Get back to Gilgal!

Go has been speaking to my heart through many channels these last 24 hours about the same thing, but the one I want to blog about today is through a sermon from my Pastor at my church home back in Georgia. How great is technology when you don't have to miss a church service because you can watch it on an app on your tablet?!!? It has truly been a blessing to me!

So heres a little meat for my blog post today: The Pastor has been preaching on a series through the book of Joshua and the one I watched today was when Joshua had led the Israelite's across the Jordan river and they were about to make camp in Gilgal on the East Border of Jericho. God had told Joshua to make a memorial there with 12 stones from the dry ground God provided to them to pass through the Jordan river. This memorial was to be a reminder to them and their children and generations on of when the Israelites passed over Jordan on dry ground. Gilgal was used as the camp the Israelites used to always come back to refresh and renew from their battles or journeys. It symbolizes in today's Christian life as the point in our life of our salvation, when God delivers us! The place in our life where God called you to be his child. The place where you look back on your life and seen how it was before God and a reminder of Gods faithfulness.

Where was my Gilgal? When I lived in Georgia it was my church home. It was a constant reminder of the place where God came to me both when I got saved the first time and also when I rededicated my life to him. I would drive past this church daily, I attended church there, my children when to preschool there, I helped with Awanas there, I mean this place was LITERALLY a huge part of my life so it was a constant reminder of the blessing of Gods salvation to me. Though it is still my church home in my heart, I no longer live near there. I don't have that constant reminder of Gods grace... 2 years later my walk.... well.... lets just say I haven't been walking much, and if I have walked it has been on the opposite direction of God.

How do I get back to my Gilgal? Well physically I can't! But why should I?? God is EVERYWHERE! He is with us ALWAYS and he is with us anywhere we are. What does it take to get back? Well folks, there is one direction you need to look and that is up. STOP! Stop what you are doing, get un-busy, get away from all of your distractions. Take time alone with God to have him speak to your heart. To remind you of the great things he has done for you. As if sacrificing his only son wasn't enough. The flesh desires an elaborate display of grace God has given us doesn't it?? To get in that quite place, back to basics, back to the core! What do I need to do?? It is different for everyone! Pray, worship, read the Bible, be alone and just be still. Discover that place in your heart where God built that memorial of the time he delivered you from your sins and ultimately to the promised land!

I have recently found a quaint little church to attend. It is the complete OPPOSITE of my home church. But come to think of it, my home church was once a quaint little church... I am striving to get more involved and get over my judgemental attitude and giving this new one the chance it deserves. Lord knows I didn't and don't deserve chances but he gives them doesn't he! God is so good!!!My blogs may not make sense to you (I tend to be scatterbrained), and you may not understand but I write them in hopes that you may understand and that God blesses you through it somehow.

Lazy Day

So last night I woke up at 3am and didn't get back to sleep till 7am. Needless to say I am one exhausted mommy. So today called for a sit around in your PJ'S all day. I known definitely don't get anything I need to get done finished but it does give me some time tonchillax. Especially since life has been crazy. Out of town guests and football and cheerleading. Gymnastics/tumbling starts Monday for my youngest. I am excited. She's taking a tumbling class with a hip hop/jazz dance class after it. =) If you know my youngest you will know she is going to love it. So other than that going on tying up homeschool loose ends. Preparing for a couples/group bible study coming up. Mad props to my mom for hooking us up with the curriculum!!! So right now that's all that's going on in my crazy busy life right now. Hope yall have an awesomely blessed day!!!! =)

Update

Well.. it's been a while since I have written a blog post. Probably will be a while before I write another post but I figured I owed everyone an update. Once again I have struggled with my spiritual walk and it has come to my attention that my prayer life was practically non existant.. It's time for me to step up. Each morning I have a designated quiet time for Bible reading and prayer time. And I have to admit it's been a great thing. I have had prayers answered for those on my prayer list. PRAISE GOD!! I will continue to pray for them but it's amazing that God hears the smallest of pleas. Never underestimate the power of prayer. My oldest turned 10 yesterday. I can't get over how quickly time is going by. It's quite depressing. Even more my baby is gonna be 6 this year!!! Football and cheer season are upon us. So this season I gm have a cheerleader, a football player and a gymnast. Super excited to watch them grow through this stage in their life. My family is starting a weekly Bible study next week and I am honestly extremely excited about it. We've also started attending church regularly.. it's been difficult to find one we like. We were constantly comparing it to our church back home. Now, we just asked God to put us where he wants us. Right now I feel led to the church we are attending now. So far it's been good. =) so for right now all good right now. Thanks everyone for keeping up. Until next time!!!
Xoxoxo

Controversy!

