Rolling up my sleeves....

This past month was as awesome as last month. God taught me a lot and I feel I grew a lot. I did start planting in doors and I have sprouts coming up. No tomatoes yet. Last year I was sooo behind with my tomatoes it was quite funny and now they won't even sprout for me. Hahaha well we'll see.

Its funny because I mostly focused on the planting part of last months challenge but the first part of the verse talks about our proverbs woman look at good land and making a responsible decision on whether to buy it or not.  Well this month I discovered the joy of couponing. Haha, thanks to my friend Lisa I am now exploring a new world. For the last few years of being married the way I shopped and the way I thought I saved the most $ was to buy store brand things. I would actually feel a jealousy at times when I saw people buying name brand things, that do tend to taste better. I know how lame is that that I felt jealous of that of all things haha.

At first couponing didn't make any sense to me, it was over whelming. But I just spent half my day today going through coupons and checking out grocerygame.com and man I'm really starting to understand it andI really hope to save my family lots of money.

Well I got to go shopping now so ... write more later.

:)

New month:First thing in the morning, she dresses for work, 
   rolls up her sleeves, eager to get started.
She senses the worth of her work, 
   is in no hurry to call it quits for the day.

A new month...

Wow... This past month has been amazing. A lot of ups and downs. I did move closer to my goal of wanting to be more structured. I did start to get up earlier and plan out my day. Actually, Joel and I sat down on Sundays and planned out my schedule for the week. Well, we did that one Sunday but it was a step. I still struggle

Updates:

- My mother in law and I started selling our crafts and some other homemade things at a country store in town. Stone House Country. We found out that we can start setting up and selling early so last week we busted our butts to make sure we had enough to put out.

- I was also starting my first week of teaching 4 Zumba classes instead of just two. So scheduling out my time was very very helpful because I didn't get overwhelmed with it. If I didn't have the schedule I probably would have gotten very stressed out and probably wasted a of time.

- I have still been trying to keep God in the front of my mind as much as I can. It is a hard thing to do but it has been a blessing.

It is so crazy how my life has changed so much in the last month and half. No more Life Bridge but on to something(s) new that I never fathomed I would be doing and I love it! It excites me!

I do miss life bridge at times.... The kids. I have had a few of them come to Zumba classes which is great. I have such a peace though knowing its all in God's hands.

Some of the downs:

- My mom was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. They are going to start her on chemo right away and do the operation later in hopes that the chemo will shrink the mass.

- Frustration with the scheduling thing. I always worry that if I schedule things and stick with it too much I miss out on divine appointments.

Well thats pretty much where I am at.

verse for this month

She looks over a field and buys it, 
   then, with money she's put aside, plants a garden.


I hope spring (it is currently snowing... AGAIN!) will get here soon... In the mean time I will start to plant my garden inside. :) 

She's up before dawn, preparing breakfast 
   for her family and organizing her day.


God has a sense of humor people say right? :) hahaha I think so. 


He knows exactly where I am able to try growing at this point in my life. Up above in blue is my challenge for this month.  I love it. I know it will be challenging and annoying and yet I will love it and will learn to rely on it because I need to structure myself. 


So tomorrow morning I'll be up at 8:00. I know ... its not that early, but I will start there and gradually get earlier and earlier. :) 


I'll let you know how it goes. 

Plenty of new things...

Ok I have a lot to fill you in on and because I am able to fill you in now frees me up so much more to be even more open.

Ok so you already knew my desire was to get better at serving my husband (my family). I have been trying for so long to figure out how to do that best with a full time job which was in a different ministry from my husbands. I knew that If God has me in that position that he would help me through it or make it clear to me that I had to leave my position at work. Part of my struggle was what brought about this blog. I wanted to be honest and share with you my feelings, thoughts, successes and failures while trying to allow God to use me in Joel's life as his wife.

Well three weeks ago I was asked to resign at the ministry I had been devoting my life to for four years. It did hurt a bit yes, but I can say confidently that I know it was of God. I had been feeling unsettled there for a while now and I just didn't know when the right time to leave was. Finances came into the picture and we had thought that if by next December if I still felt that God was leading me elsewhere, that I would leave then and we would have enough savings to help us out if I didn't find a job after that. Well this definitely happened quicker than we expected and planned.  :) It taught us a lot about planning our lives that far in advance... ultimately God has the last say in what happens. He knew when the right time to get out was.

