Weekend from Hades...

I'm not joking...this weekend was a weekend I wish to forget. It was rotten.

Friday, we went to get things out of storage. We lost a box of outdoor patio furniture cushions....Now I don't have a matching set :( I keep praying someone will return them.

Saturday, we go to get MORE stuff out of storage. While unloading around 8 pm in the dark, dh notices people out by the road....he drives out there. Turns out a cow is down. Stays out there for a couple hours.

Sunday, we go to a church...have to go to town to pick up some stuff for our washer and dryer to get hooked up. (Needs an electric part) When we get home, a tree has fallen down from the 40 mph winds we were having, and fell on the electric fence. My washer and dryer didn't get hooked up....I desperately needed to wash.

By 7pm I decided it would be best to drive an hour to town, do 8 loads in two hours, and drive back (as opposed to not knowing when the washer would be hooked up, if it would work, have to take at least 3 hours for only 3 loads of clothes....blah, blah, blah) Got home around 11 pm.

Monday morning I woke up at 4 am...don't know why, didn't go back to sleep. DD was starting her new job. Needed a ride, because her car needs new tag and I didn't want her driving in the 40mph winds so far. We take her, come home....Joe Bug has is going to a friend's house and then robotics that evening so we have to go back into town. We go to robotics. On the way home at 9pm, we are half way home and I get a call from dh to tell me there's a mouse in the RV and I need to pick up some stuff...great I'm already halfway home (25 miles and there's nothing between here and there) so I go all the way back to Fargo and go to Walmart...didn't get home until 11:30pm. Needless to say, I was exhausted and slept until 9 am yesterday morning!

I'm hoping the the little rodent is dead soon, or at least moved to an outside residence. LOL

Blessings until next time!

Currently my favorite commercial...

I love this commercial...esp the dad's face! Priceless...cracks me up every time!!!

Prayers appreciated...

Things in the natural are looking very dim. BUT we serve a SUPERNATURAL, MORE THAN ENOUGH GOD!!! Will you all please agree with me and my family that our house will sell asap, and that our finances will get straightened out? Thank you!

Topic: Church Struggles...

A url friend posted this on a board:
Background - Reader's Digest much condensed version. We left a church in January 2007 because of major doctrinal issues. We came to this church because we knew people here and my daughter had friends here already. For various reasons, she only goes with us on Sunday mornings, and goes to a different church for youth group. She would just as soon leave our church for the other one totally.

Last year, the new church went through a pretty bad split. It has not recovered from that split yet, and has slowly been bleeding off more and more families. Last week, our home group leaders announced that they were ending the group. He had been one of the elders until he resigned earlier this year. Tonight they told us, not unexpectedly, that they are leaving the church after next week.

We've been fairly unhappy there for some time ourselves. Since the split, the pastor just hasn't gotten back to where he was as far as the quality of his sermons. We leave in two weeks for our vacation, and I strongly suspect that when we return, we will be leaving the church also. I really don't want to go through this again, but it looks like we are. We just don't know where to go. We would love to go to the same church that dd goes to youth group at, but that church holds it's own set of problems.

I know several of you are dealing with church issues also. It's such a tough position to be in! I never went through this before I moved out here. I grew up in one church, only left it when I moved, same as all the other churches I've attended over the years. And now to be in a position where it looks like I'm leaving another one....I don't like it, not one bit.

My response:

I'm sure, as usual, not everyone is going to agree with me. We have been living on the road for a number of years now. We had a church at home that we regularly attended. When we moved about 8 years ago, the church went through a split because of various reasons. (I don't know all of them, and I don't care) The church hasn't been the same since. It's close, but still not the same. (We go back often to visit)

Since we have lived in so many places, we've tried to find a church similar to our old church. We have found one in the past 8 years. Unfortunately, we moved away from that area.

Maybe none of this is making sense, but in my mind I'm building up to my point...

