rain

I love watching the sky and knowing when a storm is coming. There is something about it that just gets me excited. Not that I want anyone to get hurt or loose anything due to the storm, but the power behind it. It is like a nervous excitement. Sometimes there is a stillness that you can't describe, but it feels funny. Then the trees start to sway until they look like they will get ripped out of the ground. The most amazing is when the sky suddenly gets dark, and you almost hold your breath until the rain or hail starts to pound the ground so hard that you can't see your neighbors house. Then it all stops and you just have a trickle of rain and the sun comes out as if nothing happened. If you catch all of the signs you can bring things in before the storm or roll up your car windows, but if you only see the darkness and then the rain starts you cannot protect the fragile things.

If you have ever been through an Oregon rainstorm you can relate to what I am saying. Life can be like this. If you are in tune to what is happening in your life and around you then you can prepare for the storms or battles that are coming your way. God put little hints into our lives and safeguards, but if we don't listen we can loose everything. I find comfort in knowing that God is there and He knows what the future holds for each of us. We just have to listen to His voice and be ready. We must be watchmen at all times and in all seasons.

"Oh how He loves us"

I haven't blogged in a while. The main reason is every time I sat down to do it my words were just full of frustration and very negative. I have been sick for the last couple of weeks. Of course it is when you are down that the small problems of my world came crashing in on me at the same time. God works everything out and I knew in these instances He would do the same thing for me. I never got depressed or lost hope. I just prayed and cried my way through it. I really don't have a lot to complain about when I think about all that God gives me including his love. I am very well taken care of. I may feel I need other things, but those are just wants.

Today I woke up crabby and I just needed some comfort foods, so I put a roast in the crock pot for dinner. Right now I am cooking hamburger and rice for lunch. That just sounded good. :) I put on a happy face and played with the kids, that always helps. I also turned on the worship music to bring a good atmosphere into the house. I still am tired and my coughing is just as bad, but my mood is much better.

The boys are doing better this week. We are at a week and a half with on referrals or phone calls from the school. Stephen is calmer and easier to deal with since visiting the doctor. Eric is still "Eric". His struggles stay struggles, but we are learning how to help him better. I know that eventually he will be able to handle things in life a bit better. This will just take time and determination.

I praise the Lord for all he does. His grace and mercy overwhelm me. "Oh how He loves us".

PS ~ I just got done reading a really good book. "The Scarlet Thread" by Francine Rivers. It teaches about how God's hand is in and on all things, even when we feel he has left us and forsaken us. I recommend it!!!

In my weakness I praise the Lord.

In my weakness I praise the Lord.
When I feel alone and lost, I know he is there for me.
I keep believing there are no accidents and that the things I go through are making me who I am meant to be.

These 2 weeks have been difficult for me as a mother, but I have to just take one day at a time and know that God is in control. I am thankful that I have people I can lean on and who love me. I am very thankful that the Lord will never leave my side.

A few tears are ok, but I will not let this get me down.

Planting seeds.

Between the ages of 8 and 11 my family lived in Salem.  Up the road from us lived a wonderful older lady and her husband.  They went to our Church and she was a wonderful friend to my mother.  They would walk together and she was a shoulder for Mom to lean on.  The most wonderful thing was she was a Grandma figure for my sister and I.  She taught us how to sew, make candles, pick apples, and other wonderful things.  She also took us school clothes shopping and helped us make presents for our Mom and Dad.  We loved going to “Grandma’s house”.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my real Grandmothers, but this woman lived only a few houses down from me.  The coolest thing was she chose me.

 

As a mother I prayed for such a woman to be in the lives of my boys.  The Lord answers all prayers.  We bought this home 5 years ago and low and behold there she was.  Right across the street is my boy’s other “Grandma”.  We started with just visiting back and forth.  Finding Easter goodies inside the screen door  after Church.  Christmas presents showing up.  To her showing me how to grow plants and her teaching my boys how to find the tomatoes, carrots, peas and other veggies that she grows.  She then sent over all that they picked because “she like to grow the plants, but can’t possibly eat them all”.  She also has bought them school clothes and enjoys having them pop in and say hello. 

