3 inches today and counting!

Well we now have about 3 inches of snow... it has been snowing non-stop since last night. Here is a pic from this morning. Our satellite doesn't work on snowy days so we pulled out a Tom and Jerry DVD and have been watching it. What a silly cartoon... Tom and Jerry continually try and hurt each other! Back and forth goes the torment and pain! Aly has been playing play-dough and I"ll hear a laugh out of her every few minutes. She was wondering where I went... she made it stairs and is now playing in the playroom. I guess that is ok... to spare her the fighting cat and mouse! Maybe we will make it outside today and play in the snow as a family. FUN FUN FUN!

Silly Snowy Day

Snow... I thought you had gone away

but your back today, perhaps to stay.

You came to us yesterday,

but melted and came, then melted away.

Such a cold day for the end of March...32' outside and not a sign of sun. The high is 79' in the town we are moving to... now that is more like it! Doesn't that Daffodil just look sad and cold!

Pss... It's someone's Birthday.

Happy Birthday Mom!~

March 25th

March 25th.
THE MOST DELICATE MISSION ON EARTH

"The friend of the Bridegroom." John 3:29

Goodness and purity ought never to attract attention to themselves, they ought simply to be magnets to draw to Jesus Christ. If my holiness is not drawing towards Him, it is not holiness of the right order, but an influence that will awaken inordinate affection and lead souls away into side-eddies. A beautiful saint may be a hindrance if he does not present Jesus Christ but only what Christ has done for him. He will leave the impression - "What a fine character that man is!" That is not being a true friend of the Bridegroom; I am increasing all the time, He is not.
In order to maintain this friendship and loyalty to the Bridegroom, we have to be more careful of our moral and vital relationship to Him than of any other thing, even of obedience. Sometimes there is nothing to obey, the only thing to do is to maintain a vital connection with Jesus Christ, to see that nothing interferes with that. Only occasionally do we have to obey. When a crisis arises we have to find out what God's will is, but the greater part of the life is not conscious obedience but the maintenance of this relationship - the friend of the Bridegroom. Christian work may be a means of evading the soul's concentration on Jesus Christ. Instead of being friends of the Bridegroom, we may become amateur providences, and may work against Him whilst we use His weapons.

Easter Pretties 2008

My Easter Sweety

He Is Risen

~~~

I will sing of my Redeemer

He who took the nails for me

I've been purchased, I've been pardoned

Bound to Him I'm truly free

~~~

I will sing of my Redeemer

Lift my voice to praise my Lord

Ransomed by His blood and mercy

I am His forevermore

~~~

I will sing of my Redeemer

How He sought me while a slave

Loosed me from the curse of sin and

From the power of the grave

~~~
I will sing of my Redeemer

He who bore my cross, my curse

Came a servant, chose to suffer

Lifted up and cast from earth

~~~

I will sing of my Redeemer

Tell about the grace I've known

Here on earth with those forgiven

And one day around His throne

~~~

I Will sing Of My Redeemer

Selah

Bless the Broken Road

The Duets album

sung with BarlowGirl

March 20th

March 20th.
FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD
My Utmost For His Highest.

"Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?" Genesis 18:17

Its Delights.
This chapter brings out the delight of real friendship with God as compared with occasional feelings of His presence in prayer. To be so much in contact with God that you never need to ask Him to show you His will, is to be nearing the final stage of your discipline in the life of faith. When you are rightly related to God, it is a life of freedom and liberty and delight, you are God's will, and all your common-sense decisions are His will for you unless He checks. You decide things in perfect delightful friendship with God, knowing that if your decisions are wrong He will always check; when He checks, stop at once.

Its Difficulties.
Why did Abraham stop praying when he did? He was not intimate enough yet to go boldly on until God granted his desire, there was something yet to be desired in his relationship to God. Whenever we stop short in prayer and say - "Well, I don't know; perhaps it is not God's will," there is still another stage to go. We are not so intimately acquainted with God as Jesus was, and as He wants us to be - "That they may be one even as we are one." Think of the last thing you prayed about - were you devoted to your desire or to God? Determined to get some gift of the Spirit or to get at God? "Your Heavenly Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him." The point of asking is that you may get to know God better. "Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart." Keep praying in order to get a perfect understanding of God Himself.

Relocating and Must Sell

God wants us to move to the East Coast. We are following His command. Our house is for sale. The house that we built thinking that we would raise all our children in and grow old in.....is up for sale. God brought us this land at the perfect time and we were able to built a beautiful house and shop with SO MUCH of my husbands blood, sweat, long nights and weekends.... We have came to the decision that we are willing to give up our most loved possession and sell it to follow our Jesus. Once we came to that decision God opened up the flood gates of revelation and wisdom regarding our priorities in life. We have decided to get back to the basics of life and follows God's call to be ourselves and not something else that the world says that we should be. We are following the Holy Spirits lead and as we follow Him... He is speaking to our hearts and drawing us back to the simpleness of His love and His truths. We are so excited for our adventure and we have UNEXPLAINABLE peace about our future... Because if God is for us... who can be against us?