A couple things I've had to remember and keep in mind...
1. No church is perfect. It is filled with people just like me-sinners, saved by grace.
2.Every church has it's problems. How the pastor and the staff handle the problems is the key.
3. We are the church. Church begins with us, from the time we get up until the time we go to bed.
4. Since we are the church, I'll go back to a discussion I think I brought up on here a long time ago...IF we look at the book of Acts, the church's purpose was to disciple and train and send out. We as a modern church DO NOT do that. Most churches nowadays have become social clubs.
5. We are suppose to be lead by the SPIRIT, not by a doctrine or denomination. Some things might look odd to the world, even our line of thinking, but they may be the SPIRIT moving us. Look at the many examples in the Bible...here's one of so many examples:

Acts 8:26-39

26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza."
27 So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian [c] eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means "queen of the Ethiopians"). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship,
28 and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet.
29 The Spirit told Philip, "Go to that chariot and stay near it."
30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. "Do you understand what you are reading?" Philip asked.
31 "How can I," he said, "unless someone explains it to me?" So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
32 This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading: "He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
33 In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth."
34 The eunuch asked Philip, "Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?"
35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
36-37 As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?"
38 And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.
39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing

This post is getting too long and I have some things to get done around here. So I'll leave it for now-might be back later.I'll be praying that you have direction, (name here).
********************************************************
Your thoughts?

Sunday Sing-Along

When you're up against a struggle
That's shattered all your dreams
And your hopes been cruely crushed
By Satan's manifested schemes.
And you feel the urge within you
To submit to earthly fears
Don't let the faith your standing in
Seem to disappear
CHORUS:
Praise the Lord.
He will work for those who praise him
Praise the Lord.
For our God inhabits praisee.
Praise the Lord.
And those chains that seem to bind you
Serve only to remind you.
As they fall powerless behind you.
When you praise him.
Satan is a liar and he wants to make us think
That we are paupers,
when we know ourselves
We're children of the king.
So lift up the mighty shield of faith
For the battle must be won
Remember Jesus Christ has risen
So the works already done.
Chorus

This bugs the bejitters out of me!!!!!!!!!!!

Lately, on several Christian homeschool boards that I'm on, there has been discussions on...
"Preparing for cold and flu season"

I SO badly want to give them my advice!!! ROFLOL
I don't though, because it will either cause an argument, people will disagree, or it won't be received.

You know what my advice is????
(if you read my blog, or know me, you probably already know the answer ;P but for the benefit of those that don't...lol)

First of all...why do you want to go around preparing for it? That means you're welcoming it, it means you're expecting to get one or the other or even both!

Second of all...Have you thought about just following the WORD of GOD???
I Peter 2:24 "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed."

Psalm 103:3 "Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;"

Isaiah 53:5 "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed."

Jeremiah 17:14 "Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise"

Jeremiah 30:17a "For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD"

Exodus 15:26 "And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee."

Proverbs 4:20-22 "My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh."

Psalm 107:20 "He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions."

James 5:14,15 "Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him"

James 5:14,15 "Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him"

Third of all...if for some reason you do get a cold, the flu or both...
1.anoint your head with olive oil
2.confess the WORD of GOD over yourself
3.take the necessary medicines, knowing that medicines are GOD's mercy until HIS healing takes place (we try to take natural stuff...garlic, olive leaf extract, L-Lysine, Vitamin C, Grapefruit seed extract, drink lots of water, and eat lots of homemade chicken noodle soup, gargle with salt water)

Blessings and praying for a healthy cold/flu season...(that kinda is a contradiction...lol)

Joy of the LORD, um or the lack of it...

I have to confess, I haven't really had any joy lately. Probably the main reason I haven't been blogging. Yes, some of it was I thought no one was reading, but mostly because I didn't want to come to my blog and complain, gripe about how bad life is. I want my blog to glorify the LORD and my readers. If I'm here griping, complaining, etc...that's not blessing anyone! I'm not doing that.

Anyhow back to the joy, or lack of it...Dh and I were in the truck the other day. We were talking about tractors of all things. Which brought me almost to the point of tears. (We'll need one with winter approaching. We have a very long drive from the road to the house.)

Why? Why was almost to tears? Because moving to ND has been financially difficult for us. DH took a two-thirds paycut, bills, etc...I'm not going to go into details...(GOD knows the needs and satan doesn't need the glory)

I told DH, "I'm mad at GOD. I'm mad at this situation. This doesn't make me happy" blah, blah, blah....I've been angry for awhile. I've allowed my joy to be stolen from me.

Today, the kids and I were doing our daily (which btw hasn't been so daily lately...We get off track when we are busy :( ) Bible study. We started learning about patience today.

The lesson (from Pearables, The Narrow Way) started out giving a description of Patience, in the context of 2 Peter, according to Strong's concordance.

