What is God teaching me?

I've come to realize over the last little while that sometimes, the Lord just wants us to do the best where we are.  That we don't need some sort of grand relization of a calling, or any sort of recognition for what we do.

1 Peter 4:10-12

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁰ Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. ¹¹ If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

<sup>I'm feeling lately like my focus needs to be more on my little family.  I think I need to take from this verse the serving, and apply it first to my husband and kids.  I want my kids to grow up knowing that the Lord blessed me with a gift by allowing me to raise these two precious daughters.  That the love that I have for them, comes nowhere close to the love that the Lord has already showered on them with his sacrifice of life.

I am so inspired by the Proverbs 31 woman.  Read these verses:</sup>

Proverbs 31

New International Version (NIV)

Epilogue: The Wife of Noble Character

^{10 [b]}A wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies.
¹¹ Her husband has full confidence in her
and lacks nothing of value.
¹² She brings him good, not harm,
all the days of her life.
¹³ She selects wool and flax
and works with eager hands.
¹⁴ She is like the merchant ships,
bringing her food from afar.
¹⁵ She gets up while it is still night; she provides food for her family
and portions for her female servants.
¹⁶ She considers a field and buys it;
out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.
¹⁷ She sets about her work vigorously;
her arms are strong for her tasks.
¹⁸ She sees that her trading is profitable,
and her lamp does not go out at night.
¹⁹ In her hand she holds the distaff
and grasps the spindle with her fingers.
²⁰ She opens her arms to the poor
and extends her hands to the needy.
²¹ When it snows, she has no fear for her household;
for all of them are clothed in scarlet.
²² She makes coverings for her bed;
she is clothed in fine linen and purple.
²³ Her husband is respected at the city gate,
where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.
²⁴ She makes linen garments and sells them,
and supplies the merchants with sashes.
²⁵ She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.
²⁶ She speaks with wisdom,
and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
²⁷ She watches over the affairs of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
²⁸ Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
²⁹ “Many women do noble things,
but you surpass them all.”
³⁰ Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
³¹ Honor her for all that her hands have done,
and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

 

Does anyone else feel exhausted reading about all this woman did?!?  Modern conveniences sure has given us more freedom... and yet, I don't know about you, but I feel like I actually am nowhere near as effective in my day as this "superwoman".

 

Leading up to Christmas, I am going to be focussing on the different aspects of this womans day, and try to model a bit of how I view my role in my family, after this Biblical example.

 

Week one focus: vs. 10-12

Feeling so Encouraged.

In the summers, I volunteer at a Bible Camp about an hour and a half away from where we live.  I love it.  That's probably why I've been doing it for 11 summers now... yikes!  How can it be that long already!

I have been home from camp for a week and a bit now.  I was there for three weeks in a row.  We run camp a week at a time, and have different age ranges. The first week that I was there was mid-teen.  The campers are 14-16 year olds, and I was a counselor.  I packed up K-Bear and Bean, and one went to my Dad and Mom in laws, the other went to my sister in laws for a whole week.  That was a really difficult decision.  I have not been away from either of them that long before.  Bean is 3.5 years and K Bear is 16 months, so you can see why it was tough!

I felt very strongly that God was telling me I should head up (at church that morning they announced that the camp which was started that day was short counselors. The kids were coming up in approx. 5 hours from when the announcement was made).  So, I packed up the three of us in a couple hours, got the girls shipped off, and then drove up to camp.

Right away when I met my campers, I was so thankful that I was there.  I had a wonderful cabin of girls, and it was an enjoyable week.  There were tough spiritual questions, which is part of why I love my study Bible... but also some great discussions about relationships, which I felt much more equipped to handle being married with two kids, than when I counseled while I was dating and a teenager myself.  More than that, I just felt a peace about being there, that I knew was from God because leaving my babies does not leave me peaceful usually.

At the end of the week, DH drove up to camp with my kiddos and sent Bean into see my in the cabin while I was cleaning up (sweeping and such), and I just heard a little voice say "Hi Mommy!"  I burst into tears when I saw her and hugged her tight, my cabin girls were laughing and saying how cute she was.  Until that moment I honestly didn't realize how much I missed my babes.

