What does your Latte say about you?

So I found this blog. That blog lead me to this blog. Which lead me to this Latte quiz! :) I would say pretty accurate! Well, I may be a bit pushy ... LOL So .... what does your Latte say about you? If you wouldn't mind, leave a comment with the answer or leave your blog address so I can head over to your blog. :)

What Your Latte Says About You

You are very decadent in all aspects of your life. You never scale back, and you always live large. You are a very serious person. You don't have time for silly antics. You have a good deal of energy, but you pace yourself. You never burn out too fast. You're addicted to caffeine. There's no denying it. You are responsible, mature, and truly an adult. You're occasionally playful, but you find it hard to be carefree. You are expressive and friendly, but you are never pushy.

What Does Your Latte Say About You?

email me!

Okay, so with prayer and my husband's blessing I am going to post an email address for y'all. :)

servinghimwithyou@gmail.com

Feel free to email me with questions, prayer requests, and praise reports! I am so excited about this.

I just want to make it clear that I will not share info with anyone. Nor will I post anything without permission.

You and your emails are safe with me. :)

house keeping

I just wanted to encourage y'all to look at the sidebar from time to time.
When I find new blogs that I enjoy and think y'all might be blessed by (or when a friend has a new one:)) I will add it. I just don't announce it. Also, I am always reading something, besides the Author of Life's WORD, so I add that.
I know that not all homeschool but I do have a homeschool blog ... the picture He's painting. The link is at the sidebar. :)
I will be adding an 'email me' option shortly. If you have any questions, prayers, found a neat blog, etc you can pass it along to me. :)

Enjoy your Wednesday!

Cell Phone vs. Bible

Cell Phone vs. Bible
Author Unknown

I wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat our cell phones?

What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?

What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?

What if we flipped through it several times a day?

What if we used it to receive messages from the text?

What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it?

What if we give it to kids as gifts?

What if we used it as we traveled?

What if we used it in case of an emergency?

What if we upgraded it to get the latest version?

This is something to make you go. "Hmm, where is my Bible?"

Oh, and one more thing. Unlike our cell phone, we don't ever have to worry about our Bible being disconnected, because Jesus already paid the bill!

There is no place like home

Wow! What a weekend! LOL

Saturday I took the boys to Wal-Mart. Yes, yes I did. Bo had to work and we had nothing for dinner. What could I do?

Usually taking the boys with me is not bad at all. They are older and they love to help. They each take turns pushing the cart, writing down the prices and retrieving the items from the shelf.

Not this day my friend. Oh the boys were great, believe they were awesome. The other people there were not so nice.

I will never go to Wal-Mart on a Saturday afternoon again. You couldn't pay me to do it. Well, let's be honest ... you could pay me to do it.

So anyway, we survived. We made it home. Home, sweet home!

The whole time we were at Wal-Mart I was praying. I truly was. I prayed for our safety, my sanity and that I would not loose one of my precious little ones because everyone and their mother kept getting in between us! Well, to back track a little ... when we got in the van to leave I had a nervous spirit. So I had us all bow our heads and I prayed. I prayed for our physical safety. I prayed for travel mercies.

Okay, now we arrive home. I am so happy. The boys are so happy. I put the key in the door and open. My spirit jumped. When I walked in, I could feel the presence of the Lord. I could just about see it hovering in our downstairs. It's all one big open floor plan.

I smiled. So thankful that God was there. I know He was with us too but folks ... this was amazing.

The boys unloaded the van while I put things away. The whole time I was singing praises to Him and thanking Him for being here in our home.

A few minutes after we were done with everything Ryan and I had this conversation.

Ryan: "Mom, do you know what I am thinking about?"
Me: "You are thinking about Jett (one of our kitties and his favorite)"
Ryan: "Nope."
Me: "You are thinking about having hot dogs for dinner."
Ryan: "Nope."
Me: "You are thinking about watching T.V."
Ryan: "Nope. One last guess."
Me: "I really have no idea. Oh, maybe about your dinosaur bucket?"
Ryan: "No and you're done. I'm thinking about how wonderful our house feels today."

Ryan's remark made the other two chime in with agreement.

At that moment I knew ... what I felt and saw, the presence of our Lord, touched my children too.

