Problem solving. Thinking about solutions. There may be a new home for ‘avoiding the sandy land’ in the near future. Keep you posted 🙂
TTFN
All posts in Bits Of My Personality
Galactic Phaser
You might think I am the craziest mama in the galaxy, giving my intergalactic three year old warrior a noisy ‘galactic phaser’ gun… but I had a plan; good book, ear plugs and the gun as my insurance that I get reading time 🙂
TTFN
Contacts
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| (Contacts mean sunglasses, and sunglasses mean WAY less migraines, which means I am happily out doors more!) |
And the contact adventures continue! I ran into too many snags getting my first order from Costco, as had been the plan, so I went with the wonderful shop that sold me the new glasses and shades I am enjoying. No fuss and in no time they had my first six months worth for me.
Thirty Something
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| (their beautiful sparkling young eyes) |
Turning thirty did make a difference… at least for this lady… I am well over thirty now. Looking back I had no idea it would change anything, which is a naive thought because everything changes things… every day brings change and just breathing means you are growing, changing and lets face it… aging.
I was thrilled with the hope that I would suddenly be taken more seriously, once I left the 20s behind… ironically much the same feeling I had as I left my teens behind… now I realize the whole ‘taken seriously’ thing is pride and I don’t want to be too serious about life or I will not age gracefully.
Age gracefully… oh… that has been my plan the whole time I was young… now I took off my glasses and could see myself clearly for the first time since childhood (thanks to contacts) and realised age had been sneaking up on me as it does everyone else… only mine had been hiding behind some dark frames…and I hadn’t noticed for a long time. The initial realisation had me teary and I was horrified at my human, and very womanly, response. I was worried mostly that others would notice, and be as shocked at the change as me, and perhaps be unhappy with me.
Beauty fades if it is just a skin deep thing.
Obviously some insecurities where rubbed a little raw as I glanced, through contacts, at the over thirty me.
I alone can decide how I am going to react to aging…
Had a good look at my children. Looking them in the eyes (their beautiful sparkling young eyes) I decided I have to be mom first. Would I ever stand for my daughters seeing their beauty as only skin deep? Or my boys overly worrying about their short lived handsome features? When I behold my loved ones all I want is for them to find eternal beauty in the potters hands… so…
I remembered how I have ALWAYS had an abundance of grace toward my mothers looks, almost romanticism… she has and always will be beautiful!
Contemplated the stunning ladies who have mentored me and written on my heart. Most where elderly when I knew them, skin deep beauty had faded to a story of life lived on their skin. Their secret wasn’t cosmetic surgery but eyes still sparkling with love, life and passion. They had hearts ablaze for Christ and so they oozed fruits of the spirit…
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
meekness, self-control; against such there is no law.
~Galatians 5:22&23 (ASV)~
meekness, self-control; against such there is no law.
~Galatians 5:22&23 (ASV)~
… fruits of the Spirit… something/someone that can’t be bottled and sold… except perhaps bottled into our hearts… as long as we invite Christ’s Spirit to flow in our lives, he will be there to transform us into true and ageless beauty!
But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.
~2 Corinthians 3:18 (ASV)~
TTFN
Money Talk (Marriage Monday)
Money is opportunity for a couple to work on surrender.
Money is something that can clearly effect ones relationship with each other negatively; thus certainly can stress the spiritual connection we have with Christ. It is something that can give a person the allusion of control over their life and thus tempt one to surrender less or to see less value in surrender to Jesus. The antidote to this temptation is indeed surrender!
Keeping Christ out of any area in our lives is not an option for the Christian. For us, finances are just as much a faith conversation as a part of our physical circumstances. That being said, tithing isn’t the subject in our home, when it comes to money and our faith. The conversation is focused on the idea of including our money when we talk about and act on the concept of living in Christ. We don’t see it as a way to live for him but to surrender to him.
