John 11 - specifically,:21-44
We believe that God
can work in our lives, but how often do we expect Him to? He can raise
the dead by speaking their name..yet we struggle to have faith that he
can raise the spiritually dead... or at least I do.
"Lord, the
one you love is sick"// "Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if
you believe, you will see the glory of God?”//"Then Jesus looked up and
said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you
always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing
here, that they may believe that you sent me.” << Shouldn't our
prayers be something like this? "Lord, the one you love is sick - Thank
you for always hearing me, I believe you can raise the dead." and then
to proclaim His praise when He DOES, so that "they" may believe when
they see what God has done! "Jesus wept." He WEPT over Lazarus. He grieves over his children who are lost, just as we grieve over loved ones we've lost - whether by physical, or spiritual death - and how much more does their Creator love them than we ever possible could??
This just really hit me
- there are SO many people on my heart that the Lord needs to "raise"
from spiritual death..and I believe that He can...but I often don't pray
with the expectation that He WILL.
Lord - there are those whom
you love in our lives that are sick. I believe that you can raise them,
that you WANT to raise them, I ask that you speak their names as you
spoke to Lazarus and bring them back to life in Your Spirit. Thank you
for hearing our prayers for these people, for Your glory Lord, bring to
life those who are "sleeping"..
Saturday, August 9, 2014
Sunday, January 27, 2013
|| hold.the.moo.juice ||
My body can no longer tolerate dairy so my brother devouring ice cream in front of me is near torture. But I will gladly dig into this beauty with some sea salt!
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Friday, January 11, 2013
|| body.mind.soul ||
Bread is a symbol of life. A basic dietary staple. The symbol of Christ and His sacrifice for us.
This bread was homemade for me by my beautiful friend Sarah. I have been making some necessary changes for my health and this is such a wonderful gift. And it makes my tummy happy.
This bread was homemade for me by my beautiful friend Sarah. I have been making some necessary changes for my health and this is such a wonderful gift. And it makes my tummy happy.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
|| well.read ||
This year I intend to learn to love reading. Too many a book sit unfinished on my shelf..
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
|| basic.training ||
Some day I hope to master film photography and developing. It is an art and I believe to truly be a great photographer one needs to understand the basic fundamentals of how light and process effect the film without the hindrance of technology.
Monday, January 7, 2013
Sunday, January 6, 2013
|| sparkle.and.flare ||
Today's photo is a first attempt at making lights sparkle, a opposed to being just little bright dots. Now, if only the backdrop was a little more appealing..
Friday, January 4, 2013
Thursday, January 3, 2013
|| animal ||
Today's photo is about content more than quality. Lady has such a unique personality, she is loving and crazy and fun and definitely shares her big sister's love of animals. She is obsessed with her new monster feet.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
|| de.lights ||
The Lights
My wonderful migraine is the inspiration for today's photo. This is what my brain feels like. Only not as pretty..
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
|| three.sixty.five ||
My best lens, through which I see the world..
In light of being challenged by my brother, I will be taking a photograph each day of this year and posting it here. The purpose of this challenge is merely to stretch us as photographers, to help us boost our skill, artistry & creativity.
Enjoy.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Another Unicorn Princess
It's official..
IT'S A GIRL!!
Today (technically) marks 25 weeks and 3 days, leaving 102 until Adelaide Renee is due to enter this world. I've been feeling great, though the beginning was worse than w/ the other kids, for me that just means I felt slightly more nauseated but still have managed to maintain my ridiculously lucky status as one of the very few women who never gets sick while pregnant, not even once.
We are so excited for this new little lady coming into our family. It was a long, stressful road but after three years we finally were blessed with another baby. Thats not to say we weren't blessed before or during that time. But we had decided that we wanted to leave it to God's perfect timing to decide if and when we would be able to have another baby and after a year..two years..I was really beginning to think that His answer was 'Be content with what I've given you' but..that just didn't feel right in my heart. I didn't feel like our family was finished yet. So we waited. and waited. and..
A little more than a year before we found out we were expecting, I had miscarried (on my birthday..Happy Birthday to me..) and that really made me start to doubt God's plans for our family. I really struggled through the next year. Between when we 'stopped preventing' and conceiving this baby, I think there were something like 13 babies born to family and friends. It became a huge struggle for me to even be excited for people when I found out they were expecting. I just wanted to cry. It's not fair. Why them, why not me?