Touch us Lord

Today's Quote ...

For Christmas my family gave me a little desk top calander. The kind you can tear off the day before. You know what I'm talking about. :)

Anyway, here is the quote for today. So good and so true ...

It's very easy to forgive others their mistakes;
it takes more gut and gumption to forgive them for having witnessed your own.
-Jessamyn West, writer

breakfast

Yesterday I went to a Women's Breakfast at my church. I was my first time and I had such a great time. My sweet friend Tarra came with me. The food was so yummy and the message ... was food for my soul too!

God really spoke to me yesterday. Believe me, I was all ears. God said some things yesterday that only He and I talked about. Don't you just love that? In a room full of about 50 women, He still spoke to just me! He is such a wonderful Father!

I feel refreshed.

I have no regrets about all the yesterdays.

I am encouraged about all the tomorrows.

I am enjoying all the todays.

New year and a new look

I decided to update the look of my blogs.

I love new stuff. Like a new month because you can flip the calender over and it's a fresh new page. How about a fresh journal. I always try to write neatly in it.

I'm excited about this new year. Perhaps more then any other year. I can sense the presence of the Lord more now then ever. I know in my spirit that this is a dream coming true year. I do believe that the flood gates of heaven are going to open up on our home.

Even though I am sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for God to show Himself ... I have an easy calm to me as well. I think perhaps this may be the first time in my life that I am not rushing Him. My ear is down to the ground so when I hear Him move I will be ready but I am not begging Him to "come on". I'm sitting at His throne in worship and in praise.

I said to the Lord, "You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing." Psalms 16:2 (NIV)

The power of God

Lately I have been singing
"There is power, power, wonder working power, in the blood of the Lamb. There is power, power, wonder working power in the precious blood of the Lamb!"
That's it. Just those two simple sentences. I have song it while cleaning my house. I have hummed the tune while organizing my desk. And before I knew it I was actually dancing with our Lord.
There IS power in the blood of the Lamb! Glory!
The past week I have felt such an anointing fall on me. I have felt God's presence in my home in such a way that it is changing us. Praise His Name!
My sweet Lord comes to me when I least expect it too. I was overwhelmed by sadness while washing the dishes. For no particular reason, I had just been reviewing the year. Thinking over the past events of the last twelve months and my heart began to hurt. As my eyes started to burn from the tears threatening to pour out, I heard my Saviour say "Behold, I am with thee." Such a calmness came over me. I can't explain it but I'm sure that y'all have had similar experiences with our Heavenly Father. I have felt the Comforter this week in such a powerful way. I know that there are some big things going to happen in 08. I am excited. This year God has been shaking what could be shaken and I believe the time of shaking is over. Now some growth, healing, love, and ministering are going to take place. I also believe that some dreams that He planted are going to come true this next year.
May His Name be praised!

Where to start ...

Man, has it been so long since I have posted. I'm not sure where to start and I will probably will jump around. :) Just warning y'all!

I am just besides myself in love with Jesus. Really. Truly. There have been some 'moments' yet Christ has kept my spirit calm. I can honestly say that when I close my eyes at night, my soul is at ease. What an amazing thing.

Bo and I have been getting closer. Which is always a good thing. There for a little while things were tense. Once again Lord used those moments to draw me closer to Him, not Bo, but to God Himself. Where I belong. Bo and I celebrated 10 years of marriage on November 15. A whole decade! Amazing. Some days, over the years, I didn't think we would make it but we did and it has been a heck of a ride, well worth it!

I have started a Bible study on my own called Conversation Peace, The Power of Transformed Speech by Mary A. Kassian. WOW! Over the past few years God has really been talking to me about my potty mouth. It's not like I was sailor but some choice words would come out of my mouth at various times. Trust me when I say that I have done just about everything to change. Then this study fell into my lap and I can feel the change in my spirit. My four precious men have noticed. Not only have I stopped saying things I shouldn't but my tone has changed. I speak with kindness and integrity. It's different and I like it! I'm realizing that words are powerful. Really powerful. Something that I have always known but like most things hadn't truly taken to heart. Oh and God is giving me a double portion on this topic. Not only am I doing this study but guess who else is talking about this ... yep on Life Today's Wednesdays with Beth Moore. I kid you not. There are no coincidences with Christ!

