Multitude Monday--Counting my blessings

**I'm thankful for kids who are at home and happy to help out.

**...for the feeling of accomplishment!

**For their smiles

**For their times of being "bored". I remember being bored. It isn't bored, it's idle.


**For warm blankets as the winter comes.

**For a husband who knows how to do ANYTHING!! Such a hands on man!


**For a tall son who can reach the high stuff!

**For time together..For family projects.

**For inspectors who approve the work even if it is a little less than perfect!

(The sheet rock will cover the ugliness just like Jesus's blood covers our ugly sin.)

**For lessons, daily, that come from normal, everyday stuff, that remind me of God and all of His greatness.

Just stuff

This is some of the framed up walls. Jerr got the electricity all done and today is the insulating. It will be a 2 man, 2 woman crew! We are getting closer all the time! Do you want to sign up for the sheet rock crew?

The west wall of my classroom. See my new paint? Also, the train station and train are rescued from being trashcan bound at Bible camp! Cool, huh? Everyone LOVES it! I explain to the kids that they can go anywhere they want to! They have the ticket and the destination is their choice! I'll post pictures of my train data chart another day. To the far left, out of the photo, is my desk. Then, the reading area and the computer wall.

This year I teach 2nd/3rd/4th grades.
( That is not an overgrown student! He's a high schooler that I love quite a bit!)

Multitude Monday

This is my weekly posting of counting my blessings. I try to live thankfully everyday but like Multitude Mondays...see the link at the bottom of this page to the blog that started this tradition.

41. I am thankful for kindred spirits who understand me. My past, my victories, my failures, my joys, my sorrows, my open wounds.

42. I am thankful today for healing. The kind that only comes from God and when it is least expected.

43. For the joy of a special surprise on my Mother's birthday which will continue to make me pray for healing in her family.

44. For the verse in the Bible that tells us to pray for our enemies and those who use us. When I pray for people who make my life difficult, for their well being, for their relationship with God, it humbles me. I need humility.

45. I am thankful for emotional intimacy with my family that comes from gazing at the stars and hearing the elk bugle. Bring a safe place to pour out our hearts and reconnect in a deeper way.

46. I am thankful for opportunity to hear the prayers of others...sitting in while they talk to God. What an honor.

47. I am thankful for my childrens' humor. Emergent teenage-ish humor is truly funny. Laughter is essential!

48. I am thankful for memories. De ja vu moments brought on by a scent, a texture, a moment...that takes me back to a small but great moment sometime in my past. The comfortable places.

49. For sisters who are "there". Even when we don't talk so often, I know they are thinking of me and I of them. I am thankful for the bond of family, shared secrets, shared pasts, shared memories, shared moments now.

50. For my husbands rough, worn hands that reach for mine more often then I reach for his. For the heart behind those hands.

Have a great week! Let me know you've stopped by and peeked into the vulnerable place called my heart!

First day of school

breakfast on the first day of middle school...
and reluctantly complying with this "ridiculous tradition" on the first day of high school! Three more Mister, just three more first days of school. I just might cry now that I typed that!

Multitude Monday

I'm on Sunday again..due to school starting...

Counting my blessings as they are shown to me, randomly, by God:

31. For the pain of my nephew now being across the world in the war torn area. Why? because I WILL pray for those men and women everyday now. And every war is a religious war.
32. I am thankful for Christan freedoms in my country

33. I am thankful for the feeling of my parents being 'right over there'...it is a comforting, wonderful feeling.

34. For tears that I shed when the teachers were prayed for today. I know my place in the public school is a God given thing because it was NEVER my plan. I will take Jesus with me to school.

35. ....for wholesome country entertainment.

36. ....for my children's friends who have a love for God.

37. ...and for those friends who don't because they get my attention and make me pray. Lord, please protect them from the influences of a world without conscience...please.

38. For my small knowledge of God's heart and for the convictions it gives me.

39. ...for friends who hug tightly and who aren't scared when they peak into my soul.

40. ...for hope. For assurance that God is in control in this delicate endeavor we call life.

My heart is fragile today. Having a nephew in the middle east is a new feeling..a new emotion. My heart aches for him and his safety. My heart aches for his mother and daddy. Our babies are our babies no matter the age.

My heart was touched when my son ran to his bedroom to get a Bible and give to his cousin to take with him. I've often questioned his collection of Bibles and spending his money on yet more. That day, I was thankful. I am thankful I know God sees each one and knows the hearts..the needs..and life isn't so fragile when we know Him and what lies in store.

