'Faithingit'

Hi friends! Hoping everyone is well! :) We visited a new church this past Sunday and the message was really awesome. It was totally what I needed to hear but didn't have a clue that it was needed! Isn't that how God works a lot of times! :) Anyway, the Pastor preached on faith as a verb. He said that in our vast english language we don't have a verb that tranlates faith. It's used as a noun. Like something we have...I have faith. He went on to give many examples of other words in our language that have both a noun and a verb tense but not faith. Usually when you say faith as a verb it is the word believing, or trusting. I'm drawing a complete blank on some of the examples that he gave for noun and verb words....perhaps you homeschool momas can help me out... Anyway, the Pastor said we should have the word "faithingit". Not as faith as something that I only possess BUT it something that I'm doing! AS A VERB!!! I even came up with a 'faithingit' walk...it's a little jig. As I was teaching my children this concept I told them that if they see me doing my 'unique' little jig to know and understand that I was actively "faithingit"! It's fun! Come up with one of you on! So my friends, now I want to have faith as a noun and as a verb! Faithingit!
My oldest wants to be a missionary- I'm faithingit!
My youngest is a lovely but a strong willed child- it's ok, I'm faithingit!
My mom's health is shaking- I'm faithingit!
My husband is a cop...Sigh---It's ok, I'm faithingit!
We are in the process of finding a church home- faithingit!
My dear friend wants a baby desperately- faithingit!
This world is getting really bad!- By God's grace I'm faithingit!

My friends, leave me a comment: What are you facing that you are faithingit?

Joyfully,
Kathy

Being lazy...errr.... I mean chillin!

I should do some laundry. I should mop the floor. I should start the dishwasher and of course there is dust that could use a could wiping! BUT...here I am in front of my computer..listening to Father of the Bride with my little princess. I was gonna be productive today, really I was but then Danae ( my youngest) said, " Moma, will you come sit with me for awhile?" To some, I should have said," Baby, Moma has work to do." But not me, not today...sure I say that to her...a lot sometimes but not today! You see...I have been enlightened. A clean and orderly house is very important but so are days spent doing nothing but enjoying each others company. You see, my eldest daughter has graduated from high school now and is working full time and preparing for college this fall. I don't see a whole lot of her. She's becoming a woman...doing her thing. Finding out who she is. Don't get me wrong...I'm happy! This is how it supposed to be...but I miss her. I miss seeing her all around the house, talking to her all day long. This has served as a reminder that one day my house will be empty and I will be willing to sell a major body part to hear my precious child say, " Moma, will you come sit with me?" So today, I sit! I'm watching her play and blogging...she doesn't care either..she just wants me to sit with her! Again, so her I sit! My house work will be there later but for now a precious little person still thinks that I'm the greatest in the world and would love nothing more than for me to sit with her! Blessings!

Joyfully,
Kathy

Faithful or No?

Faithfulness is a fruit of the Spirit. Not so long ago my loving Father gently told me that unfaithfulness is a weak spot for me. Sure I'm faithful to my husband and my children. I'm even a really good friend...just ask Jamie! :) But I am unfaithful when it comes to my relationship with God. It's not that I don't want to be or that I don't desire to be faithful to Him. I just stubble here. I'm wondering does anyone else have this issue. I claim to love God yet I'm not always good at spending daily time with Him. It's kind of weird acutally....I think about Him, a lot! Most of the time infact. But to sit down and study the Word or to just spend time with Him....I just fail miserbly. A wise lady that I know once said," If it's important then you will do it." Example: If you are meeting a girlfriend for dinner chances are your not gonna bail last minute or show up 30 min. late. It's important to you so you make sure that you make it happen. Pedicures anyone??? I know that if I actually get out of the house to get one...I'm gonna get there! Early even! So what's the deal with my Creator! I know I have an enemy that loves nothing more that to distract me from being with God and boy, is he good at it! I need to stomp Him more often! All of this is stemming from the challenge that I'm beginning tomorrow. Reading the Bible in 90 days! I'm in a group with others that are going to be my accountability partners and encouragers...but I'm so afraid that I'm gonna fail and I really really don't want too! I want to do this. Not so I can that I did but because I love God and the wisdom in His written Word to us! He speaks to us through His Word and I so long for a good washing in the Word! In the words of my eldest daughter, "I'm thirsty, so thirsty for a drink of God's Word." I'm there now...I have gone without a good long drink for much too long! I've been having some short tastes...but I want to bathe in it...drink deeply...and be filled!


Joyfully,
Kathy

New Bible Studying!