God is so good, so faithful. There is just an easy and loving spirit in our home. Praise be to God.

I am a bit frustrated though, which it is stupid for me to be but ...
I messed up my blogs. Some how I changed the posting thing and now I can switch the fonts. Not like that mattered because I never did but now the option is gone. :( Not to mention that when I hit bold or italic it gives the code and I have to put the word in the middle. So dumb! I'm working on not letting that become a thorn in my side. ;)

Oh! I almost forgot ... My birthday was yesterday! Yep! I just love my birthday. I look forward to it just like a kid. I always have. Not sure why. Yesterday was my best one I think. I felt comfortable and my spirit was at ease. Bo bought me a dozen of pink and white roses. They are sooo beautiful. He also gave me a purse (that I did pick out ;)) and a sweet card. Then he took us out to eat with my mom. Which they all surprised me with a cake and the waiters sang to me. Which I love! Matthew gave me a deck of cards. He is so neat! We have broke them in playing Rummy. So fun. David gave me a pink pearl necklace that he got from a bubble gum machine. He is so sweet! Ryan didn't get me anything but every where we went yesterday he told everyone it was my birthday. Which was wonderful because complete strangers said happy birthday to me! Boy do I really love my birthday! My mom gave me a birthstone bracelet that had the birthstones of the boys. It is very pretty. I also recieved a lot of ecards and cards in the mail. Not to mention the phone calls. I truly do love my birthday! Oh and I don't mind telling y'all how old I am ... 31!

I guess that is about it. I'm just waiting on Christmas. :) We have the house decorated and the Christmas lists written out. Including mine. :) We have a real tree this year. Our house smells so good. Only one cat has puked from eating the needles so that is good. I have started selling things on eBay. My Avon business is good. Bo and I are praying about taking his business to another level. We both feel we have a green light so we have started planning little things here and there. Please keep that in prayer. Neither one of us wants to move without our Lord.

Oh, Matthew had his stitches taken out ... by himself. I mean, he took them out himself. LOL Well, they (the doctors) wanted another $50.00 co-pay. So, Bo showed Matthew how to snip the one part and pull it out. So he did it to all 6. His foot looks very well.

We also went to the annual Christmas parade for our city. I believe this is our 6 year. I love our family traditions. What makes my heart warm is that the boys love the traditions too. We all become so excited. It's wonderful.

Well, now I really think that is it.

I pray for peace in every one's home this glorious season. I pray for security, meaning phyiscally, financially, emotionally and spiritually, in every one's home. I bless you all in Jesus' name. Amen!

My first Thankful Thursday!

This is my first Thankful Thursday. I am thrilled. It's been on my heart to share what I am thankful for. I have loved reading over time all the wonderful blogs. So I thought I would write a bit too.

I am thankful for always having a good time with my Lord. He makes me smile, laugh, cry and shout Glory! I'm sure people think I am crazy when I laugh out loud for no reason. Well, no reason that they know of. It's just something special between me and Him.

I am thankful for my husband. He works very hard for our family. He is a true "family man". Our boys and our marriage are so important to him. He is so sweet, handsome and he makes me laugh too.

I am thankful for my three adorable boys. They keep me on my toes and I enjoy every minute of it. Even though I do tire of making mac-n-cheese for the millionth time ... I wouldn't trade it for the world.

I am thankful for my sweet friendships. I know that I am loved, prayed for and accepted. I can be myself, even when that isn't so pretty. :) There are three women that I just want to give a shout out to ... Tina! ... Bree! ... Lori! Can I get a woop woop?!

This holiday season my soul is at peace. Sure, the is never enough money or time but there is enough of His Spirit and then some! Glory! For that I am truly thankful!

My sweet boy!

Well, I nearly went a decade with no boy needing stitches. Yesterday at the co-op Matthew cut his foot. Did you know that there is a little window of opportunity to get stitches? I didn't. :)

Matthew was running outside and a stick stuck him just the right way. Yes, he had no shoes on. In November. What can I say? I had on flip-flops. It was like 80*!

