Sunday Funday!!

I don't get too many days like today, when I don't have schoolwork! So I made the most of it! 

Got up "early" made German Oven Pankcakes. Then I started on lunch by making homemade pita bread. 

 Then church, our pastor, Jeff Manion is amazing! http://www.adabible.org

After church I baked Oatmeal, Chocolate chip, Walnut, and Cranberry cookies. Crisp edges and chewy centers, delish!!

After that I worked in adoption paperwork, while nibbling a few cookies! 

For lunch I made tuna salad to go in the pitas and Parmesan crusted asparagus!

Now, I have a clean canvas in my studio calling my name... I have to take advantage of these school free days!!

I start my doctorate in one week and could possibly be meeting the children this week as well! Exciting times, and much to be thankful for! 

MSN, BSN, BS, RN!!!

Finished my Master's degree today!! Whoot whoot!!! Now, on to my doctorate! I start in 10 days! 

Hurt

I wonder how some people were raised that enables them to lie and hurt others that they supposedly love? I don't understand it but I sure as hell won't put up with it in my life. Life is too short to allow fake people with their own selfish agendas into my life no matter who they are. There is no blood thick enough for that's bs! 

I wonder if when I am over being angry if I will feel bad about these feelings and let it go? The problem is, it didn't hurt ME, it hurt someone I love and that is a whole other level of pissed off!  DNA doesn't matter it's the people who stand by you, unwavering, thoughtful, kind, faithful and honest...those are your true family! 

Praying for God to lead me through the anger and hurt into a place of forgiveness and peace, and wisdom to create distance! 

Acknowledging that God brings justice, help me forgive.  

Adoption Update!

Hey friends, many have asked, so we want to bring you an update on our adoption process.  As some of you know, we have had heavy hearts over the past two weeks due to a tough decision that we had to make and some frustrations with the agency. 

Well, today we were given great news, full disclosure paperwork on two boys we have been interested in! We have a lot of reading to do as we prepare for a big meeting next week and an even bigger decision soon thereafter. Not the best timing with my school wrapping up, but that is how it works sometimes....reminds us of WHO we need to rely on through all of this! 

This is getting pretty exciting, we even went to the School of Choice open house to start getting an idea of what the options are out there. It was pretty strange to be there and at first I felt really out of place.  The people there said, “how old are your students?” So strange to think “we have students”...or will soon!  Then we got talking to people and it just seemed...right! we learned so much about the programs and especially for this homeschooled girl, it was really cool!

We will keep you updated as we go - thanks again for your interest, thoughts, best wishes and prayers!

                                  

No Fear

                           

God made us in His image and loved us so much he wanted us to have a free will, freedom to make decisions and be who we want to be. Yet, with that freedom came the ability to choose to wrong things (sin).  There are consequences for sin, and that is death.

Despite our affinity to make poor choices and to sin, God loved us so much He made a way of escape from this consequence...He paid our consequence. He loved us so much that He stretched out His arms and died For Us! Wow! Our Creator saw that by allowing us freedom to make choices That we would also need a Saviour. 

Therefore, He gave His life so that we, as sinners, could have a way to have our wrong choices forgiven! He died, He, who never sinned, lovingly took on ability to pay for our sins. 

Now the choice is up to us. Choose God or choose Death.

But everyone dies!?! Yes, our earthly bodies die, they rot and decay...but our souls live forever! That is the beauty in how we were created! 

The choice therefore is to follow the Creator and Saviour and choose life or turn our backs on Him and choose the path of death.

When we choose life through Christ Jesus, it doesn't mean our lives will be perfect. He doesn't promise an easy road. We will still make poor choices and others will make poor choices that affect us too. However, He is there through it all, He promises to strengthen us, and give is peace and refuge.

 

The verse alone shows that we will need strength in life's challenging moments and we will need a place of refuge from the storms that come into our lives.  Life is not always easy, but God is ALWAYS there, He will cover you with His feathers and you can find shelter in Him! (Psalm 91:4)

He is:

There need be no fear because we know that God is on our side! No one can truly harm us.

                          

We can have NO FEAR but we do need FAITH! 

40th Open House

My husband threw an open house for my 40th birthday! It was fun! My favorite color is pink and though it's a bit cliche we did pink and black!! ;) he bought long stem pink roses and placed them in wine bottles throughout the house. (Above is a pic from after the party when he gathered some of them together). 

We had wine, fruit, cheese, olives, and fabulously delicious cupcakes made by my amazing friend and her husband (raspberry filled with champagne frosting, chocolate raspberry with chocolate ganache, and to humor me, funfetti with funfetti frosting and roses)!

Best of all I was surrounded by family and friends, making the night very special!! 

We made party favors with my favorite candles from Wealthy at Charles and a Pay-it-Forward card! What could be better a better 40th present than having others being a light of love and peace in the world!! 

Forty....hhhrumph!!!!

Despite having taken the day off to mourn the loss of my youth, I promptly awoke at 6am.  

As I laid there trying to deny the reality of the number 40, I decided I best test things out, muscles, bones, tendons, check! Five senses intact, check! Six sense, pain…pinch….yup intact, check! 

Next up cognition:   I pondered….well, can I still say I am in my thirties or phrase it so it does sound forty? Nope, I cannot: cognitive functioning intact, check. 

So let the cognitive reframing begin:  I am indeed I am forty and I need to just embrace it….or maybe I can fall back to sleep and embrace it in a few hours!?!?!?!

Thanking God for all He has done in and through me over the past forty years!!! I truly am VERY blessed!!!