Thursday. Sometimes it feels like Friday except there is no paycheck today, which makes me remember it is only Thursday. I am trying to stay faithful in the little things today. I am changing all the sheets on all the beds. Deep cleaning all the bathrooms. And, Lord willing, I may even get to the school room. THAT will be a big job though! Yikes and ugh.



I have been reading Oswald Chambers', "My Utmost For His Highest" as my devotional. As usual I am being reminded to stay faithful in the little things. The little things are the parts of my life that can become 'drudgery.' My house and home can become drudgery to me and I know it shouldn't be that way. I would love for it to be a beautiful peaceful place (ha!). Well it does have some peaceful moments, but not when I don't make it that way, and that means being faithful to keep it up, even through the drudgery.

Probably all of you read Mishel 's blog. Her home is beautiful and peaceful. (Even in the chaos of remodeling!) I want that same feeling. She lights candles. I love candles. She gave me my first candle many years ago. I had it until recently when I finally used it all up. It was a fabulous, big square 'Village" candle. I loved it so much that I didn't want to light it. She thought I was nuts, but I just didn't want it to get all used up! Back then, I never would have bought myself another one. I am much better about lighting candles now. In fact yesterday I lit two small votive Yankee candles for no occasion other than folding laundry! :) I think I will go light one right now while I clean. :)

We met Louie's girlfriend and her family. We all got along great and really had a good time. They were all very nice and their hospitality was very generous. It was a good trip to have made and we all liked each other which is a plus of course. We'll see what the Lord does in these two lives as well as our two families. I'll post more.

Well, I best get to steppin. Much to do.
Blessings,
Beth

PS. My true motivation behind my cleaning is company coming. I can't let you think I am wonderful without motivation. :} Thank God for company. It gets my house cleaner. :}

Hello to everyone and anyone who may read this. I have (obviously) not been online here for a very, very long time. Truth be told, I am not very good with 'blogging' and computer stuff and unfortunately I lost my username and password information until today. It was all so old I had to do the google stuff to get activated, but the good news is that since my username is my email address for login purposes, it shouldn't be too easy for me to lose my info this time.

Much has happened since my eldest son helped me create a blogspot and my dear niece helped make it pretty (and I lost everything). :)

Our eldest son (Louie) has completed his freshman year and is home on summer break from Pensacola Christian College. He's been home about two weeks now, and I think we are all fairly well adjusted at this point. He has had a great first year full of trials and challenges, ups and downs, lack of sleep and most recently, a true love! He has entered into a courtship with the approval of both dad's (his and hers).

This weekend we will be meeting this prospective family for the first time. Louie is very excited to see his sweetheart again, and we are very excited to meet her and the whole family. They live about 14 hours away from us, but this weekend will be only about 4 hours away while they visit family nearby. So off we go. We will go to church with them on Sunday morning (where we will be meeting them) and then spend much of the day together. It will be very hard for the two of them to say goodbye, but it will be sweet to have a little time at least.

In the meantime, he is at work and we have baseball games tomorrow morning before we can get ready to go. Not to mention I am doing loads of laundry and cleaning. It should prove to be very interesting in the very least. :)

We still have some finishing up to do with school. Probably another month and then I may just start everyone right away on next years stuff. We get so behind so quickly. Every year I hope it will be different, but here we are again. It's not bad though. We could be many months behind. God is good to allow us to be where we are right now.

Well, I will sign off for now and hopefully remember my password for another day in the very near future. :)

Blessings,
Beth

Happy Anniversary to two of my very favorite people in the whole world!! 21 years!! A true testimony of God's goodness and grace! You have been a wonderful example to your friends and your children. We all pray for oodles and oodles of more "happily-ever-after" years ahead for you both. God bless you and keep you!! Tons of love~~~me and mine :) We love you!

I am here...I am here...I am here...

This is for Mishel who is completely bugging me about Cordelia falling off the face of the earth. Although I haven't fallen off (though there have been times I wouldn't mind it) I did completely forget all my info that allows me to log in to my account. However, through the persistance of my dear friend (mentioned earlier), I went through every possible combination and alas, here I am today. Now, ask me if I have time for this. Go ahead, ask. No, of course not. But for Mishel, I will post at least this much. She deserves it. She has put up with me for over eighteen years!
Sunday's message in church was about Grace. Specifically it was God's Grace towards us. Each of us received the same amount of grace as the other upon our salvation. Paul (Saul) on the road to Damascus received the same amount of grace as a child born into a Christian family who accepts Christ at the age of four. None of us did anything that made God look at us in a special way and say something like, "Wow. Beth is so special. Look how loving she is towards........ . Look how unselfish she is towards........ . Look how sacrificial she is with .......... . God simply looked at me and said, "It is my will that Beth should be saved." Maybe I had been loving, or unselfish or sacrificial (not likely, but maybe), but still that was not what God was looking at. He simply did according to His good will.
My husband, children and I have been the recipients of many gifts. Friends and family have given us money in times when money was very tight. Friends and family have helped with children when something was going on. We've been given food, clothes, AWANA books and supplies, school supplies, and most recently a VAN!! (My dad bought us a 2003 Chevy, Venture LS. Our other van was a '94 Dodge Grand Carrivan. It has been on its last leg for the past three years and I kept telling my husband it needs to last two more years. I said that every year.)
I wracked my brain to think of why my dad would do that for us. Did he love me so much? Had I touched his heart in a special way with one of my letters or phone calls? But you know what it was? It was my dad's good will (undoubtably inspired by my heavenly Father) to bless us. God's good will for my dad to be a blessing to us. That's it. Simply put. I had not done anything to deserve the gift(s). It is actually a relief to know that it is all God's doing and none of my own, because now I have nothing that I have to live up to. I can still just be me and be blessed and eternally thankful, not only to God my Father, but to all those people He has used in my life.
I hope this makes sense to anyone reading it. It makes perfectly good sense to me, but I may not communicate what is in my heart and head as well as I would like. Oh well. Be a blessing and thank God for your blessings. It is all done according to His perfect will and by His grace.

I was thinking about how we say, “God is good” whenever good comes our way. I was reflecting on scripture that tells us to be thankful for everything including our trials. I thought about it some more and started saying ‘thank you” for my troubles/trials. Misbehaving children…bad attitudes…my inability to control everything J…. I asked myself if I was really thankful for those things. Not really, but I do want to be obedient to my Savior. I realized I was thinking about how God says He uses everything for good in our lives (to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose). I was being thankful for what God was going to do, the good He is going to bring about from this situation or event, not what was happening right now. I have a ways to go in being thankful for the not-so-good things. I am able to be thankful for what God will do with it, and what He will bring about as a result of it. Interesting perspective.