Life is...

... routine, messy, exciting, scheduled, impulsive, tiring, boring.

We are finally coming into a routine of our own, but then of course there are situations that throw us for a loop, like a clogged septic tank pipe which left us without being able to drain water for a day.... 

The kids are doing well, for once we are pretty healthy.  We are trying to figure out an allergy? to apple juice for Chloe.  It is either that or the mixture of milk in the morning and apple juice for snack...  Whatever it is, it drives me nuts!  Jacob is loving the farm life, and of course getting into routine with friends again!  He goes to AWANA, Kid's Bible Class and enjoys small group along with Sunday School and Children's Church!  Isaac is growing like a weed, almost 3 months old now!  I forget how much I love little baby boys! 

Greg is coming into his own at work.  I think he is really enjoying his new job.  He is learning so much new stuff and will start playing with Auto-CAD this week.  He has started a accountability partner relationship, which is good for everyone I think! He is excited about our upcoming garden and doing our own starts, so that means planning and building a greenhouse!

We are also getting excited about the upcoming calves and piglets we will be getting soon!  The farm life is pretty exciting for us! 

I am doing well.  Struggling with a few issues that I have, but overall doing good.  Trying to catch up in Perspectives and Experiencing God, really loving them both and learning so much about God and myself!  I am loving my chickens and trying not to keep adopting new ones!  We will be getting chicks soon, so that will be an experience! 

Tomorrow will be another book review, so come check it out and enter in another giveaway! A special congrats to Tara over at http://taraleann.blogspot.com/ who is getting a copy of The Beautiful Wife book, Prayer journal, Mentor's Guide and a copy of Mornings With Jesus 2012!!!!

I hope you all are doing well, and you take this extra day of the year to do something special!

Crazy Life

I used to yearn for the days when our lives would be crazy, when we would have different activities during the week.  Now we are there! 

Back when the hubby and I first got married we hadn't made it a priority to find a church and be active in it.  We attended one for a while, then when we started traveling with his work, we would attend one here or there, but were never in a place long enough to really get involved. 

Now we are settled, have found a home church and well, looking at our calendar we attend some church function about 5 times a week!  And we aren't even on committees (such as facilities, women's ministry,etc!). 

And you know what?  I LOVE IT!!!  :)  I love being part of a church family where there are many different things going on!  Where you are pushed to learn more and advance on your walk with God.  Just like your house at home, the church needs it's members to help make it run! 

I really don't know where I was going with this... Just enjoying where we are in life!  I know in the next few weeks life is going to get even crazier!  Our Perspectives class is starting up, we will be doing our first Veggie Tales movie Premier, and then... Jacob will be starting some spring sport!!! 

I am actually having to keep a calender of different events so we don't forget anything!  I used to dream of the day when I would have to actually do this! I know I have wierd strange dreams.  Oh and the kids haven't even started school yet!

Oh I love where God has brought us and although I am looking forward to what is in the future, I will cherish the stage we are in now and not try to live for tomorrow, but enjoy life today! 

My word for 2012

I have noticed a lot of people picking a word for the new year.  A word that will describe how they want to live and do things differently... I started to think about it, how can I pick just one word?  There are so many things I want to change or do this year.  And just ONE word?  That is tough!

But...

I did it.  I was reading through comments on another blog, and all the different words people were picking and thinking Oh, thats a good one, so is that... But only one kept popping into my head.  It goes with my verse of the year too. 

Immerse.  It means to involve oneself deeply into something.

I want to immerse myself into God's Word.

I want to immerse myself into worship and service.

I want to immerse myself into my marriage.

I want to immerse myself into my friendships.

I want to immerse myself into my kids.

I want to immerse myself into our new church.

I want to immerse myself into this amazing world God has given us.

I don't want to hold back this year, I want to give my all to whatever I am doing at the moment... I don't want to do something only part way, or give myself part way to someone. 

Do you have a word that describes 2012 and what you want it to be?  Or how you want to live?  Please share!

