I have not forgotten

that I have a blog! I just do not have internet at my house for a while.

It is a crazy story!

Here's the deal: one of my roommate's paycheck bounced! Can you believe that!?!?!?! She has been going absolutely crazy trying to get this mess straightened out. As a result, she has had hundreds of dollars in NSF and returned check fees (which she will recoup from the company she works for). It has affected all of us - she wrote checks on behalf of her sister (who was out of checks at that time) and also wrote me a check for some money she owed me. Needless to say, it screwed my bank account up and I have been winging it until payday (which is tomorrow - thank God!)

So.....our cable and internet access was cut off because of this fiasco. It will be a few days until I get the hi-speed internet connected. We've decided not to get cable for the time being. One reason is we are trying to save money; the other reason is, my roommate Deedee and I are starting a daily devotional titled "A Call to Die" by David Nasser. One of the things it suggests for the study to be effective is to commit to fasting from something for the 40 days it takes to go through the book. Deedee and I both feel like TV is what God is calling us to fast from. I haven't tallied the total hours a week I've spent watching tv because I'm scared to know how much of my time has been wasted in front of the tube.

Anyway, this is one of the goals I had in mind when I posted this article. I still haven't taken the time to write out my list of goals, but I will be able to do that now that I'm fasting from tv!!! I'm excited about this study and will share my experiences about what I learn.

Not much to say

As you can tell, I haven't had much to say. I've been busy but more to the point, I've been putting off some things that would greatly increase the number of posts. Namely - I've been avoiding dealing with some personal things. But more on that later.

The family is doing well. Roomates are doing good - although there's been some drama for Meagan. I've got to make sure it's ok with her to post about it, but right now is not a good time for it. If you're looking for something to pray about - pray for her about her job. She could really use some Divine intervention!

Anyway, I'll be housesitting for the rest of the week, so I might try to write some things at night and then actually post them when I get to work. Hopefully I can do some catching up.

Later!

What a beautiful day

It sure was a beautiful day today. I wasn't outside for most of it, but the few times I was outside it was nice.

No, my day was beautiful in other ways. It was so good to be in the house of the Lord this morning with my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Then, I went to my mom's house and ate dinner with my family. After that, I washed clothes while watching a movie with my mom and dad. It was just a great day.

By the way, we watched one of my all time favorite movies - "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers". That is a fabulous movie for discussing spiritual things. It (along with the first movie) are rich in spiritual applications. I highly recommend both of them!

Hope everyone else had a good day, too!

Don't you just love kids?

Ok, here she is - Trinity Cheyenne! Isn't she beautiful!!?!?! She is so tiny, too! I'm so excited by her birth and a bit sad. Excited because I get to love another wonderful child and be an influence in her life - sad because this will be the last opportunity for me to be an aunt for a while. If my youngest brother ever gets married and starts having children, I'll be excited.

I'm also a bit sad - but not too much - that I don't have any of my own yet. However, when I look at where I am and the life that I have, I can't imagine being married and having a family right now. God's timing is always perfect - even though it's usually not my timing. Still, His way is always the better way.

In the mean time, I'm living a full life - spending time with friends and family, working, writing for this blog (although I haven't been good at it lately) and spending time getting into God's word. I cannot complain.

I'm still here

I know it's been a few days since my last post, so I wanted to put a little something here for my regular readers. :-D

I was going to post a picture of my niece, but for some reason, Blogger isn't working right. As soon as I can, I'll post her picture. She is a doll!!!

Well, I need to run. Got to take care of some business this morning before I go in to work. There may be more on this story later on!

The last time...

I'll ever be an Aunt! (Unless my youngest brother gets married and has children.)

Yes, my brother and his wife had their fourth and final child yesterday - Trinity Cheyenne. (Ben wanted to name her Trinity Omega - since she is the third daughter and the last child. Shannon wasn't going for it!) I can't wait to see her later today!

Anyway, I got to play mom yesterday to my other two nieces and nephew - Hannah, Mackenzie and Nathaniel. I took off of work to stay with them and we had a good time! I must say though, it wasn't real fun when Hannah got up at 5:50 am this morning. I don't usually see that hour of the day! I'll be staying with them each night until my brother and sister-in-law get home with the new baby. The two Mamaw's are taking turns keeping them during the day today, tomorrow and Sunday.

In any case, I'll be busy for the next few days. If I can get a picture of Trinity, I'll post it. TTFN!

Goal setting

I came to the realization today, that I really don't have any goals that I am working towards. Well, to be honest, I can't say I just realized it today. I've known for a while. I guess I just had these amorphus plans for my life - you know....get married, have children, be a stay-home mom and homeschool, be an active part of the church body....those kinds of plans, but nothing really solid that I can work towards on a daily basis. Those plans I had for me are based solely on one event - getting married. Since that's not happening right now (or in the forseeable future) I realized I better have something else to focus my time on.

What's crazy is, I thought I had pretty good plans for my life. Hah! That's what I get for thinking. My desire to set goals has really been stirred by some of the messages my pastor has been sharing over the last few weeks. It came to a head tonight with our Bible study.

We're studying Hebrews - and boy is it loaded with good stuff! Tonight we were discussing chapter 5, verses 6 and following. Verse 8 is really what spoke to me: "So even though Jesus was God's Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered." What? Jesus was God in the flesh, why did He have to learn obedience. Because He was in the flesh. He had to bring that fleshly body into submission. He learned what it means to have self-control.

My pastor made the comment that lack of self-control means there is a deficiency in your spiritual character. Sometimes lack of self-control is obvious - i.e., being overweight, addictions (drugs, alcohol), etc. Other times it is not. This is where it really hit home. I posted a little about this the other day. I have a lack of self-control and I believe it stems from not having set any goals.

Now, I know that self-control is included in the fruit of the spirit, but I also know that fruit won't grow if it isn't watered and fed. If I'm not spending time in the Word and getting to know Jesus, that fruit is going to die on the vine. If I don't have some goals or plans for getting into the Word, I won't learn or gain any self-control.

I need some structure to my life. So, I'm going to sit down and write out some goals for myself. I will pray over them and ask God to shine His light on areas that I need to focus on. I'm sure these goals will change as I go along, but at least I will have something to work from. I'm going to post them so I'll have some incentive to follow through on these goals (and hopefully some accountability from friends!)

If anyone else has done something like this or felt the need to do so, I'd love to hear your insights and experiences.

The one thing I draw hope from is the last part of that verse in Hebrews: "...He learned obedience from the things He suffered." Christ knows all the struggles I have. All the times I fight to bring under control a response or an action that is contrary to His will...Jesus fully understands. He's been there. I'm just barely beginning to understand how much He knows about my struggles and it is comforting.

This could be interesting!

I found this link over at Susan's webpage. Sounds like it could be interesting! I guess I'll be posting more stuff about Mississippi on here. Who knows what will happen!?!?!