We have lived here our whole lives... we have never lived outside the NW. With God at the wheel of our life boat... I know that we are in for an adventure that will draw us closer to Him and closer to each other. We can hardly stand to think about leaving our entire network... the only friends and family that we have even known. It breaks our hearts to entertain the thought of leaving... but then we shift out thoughts to Jesus and know that God is good 100% of the time and that He has plans for us to prosper...

Isaiah 48:15I, even I, have spoken; Yes, I have called him, I have brought him, and his way will prosper.

3 John 1:2Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.

Proverbs 16:9A man’s heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.

Please be praying for an easy transition and a quick sale of our house so that we can get on with the rest of our lives.

Choosing Joy

March 15th.
THE DISCIPLINE OF DISMAY
"And as they followed, they were afraid." Mark 10:32
At the beginning we were sure we knew all about Jesus Christ, it was a delight to sell all and to fling ourselves out in a hardihood of love; but now we are not quite so sure. Jesus is on in front and He looks strange: "Jesus went before them and they were amazed."
There is an aspect of Jesus that chills the heart of a disciple to the core and makes the whole spiritual life gasp for breath. This strange Being with His face "set like a flint" and His striding determination, strikes terror into me. He is no longer Counsellor and Comrade, He is taken up with a point of view I know nothing about, and I am amazed at Him. At first I was confident that I understood Him, but now I am not so sure. I begin to realize there is a distance between Jesus Christ and me; I can no longer be familiar with Him. He is ahead of me and He never turns round; I have no idea where He is going, and the goal has become strangely far off.
Jesus Christ had to fathom every sin and every sorrow man could experience, and that is what makes Him seem strange. When we see Him in this aspect we do not know Him, we do not recognize one feature of His life, and we do not know how to begin to follow Him. He is on in front, a Leader Who is very strange, and we have no comradeship with Him.
The discipline of dismay is essential in the life of discipleship. The danger is to get back to a little fire of our own and kindle enthusiasm at it (cf. Isaiah 1:10-11). When the darkness of dismay comes, endure until it is over, because out of it will come that following of Jesus which is an unspeakable joy.

Unspeakable joy... as I sit here and ponder that I come to the remembrance that God is good. He is good 100% of the time.
2 Thessalonians 1:11 (New King James Version)
11 Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power,

Even when circumstances come our way that are not joyful, we need to remember that God is good 100% of the time. There is peace in the statement "I don't know". Why did my daughter have to die? Why do people have sickness? We can ask so many questions and never have the answers in this lifetime. So there is peace in the statement of "I don't know". I can search the scriptures and never find anywhere when God has given sickness to someone to teach them a lesson. Sickness isn't from God. How can He give something that He doesn't have? Satan comes to kill, steal and destroy. So we can attribute death and sickness to Satan and not to God. I have learned that God can use any circumstance for His glory. I have also learned that if we choose to have a joyful attitude through suffering just as Paul did while in jail... we can have an unparalleled peace knowing that God cares about what we are going through and that He will use it in our lives for good. If we were to sit and think about our greatest problem that we are facing in life right now.... got it in your head? Now think about the last 12 months and see if you can realize that God has already given you the tools to deal with it. The enemy works through fear and anxiety. During those times when we feel the problem that we face is insurmountable we tend to easily forget anything that God has ever done for us in our life. We forget the times when He was the only person that we could hold on to.

Blessed is he who is not offended because of Me. Matt 11:6

When our circumstances are difficult there is a pressure for us to try and explain away the will of God in our lives. I have a better chance of playing and winning the lottery than I have at guessing the will of God regarding how He may use a circumstance in my life. This comes back to the statement of "I don't know" and being ok with it. We need to be ok with living in the middle of the mystery of God and have peace knowing that what comes from Him is always good and if it isn't good then it didn't come from Him. God only leads us in ways where He has already prepared us for victory.

These were lessons that I learned last night while listening to a sermon called....
"Living Unoffended @ God."

My Big Girl.

There are days that I just can't believe how big my little Miss D is.

She goes number 1 and 2 on the toilet.

She feeds herself.

She talks in almost complete sentences.

She says please and thank you momma.

She can count to 10.

She says yes momma and yes daddy.

She will sit and watch almost all of a movie.

She wore a necklace the other day.

She like to sweep and clean just like me.

She loves to listen to music.

She likes to help me fold the laundry.

She comes down the dark hallway and into our dark bedroom and walks to my side of the bed and says "snuggle minute".

