Laura Story- Blessings

This song has become a very special song to us! I share it in hopes that you can be encouraged as well.  If you hit the link above you can listen to it. If you just want to read the words scroll down they follow!!

                                             Blessings~Laura Story
We pray for blessings, we pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
And all the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise?

We pray for wisdom, Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel you near
We doubt your goodness, we doubt your love
As if each promise from Your Word is not enough
And all the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we’d have faith to believe

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win, we know
That pain reminds this hearts,
That this is not, this is not our home…

What if my greatest disappointments,
Or the aching of this life,
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy.
What if trials of this life,
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise?

Waiting And Trusting...

Waiting And Trusting

   What no phone call from the Doc.? And you have no results as yet??  Waiting, waiting and still more waiting! I get so tired of waiting and just want to whine and complain at times. You know what I'm sure God gets tired of waiting on me to completely trust Him and give Him full control too. Maybe this time of waiting is what God is trying to use to teach me yet another thing in this situation. In fact I know it is!
    Trust? You mean you want me to not worry about my husband working alone with no one else around since he passed out? You want me to fully give up my husband to you and trust him completly to you? Just trust God, He will take care of us! I know, I know but its so hard to fully give up the love of your life or your child but as my husband reminded me last night, "The sooner you give in and give it all up to God the sooner He can do His complete work and the sooner You can enjoy life and Live in God's Will! God knows what's best for us!"  
    This is particularly hard for me as many of you know my father had a stroke when I was 10 and it left him paralyzed. My mom had to work and provide for the family. Life was rough and hard but I did learn alot. I don't want this for my family though. I want my children to have it better! To have what I wanted but couldn't have. Now I know my husband isn't paralyzed or anything like that and for that were very thankful. But he is very worn out and the children say, "Dad is just always so tired and worn out and is too tired to play games most days especially if he works a few hours during the day."  And so my head spins and I'm like "No, God! Please No!" This has been the restling of my heart of late. Until I learn to fully Trust God!
     I have had to learn to TRUST God so much more! And to not just give God control of most of my life but ALL of my Life. Even the most prized people in my life. I know God is my Father and He is the King of my heart and my husband is second! Is God truly 1st in your life and your husband 2nd and then your children?  I've realized so often God ends up last not first. If He isn't first in your life I challenge you to make Him first. Make sure and spend time with Him in His Word and in prayer. Does God have complete control of your life or are you holding back to something or someone you hold so dear to your heart??  
     If I could redo one thing in my past it would be to enjoy and truly make God the true love of my life when I was younger and single and didn't have much else to worry about. But I'm not going to linger on that I'm going to move on and cotinue to do it in my married life.
     My husband was so right when He said, "The sooner, the better!"  As weird as it may  sound were thanking God for allowing this to happen to us. We have become closer as a couple. Closer as a family! Best of All closer to God!! And have learned so many valuable lessons!
     Here we are near the end of another day and still waiting for answers but I have HOPE and TRUST God! He knows!!We have a doctors appointment on Wednesday morning and we should get the results to his 24 hour EEG then. Until then one thing I know is We are in God's care!! PRAISE HIM!!!
    Hope you have a great day trusting and relaxing in God even in the mist of the unknown! I like to call it the great adventure with the ones I love best or the Blessed & Unknown Journey!!!  Blessings~
 

A Special Supper with Leftovers

 

Delightful Leftover Supper

 

 

    I want you to know this idea didn't origonate from me but I absolutely loved it as did my children so I wanted to share it with my friends as well.

 

My Girls helped set the table! They loved doing it!!

I also typed out a menu and here it is!

    Each place setting had a name tag that the girls had made as well  and then beside each place setting was the menu that I had typed out. It was all left~overs that I had in my fridge that needed to be eaten. A little of this and a little of that! Even though my 2 youngest couldn't read it they loved it just as much as the others did. I then was their waitress and took each of their orders and served them.  They loved it as they got to choose what they wanted for supper! It cleaned out my fridge really well too!!!  We all enjoyed it so much that I think well do it again sometime when the left overs stack up!! It made a special evening with the food that was already made!!         Happy Serving~ 

 

 



When Life Hands You Lemons...

When Life hands You Lemons make Lemonade

 

    Does your life seem rough right now? Do you feel like life just isn't fair? Do you feel like no one truely understands you? Does it seem like what more could happen to you?

     Have you lost someone you loved dearly? Has your life took a drastic change? Do you know how to handle that change? Does it seem to overwhelming and you don't even care?

     Are you ready dear brothers and sisters if Christ should return tonight? You know things can change in just the blink of an eye!

