My BUSY Schedule!

I am just now getting a chance to check and return emails, phone calls, pay bills...etc. It has been an incredibly busy week! Natalie and I were both under the weather. My parents were in town, and I didn't really get to enjoy them being here. They asked to take Landri back to Plainview with them, which was great! I thought I was going to get so much accomplished while she was gone since that meant I would just have one baby at home then. I had plans to get caught up on laundry after falling WAY behind and plans to finish up baby thank you notes that I'm even more that WAY BEHIND on! I hope that it doesn't sound like I blame my precious almost 2-year-old Landri for not being able to do things, because that's not where I was heading. However, it was much quieter and a little easier with just a 4 month old. I missed Landri terribly. It's just that I set my expectations of myself too high most days. I want to do so much that I end up being disappointed. Needless to say, neither one of those things was finished. All because I didn't feel well. Now, Mom and Landri are back, and I am so glad!!!!! Landri is my little sunshine, and she just brightens up my day!

However, this is how the week has been. Monday was spent getting Landri ready for her first day of preschool at our church! (She is going to Mother's Day Out! YEA!!!!!) Then I picked up Noah and Lainie after school, and Mom and I took ALL FOUR to the mall to shop for shoes! Needless to say, we were all wiped out after buying 6 pairs of shoes. But, that's what happens, I've discovered, when you have FOUR kids! Tuesday was great. Landri went to "school" like a pro! She had her monkey nap mat, monkey lunch bag, diaper bag and of course her "tassy" (paci). She was so ready to go, that I could only snap two pictures because she was ready to go inside. It was really cute. Then Mom and I spent the day trying to prepare for a MOPS fundraiser, in which, Mom has a booth and is selling baby blanket sets with burp rags and bibs. Then it was time to get Landri from school, Noah and Lainie from school and take Lainie to ballet. To top it off, I still had to go to the grocery store and SAM'S Club for stuff for Josh's 40th birthday party. Meanwhile, Mom is at home trying to help with Noah's homework, help me with laundry and take care of Natalie. (I took Landri with me to ease the load.) Needless to say, again, we were WIPED OUT! However, today, takes the cake! If I could pack it full with things to do, I did. How I am still awake at almost 11 pm is beyond me. I started out at 4:30 this morning, so that I could make a 5:15 AM spin class. That is something I have never done before, but wanted to try! It was awesome, by the way, but I'm totally paying for it now!! Then I had to come home, make breakfast, lunches and get kids dressed and Lainie's hair done for school. Not only that, but I had to be there for an 8 am yearbook committee meeting. Then, I had Landri scheduled for her 2-year pictures, but that schedule went out the window, since she was up at 5:45 this morning. So, we had to do pictures sooner that we had planned in order to accomodate a soon to be tired toddler. Pictures went perfect, which was a pleasant surprise! Then we ate a quick lunch and put Landri and Natalie down for naps. I then had to pick Noah and Lainie up from school early in order to make our 4:30 appointment for the kids' Christmas pictures. I figured that with naps, I would have 2 chipper babies. We made it to the appointment on time, which in itself, speaks volumes, because we are never on time! However, here is where my expectations were set too high. Landri refused to smile or stand still for that matter. Mom and I were jumping around like weirdos, trying to make Landri smile. Everything she did while taking pictures this morning, she did the opposite of this afternoon. It was really out of character for her. Natalie, although happy as a lark, spit up EVERYTHING we had just fed her ALL over her new Christmas outfit! Not just once either, but 5 times!!! Again, by the time we made it through our 2nd round of pictures for the day, Mom and I were exhausted, to say the least. By the time pictures were ready, all the kids were fussing, crying, complaining, you name it! I still had to get gas, because I was on empty, get through rush hour traffic, figure out something for dinner and try to make it to choir rehearsal. I must be out of my mind, right? Well, I didn't make it to choir, but at least we made it through Chicken Express, bathtime and bedtime!

How, you ask?????