And then I started feeling tired. Really, really tired. It wasn't too abnormal for me, I have sleep problems. But this was ridiculous. So, I took a test. (Disclaimer - I'd taken probably 30 tests over the prior years and had only the 2 positives from what ended up a miscarriage) I fully expected it to be negative even though I felt pregnant. And it was negative. Once again. Move on with life.
Two weeks later I was still feeling so tired and I went to get a coffee one morning, which normally helped a little. But it just didn't taste good. Not that it was bad, I just..didn't want it. Thats not normal for me. So the thought popped in my head that maybe...maybe...
So I tested again. A pink + appeared. "Wait WHAT?!?" (My kids wondered why I was talking to myself..) That CAN'T be right, theres no way.. so I tested again, same result. So I waited till the next day and again, a pink + showed up. Over the next week until I could get into the doctor, I tested two more times. My doctor laughed at me that I tested 5 times and still came to see him. But he knows our situation so he understood my doubt completely.
We had the first ultrasound and that made me feel a little more confident that this was actually happening. But it didn't feel real. I wasn't connecting like I had with our other kids. Even as I started showing, I still wasn't sure. Two of our friends lost their precious babies w/ in 6 months and that started getting in my head. I felt so guilty that I was still carrying my baby, that as far as anyone could tell, everything was healthy and normal. I felt aweful for the past few years of being so jealous and angry w/ everyone else being pregnant when I had miscarried and then, here I was on the other side and all I could think was, but why me and NOT them?? So I just kept expecting to go in and find out something went wrong and I would soon lose the baby or there would be something wrong that we couldn't fix.
We decided to get the 20 week ultrasound (my doctor had told me we could skip it since we have healthy family histories and I've had no history of any sort of complications in pregnancy or in our kids. Plus, we had decided to not find out the sex so there was no reason to have the u/s) But I didn't feel ok. I didn't feel like there was necessarily anything 'wrong' but I think it was more that I just didn't feel confident that everything was ok. My due date sets me at October 8 but other calculations and my measurements set me as early as September 7. Not knowing the sex meant not knowing what we need to keep or what we can get rid of, what we'll need to get still and all of these uncertainties were starting to build up and make me lose my mind. I felt so not in control and not able to do anything. My back has been having problems that keep getting worse also. My doctor has pretty much told me I can't do anything, including housework even if I'm really careful. So I really felt like all I can do is sit here and not know whats going on. All of this lead us to the decision to get the ultrasound and to find out the sex so that I can at least have the illusion of control, being able to get rid of things we wont need and make sure we have everything we will need, be able to have a name to hopefully feel more connected and just have the peace of mind knowing for sure if everything is ok and if not, know what to expect.
I've never been so nervous for an ultrasound. Even with Bella when we were getting them at least once a month because she had hydronephrosis and I never felt worried or anxious. But everything looks perfect and we found out we're having another girl. It took a few days after the u/s to really feel better about everything but now I'm really glad that we ended up finding out.
God is good. In everything, He is good. His timing was perfect and is perfect and we have every reason to be excited and feel so very blessed by this new creation in our family! Faith and trust in God is a process and sometimes doubt comes in, sometimes you can start to wonder if He really has our best at heart but looking back at the past three years, I have no regrets and I have absolutely nothing that I would change, as difficult as it has been and as much as I wanted a baby three years ago, I'm so thankful that He knew better and blessed us in His timing.
Mark your calendars for October 8th..give or take a few days!! Miss Adelaide Renee will be making her entrance into our family, already loved more than she could ever imagine!
IT'S A GIRL!!
Today (technically) marks 25 weeks and 3 days, leaving 102 until Adelaide Renee is due to enter this world. I've been feeling great, though the beginning was worse than w/ the other kids, for me that just means I felt slightly more nauseated but still have managed to maintain my ridiculously lucky status as one of the very few women who never gets sick while pregnant, not even once.
We are so excited for this new little lady coming into our family. It was a long, stressful road but after three years we finally were blessed with another baby. Thats not to say we weren't blessed before or during that time. But we had decided that we wanted to leave it to God's perfect timing to decide if and when we would be able to have another baby and after a year..two years..I was really beginning to think that His answer was 'Be content with what I've given you' but..that just didn't feel right in my heart. I didn't feel like our family was finished yet. So we waited. and waited. and..
A little more than a year before we found out we were expecting, I had miscarried (on my birthday..Happy Birthday to me..) and that really made me start to doubt God's plans for our family. I really struggled through the next year. Between when we 'stopped preventing' and conceiving this baby, I think there were something like 13 babies born to family and friends. It became a huge struggle for me to even be excited for people when I found out they were expecting. I just wanted to cry. It's not fair. Why them, why not me?
