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I just got tagged by Kristie at Pretzel Family!! First please go over to her blog and read her posts to the questions! She has a great blog, so sit with a cup of something good and enjoy it for a little while. Then don't forget to come back here and read my answers. Afterward, refill your cup of something good and check out the people's blogs that I have tagged!

HUGS!

1.  What is your favorite bible verse?
Well, depends on my mood I suppose. Normally, when my anxiety works it's way up, I turn to Matthew 6:34 "So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today". Another is Ephesians 6:11 "Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies and tricks of the Devil". And - the first verse Seth showed me in the Bible before I was a believer - Corinthians 13:4-7 "Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance".

2.  What season of the year is your favorite?  Why?
I LOVE autumn! More than many of God's gifts to me on this earth, I love fall. There are so many reasons why I love this season... I'll try to make it short. I have so many memories of my family during the fall. My father used to take me and my two brothers out on what he called "fall rides" through the country to look at the leaves and listen to "Classic Rock" or "Oldies" whatever the genre is referred to now. The fall also reminds me of the awaiting of a new school year - I never liked the schoolwork, but going back was fun for the friends school provided . Football season, "sweatshirt weather", and fresh air are all other reasons I love the Fall.

3.  Do you think homeschooling will continue to grow?
I really hope it does!

4.  List 4 people that have most influence your life.
Whoa... hmmm. Well Jesus would be the obvious answer. I just couldn't pick 4 people that have MOST influenced my life - but I will share 1 that has - even though there are more. My grandmother (paternal) was stricken with throat and mouth cancer. Altough she had several operations and therapies, she kept her sense of humor until the very end of her battle. In fact, a few years before she died, she had her vocal chords removed and had to write instead of speak. She had a very dry humor and would still work it into a conversation perfectly without a beat. If she was down, she would NEVER show it to us... I miss her so much. Oh the tears, I knew this would happen!

5.  What is your favorite non-biblical quote? 
Will Turner: This is either madness... or brilliance.
Jack Sparrow: It's remarkable how often those two traits coincide.

6.  Silk, satin, or cotton?
I'm all about cotton!

7. If you like chocolate, what is your favorite? 
I really am not a chocolate "lover", but I do occassionally like Dove Dark Chocolate.

8.  If you could sit at dinner with 5 people, who would they be? 
Um. My Grandmother (paternal), my Mom-Mom (maternal grandmother) and my Grandaddy Paul (maternal grandfather), my very much missed Uncle John (father's brother), and as silly as it seems, my cousin Krys who is my Uncle John's daughter so she could see him again.

9.  What is your favorite author?
I have three: Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, and Sophie Kinsella. LOL, I know that there's a big genre difference in Hemingway and Steinbeck and Sophie Kinsella, but I enjoy a variety of writers.

10.  Who will you tag?
House Full of Joy, Orginized Chaos, Homeschooling Anyway, Homeschooling While on My Knees, and Joy in the Journey Academy

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Hello all! I have so much to add in here, but I want to post really quick why I chose to change my blog's name. For starters, when I started posting here, I wanted it to be a place where I could write in our schooling information. It expanded though to a place where I come and share things that are going on in our family and with me personally. Our Pastor spoke this weekend on Jonah and the messege hit me like a ton of bricks. The theme of the next few week's messeges at our church is ROCK GOD. This week the Title Song focused on was Bruce Springsten's Born to Run. He spoke about Jonah and how he ran from God - and how there is a Jonah in all of us. Our Pastor said a lot of things that really touched my heart, but one of the things was that we are "Born to run, prone to drift". This is so true for me. He gave the analogy of how he went on vacation down to the beach with his family. They were out in the water, just relaxing and having fun with each other. When it was time to get out of the water, they realized that, unknown to them, they had been drifting WAY far down the beach and completely lost track of where the house that they were staying at went.

Like drifting in the waters, we tend to drift from God sometimes and don't even know it. We turn around and are shocked at how far we have gone from Him. Maybe it's just one area of our lives where we think we can handle things good enough for ourselves - or maybe some people willingly have said "forget this" and walk away from Him all together.

The sermon was much more deep than what little I am focusing on here. But I wanted to fill you in on the meaning behind my blog's name change. I, along with many other people, tend to drift from God's plans, truths, desires, and not even realize how far I have gone from home. Each time I run back though, He is there waiting for me - no matter if I have drifted an inch or a mile - I know He will be there.

HUGS!

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We are huge football fans in this house, so the excitement is building for the first televised game coming up on Sunday! Every Sunday and Monday night (and Saturdays when our local college is playing), we host a great gathering for family and friends that would like to watch the games (usually about 10-15 people). I sit in and watch some of the game, but I don't do well with just sitting watching TV for too long a period of time. Other than football and a couple of cartoons that Lizzie likes, I could honestly live without a TV in the house - it's just a time consumer to me. Anyway, with all of the people that come we have an array of teams that we like, so finding a team to cheer for isn't too hard. And, I'm sorry to say, we all understand of rooting for ANYONE playing the Cowboys! I'm sorry Cowboy fans, but I for one grew up in MD and am a die-hard Redskin fan (Don't feel sorry for me, we're used to it. We should just change the team motto to "There's Always Next Year"!).