I have told you all this because, I can only say that it was by the grace of God and the help of my precious mother, that I was able to maintain a good attitude (with only a stumble here and there!) But, I still, even after a busy day like today, (and it's only Wednesday) I couldn't be happier! I love my life, my husband and my children. I wouldn't want it any other way! I know that I have been blessed and I AM truly thankful! I can't say that I have had the best attitude the whole time this week, but I know God is trying to teach me not to try to be Superwoman and actually focus on the really important things. I know I can handle my day better when I give my first fruits to Him! That is something that I am working on right now, "tithing my time". It is very hard for me to do that, but even when I fail at it, I still feel that desire to spend that time with Him, even if it means while I'm taking a shower! Pretty awesome to think that I can call upon His Name and praise Him even in the shower!!!

America chose!

Even though I am truly saddened by the election results, I am told by the Word of God that I am to obey the governing authorities. I woke up this morning with a horrible attitude. I did not want to accept the outcome, and it made my stomach churn at the thought of what our new president will change in our country. However, two of my friends have pointed out the 13th chapter in the book of Romans.

Romans 13
Submission to the Authorities
1Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. 4For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience. 6This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, who give their full time to governing. 7Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.
Love, for the Day is Near
8Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. 9The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet,"[a] and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself."[b] 10Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
11And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.[c]

I have a complete attitude change after reading this!!! Because I want to glorify and honor my Lord and Savior, I want to obey Him! So, instead of grumbling and complaining, I will support and pray for our new president, for I know that he has a tough job ahead of him. I pray that he will make good decisions. I strongly disagree with his views on MANY things. However, I will not be the one he answers to in the end when it comes to his supporting abortion and gay marriage, which the Bible tells is absolutely wrong. I trust my Lord, and I know that He will always take care of the things that I need. I will praise Him during every storm and every beautiful day! For Jeremiah 29:11 states: For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

I will remember this always, because I have a hope in my God!!!

Why isn't the media asking these questions?

I was emailed a youtube video, which a lot of you have probably already seen. I actually forwarded it to everyone on my friend list. So, I went to their website and found this one. These are questions I have wondered myself.
As I watched it, it included part of one of Obama's rallys. He was talking about his two girls and how he was going to teach them "first about values and morals", "but if they make a mistake I don't want them to be punished with a baby." My first response to hearing that was of utter disgust! There are people throughout this country who would give everything they have to have children, but can't. Adoption is a better answer to an unwanted pregnancy. Then the more I thought about it...Why in the world didn't those who were parents get up and walk out?!?!?!?! Talk about morals and values, since when did abortion become morally right? Roe v. Wade may have made it legal, but to me there is a difference between legal and morally right. Others may disagree with me, and that's okay. However, I know what the BIBLE says, and abortion is WRONG, period! Then, he said he would sign the Freedom of Choice Act. One of the actions is to remove restrictions on parental notification. If you were a parent and YOUR child was pregnant and wanted to get an abortion, wouldn't you want to be notified????????? WHO COULD SUPPORT THAT? I am truly dumbfounded that any family-oriented person would stand up and applaud this man. Are we hearing different things? I don't think so. Any parent, anyone wanting to BE a parent, any Christ-follower, should oppose this man wanting to be the leader of our country. I included Christ-follower, because you don't pick the parts of the Bible you want to believe and follow. The Bible is God's Holy Word and we as Christians are to believe all it says 100%. Someone told my husband yesterday that they were voting for Obama, but, get this...they hoped they wouldn't be sorry. HELLO...IF YOU HAVE DOUBTS ABOUT THIS MAN, DON'T VOTE FOR HIM!

I once thought that I should watch the things I say, especially during this election. However, this is too important to stand aside and not say anything! So, I am going to continue to post anything else I can get my hands on in order to show the Obama supporters that he is the WRONG MAN for the job of President of our United States! So, watch this video and ask yourself...Why AREN'T these questions being asked? They seem pretty important as to the character of Barak Obama. Wouldn't you want someone with integrity in the White House as our Commander in Chief? I think you can tell the way I feel.

Going to vote!!!!

Okay everyone, I am going to vote for McCain here in the next hour. I wanted to put another link that someone sent me this afternoon! It is one that I haven't seen, however there are pieces of it I have seen. Anyway, PLEASE watch it before you go vote. This election should be based on morals!!!!!!!!