Hug your loved ones. Smell their skin..memorize their eyes. Know them. Love them. Tomorrow may bring changes.

Riley's send off

Today was a planned party to say good bye to our nephew, Riley, before he deployed later this month. Well...two days ago, the Army told him TODAY is the day he deploys! Quickly, we moved the party up to last night. We prepared his favorite foods and sent him off with a full belly. Grilled steaks, baked potatoes, sweet corn, beer bread, cole slaw, several kinds of yummy desserts and homemade ice cream.

There is nothing like sending one of your own off to war that makes you pray for ALL of those over there. I've prayed for them off and on, but honestly, I haven't been consistent. I will be now.

I was busy with the food and didn't take many pictures.

(Riley and his brother, Tristan)

Riley eating a jalepeno. We've had a joke for years about getting him some hair on his chest by eating my spicy cooking.

Teary eyed! No, he isn't sad about leaving, it is all about the jalepeno!

Faith because of His works

Yesterday, we came up on an accident in the middle of nowhere. Other cars passed by but I stopped. The experience changed me. The man rolled his 3 day old truck, which contained his life possessions. His wife of 40 years was divorcing him and he was on a journey to live with his brother. He was under the influence of prescription drugs and/or alcohol. We spent about 1.5 hours at the crash scene. I left with a broken heart for this man but also for a world that he just represented...a world full of pain and heartbreak.

Sure, he made some bad choices. So have I. My sin is no less than his. He probably has an addiction. I also have crutches I turn to in crisis...sometimes food, sometimes anger, sometimes isolation, sometimes work. I come from an addictive ancestry. I am human, just like he is.

I was the one who chose to stop. I guess it could be say that I helped him. However, that isn't how I see it. I believe God put this man and this situation in my pathway to change ME. I believe God has done that to me several times. What visibly looks like me helping someone is really that person making me grow, spiritually.

There's Matthew....if you know me, you know Matthew. I love that boy though my heart has been broken so much for him. Sure, I helped him, but I believe God's real purpose was for me to grow in Him. There is Gary, the man we bought a truck from who deeply touched and humbled our family. There is William, my student who made me cry time and again last year because he represented a world of children without childhoods....and others I believe God has sent to change me.

Today we were studying James 2. I am just thankful that my works are useless to God unless they are guided by Him. I am also especially thankful God continues to show me MY faith by HIS works in my life. All I do in my power is of nothing.

These lessons hurt. My heart aches for my stranger-friend. I pray for him. I pray for him to know God, in a personal way. I will never know...but I know God knows and that is enough. It was never about building a church, it was about saving souls. I'm glad the agenda hasn't changed.

Multitude Monday on Sunday

I go back to school tomorrow, so I'm counting my blessings a day early...

(Click on the button at the bottom of my page to tell more about the Gratitude Community and Multitude Monday.)

21-23. I'm thankful for a job I love. For each and every student I encounter and their impact on my life. For being able to have a Godly mission in a public school.

24. For Mommas who love deeply and never get enough hugs.

25. For Moms who become grandmas, then great grandmas and love deeper all the time.

26. For the honesty of children! (I LOVE this!!)

27. For the happiness my sister's Nanahood bring her.

28. For Daddys who love deeply and take time to play.

29. For simple pleasures that bring the biggest smiles!



30. For Dads who love so much they never, ever give up on their children.

More giggling!

I really think I bruised my giggler in my fall! I had another uncontrollable episode yesterday.

I was at the dentist having FOUR fillings replaced. Yes, it was my choice to do them all at once. Since I hate dentistry that involves me, I took along my MP3 player and told the dentist I would like to not be involved in the process and escaped into my music so I couldn't hear the drill.

I got a jaw cramp trying not to laugh...my songs were on "random" and Trace Adkins began singing, "her favorite color is chrome...." as all of these chrome tools were flashing above my mouth and the chrome light was above my head. Oh NO! My favorite color was NOT chrome at that moment!! Swith that song away, quickly!! I almost had to take a laugh break!! I was able to get past that one...

Then, a Christian song came on about having no more fear...again, the jaw cramp as I tried to contain the giggles. Dentists ARE fear!

I did bite my tongue while numb to my earlobes, but other than that, I'm happy to be done with it all and I'm glad I didn't bite the dentist instead!

