Musings Monday

First installment of Musings Monday! (not sure there will be a second but we shall see!)

~ Monday's around here are for slow moving! Mondays we recuperate from Sundays!

~ I like bird watching!! After seeing these beautiful bluebirds last week in our yard I decided we needed a bird feeder in our yard!

~ Apparently Kyla is the Bird Whisperer, because when buying our bird feeder today she informed me that "the birds are so EXCITED!"

~ To be honest, I am not sure who spent more time at the window today staring at the feeder, me or her! 

~ I was thrilled to see these dry erase crayons today for Kyla's white board! 

~ I just cooked dinner and I wish I had skillets with lids, I am pretty sure that will be on my Christmas list for 2010

~ Justin and I have been talking about ways to spend less and give more and I am excited to be more frugal in some areas. For example making things I know I can make, like hand soap, laundry detergent, using less paper goods, and eating at home more!! 

~ I think I enjoy Kyla's new "To Be Like Jesus" CD than she does! (currently $5.00 for the mp3 download!)

~ Has enjoyed thinking on "The Heaven declare the glory of God and the skies proclaim the works of his hands!" Psalm 19:1 (which you can sing to the tune of here we go around the mulberry bush, I learned that lastnight be teaching our preschoolers :) ) and yes, if you are wondering, I have been walking around singing that today :) 

Hope you had a happy Monday!

Four-lane Free Friday

Justin has been taking Fridays off, last week we went to springfield after a stop off to eat at an out of the way place. One of my very favorite things to do is sightsee, I love to travel and I love road trips! Justin suggested we go do something today so I asked around and someone suggested going to Prairie State Park and Chicken Mary's in Pittsburg Kansas.  

I can assure you we never got lost today but I did wonder a few times as I had looked at a map and had a general since where we were going. I did cheat and take interstates a few times but the majority of the trip was spent on two lane roads, many in the county. It was fun and I am glad my husband has confidence in me to navigate, however I do think a GPS is in my future. 

To get to Prairie State Park the way we were going we went through Lamar, MO. Lamar is the birthplace of Harry S. Truman who was the 33rd President (32nd man in office). Justin LOVES presidents and history so really it was the highlight of his day! President Truman lived in the house a short time before his family moved to Independence, MO. The house has been restored and the furniture is not the Truman's but it is comparative to the time period when he was born. The room with the cradle was the room Harry was born in and the visitor log at the bottom was signed by Mr. Truman on a visit back to Lamar and his birthplace. 

We left Lamar and head to Prairie State Park. While on the way we saw a coyote and learned my Honda Civic can do a little four-wheeling!! To get to the state park we did have to take a few country roads. Twice I thought I was going to end up pushing to get us out but God was gracious to us and our shoes and we made it, but not without a little mud to prove was had fun! At the park we only saw two buffalo and no elk but we look forward to going back and doing some hiking to see the herd! 

Following the state park we visited Chicken Mary's in Pittsburg, KS and then headed to Joplin for a stop by Hobby Lobby and Shakey's Frozen Custard! All in all it was a fantastic Friday to enjoy my family! 

Thanks for looking!

Football Funny

I am reading the Bible through in a year, one of today's reading was Psalm 37 the heading read

"He Will Not Forsake His Saints"

I asked Justin if that was a good sign for the New Orleans Saints :) 

Hope you had a great Sunday!

Sleep

Sleep is one of those things that we wish we could live on less of but seem to want more of.

Parents of little ones (especially mothers) seem to be the ones that have it the hardest!

Around here Miss K has been waking up every night for a few weeks, which has been okay. I have brought her in our room and either cuddled her in bed or made her a pallet in the floor next to our bed.

The bad thing is the past two mornings I have not been able to go back to sleep!

So sleep eludes me again this morning! After a snack of crackers perhaps I will try again.

Pastor & Author C.J. Mahaney in his book Humility (which I somehow left off my list of amazing reads in 2009) says we should welcome sleep as a gift from God as one reminder that were are finite and God is infinite. It is one way to kill pride in our life and cultivate humility!

Along with less sleep, I am going to take the girltalk blog 28-Day Challenege I am going to attempt to join the 5 O' Clock club, except for around here it will look more like 6:30 or 7:00. I am doing these things for the purpose of Godliness, I think a set aside time each morning will point me Godward first, and allow me to better serve my family! Anyone want to take the challenge?

I think I am off to attempt to cultivate some Humility in my life!

Update...

goodness, it has been awhile.

and man have things changed!

I was reading through my last post, the book list. I read a lot more the rest of the year but forgot most of them, that is pretty sad huh :) I can say hands down the best book I read of 2009 was

"The Gospel for Real Life" by Jerry Bridges

in a very close second was

"Becoming God's True Woman" edited by Nancy Leigh Demoss

and an awesome parenting book

"Don't Make Me Count to Three" by Ginger Plowman

2010 has started with a bang! I am currently enjoying my Bible Reading Plan!! Woo whoo, I am on it! So far so good! I am also reading "A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael" by Elisabeth Elliot and "Because He Loves" My by Elyse Fitzpatrick

I have a reading list about a mile long for 2010 but I am excited to grow in grace!

I am not even sure where to start with and update... well how about this...

We are Ozarkians :) we live in SW MO and have since the beginning of October!

God mowed down a path and called Justin as a senior pastor. We are enjoying our new church family and feel OVERLY blessed to be a part of God's work here. Ministry is never easy but Christ is sufficient!

