Devotional for the Disorganized: Week 2

For God is not the author of confusion but of peace...

1 Corinthians 14:33

That is the verse for this week.  I have definitely had a week where I had to seek God's peace.  Depending upon Him through Hemi's disappearance this week was hard, but I did it.

During one of my prayers I told Him that I know He is in charge, but it just seems so harsh for a little girl to lose dog then cat in a month.  That was her solace.  Why take it from her?  But I didn't want to question God, He knows.  So I gave it to Him and just stayed strong for my children.  I had a strange calmness about Hemi missing all week.  It was my cat and I thought he was one of the coolest I've ever owned, why was I so calm about it?  So accepting?  So........at peace?  Because I gave it to my Lord.  He is the author of peace.  God is not confusion.  I may have been confused, but He knew.  Always.  

Now as far as this goes with cleaning my house?  lol  Who knows!?

My house is becoming more and more organized.  I know that the more organized my house is, the more peace we will feel in our home.  I have faith that the Lord will fill me with the motivation that I need to finish my home.  I have come so far already!

Hemi Has Returned!

We are all soo happy!  Hemi showed up tonight.  He is hurt though, but we are so glad he came home finally!  After a full week! I am so thankful that he came back.  I didn't want my cat to be hurt and missing, and it hurt even more that it hurt Amanda.  I called a vet and we've got an appointment to take him in.  I am sure hoping that the Lord will provide for us to pay for a vet bill.  I don't have any money to do that.  I will on Tuesday, but not until then.  
We just couldn't believe when we opened the door and the cat was there.  I couldn't stop looking for him.  And I turned to look out the door and there he was!  Just sitting there.  I yelled, "Oh my goodness!  There's Hemi!"  It was just amazing.  I did not think that he was coming back. 
I wonder where he was and how long he laid until he decided he could come home.  By the sap things stuck to him we know that he wasn't laying in our yard.  Anyway, that story isn't for us to know I guess.  We are all just thankful that he is home!
And his motor hasn't turned off since he has come inside.  That's my boy!  I named him Hemi because he purred so much and so loud.

Anyhow, I am going to go lay down and read.  I started a new book last night called Pathway to Purpose for Women by Katie Brazelton and picked one back up that I laid aside for a while called Inside The Revolution by Joel C. Rosenburg.  Both of these are books on my Spring Reading Thing 2010 list for the month of April.  
I really need to plan on doing some school tomorrow.  This week hasn't worked well for us.  Today I felt so much better but I was so busy that I didn't have a chance to do school work.  But the kids made their own crazy hat for Crazy Hat Night at AWANA, so that counts as art.  Yesterday, even though I felt so sick that I didn't teach, Amanda read 2 stories out of her reading books to me and Kyle.  And they've both been making Easter decorations, so that is more art class.  lol  Wow, we've been doing school after all!
I made a trip to the dollar store today.  I love our dollar store.  They have a lot of school supplies.  And not just pens, papers, etc.  Bulletin board borders, alphabet boarders, educational posters, stickers, flash cards and sentence strips.  There is a lot more.  Today I bought 4 educational posters; 2 on planets, 1 on punctuation and the other on nouns, adverbs, etc.  I also got the kids little aprons that they can wear when they are painting or cooking.  I also bought the kids each a new sketching pad of paper.  They loved the other ones they got for Christmas and have used them up.
Ok ok.....I know....I said I was going to go read.  I am feeling a little chatty.  I guess if I bored you already you would have already stopped reading.  You probably already have!  lol

My New Books

Since my hubby was so nice to give me some money to buy a new book, I took myself to the book store today.  My hubby, who by the way, is not a reader, bought 4 books today!  Three for himself and one for his dad.  Why does that matter you say?  I bought myself 2 books.  He has never out-bought me at a book store!  lol  I was shocked to say the least.  And a couple of the books he bought he is very excited to try and read.  I was every encouraging after that.
So anyways, back to me!  I bought 2 new books today!  I was told of this cute little book store in Sumner called A Good Book and this is the 2nd time I've gone.  They have new and used books at very low prices.  Although, we did not spend "very low prices" today.  *ahem*  *looks at floor in shame*
Anyhow....back to what I bought!
I bought a book called The Book of Virtues by William J. Bennett.  I have a HUGE study to go along with this book and I can't wait to start it.  It's a 10 week character study.   
 

I also found a brand new book really cheap and I have never seen this book in all my time in a book store or library.  I don't know if it's because it's rare, of if I have just never ran across it any time.  I found it very odd that I just now found out there was a book.  It's The Neverending Story by Michael Ende.



I am very happy with both of these finds!  I can't wait to start that study with the kids.  I will probably start soon.
Hopefully I feel much better tomorrow and can start getting school and housework done.  I am going to try to finish that book tonight about the Baudelaire kids.  I have never had a book of this series take me this long but it doesn't feel like I've had much time to read.  I don't know.  After that I will probably be starting a book off of my Spring Reading Thing list next.  

 

The Simple Woman's Daybook

 

FOR TODAY
Outside my window...it looks like the weather is going to decide to be rainy and stormy today.  I am soooo ready for Summer and warm weather.  Sunshine.

I am thinking...that I need to get something done today.  Yesterday I felt so awful I didn't do anything.  I'm sure my hubby would appreciate some clean dishes.  lol

I am thankful for...God's protection.

From the learning rooms...I don't know what we'll get done today.  I should at least work on our Easter study if nothing else.

From the kitchen...I think just about every dish is dirty.  It happens so fast!  I hate washing dishes by hand.

