25 Days of Praise

So it's been a while since I've done any posting on this subject!  Rest assured - I have not forgotten.  This week the focus was on intimacy.  With the blizzard last week and my untimely sickness - this week was honestly a struggle for me.  Kids home every day is not conducive to intimacy!  It was not a complete fail however - but that's all I'm gonna say about THAT!!

ANYWAY!  Tomorrow we start week 4 and the final week!  I will actually miss this challenge.  The crazy thing is I've been focusing so much on this challenge that it never dawned on me that at the end was Valentines Day!  I think I've used up all great ideas I could possibly ever come up with - so maybe I'll leave the planning of that special day to the man :)

Tonight my son rolled his eyes after I read a status update I had put on Facebook - and said "you two act like a couple of high schoolers!" to which my husband replied "well I do believe that's the best compliment you could have paid us" - and - of course - my being the more serious one - said "and I think you should be thankful because it's not something a lot of your friends have."

I am thankful, as always for this amazing guy God has blessed me with.  We have a quote up on our bedroom wall and it says "The Lord Blessed the Broken Road that led me to you".  It's true - the Lord DID bless my broken road and I am so glad He led me to my hubby.

Here's what Courtney says about week 4:


Week 4 February 9th - Women love romance, chocolate and flowers on Valentines Day. Do you know what your husband wants? Ask him! Let me make a suggestion as to what a majority of men want even if they aren't willing to say it: a great tasting, looking, smelling home cooked meal and home cooked dessert, you pursuing him for a night of passion (remember you are married - HAVE fun! God created passion for us married folk! lol!) or a letter expressing all the things you admire about him. One of these things he would surely enjoy. Which of the three does your husband need from you right now?


I don't have to ask, I already know!  I will ask, however, to make sure I'm not just making an assumption.  And in case that man is reading this post - I do love romance and flowers - and I especially like away time and dinner out.  I'm not a big chocolate fan - don't hate it - but it's not something I "love" like most women!

Either way - I just love to be with HIM!  

How has this challenge gone for you?  Have you learned anything about yourself?  About your spouse?  What have you found difficult?  What have you found easy?  What needs work in the future and what do you think your pretty good at?

Keep it up my friends - marriage IS hard work - but the reward is great.   

To close this one out - here are some quotes I found on marriage.  Enjoy!

Success in marriage does not come merely through finding the right mate, but through being the right mate.  ~Barnett R. Brickner

More marriages might survive if the partners realized that sometimes the better comes after the worse.  ~Doug Larson

The more you invest in a marriage, the more valuable it becomes.
Amy Grant

Any fool can have a trophy wife.
It takes a real man to have a trophy marriage.
Diane Sollee

I have no way of knowing whether or not you married the wrong person, but I do know that many people have a lot of wrong ideas about marriage and what it takes to make that marriage happy and successful. I'll be the first to admit that it's possible that you did marry the wrong person. However, if you treat the wrong person like the right person, you could well end up having married the right person after all. On the other hand, if you marry the right person, and treat that person wrong, you certainly will have ended up marrying the wrong person. I also know that it is far more important to be the right kind of person than it is to marry the right person. In short, whether you married the right or wrong person is primarily up to you.
Zig Ziglar      

Worth a Thousand Words

I have a little devotional book called "Fresh Grounded Faith" by Jennifer Rothschild I picked up a few years ago.  It sits in my bathroom and I try to read one devotional from it every day.  Today, I enjoyed what she shared so I want to share it with you.  This is called "Worth a Thousand Words" and it's straight out of the book.  Go buy it - you'll be glad you did :)