     If your facing something dramatic and life seems to overwhelming and your stressed from your head to your toes. I want to encourage you friend God already knows! So give your cares to Jesus and let Him have control. It's not easy to do I can tell you I'm struggling right along myself.

    I'd encourage you to take time to read God's Word and to meditate. A few things that have become so real to me are: God says, "For I know the thoughts  that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give

you an expected end ( a future and a hope)."

    God also tells us to not worry or fret. If we do we lose the peace and joy that He has to offer us.  He also says, "...in whatsoever state I am,  therewith to be content." I find it hard at times to be content in the valley's that God allows in my life but I'm striving to always be content and to praise God for even the valley's in our lives. Because it's in the valley's where we truly grow!

     Have you asked God to give you a peace and a joy to continue on through what He has allowed to come in your path?  God says, "to let our request be made known unto God in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving!" Also "I can do all things through Christ which strengthen me!"  

    A few other sayings that have become special to us are: When God closes a door; It's for your protection. When God open's a door it's an invitation! And the other one: If God brings you to it; He will see you through it! We seen this on the way to the ER recently when my husband passed out on me and after they admitted him to the hospital on the other side of the sign was the top saying. It spoke straight to my heart and was exactly what we needed to read.

    I've been challenged lately; Am I making lemonade out of what I consider were lemons that God gave me? Do you make lemonade out of your lemons??

    Where still deep in this new chapter that God has allowed in our lives and still have no idea what lies ahead for us but I pray I will always take to heart and remember this blog through it all. I fail, I struggle, and I cry out,"Why?" And you know what that's okay. God hears my hearts cry. But its then in that time that I need to commit it all to God and let Him have complete control and to Trust Him where He leads! Is it easy? "No!" Is it worth it? "Absolutely!" 

    As a dear friend told us resently, "Psalm 23 says, He makes me lie down! It doesn't say if you want to its says He makes me." God knows your needs and whats best even before we do.

    I'm ever so grateful to my dear husband! It will be 8 years next week and I am so BLESSED!  Through this valley He has been so strong, He has been a great encouragement to me and I have been so blessed by his gratefulness, confidence and trust in God through it all! He has a peace that is undescribable! He has taught me that I can't change anything anyway so why not just trust the Lord who is our Guide, our Strength,our Comforter? I'm slow but I'm learning and I'm so blessed. My days always go so much better when I do exactly what the Bible says and what my husband has encouraged me to do!

      Dear Friend, Will you trust God with your life? Your Family? And will you make lemonade out of lemons?? 

      I pray you have somehow found courage to keep putting one step in front of the other. Have a great day!  Blessings to All~

                                  ~ A fellow traveler trying to make lemonade~

 

 

 





Hope for a Weary Soul

                                                        Hope for A Weary Soul…
   Are you weary? Do you feel like the world is crashing in around you? Do you feel overwhelmed? Overworked? And Under-payed?? Do you feel like your world is a huge mess?
   Did you know in the gospel of Luke it tells that:
*Jesus came to a messy world
*He was born in a stable
*His parents~pretty much unmarried
*He chose to walk with messy people
*His best friends were fishermen
*He was known to hang out with tax collectors
*He left His ministry in the hands of uneducated men
*He ate with sinners
*He let a scandalous woman wash His feet
*He rubbed elbows with the rejects of society
Time and time again Jesus met people in their mess and offered them hope! And the Bible says He is the same Yesterday, Today and Forever! He wants to meet us in the middle of our mess, too.
   Can you believe when we pour out our miseries. God just hears a melody of us needing and desiring what only He can give!
   Are you like me in that you get so overwhelmed that you just want to pick up the phone and call your husband (or like me I do call him) and share the troubles of the day & let him know you need him home RIGHT NOW!? And If He doesn't get home with some Pepsi & Chocolate and to help you that you will explode in 10 minutes.? Okay, sometimes I do, do this but I know he is miles away and can’t come but you know what He understands and He will be there and help me through whatever situation I am in as much as he can via phone.
   That would be on days where, someone was playing in the bathroom and got water and soap everywhere, and another took tools and scratched the walls and dressers and took a hammer and made notches into the door & wall. While another got all the movies and DVDs out. While another one has torn a few books and written in others. Someone has dumped the trash and when you were making bread you accidentally dropped the oil and a good portion of the floor gets covered. And when you go to discipline the first child then 2 of the others start to fighting. That my friend is when I pick up the phone and as soon as my husband answers I just cry.
    Why not go to the Heavenly Father and cry & pray & pour your heart out to Him? He will meet you in the mess and He will be right there with you if you ask Him to! So often I forget and I just pick up the phone and pour my heart out to my husband when really I need to be calling out to God! I’m not saying I can’t call or share with my husband but if I called on God first then I’m sure I’d save my poor husband a lot of stress. Cause he wouldn't have to calm me down God would of already done it!
   How often do you feel like your just not a good mom? You feel lost and helpless? You just feel plain weak? You know what God says, “It’s OK to be weak. It’s OK to not know what to do or how to do it. It’s OK that you don’t have the answers, I do! It’s OK to feel lost. It’s OK to need help. It’s OK you’re not perfect, I was! It’s OK to fail. It’s OK to get things wrong! It’s OK to be WEAK, because in your weakness I AM strong.”
   Do you feel like your house is always dirty with piles of dishes all around and loads of laundry on the couch or in baskets to be folded? The carpet full of popcorn and needing to be swept? When you look around and you don’t know where to start I challenge you to pray Asking Jesus to Come to you, in your mess. To your kitchen (or wherever) but first to your heart. And let Him know you are in need of His grace. As soon as you call, He will come running. He brings His Word to wrap around your heart! He says things like:

Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10 (New American Standard)

“Come to me, all you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28 (New Living Translation)

He wants to help us and comfort us! Hope wants to lift my heavy burdens and give my soul rest. But we have to be honest about our struggles then we can receive comfort. Then nothing is between us and hope reaches straight to our hearts. Our house may still look like a disaster or like its been hit by a tornado but God can lean in and whisper to us and let us know that He will help us!  What if instead of hiding alone in our messes we would clump? Clump as in getting together and laughing and doing life together. Cause If I have my guess right I’m not the only mother who has had these feelings.
    If you remember the story of Hagar in Genesis 11 she was a mom in the middle of a dark & desperate situation. But God had her precisely where He wanted her--weary & worn. She was in a place where she could hear Him speak. God didn't send her back weary & worn. He had a promise for her to claim as her own. A promise of life. A promise of a future. A promise of mercy. He had pursued her heart, not because she deserved it, but because that is who He is.  God wants to do the same for us if we will allow Him too.
   We don’t really want a mocha frappe when we are weary. What we really want is rest for our weary souls. We have got to get into the habit of running to God and not from Him.
   And I’m speaking to myself!! Honestly if no other good comes from this blog it done me a world of good and was a great reminder to me! And a challenge.  I took a lot of phrases out of the book called Hope for the Weary Mom Written by: Stacey Thacker & Brooke McGlothlin. If you could identify with this blog and you get a chance to read this book I’d encourage you to do so! It has been a huge blessing to me. God definitely knew when I needed it!!  Hugs and prayers to you and I pray you will have a Blessed Day and will Have a renewed kind of day!  Don’t forget to turn on music when you go back to work it will help you to Praise & worship God in your storm of life! God’s Blessings to all~    
                                                                            ~From One Weary Traveler~

Minds, Death & Grieving

   This mind has been spinning about, my dad, and others who have gone on to their Heavenly reward and death. There is so much I just don't understand. Tonight my daughter was in tears saying, "Mom, I don't want to die!" Her 2 siblings replied, "Yes, you do then you'd get to be with Jesus and Grandpa in Heaven plus you'd be a Beautiful Angel!" When alone with me she broke down again and said, "Mom, the Bible says, That God will come back and get those who love him and will burn the rest of this earth and I want all my friends and family in Heaven with me."  Now how do you explain all that to a dear child? I tried and she was much more at peace and happier. I just pray I answered so she truly does understand.
   My mind has also been thinking about grieving. Can a person not grieve when they first lose a loved one because their happy that their pain free and that they don't have to face anymore opposition? But bam all of a sudden 3 years later you start fighting with in yourself and grieving?  You get a longing for that special person. Everything reminds you of them.?
   Can a person grieve and not step foot into a cemetery? Is not wanting to walk in to the cemetery a sign of not wanting to deal with grief??  Is not wanting to see a grave site with no stone on top part of not wanting to except what has happened??
   Death has been on my mind alot lately. At times I wonder if I'm dealing with death wrong? How am I handling death? Death has seemed so hard on me lately and I feel like it has hit me harder now then 3 years ago. I don't understand and probably never will.
   I have had to face the lost of a loved one often and I hope I don't have to again soon. It's not easy. As a friend put it Grieving is like a pool. I have felt like I'm drowning lately but I'm thankful for the dear friends who have seen it and reached out a hand to me and helped me keep my head above the water. It's not easy! My best support and encourager has been my husband. I'm very thankful for him and all he does and most of all his understanding. Grieving is a long, lonely  journey.
   How do you feel about the whole grieving process??  I know many will have different thoughts. I'm just sharing my spinning head for a day.         Praying well all meet in Heaven some Beautiful Day!!!
 