And then I started feeling tired. Really, really tired. It wasn't too abnormal for me, I have sleep problems. But this was ridiculous. So, I took a test. (Disclaimer - I'd taken probably 30 tests over the prior years and had only the 2 positives from what ended up a miscarriage) I fully expected it to be negative even though I felt pregnant. And it was negative. Once again. Move on with life.
Two weeks later I was still feeling so tired and I went to get a coffee one morning, which normally helped a little. But it just didn't taste good. Not that it was bad, I just..didn't want it. Thats not normal for me. So the thought popped in my head that maybe...maybe...
So I tested again. A pink + appeared. "Wait WHAT?!?" (My kids wondered why I was talking to myself..) That CAN'T be right, theres no way.. so I tested again, same result. So I waited till the next day and again, a pink + showed up. Over the next week until I could get into the doctor, I tested two more times. My doctor laughed at me that I tested 5 times and still came to see him. But he knows our situation so he understood my doubt completely.
We had the first ultrasound and that made me feel a little more confident that this was actually happening. But it didn't feel real. I wasn't connecting like I had with our other kids. Even as I started showing, I still wasn't sure. Two of our friends lost their precious babies w/ in 6 months and that started getting in my head. I felt so guilty that I was still carrying my baby, that as far as anyone could tell, everything was healthy and normal. I felt aweful for the past few years of being so jealous and angry w/ everyone else being pregnant when I had miscarried and then, here I was on the other side and all I could think was, but why me and NOT them?? So I just kept expecting to go in and find out something went wrong and I would soon lose the baby or there would be something wrong that we couldn't fix.
We decided to get the 20 week ultrasound (my doctor had told me we could skip it since we have healthy family histories and I've had no history of any sort of complications in pregnancy or in our kids. Plus, we had decided to not find out the sex so there was no reason to have the u/s) But I didn't feel ok. I didn't feel like there was necessarily anything 'wrong' but I think it was more that I just didn't feel confident that everything was ok. My due date sets me at October 8 but other calculations and my measurements set me as early as September 7. Not knowing the sex meant not knowing what we need to keep or what we can get rid of, what we'll need to get still and all of these uncertainties were starting to build up and make me lose my mind. I felt so not in control and not able to do anything. My back has been having problems that keep getting worse also. My doctor has pretty much told me I can't do anything, including housework even if I'm really careful. So I really felt like all I can do is sit here and not know whats going on. All of this lead us to the decision to get the ultrasound and to find out the sex so that I can at least have the illusion of control, being able to get rid of things we wont need and make sure we have everything we will need, be able to have a name to hopefully feel more connected and just have the peace of mind knowing for sure if everything is ok and if not, know what to expect.
I've never been so nervous for an ultrasound. Even with Bella when we were getting them at least once a month because she had hydronephrosis and I never felt worried or anxious. But everything looks perfect and we found out we're having another girl. It took a few days after the u/s to really feel better about everything but now I'm really glad that we ended up finding out.
God is good. In everything, He is good. His timing was perfect and is perfect and we have every reason to be excited and feel so very blessed by this new creation in our family! Faith and trust in God is a process and sometimes doubt comes in, sometimes you can start to wonder if He really has our best at heart but looking back at the past three years, I have no regrets and I have absolutely nothing that I would change, as difficult as it has been and as much as I wanted a baby three years ago, I'm so thankful that He knew better and blessed us in His timing.
Mark your calendars for October 8th..give or take a few days!! Miss Adelaide Renee will be making her entrance into our family, already loved more than she could ever imagine!
Thursday, June 17, 2010
I'm covered in dirt..and I love it!
There is something about working with your hands that is just so soothing! Today I went to visit a friend and we decided to do some gardening. She has a new home with a HUGE back yard and in that yard are 6 raised garden beds (4 3x3' and 2 3x 10 boxes..give or take) and she and her hubby tilled a 4x8' bed on the side for corn.
We dug, tilled and hand planted corn and pumpkins today and it was so relaxing! The weather was perfect, overcast but warm, no wind.
She's 'giving' us a box to plant in so we can grow some veggies and then we'll get together to garden and harvest all of our produce as it ripens.
There is definitely something to be said about working with your hands, actually doing the work to prepare the ground, planting the seeds to grow your own food. Not much of it has started really popping up yet, but as it does, the anticipation of 'reaping what you sow' becomes almost..euphoric I think. God used reaping and sowing, good soil and bad soil, harvest, et cetera as examples to us of how to live, how to care, the proper state of our hearts, how to reach others. I love the simple things God uses to help us understand His word, His heart for us. We cannot comprehend the things of God, but he gives us practical, relevant parables that we can relate to in order to help us grasp the simple truths of His character.