Pain shouldn't be funny!

Saturday evening, Jess and I had a girls' night together. As part of the evening, we walked the neighbor's dogs, as they were out of town and hired her to do so. As we were leaving, I was stepping off the porch and either my flip flop tripped me or I missed the stair.

(a view of all I was HOPING to miss as I flew at warp speed across the yard. Thinking..that could hurt!)

That is when my fast journey began! I launched forward at about 500 MPH across the yard! I tried to outrun the ineviditable fall, all the while looking at what lay before me and realizing the many things I would like to avoid hitting! Since this happened in slow motion in my mind, I also was thinking that Jess must want to die laughing as she watched me squat running across the yard. I even remember being thankful for the blanket of darkness so no one else would be able to watch!


I tripped, went airborne, as I remember, and dive bombed, spiraling downward,thousands of feet, landing, primarily, on my left shoulder. As I came in for the landing, I took out a circular piece of hog fence that was protecting a plant from the deer. A piece of the hog wire pierced my belly, missing my button, so it isn't stylish at all! (I don't know why they call it hog fence...but I snorted right thru and layed it out flat!)



I heard, in a very panicked voice "Mom, Mom, are you okay??" I was thinking..NO, I'm not! I said, "Let me lay here a minute and think about it, Jess." At that point, I was thinking my shoulder and my thumb were broken. As I rolled over to get up, out of the blue, Buddha's head rolled off. I said, "Oh no, Jess, I beheaded Buddha!" That became my primary worry.



Then I said, "Jess, that must have been funny to watch. Are you wishing to laugh? If you are, go ahead." She did and so did I. When we got home and I was cleaning up my wounds, we laughed even harder, till tears came down our cheeks. We replayed the events and died laughing again. Died laughing might not be a good term here because I still wasn't sure I'd live at that point!

Later, she soberly said, "Mom, I think you tripped on the dog's tail(a big spring) because it was wagging when I walked over to you." That was truly the funniest thing I'd ever heard and I collapsed in laughter again!! See the dog's tail? Well, YEAH..it probably IS what tripped me!


On Sunday, I was soooo sore! During church, Jerry said, "I'm going to the bathroom, do you need anything?" He was being sweet..thinking..advil? More ice? Well..it hit me hysterically funny and I couldn't contain my giggles. Thankfully, it was during a song. Even still, I laughed until I cried. I mean, what should I reply, "sure..some toilet paper would be good." I think the fall rattled my gigglebox!

Cody found it hilarious that I beheaded Buddha. You'll only understand that if you understand Cody's passion for Christianity. We laughed and said, "Christainity goes head to head with Buddism" or "Christianity and Buddism collide". We thought of several titles for the experience!

Thankfully, my neighbor's were very forgiving and were more worried about me than the destruction I caused. I'm healing and still find this a most hilarious experience despite the pain.

Multitude Monday--Gratitude Community

In other words, you choose your life, that is to say, you choose all the conditions of your life, when you choose the thoughts upon which you allow your mind to dwell."
~Anthony Bloom
(IF YOU ARE NEW, SEE THE BUTTON AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE TO UNDERSTAND WHAT THIS IS ABOUT....)
Today, I am thankful for these gifts...

11. a day with my son today. My heart aches as I think of him starting high school next week; time flies.

12. Proverbs. There are 31 chapters..one for each day of every month, for me. And the message is always new. How does God do that??

13. James' reminder, in scripture, to love my neighbors with my eyes closed to their flaws, economic status, etc. Jesus died for ALL and desires ALL.

14. Blue skies and fresh air!

15. Although I do not understand all aspects of our war, I am thankful for those who fight for our freedoms. As my nephew leaves, later this month to Afganistan, I pray a little harder for those over there...for God's keeping power, for God's influence in their lives and for strength for those who know and love Him...they are bright candles in a dark place.

16. for a career that I never knew I'd love. I go back to teaching next week, in my second career. I never planned this, never dreamed it, but it fell in my life. I know God plans my life and I'm thankful!

17. for the shades of green and how the lesson never gets old to my heart.

18. for old friends and how comfortable they feel even after a long absence.

19. for new friends who will someday be old friends.

20. for all who walk my journey with me and water my flowers along the path. If you are one of those, leave me a message. I blog for myself..my therapy! But I love knowing you are walking along with me.

Have a wonderful week and treasure the little things.