Packing Adventures

I have been busy packing the house for moving this week. I now have 16 days if the current timetable stays the same to have everything boxed up and ready to transport. The crazy thing is I am trying to pack with the most obstinate little one year old I have ever seen. I do not like using the playpen but have found that if I do not, I will never get packed.

We have been planning to move since June but God has closed every door that has opened for us to move until now. I praise God he did though. Where we are moving is in a better part of town, and less expensive than where we are now. In June, we lost a significant amount of income as the complex we were managing was sold to a new investment firm that had their own management team. I have been watching everyday as they undo everything I did as I poured my blood, sweat and tears into this place for five long years. This new company is giving the place a face-lift and shedding it of anything that would resemble its old image. It has been emotional and I am glad that in 2 ½ weeks I no longer have to watch and wonder what they will do next.

Baby G has proven to be a little one who is testing my patience to no end. With boxes everywhere, I have had to corral her into a safe zone of the living room. Everywhere else has boxes and stuff to pack lying around. She does not like that I have basically imprisoned her into one room. She has figured out how to overcome every obstacle in her way to venture into the other rooms that she used to be able to be in when someone was watching her of course. So I am finding myself constantly picking her up, telling her no, and putting her back where she is to stay. This has proved to make packing even one box a tedious task. It also goes to show that mommy cannot take a day off from training.

Okay, my coffee is gone and it is time to get back to work before Baby G wakes up from her nap.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

Have a very blessed Thanksgiving everyone.

A Thankful Heart

I am so incredibly thankful that God has blessed me with my 4 kids. It was my hearts desire to be a mom and I have been blessed with being a mom 4 times over. Psalms says that children are a reward. How awesome is it that God has rewarded me with my little ones. How sad it is that so many do not see them as a reward but has a hindrance to their plan in life and what they want. Even planning how many you want to have and when I am really seeing as something that is not of the Lord.

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one's youth.
Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them;
They shall not be ashamed,
But shall speak with their enemies in the gate.
*** Psalm 127:3-5 ***

A Thankful Heart

It is Thanksgiving week. Thanksgiving, the one day a year we set aside to be thankful. It should mean so much more to America than it does but alas, it means eating lots of food continuously until you pass out, football, and the beginning of the Christmas shopping frenzy. However, back in 1621 I am sure none of that was on their mind. I know they were Thankful that God gave them favor with the Native Americans who showed them how to survive and work the land. They were thankful they were able to grow enough food for the winter to come. They were truly from the depths of their hearts thankful that they survived. It was not an easy trip to get here to the New Land and it was not easy starting absolutely from scratch with basically nothing.

Am I sincerely thankful? Or, am I only half-heartedly thankful while I secretly want more or better things in life?

Wise Woman or A Continual Drip?

Part of Mommyhood is being a good wife. I think that this week I have not done a great job of that. One day this week, I spent pretty much the entire day yelling - actually, it was more like talking loudly with no gentleness than outright yelling. Why? I do not know. It started with me getting angry with our cell phone company and, as they are not in the house for me to yell at, I yelled at my husband because he was there. I let my flesh control my actions in ways that I know I should not have. I was contentious and quarrelsome. My kids were on edge all day as a result and really, it was more than sad and pitiful, it was ugly.

Our flesh is ugly. It is full of sin and God with His unlimited grace and mercy cleanses us and makes us beautiful. Proverbs says a wise woman builds her house and a foolish woman tears her house down. This week I do not think I was doing a lot of building, I think I was doing a lot of tearing down. How sad it is that I did this. I am going to spend my Saturday rebuilding that which I tore down. I have not yelled since Wednesday but at the same time, I have not done much rebuilding. The good thing about rebuilding is that when something is rebuilt it is can built stronger than it was originally so that it cannot be torn or knocked down again.

Below are just a few verses that talk about this in the Word. I am thinking that every woman deals with this. We as women have a lot of power, more than we realize. It is our job to keep submitted to the Lord so that that power is not abused and is only used to glorify Christ and edify our family.

Proverbs 12:4 (NKJV)
An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who causes shame is like rottenness in his bones.

Proverbs 14:1 (NKJV)
The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish pulls it down with her hands.

Proverbs 21:9 (NKJV)
Better to dwell in a corner of a housetop, than in a house shared with a contentious woman.

Proverbs 21:19 (NKJV)
Better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a contentious and angry woman.

Proverbs 27:15 (NKJV)
A continual dripping on a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike;

Perfect Weakness

In my blogger description, it says, “I am learning that to rely alone on God's strength beats getting a full nights sleep any day.” When I wrote that Baby G was only about 3 months old. She was still eating every two hours and needing to be burped and everything else an infant needs. So, I was sure that I would be back to sleeping at least most of the night within a couple of months. After all that stage in babyhood is suppose to pass right? Well, not this time. This little munchkin of mine has the hardest time sleeping. She has a hard time relaxing enough to fall asleep and when she finally does fall asleep, she barely sleeps for two hours before waking up. And sometimes the poor thing cannot fall back asleep right away. This has been causing a lot of sleepless nights for me and I am learning in a new way that I need to rely alone on God’s strength.

If I rely solely on God for strength then the fact that I average about 4 to 6 broken hours of sleep a night should not affect me at all. Because His strength is perfect when I am weak. Well, God’s strength is pouring into me in amazing ways right now in be because everyday, I am weaker than the day before. I have always been one to go out and do something myself. I am very stubborn and self-sufficient. If something needs to be done, I will do it. I am just that way. I do not like asking for help or relying on others o help me. It is a pride issue that I have been dealing with for many many years. I am learning that this is an area that God can use to humble me and cause me to rely on Him because I am collapsing under my own strength right now. Without God, I am a complete and total mess. IF I rely on Him and only on Him, not myself, I can make it one day at a time. I will have the energy to chase around a running 11 month old. Yep, she is running full speed ahead. She figured out that she can move faster at a running speed and kept on going. Everyday she figures out how to do something new. It amazes me how much they absorb and how fast they grow at this age.

Psalm 18:32 (NKJV)

“It is God who arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect.”

Isaiah 40:30-31 (NKJV)

“Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

2 Corinthians 12:8-10 (NKJV)

“Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”