In agreement my husband and I don’t tithe. We have moved away from the commandment idea, and are working on the ‘living in the Spirit’ reality instead. We have a goal in mind, a goal to continue increasing in our giving and at the same time to put a cap on our lifestyle increase… in this way we hope to walk more in faith and worship day to day; understanding surrender as worship and faith building. We hope to consciously choose to fight against the ‘american dream’ self increase ideal and instead grow in a wholly surrendered life in Christ.
Hold to your spouse and walk this road together with joy and faith!
Hold not to your finances but to Christ.
~~~
Marriage Monday is a link up opportunity, where a collection of blogging Christian women get together to post on a marriage related topic. Click linky below to see what else was contributed and consider joining up yourself!
TTFN
Change of Face
Well, not a complete, or drastic, change of face really… Today was a big day for me though. A little bit of new!
I had been talking myself out of contacts for years, holding onto a favorite pair of frames. With an opportunity to go to a large glasses outlet, ALONE for a couple hours, I had my chance to change my own mind.
Walking in I had a set goal in mind. Nothing less then what I was thinking could make me put my faithful vera wang frames aside.
“Cat eyes,” was my blunt explanation at the clerks request to aid me. Well she didn’t disappoint. Back in a flash she had some bling bling cat eye frames that made me feel all glam librarian! My next response was equally as to-the-point, “Sold!”
I almost talked myself out of contacts one more time. Thanks to a very good clerk I stayed, went through the introduction to it all and discovered I am very capable when it comes to touching my own eye.
I walked around a bit, to make sure I was fine with the contacts in. As I strolled back to get the washing kit I spotted a pair of REAL sunglasses! They were BIG, pretty shaded glass and actually in style. Could these be my first pair of sunglasses since I was a child?! Casually I handed them to the lady at the desk, squealing inside, then strolled into the contacts office to get my supplies.
With that I had new glasses, contacts and sunglasses!
TTFN
Thrifty Finds
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| (They’re just waiting to hold tea and crumpets!) |
Yes, it is a wise choice to frequent thrift shops when you are a stay at home mom, however it isn’t pure practicality for me…I learned to really enjoy the process involved in thrift shopping long ago. It is a very different kind of shopping, compared to mall and retail stores. I was raised on thrift shopping thanks to two frugal ladies, Grandma Smith and my mom. Both let me tag along on regular thrift shopping adventures and taught me how to hunt for the treasures. Now it is I who lets the child(ren) tag along.
My eldest daughter was hoping to find a purse, so we went to ‘villa village’. She found her ‘new to her’ bag… And I found two purses, two tea cups, with those marvelously extra large saucers for snacks, and two sweetly vintage-esk tops.
Been admiring this skirt like style of bag, that purse number one is, for years, but never could talk myself into the price of a lot of leather-esk bags out there so…. This one is soft, easy to open and easy to fish stuff out…when I spotted the price tag, 4$, it was sold.
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| (Purse One) |
Purse two caught my eye right away, I would like to say it was my Scottish blood that drew me to it. My Dad would say it was my Scottish blood that put it in the cart when I realized it too was only 4$. I had to laugh when I got it home though. My soft imitation leather summer purse is exactly the same but a light blue color and no plaid! I really like the wide mouth clasping style instead of a zipper for the main pocket of the bag.
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| (Purse Two) |
I was hoping for a dress but spotted these two laced tops instead. Together they where ten dollars.
My girl went away with a couple books and a shiny black shoulder purse… successful treasure hunting on a quick night out with my lovely daughter.
TTFN
ROMANCE (Marriage Monday)
~WASTE NOT a minute of your time together~
Life is short, eternity doesn’t include marriage so enjoy it while you can! With how fast time moves, the older you get and the more kids you have, you must seize the moment. While my man can be ‘shy’ about hugs and kisses in public I am not. He has learned to let me, and I have learned to find a lot of pleasure out of his embarrassment (wink). Basically, even if the kids are around we flirt, tease and laugh with one another because lets face it, date nights and perfect romantic moments alone are rare, due to financial limitations and the amount of little people we have to disrupt it all. Every little moment to be romantic counts. He passes me in the kitchen and I grab his beard and pull him in for a kiss. I walk by with the laundry and he gives me a hug (upsetting the laundry). We are getting pretty good at not wasting time, so much so that the kids have noticed. The other night I said, more to my man then to the kids, “Off to bed you guys, I need to give your Dad trouble for eating all my goat cheese (yes I take my favorite snacks seriously)”. To this my daughter responded with, “Oh yeah right (sarcasm already, she is only ten), you’re just gonna cover him in smooch-y kisses”!