Hi friends, I accidentally stumbled onto an awesome new blog called WWW.Momstoolbox.com. This site is so encouraging and has some great ideas! I have began using this ladies Bible Study method called: SOAP
S scripture
O observation
A application
P prayer
This is a verse by verse method. Check out her blog if you are interested! Also, I can joined a group via her blog for the challenge of reading the Bible in 90 days! I think it would be fun if a whole group of ladies were to do this together! Think about how effective we could be for our families if we were to read the whole Bible...at least an hour a day! Wow! I know this is going to change my heart and deepen my relationship with Jesus! That's what I so long after! I deep, all knowing relationship with my Creator! So that's where I am with my Spiritual stuffs! Check it out!

We are getting ready to go to Las Vegas for a vacation. My sister in law, brother in law and my nieces live there! We are going to make it a long trip and stop off in New Mexico and do a little site seeing. My youngest desperately wants to go to the spot where you can stand in 4 states at once so we deinitely going to do that!

Also, every year when it is time to begin preparing for our new school year I get a case of the jitters. I can't explain but I find myself thinking...I can't do this...I don't know what to do. I'm sure this is an attack by my blasted enemy! In the end God and my precious hubby give me the encouragement that I need to get everything organized and then I get excited! Well yesterday, Danae and I spent some of the day at the Homeschool store and I did get her a few of her subjects..went home and began to plan! Now I'm excited! There was one sad thing about yesterday...for those of you that are homeschool moms maybe you get me here. I need other moms. I need their support, their encouragement , the ideas! I had a mom snub me at the Homeschool store and it kinda hurt my feelings. Anyone who knows me know that Im super sentsitive and that I get hurt easily. I was trying not to have a melt down in the store when I, again, realized that one of babies will no longer be under my homeschool teaching and that I was shopping for only one curriculm and it would have been nice to have struck up a conversation versus being snubbed. But you know what... she probably had her own thing going. Also, I noticed that most of the moms in there looked frazzled and really not enjoying themselves. I don't want to look like that. There are days that I'm frazzled and out of sorts but I want to look friendly and approachable and full of Jesus. "Let your light so shine before men that they will see your good deeds and praise your Father in Heaven." Matthew 5:16
Moms, ladies... smile...look approachable. You never know who's caring the weight of the and need you to tell them who can really carry their troubles for them. Or they may already know Jesus and just need a listening ear!
Well there's my preaching for the day! Lol! Be blessed ladies!


Joyfully,
Kathy

Blessings and greetings to you all!

I am acutally sitting down...only because my oldest is at driver's ed and it's too far to go back so my little one and I are hanging out at the library. Seems like forever since I have been on this little corner of the web...so much has been going on! Namely, we got all settled into our new house, my Kimberly has graduated from high school, had a huge surprise party, enrolled in college, began driver's ed, and is now starting to work full time. Whew! My little Danae is a busy bee as well. Actually her life has settled down for a bit and she along for the ride most of the time. Poor thing...begs me to stay home for a day! I don't know why it's called being a stay at home mom...I'M NEVER HOME! That's ok though..one day when my girls have a life apart from me I'll be begging for someone to yell "mom" across the house or to need me to take them some where! Danae has vacation Bible school this week and that has been a whole lot of fun! She has had her dance recital so we are on a break from dance right now! That's alittle more money in the bank and a bit more free time during the week! My hunny is happy and healthy and working hard as usual! I don't really have much to blog about that would be of interest...so I'm going to leave you with these few thoughts....
1. I have realized and accepted and even begun to enjoy the hectiness of my life at the present time. One day things will settle down again but for now I'm choosing to enjoy toting my kids around from place to place, lying down exhausted at night, and cherishing our moments together at home. I choose joy!
2. God is creating in me a passion for lost and hurting people. I have been praying for discernment...I want to see people...really see them. He is showing me...it amazes me what I see in others and feel for them when I look at them with Jesus eyes!

I pray all of you are well and that life is so full of Jesus you are going to bust!

Joyfully,
Kathy

The goings on.....