Blessings from Above

Recently I have been thinking about how much God has blessed me!  Before last week, I was starting to get down about being back in WA, asking myself if we really did do the right thing by moving here, leaving a church that really pushed us to be more Christ-like, to mature in our walk, and was home for us.  Then we move out here and try a couple churches that just don't fit.  So I start to doubt, did we make the right choice?  Then as always, God comes through! :) 

We attend a church two weeks ago that was recommended by a friend.  We usually go to the church service one week, and if we like it, we try out the Sunday School program the next.  Well, I was pretty tired of waiting for the right church, so I skipped a week and we went to Sunday School the first week...  Wouldn't you know, we show up, drop the kids off, and then are told that instead of Sunday School there will be a budget meeting...  But it was great to see how the church was run, where their priorities were (by the way it is a very missions minded church!) and how involved everyone was in their church. 

Then we went to the service and usually it takes Greg a while to let me know about what he feels about a church...  To my complete surprise he had us going to a small group the next Friday and attending the 101 class for new members!  (We weren't able to make the class as my mom's car broke on her way home from church, so Greg had to work on that, but we did go to small group!) 

The two times that we have really searched for a church home, God has made it so very clear where Home is for us!  We are excited about this new church home God has for us, they have an amazing Sunday School for our kids, AWANA, an amazing women's and men's ministry (they go on fishing trips so Greg is psyched!) they are mission minded, and even have the Perspectives class that we were looking to take back east!

This is just one place where I am feeling very blessed!  Although things are not easy right now, I know that God has great things planned for us here, and in the future. 

During this time of Thanksgiving, just remember to look at the small things that God has done for you.  I saw a quote today on Facebook that said "What if you woke up tomorrow with what you thanked God for today?"  What would you have?  Your family?  Your house?  Your church? Your life?  Your salvation?

Easter Weekend Recovery

What a wonderful weekend!

Saturday started out with Greg having to work, but I joined a good friend and her two girls at Home Depot for their free Earth Day Kid's Workshop!  Jacob loved building his flower box and of course his very own Home Depot apron! 

We then went and met up with another friend and finally (it has been months!) got our BJ's membership cards!  And of course had to shop! (BJ's is like a Sam's Club/Costco)  I got a ton of stuff for Greg's lunches and picked up a couple of books! 1000 Gifts for both Michelle and I, and then The Thorn by Beverly Lewis.  (I had done a review on The Judgement but wanted to read the 1st in the Trilogy!)

I then went and picked up Greg (he brought home a work truck Friday night, so he had to leave it Saturday night).  We went and picked up pizza and went home and watched the sixth Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.  Well we watched about 1/2 of it before Greg fell asleep! :) 

We had a Sonrise service at 6:30 the next morning and it was beautiful!  There was fog, but no rain and no wind!  Then we came home, showered and got a prettied up for Easter service!  Which was a beautiful service as well!  I just love our church and church family! 

We joined some friends for an egg hunt (Jacob got a ton of eggs!!!) and then a wonderful dinner of friend turkey and smoked ribs!  I was starting to come down with a head cold, so we headed home and finished watching Harry Potter.

On Friday, sorry for the out of orderness, Jacob and I cleaned our whole house!  We have 2 sets of Resurrection Eggs (total of 24 eggs) and I made a deal with him that I would hide two eggs in each room and while we were cleaning that room, he could search for the eggs.  Then after we were done we would sit down and read about each egg.  We ended up reading the Easter story probably about 5 times that day!  And our house was completely clean! He was wiped by the end of the day, but was so excited about the Egg game!  I am going to put a list of what was in the Resurrection Eggs along with verses in our Crafts page.  We now have 3 sets (he made another one at Children's church on Sunday! and is going through them everyday and telling me what they are about!) so I will combine all of them and you can choose what you want to do for each one.  They are so simple to make and really don't cost much, if anything!  One of our sets is from FamilyLife, one is from a craft at MOPs, and the other from Children's Church, and they are all slightly different! 

The best part of my day Friday was as we were talking about how Jesus was beat, spit on, made fun of, etc. and how sad it was, Jacob told me "but Mommy, it's a happy story, because Jesus comes back from the dead at the end!"  He got it!!!  It is a happy story, yes these horrible things did happen to Jesus, but in the end, it is the happiest story ever told!  I hope that your Easter was full of celebration! And that your celebration continues on.