~ TAKE IT, it is yours to possess~
I knew even when we where still dating that I was the romantic one. The one who needed, and noticed the most romantic little moments. Thus I quickly got good at telling him clearly what we should do, pointing out when we where in the middle of a perfectly romantic moment, and MAKING THEM HAPPEN MYSELF.
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| (Bike riding together at river.) |
The way I got over the feminine tendency to be frustrated at him, for ‘not getting it on his own’, was to start seeing when he actually was being romance in ‘his own way’, and to accept, appreciatively, his uniqueness in this area. When he would throw me over his shoulder and laugh at my screams, this was romantic to him. When he would buy me a chocolate bar and eat half then smile as I reprimanded him, this was romantic to him. When he follows me with his eyes, usually when I am sick or tired or just a mess, this is VERY romantic to him. All of the previously mentioned ‘man romance’ moments now make me laugh, and love him even more! Finding contentment in how one another ticks, finding joy at how unique they are from what ones culture calls ‘romantic’, is key to a happy and flirt-y relationship.
Practically, we literally carve out time for one another. Yes we try to go on dates but mostly we work hard to keep our schedules much more calm then what is normal speed all around us. We make it a family priority to have plenty of unplanned free time for all, and then to enjoy it with one another.
Time is so romantic 🙂
TTFN
Squeeze The Tomato
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| (What a stunning river it was that day, so calm… at surface level…) |
I don’t know if I can ever comfortable write out all that happened when our neon was totaled. A big truck pulled out in front of us and made an accordion out of our little car. So many people where there for us, little miracles where pieced together after the fact, and although it shouldn’t have been so we where all okay… physically.
A conference speaker said ‘When the tomato is squeezed you see what was inside.’
When I sat physically paralyzed by shock, after the accident, I received one of the most amazing miracles of my life. I assumed the worst and yet was praying, with seemingly no will power of my own, over and over and over ‘Thank you Jesus.’… I didn’t feel abandoned in that moment, I realized I didn’t let go of my faith when I thought it was over and I didn’t feel alone… far from it… I have never felt so wrapped up in my saviors love, so secure in my eternal salvation and so THANKFUL for Jesus having me!
This was years ago, before we had our last two kids. Where is my heart day to day? When the big events aren’t happening how is it doing? Am I devoted to him, unconditionally as I live my pretty undramatic regular life? Am I devoted to him when my undramatic life gets a good dose of drama or trauma? We are called to trust. When we do we soon discover all these kinds of questions are answered in him and by him, because Jesus takes care of it… if we can just trust.
Proverbs 17:3
(American Standard)
“The refining pot is for silver,
and the furnace for gold;
But Jehovah trieth the hearts”.
We will be refined and purified, through out this life, by our Lord. We can’t do any of the cleansing. This is the very reason Christ came! He is our doctor and wants our sickness! The hard things in life reveal where we are at in the process but they also can be used by the Lord to burn away our impurities, as gold is purified by the furnace.
Jeremiah 17:9-10
(The Message)
“The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful,
a puzzle that no one can figure out.
But I, God, search the heart
and examine the mind.
I get to the heart of the human.
I get to the root of things.
I treat them as they really are,
not as they pretend to be.”
a puzzle that no one can figure out.
But I, God, search the heart
and examine the mind.
I get to the heart of the human.
I get to the root of things.
I treat them as they really are,
not as they pretend to be.”
