Monday update

So, for the weekend, I stopped spring cleaning. :) We've had such a busy week that I thought we should take a break. Not much left to do anyways. :) I've got to get back into the cleaning though, but its not going to happen today. :)

We got AT&T U-verse today! whoohoo! So far, so good. :) Love the new channels and so does Hannah! :)

We're trying to potty train Hannah. She has done really well for the last 2 weeks. She'll have a couple days where she won't pee in her diaper and then one day where that's all she'll do. We've started bribing now. When she gets potty trained, we'll buy her a powerwheels car! The neighbors across the street have two for their children and she wants one really bad! So, we keep telling her she needs to work on getting her car by going potty! Today, she got up and went all by herself without me making her! I'm so excited!! :)

The kids have runny noses again. :( We go a couple days well and then 1 week sick. I think we're taking a break from nursery and what not for them to really get them healed.

I am loving our connection group book that we are reading. We are reading "The parent you want to be." It's really good and goes hand-in-hand with the other book that I'm reading "Parenting isn't for superheroes."

That's our life at the moment. Not a whole lot going on at the moment, but I'm sure that will change; it usually does. :)

Spring cleaning update

Ok, so I didn't take a break yesterday. I did do Christopher's room. I cleaned out his toy chest, at least, dusted, cleaned the windows, and vacuumed. I still have to clean out closets. I think I'm saving that until the very end. :)

Today, I cleaned the guest bathroom. I cleaned the rim around the top of the shower, scrubbed the walls, cleaned under the sink, cleaned out the drawers, cleaned the floor, scrubbed the grout with Clorox, cleaned the outside of the liter box, vacuumed, cleaned the toilet, and the sink. Now, I smell like bleach! But that's ok. :) That brings 5 rooms done and 3 to go! I am loving cleaning out all this junk!

Tonight is Bunco and I'm excited! I've been so busy lately, I feel like I need some time home though. I worked at the church Tuesday night, Wednesday night, tonight is Bunco, and I work at the church Friday night for Friday Night Out! It's just been go, go, go!

Currently, I'm reading Isaiah (still), Parenting Isn't for Superheros, and The Parent You Want to Be. Lots of reading. I'm also still reading The Power of a Positive Mom. Lots of emphasis on parenting lately. :) I want to be the best parent I can be so that my children know that I love Jesus and that they will love Him as well. Some of this parenting stuff is difficult for me and it makes me cry, because I see all the areas that I lack in. BUT GOD IS GOOD! And He knows my heart is in it and He will provide and help correct those lacking areas. :) Isn't that great knowing that we have Him to look to for the things we lack?! :)

Ok, now its time to shower and clean myself up a little for Bunco. I've also got a load of dishes washing, clothes in the washer, and clothes in the dryer. Busy, busy, busy. :)

Spring cleaning

I've started our spring cleaning now. Yay! We started in Hannah's room on Monday. We sanitized toys, cleaned windows, dusted, moved furniture, vacuumed, cleaned out the toys (the ones too small for her moved down to Christopher's room).

Tuesday, it was the living room's turn. I added the dining room to it too. I decided to rearrange furniture. I wanted the dining room table in our bay window and turn the dining area into a reading area. I thought it would work, but couldn't find the measuring tape, so I just moved all the furniture. Guess what? It didn't work and I ended up moving all the furniture back! Haha! That figures! But, all the furniture got cleaned and the windows, the floors swept (we have wood floors), I still need to dust, clean out our gaming area, but the rest of the two rooms got done (with lots of help from Hannah). I even washed the couch cushion covers.

I think I'm taking a break today from the cleaning. Christopher woke up for an hour last night and then got up one other time after that. I'm really tired today, just worn out. So, I'll resume my cleaning tomorrow. I've got to decide which room to go to next, I'm thinking Christopher's room since he inherited a lot of toys, I need to clean out his toys as well.

This is a great way to get ready for garage sale season! :) Very excited that I'll have a lot to sell off. :) What doesn't sell is going into the next Rhea Lana consignment sale. :) YAY!

Forgiveness

I have a Study Bible and while I was finishing reading Job tonight, I came across one of the inserts and it deals with forgiveness. It touched me, so I thought I'd share it.

