Girls Night Out

FBC Smyrna is having a Girl's Night Out!!!! Sept. 19th and I can't wait. There will be CHOCOLATE, great entertainment, CHOCOLATE, fun with old and new friends, CHOCOLATE, games to play, oh...and CHOCOLATE!!! I had an awsome time last year and look forward to it again. Click on the link on my sidebar for more info and I'll see you there!

God-ology - The Bible part 2

Last week we covered the Revelation of the Bible...this week,Inspiration and Illumination.
Inspiration means...
that God wrote the Bible through people (they are His words)
that the Holy Spirit is the author
that God's word is the final authority (when you're in conflict...God's word always wins out)
that the Bible is completely inerrant

Illumination - supernatural ministry and influence of the Holy Spirit that enables believers to understand the Bible.
This does not mean that non-believers do not understand the words of the Bible, just that the Holy Spirit does not live within them therefore, they will not understand the words' meaning in their life.
Illumination always begins with God, but you have to be sensitive to it.

There was also a question from last week about the apocrypha - what it is and why it is in the Catholic Bible but not the Christian Bible.
The apocrypha is a "set" of history books and writings that were written in the 400 years between the Old Testament and the New Testament. They were not inspired by God and are not included in the Christian Bible because (#1) the Jews never accepted these writings, (#2) the apocrypha never claims to be inspired by God, and (#3) is is never quoted as authoritative in scripture.

I can't wait until next session when we dive into God. How do we know he exists? and questions like that.

GRRRR

I have been doing so well about keeping our house clean and picked up. I was very proud of myself because I had everything but the bathrooms clean by Wednesday night in anticipation of our TWO cookouts we're having this weekend. My plan was to just keep it picked up and re-clean the kitchen and vacuum the floors for Sunday. Good plan, right??
"Ladies and Gentlemen....plans have changed"
Yesterday Ray and I decided to paint a couple of walls in our living room b/c one was this deep burgandy "accent" wall and the opposite wall was pretty scuffed up. I'm fine with that and we actually worked well together with no harsh words said all day! (sidenote: if you've known us for any length of time, you know how miraculous that was) In the process of moving furniture, taping, priming, painting, keeping kids away, etc...the house becomes an explosion of toys, tools, paper, trash, laundry. I didn't know that taking one day break would create such chaos!!! So...instead of just cleaning the bathrooms, I'm cleaning the bathrooms, picking up the living room, cleaning the kitchen (for the second time), picking up our bedroom, putting toys away in the playroom, doing laundry, and going crazy.

Anyone have any chocolate?

hairstyles

I am now trying to "do" something with Aaliyah's hair when I have the time and she'll let me. Bows don't work b/c she likes to pull them out and just leaving it down causes this wonderfully huge afro when she gets up from her nap (I'll have to get a picture of that)! I think we've finally found a hair-care routine that works for now, but here are a couple of pics of recent attempts at hair-styling.

******Disclaimer: keep in mind that my hairstyling experience involves only my own head. I've never been able to do anyone's hair but mine...and that's limited to ponytails.


First attempt at anything. Two ponytails on top only. This is from my phone, so you'll have to excuse the quality of the picture.



First time trying pigtails. I tried to swoop up all her hair into these two, but of course the back always falls down. This is my FIL's favorite.






I've also tried just the little top ponytail (no pics of that, sorry). Any more suggestions on possible hairstyles? Her hair is still baby-fine and I refuse to do any tight styles. Oh...and I need to be able to do it in the 1-2 minutes that she'll actually sit still before I have to hold her down! :)

I love our house

There are some great things about living where we do now.
#1 - one set of grandparents are right across the street (very helpful last night!)
#2 - we are back in Rutherford County
#3 - we live in a neighborhood that everyone knows about, directions are easy to give, and most of the neighbors are actually interested in knowing you!
#4 - we live close enough to the lake to walk down and feed the ducks (with the kids in the wagon...it's a little far for them)

Here are some pictures from our little field trip this morning.

Ready to go!!



Mean Duck - he came right up to us the second he heard the wrapper on the crackers (as did about 500 other ducks!) and wouldn't back down. The kids were a little scared, but I was poised and ready to attack if needed. :)



Lots of ducks today. There were so many more than this, but it would have just looked like a lot of brown dots on the grass.



Goose!



Throwing rocks in the lake (along with some duck poop thanks to my daughter!)



Aggressive Duck - wouldn't leave us alone. I had to keep my eye on him while I was taking pictures to make sure he wasn't going to peck me!