We are sick. Often we can drum up guilt over what we see coming up from our heart and more so from what we know is there, masked with our performances. We are afraid of what we don’t know about ourselves. We crush ourselves with guilt when we fall… AND YET we can ask the Lord into our temptation instead of wait for the fall. We can let him in to examine the darkest store rooms of our heart, to discover what we don’t even know about. If we would just stop fighting our deceitful heart on our own and stop punish ourselves with guilt, neither have benefit… instead surrender our pride, pride in our abilities and strength, and hand the heart over to the Creator.
The enemy wants us to believe we are beyond hope when our dark recesses are exposed. He doesn’t want us to allow the Lord to clean it out. He is a liar. Trust in your Savior!
Psalms 3 1-4
(American Standard)
1Jehovah, how are mine adversaries increased! Many are they that rise up against me.
2 Many there are that say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah
3 But thou, O Jehovah, art a shield about me; My glory and the lifter up of my head.
4 I cry unto Jehovah with my voice, And he answereth me out of his holy hill. Selah
So I would like to punish myself, on a regular basis, for how sloppy my devotion to him looks each and everyday, but I need to stop working on things in my own strength and learn the lesson I was taught in that car accident… Jesus knows all about all the dark and all the deceit in my heart. Still he faithfully holds my heart, fixes it, and loves me.
REMEMBER God is not fair, he is merciful!
Jesus is Jehovah’s mercy to us!
AND JESUS always honors repentance!
P.s. The tomato metaphor and other inspired portions of this post I gleamed from the teachings at conferences put on by SPOKEN WORD MINISTRIES (teacher being Boyd Hopkins). LINK to find out more about this excellent discipleship focused ministry.
TTFN
Snow Aliens In March
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| (Awe, my baby boys first snow angel… or alien…) |
It is a good thing we got out in winters first real batch of snow. Only a week later, since the snow storm, and most of it has melted! This is the prairies so we could get more or we could end up with a warm wind that sweeps it all away. Such a strangely warm winter this has been…
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| (I have fallen and I can’t get up!) |
Where I am living weather is a normal conversation to have with anyone and everyone. Weather conversations can get very intense. One specific thing I have started to notice was the difference between my friends out west (on the coast) and my friends here on the prairies. Out west they assume they are entitled to snow-less winters and warm weather… out here we assume we will be punished for good weather, he he he… I don’t know how many times I have heard, this year, ” We are going to get punished in July for this mild winter”! It makes me smile at our differences.
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| (Take picture of snow ball mama!) |
Now my kids and I have an advantage in that we are totally happy with a snowy winter so we don’t get down either way. Kids don’t think about the future like adults do. We often have an attitude of ‘if I think the worst I will not be disappointed’. That attitude doesn’t usually turn out the way we think. Generally we just become more grumpy personalities and in some ways always disappointed as everything is a chance to be negative.
Everything is a chance to not be negative too. Kids are living now and so unconcerned with what may come that they are usually happy with any weather. The attitude of ‘make the most of what ever it is’ seems to flow from children. The more I relax as a mom, and go with their happy little way of looking at life, the better I am at mothering and the better I am at living in general.
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| (If life gives you snow, make snow soup!) |
Baby Boy has been really into making snow angels this past week. New discoveries are always so fun. He calls them ‘snow aliens’ though… not sure where he got it from but I corrected him and he gave me a look as he corrected me in return… and I realized he knew exactly what he was saying. I guess he isn’t as weirded out by the idea of aliens as I am, he he he. “Such a pretty snow alien,” he smiles.
I want to be a woman of praise… living to praise Christ Jesus in all things and the least I can do is learn to praise him no matter the weather. I am thankful for our dump of snow because of the fun the kids and I had in it. If it hadn’t snowed my Baby Boy wouldn’t have discovered ‘snow alien making’ or my five year old wouldn’t have been able to make me ‘snow soup’. My oldest two got to make their first, ever, snow forts and where so impressed with their abilities. I got to watch it all, capture it all and treasure it in my heart. Thank you Lord for working on my heart, strengthening it in you to be able to praise no matter… no matter the weather and with hope to learn praising no matter the circumstances.
TTFN