As I sit here and sip my coffee out of my favorite Eeyore coffee cup I find it humorous that most of the time people do not read my posts unless they are controversial. Or they don't comment unless they want to bash me for believing a different way than they do. I have had many disagreements on facebook about many things. Luckily MOST but not all of those disagreements are actually just that and not arguments and bashing the other person or me. Social Media is definitely not what it was before. And I am guilty for abusing it along with many others to further my agenda in sharing my beliefs and justifications about these beliefs to the world. I can remember back when my younger brother was in college. He was the first one to ever tell me about Facebook. Back then it was exclusive to college students. You literally had to have a college e-mail address to be allowed to partake. Then Facebook became a way to find your lost family members or friends you haven't seen or spoken to in a while. NOW! Its full of political and religious articles. Don't get me wrong. A lot of people post some VERY interesting articles but some are just plain dumb. I am probably guilty for both. And don't even get me started on the games.. PLEAS PLEASE do NOT invite me to play games on Facebook. I can not tell you how many folks have been removed because they have not respected my request to stop inviting me to these life sucking addicting games. And some how... SPAM found its way onto Social Media. People repost those photos that say if you don't share this you will die in the next 24 hours or the love of your life will sweep you off your feet in the next week. Bologna. Now there are so many Social Media outlets and they are steadily becoming a source for people to use your thoughts and opinions and even your photos against you. Granted, some folks lack the common sense ability to know that if you are underage and you post a photo of you drinking a beer... really. Think about it.. That really was not smart. You just put a huge target on your back. And if you hate your job and you are friends with your boss or someone who you work with (because you never know if they are a little brown noser) do not post if on Facebook! Social media has been the birth of so many things that have just gone wrong. From really awkward bathroom selfies to the infamous duck lips. Look girls, if you want to constantly do duck lips please let your parents know so instead of dropping thousands of dollars to give you a beautiful smile they can just have your lips done. I have never read a quote that said do duck lips because you never know if the aflac duck is checking you out. SMILE! Someone is falling in love with your smile!!! Sheesh! So yeah my rant on Social Media sites! They are bitter sweet. You stay in touch with family members and old school friends mixed in with everything else.

Pulling Back the Shades

So I have started a new book in light of the release of the movie Fifty Shades of Grey. I purchased a book from Dannah Gresh. Its a viewpoint from two Christian women on the book Fifty Shades of Grey. She had a great deal on the book. It was half off and she sent an extra copy for a friend. So I have two. One that I am reading and one I am hoping to share with a friend who is in need of a book to show her what love and intimacy is supposed to be as intended by God. I have NOT and will NOT read the book Fifty Shades of Grey nor will I be seeing the movie. I just can not bring myself to do it and pay money for something so masochistic. Dannah also included in the back of the book a Study of sorts for the book and a printable version on her website. Like I said I am halfway through and thus far its great. Answered many questions as far as intimacy that Christian women struggle with, like what is acceptable and what is not. A lot of times its an off limit topic due to the fact that well.. it is intimate. So here in the next couple of days I will be trying to finish off that book.

In other news I got my birthday present from my in laws early!! I have to admit I am super stoked about it. They bought me a ticket to see Celtic Women. I have been wanting to see them in person for so long. Its unexplainable what I love so much about their music. Its just so moving and sweet and passionate. I can NOT wait to see them! And even better my sister in law is coming with me!!!! YAY!! Nothing like taking your red headed sister in law to see some Irish women sing and play instruments!

This is the newest addition to our little er well big family. Another fur baby. He is a full blooded English Mastiff. A dog my husband has wanted since he was a little boy and watched the movie the Sandlot. He is the sweetest most cuddly puppy I think I have ever had. He has been a great addition. I keep telling my husband that since I can not give him another son a 200lb dog should do! 