     "Sometimes I like to read the Gospels as if I'm thumbing through a photo album chock-full of snapshots, glancing at each one.  Recently, in Matthew 9, a great snapshot of Jesus reclining at a dinner part caught my eye.
     It's a picture of Jesus and His disciples sharing a meal at Matthew's house - along with an apparently motley crew of sinners.  The Pharisees were in attendance that day with them were irritated and befuddled by how someone who claimed to be a rabbi could lower himself and have dinner with such riffraff.
     The smug Pharisees asked Jesus' disciples about it.  (And can't you just heart the contemptuous sniff?" "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"
     Before His disciples could formulate their thoughts and answer the Pharisees, Jesus Himself spoke up.  "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick"  (Matthew 9:12)
     Did you catch that? The Word specifically says that Jesus answered the question of the Pharisees even though it was asked of the disciples.
     Now, why did Jesus answer a question that was clearly not directed to Him? The query was obviously aimed at Peter, John, and the boys.  Maybe it's because the question directly related to Jesus and not to His followers.
     Think about that for a moment.  Keep your eye on that picture of Jesus and His disciples.  Do you think the disciples gathered at Matthew's house that day could have answered the question well?  If you were there, could you have answered it well? Most likely they could have.  And most likely you too could have come up with a reasonable defense for why Jesus chose to dine with society's lesser lights.  Be neither we nor His disciples could have answered as well as Jesus did!
     This shows me that some questions are better left for Christ Himself, even if the questioner happens to direct the query at you or me.  So here's a novel way of looking at it:  Perhaps the questions that most directly relate to Christ should be left for Christ to answer for Himself.
     People will ask questions like "Why do the innocent suffer?" Or maybe "Why does God allow evil?" The fact is, I really don't have a lot of zingy answers when I am confronted with those kinds of questions.  As His disciple, I have an idea, but I don't hold the definitive answers.  Only God does.
     To assume ownership of the mysteries of God, as if I truly understand and can explain them, would be an arrogant, ignorant thing to do, and it wouldn't help the honest questioner at all.  On the other hand, to pause after a question is asked (instead of barging in and blurting out a pithy religious answer) gives the Master Teacher an opportunity to overhear and answer for Himself, just as He did that day in Matthew's house.
     We all must practice a spiritual conversation that has enough pauses for Jesus to interrupt.  The discourse of our lives is full of unanswerable questions.
      Let Jesus interrupt and show who He is, not just who you think He is.  Our answers offer a limited view of Him.  To confine the infinite in finite terms is silly.  To attempt to explain omniscience with our limited breadth of understanding is equally unhelpful.  God is capable of defending His position when He so chooses.  He is unruffled by scrutiny and undaunted by interrogation.
     Let Him be God, and you can focus on being His follower.  When you are asked a tough question about the one you serve, pause, look toward the Master, and listen for His voice.  God is always listening, and He will always answer a sincere questioner.  You and I, as His disciples, are often questioned, and we should be prepared to offer good answers.  But don't let your good answer simply placate a questioner when Christ Himself could offer the best and most satisfying answer.  He will reveal Himself to those who wish to see, and He will speak to those who want to hear.
     And one glimpse, one picture of Christ, is worth a thousand of our words.

Luke 12:11-12 "When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say."

In everything give thanks

This will be a short little post of Thanksgiving!!

Yesterday I was taking bug (Elyse) to work.  I came around the front of Taco Bell and the car started acting very strange.  You know what it looks like when someone learns to drive a stick for the first time?  Stopping/starting/stopping/starting?  Yeah - well, my SUV decided it wanted to do a little song and dance for all to see.  Too bad I didn't have any circus music playing, because it would have been perfect.

I managed to get around the corner but when I went to park, I was afraid it was going to fly through the Taco Bell window.  E decided she was not going to be part of this embarrassment anymore and she jumped out of the car yelling "see ya!", laughing and ran into Taco Bell.  She abandoned her mother in her time of need :) 

Anywho - I figured something was seriously wrong with the car.  I managed to jerk myself to the back parking lot and park.  I called Marty stating "something is SERIOUSLY wrong with the truck!!".  Of course he was 35 miles away at J's soccer practice.

He showed up about an hour later.  Hopped in the truck and took off.  Now I'm sitting in his car with J wondering where in the world he took off too - and of course, he didn't take his phone.  Finally he pulls up behind me and yells out his window "what are you doing?  Let's go!"  like I was supposed to know what HE was doing in the first place!

Anywho - we filled up the cars with gas and the truck has finished it's song and dance.  I don't know what was wrong with it - but it seems to be good to go now.  Which is a really good thing - because I've grown kind of used to that lovely 4 wheel drive!

SO :)  I am giving thanks that I got to drive like a wacko yesterday for only a short amount of time and it appears there is nothing majorly wrong with the truck!

Does this make you uncomfortable?

I've been watching quotes from Traffic Jam on Facebook this week.  They make me uncomfortable.  I also had a conversation recently with a sex trafficking survivor who told me of a website about trafficking whose title made me uncomfortable.  I've been tossing this blog post around for a while.  I never want to post things for the "shock" value.  My desire is not to turn people away from the plight of victims.  Nor is it to sensationalize a horrible crime. 

At the same time, in my recent conversation - she had a valid point.  She was talking about this website she saw (one I will not put on here, but will explain in a moment) and she said the creator of the website was intentionally trying to make people uncomfortable.  Why?  Because being a victim of sex trafficking is not comfortable - and glossing it over with mild words does not help people to truly grasp the reality of sex trafficking.

The website uses a very graphic term to discuss what, literally, happens to sex trafficking victims.  To children.  When I first heard it, I was appalled.  Then I heard the reasoning behind it.  Although I would never use those terms because - quite honestly - it's too much for me - it is definitely a way to make people realize, in very graphic terms, the reality of what is happening to children as young as 6, if not younger.  Hearing it drives the point home - and to a victim, myself being a sexual-abuse victim, it definitely makes me feel like throwing up.  Which is the whole point - that people would grasp how a victim feels.  Grasp it enough to do something about it.

