Thankful ...

Be thankful that you don't already have 
everything that you desire.
If you did, what would there be
to look forward to?

Be thankful when you know you don't know something,
for it gives you the opportunity to learn.

Be thankful for the difficult times. 
During those times you grow.

Be thankful for your limitations,
Because they give you opportunity for improvement.

Be thankful for each new challenge,
Because it will build your strength and character.

Be thankful for your mistakes,
They will teach you valuable lessons.

Be thankful when you're tired and weary,
Because it means you've made an effort.

It's easy to be thankful for the good things.
A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who
are also thankful for the setbacks.

Gratitude can turn a negative into a positive.

Find a way to be thankful for your troubles,
and they will become your blessings.

It's The Little Things ..

I haven't written in quite some time, and I have a MILLION other things I need to be doing right now ... filling orders, laundry, MT coursework ... And as my head is STILL pounding over a week after my migraine began, I can STILL find joy in the little things ....

As a stay-at-home mom, I am blessed as well as cursed.  It is a complete joy & blessing to be able to stay home with my children & watch them grow & be there for them ... But it can also be frustrating, annoying & sometimes even depressing ... Today, however, the joy of it completely overwhelmed me ...

I love to hear the giggles down the hall as Maddi & Dylan play games ... I listen to the words they say & laugh to myself sometimes at the things their sweet little minds imagine ... After I put the kids to bed tonight, Dylan came toddling down the hall about 30 minutes later & cried, "Hold me, Mamma!"  My first instinct was to tell him to go back to bed, but instead, I picked him up & in literally seconds he was asleep.  I held him for about another 30 minutes & just pondered how blessed I am.  I have BEAUTIFUL, HEALTHY, HAPPY children.  Dylan told me probably 10 times today that he, "loved me this much in the world."  I can't even tell you how it melts my heart to hear that.  I could be absolutely livid & if that kid came up to me & said that, the anger would just fade away ...

Maddi starts Kindergarten in August ( I absolutely CANNOT believe this !!) & she is SO stinkin' smart !!  She's ready to go.  She asked me if she was going to Kindergarten in five days yesterday.  LOL  I said, "NO !! It's months & months away !!"  More to appease myself than to answer her question.  She will be fine.  I will be a blubbering mess .....

And my oldest is going to COLLEGE this fall ... I am getting old ... My babies are growing up way too fast, and it seems like just yesterday that Brandon was Dylan's age.  I mix their names up all the time (a Young trait).  When all 5 of my children are in the same house, it is total chaos.  But I LOVE it !! Nothing makes me happier than to have all of my family in the same place, at the same time.  The times that that happens are few & far between.

But I just needed to take a minute, a break, whatever you want to call it and tell my children how much they mean to me.  Time just goes so fast & before you know it, it's over.  No matter how old they get, no matter how far away from me they go, I will always see them as my babies !!  I love you, Brandon, Nicole, Shaelyn, Madalyn & Dylan & you will ALWAYS be my babies, no matter how old you get !!!!!

Seven tattoos & Counting ...

I have seven tattoos, as I'm sure most of you already know.  I have pictures of them posted on my facebook.  They all mean something very special to me.

The first tattoo I got when I was in my early 20's, a sun on the right side of my abdomen.

I love suns & I got this one with green eyes, like me.  It reminds me that I can shine as brightly as I want to.  No one can put out my shine, except me.

My second tattoo was on my lower back.  Yes, I have a tramp stamp.

I <3 Butterflies !! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them !!  Anyone who knows you can attest to that.  They are so free, so beautiful.  They remind me that appearances can be deceiving & that it is what is inside that matters.  Butterflies don't start out being beautiful ...

My third tattoo is on the back of my neck.

Green is my favorite color & I have always been partial to Shamrocks, even though I don't believe in all that "luck" stuff.  I believe that our lives are pre-determined by God & that He already knows the path that we are going to take in life.  However, Shamrocks or "4-Leaf Clovers," as I grew up calling them, remind me of my childhood.  I would spend HOURS searching for the elusive 4-Leaf Clover.  The happiness & the carefree attitude of a child is something that we shouldn't forget when we become adults.  And, of course, my hubby is Irish ;D

Fourth, came the tattoo on the top of my foot.  I went with my BFF, Angie, to get this one.  It was INCREDIBLY painful, but only because the nimrod doing the tattoo kept talking, and every time he would talk, he would lift the needle.  GRRR .... Talk about frustrating !!

Again, in green, and with my Butterfly theme.  This one is a little more "girly."  And I LOVE the Japanese Kanki which states simply "Butterfly."

For tattoo number five, I went with two of my best girlfriends & we all got the same tattoo just above our left ankle.

The butterfly design matches a dragonfly design on my BFF, Anastasia's foot.  The writing above says "Best" & the one underneath says "Friends."  Angie & I are the only ones who still have this tattoo, as Anastasia added to hers:

My father passed away on February 2, 2009 & I immediately wanted to get a tattoo in his memory.  Thus, tattoo #6 came about. 

