Still sick but here... sort of...

(I do know I still need to post my new verse... I promise it will be posted soon)

I feel horrible for not being able to keep up with this the way God has intended me to. I plan to... After the kidney stones my husband has been working crazy weird hours. Which has thrown everyone off onto a weird...awful sleep schedule. On top of that we ALL have gotten some form of the flu. Runny noses... sore throats... upset lil guy's tummy's... coughing... you get the point. It has thrown us into a major need rest 24/7 spin. Unfortunately that has not been able to happen. Worst yet there doesn't appear to be any rest in sight.

In another week my kiddos and I are going to have to go stay with my father for 2 weeks or more... don't worry I totally pray to be able to purchase a much needed laptop and should be able to update from there. I hope!! I want to anyways. My father is having his toe fused and we are the only ones able to drive him and help take care of him. That's right... I get to take care of my father, his 2 dogs, 3 kids, and homeschool for 2 weeks or more... ALONE.

Lord please give me the strength and ability because I can not do this alone.

So that has been what has been going on here. Nothing exciting. Unless the wonderfulness of the flu excites you... which it does not us... That has what has kept me away. :( I have so much I want to share. So much I want to say. So much I feel God leading me to share.

On a glorious positive note... My husband and I completed all of Proverbs in January!! To be completely open there were only 2 days the whole month we couldn't read. One being the night we spent 5 hours in the ER because of my kidney stones, and the other being the first night my husband had to work overnight for inventory. We simply ran out of time between dinner, his sleeping a little before having to leave to work from 8pm - 6am. We did the following nights double up. I am actually really proud that those were the only nights we missed.

Now that we are in a new month we decided to read the book of Matthew. Matthew has 28 chapters and February has 28 days. :) We are still faithfully reading our Love Dare Day by Day Devotional as well. It is a great book with wonderful points and dares. We so look forward to our reading together every night. What a wonderful time!!

To God be the glory for great things He is doing!

3 Days In...

Ok I know technically today is the 4th, but since we are doing our daily reading together at night for us we have only accomplished 3 days so far. Of what you might be asking??

Of reading The Love Dare Day to Day Couples Devotional and the 31 Day Challenge in Proverbs.

Let me tell you how rewarded I feel. It awesome. We have also decided every Sunday to include, in our reading together, 1 rule a week from the book "20 Surprisingly Simple Rules and Tools for a Great Marriage" By: Dr. Steve Stephens. (We received this book free from an free date night we were blessed to attend last month. It was hosted by a local ministry. We received dinner and a free private viewing of "The Blind Side". It was awesome and we were so excited to see so many couples taking part.)

Last night rule #1 was to make your spouse a priority. It gave practical tools and an awesome prayer to accompany.

In the prayer last night it had a sentence that stuck out to me! One I want to remember for the rest of my life.

Lord "Teach me to be more generous and less greedy, more sensitive and less selfish, more focused and less hectic."

It also goes hand in hand with this weeks dare

"Begin praying this week: 'Lord, teach me what real love is and make me a loving person.'"

Last night it kept getting later and later and I started to wonder since it was getting so close to when we normally go to bed will we still read. I am happy to annouce WE DID! Not only did we but we were both so happy we did that even though it was midnight when we finally got to bed after our reading neither of us were tired. It was awesome! So God lead and wonderful talking that followed.

We shared parts of the devotional that stuck out to both of us.

We talked about which verse(s) really hit us in Proverbs, and talked about how we could better make each other our top priority.

For the last couple nights we have talked about prominent verses, dares, and tools to make our marriage better. It has been phenomenal.

Here are some of the verses that have really spoken to us

In Proverbs chapter 1 the verse was... (This chapter gives "Warning Against Enticement")

v.7 "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.

Chapter 2 v. 6 "For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

Chapter 3 v.3 "Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart." (for my husband he had different verses and reasons for it. Touching and insightful. For his respect I won't share those, but I am very touched he shared what he did. *smile)

Tonight we will read Day 4 and Chapter 4.

Speaking of Day 4 (from the Love Dare Day to Day) on Day 2 they had us do something outstanding!! So outstanding I just have to share!

Day 2 is entitled "Love is life's motivator" after the reading they gave us a "Go Deeper" section. They asked us to...

"Read 1Corinthians 13. After you have read it, read verses 4-7 again. This time, replace the words "love" or "it" with your first name. Then close in prayer and ask God to help make this a reality in your life."

Let.Me.Tell.You.What....... W.O.W.!!!

I highly recommend you doing this. Highly impactful (is that a correct word??) and something neither my husband nor I will ever forget!  A must read/activity to do for sure. It will change your life!

I can not wait for tonight! It can not come soon enough!

Another year

The New Year is finally upon us. Everywhere I look today everyone is saying this verse...





I think for the most part people are saying this verse because it is the "beginning" of something new... a new year. I'm not quite sure and I can't speak for their reasoning.

For me though it holds something so much more.

It is a constant wonderful reminder of my husband giving his all to Christ over the last year and so much growth in him... in us... in our family.

This verse was prominent when he decided to make that stance and change for God. Whenever I am drowning in FEAR God always whispers this verse in my ear. He has it show up in the strangest of places, or has that be the daily verse picked to be texted on a morning after I totally need it.

I never go searching for it. It always just... APPEARS... Always when I need to hear it. Be reminded of it.

I hold it tight when God reminds me of all the change that has taken place. When he reminds me that my husband is a "new creation" and not at all the same person he was for all those years.