Anyway - back to the quotes I've been seeing on Facebook.  I'm going to list them here - they are not like the website, so don't worry - but they will make you think.  It is, my friends, a reality - and one we must do something to stop.  Again, these came from the Facebook page of Traffic Jam.

~‎10% of Moldova's population has been trafficked out. Can you imagine the uproar if one in ten Americans were stolen and enslaved?

~RT @trafficjam_org: The Super Bowl - "The greatest show on earth and single largest human trafficking incident in the United States"

~"Child sex rings spike during Super Bowl week" - USA Today

~ ‎"The Super Bowl is a magnet for child sex Traffickers" - ABC News

~ ‎"People are thinking of the Packers and Steelers. Most don't think about a 12 year-old being forced to dance naked" - Texas AG

~ ‎"Pimps hawking young girls see the thousands of men who travel to the Super Bowl each year as a gold mine of potential clients" - AP

~‎"We are expecting thousands of underage domestic minors to be trafficked to the Super Bowl" - Nancy Rivard, Airline Ambassadors

I'll never look at the super bowl in the same way again.

It's easy to say "sex trafficking" - isn't it? Not so easy when you read the quote about the 12 year old above, is it?  I highly encourage you to read some books - there are plenty out there - of accounts of sex trafficking.  It's hard, it hurts and it makes you sick to your stomach.  But it makes it real - and it puts names and faces to the millions of kids out there who need our help.

Does it make you uncomfortable?  Enough to move?  If your interested in getting involved - let me know. 

Marriage Thoughts

It's not unusual for people to tell me how much they envy the love Marty and I have for each other.  I've been asked more than once what our secret is.  We do love each other more than anything.  He is the light of my life, my soul mate and my everything - next to the Lord.  Without him, I would be utterly lost.  Let me give you some tips on what we do today to help keep the spark alive.

1.  Laugh.  A lot.  We tease each other all the time.  Marty comes by this naturally.  He is a goofy guy and he keeps things light around here. We make it a point to laugh because life without laughter is utterly boring!

2.  Serve.  Marty is not the type of man to come home and sit around on his butt all the time.  Even though I am a stay at home Mom with kids in school all day - by the time he has gotten home from work, I've run at least one child somewhere, we've started homework, I've listened & advised, made dinner, cleaned the house, paid bills, taken care of the animals, run a million errands - it's not like I sit around on my butt all day.  Marty comes home - and he gets to work.  He'll pick up, help with dinner, keep the kids going on their homework, help run the night shift of running kids everywhere (lol).  If I had a man that came home and said "Where's my dinner woman?" and promptly sat in a recliner with the remote in his hand - he would not be eating dinner - he would be eating the remote.  I couldn't take it.  Marty jumps right in.  2 is always better than 1.  When he does this - I can relax - thus making me a much more agreeable person after the kids go to bed if you catch my drift.

3.  Compliment.  We build each other, not tear each other down.  At home, in public.  Always.  We text compliments, we say compliments, we e-mail compliments.  We put it on Facebook (sometimes quite intentionally), I post on my blog.  We never. ever. tear each other down to our friends.  I can NOT stand this when I hear other women do it.  Build your man up - don't tear him down.  If you made a bad choice and he's not the man you wish he was - too bad.  Suck it up - deal with the choice you made - and pay the man a few compliments - and then pray that God will change him from the inside out.  Find one trusted friend to vent to - but that's it.  Verbally love on each other until your kids are rolling their eyes.  Trust me folks, this works.

4.  Have each other's backs.  Marty says one thing you have to say about me is I'm loyal.  I am loyal.  Tear down a friend in front of me and you'll see what happens.  Tear down my man in front of me - and you better not be within swinging range.  I'm not kidding.  I am fiercely loyal.  I am crazy loyal.  I don't care if my guy is right or he is wrong - I have his back.  He needs this and he loves this trait in me.

5.  Don't neglect the bedroom.  In this week 3 of praise - you've seen that in other posts.  No need to repeat it here.  It's the love language most men speak.

6.  God must be the center of your marriage.  I have to admit something here.  Marty and I are not good at doing devotionals or praying together.  It is an area in need of drastic improvement.  I will also say this is my fault.  I allow busyness to get in the way and this shouldn't be.  We do pray for each other on a regular basis.  This year, I am going to let go of my uncomfortableness in this area and make this a priority.  I can't wait to see what God will do!