Anyways! Well that is all for today! Its Wednesday so its our weekly get together day. I can not wait. Dinner and company is ALWAYS amazing. Its well worth the mess! I hope everyone has a great day! God Bless

Week 7 Childhood Memories!

Alright now that I am I caught up on this blog challenge you probably wont be seeing multiple posts from me in one day! YAY! I know right! Gets tiring doesn't it. This week I am supposed to talk about my childhood memories. Well I'm getting a little older so they are few and far between but there are definitely some that stick out in my mind good and bad but the good are are mostly spending time with my grandparents and at my Uncle Daves farm. I truly miss my Grandpas and my Uncle Dave.  Uncle Daves farm where my brothers and my cousin terrified my other cousin and I with the remnants of what was being prepared for dinner that night. We were having chiken for dinner and the heads were cut off. They would pick up the heads and chase them while squeezing them just enough to make their mouths open. I KNOW!!! Boy relatives are SOO mean! I remember drinking fresh milk... Right out of the cow. I remember swimming in my Grandpas swimming pool. Going to my other Grandparents house and playing in the lake and my grandpa taking us to Car shows! My Gramma telling me about fashion and how it has evolved! Family reunions. Care free days playing not a care in the world. Here are just a few pictures I have to post. =D

Week 6 Ten Years From Now

Week 6: Ten Years From Now

Honestly, I do not want to even think about ten years from now. I am considering boycotting my birthday this year! Even though I have already gotten a phenomenal gift from my in-laws, the though of turning 30 just creeps me out. So hypothetically if this planet as we know it is still around in 10 years ( I am a firm believer that Christ may be coming back before then) I will be... *cough* 40 and my babies wont be babies anymore. I will have an almost 20 year old daughter, a 17 year old son and my baby will be 16!! OMG!!! That is only in 10 years!!! GASP! Where has time gone. I look back at my life 10 years ago and I never would have thought I would be where I am now. Crazy to think how life changes so much! I still see me continuing to homeschool my children and watch as they excel and grow into the most amazing little people ever. I still see me and my husband very happy and in love with each other. I am looking forward to the adventures! All I can say is I am looking forward to the next 10 years of my life!!!

Week 5! My Favorite Holiday!

Okay so I have to go ahead and knock out another week. This is not a tough one. My favorite holiday is Christmas hands down. When I was growing up the true meaning of Christmas was always foremost and we lived quite a bit of ways from family. But when I got older and got together with my husband I was able to celebrate Christmas with them. They have family near so its always a HUGE event and I just love it. I have struggled the last 2 years living so far away from them and not being able to be there for all the festivities but we somehow manage to make it work out.

Week 4!

Week 4: My Top 5 Places to Visit!!

So most of my posts have taken a little more effort than this post will take!! My top 5 places to visit.. well that is easy. I will start with #5 then work my  way to the #1 place I would like to visit. 

#5 Bora Bora Pearl Island!

#4 Australia

#3 Scotland

#2 Ireland

#1 Israel

So there you have it! My top 5 places I would LOVE to visit!!! 

Week 3! Meet my Family!

STILL playing catch up!!! Yeah Yeah! Judge me. I had planned on catching up some last week but when my husband is off my computer gets neglected. Anyways so Week 3! Here we go!

Meet My Family

We are a God fearing family who loves each other and loves our friends and family. We love to spend time together watching movies, playing outside and having cookouts with our family and friends! 

My husband and I have been together about 12 years and been through more in those 12 years than many couples do in an entire lifetime, good and bad. We have been happily married almost 8 years and we are truly blessed with all God has given us!!! 

This gem is our youngest! She is feisty, shes my little tomboy and she can be the sweetest! She is the epitome of a southern girl. She can get down and dirty in a skirt and a pair of heels! She is still young so shes not quite sure what she wants to do or be when she grows up but I can be pretty sure it will have to do with any kind of animals. She is an animal lover at heart. (Not to be mistaken for a vegetarian she says).

Our son. He loves Skylanders and playing outside but more than anything he loves ALL kinds of sports EXCEPT gold. He is our football star. Hes has big hopes and dreams and we are very confident that he will achieve them. He wants to play football at the University of Georgia and go on to play in the NFL one day!