Jeremiah 9

I talked to a wonderful friend of mine last night that I had not talked to in several months. She had been reading my blog and gave me a scripture to read and think about. (Thank you, Ginger!) As I read it this morning, I am amazed at how it fits the times that we are in. We live in a world of lies and people refuse to stand up for the truth. I wonder how much worse today is compared to the time of Sodom and Gomorrah. I imagine that the things we do today are truly breaking God's heart! I wonder if the things we are going through with our economy and everything else are because we have chosen to abandon the Word of the Lord. We chase after our own desires and have put the One who truly loves us and created us on the back burner. I will admit I am not wise spiritually, but I prayed this morning that God would speak to me from His Word! Jeremiah 9 was interesting to read this morning! I feel that we do need to weep for our country and get on our knees and be vigilant in praying for our country during this election! However, I do know that God already knows what is to come and we also need to praise Him for all that we are going through now and what is ahead of us!

Jeremiah 9 (New International Version)
New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society



Jeremiah 9
1 Oh, that my head were a spring of water
and my eyes a fountain of tears!
I would weep day and night
for the slain of my people.

2 Oh, that I had in the desert
a lodging place for travelers,
so that I might leave my people
and go away from them;
for they are all adulterers,
a crowd of unfaithful people.

3 "They make ready their tongue
like a bow, to shoot lies;
it is not by truth
that they triumph [a] in the land.
They go from one sin to another;
they do not acknowledge me,"
declares the LORD.

4 "Beware of your friends;
do not trust your brothers.
For every brother is a deceiver, [b]
and every friend a slanderer.

5 Friend deceives friend,
and no one speaks the truth.
They have taught their tongues to lie;
they weary themselves with sinning.

6 You [c] live in the midst of deception;
in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me,"
declares the LORD.

7 Therefore this is what the LORD Almighty says:
"See, I will refine and test them,
for what else can I do
because of the sin of my people?

8 Their tongue is a deadly arrow;
it speaks with deceit.
With his mouth each speaks cordially to his neighbor,
but in his heart he sets a trap for him.

9 Should I not punish them for this?"
declares the LORD.
"Should I not avenge myself
on such a nation as this?"

10 I will weep and wail for the mountains
and take up a lament concerning the desert pastures.
They are desolate and untraveled,
and the lowing of cattle is not heard.
The birds of the air have fled
and the animals are gone.

11 "I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,
a haunt of jackals;
and I will lay waste the towns of Judah
so no one can live there."

12 What man is wise enough to understand this? Who has been instructed by the LORD and can explain it? Why has the land been ruined and laid waste like a desert that no one can cross?

13 The LORD said, "It is because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them; they have not obeyed me or followed my law. 14 Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts; they have followed the Baals, as their fathers taught them." 15 Therefore, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: "See, I will make this people eat bitter food and drink poisoned water. 16 I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will pursue them with the sword until I have destroyed them."

17 This is what the LORD Almighty says:
"Consider now! Call for the wailing women to come;
send for the most skillful of them.

18 Let them come quickly
and wail over us
till our eyes overflow with tears
and water streams from our eyelids.

19 The sound of wailing is heard from Zion:
'How ruined we are!
How great is our shame!
We must leave our land
because our houses are in ruins.' "

20 Now, O women, hear the word of the LORD;
open your ears to the words of his mouth.
Teach your daughters how to wail;
teach one another a lament.

21 Death has climbed in through our windows
and has entered our fortresses;
it has cut off the children from the streets
and the young men from the public squares.

22 Say, "This is what the LORD declares:
" 'The dead bodies of men will lie
like refuse on the open field,
like cut grain behind the reaper,
with no one to gather them.' "

23 This is what the LORD says:
"Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom
or the strong man boast of his strength
or the rich man boast of his riches,

24 but let him who boasts boast about this:
that he understands and knows me,
that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,"
declares the LORD.

25 "The days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh- 26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and all who live in the desert in distant places. [d] For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart."

Elizabeth Rohn-Nelson is RIGHT ON, TOO!!!!!

Someone sent me this email, too!