Here are the pics ... ;) This is Matthew waiting for the doctor. Next is the actual cut. The last one is Matthew checking out his crutches.
He has to keep it covered until tomorrow night. If there is no pain he can keep the bandage off and walk without the crutches. So stay tuned for the pic of the stitches. :) Also, Bo took a picture of him sitting outside while he played 'football'. He sat in a Hokie chair while he tossed the ball with Bo and David. LOL Nothing can stop him!

What was Ryan doing? Oh, he has developed a love of Solitaire. So his free time has been spent learning how to shuffle the cards and playing the game. A kid after my own heart!

You're Invited

Earlier today I was thanking God for the day. Praising Him for the ability to stay home with our children, for homeschooling, for some personal things and the such. I prayed for the things that are near my heart like my best friend and our school day.

Suddenly I looked up the ceiling and said "God, you are welcomed in my home. Come Father and bring your grace and mercy. Lord, let me see You in my children's eyes today. Be in my heart and in my words. Please sweet Lord Jesus come, You're invited."

A sweet peaceful feeling came over me. In that instant my Lord came to me. My eyes moistened as my heart filled up with His Spirit. I gently heard Him speak to me, "Thank you for inviting me."

Even as I write this my tears are threatening to burst forward.

How many times my Lord have I taken for granted that You are here? How many times have I come to You in anger because You were not handling a situation (or so I thought)? How many times have I just assumed You knew what was in my heart? Again Lord, how many times have I taken Your companionship for granted?

Forgive me Jesus. May I never take You for granted again. May I never just assume that You know you are welcomed here.

This simple "You're invited here." moment made me think of my relationships with friends. I know that I am always welcomed in some one's home but to have them call and say "Come on over." brings joy to my heart. It makes me know that they value me and my friendship. I believe it is the same thing with our Heavenly Father. He is always with us but He wants to hear it from us. He wants us to say those words ... " You are invited. You are welcomed here."

Today my devotions led me to the Book of Ezra. I must admit I don't believe I have ever actually read this book. The first 6 chapters are all about rebuilding the temple. It was so interesting to me about the debate over it. I truly did enjoy the fact that the kings would research whether or not the Jewish people were "allowed" to rebuild it. Of course, they all found out that, yes, God's people were given permission by King Cyrus. Anyway, that is not the point of today's post. What is the message is that being New Testament believers, we, too, have a temple that we are to build and dedicate to God. It's our body. We are the temple of the Living God.

I think it is so fascinating that the Old Testament is a foreshadow of the New. So Ladies, as you read about the Temple in the Old Testament, just remember that that idea, that concept, is about our hearts and body towards Christ.

*I feel I need to have a disclaimer. This is my view and I may be wrong but this speaks truth to my spirit.*

Live Well Wednesday ( a day late)

Okay, well, so far the whole loosing weight thing hasn't been going so well. I am committed though to seeing this thing out.

I was thinking the other day about the weight I would like to get to. 150 pounds. Now, if for some reason I reach 160 I am not going to struggle with "those 10 pounds.".

I'm just not gonna do it.

I feel good about that decision. I think it is because I am praying about this whole thing. I know I need to loose weight and get into shape. I'm just not letting the world tell me what that means or looks like. I'm seeking council from my Creator. :)

Have a great day!

MIA

I know I have been missing in action the last week or so. It's just that the Lord has been speaking to my heart and I have been silent. I'm the type of person that needs to get the words from my head to my heart before I go off jibber-jabbing.

Here are the areas He is dealing with:

Security in my marriage.
Trusting Him.
Crucifying my flesh.

I'm sure there are other things we are talking/working through. Those are the ones off the top of my head.

Glory! He is not done with me yet.

More prayer ...

Please pray for my mom. She has a huge financial burden.

The enemy is working hard with this issue.

She is keeping her faith held tight.

Prayer needed

This is from my best friend Tina. She lives in California. I received this email today.

It's a little crazy here right now. We aren't in any immediate danger, however the smoke is very heavy in the air and there is ash flying around everywhere. The fires are the closest to us that they have ever been. My friend Kristen and her family have been evacuated. They only live about 10 minutes from where our apartment was. Theresa (Tina's sister) was sent home from work today because of the smoke and roads near her office being closed. Pray specifically that the winds die down. Right now they are blowing pretty good and keep shifting direction. These are the really dry winds that blow in over the desert and through the inland valleys. Pray that the cease. Right now our humidity is only at 15%. Pray for the firemen and police who are working these fires. We need God's grace!!