God has blessed my friend and her family so much, with a beautiful home to house their beautiful little family and the amazing yard for the kids to play in and the great beds to grow their food in, and our friends in turn are blessing us with room to grow our own food in and the friendships that grow from working together! I'm so excited about watching all of our work pay off and can't wait until we can use some of the fruits of our labor to have a big, yummy family meal with them!
We decided it might be worth leaving one of the raised beds empty just so we can have dirt to play in, being as soothing as it is, with 5 kids, 5 years and under between the two of us, we just might have to have a mud pie mommy date!
We dug, tilled and hand planted corn and pumpkins today and it was so relaxing! The weather was perfect, overcast but warm, no wind.
She's 'giving' us a box to plant in so we can grow some veggies and then we'll get together to garden and harvest all of our produce as it ripens.
There is definitely something to be said about working with your hands, actually doing the work to prepare the ground, planting the seeds to grow your own food. Not much of it has started really popping up yet, but as it does, the anticipation of 'reaping what you sow' becomes almost..euphoric I think. God used reaping and sowing, good soil and bad soil, harvest, et cetera as examples to us of how to live, how to care, the proper state of our hearts, how to reach others. I love the simple things God uses to help us understand His word, His heart for us. We cannot comprehend the things of God, but he gives us practical, relevant parables that we can relate to in order to help us grasp the simple truths of His character.
God has blessed my friend and her family so much, with a beautiful home to house their beautiful little family and the amazing yard for the kids to play in and the great beds to grow their food in, and our friends in turn are blessing us with room to grow our own food in and the friendships that grow from working together! I'm so excited about watching all of our work pay off and can't wait until we can use some of the fruits of our labor to have a big, yummy family meal with them!
We decided it might be worth leaving one of the raised beds empty just so we can have dirt to play in, being as soothing as it is, with 5 kids, 5 years and under between the two of us, we just might have to have a mud pie mommy date!
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Beautifying
I've been longing for these..then it happened..I wandered through the clearance aisle..50% off the clearance price! So I went back the next day to get them..and the extra sale was over. I decided the 'original' sale price of 50% off was good enough for me, though that extra 50% off would've been lovely!
This is what my couch & pillows look like. Aren't they so amazingly '80s fabulous?! So.....
...I finally took the plunge and repurposed my sweater ($2 on clearance, just HAD to have it even though it didn't *quite* fit..) but look how cute it is!! One pillow down, 2 pillows & a couch to go..
Our first (and only, so far) strawberry! We planted this last year and thought it had died..then the sun came out! It's amazing what can happen with a little rain and sunshine! It was pretty sour (we ate it today!) but lovely!
Coming Soon: the ceiling fan project!!
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Project Three
Well, I didn't even come close to 31 projects in 31 days..
HOWEVER..
I did accomplish a lot of things that I'd been putting off and will be doing a bit more for the yard sale this Saturday! I feel good about everything.
One thing I LOVE to do is make cards. May is a crazy month of anniversaries and birthdays for us so needless to say, I've been having lots of fun! This one was especially fun because I got to be slightly more creative than usual.
It was my in-law's 28th anniversary last week. I looked online and found that the modern gift for the 28th is orchids and the color lavender is associated with it as well.
This is what I came up with.
Simple, black & gray paper (the back was white w/ the same black border)
I cut out the petals from white cardstock, glued them down and curled the edges around..wait for it..my meat thermometer (don't worry, it was clean!! and just the right size!) and then for the center petals I used a yellow and a purple stamp pad to lightly dab some color and then attached and curled them in the same way.
Details..
Overall, this month wasn't as productive as I had hoped but it was productive.
I hope to keep up the project goal, maybe 2 projects per week would be a more attainable goal..
HOWEVER..
I did accomplish a lot of things that I'd been putting off and will be doing a bit more for the yard sale this Saturday! I feel good about everything.
One thing I LOVE to do is make cards. May is a crazy month of anniversaries and birthdays for us so needless to say, I've been having lots of fun! This one was especially fun because I got to be slightly more creative than usual.
It was my in-law's 28th anniversary last week. I looked online and found that the modern gift for the 28th is orchids and the color lavender is associated with it as well.
This is what I came up with.
Simple, black & gray paper (the back was white w/ the same black border)
I cut out the petals from white cardstock, glued them down and curled the edges around..wait for it..my meat thermometer (don't worry, it was clean!! and just the right size!) and then for the center petals I used a yellow and a purple stamp pad to lightly dab some color and then attached and curled them in the same way.
