Chicago...Here We Come!

Dinner and Theatre...
I am so excited about the weekend. A whole two and a half days with my honey. Just bummin' around. I think we are going to the Cheesecake Factory! I love the one in Chicago because the atmosphere is wonderful. We are then headed to the theatre to see Wicked! I can hardly wait.

The last time we did anything like this was on our honeymoon eleven years ago. As wonderful as that was, how much more fun it is after years of loving each other and are now best friends. Awesome! I love to spend time with him and talk. He is so interesting to listen to and I end up learning something from him every time we talk. I love it. :-)

Aquarium...
I know some of this I already blogged about, but I guess I'm excited. In the last few years I have really taken to learning new things. I think some of the reasons are homeschooling and my honey talking about school and what he has learned, but the biggest reason would be lack of TV. We live in a town where you need cable TV in order to get any channels, but after we moved into this house a few years ago we just never got it. I do miss the Discovery Channel and TLC and Hal mark but I can now get alot of those on Netflix.

I have found so many videos at the libraries on sea creatures, Egypt, weather, Meerkats, and a ton of other things. We love watching those. I have learned SO much.

All this to say that museums and aquariums and zoos are on the top of the list for places I like to visit. The one in Denver is a wonderful one. If you ever get a chance to go it is worth your time. The zoo in Denver is nice too. I have yet to see the zoo in Chicago. I hear it is open year round. :-) Something to do this winter perhaps.

Before we go...
I always like to come back to a clean house. That is what I am doing today. I haven't cleaned for a few days and it shows. LOL I have the kitchen done so far but that leaves the rest of the house. Ugh! I guess I better get busy....

So..Rise and Shine...and Give God the Glory, Glory...

I am trying hard to wake up this morning. I haven't been sleeping too well the last few nights. Too many things to think and pray about. Lack of sleep makes it a little more difficult to be enthused about school or... well anything.

I do feel good about one thing. Ethan and I have been working on our screen door. I think it was the original door they put on when it was built in the 70's! UGH!! Needless to say, it was in a bad way. I knew we didn't have enough right now for a new door so I went and got a moss green spray paint and painted it! I did have to buy a new latch though. The old one was just too old! bought a nice new white one and it looks so much better. Ethan was jumping up and down and super excited when we got it done. He helped me with it so he felt a great sense of accomplishment when it was all done. It was fun seeing him feel so good about something he did. He high-fived me quite a few times!!! LOL It was so funny though when I started taking off the mail box. I was going to clean it up and paint it as well, but I hadn't told him my plans. He is one of those people who really do like to know the plans before they go into action. He was freaking out! "Mom, what are you doing? How will we get mail if you take it down? You didn't buy a new one! Where are we going to put our mail?" Hehe...I didn't tell him what I was doing. He finally figured it out when I set it on a box and started to primer it. I know...I'm mean. I couldn't help it. It is so easy to mess with that character trait.

The next big job is to paint the shutters. It wont be as difficult as the door. I'm glad about that. I think it will look so much brighter than the black they are now.

Today....

Today is Monday. Sigh! I so am looking forward to this weekend. Hubby and I are pawning off Ethan and going to Chicago. We leave Saturday morning and come back late Sunday night. We have tickets to see Wicked! I am so excited. I have heard so much about it and how good it is. It will be so nice to get away for a few days. We have never done that before.

Sunday we are going to the Shedd Aquarium. It is the biggest one in the country. I love aquariums! There is something go cool and awesome in how God made all the sea creatures. I love to look at all of them. My favorite are the squid.

Just a few more days!

Weekend Review

We had a nice weekend. It was hubbies birthday this last Thursday so we had a birthday get together for him on Friday night. I had asked him what he wanted for dinner so I made him steak fajitas. I have to admit they were pretty good! ;-) We had a few friends over and played Tripoley till about ten thirty or so. It was nice. Oh...and we had brownies with ice cream(hubby isn't too big on cake).

Saturday we went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast for our anniversary. Eleven years! And I can say we are still in love with each other and wouldn't have life any other way! :-)
We then went to the library so he could study and Ethan listened to books on CD and I read. We then went to another library and did the same thing. LOL Didn't seem funny at the time but thinking about it makes us sound kind of strange. hehe We did have a very good reason for this! Hubby had a book at school that couldn't be checked out but he needed to study with it. That is why we ended up at two different libraries.