 
   

Our Christmas Blessing

                                       Our Christmas Blessing
   What a wonderful Christmas! My children were treated royally!! Thanks to a local gas station that is only a few miles from our house. 
   Well I told those in the 25 days of Giving/Blessing group (now known as 'Random Acts of Kindness') that I'd share how we were so blessed!!
    I have to say we had done Christmas for some dear friends and my children handled it very well even knowing that they weren't going to get near what we had given. Some of the toys were things my children just couldn't wait to receive someday but they never really wined about it but asked if they could help wrap the presents which we did allow and they loved it!!
    It was very overwhelming and we felt so undeserving but we also felt very blessed!  One day my youngest brother stopped in and said he had been to the local gas station and they asked him if he had a sister that lived close by and had 4 children really close in age? He looked at them rather weird and said, "Yes, that would be my sister." They asked him if he could let me know that I needed to come in their to the gas station sometime that day.  So my brother stopped by. Thankfully Moine was still home that day and he told me to run in alone to the gas station and then when I get home he would go on to work since his day had been messed up that morning already.
     I ran to the local gas station and instantly the ladies were like your brother must of got a hold of you and I said, "Yes!"  They said that the employees had decided that they wanted to do Christmas for us but didn't know how to contact us. We hadn't been into the gas station for several weeks and they were starting to fear that I wouldn't come back before Christmas and they had no way to contact me. They informed me that they do Karing for Kids and they like to do $150 per child but normally its only 3 children or less. So they talked with corporate and got the okay to split it 4 ways instead of 3. They wanted to take me to Walmart shopping to buy a huge amount of toys for my children. No clothes! Toys only!  They felt bad and I told them my children have never ever seen that much money worth of toys at Christmas so they will be very delighted and thrilled!! And they were! I was overwhelmed with trying to get what I felt was best and would be most enjoyed by each child with such a big amount to spend but it was fun too. Two of the employees also gave my husband and I a gift card to use at that particular gas station as well. It's humbling to receive but we were very thankful!
      Moine stayed home with the children that evening while I ran to Walmart and met one of the employees who is very special to my children partly because she shares a name with our oldest but cause shes just a special lady. She had also given the boys a bunch of pants and shirts that her boy had outgrown so my boys thought alot of her as well! Anyways, before I left the house I set the children down and asked them, "If I took you to Walmart and told you to go get whatever you wanted what would you get?"  Everyone was so silent. I had to repeat myself a couple times finally one of the girls said, "It's okay mommy we know you don't have alot of money and you won't have enough to get us all what we want but its really okay mommy!"  She was so serious and it made me tear up. Bless her heart!  I finally convinced them that I wanted to know but I told them, "I make no promises that i'll be able to get everything."  I was so glad I had a list!
       The boy's got remote vehicles, tool boxs, tools, firehouse dog dvd, police car  & fireman tanker (both with noise,) twist-able crayons, coloring books, double sided markers, Uno, cars memory game, and I can't remember what else.  They got tons of toys. I think they were even so overwhelmed they weren't sure what to do with them all.
       The girl's got a doll bed, each of them got a highchair which turns into like 3 other things, twist-able crayons, coloring books, double sided markers, neck scarves, Dora dvds, a new doll, Chutes & Ladders, A Richard Scary game, a doll stroller,a scrapbooking set and a stamping set. They too got tons of toys! I think they were also overwhelmed and not sure what to do with it all. I know this don't mento
       My children were so blessed! It is a Christmas that won't be forgotten!! Is still talked about a bunch and everything is still being enjoyed!!  We have started playing alot of games in the evening as a family and the children love it!!

Here is Moine carrying all
the gifts that he could handle
in a huge tote. He still had
to carry a few out later!

The children had no idea that they were getting so many presents for Christmas until Moine walked out carrying a huge tote of gifts all wrapped! We caught there expression on video but I have no idea how to post it. I wish I did cause it was good!!      They were totally shocked! We hope each of you had an awesome Christmas as well! With out Jesus none of this would be meaningful. God Bless each of you! Happy New Year 2013!!

Opening presents!!!

Waiting to open their 1st present!!

Some of the boys stash!!

And this was all the trash
afterwards!

As many know Myron wants to be
a fireman when he grows up so
they're putting up the fire house!