Details..
Overall, this month wasn't as productive as I had hoped but it was productive.
I hope to keep up the project goal, maybe 2 projects per week would be a more attainable goal..
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Project Two
Well, this wasn't on my list, mostly because I'd forgotten about it until the hubby cleaned up the closet!
We have ugly fake wood paneling around one part of a wall and I've somewhat hidden it w/ a bookshelf, DVD racks and a shelf. Some projects I did last year included pictures I made using scrapbook paper and frames that I'd gotten on the cheap. It fancied up the Ugly Wall but it still needed more and thus, Project Two.
My mom had gotten these cute little shelves and then ended up not needing them so I said I would gladly take them off her hands! I'd searched for the perfect place and decided the Ugly Wall deserved them. I LOVE how it turned out!
(Note the frames above..)
Our baby spider plant is rooting, Toby picked me the daisy and Bella gave me the bleeding hearts..
My cousin gave us these adorable little jars for our anniversary last year. I LOVE them!!
Stay tuned for more projects!
We have ugly fake wood paneling around one part of a wall and I've somewhat hidden it w/ a bookshelf, DVD racks and a shelf. Some projects I did last year included pictures I made using scrapbook paper and frames that I'd gotten on the cheap. It fancied up the Ugly Wall but it still needed more and thus, Project Two.
My mom had gotten these cute little shelves and then ended up not needing them so I said I would gladly take them off her hands! I'd searched for the perfect place and decided the Ugly Wall deserved them. I LOVE how it turned out!
(Note the frames above..)
Our baby spider plant is rooting, Toby picked me the daisy and Bella gave me the bleeding hearts..
My cousin gave us these adorable little jars for our anniversary last year. I LOVE them!!
Stay tuned for more projects!
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Project One
One down, thirty to go..
I have several picture frames that I want to paint black and put my photographs in, making a sort of collage tied together by the matching frames.
I painted the first one today and I love it even more than I thought I would!!
Check it out! (Sorry, the lighting wasn't great therefore the pictures aren't great but you get the idea.. its black, I know, it looks green..)
So, I took the glass out before painting the frame and I set it on my chair, standing against the back rest.. then I forgot about it, leaned back and *crash!!* it shattered.. oops..
I have several picture frames that I want to paint black and put my photographs in, making a sort of collage tied together by the matching frames.
I painted the first one today and I love it even more than I thought I would!!
Check it out! (Sorry, the lighting wasn't great therefore the pictures aren't great but you get the idea.. its black, I know, it looks green..)
So, I took the glass out before painting the frame and I set it on my chair, standing against the back rest.. then I forgot about it, leaned back and *crash!!* it shattered.. oops..
31/31 Challenge
One of my friends gave herself a challenge: 31 projects in 31 days.
I'm going to join her!!
There are soo many projects I've been putting off because they're just not fun. Filing papers, sorting kids' toys..
So here is my list (part of it anyway..)
*File/shred paperwork, etc
*Organize closets (we have 5 of them so this may get broken down into separate tasks!)
*Sort the kids' clothes, donate/yard sale/pack what doesn't fit them
*Sort our clothes, donate/yard sale what we don't wear
*Organize/de-clutter the kitchen (we've accumulated so many gadgets and unnecessary stuff there!)
*Re-decorate for spring/summer (shelves, table, piano)
*Journal. I used to be really good at writing and I want to learn it again
*Read. I have a list of probably 50 books (more I'm sure) and I want to get in the habit of reading every day
I know there are plenty of other projects I'll come up with but I'd say that is a pretty good list to start with!!
Updates to come...
I'm going to join her!!
There are soo many projects I've been putting off because they're just not fun. Filing papers, sorting kids' toys..
So here is my list (part of it anyway..)
*File/shred paperwork, etc
*Organize closets (we have 5 of them so this may get broken down into separate tasks!)
*Sort the kids' clothes, donate/yard sale/pack what doesn't fit them
*Sort our clothes, donate/yard sale what we don't wear
*Organize/de-clutter the kitchen (we've accumulated so many gadgets and unnecessary stuff there!)
*Re-decorate for spring/summer (shelves, table, piano)
*Journal. I used to be really good at writing and I want to learn it again
*Read. I have a list of probably 50 books (more I'm sure) and I want to get in the habit of reading every day
I know there are plenty of other projects I'll come up with but I'd say that is a pretty good list to start with!!
Updates to come...
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