We went straight into a second week, but this time we were all down (my whole little family of four).  DH was the manager and I was down watching our kiddos, and helping watch some of the other little ones whose parents were down in leadership roles.  It was a good week, but stressful in it's own way too.

The third week I was down I filled in as a co-director of a girls only camp.  It was awesome!  The only not awesome thing was that my dear friend couldn't come down last minute because of her pregnancy complications, which is why I was a last minute stand in.  I had such a wonderful time, and the staff were all amazing to work with.  Being a girls only camp, it made for a lot of fun interactions like a pj party in the chapel (which would never happen if there were boys around), a slip n slide (a lot safer with only females), and a lot of talking :)

I was so blessed by the devotions.  Instead of doing devotions in cabins, and having the counselors do them, my friends who were planning this for months before hand, decided that the senior staff would do the devotions each day on the baseketball court.  They had subjects for us, and we had 15 minutes.  I have to admit.  When they first asked  to do a devotion I was terrified!  I don't feel like I am gifted in that way, and I don't ever know what to share because I worry about coming across too much like "I know exactly how that feels".  I got asked to do the devo on "God's faithfulness through tough times."  I felt very ill equipped to handle this subject as I really feel that I have not had the same degree of tough times that many of my friends, and family have had.  I was prepping Isaiah 40:28-31 about "mounting up on wings like eagles."  But the more I considered this... actually right up until I was sharing my devo with the kids, I changed my focus and talked about Job.  I love the book of Job in the Bible!  It's one of the books I've read through completely more than a few times.  I love the hope it has for believers going through hard times.  Job was the most righteous man that God could give as an example to Satan at that time, and he still had to go through trials.  Yet, in the midst, he still praises God, and does not sin by blaming God, or cursing God.  Even with his three closest friends egging him on, and his wife nattering in his ear, he still chooses to praise God.

When I finished my devo, I felt like I had been all over the place, and totally scatterbrained, but I really feel like God directed my words to hit home because a few friends later on told me that the kids were really listening, and I even encountered a couple campers who were totally excited to read Job afterward!

I head back down to camp in a week, for two more weeks straight, and I am looking forward to the lessons, and blessings the Lord has planned.

I love camp.

Pictures of Reno...

The Before Pictures.

Our breakfast bar previously had no storage underneath, was shallower, and did not reach to the walls.

Our cute little kitchen... I really did try to make the best of what I had :)

Yes, I know the cupboard doors were missing... they had been off since the day we moved in and decided to paint the cupboards white... 5 years ago :)

The teal color was really happy.

And now....

Introducing:  My New Kitchen! :)

The layout of the appliances and sink stayed the same (to save cost), but the countertops are more space than we had before.  The empty space above the stove is where our over the range microwave will go when we buy it in the states.  Once we've done that, the stainless steel one we are borrowing from my brother will go in the shed :)

My new sink and faucet.

The backsplash is so beautiful, and white!  It was my first time tiling and grouting by myself.  And my little pink lamp is new!  Love the bright pink.

We had a breakfast bar before, but now it is wider, and has cupboards underneath!

New laminate floors that I installed.

The most genius thing ever!  Love my drawers under my kitchen sink.  (Got the idea from my sisters new kitchen)

Plumbing that I did myself.  (again, first time :) )

For the Love of Pinterest, and my Kitchen Reno

I am not new to Pinterest... I have been enjoying perusing and "liking" most of my friends posts for quite a while now.  However!  I am new to trying to implement some of the ideas I am seeing!  I have a few things I want to do around the house, and I think the best start is to make a list and just start crossing things off as we have the time/finances for it.  As I complete things, I would like to start posting things and showing some of my own ideas that I've done to try and organize my little home.

That leads me to my other half of the title:  My Kitchen Reno!  Can't believe we are actually in progress of the reno, and that by this time next Sunday I will have new cabinets, a new sink, a DISHWASHER (can you tell I didn't have one for the first 5 years of our marriage?), and hopefully have all the stuff moved back into the kitchen.  My brother in law has his own custom kitchen business which is why we decided to go that route instead of my beloved Ikea.  We also decided that because our kitchen is a little akward and small that a custom installation would maximize our kitchen space, and also support Ty!

