my little garden

This morning, the rains are here and I don’t mind a bit. It’s helping the boys sleep in a little and it’s watering my little garden. Or, I should say He is watering my little garden. I keep telling my husband that it’s one of my most favorite places to be in the whole world. Summer is half over and it saddens me to think that my garden is coming close to its peak…well, I’m sad and excited at the same time. From a distance, it looks like a mess!

My messy little garden

But, if you look more closely, you’ll see the good stuff!

Butternut squash

Yellow crookneck squash

Almost ripe tomatoes

WATERMELON!

Sugar snap peas

Sunflower

God has blessed my little garden and I’m so thankful.

My baby boy, Elam, will be one on Monday! Isn’t that hard to believe? Looking back on a post from a year ago, time has flown and he’s changed so much.

Little Ezra is 3.5 and is saying the funniest things. Like, shoulders are “shirtles”. Gotta love it.

My Thrive ministry is taking off slowly. Check out my separate website for more details about that.

Enjoy the rest of the summer!

so stinkin’ excited

A lot has happened since my last post! I’ve started my own business/ministry and it’s really just falling into place. I believe that’s because God gave me the vision and he’s working out all of the details. 🙂 Check out my website!

My logo!

I’m teaching my first Thrive Cardio & Strength workout tomorrow…I’ve taken contemporary Christian music and choreographed a 30 minute routine. We’re going to start the session with a prayer and end with a short devotional. Then, I’m having my first seminar at my church on June 15.

Life is good on the home front too! I’m enjoying the extra time with my boys (including my husband) and my part-time job doing web development is going well. We develop our sites on WordPress now, so that helps!

What’s going on in your world?

tryin’ somethin’ new

I love the way God speaks to His children (that’s you and me). About a month ago, my job took a turn for the worse and I decided it was enough. I put my notice in and April 30 will be my last day as Acting Director at the fitness center where I work. I’m going back to my old job doing website design & development, but just part-time. That will leave time for me to do personal training and teach group exercise classes on my own. I’ve never struck out to try to be my own boss, so it’s a little scary, but exciting too. I’m trying to figure out what to name my company, get liability insurance, etc.

In going through this, Rick Warren’s blog has spoken to me so much! The image above came from “Get Out and Try Something New” – you should go read it. There have been so many others about Christians and work…some of have been inspirational and some have stepped on my toes (like how to love your co-workers – ouch!).

Another thing I’ve done was download the background music to Laura Story’s song “Blessings”, which I plan to sing in church this Sunday. I love that song and I feel it really speaks to people’s hearts. One of my talents is my singing voice and I don’t use it nearly enough.

What’s your struggle today? I hope God grants you the direction you need to face your challenge.

God loves me (and He loves you, too!)

It occurred to me (again) yesterday how much God must love us. We are His children. I love my children more than I could ever describe to any human. And God loves us more than we love our own children. So, why wouldn’t He bless us and give us the desires of our hearts? At the same time, He wants us to grow and learn lessons sometimes, too.

Up until a few days ago, I had been battling with a big decision in my life and I had no peace or joy. Well, I wouldn’t say “no”, but it was a lot less than it had been in the previous months and years. After praying about it and weighing all the options, I decided I had to make a change and now I have peace and joy again! Through the process, I feel like I’ve grown closer to God and now I have the desire to become even closer to him.

I get Rick Warren’s Purpose Drive Life daily devotional via email. The one I read this morning almost made me cry, even though it was several days old. The part that got me was, “How do you know when you’re letting God live through your life? When you embody the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” It got me for a couple of different reasons…I have the peace and joy again. AND, just a week or so ago, I blogged about my goals for this year and one of them was to study the Fruit of the Spirit.

God loves us. We’re his kids. He’ll talk to us if we listen.

Matthew 7:9-11 King James Version (KJV)

⁹ Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?

¹⁰ Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?

¹¹ If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

My sweet baby boy is 6 months old today!

what a blessed life

I’ve not blogged in over a month and for that, I’m terribly sorry. I received a promotion at work so my life went from busy to extremely busy. Life is going by at warp speed.

Last night, I was lying in bed and the baby (now 4 months old and 18 pounds!) woke up around 11 pm. He really didn’t need to eat that soon, so I got him adjusted with his pacifier. I was just dozing off when the house started to shake and I finally woke up wondering what the heck was going on. Then I realized it was some type of aircraft over our house. I said, “Mike!” (my husband’s name) and started looking out the window. I saw one aircraft go over and then another was behind it kind of zig-zagging along. It was very strange so late at night. The husband said one was an Osprey (I think the loud one). It was unsettling and disturbing. I ended up feeding the baby and laying there thinking too much.