She goes to the Children's Program at BSF.

She wanted to take a rock to the worker in the nursery at church yesterday.

She can put her socks on.

She didn't want me to sing to her before her nap today... she just pointed to the door and said "momma go out there". (ouch!)

She likes to eat popcorn.

(but she still sucks her thumb... I guess that still makes her my baby right!)

Cleaning Girly

I emptied out this bottle of cleaner because it was almost all gone. She didn't know the difference. She just wanted to do cleaning just like I was. She likes to do a bit of sweeping also.

We were at Walmart today and it was the 1st time that I had to take her potty in a public place. We have been able to time it just right and have her go before we leave and then hit the bathroom at yng if we are still out doing errands. Well today in the middle of my shopping she said "potty". So before she lost her load we headed to the nearest restroom. The one in the front of the store was under construction.... I found that out as we were approaching the door. So we had to head to the opposite side of the store and go to the other restroom. Of course it was in the toy department which we were planning on avoiding. But she had potty on her mind and wasn't distracted by the toys that we had to drive through as we went to the other potty spot. She made it to the toilet without any "tinkle panties". Yah for Miss D. My potty trained GIRL!

Tuesday is my favorite day.

We joined a new community group through our church. We meet on Tuesday nights. Tuesday's is a busy day for the D family. I have a study group that meets on Tuesday at 12:30pm and that usually is such a packed full time of learning and prayer that we usually don't end until at least 4pm. Then we head home for some quick dinner and then head out to our new group that we went for the 1st time to this week. Well the group was amazing and the couple that leads it are amazing too. I just finished reading their book last night. I will get the title up here later. Anywho... we ended up staying until 10:30PM! Poor little Miss D. Thanks to the Lord she was willing to cooperate with the fact that we stayed SO LATE. She was following around the kitty and eating snacks. She was being such an angel. We met a new couple that goes to the later service at our church... so our paths have never crossed with them. It was an amazing night. We just talked and talked and talked. It was really humbling to find out that my hubby and I were an "inspiration" to the leaders of the group. I just never think that my life and the suffering that I have had over the last year would ever speak to others and be inspiring. It has been God though me and that is the only explaination. It is just so cool when the Lord goes before you and leads our path directly to where we need to be. We started reading the book of Acts which is a book that I've been touching here and there on over the last month. Through some of the events in my life over the past month that book has been an encouragement to me. What Paul went through during his spreading of the gospel he encountered hard times has spoke to me. Everyday I'm just so thankful to the Lord and His daily lessons for me. His daily encouragement to me through His Word never ever runs dry.

March 7th Reading

March 7th.
UNDAUNTED RADIANCE

"Nay, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us." Romans 8:37

Paul is speaking of the things that might seem likely to separate or wedge in between the saint and the love of God; but the remarkable thing is that nothing can wedge in between the love of God and the saint. These things can and do come in between the devotional exercises of the soul and God and separate individual life from God; but none of them is able to wedge in between the love of God and the soul of the saint. The bedrock of our Christian faith is the unmerited, fathomless marvel of the love of God exhibited on the Cross of Calvary, a love we never can and never shall merit. Paul says this is the reason we are more than conquerors in all these things, super-victors, with a joy we would not have but for the very things which look as if they are going to overwhelm us.
The surf that distresses the ordinary swimmer produces in the surf-rider the super-joy of going clean through it. Apply that to our own circumstances, these very things - tribulation, distress, persecution, produce in us the super-joy; they are not things to fight. We are more than conquerors through Him in all these things, not in spite of them, but in the midst of them. The saint never knows the joy of the Lord in spite of tribulation, but because of it - "I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation," says Paul.
Undaunted radiance is not built on anything passing, but on the love of God that nothing can alter. The experiences of life, terrible or monotonous, are impotent to touch the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

online is cool

I made the switch to bill payment online and I just had to share how easy it is... I don't have to worry that I have to stop and get stamps anymore. I just log into my online bank account and in my jammies I can pay some bills.

Very cool huh!

Wiggly at 7am.

Miss D and I has been enjoying The Wiggles at 7am lately. She wasn't to into them and now for some reason wants to watch them. Maybe now she can be a bit more interactive and sing along. Well just let me tell you if you don't have kiddos and you don't know who they are.... They sing and dance and are pretty cute for little kiddos. But for me as I sit there and watch with Miss D... I am pretty amused by their energy. The constant jumping and dancing... no wonder all of them are skinny. It is a really cute half hour show for Miss D and really entertains her... and I have to say there are some times during that show I have to just shake my head and wonder how they could act SO GOOFY and not just be completely self conscious. I guess that is why they have their own TV show and millions of dollars. Entertaining kids is their specialty and they really do a great job at it.