Our oldest.. She is extremely smart and loving but getting very close to the teenage years. Preteen is dawning on us as I type this up and it is already beginning to show. She loves little kids (as long as they aren't her siblings). She wants to go to college and be a Pediatric Dentist! 

Week 2

Week 2: My Favorite Things

So my sister in law and I had this discussion the other day. She is totally obsessed with butterflies! So when I asked her what I was obsessed with she said anything that is black, black pants, black shirts. black shoes, black cars... But there are some things that are my favorite . BOOKS! I love books. I have a gazillion books!! I have not read half of them but I will!! One day I WILL!!!

Another one of my favorite things since I was younger is Eeyore! I just love him. He is so sad its sooooo cute!!!

Printables!!! I have a ton of printables!!! I especially love the ones from Hellocuteness.com I just adore all of her cuteness! Shes so creative! I buy her calendars every year. Have for the last 3 years! LOVE THEM! 

Pink! Yeah I know... pink... really.. but I LOVE LOVE LOVE writing in pink ink. I grade papers in pink! Red.. its just so harsh!! These are my all time favorite pens!

Week 1

Okay so here is the start of my 52 week Blog challenge..  Week 1 five weeks later! My bad people my bad! So here goes catch up!!

Meet my best Friend (s)

So I can not pick just one because right now there are three!! Three women who have been there for me in the past present and all of who I hope are there in the future. The one I have known the longest so I will start with her first is my brother's wife. We may not have been the best of friends in the beginning but now she is my best friend. I was in big sister mode when she first started dating my brother and I always felt like NO ONE was good enough for him.. boy was I wrong. She is perfect for him and has been a perfect addition to our family. She has blessed me with a handsome nephew and a gorgeous niece! I love love love her so much!!!

My next bestist is my sister from another mother. Jessica and I go way back... She was dating a mutual friend of the families and we became good friends. We lost touch for a while and then hooked back up and it was all history after that. It was like we have been best friends all of our lives! What made it even better was our husbands became best friends as well!! We had some many great times together. She has 2 precious handsome little boys and another on the way! 

My last but not least best friend Brittaney I met after I moved to Florida. I was an independent consultant selling my product at a Bridal Show and her and her fiance (now husband) walked in and I literally thought at a side glance he was my husband. We all started chatting. We decided that whether our husbands liked each other or not we would be friends and here we are. a year and a half later all best friends!!! We see each other once a week and its so great! They have been a great addition to our family. 

I am beyond blessed to have such amazing people in my life!! I can not imagine my life without them!!! Thank you all so much for being a very precious part of our lives!! Our family is complete with you all included in it!!! 

52 Week Blog Challenge!!!

Since I am so horrible at blogging on a daily basis heres a WEEKLY blog challenge for me!! YAY!!! I will try to include photos as well!!! YAY! Aren't you excited!??!?! Which one are you the MOST excited about!?

Why I Chose to Homeschool...

And continue to do so. My husband and I sat down a few years ago and discussed me homeschooling. When I was pregnant with my son I was unable to work due to some health issues so I stayed home with him. I sent my oldest to regular school up until First grade. She was struggling in many ways. Mostly it was due to a potty issue. She would not completely wet her pants but just enough to give an odor and kids would make fun of her. And at least twice a week I was getting phone calls to bring her clothes (Which I always kept a spare in her bag) or pick her up. Which I am happy to say she has gotten over. Her First Grade year  my husband came home from Afghanistan for his R&R and I have to say it was like pulling teeth to get her out of school for the two weeks he was home. My Father in law had a heart attack and had to have heart surgery while on the road in Florida and I had to pull her out again. She could only get pre-approved for 3 days until I came back with a doctors note stating that it was necessary for us to be with him. Okay maybe I can see that and understand that but as soon as I returned home there was a letter in the mail from DHS saying if she had one more absence (excused or unexcused) The local Sheriff's department would be at my house. SERIOUSLY!!! Every absence my child has she had a doctors note or she had my husbands orders (because yes they needed proof of that too). But even with all of that I still got the letter. My husband also was limited on his vacation days because of where he worked and his seniority there. The only days he had available were the first two weeks of school. Of course I could not pull my daughter out of school the first two weeks of school. My husband looked at me and said "well if we home schooled we wouldn't have this problem". And thus the decision was made. Call me selfish, call me whatever you want but having the freedom of going on vacation whenever we are able to and changing our "weekend" to daddy's days off.  I also like having the option as a parent to control what my children are being taught and HOW they are being taught. Even more now so since they have started implementing Common Core.. what a joke. Little things that we took advantage of growing up they are taking out of school. You want to know why generations growing up today are Godless, schools have taken the Bible and prayer out of school for fear of offend someone else. You want to know why generations these days have less patriotism these days, They are trying to take the pledge, and our flags out of schools again for fear they would offend someone. I have chosen a Christian based curriculum and tomorrow I will explain why I chose this particular curriculum and what I have tweaked to make it work for our family. Please do not get me wrong. Some parents are not lead or have the desire to home school and that does not make you less of a parent than me. These are choices we have made for our family just as many other makes choices for their family that I would not do for mine. But I do not judge. You are their parent! YOU know what is best for your family and YOUR child. God has lead my family to this road and we are enjoying this time in our lives! Some days are a struggle but most days its a breeze! I hope all of you have a blessed day and THANK YOU for being a part of my journey! =)

