Blessings

This song means so much to me these days... I pray it touches you today too <3

Multitudes on Monday

Det. 2:3

" You have circled this mountain long enough. Now turn North."

Seems like I have been circling for well over two months now. I am ready to be done and turn "North" or up, so to say. Most of you know that I have been working my way through the Made to Crave book and study. I have to say, that this is one of the best studies/ self help books I have read in a long time, if not ever. I have really taken a liking to the author Lysa Terkeurst, and feel like she knows me, personally. She is real, to the point, full of empathy and understanding, yet can hammer you over the head with God's truth in such a way, that you get it and get fired up and ready to make changes in your life. Really, if you haven't heard of Lysa or read anything from her, I encourage you to, I think you will love her too!

Back to my circling... there are some messes in my life. Yup, messes.. not something this girl likes to have. I am most content when everything is neat and tidy and when it isn't, not only is there a mess but I am one too. Praise God that He knows about our messes and love us in spite of them and just the same!! Yesterday, I was visiting Lysa's blog and she spoke specifically about messes. She challenged me with this thought:

• Am I letting the mess define me or refine me?

If they are defining me - I will feel helpless....

If they are refining me - I will feel hopeful....

There it was my "Ahha moment" Why am I allowing these things to define me instead of refining me? I know God allows things to happen in our lives to bring us to Him to be REFINED... why haven't I been letting Him? I have been consumed with the mess instead of what God is teaching me through the mess. Ok, I read it, hear it, and now I am going to try to apply it...

Here's to turning North (up)!

Continuing in my multitudes of blessings for the year:

#45... a yellow rose plant that appeared at my office door from an unknown friend

#46... arms from a nine year old boy that find their way to my face to have me look him in the eyes while he tells me I am his best friend and he loves me most

#47... the thirteen year old young man who is so very protective of this mom and her feelings

#48... broken relationships (yup I said broken) allowing God to fix it in his time, not mine

#49... tanning beds :) here's to sunshine, quiet, and 15 minutes to myself in a locked room!

#50... for the first time that I can remember NOT turning to food to fix my messes

#51... Whipped Cream ;)

Hugs!

How this spoke to me

I saw this quote today and I love it!

"God already knows what my tomorrow will be, it will not catch Him off guard.

It has been well said that no man ever sank under the burden of the day.

It is when tomorrow's burden is added to the burden of today that the weight

Is more than any man can bare.

Never load yourselves so, my friends. If you find yourselves so loaded, remember this:

It is your own doing, not God's. He begs you to leave the future to Him,

And mind the present." ~ George Macdonald

Thank you Lord for already knowing.....

Real....

Yeah, so I missed it... what's a girl to do now? What did I miss you ask? I missed posting on Monday my thankful post Multitudes on Monday. Truth is, I have been really having a hard time finding things to be thankful about. I try hard to find them, really I do... but when I am consumed by pain and hurt both in my own life and those I love. Don't get me wrong, I know God is still blessing me in spite of what is going on in my life.. but focusing on the blessings and actually acknowledging them here with you on my blog is just really hard right now and that my readers is real.
Praying that next Monday will find me in a much more thankful frame of mind and spirit!

Multitudes on Monday

Happy Monday friends! This is said with a smile and a cheery voice just from my laptop to you! Not because I am feeling especially "Pollyanna" like today, but because I think we need to be encouraged by each other and so this is me doing my part.


(Mud bath!!)

This past week has been messy! No other way to put it but that... messy. Emotionally, physically, spiritually.. yeah we had it all. However, God is still in control and is still suspending the sun in the day sky and the stars in the night. There can be such a comfort in that if we would just take a breath and process that. That same God loves me, my husband, and my kids far more than this momma's heart can so when I am hurting, that God hurts too but knows there is so much more to the picture than what I can see in front of me and THAT is what I have to rest in. A close friend of mine told me yesterday, that in three months from now we won't even be giving this day a second thought. Just three months! Sure, there might be some repercussions still but the pain, panic, and heavy-heartedness of that moment will be gone and joy will have been found again in the in-between. AND I have decided to pray specifically that it would have made me stronger and more grown up in my relationships in all aspects.

In the mean time, I am still counting my multitudes of blessings and even with ALL that I have had going on, there were plenty to be found and more than once I was vocalizing my thanks to the God who gives more than this Jesus girl deserves in this lifetime!

#38... the way the Body works together to help one another

#39... while cooking dinner, the strong arms that wrap around me and make me feel 17 again

#40... piles of laundry because it means my house is full of people I love

#41... a working furnace even after having had a mud bath

#42... the small patches of bare ground that is starting to show itself from under the snow banks

#43... the three sensitive hearts of the young men that have been given to me to raise

#44... daylight savings... while I am struggling with the change in time.. I am loving the longer amounts of daylight

Hugs!

Multitudes on Monday

I missed last week being able to share with you the stuff going on here in the Punkinpatch. Our family has had one thing after another for the past two weeks and that has kept me from being able to sit and blog, and to be honest I was really having to purposely look for those multitudes of blessings. I never doubted that they were there, but when you are down in the mud and grim of life, its hard to have the energy to look for them and to recognize them.

If you had listened hard enough, you might have heard this sound in our home last week. Heart break was abundant here and it resonated itself from my husband and I completely down to the twins. All different reasons, but none the less, it was there and it seemed when I listened hard enough I could really hear the sound of breaking glass.

How this put into perspective once again for me what our decisions and lack of self control do to our Heavenly Father! When I think of the times that I do my own thing, say things before I think, and have lack of regard for how my actions might offend someone else... I am so very thankful once again for God's grace, because I certainly don't deserve it! As a parent in a rough patch right now, I can only try to execute a minuet amount of the grace that God shows upon me to our child and pray that through this, she too might become ever thankful for the grace of the One who loves her most.

People keep telling me this is only a season in my life and one day I will look back at it and see how we all have handled it and grown, for now I will continue to fall into the arms of my Heavenly Father and lay on the chest of my earthly husband and know that they do have my best interest and will catch me when I can't stand on my own any longer.....

Hugs!

#30... a warm home

#31... singing with 30 children in preparation for the upcoming Easter season

#32... people who speak the truth in love

#33... technology that allows me to have people in my life when it isn't possible to be sitting next to each other

#34... new recipes and ideas

#35... a giving and self-less husband

#36... my sister

#37... christian radio and music