Friday, February 29, 2008

Psalm 61

Hear my cry, O God;
listen to my prayer.

From the ends of the earth I call to you,
I call as my heart grows faint;
lead me to the rock that is higher
than I.
For you have been my refuge,
a strong tower against the foe.

I long to dwell in your tent forever,
and take refuge in the shelter of your wings.


I've felt really tired lately, and haven't done very well in making time for devotions with God. In my Mary Heart Bible study, the last chapter I read was on living room intimacy with God. One story was told about a man who had different rooms in his house, but he had a sitting room with a cozy fire, where the Lord would sit with him and have devotionals every morning. There came a time when he got busy, and he would miss a couple of days in a row. Then one day he walked by the sitting room, and noticed that the Lord was there, waiting for him. See, God had been there waiting for him every day, even when the man wasn't there. And so it is with me. God is waiting for me to spend time with Him, and immerse myself in His Word. I need to keep the appointment. :)

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Who do they look like?

I saw this on Chantel's blog, and it looked like fun. We had some interesting, and surprising results. Everybody says Kevin looks more like Troy, but obviously this state of the art face recognition disagrees.


MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Ancestors - Family pictures



MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Free family tree - Geneology

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family search

This is kind of funny, considering. I'm convinced it was just the picture I was using, though, since the one below seems to be a bit more accurate. I mean, come on.


MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family photos - Free pedigree charts

New kitchen stuff

I went with my parents to Tai Pan yesterday, and decided to get a vase and some flowers to add color to my kitchen. Everything in my house seems so bland. It's all beige, so until we can paint (which may be never, or at least until we get the basement finished, which also may be never), I've got to get color in where I can. I put the plate up there cause it seemed like there needed to be something else, but I'm not sure if the plate is quite right.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Portable Sounds

My most recent CD purchase was tobyMac's newest CD, Portable Sounds. It's so good, and the kids love listening to it in the car. Below, you can listen to my favorite song on the CD (Stoopid thing isn't working. I'll leave it on in case it decides to work later).

Get this widget Track details eSnips Social DNA


Also, if anyone would like to pay for me to fly somewhere and see Jeremy Camp and tobyMac in concert, since they're not coming here, I won't say no.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Well Done, Husband

Troy just went to the grocery store, and out of nowhere he brought me home a box of chocolates. Happy Saturday to me! I love that man!

Also, to anyone who might be wondering, Troy did get a 3 day weekend, although on Thursday he didn't get home until after 1:30 in the morning. Which was absolutely, utterly ridiculous. We've enjoyed our time together this weekend, though.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

3 Day Weekend---Please!!!

Troy usually gets every other Friday off, and tomorrow is supposed to be one of them. I'm praying that they don't make him work this weekend, and he has another 3 day weekend. He got a 3 day last weekend, since it was President's Day.

I went to MOPS this morning. We had a speaker on marriage. I hate to say it, but I was bored to death. I'm not sure why, but I can only guess that my marriage is so darn good that I don't need to hear advice on marriage. Especially common sense advice. To be honest, I'm not too thrilled with MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers). There are too many speakers (almost every time), and all I really want is to get out and socialize with other moms, not sit there and listen to someone talk for an hour.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

FUNNY!

Ho Hum Pigs Bum

Life has been kind of weird lately. Troy has been working until 11 or so every night, so it's just me and the kids, mostly. He is around in the mornings until around 9, but that's all the time we get with him. I'm not really liking it, but it doesn't seem like there's any end in sight.

I'm also feeling like a huge homebody. I don't really want to go anywhere, or do anything. Even the things I normally love to do. Like Bible study tomorrow morning, and small group tomorrow night. I'm not really looking forward to either. I'd rather stay home and be lazy, I guess. I'm not sure why I get in these moods, but there you have it.

Maybe I'm also feeling a bit isolated. I don't have Troy around to talk to much, I don't talk much to anyone else, especially people I used to talk to all the time. I have good friends I used to e-mail with constantly that I hear from maybe once a month. I have a couple of friends that I talk with here and there, but sometimes I feel like I'm on my own little island. And I'm not sure if I like it or not. I guess my mood has just been weird the past few days. I'm not feeling sad or depressed or anything, just a little bit ho hum. One foot in front of the other, plodding along. It almost seems like I'm waiting for something, but I sure don't know what. It's just weird.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

From House of Flying Daggers

In honor of Valentines Day, this is from my all time favoritest movie. What a love story!

