Monday, September 18, 2006

Ballet Fun!

My youngest daughter started a ballet class this past Thursday thanks to my friend Sarah!

She had a wonderful time and now my oldest is also going to start ballet classes! I think it will be really good for both of them!

Here is a picture of her first class.




Great Field Trip!

We had an interesting week this past week with many activities, field trips and meetings going on!

We visited the Pioneer Farms in Austin. It was a nice visit. It was great to see some actual buildings and people living out the daily life of the mid to late 1800's in Texas as we have just finished up studying Pioneer Life for school.

We ended up walking around with a fellow KONOS user and had a great time getting to know her and her boys during and after our field trip when we visited their home.

The kids were so excited when they also got to visit with her boys again on Thursday evening when their mom came to San Antonio for a meeting I was leading.


Here are a few pictures of the Pioneer Farms trip!

** I will add pictures later as they don't seem to want to load at the moment!

Sunday, September 10, 2006

In Memory

Where were you? Do you remember where you were and what you were doing that morning on September 11, 2001? Did you wake up knowing something would happen to change our lives forever?

Someone shared on another blog a link to this video. It is a clip of a longer video, but very good and very hopeful. Check it out for yourself at:

http://www.worshiphousemedia.com/index.cfm?hndl=details&tab=MM&id=5536


I do remember that day. I woke up with no idea what was going on. I was still lying in bed when I received a call from my sister-in-law telling me to watch the news. I then spent most of the rest of the day in my bed watching the news. I didn't want to put it on in the living room where the kids could see it all, so I left it on in my room.

I know I feed the kids and took care of what they needed at the time, but besides the basics, I was glued to the TV, praying for those people, thinking of those in the Pentagon that I or my dad may know, in horror of all that had taken place in such a short time and no one could stop it!

I do remember that day and those that followed. So many of us, even though we were so removed from the actual area, walked around in shock of what was going on. Fear gripped many as new security alerts were issued, flights were stopped and slowly started again.

I was supposed to fly to another state less than 2 weeks after that day for a MOPS Convention, I canceled my plans. The airlines refunded everything because they understood why no one would want to fly! The events of that day changed our lives forever. Some changes occurred right away, some we wouldn't see for years. Some we are continuing to see now as more threats appear in different areas.

We can't be as naive as we once were but we also must remember that we have a God who loves His children and who has a plan. May we allow Him to teach us more about Him and how we can be used by Him in all our circumstances--the good and the bad.

I pray you remember! We will be praying tomorrow for the many left behind after the tragedy of 9-11-01.

Take some time to read through Psalm 91:1 (and the rest of the chapter)--who are you putting your trust in?

My Blessings!

Here are a few of the blessings I have received from the Lord!

1. The Lord Himself!
2. My wonderful, caring husband.
3. My four wonderful children who make each day an exciting adventure (to say the least!).
4. The new home we have now been in for 7 months--hard to believe!
5. Wonderful friends who are encouraging, good listeners and helpful for teaching me new things!
6. Rain for my yard--I don't have to water for a few days!
7. Great extended family who want to be involved with our kids!
8. Godly leaders who hear from the Lord and want to share the truth of God's Word.
9. The freedom to teach my children at home as the Lord leads!
10. A Heavenly Father who is right here with me at all times--I just have to remember it!

That's all for today..... I will try to share more and other specific blessings as they come up!

Hard Heart or Soft Heart?

Hi, all! I just wanted to share a little about the topic of the sermon from church today. We are studying John 3:16 and today's topic was "Hope for a Hard Heart".

The sermon covered several examples of a hard heart, the product of a hard heart and the prescription for the hard heart. The last part is a good reminder to help us keep focused:

"Remember what God has done for you. Mark 8:17-18

Acknowledge what you have done against God. 1 John 1:10

Give your heart to God."


In the closing, he mentioned a great reminder to help us keep all that happens each day, week, month; in perspective:

"Write your burdens in the sand but write your blessings in stone!"

Things written in sand are quickly washed away and forgotten. Writing in sand is not an effective way to record what goes on to be kept as a reminder for later. Stone is hard and once you make an impression upon it, it can't be removed! What better way to keep our focus on what is most important in our lives!

If you have children, you may have sand around your house/yard. When you are having a particularly hard time with a person, problem or situation--go out there and write it in the sand. Spend some time handing it over to the Lord and then wipe it away! Once we give our burdens to the Lord, they are no longer ours!

Likewise, take time each day, or week to record the blessings in your life from the Lord. Put these in a journal, on your blog or in some place where it will be recorded and saved for future reference. Use it as an encouragement of all that the Lord has done for you in the past and all that He promises to do for you in the future!

We need to do all we can to keep our focus on the Lord and keep our heart open to Him. As humans, we tend to run away from, rather than run towards, the One alone who can help us in all ways! God desires for us to come to Him with all our problems, our joys, our trials and our yearnings. He wants a relationship with us far beyond what most of us can even imagine or are willing to give.

We can start by doing what we can to be open, loving and transparent before the Lord. If we can't be open with Him, how can we be open with others? The more we are open and willing to hand our burdens over to the Lord, the easier it will be to live a life of gratitude toward our Heavenly Father as well as towards those He has placed in our lives!

I will be making a list of my blessings shortly and will also post it to this blog. If you feel led to do the same, just leave a comment letting me know!

Pretty Accurate Quiz!

You Are 48% Control Freak

Generally, you are in control but not a control freak. You life is usually in order.
However, sometimes you get too obsessed with making everything in your life picture perfect.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Monday, September 04, 2006

Fun add-ons for the Mozilla browser!

I just downloaded a new add-on for my Mozilla browser that makes it so much easier to type and post messages to my blog! It is set up to work with blogger.com and wordpress.com.

You can download it at: Deepest Sender

I also found another extension which allows you to take a picture of a website and then you can use it to post on your blog, keep for reference for research, etc. You can download it here.


We will see how they work! So far, the Deepest Sender makes posting text to blogger.com much easier! I haven't worked out adding pictures this way, but maybe it will work better also!

Have fun!

Happy Labor Day!

Just sending a quick note to say Happy Labor Day! Hope you are enjoying a restful day free from labor today!

This is also a test for a new way to post to my blog!