I Did It

           I have been thinking about deactivating my Facebook account for a while and yesterday I did it.  Just like that no announcement, nothing just went in and deactivated.  It is so liberating.  I'm not checking umpteen times a day for updates from people who I have no significant relationship with.  The people that I am truly interest in hearing from I can contact by phone, email or through their blog.  A few people have commented on my husbands page that they would miss my daily thankful post which I am continuing in a journal.  So why did I deactivate because I had so many "friends" that I truly had not interest in hearing about but did not want to hurt anyone's feelings by deleting them as friends.  Call me lazy but I also didn't want to go through all of my friends and take them off the news feed.  Finally, I spent a lot of time looking at stuff that was for sale even though I don't need anything and haven't bought anything in a long time.  I'm not sure whether this is a permanent deactivation or a temporary one, all I can really say is that right now it feels like it is a permanent deactivation. 

Changes in our Home

As a parent I'm always seeking to do better in my parenting.  Lately, I know there has been a struggle when it comes to parenting.  Since about Thursday of last week we have struggled with temper tantrums in our home.  Temper tantrums aren't exactly what you want to see from your five year old, who keeps throwing temper tantrums.  So what is a mother to do.  First, we've cut out the enormous amounts of sugar that he is taking in during the day.  You know fruit snacks, fruit by the food, juice boxes etc.  Second, we are getting rid of the clutter.  Well it's more than that we are actually downsizing our lives.  We're getting rid of things without meaning and keep the things with meaning.  Since I'm not very sentimental that should be fairly easy to do.  Third, we've turned off the television, computer, and phone.  We are living in a world that has to much focus on electronics.  I know I'm guilty of checking my email too often at home.  I'm too connected with Facebook, you repeatedly checking to see if anything has happened since the last time I looked five minutes ago.  Fourth, we're trying an earlier bedtime.  We may not be asleep at 8:00 but we're going to try to be in bed by 8:00.  Last but not least we're going to work on using this time as a learning experience.  We're going to talk about character traits and work on developing them.  I'll update you on how things are working. 

God Even Speaks When You're Cleaning Up Vomit

After a wonderful weekend with family we made it home late in the evening last night.  All was well and Robert and I went to bed.  Around 1:30a.m. I was awakened by my husband with "we threw up."  So I get and go into my son's room and sure enough he had thrown up.  So I proceeded to clean up the vomit and think about how much my husband owed me.  Then God spoke.  He reminded me of my Facebook friends who were mourning the loss of their children.  He reminded me that those parents would be willing to trade places with me.  To have the honor of cleaning up their child's vomit.  I am truly blessed even while cleaning up vomit for two reasons.  One I still have a child that is with me and still needs me to take care of his needs and two God speaks to me. 

I Made It

Well I decided a couple of months ago to start running.  Now mind you I have never been a runner.  I ran because I had to in other sports but I did not run for the sake of running.  In fact when I would see people running I would joke with my husband "I wonder what is chasing them."  Well now I am one of them.  I ran my first 5K this weekend and no I did not finish last.  In fact I was mid pack which I thought was great considering the front 20 our so were obvious runners.  My goal was to run the entire race.  I didn't really care about where I finished so long as I was not dead last.  Praise God for the people that were walking or walk/running.  I am now addicted to running.  I love that feeling of completing a race, crossing the fininsh line.  I am running in another 5k race this weekend and will begin training for a mini marathon in September.  I will probably run more 5Ks between now and then and may run a couple of other mini marathons after September. 

It's Been a While

It has been a long time since I've posted.  I have been busy with work and reading at home.  I've read the Diary of Anne Frank and am currently reading about Deitrich Bonhoeffer.  I'm not sure what the fascination with the Jews in Germany is for me at this point.  I think we as a church can learn a lot from recent history and being quiet.  I'm beginning to wonder if we can look at things that are going on today in this country and learn from what happened in Germany with the Nazis.  We must stop the "small losses" before we start having big losses. 

Faithful

I haven't been as faithful to this blog as I had hoped but I'm more faithful than I was on my last attempt at blogging.  I have been faithful in some things which now seem to be more habit than anything else.  I still workout 6 days per week.  My P90X goes with me or when I'm at my mom and dad's house I use my brother's P90X dvds.  I'm still eating well.  I splurge every now and then by adding cheese to a subway sub when I need more calories or the other day I had chicken and mushroom pizza.  I haven't had my McDonald's sweet tea in two months.  (I've heard a rumor that the McDonald's is closing maybe there is a connection.)  My last adventure has been my dress.  I have focused on dressing more modestly and more feminine.  I haven't worn pants since Tuesday and have enjoyed my skirts.  I bought new shoes today to go with my skirts since I've been wearing nothing but one pair of boots since then.  I'm still letting my hair grow out.  My husband even commented that I need a hair cut.  I haven't started my reading through the Bible in a year but will start with an online group on January 30 and will read through the Bible in 90 days.  Someone said that they could do it in 90 days because by the time you get to the point of wanting to quit your almost done. 

Modesty

Have you ever had one of those moments in life when God is speaking so clearly to you to do something that it seems like everywhere you turn the message is there.  I have been hearing that message from God about modesty for a few days now.  It seems that everywhere I turn and everything I do seems to direct me toward modesty.  I've seen it talked about on several blogs, it was even on the radio last night, and then the same women was on blog this morning totally unrelated to the radio program.  Plus when I went to Goodwill and looked for some new skirts I found several and they were on sale.  I was able to purchase 5 skirts, 2 shirts and 1 cardigan for $13 and some change.  It was as if everything fell right into place.  Plus I received a gift card from my dad for Christmas and when my parents switch over to a different satellite provider they will receive a $200.00 gift card and I will get half of it since I gave them the coupon.  How awesome is that.