Love

"Love is finding that the things you like best about yourself are not in you at all, but in the person who completes you."






The youtube video is mine and Troy's song. It's the song I walked down the aisle to. I couldn't find the actual recording we used, but the person playing the piano in this video did a good job.


Wednesday, February 13, 2008

The Big Picture

"Don't tell God how big your storm is, but tell the storm how big your God is."

"The future is a hundred thousand threads, but the past is a fabric that can never be rewoven."

I think sometimes I get caught up in trying to tell God what to do. You know, the prayers where you tell God everything you need, everything you think should be changed, questioning what God has done in your life, etc. And when I stop to think about it, I can see the absolute ridiculousness of it all. Life is like a tapestry woven from millions of threads. At any given point, all we can see are a few threads here and there, and they don't necessarily make anything beautiful. The threads may be bright, or they may be very dark. And we might not like how the tapestry is looking, so we ask God to change it. What we're forgetting, though, is that God can see the entire tapestry. He can see the beautiful, complete picture. He doesn't need to be told what needs changing, especially from someone who is only seeing a teeny tiny part.

I also have been reminding myself lately to just live in the moment. So much time is spent thinking about the past, thinking about what could have been changed, or what we might have done just a little bit different. But that part of the tapestry has already been woven. It's done. Looking towards the future can sometimes be productive, but we never know what's going to happen. It could go a million different ways, and no amount of preparation or worrying will change a thing. God is weaving, not me.

And the last thing I try to remember is that the dark threads are every bit as necessary as the light and bright ones. Have you ever seen a beautiful tapestry, or painting, with no black (or dark) in it? The dark is what adds depth, and contrast. The only thing I can do, and the only thing God wants me to do with my life, is put all my trust in Him. Let Him weave the tapestry, and have peace that the picture at the end will be one of beauty.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Becoming Jane

**WARNING--If you have never seen this movie, or don't know much about Jane Austen's life, but are planning to see this movie, and don't want anything given away, skip this blog post**

I really loved this movie. The acting was excellent, it was very well cast, and the story was engaging. I really like Anne Hathaway, and thought she made a great Jane Austen. The two main characters had awesome on screen chemistry. When they looked at each other, you just knew they were in love. It was also interesting to recognize little bits and pieces of different Jane Austen novels thrown into the movie. It was so well done, but I don't know if I ever want to watch it again.


Why, you might ask? Because it was incredibly depressing. Yes, I knew that Jane Austen never married. So I knew that some point, things were gonna get sad. But for some silly reason I was hoping for it all to work out. For the love story to have a happy ending. And, failing that, I didn't really expect that I would care about the characters so much. I really, really wanted things to work out between Jane and Tom Lefroy. It was one of those bawling movies for me.

It did all end okay. Jane obviously went on to become a great writer, as she had hoped, but it was just a bit of a melancholy ending. If the impossible could have happened, and she could have ended up happily ever after, this is a movie that I would buy and watch quite often.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Body of Christ

Romans 12:5
so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

1 Corinthians 12:27
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

I've been thinking the last few days about being part of the body of Christ. My first thought is how thankful I am. It's a wonderful feeling to get together with a group of believers and worship together, or study the Word together. And to know that beyond that, there are believers all over the world, who all belong to the body of Christ.

But then, while all this was on my mind, I was listening to my Casting Crowns CD, and the song If We are the Body came on. It really got to me, especially the chorus:

But if we are the Body
Why aren't His arms reaching
Why aren't His hands healing
Why aren't His words teaching
And if we are the Body
Why aren't His feet going
Why is His love not showing
them there is a way
There is a way

I think it's so important that as the body of Christ, we act as Christ would. He never just sat around idle. He was always working, always doing something for the glory of God. Christ is still here today, in the body of believers, and the reason we are called the body of Christ is that we are to be doing the work of Christ.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Plodding Along

I haven't blogged a whole lot in the past few days, because nothing really interesting is going on. Just the same old stuff every day. It's not a bad thing, but it sure doesn't make for interesting blogging. I went to my Mary and Martha Bible study this morning, and that was really nice. I have small group tonight, and I'm sure that'll be nice. I've got MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) tomorrow morning. So I've got stuff I'm doing, I guess, I just haven't been inspired to write about it.

Life is good, though, and we're all happy and not sick (surprisingly). We've been incredibly blessed these last few months, and despite the snow trying to bring me down, everything is wonderful.

Sunday, February 3, 2008