This one is on my left forearm.  It incorporates the faith in God that my father & I have, my love of butterflies & the belief that my father is now free from all the pain he was in and is free like a butterfly.

My seventh tattoo is on my right wrist.  It is a simple black butterfly.  Angie & I both love butterflies & wanted to get matching tattoos to signify our friendship, so that is what we chose.  We are going to add to it & tweak it a little bit because we weren't entirely happy with the outcome.

Now, I'm ready for my 8th tattoo ... I want this tattoo to represent my life as a mother ~ the most important job I have & will ever have.  It will probably go either on one of my shoulder blades OR on one of my sides, under my heart.  It will look something like this:

My sister, Robyn, is working on a better sketch than this.  Brandon's name will be down the middle.  Then, starting on the right side (if you're facing my body, it will be on the left):  Nicole on the right bottom wing, Shae on the top right wing, Madalyn on the left top wing, and Dylan on the bottom left wing.  Then, @ the bottom of where Brandon will be, I might put my initials & Tim's initials.

I also want to get a small tattoo in memory of my cousin, Jana, who died from breast cancer with her initials in the butterfly somewhere:

Any thoughts or ideas ??

I Never Thought I'd Say It ...

When I was a child and would get into mischief, my parents would offer some dreaded words of admonition that I swore to myself I would NEVER in a million years say to MY kids ...

Well, THAT didn't happen !! LOL

One of the "nails-on-a-chalkboard" phrases:  "Because I said so !!"  "Mommy, why can't I watch 30 more minutes of TV on a school night?"  "Because I said so !!"  Or, "Mommy, why can't I take your permanent pink Sharpie marker & draw on the white wall in my bedroom anymore?"  "Because I said so !!"

Here are some more famous lines:

* You don't know how good you have it ... we didn't have video games and the internet, we had books and the backyard! We actually had to LEAVE the house to see our friends! And we TALKED to them on phones that were attatched to the phone by a wire... IN THE KITCHEN!!!!!


* Do you think money grows on trees?


* If you do that again, I'm gonna knock you into next week!


* I'll give you something to cry about!


* Don't sit so close to the TV or you'll ruin your eyes.


* If you keep doing that to your face, it's gonna stick like that!


* Don't come crying to me if you break a leg!


* You're skating on very thin ice!


* This will hurt me more than it will hurt you!


* Shape up or ship out!  (Really?  Where did they think we were gonna go?)


* Not while you're living under my roof ...


* You are in BIG trouble, Mister (But Mom, I'm a GIRL!)!


*  Because I'm the Mommy, that's why!


* No sweets before dinner or you'll ruin your appetite!


* Don't ask why!  Just do it!


* Don't make me count to 3!


* That's it!  I've had it!


* One more peep out of either of you and I'll pull this car over!


* Stop that or you're going to bed RIGHT NOW (at 12 in the afternoon)!


* I'm going to call Santa if you don't stop acting up and tell him to skip our house!


I guess it's true ... We DO become our parents when we grow up AND if our kids are holy terrors, it's payback for what we did to OUR parents !!! LOL

Overcoming Evil

Psalm 44:6-8
I do not trust in my bow, my sword does not bring me victory; but you give us victory over our enemies, you put our adversaries to shame. In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise your name forever.

Over the past almost 6 years (and even longer), I have dealt with outright, unadulterated EVIL.  There is no other word to describe it.  It has been repeated attacks by the devil to break me down.  At times, it almost worked ...

Like all other Christians, I am human.  In the past, I have tried to deal with these bouts of evil alone.  I didn't trust God enough to handle the situations for me.  I thought to myself, "I can take care of this if I just keep trying."  WRONG !!!!!

Deuteronomy 20:4
For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory."

Thankfully, God is very forgiving & He allows us the opportunity to learn from our mistakes and get it right the second time around.  So, I am reaffirming to myself tonight and to God that from now on, I am relying on God to deal with these adversities.  People can only hurt you as much as you allow them to.  Instead of letting them anger & hurt me, I will be praying for them from now on.  Obviously, they are not happy in life if they feel the need to try to hurt me and make my life miserable and cause trouble for me & my family.

John 16:33
"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

 

Amen !!! Why worry when you can pray ?!?!  God has got it under control & I know this from personal experience.  So, I'm gonna let go & let God !!!  How awesome is it that God already overcame all the problems that could EVER come my way when he died on the cross for our sins ?!?!?!

This does NOT mean that I will ever be perfect or better than those who try to come against me.  It simply means that, with God by my side, the evil inside my enemies will NOT win out.

Ephesians 4:22-24
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

It's Been A While ...

It's been a while since I last wrote a blog ... I don't even know if anyone reads these besides me, but I don't guess it matters since I am venting and making myself feel better ...