Thank you mighty warriors!

Shout for JOY!

Let me tell y'all something! I can't stop giving my God some praise tonight.

Today we had a follow up neurology appointment for David. Here is some history...
September of '06 David started gaining weight. His little face resemble the moon which is classic for kidney/adrenal failure. Yet none of the test results showed it. We bowed daily, if not by the minute, in prayer. I asked everyone I could find to pray for our boy. In December Dr. Rohn, his endrogologist, said that the dosage of steroid, Dexamethosone, was too high for his age. He switched him to Prednisone. Shortly after that David developed really bad headaches. So we put him back on Dexamethosone and began to ween him off. Alternating between the two for a few weeks. The headaches went away. Glory! Then three weeks after the full switch the headaches came back. Dr. Rohn felt certain it wasn't the medicine. So we took him to the pediatrician. With my history of migraines everyone felt certain that this was David's problem. However, when the doctor looked in David's eyes she saw something she wasn't sure of. So she wanted to do an MRI. Our insurance wouldn't cover it. So she referred us to a neurologist. He, too, saw some swelling behind David's eyes. He ordered an MRI and told us to have his eyes checked out. Just to rule that out. The eye doctor confirmed that this was not an eye problem. Meanwhile we had the MRI. It showed a high level of fluid around David's brain. He then ordered David to have a spinal tap. The tube that measures your spinal fluid goes up to 35cc. David's spinal fluid rose quickly and shot out of the tube! Even the doctor performing the test was shocked. David was then put on Diamox, 500 mg. The conclusion was that David's spinal fluid wasn't draining properly. It was basically stopping in his brain, not filtering out, yet the spine was still sent the signal to release more. Causing the swelling. Now, fast forward 4 or 5 months ... David's meds are all under control. He has lost about 25 pounds and has grown 3 inches. He is healthy! Glory! At the appointment Dr. Toor, the neurologist, said to take David down to 250 mg for 30 days. After 30 days with no headaches to completely take him off that med. GLORY!!
What is even more amazing is that Dr. Rohn and Dr. Toor have had conversations about "my family's faith". Oh yes, that is right! They were discussing David and his disease, Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH). Dr. Rohn expressed to Toor that David isn't text book. That David isn't sick like he should be. That David is growing and healthy. He told Toor that we pray for David's healing. God is moving here! He IS going to heal David and He is going to show His mighty hand to the precious doctors we have met. I am thrilled!
Over the years Dr. Rohn and I have talked about my faith. He is an Orthodox Jew. One day when David was two I drew a big line in the sand. I told Rohn that I believe God for a healing. That I am praying to Jesus. He, too, drew a big line in the sand. He said that he understood about my saviour but that He is his prophet. In my spirit I knew that David's healing wasn't for my faith. That David's healing was going to be for many. Since then we have had little conversations. Each time Dr. Rohn has encouraged me to keep praying. When David's bone age is to high for his real age Rohn will say "Keep praying Mom." Sure enough, the growth stops. I always knew it would. Rohn needed to see it stop. To have Rohn speak of our faith to Toor makes my heart sing. Not for me ... but for MY GOD!
Toor has asked me to let him know how David is doing. I assured him I would call. As he shook my hand he said, "Please, let me know as he grows up." What an honor. My BFF Tina said that I should send him cards with pics of David as he is growing up. That is a wonderful idea.

God is amazing.

Over 8 years ago as I sat in NICU being told that if the check up would have been 2 hours later, David would have died ... I didn't think to think about all of this. My prayers were for his life. Now, as he has grown, and our testimony is increasing. My prayers are still for his life, for his healing but also for the spiritual lives of those we meet. You truly do 'just never know'.

Blog Giveaways

I love free stuff. The Lord is always blessing me with some awesome things.

Here are two blogs that give stuff away! It's awesome.

Made in the USA and Bloggy Giveaways

Check them out. I am going to be adding some more links on my sidebar. I like to get a feel of a blog before I "endorse" it. These two blogs are neat. So I wanted to spread the word and share them with you. Check them out often, like everyday!