I am wearing...my pajamas still.  Maroon sweatpants, Gray sweatshirt

I am creating...new Easter tags!  Well probably by the time I get to them, Easter will be over, and I'll be making Spring tags.  lol

I am going...into town later to cash our paycheck and do our errands.  Nothing exciting.

I am reading...Book 7 of A Series of Unfortunate Events The Vile Village by Lemony Snicket.  I enjoy reading this series and finding out what perils the Baudelaire children go through next.


I am hoping...that my children will try their hardest not to fight today.  But sadly, it seems that isn't going to happen already.  We might all end up in bed today.  Maybe I am secretly hoping for that!  lol

I am hearing...Amanda act dramatic because she has only found 2 pennies and she can't buy anything with 2 pennies.  She's working Kyle to give her some money.  Mom won't let that happen though ;-).

Around the house...who knows.  I have a lot that I should do today.  But really, I should spend a lot of time with my Bible today.  Yesterday was just an awful day and I had no frame of mind to do anything, literally.  I just existed yesterday.  I need to get into my Bible though.  Maybe I can find something small to do in the house that won't use up a lot of my energy but will also make me feel like I accomplished something.  I need to wash dishes for sure, lol.  Maybe I can reorganize my school area.  I'd really like to take some pictures and show ya but my batteries died in my camera and I can't get more until I go to town later this afternoon.

One of my favorite things...something that has been on my mind the last few days is smells of things that I love.  My favorite thing to smell, and you may find this very strange, is the smell of brand new books and coffee.  I know, I said you may find it strange!  My favorite place to walk into is Borders Book store with the coffee shop inside.  I walk in and every try inhale deeply and just savor the aroma.  In fact, I am thinking of it so much, and now actually craving it, I may go to Borders today.  My hubby felt generous this morning and gave me money to buy a new book.  He can be sweet when he wants to!  lol

A few plans for the rest of the week:  I have dramatically cut down the hours I spend on facebook this week.  I am in doing it because this is Holy Week.  My goals for this week is to draw closer to God.  I said yesterday it really didn't happen.  I prayed daily and talked to God.  But there wasn't any studying of The Word or teaching of it.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...well since blogger to the option to upload from my desktop, I can't seem to upload pics without going to picasa first and uploading there.  That takes too much time for just one photo.  So until I can get this to work, no photos today.

 AHA!!  If I go back into the post to edit, then the regular upload thing comes up and I can upload from my PC.  So this picture is a picture of a tree that fell in my backyard 2 weeks ago.  The window you see here is our Master bathroom window.  My hubby and I were in there talking when the tree fell and it scared me!  But notice that the grace and protection of God guided that tree.  It fell right between the house and the fence, without ruining either!  We were so thankful for that!  Below is the view that I saw from our bathroom window after the tree stopped moving.

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Common Christian Courtesy In The Family

I ran into a stranger as he passed by,

"Oh excuse me please" was my reply.

He said, "Please excuse me,too;

I wasn't watching for you."

We were very polite, this stranger and I.

We went on our way and we said "goodbye."

But at home a different story is told,

How we treat our loved ones, young and old.

Later that day, cooking the evening meal,

My son stood beside me very still.

When I turned, I nearly knocked him down.

"Move out of the way," I said with a frown.

He walked away, his little heart broken.

I didn't realize how harshly I'd spoken.

While I lay awake in bed,

God's still small voice came to me and said,

"While dealing with a stranger, common courtesy

You use, but the children you love,

You seem to abuse.

Go and look on the kitchen floor,

You'll find some flowers he brought for you.

He picked them himself: pink, yellow and blue.

He stood very quietly not to spoil the surprise,

And you never saw

the tears that filled his little eyes."

By this time, I felt very small,

And now my tears began to fall.

I quietly went and knelt by his bed;

"Wake up, little one, wake up," I said.

"Are these the flowers you picked for me?"

He smiled, "I found 'em, out by the tree.

I picked 'em because they're pretty like you.

I knew you'd like 'em, especially the blue."

I said, "Son, I'm very sorry for the way I acted today:

I shouldn't have yelled at you that way."

He said, "Oh, Mom, that's okay.

I love you anyway."

I said, "Son, I love you, too.

And I do like the flowers, especially the blue."

This poem was copied from an excerpt in my church bulletin.  It hit me because I don't always have the patience with my children OR husband that I do for others.  That is so sad.  These people should be the ones that I have the most patience for.  This is something that I am working on this week and praying about.  

 

My Holy Week Devotion

For my Holy Week I am going to cut down my hours that I spend online and cut down the hours the kids watch tv or play video games.  The kids have already cut down really so that won't be hard at all.  So here's my commitment:

1.  I will only have 2 hours of online time each day this week, from Sunday to Sunday.  This is social online time.  If I need to do something for school, this does not count.  Likewise if I blog as I expect to have lots of time that I feel like writing or expressing myself.  

2.  I am going to spend more time pouring over my Bible this week.  The kids are also going to be doing more Bible school work than other subjects this week.

I am hoping to have a restful and inspiring week led by My Lord, Jesus Christ.  I will be checking in on my journey for Holy Week Devotion, so keep checking!  And why you are at it, why don't you try to do this yourself?

Views Through My Lens>>Eyes

I love to take photos.  There's nothing like a warm and sunny day to take my camera outside and just click at what ever tickles my fancy.  I will admit that sometimes I have strange fancies.  But, I guess that is what some people call, art.  Now, I am not saying my photos can be classified as art.  What I am saying is that everybody has their own perspective and has their own view of the world. 
Here's mine:
I was having a nice relaxing bubble bath and thought of taking pictures of the bubbles.  So I had Amanda get my camera for me.

 The view from where I lay, lol.  Cute isn't it?!