Kyla is 2.5, wowza! She will be three in May! I cannot believe it. I am getting paid for my raising... this girl talks from the moment she gets happy in the morning (slow riser like her mamma) to the time she closes her eyes to go to sleep! It is unbelievable. I look at her and am feel the goodness of God in my life, she is such a gift. Now don't get me wrong, she is a toddler, and a two year old at that! But I am thankful for this grace in my life!

Look forward to getting into the swing of things again!!

Doing it all...

I have so many things that I want to "do"

note: these are in no particular order

I want to continue to better my photography skills
I want to continue to craft (sewing and etc)
I want to LEARN how to play my guitar (all it does now is collect dust)
I want to LEARN and live greener
I want to teach my daughter to walk in the way of the Lord
I want to cook food daily
I want to be a good friend
I want to keep my house clean
I want to honor my husband
I want to grow deeper in communion with God
I want to have a garden
I want to cloth diaper
I want to read more books
I want to write more
I want to work harder in all things
I want to be more thrifty
I want to scrapbook, getting caught up would be GREAT

What is amazing is that in all of these things I am content! I am so thankful God has given me these desires, hobbies, passions to use for His glory. Now I just have to seek his glory in these things.

At the same time I think I need to narrow down my list of things I want to do so that I am not torn when I do have some free time! What do you enjoy doing? How do you decide what to do?

i am..

You are Elinor Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility! You are practical, circumspect, and discreet. Though you are tremendously sensible and allow your head to rule, you have a deep, emotional side that few people often see.

Take the Quiz here!

Yada yada yada

I realize I haven't been so good about updating this thing. I will try to get better! Let see in the most recent news Justin found out that as of December 31st he will no longer be employed by Cellular Express. So that means the job hunt is on. Prayers are great! Pray that I am not a nagging wife about getting the resume finished!

Christmas is coming and Kyla has already halfway unwrapped one of her presents. She likes the paper a whole lot! She is 7 months old! OH MY! I will include a pic or two of her in case you are having withdrawls.

I am blessed! I do not know what else to say!

I really want to be more crafty! I really want to scrapbook!! I want sunshine so I can take pictures again!! I got a flash for my birthday, I am digging it!

It is nice and quiet here, Kyla is asleep, Justin is asleep.. I am pretty much sitting in the dark looking at my christmas tree and my fish tank! Life is great!

I would like to open an etsy but would not know what to sell. My mom should open one... she is amazing!

This year has been full of surprises for me. But all the while God has reminded me that He is working things out for His own glory.

It is hard to stay in the word and be a parent! How do you do it? What does it mean to model Godliness to your children? What and how are family devotions working in your lives?

We rented Amazing Grace on DVD and I am excited to watch it again (saw it in theaters) but we get home so late!!

I am going to St. Louis next week to meet my mom for a few nights! That will be fun! Hope the weather cooperates.

I realize it has been awhile since I have changed up my feet picture but do you know how hard it is to get pictures of her feet? HARD! I will try soon!

If you are still with me, thank you!
(oh and thank you for auto save or this would of been lost!)

Digital scrapbooking is fun, is it cheating?


To get her to leave the bow in her hair I had to let her eat her shoe!


Her new thing is sucking her bottom lip, which makes for huge cheeks! But I love them!

Catching Up

I have sat down to write an update so many times and I just get distracted! I cannot believe that July is 1/3 of the way over. Kyla just turned 8 weeks old and before my eyes she is changing daily! On Wednesday night, July 4th, she slept in her crib, in her room, all by herself! It was so sad.... I mean she had no problem with it whatsoever but I did. I kept walking by her room and checking on her! I am thankful for the Angelcare monitor that keeps up with her movements during the night so if she stops moving (breathing) an alarm will sound. It eases the mind a bit! Here she is looking so cute today for church!


Last night I was reading Romans 4 about Abraham's faith and was greatly challenged to have unwavering faith! I mean come on... this man was promised to be the father of a great nation but yet his wife was barren!!! Paul tell us he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in his faith AND gave glory to God. How many times I waver with unbelief when God has set certain promises before me. I am so foolish sometimes and think my way is better or more efficient! I must commit to follow God in such a way as Abraham!!

This was a good lesson for me to learn because many times I seek my own way and do not wait on God and that is not the way it is suppose to be!!! May I learn to have faith like Abraham and not waver in unbelief but give God the glory due to Him!

What a mistake!

Going to bed at 2:00 am was a bad idea.

I went to bed thinking "Kyla will be up soon!" so I laid there and read and tossed and turned... low and behold she decides to sleep until 4:00 am. Which was great! Would of been even better if I would of got the 6 hour stretch of sleep! Oh well, I took a nap this evening while Kyla spent time with daddy!

Tomorrow is fathers day! It is hard to believe that Justin is a father! He is a great daddy! He is completely wrapped up in his daughter! He loves spending time with her and she loves her daddy!

We are leaving on Friday to go on vacation. We are going to travel to IL on Friday night and drive to OK on Saturday. Justin is going to the Founders Conference and I am going to hang out at home with my folks and friends. It will be great fun! My mom is going to treat me to a pedicure and one day we are going to go to the zoo!!! YEA! I am looking forward to relaxing! Then we are going to Branson for a few days with Justins folks. Needless to say I am counting down the days!!!