 

Then at the end of  last summer she decided to kick it up a notch.  Now she has 3 large planters in her yard that they are going to grow things in.  She then helped me to did out my dead soil and replaced it with new compost.  Today she took the boys to get  their gardening tools so they can get started.  We are also putting together a strawberry planter.

 

She isn’t the only one giving.  Jason helps her with repairs and other stuff.  I am a listening ear and a “daughter” that she enjoys visiting with.

She is simply a wonderful blessing to my boys and to us.  I praise the Lord and I thank him for his answered prayers.  I have had many adopted Moms, Aunts, sisters, brother, and Grandmothers in my life.  I feel these people are very important and help to for who you are just as much as your family does.

 

All of our needs are full filled even before we ask or know that we have a need.  My boys will remember this for the rest of their lives.

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My favorite new spice that I highly recomend!

I feel like writing a funny blog today.  I feel the need to tell all of you that read this that I found an amazing spice bottle at my bread store.  I am some one who loves salt, pepper and garlic.  Now for some reason I do not have the talent of getting these three amazing spices evenly dispersed on my food.  This is a skill I lack.  So when I saw this bottle in the store I had to get it and try it.

It is really good!  I am enjoying the flavor and am a bit nervous because it is almost gone.  Must remember to pick up some more.  I found it at Franz Bakery Outlet.  I really hope it is not like most outlet stores that don’t always carry the same items from delivery to delivery.  

Today the Lord shined through

I found myself discouraged today until I just let God have my burdens again.  My boys go through things that I don’t know they are going through.  I am finding that the older they get the less they come to Mom and tell all their hurts and struggles.  They worry about burdening me.  My sweet boys.

I remember going through this as a child.  I was worried about over burdening my Mother about silly little issues, but to me they were so big I couldn’t sleep at night.  I remember that around 7 years old my closest friend was Jesus, he was who I could turn to.  The most amazing gift my Mother gave me was teaching me how to talk to Jesus.  I was plagued with nightmares and insomnia as a young child.  I would go into my Mom in my fear or sleeplessness and wake her up to get her to help me to not be scared and to get back to sleep again.  She would hold me for a minute, but just before I would fall asleep in the safety of her arms she would walk me back to my room.  Then she would pray with me and tell me if I wake up again to ask Jesus to be with me and to help me to get back to sleep.  This was a lesson I learned very young. 

I also remember sitting outside the bathroom door when Mom would take her evening bath and just listen to her as she talked to Jesus.  I couldn’t hear the words that she spoke, but I knew that that is what she was doing.  She also did this as she was cooking.  I would sit as close as I could to hear the soft murmuring of her voice, but not the words.  Something told me it was a personal conversation.  It was a comforting sound and set my spirit at ease.

I learned from her how to pray as I went through my school day, but with out actually speaking out loud. 

My oldest son never had nightmares and I don’t believe that he dreams very often, but my youngest has always had nightmares.  I did with him as my Mother did with me and when he was old enough to pray through them on his own and without Mommy helping him he started to have less nightmares and to take care of the ones he did have.

I openly sing and pray to God while I clean, do dishes and yes even in the shower.  I pray all day long from the second my boys leave the house to go to school until they are safely back in my care.  I pray that angels are around them protecting them.  My favorite part of the day is when I get to talk with them about their day.  I thrill at each report and the small amount that they do let me in.  I imagine that the Lord feels that way when we talk to him too.  I can imagine him sitting with each of us on his lap and smiling as we tell him of our day.  Of the good and the bad that happened to us.  What we learned and what we taught.  I know that just as I laugh, cry or get angry along with my children as they tell of what happened to them that day ~ this is how our Father God reacts too.

My hope is that I can teach my boys that I am here for them and that I want to help them.  I also hope that they know that we have an amazing Lord who is there when I can not be. 

 

An amazing blog!

http://elizabethfstewart.blogspot.com/2010/03/dayspring-journal-giveaway-my-first.html


This is a link to an amazing blog that I follow. She is doing a journal give away. So just click the link, start following her blog and let he know which journal you like best.