Forgiveness is Unfair
At its core, forgiveness remains unfair. These is something unjust about a person's dastardly deeds going unpunished.
Such thoughts nagged at me until one day I came across an admonition from the apostle Paul tucked away in Romans 12. Hate evil, be joyful, live in harmony, do not be conceited- the list goes on and on. Then appears this verse: "Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay,' says the Lord" (v. 19).
At last I understood: In the final analysis, forgiveness is an act of faith. By forgiving another, I am simply trusting that God is a better justice maker than I am. By forgiving, I leave issues of fairness for God to work out. I defer to him the scales of justice.
Wrong does not disappear when I forgive. But it loses its grip on me, and is taken over by God. He knows what to do.-- Taken from an article by Philip Yancey that originally appeared in April 8, 1991 edition of Christianity Today.

Funny blog

I read another book this week called "Reconstructing Natalie" by Laura Jensen Walker. Yes, she's the same one who wrote "Miss Invisible". I'm going to read all her books, they are just so great! Anyways, this one is about a woman's struggle and triumph over breast cancer. It's got humor, sadness, hurt, happiness, romance, etc. Some of the things she wrote made me laugh out loud! Especially the first sentence. "I'm obsessed with breasts." I mean wow! What an opening sentence! I wasn't sure about the book after that, I mean it could go anywhere from there... But, anyways, it was a great read. I hope that if I ever have breast cancer, I'm as brave as the main character was!

Not so invisible

So, I guess with some people I can open right up. I'm working at our church this week in the nursery for our Christmas Dinner Theater (our Christmas program), and I was working with someone I knew only in passing because she used to be the leader for my daughter's hallway when she was 1. Anywho, I opened right up and we talked about all kinds of stuff, my past, my present, my family, everything. It was so nice. Maybe its more of, if I feel like you'll receive the information and really care about what I have to say, then I open up. I guess that's good though, because I don't want to waste my time and breath if you really could care less. Not that I can't be nice to someone who doesn't want to hear it all, but sometimes you really don't need to hear it to care about someone for just who they are now. You don't always need to know what happened to them to make them who they are today! Ok, so that's my revelation for now. I'm going to bed, I'm exhausted!

Invisible update

So, I said I wasn't going to be invisible, but I did it again last night. I was at a party where I only knew a couple people, but instead of talking to everyone and getting to know more people. I kept to myself. I'm not sure why I do this so much. I usually only talk to people who talk to me first, that way I know they really want to know me better. Makes me wonder if other people feel the same way, and I'm just making it hard on them...

"Miss Invisible"

I just finished reading this great book "Miss Invisible" by Laura Jensen Walker. If you've ever felt invisible by how you appear to others or how you think you appear to others, then you definitely need to pick up this book. In it, she starts a blog to complain about how people treat her because she is a "big woman". By the end of the book, she is a stronger woman and happy with who God made her to be. She also realizes that people can feel invisible and not be "big".

I sometimes feel that way. I sometimes let people treat me like I'm invisible or that my feelings don't really matter. Not anymore. I know God loves me for who I am, even if not many people know the true me. I feel like I've changed so much in the last year that most people don't know me anymore, even if they were really close to me at some point in my life. They may know a lot about me, but they don't KNOW me. Hopefully, this blog will help you get to know me a little more and get to know who God made me to be.

I'm not very outgoing, but I'm also not very shy. I don't usually talk to people at first; I sit back and observe, its not that I'm a snob or anything, I just like to get to know people before I decide how much of my guard I'm going to let down. I've been hurt in the past by the people who were supposed to protect and love me and so now I protect myself. I'm trying to let some of that go now. I've forgiven them, but that doesn't mean they didn't hurt me and that I don't hurt anymore. Anywho, that's another topic for another blog post. :)

I tend to ramble, when I get started its hard for me to stop. I love to laugh and enjoy time with friends and my children. I love to play games (board games, not mind games). I like some video games, but not many. I prefer some one-on-one games like Sorry, Monopoly, Trouble, Clue, and games of those sorts. I love to play Bunco! I started playing about a year ago and I'm hooked! I'm part of a group of women that get together once a month to play! It's so much fun!

Some other things I like: I love pedicures, snow, rain, sunshine, swimming, going to the park on a great spring or fall day, talking on the phone, being a servant for the Lord, reading, scrapbooking, playing on my computer, traveling (hopefully one day, I'll go somewhere really exciting other than AR, SC, and TX), and having babies! Yes, I said having babies! I love being pregnant and giving birth to a wonderful little miracle! Raising them is difficult and that has to be where most of my complaints are, but then I remember that chose to bless ME with these wonderful little children and that usually makes my day all better.

Ok, so for now, I'm going to end this. I'm sure I could go on and on, but I do need to take care of my home and children some too. Enjoy reading future posts!