Praise The Lord!!

A while ago I went through a period of time where I didn't want to go to church. I loved hearing the word and learning more about Christ, but as soon as it was over I just wanted to shoot out the door. That was a hard time. Then God did A LOT in me all at once. He changed my perspective, put some people in my life to encourage me, and gave me lots of strength. Until last Saturday I was totally fine and everything was normal. The problem was that I wasn't relying on Christ I was too focused on the raging waters in front of me. When I woke up that Sunday morning I was just...happy. Now, im not a grumpy person when i wake up, but im never happy. And every moment that i was at church i just got filled with even more joy! i thought i was going to burst : ) And i just wanted to praise God!!! He truely helped me and just gave me a joy! Don't focus on the mountains before you. Look past them as if they were invisible and put you trust in God!

You become like those you are around

Since I've been here I've been very blessed. Not just by my family, but by meeting new people and hearing my uncle preach and God doing some things in me that we're very needed (some not so fun).
My family is so wonderful! I absolutely love them and we have so much fun. We have a joke in my family where as daughters we may hate some of the quarks that our moms have or even say often "I'll never do that when i get older", but it's inevitable...we all eventually become our moms and do the exact things we said we wouldn't. haha. But we all joke about it anyways. Imagine thanksgiving with your great grandma, grandma, aunt, mom, me, and the little girls. That's a lot of generations of women there! (poor uncle and brother).
I've realized recently that I'm like a computer. I don't know if anyone else knows what I'm talking about, but everywhere i go, whatever conversation i have i am constantly learning and examining. I can't just go somewhere. I always learn something. Since being here i have learned from my aunt about cooking and child care and just how to be fun. From my Nana I've learned patience and kindness and how to find the humor in almost anything. On Sunday my Uncle preached about fasting and I've heard it preached before, but i still learned new things. And my goodness that man must have patience, because he is constantly surrounded by a bunch of giggling women ;). I even learn a lot from my cousins. About 2 years ago when my sister was 3 was the first time i realized how much she taught me just by being curious, innocent, happy, carefree, and silly! Well since my sisters a little older now I'm getting shown that all over again with my younger cousins. "my cutie" is the older one and she's a woman on a mission. She knows what she does and doesn't want and she will let you know. She's very much the leader, but she is also very sweet and so smart. Her thing to do is that she will randomly tell you she loves you. you could be talking or playing or...anything and she'll just let ya know. it's so cool, i hear it like a million times a day. i love the conversations that i can have with my cutie and the fun little games! she makes me tea all the time and she really likes to color which is good because so do i. "my boy" is the younger one and he is the most happy, content, giggly toddler i have ever encountered! He has the coolest sense of humor. I am going to pray really hard for a baby like him. I've babysat them a lot while I've been here and they are very easy because it doesn't seem like a job. They're both very content and easy to please.
"my boy" has an absolute obsession with light switches!! and don't think that this is any little thing or that its not really an obsession, the kid is hooked! EVERY single switch you pass he practically jumps out of your arms leaning toward the wall. and if you stand there for a few minutes while he switches it on and off (giggles)and on and off (giggles) on and off (laughs hysterically)........then if you walk away he crys and crys. My grandpa can fix anything and he bought a little light switch thing for him to play with but he didn't like it because it didn't actually control a light.haha. At my aunts house i figured out that if you put him in his high chair and pull him over to this one wall he can reach it himself and you don't have to stand there for hours. And he will sit there forever giggling like crazy. They both get along so well together and i just love them!
so basically they have all been such a blessing to me and I'm praying that God will make me a blessing to them. I've been praying for patience and kindness and the grace to help or play even if it's something i don't want to do. Which could actually be applied to anything in life :).

chillin with an accent

This blog is for all my friends at home who i miss terribly and don't know what's going on with me. i miss you guys!!!
I am having a really great time here with my family. i stayed the first week with my aunt and now im staying the second week with my nana because my aunt is at camp for a week, but when she gets back i'll spend the third week back at her house again.
I love my aunt crystals house to pieces!!! me and her have exactly the same taste (in everything) and everytime i visit her i need a drool bucket because her house is beautiful. they had it built specificly for what they liked and they had to pick out the clolors, tiles, carpets...and my aunt let me help!!! haha i picked out the door! (inside joke). Anyway, i'm staying in the basement which is actually a finished aparment. so i have my own living room, bathroom, library/office, and of course bedroom. it's sooooo nice! i might not even come back. haha just kidding. but it is a nice vacation because i have my own space and we don't really have a schedule so even if we decide to go somewhere it's not all rushed and stressful.
This is my first time seeing my nana's new house and i really like it. my absolute favorite part is the backyard! whoever lived in the house before them must have been a flower freak because it's just one big wrap around flower garden. there's flowers everywhere! it's so beautiful. and if you stand on their back porch and look out all you see is green hills and farms (sigh). this is my second night staying here and this was the second time that i stood on the back porch and watched two of the most beautiful sunsets iv'e ever seen. today my nana and grandpa jim both had to work and the kids were at a babysitters house until 5, so i had everything to myself for awhile! i went on a walk down the street past a farm and giggled at at least 20 butterflys, i spread a blanket in the backyard/garden and read for awhile, watched a movie, and ended it with a sunset. it was such a great day! tomorrow is going to be spent with my man and my cutie.

The Manly Woman

I think that we've all read Proverbs 31 a million times (at least the girls) and i think that's really good, but sometimes we've read things so many times that it's not as important to us as it used to be.
A few weeks ago i got to stay at one of my friends houses for three days. She has 2 kids and she wanted to do some heavy duty cleaning. So i watched the blondies and she got down and dirty (although her house is way cleaner than mine ever is). Just by watching I learned a lot while i was there. Mainly things that had to do with being a Godly wife or mother, but we also had a lot of conversations about those kind of things. It really just made me think practically about my future.
We all read prov.31 and say, "yeah when i grow up I'm going to apply that" we might even pray about it and start doing the dishes around the house a little more, but as soon as the day comes when we're tired, or our friends are over, or we just don't feel like it, or ____(enter lame excuse here) all our goals fly out the window and are totally justified in our minds because "we're not perfect". Well, the virtuous woman wasn't either. So what makes her so different?
While i was at her house i noticed that she had a plan, goals, you could probably even call them standards. Every morning there was devotions with the kids and she made time for her to be able to clean and get what she needed to get done, but still spend time with her kids playing with them. She made sure she had dinner ready for her husband when he got home and she had a garden in the yard. she sews and paints and exercises. and after all of that she still didn't complain about it, she did her work joyfully. Who does that sound like to you?
I think that we never stick with it because we're trying to be a perfect proverbs 31 robot, when really i believe that she just put her trust in God, prayed, made goals, and set standards for her household. And i think that we have to stop worrying about if we're not doing it right. There are hundreds of Godly women on the planet and i bet that each and everyone of them does it differently. Just seek God about it and ask Him what goals He wants in your home. If He's the one guiding you instead of you just trying to will yourself to do it on your own i bet you'll actually stick with it!
There were 7 things that stuck out to me when i went back to actually dig into the chapter that i thought were very important for the virtuous woman. Honestly, whether or not you have a garden or are an expert seamstress isn't the point. i don't believe that you are unvirtuous just because you may not have one. i think that it's the point behind it. so here are the 7 foundations.

1. trustworthy (verses 11-12)
2. submissive (verse 12)
3. strong (verse 17)
4. kind (verses 20 and 26)
5. above all has the fear of the Lord (verses 21 and 30)
6. wise (verse 26)
7. hardworker/not idle (verse 27)