Struggling To Find Ourselves

We have been standing on God’s Word for His provision in MANY areas of our lives over the last few months.  This last week, we have received partial answers to our prayers, and we can only chalk it up to God’s provision.  And, we foresee answers in a couple of other major areas of our lives in the next 2 or 3 months!!!  God IS good, and we thank Him for his provision that He has already given us!!!  But we are NOT going to slack off of our standing in faith any, just because we see partial victory!!!

God Bless!!!

Well, with the arrival of Fall, it looks like the most popular time of year to take a vacation has come and gone.  We thought about taking a vacation this year, AND last year, but it just didn’t work out very well.  Soooooo, now we start thinking about NEXT year.  LOTS of things can happen between now and then, though, so who knows what we will be able to do and what we won’t be able to do.

I keep getting these phone calls for “cheap” vacation packages.  They tell me we can get a number of different packages…Branson vacations, Disney vacations, cruises, even international vacations.  How cool would THAT be for my son and I?!?!

….Have I rambled enough yet?…*L*  I think it’s time I go check a couple of other sites, and go outside for awhile.  My yard could use a mowing, I’m sure!!!

Thanks for putting up with my rambling, and thanks to those of you that are reading!!!….

With the holidays right around the corner, my thoughts have been turning more and more to baking and candy making.  My son LOVES to help me make cookies and candy and pies and cakes!!!  He keeps asking when we are going to make “Christmas candy”.

One of my only problems is that, once I get started on stuff like that, I don’t like to stop sometimes.  With just my son and I most of the time, we can only eat so many cookies and so much candy and such!!!  I guess we will just have to bless the neighbors with some goodies every now and then, huh?

Another problem I have is that I never know what we want to make.  Oatmeal cookies are SUPER great, but then again, some peanut butter cookies would go pretty good.  I have cookbooks with a hundred different cookie recipes in them. HOW do we choose just one?  The candy is the same way….HOW do we choose JUST one?  I’m afraid that, with THAT problem looming before us, we may just have to start making “holiday” cookies and candies at the first part of November and make 2 or 3 or 4 different things every week or so all the way until like the middle of January….*scowls*…Maybe I’d better start a neighborhood walking program?  The neighbors might need it….*L*…I might need it too!!!…..*LOL*

…that I have enjoyed having the “new” Pastor and his wife across the street over the last 2 or 3 months!!!

I have sat in on several of the Sunday School classes since he’s been leading the church across the street, and I LIKE the way he presents it!!!  He is NOT afraid to open up some of those subjects that other churches and Pastors think shouldn’t be discussed.  And one of the things that I REALLY like is that he’s not afraid to say that he doesn’t know the answer…that’s one we’ll have to ask God when we get to Heaven!!!  He hasn’t really been in the ministry very long as a Pastor, but he’s got some GREAT ideas, and the fact that he’s not afraid to make suggestions or open up some of those taboo subjects says that he will do GREAT things for God!!!  Of course, his sense of humor is GREAT too!!!

Oh, and let’s not forget his wonderful wife!!!  I haven’t really had much opportunity to talk to her yet, but she is warm and funny and caring.  Frankly, it’s kind of nice to see a “Pastor’s wife” who let’s you know that they aren’t perfect either!!!

I don’t know…maybe I have a special, inside look into their lives because I DO live right across the street, but at least the Pastor and his wife BOTH let you know they are only human.  They get concerned about forgetting something during the service, or not being organized enough.  And when something doesn’t go quite right, they aren’t afraid to make a joke out of it, and keep going.  TOO many Pastor’s AND their wives these days try to hide their faults, and they seem to want everyone to believe that they don’t get concerned about forgetting something….they want you to believe that everything ALWAYS go JUST right for them during the services AND in their lives….

But, who am I to say?  I haven’t been to church on a regular basis until this new Pastor came in years, and I just kind of do my own little thing for worship and Bible reading and study..and prayer, for that matter.  Lately, I have to wonder, though, that if more Pastor’s and their wives were like the ones across the street, would more people be going to church?  Would I have found a church to belong too when we first moved to Kansas?  I guess we’ll never know the answer to some of those questions, will we?

I don’t know much about trading stocks and such.  In fact, I probably know ABSOLUTELY nothing!!!  I would have to hire a financial advisor or someone if I wanted to trade, or buy, or sell stocks.  And if we were dealing with futures trading….well, I don’t think we’ll even go there.  I know that’s probably something that a smart, young woman needs to know in this day and age, but I don’t at this point.  Maybe that’s something I can take a course on in the future though?  That could be an interesting course, and I’m almost ALWAYS up for learning something that might help me somewhere down the road!!!

My Bible reading is going good!!!  I am ready to start the short book of James.  According to my records, I started James in the first part of November of LAST year, so I figure I’m doing pretty good!!!

“Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God”, or so the Bible says.  I guess that is one of the BIGGEST reasons that I keep reading the Bible.  That, and to discover ALL of the promises that are in there for ME!!!

I’m not sure what has changed with my Bible reading, though.  Or maybe the change isn’t with my READING, but with ME.  A few years ago, when I read the Bible, I would hit a “rough” spot in the Bible, and I would stop reading for several months or even longer.  I haven’t done that…this time….or last time.  I WISH I knew what the difference was.  Maybe the Pastor could answer that question?  That might be a philosophical conversation for us to embark into one of these days when we get together!!!

I’ve travelled to a MAJORITY of the states in the lower 48.  I’ve liked some…and vowed that I left NOTHING behind in others.  One of the prettiest places I’ve seen was in North Carolina, though.  Up there at the top of the mountains….now that’s probably about as close to Heaven as you can get over there in the Carolinas!!  The smell of pine trees….seeing the mist down in the valley in the morning as the sun starts coming up….feeling the brisk coolness in the air!!!  Can you tell I miss the mountains sometimes?

They tell me that the Outer Banks is a nice place to visit too, but I haven’t ever had the chance to stop there. Might have to do that one of these days when things settle down in our lives a bit!!!

As if we don’t have ENOUGH to fill our time with these days, we’ve been sneaking in quite a bit more reading here lately too.  We’ve been doing reading of ALL types!!!  I’ve been continuing to read to my son ALOT when he goes to bed every night.  He’s been reading to me ALOT!!!  I’ve been reading my Bible to him, as well as when he’s at school and such.  I’ve also even been sneaking in some other reading for myself.  I FINALLY finished a book a couple of weeks ago that I’ve been working on for about 3 years!!!  AND, to top that off, I even finished ANOTHER one, in less than a month!!!  (It was a GOOD book, right up until the end!!!….*L*)  AND, I’ve started ANOTHER one!!  I figure it’s going to be almost as good as the last one I read, right up until the end anyway…*L*

The face of exercise has changed in the last few years, just like everything else.  We can thank technology and research for that, I suppose.  As you might know, if you’ve scrolled down my sidebar towards the bottom, I like to walk.  Living out in the country like I do, I have LOTS of different directions that I can walk, normally, so I don’t have to see the same scenery all the time.  If I couldn’t walk so much, I’m afraid I would HAVE to find something else to do to work up a sweat some days.  The exercise machines that are available these days are just tremendous, in my opinion.  I LOVE the elliptical ones, as they are easy on the joints and they work more muscles (normally) than the stair-climbers or the treadmills!!!