I thought about the mom who, at that very moment, was nursing her child with bombs going off around her. I wondered about folks who go to bed every night listening to planes fly over and fearing for their lives. How good we have it. How blessed we are.

Even in the hustle and bustle of life and the busy holiday season, I think God finds ways for us to slow down and thank Him for his many blessings. All we have to do is listen.

In case I don’t get back here before Christmas, please have a very merry Christmas and remember that “Jesus is the reason for the season.”

My sweet little blessings…

He’s talking

Not long ago, I blogged about how God still speaks and He’s speaking to me. I get a daily devotion via email and I also pull up biblegateway.com from time to time to read scripture…everything that I’m reading tells me “Read your Bible!” So, even though I’m not reading my Bible as nearly as much as I should, God is still talking to me. Isn’t that amazing? Isn’t that love?

My prayer life and Bible reading time are lacking and pretty much always have been. It’s easy to make excuses that I don’t have time with two kids, working, trying to cook good meals for our family, etc. But, those aren’t good reasons. What would it hurt to get up 15 minutes early to read some scripture? I bet I would feel better losing those 15 minutes of sleep to gain so much more from spending time with my Dad.

So, that’s my goal. Spend 15 minutes each day in the Word. I wonder what great things He will tell me…

hurting people

Here lately, I’ve come into contact with so many hurting people. There are just a lot of folks that are sad, blue, or very depressed. This used to make me very angry and in some cases, I still do get mad about it, but the older I get the more I have a soft spot for folks that aren’t happy.

I’ve said before that I’m just an abnormally happy person and it’s hard for me to understand depression; however, that doesn’t mean I can’t listen to and pray for folks when they need it. So, that’s what I’m trying to do. I really strive to take the extra time to listen and not be in such a big, darn hurry all the time. Sometimes, that’s all a person needs.

I must point out, though, that God does command us to be happy. As His children, we are supposed to have “joy unspeakable“, so let’s all really try to do that when we can!

i like rick warren

I like Rick Warren, and not in the sense of a Facebook “like” – I really just like the guy. I have read the Purpose Driven Life book and it’s very insightful. I’ve also signed up for his daily email devotional and I really love the points of view he has. He always backs things up with scripture, which is what a Christian person is supposed to do.

A while back, I got an email about this relationship study that you can get and I think I’m going to donate and get the study to share with folks at my church. I don’t have any serious relationship problems, but there’s always room for improvement, right?

Somehow I stumbled upon this video a minute ago and I agree with what he says 100%. It matches my views about homosexuality all the way. Take a few minutes and see what you think.

God still speaks

I picked up this new sign for my house a Wisteria’s Gifts in Fayetteville, WV on Friday when my husband and I spent the day ziplining for our 11th wedding anniversary (we had a really great time). When I read what it said, I just about cried it touched me so much. I just had to splurge and by the thing. It fits perfectly by the sliding glass door between the kitchen and dining room.

Recently, our preacher mentioned hearing the voice of God. I have to admit that I hear God talking to me on a regular basis. Just like with anything else, to hear something, you have to be listening for it. I’m not perfect and I don’t listen nearly well enough, but last week, I felt God leading me to go see our neighbors.

They are a  young couple that lost their 24 week old fetus about two weeks ago. The mom had to deliver this still born baby, which they then named and buried. I just had a burden on my heart to go introduce myself (I hadn’t yet met them) and take them dinner or something. Well, before I got to it, God sent them to me.

Yesterday, I was at my in-laws house when the couple showed up bearing a gift for our 3 week old son…a baby outfit. Now, isn’t that the sweetest, most heart-breaking thing you’ve heard lately? Here they are, bringing a baby gift when they just lost their baby (this was the second still born, by the way).

The young lady got to hold our new baby and she seemed so happy to do so. We talked about her two miscarriages and I was getting ready to tell her things are going to be ok when she said, “I know God has a plan for me.” Now, isn’t that something? I did invite them both to church since she said they don’t have a home church at this point.

The Sunday School lesson for this upcoming week is “Victorious Faith: God will strengthen and restore me.” It points out that “When you’re down and out, cliches are the last thing you need. (Hang in there, Roll with the punches, etc.) This lesson really made me thing of this young couple. One of the verses of scripture is “Casting all your cares upon him; for he careth for you.” 1 Peter 5:7.

I’m so thankful to be so blessed, but I have to take time to stop and consider those around me who aren’t. Then, reach out to them.

praise God flow

I sing a song for my son that I think is referred to as a doxology. I’ve known it since I was a little girl. He loves it and says “Again” each time I sing it.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow
Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
Amen

My garden is buzzing with bees this morning pollenating all of my vegetables. And the super full moon last night was something to behold when it was coming up. Too bad my camera doesn’t do them justice.