I didn't do anything horrible for them to ask me to resign. They saw that my gifts were not being used as much as they were before, prior to the changes in my job description and I was weak in areas they needed me to be stronger. The job just didn't fit any more and what first drew my heart there was no longer what we did any more. It was hard and not just hard but I knew God wanted to use me else where, but I just didn't know how to leave, the first place of ministry that God called me to. Bitter sweet exit to say the least.

So what have I been up to since then? Well I definitely haven't been buying things from over seas like I was supposed to according to this months challenge. Well, I think the lessons learned this month are above and beyond what proverbs had for me. From day one Joel has been so supportive. I resigned on a Thursday and sadly he had to go away to camp with students that weekend. Bummer right? Well, he told me to go spend time with his mom, so I did. It was great. She really spoiled me with food! :) It was great company to have during what could have been a very depressing time for me.

The feelings of hurt, disappointment, guilt, failure, etc were in a whirlwind in my mind and I was able to process some of it with my mom in law. :) I updated my resume that weekend and filled out most of an app to be a substitute teacher. Blah blah blah.... let me get to the good stuff though. The lessons and the God stuff.

It just so happened that for Christmas I got this great book from my associate pastor. "Practicing His Presence" Its pieces of literature by Brother Lawrence and Frank Laubach put into a book. They start out with journal entries from Frank about his decision and journey in having God be on his mind every minute of his day and to be lead by his hand every step of the way. This was freeing for me to read because this is what I have been desiring for so long now. My gifts were not being used and I felt as though this was a new start. I am excited to see where God is going to lead me next and I know it doesn't have to be a big ministry again. It just needs to be me being lead into situations God wants me to be in.

During this time I am also trying to figure out a schedule for myself in keeping up with house stuff and now that I have more time I am trying to make sure there is more food prepared for Joel and I. One thing I am noticing about myself though is that I want to do this stuff and get some done so then I can feel good and then I can spend time with God, but um no it should be the other way around. If I start out my day with God training my mind to meditate on Him and feel "good" that way, then I won't be relying on the petty stuff to give me value. :) So that has been my goal to start each day reading alittle bit from the book then to journal a bit and then go on to things I want/need to get done.

Well I think I did enough writing now.  But trust me I will be writing more as God shows me new opportunities every day.

Thank you,

God Bless! 

Failures are ok....

Ok so this last month I didn't really learn the art of sewing and I didn't pick up knitting needles and learn to knit, but thats ok. I did make one pillow and a christmas stocking for Joel.

I just read this in my Life Application bible about Proverbs 31:10-31

" Proverbs has a lot to say about women. How fitting that the book ends with a picture of a woman of strong character, great wisdom, many skills and great compassion.

Some people have the mistaken idea that the ideal woman is the Bible is retiring, servile, and entirely domestic. Not so! This woman is an excellent wife and mother. She is also a manufacturer, importer, manager, realtor, farmer, seamstress, upholsterer, and merchant. Her strength and dignity do not come from her amazing achievements, however. They are the result of her reverence for God. In our society, where physical appearance counts for so much, it may surprise us to realize that her appearance is never mentioned. Her attractiveness comes entirely from her character.

The woman described in this chapter has outstanding abilities. Her family's social position is high. In fact, she may not be one woman at all - she may be a composite portrait of ideal womanhood. Do not see her as a model to imitate in every detail; your days are not long enough to do everything she does! See her instead as an inspiration to be all you can be. We can't be just like her, but we can learn from her industry, integrity, and resourcefulness."

Awesome! :) Thank you Life App. Bible for sharing that. I have been putting a lot of pressure on myself about not doing much with my challenge last month. But I did do well with shopping under budget and cooking. I even learned to make home made pasta! :) I am happy with the steps I am making. I need to feel more happy about my progress instead of get myself down on what I didn't do.

Keep leading me Lord to be more like you.

Thank you.

Happy New Year

Its the first Monday of the new year and my goal was to get up with Joel, do our devotions then work out and head to work. Done, done and done. I got to work alittle later than I wanted and I didn't burn as many calories as I wanted but hey its a start.

I'm very excited because a local primitive store is opening up their store for consigners to sell their crafts. I can't believe this! I'm soo excited. This could be a start of something awesome. A way of expressing myself and encouraging others by doing crafts with bible verses on them. This is also a way I can bring in money for my family (well just Joel and I right now).

The sewing stuff is going well. I made a pillow as you saw and I also made Joel a christmas stocking! :) SO fun!

I'll post pics soon. :)