DH and I demo'd the existing kitchen yesterday and today, and have only a couple pieces left that are surrounding the pipes so I am waiting for my Dad's expertise to tell me the best way to remove it!  What an experience!  DH and I don't usually do the home improvement stuff together... usually it is me and either my Dad and I, my brother and I, or me all by my self.  It was actually fun to sledgehammer out the cabinets, and pry off the UGLY backsplash tiles that have been around since we moved in.  I think probably everyone deals with the never ending list of home improvements that you have to prioritize!

The day we moved into our house we took out the room divider in the living room, and demo'd the upstairs bathroom (everything other than the tub and tiles).  Then, we renovated the upstairs bathroom, painted the entire main floor, redid the entryway floor, replaced every light fixture in our house, painted all the woodwork in the house.  The basement got the last of our budget dollars, so we just painted all the paneling, and for the "wow" factor; replaced the carpet.

After we finished all that, and decided to take a break from the reno stuff (for our budgets sake) our basement flooded.  So it was back to the drawing board.  We tore out the whole basement (minus the laundry and downstairs bathroom), reframed, insulated, and drywalled everything.  I designed the layout, lighting, and everything... only thing I forgot was the phone line in the basement (oops)!

After we got all that done, we are on to the kitchen , which was unexpected but so exciting!

So, through the next two weeks, my struggle is going to be not stressing about any of this ;)

I will add pictures as soon as I have time.

Today was a good day.

I feel accomplished today.

I am trying to revel in this feeling because I don't often feel this way at the end of a day.

I woke up late this morning (not a good start usually), but got the kids fed, dressed, and went outside to work on my front garden, which honestly looked like it was from an abandoned house. K-bear stayed in the playpen (I couldn't trust her to sit still, and definitely not to leave the twigs and leaves alone and not eat them). Bean played "balance", by walking back and forth along my bricks that are the separation between the lawn and the garden. She also helped by bringing her little garden tools and digging along with me.

Then, after I got the entire garden done, we came inside, had lunch, kids went down for a nap, and I got some (like an hour) quiet time.

I got the girls up from their nap, dressed, and then headed down the street to see our new friends whom apparantly we've lived here for five years, but haven't interacted with them! She has two kids, her little girl is three (same age as Bean), and her boy is 7 months. Also, I shouldn't be surprised, because I know the Lord knows what we need, but they are Christians! It's so exciting to have someone who lives so close to us, and can be an encouragement to me, and safe place for my kiddos to go.

Then, my brother and I fixed the downstairs sink so that now our company can use it. I ate supper, talked to my Grandma G, and then skyped with my Grandma C... put the kids to bed, and now am visiting with our friends, and watching Biggest Loser! I am so tired, but I am so thankful that the feeling of accomplishment is so wonderful :)

Countdown that I don't want to happen: 32 days

The title has to do with the amount of days left of my best and dearest friend moving with her little family down to Australia.

I am trying to cram memories into these next few weeks, that will hopefully leave us with enough fun and positive memories that they can be like mini "hugs" when we think about them to get through the painful separation and rest of our lives being long distance.

Every time I think about possible next babies, heartaches, happiness, and all the in between and Amy being across the world, I nearly give up and just curl up into a ball and cry (determined to last for the rest of my life)... but, we will make the long distance work! We WILL be one of those friendships that grow strong even with oceans between us.

We are very blessed to live in the time of such technology that we can actually video chat! When we do have exciting news we don't have to wait for snail mail to get it to eachother over months and never be able to see eachother face to face.

I've also told my husband that 5 years is about long enough to save up to go to Australia for a visit... even that long makes me cringe, but I have to be honest with kids and a house that will probably be the time frame...

Oh boy, I am getting sad writing this, so I am going to break for today.

A New Direction

Well, my best friend is moving across the world, and I've decided to get more serious about this blogging thing to help us keep up to date and in touch.

It's interesting because I always seem to have the same goals... Wake up earlier, go to bed earlier, do my devotions more frequently, keep up on things that I need to do.

I did accomplish school with Bryna today! We did a few exercises about the letter Z, and played some games on pbskids.org. Then after lunch I put Kaylen down for her nap, and Bryna and I worked out with Jillian Michaels doing the 30 day shred.

I am working on my schedule. Trying to make my days more purposeful, and accomplish the things I keep rewriting on my to-do list... trying to switch them to my "done" list.

Anywho, I will update more later.