Hello fabulous friends, I pray you have all been well in my lengthy absence! Things have just been so crazy around here. I have a wonderful true story to tell you and I'll give you an update about what's been going on 'round here! First off...it's blistering hot already in the deep south and we are in desperate need of rain! I'm almost thankful that we moved too late for me to start a garden. It's just so dry...the water bill would be outrageous and I don't know if the crops would have survived anyway. We haven't had a single drop of rain since sometime before April...if you think about it, pray for rain for us. The spreading of fires is a scary thing! So if you have followed by blog for any length of time then you surely have read about an issue that I was going through at my church. It has been a very sad time for me....but at the ladies retreat that I was at this past weekend there has been answer to my ferverant prayers! The Lord showed Himself Mighty and defended me! I have been clinging to His promises in Psalm 35 that the Lord WILL defend the righteous and He did! Oh boy did He ever! Such a faith building experience with the Lord! Not just when I got an answer but the quality time that I have spent with Him in prayer! So yay!
As I mentioned before I was at a ladies retreat for our church this weekend and it was amazing! We left Thursday and returned Saturday so I got spend Mother's Day with my amazing family and my wonderful Moma! I just have to say I'm so glad that my mom is still here on earth with me! I don't know what I would do without her!
My hubby has been experiencing some medical issues but the Lord is working those out and we found out today that the issues were not nearly as huge as we had ourselves worked up for! Praise the Lord.
On another note my oldest darling is done with high school! I did! Well we did it! The Lord, me and Kimberly! But I have my first homeschool graduate! And she's smart! She graduating knowing stuff! Lol! :-) He diploma arrived Friday and I'm just beside myself with joy!
I have been thinking about revamping Danae's homeschool curriculm and I can't wait to sit down and put it on pen and paper! Oh and I met a fabulous lady at the retreat that is going to go with me to the Homeschool Convention this summer! I don't have to go alone and I'm really looking forward to spending time with this gal! She's full of spunk and love for the Lord and her family!
I'm happy right now. I know that sounds kind of wierd to just write but I am! I feel this inner joy and peace that I know is coming from Jesus! I'm really enjoying our fruitful relationship!
Tomorrow will be fun and exciting as well! My dear friend and I are attending a homeschool group meeting that is in our area! We are hopefully going to be getting to know some other homeschool families is our area to hang out with! Ahhh!!.... So exciting!
Have a restful, blessed evening my friends! Seek out people to share Jesus with this week!

Joyfully,
Kathy

A hairy situation.....

Hello there lady friends!

I thought I would stop in and let you guys here a little lesson that the Lord is teaching me and let you glean from up what you need. :-)

For those of you who don't know me I have really long hair. Its almost to my waist and I rarely cut it...in fact my first hair cut in three years was just a couple of months ago and that was merely a small trim...I do have bangs now which was a huge scary thing for me. You see I use to have short spiky hair and the Lord began to speak to my heart about femininity and long hair is wear He led....besides my hubby loves long hair. But all that would be a whole other post this is about a lesson learned.

Long hair is beautiful and most maybe even the majority of men are attracted to it. Therefor long hair comes with responsibility in not causing our brothers to stumble with lustful thoughts. I have known this for quite awhile. I typically where my hair up as it is hot down in the deep south and my hair is quite thick. But on occasion that the humidity isn't trying to kill us I will where it half up and half down. This particular Wednesday I wore my hair half up and half down to church. About mid service I had grown quite warm and I took my hair down to wind it up in a bun and get it off my neck...that was when the Lord stopped me in my tracks. As I was twirling my hair around my hair to pin it up the Lord very clearly told me,
" Take your hands out of your hair." I also very clearly understood why He wanted me to stop "messing" with my hair. I sit on the front row at church therefor every man behind me was able to see my long hair being twisted up into a bun. I'm very conscientious about this as my dear hubby has talked to me about the efforts that hair had on a man. In fact my darling used to have me wear my hair up if I was out of the house for modesty sake..he has since relaxed a little as my dress and my attitude are modest and I don't go swinging my hair around. Anyway...I immediantly slapped my hair up and didn't touch it again. Now for all of you who are saying," Come on! It's just hair and it's my hair for that matter." Well...if it causes my brother to stumble then I shouldn't be doing and my hubby who is very much a man assured me that it can and will cause a man to stumble. How could I have avoided this...well I could have gotten up quietly and gone to the ladies room to adjust my hair or if I didn't want to get up then I could have just left alone. I'm glad the Lord spoke to me about this...I want Him to tell me to get back in line. I don't want to have to find out in Heaven who I caused to stumble!!! The Lord is faithful about keeping me in line...sometimes I will hear Him gently whisper....stop wagging those hips so much....for those of you that don't know me well, I used to be a very unmodest, sassy, loud women. It is my journey and desire to be a meek, gentle, classy LADY! Also, my daughter learned something from my lesson that I shared with them. After the Lord spoke to me, I talked with my girls about their own hair responsibilities as they have long hair too. My youngest, She's 9....was fiddling with her hair in Sunday school recently and remembered what the Lord had told me and she stopped playing with her hair and put it up! Makes me proud when my girls learn from me! I love it even more when they share it with me too!

Just a little reminder to go easy on those men out there! They have enough trouble wtihout us adding anymore to it! God bless you!

Joyfully, Kathy