I spend the majority of the time doing household chores and in the kitchen. My wings are "famous" and demanded every Sunday, so I spend much of the afternoon and evening in the kitchen putting dinner together. It is something I love and memories I will cherish forever.

Alright, to go off on another tangent - I just feel so blessed right now thinking about what God has provided for me on Sundays. Of course we go to church in the morning and worship Him, He has given me a GREAT group of close friends and family that are comfortable enough with us to simply walk in our front door Sundays, and He provides enough food to feed of them all. All silly things to be thankful for in the grand scheme of things, but with all of the other things I am thanking Him for, these are added on .

Well, I am off to work. HUGS!!

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Seth came home from work today with a great heart to do whatever Lizzie wanted to. He spent the whole time before dinner just talkig and relaxing with her. After dinner we went out to Target in search of a board game. Seth comes from a family who LOVES card and board games... I come from a family who couldn't sit still long enough to play them... Over the years I have grown to love them, but normally we just play when we're around his family. With Lizzie getting older though, we are going to start collecting our own games to play after dinner. We currently only have Clue Jr, Uno, and Monopoly, so we need to find more that she would enjoy and understand. We looked at LIFE, but I wondered how "adult" that game is - meaning is she going to understand needing to buy a house, get married, have kids, and also it seems that the dollar amounts might be out of her understanding. We looked for a game called ALLOWANCE, but they didn't have it. If anyone else could suggest some games that your kids enjoyed, I would be so happy!! And so would Lizzie !

HUGS!!

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I was regretting the past and fearing the future.
Suddenly my Lord was speaking:
"My name is I am"
He paused. I waited. He continued,
"When you live in the past
with its mistakes and regrets,
it is hard. I am not there.
My name is not I WAS.

When you live in the future,
with its problems and fears,
it is hard. I am not there.
My name is not I WILL BE.

When you live in this moment,
it is not hard. I am here.
My name is I AM."

Helen Mallicoat

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This week went by so quickly, so here's a basic breakdown by day... it's the only way I can keep it organized and make sure things make it from my brain to the keyboard properly.

Monday
Seth went off on his first day of his new job! We did schoolwork and I made plans with his sister for Lizzie and I to spend the day with her since we would be sad that he is not around all day anymore. The last few months with him home were such a blessing! I really could just say that God's timing is amazing - although we had to wait on this job position for what seemed to be forever, He was actually blessing us with time to spend together.

Tuesday
Lizzie and I worked on schoolwork all day. In the evening we attended a Family and Friends opening of a Target that opened near us. My youngest brother (Jonny) started working for Target in June and has worked so hard in setting up the store. There is about 10 years difference between he and I, and to see how proud he was of the store opening made me cry (literally). He has such an amazing work ethic, I really can't compare it to anyone else. They literally built the shelves, racks and stocked the entire store - as a team. Like, the other night (a week before the store was set to open) Jonny stayed an extra 3 hours to help another employee set up his section. The other man (late 20's) had his first baby a week earlier and had been working 12 hour days because he had to complete the area, so Jonny helped him get out that night early so he could go home to his wife and baby. This is so hard to find in the workplace lately - a sense of unity. On Friends and Family Night, Target got catering, had the employees (mostly teens) play Target Jepardy, and had a big projection screen with a slideshow of the employees working on it. It was just amazing.

Wednesday
Schoolwork.... nothing much else happened here, I don't think... lol, why does it seem like such a long time ago!?

Thursday
I worked from 11-6:15 (leave home @ 10:25am get home by 7pm). At about 1pm our air conditioning broke at work and the temp inside rose to 87degrees!!! Then the roads were backed up going home and it took me an hour to travel what would normally take about 20 minutes... Can you say, AHHH!! This is why the Secret Sister package was such a blessing!! We went to Seth's father's house for dinner and I unwound and had a wonderful evening with my family.

Friday
Worked from 11-6:15. I was exhausted beyond comprehension for some reason, so I told Seth that I didn't want to cook dinner when I got home and asked if we could please go out to dinner somewhere. When I arrived home, he was cooking dinner........ I know many of you who know us just fell out of your chairs, so I'll give you a minute to regain a regular breathing pattern....... I swear I am telling the truth - the man who can ONLY COOK CEREAL was cooking dinner... on the stove... using veggies... I KNOW!! He made this great... thing... of ground beef, carrots, cucumber, broccoli, and rice. It was actually pretty amazing! I mean, he didn't know you had to drain ground beef after you brown it... but I caught him before he missed it, and it turned out GREAT!! I just have to say THANK YOU GREAT LORD for giving him the knowledge and the power to make dinner... and for not letting him burn the house down!!

Saturday
I worked from 7:45am to 1:15pm. I came home and spent time with Miss Lizzie and Seth for the afternoon relaxing and running a couple of errands. Seth went off to an event with my youngest brother, so Lizzie, my mother and I went out to dinner at a 50's themed restaurant and Sam's Club (we know how to have fun...lol). It was a great evening with them - we don't get to do it often enough, so it was such a blessing to me! I also added this music player that I found at the Pretzel Family's Blog. If it's too much for a lot of people to load, than I'll take it off. Music is so much a part of who I am, that I thought it would be worth it to try.

So this brings us up to now... And man am I tired. Goodnight all! Forgive me if there are errors in here - I'm too tired to sit through and proof it, but I'm sorry if it's hard on the brain at parts.

HUGS!

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