ELIZABETH ROHN-NELSON: Prayer can move mountains

Being dismayed recently when a family member of mine said
to me with great resignation that Obama will take the presidency.
These words came from someone who in the past has been a great
prayer warrior.
Why is happening was my question??? Why are we Christians
settling and not issuing a battle cry and falling to our knees and
taking our country back?
Why aren't we praying? Our God is a mighty God who is waiting patiently
for us to raise our voices to heaven to stop the tide of the anti-Christ
actions in our world today. Now we find we have a
charismatic candidate
for president who does not respect our flag and refuses to wear one on
his lapel except when it becomes politically expedient and whose own
wife and pastor that he loves profess to have strong anti-white
feelings, and we sit back and say "it is a given, we can do nothing."

There has never been a time in 2000 years that we can do
nothing. We must not sit back and allow the evil in men's and women's hearts to take over our world. We should be very afraid because our
apathy is leading us to perdition.

It is time for all Christian Americans to raise the battle cry and take
our nation back. Maybe McCain on his own cannot defeat
Obama, but our God can and He will if we take to our knees in prayer and raise a mighty
cry to the heavens to "Save us O Lord." We have
the power to change the course of this election and to keep a man as suspect as Barak Obama from
leading our country to who knows where with his message of
"change" - a change which I fear will be away from our Christian ideals
and away from Christ and further away from one nation under God.

We are great at passing stories and pictures around the
internet, but where are our prayers and prayer warriors praying to stop
this tide of Barak Obama? God parted the red sea, Jesus raised himself from the
dead, and we can bring our country back to its Christian
roots and stop
the move to the rise of Muslims in our country. We can
stop our country
from being "under Allah," but we must begin to
pray, to pray as if our
country and our lives depended on it, because they do. We
can stop all these atrocities against God's commands that have taken
root in our country through something as simple as sincere prayer, a
call to God to deliver us, to forgive us our sins of apathy and to protect us from the evil that is upon us.

Okay prayer warriors, here is your challenge, start those
prayer chains.
Get the spiritual power working on our behalf and stop
Barak Obama the
proper way, by calling on our God to save us from the deception that
charismatic preaching is using to lead us on the wrong path. Stop those who would take God out of our country and our government. Raise
up good men to lead us and protect us.

Invite God into the fray. Ask that His power rest upon us and give us the victory. Ask him to raise up a
mighty army to defend us and to protect our country as he
did in days of old. Let us be victorious beginning NOW. The battle is His but we must
call on Him without ceasing and unite our voices and hearts
in prayer and fasting.

Please pass this around to all people of prayer that you
know and maybe,
just maybe a more eloquent person of prayer will write
something better
and more inspiring and even the rocks will shout that Jesus
is Lord and our Mighty God is with us, bringing the victory for us and
ultimately for Him. "Be joyful always, pray continually, give
thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ
Jesus." I Thes 5:16-18
....Continuous Prayer is the answer to this attack on the USA.... Please
pray the Will of God will prevail through our continuous prayers to HIM...
Remember Prayer Can... Move Mountains

Tough Week!

It has been a really busy week this week. Since Saturday, it has been non-stop. I am TIRED!!! Between, football pictures, cheerleading pictures, football and baseball games, baseball pictures, homework, church, more homework (which is sad for 1st and 2nd grade) and halloween parties, school fall festival...I am spent, to say the least. I still have very important things to take care of this week, and I need to be at my best! To top things off, my almost 4 month old, who was sleeping through the night at 8 weeks old, is no longer sleeping through the night. In fact, she has decided that either 3 am or 5 am is when she wants a bottle. She won't go back to sleep until she gets one either. Trust me...I've tried. Needless to say, I am struggling! Unfortunately, my attitude has reflected my lack of rest. The last thing I want to portray to my children is my impatience. Sometimes I see it in Lainie, and I know that it comes from me. I feel incredibly guilty when I see that in her, because that is not a good quality to pass to my children. I am so trying to fix that in myself. I am ready for Sunday. I feel so good when I can go to church and have my tank refilled. The one thing I know I need to work on is being able to refuel during the week by having my quiet time. So, today, that's what I am going to do. I am going to spend time with God this morning in His Word, and I know that the rest of this day, I will be able to handle more gracefully than I have in past several days!

Lord, I pray right now that my ears and my heart will be open and listening to what I need to hear from you today. May my children see how much I love you in the way I respond to everything around me. Thank you for loving me even when I am at my worst!