Disorderly Organized

It does not make sense does it? I feel like the more I get myself organized the more unorganized I feel like I am. I have certain things that go in certain places but I have more that just gets dumped into random places whenever I feel like it. LoL! Yeah I know.. I can not be the only one I know who does this... I have a planner for EVERYTHING but I don't ever stick with it. Yeah that includes my kids school work. Some days we do a couple days worth of work (especially if the kids get it) and some days we are lucky we get through one lesson on one subject. I have 6 weeks at a time planned out with the school work already separated and printed out. So that is one thing I do not have to worry about. With that being said I have to share a website that I LOVE LOVE LOVE getting most of my home organizing calendars from. She has such cute monthly calendars and I get my meal planners from her site and now shes got a weekly  planner!!! OH I just LOVE them ALL! Follow her on Facebook here at HelloCuteness there should be a link on her facebook that will send you to her site for all her freebies and to purchase her products!! So far 2015 has been good to us. I am extremely blessed however a weight is heavy on my heart for this planet. I do fear that our world is walking right into its demise. The Bible says it will happen one day, I guess deep down I was hoping it would not be during my generation but it has started. I fear for my children as they grow up in this world. Tragedy everywhere. I do not want to shun them away from all the bad in this world but I do want them to see that there is GOOD and BAD in this world and they have a choice which path they want to go down. I am optimistic as any parent, though I have my days where I doubt my parenting, that I am raising them to do the right thing and follow their heart and pray that whatever path they choose and they go down I have the strength to support them in all they do. But enough of the deep deep. I love my precious family and friends and have been extremely blessed. <3 a="" blessed="" day="" everyone="" friends="" has="" hope="" i="" my="" nbsp="" next="" p="" time="" until="" wonderfully="">

I'm a Bad Housewife!

But lucky for me my sweet husband understands that sometimes its ok to do nothing and focus on spending time with each other. These past three weeks have been so crazy. Between traveling and visiting and the holidays. You all know how it goes I am sure. Christmas we went back to our hometown to see our families. My dad, step mom, littlest brother and littlest sister came down to visit before they went on vacation. Its been great.. however I have been letting my wifely duties slip through the drain. As I am typing this the washer, dryer, diswasher and kiddos are working on their chores. There is a mountain of clothes on the couch waiting for me to get off my tush and get started on them. The kitchen floor needs mopping, I need to vacuum. AHHH!!! On top of all of that daily duties need to be done. Meals and school work. So today is the day I play catch up. that way hopefully on my hubbys days off he does not have to do anything. Not that he has too but he likes to be busy and do things and if I do not do it before he does, well he does it. He has been workin so hard I would like to get it all done and force him to take the day and do nothing. =) I missed church today. He had to work a double so I urged him to take the truck so he would not have to work a 16 hour day on 4 hours of sleep and be on the motorcycle. We will try and hopefully make it next week. Still struggling to find a church home but that is an entire separate blog post in its self. But today I will hopefully catching up on housework, doing some organizing, and I have blogged so I already have one thing checked off! YAY! I hope you all have a blessed day!!