"I just want to skip rocks, mommy." This after I have already told him 15 million times that it's time to stop throwing the rocks.



wants to be just like bubba...doesn't listen!



Do we know what "STOP THROWING THE ROCKS" means???!!



"Dah, Dah" come here!!



On the way back home, Kyler caught his first butterfly on his arm! He was so excited that he named it and called it his pet. :)




Sorry there are no pics of the kids actually feeding the ducks. They (the ducks) were very aggressive when they heard the wrapper from the crackers and I didn't want them to attack the kids. The whole sleave of crackers went in about 30 seconds...no lie. Maybe next time we'll take daddy...he'll protect us!

God-ology - The Bible

I know, I know...it's been a whole week since week 2 of God-ology and I haven't commented, yet. Well, it's been a crazy week with a yard sale thrown in, but I wanted to get this up before tonight's session.

We tackled some questions about the Bible last week:

Why should the Bible have authority in your life?
What makes it different than other religious books?
The Bible was written by humans. Doesn't that mean there are mistakes? How can we know it's truly from God? Aren't their opinions thrown in?

There are three words that we hear when talking about the Bible:

Revelation - God revealed, He has chosen to reveal Himself to us
Inspiration - the process by which He gave us the Bible
Illumination - the Holy Spirit's work of bringing light to the words of the Bible as we read them

One quote I grabbed, "People don't attack the Bible because it's open to attack...they attack the Bible because they don't want to be held accountable to what it says, they want to live life on their terms" (paraphrased)

I know this seems all over the place. I will try to do better after tonight's session!

Garage Sale

If you are reading this on Sat. the 23rd...come on over to my place for a garage sale! We have lots of stuff that HAS to go and I'd rather make money on it than just give it away or toss it! :) (the leftovers will be donated, though).

It's posted on Craigslist and the DNJ online...so if you're in the neighborhood, just drop on by and see what kind of great deal you can haggle ;)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUBBY!!!

Today is my husband's birthday. I won't say how old he is (I think he's a bit sensitive), but I love him all the same ;)
I don't know if he reads this or not, but I will say it anyway...
Happy Birthday baby, I love you with all of my heart and I can't wait to celebrate MANY more birthdays with you.



P.S. I've been praying recently that I can understand different situations from my husband's point of view (we all know what great communicators men are) and lo and behold I just discovered this morning that he has started a blog! Don't know if he knows how many people will be going there, but let's give him a big welcome to blogland! Go here to read and leave comments. I know I will enjoy getting into his thoughts!

Adventures at Wal-Mart...

if you don't know already...I work at Wal-mart. I worked there in college and came back just recently so I could continue to stay home with my kids but still provide some income. This place is so different 10 years later and now a mom and wife. I notice a lot of things that I never noticed before. I will be throwing in a few funny blogs every now and then about things that I notice that just strike me as odd.
Nothing unusually funny comes to me right now (although I'm sure I'll have one after I get off tonight) but I do notice something. There are a lot of my former students who come to Wal-mart just to hang out. Not a problem...I did that too...in fact still do sometimes. :) The thing that just breaks my heart is the number of them who are carrying children either in the cart or in their bellies (I only taught 3 1/2 years so these are 15-18 year olds). These are not their siblings...these are their kids! Everytime I see one of my kiddos pregnant, my heart hurts for them. They have no idea. Everytime I see a former student proudly showing off their child to me like it's the newest, greatest accessory, I hurt for them. They do not know. Now that I'm no longer their teacher, I just want to pull them aside and tell them how much God loves them. How much I love them. How much having a baby probably won't make them feel more loved. It's a huge sacrifice. One that I have a hard time with at 29, I can't even imagine trying to deal with it at 16!! I just hurt for them, whether they intended to get pregnant or not.
Okay, that's enough for now...stay tuned!

Husband bragging

If you have read my blog for any length of time, you know I don't talk a whole lot about my husband. Like every young marriage, we have problems. We are both stubborn control freaks who like everything to go the way we expect and plan it to...but we don't think alike so that causes a whole world of problems. It feels like everything is a battle or a competition and I'm NOT a big competitor (he very much is). He is a very hard worker (at work) but doesn't do too much around the house and expects me to take on pretty much everything. To be perfectly honest, I've had a hard time lately remembering the good qualities and focusing too much on the things that make me mad.
HOWEVER...something has changed. I don't know what, but I'm glad. Part of it is probably my attitude and choosing to see the good instead of the bad. Since we've been in our new home (one week now) he has helped unpack, done little things to the yard and in the garage without me asking...he even cleaned up dinner last night!! I am so proud of my hubby. I think that after 5 years, we are starting to get the hang of a few things, although there is a whole lot more we have to learn. We always have good days and bad days...it just depends on what we choose to focus on.
Ray, I love you and I'm proud to call you my husband.