So as this date marks the start of a new decade I resolve to continue to relish in this knowledge of what God has done and what this particular verse means to me!


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With this verse being mentioned it brings me to something totally awesome I found today...







As of right now I haven't picked out that first verse... or verse I want to wrap this new year around. I mentioned this awesome scripture memory verse "challenge" if you will to my husband and we thought it would be awesome to include our daughter in on as well. Tie it into our Bible class. Our sons are too young probably, but we will try with our middle child as well.

We also talked about picking a family verse for the year in addition to a personal one. So once I pray about it and see which one the Lord lays in front of me I will post it, but this is definitely something I want to take part in!! I can't wait!

I really LOVE the verse Lisa picked for her theme of the new year.







I would LOVE for it to be mine as well, but I don't want to just take it and go. I want to pray and have God reveal to me what my verse should be. Who knows it could be the same one... Once I get the verse I will be sure to post it. Should be tonight... hehe especially since today is the 1st! 

Extravagant Grace is a blog I just found this morning and it offers so much more wonder things to be involved in. I can't wait till I am able to sit and read it all!

Definitely a site to check out!

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Another new thing my husband and I are starting today is a gift my husband picked up from the Christian bookstore with his gift card from Christmas.

Totally his idea and desire...

Tonight we start... So excited! He also has decided that he wants to do the 31 day challenge with me too.

So tonight we read Proverbs 1. 

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God has great plans for this year!!

I can NOT wait to see what all it includes...

...The Script is written and printed I can't wait to read it...

The Love Dare

(For those who are unsure of what this dare is... Here is where you can find information about The Love Dare)
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So I am taking the plunge if you will. I am not going to sit back and wonder any longer why my husband's copy of The Love Dare is collecting dust when my own copy is doing the very same thing.

So Tuesday I dusted it off and re-read Day 1. Because of course that is only as far as I have made it in the past.

Day 1's dare...

Speak kindly.

I think I did really well with Day 1.

As in Tuesday only...

Today however I failed miserably. Over something entirely ridiculous or course!

Let me backtrack some... Yesterday morning my husband was leaving for work and had forgotten to grab his cell phone. I went back inside and grabbed it for him. It's a brand new touch screen cell phone. Less then 40 days old. First real nice phones we have ever owned. We dropped it! Of course! The screen didn't crack or anything however it won't "turn on"... Just stays black! The phone works still (as in turns on and off) but since you need the screen to do anything he can't text.... dial.... nothing! He can thankfully however press the call button twice and call me... since I was his last call.

Now for us this is a huge loss. Who cares about the phone I mean really!? But you see this is one of our main lines of communication during the day. We text his entire way to work... shhhh we know sorry, but you see he spends an hour in the car each way to and from work and then 10 hours at work. This talking is vital and precious to us. We also talk through his entire lunch and his entire way home from work... e.v.e.r.y.d.a.y! It didn't used to be like this, but we don't want it to change now that it is.

Losing those communication times devastates me. I looked forward to them. They also came in very handy in case I needed to ask a question that didn't require calling him at work. So when I do get to talk to him I relish in it! Yesterday went ok. Stunk not hearing from him in the morning, but I got to talk to him and lunch and on the way home. So that was very nice. It was a good talk and things were really going good.

Today though was a lot rougher for me. I really missed the texting in the morning. It dawned on me how for granted I took that before. I don't want to take it for granted ever again. I didn't hear from him for hours. No call... no nothing! Now I know some wives don't ever hear from there husband's all day, but I don't like it. So finally an hour or so later then he normally takes his lunch I finally called him. I was very worried as to why he hadn't taken lunch and wanted to know if everything was ok. He told me that he was heading to lunch but when he tried calling me he accidently had called his brother. Since he can't see his screen he didn't realize he had a missed call and it called the last number that showed up... aka brother. So he told me to call him so my number was the last one so he can call me again. I did... 3x!

I misunderstood what he was saying and I was expecting him to a. answer or b. call right back. None of which happened. I was fuming. It was my one time in the day to talk to him. My time with him I guess you could say and I didn't anything. He called me when he got back into his work to tell me his lunch was over and he was back to work now. I came unglued. I felt jipped!! He then further explained he was still talking to his brother and such. I didn't care. I didn't want to hear it. He had ignored me and I was going to make sure he heard how mad I was.

Now after massive reflection I see I was very much in the wrong.

I didn't take the time to fully hear him out about what was going on with his phone and that he was still on the call.

I was selfish and not at all speaking kindly or as today's dare is showing any... patience... kindness... understanding.

I did everything opposite!

I should have listened with excitement at what his brother had to say. They hardly ever talk. I mean ever. I however text with my sister daily. I know how much that hurts him that he doesn't have that kind of relationship with his brother or family, and instead of embracing that with him I shot him down.

I haven't called him yet to reveal to him my revelation because trust me he won't have the right listening ears on while at work. So I wait for another 40 mins or so till he is on his way home and hopefully calls me.

So today's dare was show patience. Failed.

Tomorrow is a new day and pray for succeed to be written next to

Speak Kindly... Love is Patient

Patience... Love is Kind

and tomorrow's dare of Love is not Selfish.

Although with today's dare it does challenge me to "do at least one unexpected gesture as an act of kindness"... I know that when my husband calls tonight he will be expecting the anger in my voice from before. He will be surprised at the warm, welcoming, excited tone he will actually get.

Here's to a better night and tomorrow.