Today was not so good. I ended up staying home from Church with a stomach ache. I slept almost all day. I do feel much better now and am very grateful. I have to get Ethan's school work together for this week and that usually can take a few hours. That is next on my agenda.

Thoughts on Community

Hubby gave the Message Sunday at Church. It was very thought porvoking. We are starting to focus on community. He gives an example: (a little long but really cool!)

• Simplified version: one strange guy told another strange guy that there was a phone booth that had been out in the Mojave desert, in the middle of nowhere, 15 miles off the interstate. Someone had seen it on a map and went out and tried it and it worked! The other guy started calling it every day. He figured that eventually, if he kept calling it for years, someone would answer it. After a while, someone did answer! He was amazed! Eventually as word spread, people all over the world it was called the "lonliest phone booth in the world"
  
• People would travel from a long way away to camp out. The phone would ring 24 hours a day from people all over the world.
  
• The question is "why?" Why would people all over the world call this phone all hours of the day and night? Why would other people drive way out of their way to answer the calls?
  
• I assume that part of it that people like things that are strange. And we are curious: what will happen? Whom will I talk to?
  
• Part of it is that people have a built-in desire for connection. No matter how crazy the world gets - kids texting, people emailing, the church undergoing change, more and more people rejecting God, etc. - people have a built-in desire for connection.

Our burden should be answering that call in the community. Before we do this though, we need to be able to develope the community inside... the Church.

Galatians is an awesome book to look at for this. Paul addresses Church growing pains. How we are to be living and relating with our fellow Christians.

I guess what I am getting at and why his message stood out to me is that I can get so focused on others and what THEY are doing or NOT doing instead of looking in my own backyard. Am I building up relationships with those around me or am I a one man (woman) stand. Me against the world? Hmmm....and where is the word communitiy in a one man stand?

Galatians 5:16-24 Friut of flesh vs. Fruit of Spirit

This one hits home with me when I read it....now. It's amazing to me how many times in my life I can read something and only now get it!

• 16 So I tell you: Live by following the Spirit. Then you will not do what your sinful selves want.
• 17 Our sinful selves want what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit wants what is against our sinful selves. The two are against each other, so you cannot do just what you please.
• 18 But if the Spirit is leading you, you are not under the law.
• 19 The wrong things the sinful self does are clear: being sexually unfaithful, not being pure, taking part in sexual sins,
• 20 worshiping gods, (food, drink, porn, spending, working) doing witchcraft, hating, making trouble, being jealous, being angry, being selfish, making people angry with each other, causing divisions among people, (how easy these are to do!)
• 21feeling envy, being drunk, having wild and wasteful parties, and doing other things like these. I warn you now as I warned you before: Those who do these things will not inherit God's kingdom.
  

Wow. How many of those I am guilty of makes me blush. And it is all or self. When I find myself doing those things I am focused on one things....ME! Ouch. That hurts. I used to pride myself on being a listener and a person who helps. I still can be at times but not like Iam supposed to. I have to be careful that I am seeking the Lord in what I do AND say. Causing divisions isnt usualy in actions...it's in words. Scary how much our mouths can get us into trouble. UGH!

OK...those were the lemons.

Here are the apples.....

Fruit, singular - comes in 9 delicious flavors

• Internal:
  Love
  Joy
  Peace - inner quietness regardless of circumstances - addictions recovery people talk a lot about serenity
  
• External:
  patience
  kindness
  goodness
  faithfulness
  gentleness
  self-control

5:25 Keeping in step with the Spirit
This isn't passive
our christian life isn't just a set of beliefs or a set of laws - it is "The Way" - it is our walk

There is more...but I will post it some other time. This is what spoke to my heart Sunday.

Reflections....

I love the word "reflections". I imagine sitting on the porch and looking back over the day and asking myself questions. What did I accomplish? What were the highlights? Did I learn anything new? Is there something I need to work on? Something the Lord could help me do better in the future?

Of course this is imagining. I should do this. How am I able to better myself and my relationship with my Lord if I were never to look behind me and see what was left in my wake. Are there people left squashed in the mud because I ran them over trying to do things my way or are there people who would want to work with me again? Did I please the Lord with my actions and thoughts? Did I seek Him in everything I did?

I am going to try it out on this blog. I know journaling is a key to growing mentally and spiritually, but because of my wrists I am not able to write my thoughts as I would like to. I can type faster than writing anyway. :-)