There a few reasons for my lack of writing, but mostly, I just have a lot going on. I run around most days, doing the exact same things, over and over. I feel like I'm in that movie 'Groundhog Day,' where the day keeps repeating over and over ... Dog peeing & pooping on the floor instead of his puppy pad, kids peeing & pooping all over themselves, feeding the kids, ATTEMPTING to get my MT schoolwork done, and the list goes on ... and I now find myself in some kind of never~ending "fog" that I can't seem to get myself out of.

The first 5 months of Tim's deployment were bearable. I was fine. I did my schoolwork, I graduated with my BBA, I went home to NC, the kids & I finished out the summer, Nicki went back to school ... but somewhere in the past 3 weeks, the pieces have slowly been unraveling and I can't seem to stop them! I feel like I'm drowning! My nerves are terrible! I feel like I can't breathe all the time, like I'm suffocating. I pray to God all day long to take this unbearable misery away, I rebuke the bad thoughts & feelings ... and they leave for a little bit. The devil is fighting me so hard, and I feel like I'm losing. HOW do I make this go away?! What do you do when you're fighting with everything you have inside and feel like you are simply beating your head against a brick wall over & over again, waiting for the blessed relief of unconsciousness, only to find that it is never going to come?!

I KNOW I am not the only person in the world having a hard time! Anyone trying to live a good life & be a Christian is living a hard life. What does that tell me?! That time of Jesus' coming is close & that the fight is only going to continue to get harder! So, I have to pull every bit of strength that I have deep down inside me and keep on keepin' on. I have to.

SO, I found these quotes tonight & I am going to keep reading them until I no longer feel like I am suffocating ~

"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith-of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire-may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." 1 Peter 1:6-7

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13

I am going to pray & pray, even though I feel like I am all prayed out until the peace that passes all understanding fills me and I feel strong again.

And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7

As I was getting ready to end this blog, I found the following while searching for bible verses & I believe it with ALL my heart & I KNOW God led me to this and he is going to get me through it:

"In these times of uncertainty, you may be feeling pressure from various sources. You want to know what you did to deserve the problems (financial, marital, health etc.) Well, the Lord wants you to know that these problems are not a punishment. He wants you to know though everything seems to indicate that your life is falling to pieces, don’t you believe it! Remember, that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him and have been called according to his purpose”. Hold on to your faith in the Lord. He will not allow you to fall. He hears your prayers and has already answered them. “Stand still and know that he is God”. “The protector of Israel never sleeps nor slumbers”. He is faithful, hold on. The manifestation of what has been released in the spirit is on the way. Though it is the enemy’s job to make you tired to the point of giving up, don’t you do it! ... Praise Lord, my brothers and sisters! Praise him in the midst of the trial. Be strong not in your own strength, but in the strength of Jesus, who has endured all for you and I. So, be encouraged and know that the Lord sees your trials, has heard your prayers and has released his grace, deliverance and favor upon your life. You're not suffering for past sins (the devil is a liar) God has forgiven you. Your current delimma is just a trial, permitted by the Lord to draw you closer to him. So, lean on the Lord, friend, and know all is well. Keep your mind on him and he will keep you in perfect peace. As a believer, I bind the spirit of anxiety, condemnation and doubt. I loose an increase in your faith, I loose the peace of Christ in your life this day in Jesus name. Remember the Lord loves you very much and he knows exactly what you're dealing with and has declared his divine peace and favor to be upon you. Now accept and live this day in it. In Jesus name."

I Am Now Looking At My Father's Death In A New Light ...

I began a bible study last week for wives of deployed soldier's that teaches one how to deal with the emotional and spiritual battles of the Military Wife. The author of the study bible we are using wrote this:

In my book, Hope for the Home Front, I tell another story of my wonderful father who, despite our years of praying for his healing, died with amyotrophic lateral sclerosi (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease, at 53 years young...As I grieved for my dad, God gently taught me that true safety and deliverance is unseen to the human eye. If I believed my eyes, I would be tempted to believe that God had not protected, healed, delivered my dad in the least. I now know otherwise. In 2 Corinthians 4:18, we are told to "fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." By faith in what God has said in His word about our one hope and one salvation, Jesus Christ, I know in my heart that my father experienced God's best deliverance ever...unseen and eternal...right into the presence of God.

I cried when I read this. Not because I don't believe it, but because it made me think about my daddy's death in the way that God would want me to, and that I should have been looking at it all along. I thank God for allowing me to grieve in my own way and for showing me that it's okay to be sad and to miss my dad and wish that he were still with us.

Through this passage, God showed me that my comfort should be found in the fact that my father is in the presence of God, no longer hurting, no longer unhappy! I will be there with him one day, and I strive to live the life that God, and my father, would be proud of.

God is GOOD, and I look forward to more positive revelations such as this one as the bible study continues, and as I grow as a person! God put me in this Bible Study for a reason !!!