away from home) in the Marines. Constantly being around Men that drink, swear, share ex-girl friend naked pictures and so on and so on. There is sin everywhere in this world, but I just pray that Mark and all Christian Military men and women can stand up for what they believe in, and seek God everyday. To not lose sight of Jesus and why we are here on Earth and that He is returning soon.  To be the light, and have courage and strength, and to always be safe. Will you pray that today to?

 in Japananese

Lovey Dovey!!

My older brother Matthew just got married on the 6th of this month! (So happy for him and Mandi!!). Matthew and Mandi are so great for each other and I wish them the best of luck in everything in life and their marriage. The wedding was so beautiful, the Bride looking gorgeous, the Groom looked handsome. The vows said were tear jerking, I admire that they wrote them! Dinner and all the food was SO good, and the dance floor was the place to be!! I had the honor of singing at the wedding ceremony (Sea of Love by Cat Power). When they asked me to sing months ago, I was actually shocked haha. Growing up both of my brothers were always yelling at me to shut up and stop singing, since I sang LOUD (and still do) all the time! And now it's funny to me, but I loved singing on their special day and I'll never forget doing that for them. All in all it was such a fun and beautiful day! At the end of the night (and throughout the whole day), you could feel the love that was evident between the newly married couple, i'm so happy I could be apart of their big day! Congratulations to Matt and Mandi!

Spring where are youuu!?

So we are getting more snow this week, they are saying  6-12 inches for now (but it keeps changing). This storm is going to be as bad as a level 1 hurricane b/c of the winds. I am praying we don't lose our power b/c we have electric heat!! Snow snow snow...this is getting depressing!! We haven't gotten this much snow in a winter since i don't even know when! I'm ready for Spring! To plant flowers and veggies, take Halie to the park, go to the Zoo, take evening walks and to just sit on my deck to relax without freezing!! This has been a long winter!!

Not me Monday

Today i did not eat 2 ice cream sandwiches and cheat my diet by topping the day off by having pizza for dinner...no not me!
Also I did not let the dishes pile in the sink throughout the day and decide to clean them at 10 o'clock at night.
I totally did not yell to Jake while watching The Bachelor "you're an idiot!!!" and then apologize 5 seconds later, I would never do that.
And I definitely did not read the same book to Halie 6 times in a row (b/c she practically begged me) and the 7th time hid it from her...that's just mean.

Nope not me :)