God-ology - Worldview

Last night was the first in a semester-long series on the study of God. It was just an introduction, but I learned a lot in that hour or so.

What is Worldview? How is it created? What affects it? Can it be changed?

World view - your beliefs that form the lens through which you see the world
It affects everything about you...your actions, your words, your behavior, your thoughts, the way you spend money, the way you parent, the way you take care of your body...EVERYTHING about you.
It is either right or wrong. There is no gray area.

3 questions form the Core of our Worldview:
Who are we and where did we come from?
What has gone wrong with this world?
What's the solution or what can be done to fix it?

This a just a broad stroke of what we talked about last night. I am so excited to see where God takes Ray and I on this journey. I know there will be some challenges to my thinking and his and we are ready. One song kept going through my head as Pat was talking. Probably because I heard it on the radio on the way to church, but it applied very well. The song is Fade by Casting Crowns. Go listen to it and let me know how it speaks to you. It's one of my new favs.

God-ology

Is that really a word? Well, according to Pat Hood it is. Of course his famous "metaphor" (pronounced met-a-fur) is the classic. Anyway...God-ology is the study of God. It's his way of making theology a little more catchy and understandable.
I ramble...let me say what I actually meant to in this post!

Last night, we started a new "thing." It's not your typical Wed. night service. There is no music, no "preaching," and no extra "stuff." Just teaching...on theology. I LOVED it! This will be a semester-long study on who God is. We were told that it will shake us up, make us think, create more questions than we started with, and sometimes even make us mad. I can't wait! I grew up in a church that never really explained much. It just was and that was that. I am a person that needs things explained in detail so that I can wrap my brain around it. That's exactly what this is. Ray couldn't come last night but fortunately it will be podcast, so...if you want to understand what I'll be rambling about every week, feel free to go here and listen. OR...you could actually show up at the church on Wed. nights at 6:30 (if you are in this area) and here it live. I encourage you to listen or come and bring paper and a really good pen. I took three pages of notes last night alone and that was just the intro!

SCC and loss

I have been keeping up with the Chapmans via Jim Houser's blog. I'm trying not to become obsessed. :)
I have been reading a lot lately about people who have lost children. It doesn't matter how they lost them, but I seem surrounded by it. I don't know if it's my own doing or not. Everytime I feel that I'm being surrounded by something, I think that God is preparing me. I don't know what for, but I feel that way now. Perhaps I will have a close personal friend lose a child and I need to know how to help them or what to say? Maybe this is something that will help me one day in the mission field? There are other scenarios, but I don't dare utter the words out loud much less type them for all of the world wide web to see. Just know that I feel called to my knees for this family and all families who are grieving today. I know there are up days and there are really bad days. God is there through it all and He will bring people to him through everything.

Peace or apathy

Something I have been wondering about lately...do I just have a supernatural peace about certain situations, or am I just cold-hearted and apathetic?
Things have been absolutely crazy this summer. Things that I would normally stress over and worry about and mull over in my mind over and over until I came up with some sort of solution. I, however, am not doing that. I seem to have the attitude that it will all work out in God's timing. I'm not stressed, I'm not worried. Just like that...what will happen will happen. Is that peace? I feel like I should be more worried or stressed, but I'm not. Is that apathy? I'm afraid that's what it looks like to some people (including my husband).
I have a teaching degree and 3 1/2 years experience...I'm working at Wal-mart. I'm okay with that. I truly feel that's where God had put me for now. I will apply for an interim job that is coming up at an elementary school. Not sure if God want's me there or not. If I don't get it...husband will be upset, MIL will be upset, I won't be upset. I'm at peace knowing that God will put me where I'm supposed to be in HIS timing...or am I using Him as an excuse to stay in my nice comfortable box?

lots on my mind

There have been many potential blogs on my mind recently, but I am just now getting around to writing them. There will probably be several new posts over the next week or so (so I can clear my mind!).

Hope you enjoy!

What a summer!

It has been two months and it's finally almost back to normal. We move into our new home tomorrow (new to us, anyway) and get out of our parents' hair. :) They have been so gracious and understanding while we waited and worked out some things. If you want our new address just email me or catch me sometime and I'll send it to you. Phone numbers are the same since we just use our cells anyway. Hope to have you over sometime after we get settled in!