7.  Date nights.  Another area we have not always been good in.  For us, it's because of finances.  We just don't have the money to go out every week like we would like.  Right now, for example, I really want to spend a few days away with just the 2 of us - but we can't afford a hotel room for 2 nights right now.  One day, if I have money ever - I think it would be great to create some kind of marriage retreat place for people to get away for super cheap - like 20 bucks a night or something!  Anyway - as often as possible, have a date night without the kids.  We have gotten creative.  One date night we do monthly is the blizzard club date night.  Go to Dairy Queen and sign up - it's free.  Once a month we get a coupon for a buy 1/get 1 blizzard.  So - we use it - and for like 3.50 - go have ice cream together.  We also know Monday nights are free as the kids are in youth group.  Recently, we've  decided Monday night is our date night - at home.  We might play games, cook a delicious dessert - whatever - it's home - and it's free.

All righty my friends - this has gotten incredibly long.  I don't think I'm ever going to get good at short posts!!

What about you?  What do you do to keep your marriage alive and well??

Spice Drawer Re-do COMPLETE!

Can't believe it - but I've almost finished my spice drawer re-do!!  I'm happy!  I still need another 10 jars or so - but for now - I think it looks great.  BIG improvement over what was before.  Let's look at some pictures and you'll see what I mean!!

Before - WHAT a MESS!!  What's in there anyway??  Who knows - not me - not you!!  So - let's figure out what we can do to clean this up a bit - for next to nothing. 

First, you'll need some of these.  You can get them from a friend, from yourself, or find a sale and stock up.  If you don't have a baby, find a flavor you like or else just give it to the dog!

Clean off/our your jars & lids really well using warm sudsy water.  Then use some of this amazing product to remove the sticky residue left over from the label.  Note - use this product as directed in a well ventilated area.  Trust me.  You will develop a killer headache if you do not follow this advice - lol.  I know.  Make sure you clean off the jars a second time after using the goo gone.  Turn the jars over and allow them to dry well.  You don't want them all wet when you place your spices in them.

Now, I needed to label my lids.  I have/had a circle cutter.  It broke.  I was tearing my hair out trying to cut out perfectly round circles.  I was so mad after several attempts that I decided I needed to come up with something else.  This is plan B.  Chalkboard paint.  I had some left over from a project forever ago, so I dug it out and mixed it up.

Now we paint.  Not an easy task, might I add.  Kind of messy - but we managed.  The first circle on your left is pre-paint.  Middle is half way through painting - and last one is post-paint.  I did 2 coats, allowing several hours of drying time in between. 

Here's what they looked like.  Now, I was unhappy.  Why?  Because I like color!!  So, again, not wanting to spend any money, I had to get creative.  Remember I said I used chalkboard paint?  I have some decorative chalks (you'll see in a pic in a moment).  I particularly am partial to pink - so out came the pink.  I also have a set of stampin' up colored pencils.  I am sure any chalk and any colored pencils will do.  I wrote the name of the spice on the lid in white colored pencil first.  Then I traced over the white in pink.  Then I took the decorative chalk in pink and using an eye makeup brush, colored over the lids.  Below is the result.

Pretty nifty, huh??  I'm happy.  If I had to do it again - I would've maybe made my pencil sharper.  I was afraid to because I didn't want to nick off the black paint.

Now THAT looks clean and organized!!  I think I'm in love :)

25 Days of Praise

I shared previously that I would let 'ya know if Courtney @ Women Living Well had anything further to say about Week 3 of 25 days of praise.  Well - she did!!  How are things going for you??  We had a blizzard yesterday and ain't no one goin' no where for a few days - week 3 has now been seriously challenged - lol!!  Fortunately I was a wise woman and planned something special for this Monday night while the kids were at youth group.  And that's all your going to hear about THAT!

Here's a copy of Courtney's post about week 3!

There is something about the sparkle in our eye, the smile that says I adore you, the curves of our body, the sweet smell of our perfume, the way we move in the dark...that draws a man to a woman.

Proverbs 30:18,19 says"There are three things that are too amazing for me, four that I do not understand; the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a maiden."

For men the physical need for intimacy is more than just physical - it is emotional. Just as we long to remain desirable to our husband's, our husband's long to know that they are still desirable to us. Their big ol' egos might not let them admit it - but it's there.

Within our God given femininity, we have the power to make our men feel stronger, more capable, more confident and loved in all areas - simply by responding to his initiatives with desire.

So this week's challenge is:

Pursue intimacy and place the intimate needs of your spouse above your own. Give him a foot or back massage, shower together, be creative!

Seek to "kiss him like you mean it" every single day this week! Solomon 5:16 says "His mouth is sweetness itself; he is altogether lovely." Look at your husband through the eyes of his fiance...do you remember those butterflies and your longing for him. Renew that passion.

Paula Rinehart says that for many men, "S*x is like a silent cheer."

Our men feel stronger, more capable, and built up when we respond to their advances with a smile.

"Be available, agreeable and interested.(~Linda Dillow, Intimate Issues)

"When you touch your husband's deepest need something good almost always happens!"~ Dr. Emerson Eggerich

So I challenge you today to not just show your husband you love him but show him that you LIKE him!