Patience-
Greek#5281 & # 5278, means cheerful endurance; constancy; enduring, patience, patient contiuance (waiting); and to undergo, bear trials, have fortitude, persevere; abide, endure, take patiently, suffer, tarry behind.

From the dictionary...
Patience-The capacity of calm endurance.
Patient-1. Capable of bearing affliction with calmness 2. Persevering;constant. 3. Understanding 4. Forbearance

(Hmmm...not a very good description of me lately. I've been anxious, worried, concerned, lacking joy, etc, etc....)

Then the study used the following verses to see what the Bible says about patience.
Luke 8:10-15 (Today's New International Version)
10 He said, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, " 'though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.' [
11 "This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. 12 Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. 14 The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. 15 But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

Luke 21:16-19
16 You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. 17 Everyone will hate you because of me. 18 But not a hair of your head will perish. 19 Stand firm, and you will win life.

Romans5:1-4
1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.

Romans 15:4-5
4 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.
5 May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had,

2 Corinthians 6:4-5
4 Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; 5 in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger;

James 1:2-5
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.

When I got to the middle of this last verse, I broke down and cried. The LORD convicted me, in HIS loving way, and gently reminded me that I'm having my faith tested (yes, again...even when we think we know that lesson, HE might remind us again) and that I must not give up, but to press forward and continue to be stretched. I stopped at that point and asked for forgiveness and thanked my HEAVENLY FATHER for HIS love and HIS patience with me. I thanked HIM for continually forgiving me when I come so short of HIS glory. I realized I'd allowed my joy to be taken away, and there was no reason for it. GOD hasn't left me, HE hasn't forsaken me. HE is here with me, wanting me to draw near and realize this is a trial to produce patience in me and that patience will mature me and make me complete.

Oh what a blessing that is!!!! I am filled with hope and joy again! I asked my dh for forgiveness for my lack of joy. I asked my children for forgiveness, too. What a tremendous weight lifted off my shoulders! Thank YOU, LORD!!!!

I encourage you to let HIS word saturate your very being.
Blessings until next time!

truly shocked and surprised...

I'm honestly shocked and surprised by all the comments I have received from so many about my blog. I truly didn't think anyone was reading anymore because I had been away for so long. I appreciate all the kind words and thoughts. I was probably still going to blog more as a journal and keep it private for my own use than open as it is now, if I didn't have followers. Thank you all for the encouragement and I'll definitely keep it open...I didn't want to make it private if you all are reading. Thanks!

So here's a couple things going on....

Yesterday morning I was looking at my arm...I thought...when and where did I get that bruise? then I realized it was blueberry juice on my arm that didn't come off from the night before. (I hadn't showered yet) LOL!

The cows will be leaving soon...Do you all know about the cows? Did I share that only on my FB? Hmmm...I don't recall. The owner has about 100 cows here in the pastures. The cows have been entertaining, needless to say. They come by the house and moo. LOL They often will wake me up in the morning. I would leave statuses on my FB about the cows...soon I was using cow words to describe my day, my mooooooooood...lol! (so you get the point)
But soon the cows will leave. :( The mamas will stay, but the calves will go to be fattened up in another pasture...from my understanding. Then the mamas will go soon for the winter. No cows to talk about. That will be sad. :(

Our house is still up for sale, but now under a new realtor. The old realtor's contract ran out. We didn't feel he did anything so we hired someone new. Hoping this person will be successful in getting it sold or at least leased out. Please keep us in your prayers.

ND is in autumn or as most of us say it, Fall. The leaves are starting to turn and fall of the trees...the ND winds certainly do their share to help! The sky is turning gray and the days are getting shorter. When we first got here it would get dark around 10pm, now it's about 8-8:30.

My sister was here for Labor Day weekend. We picked her up in Minneapolis. We stayed a few days and went to the Mall of America as well as found the house that they used for the Mary Tyler Moore show. They only used the outside as her apartment building. We also went downtown and found the Mary Tyler Moore statue and some of the other landmarks they use in the opening credits. It was fun. On the way back to ND, we stopped at Costco. How I miss Costcos! They only have Sam's here....used to like them, but much prefer Costcos instead! Got lots of stuff...and then we finished our way back to little rv on the prairie. My sister was here until Tuesday...then the kids and I drove back to MN to take her to the airport. I told her next time just fly into Fargo...I'll pay the difference. (well we've seen the MN sites now...lol)
We also went to Detroit Lakes while she was here and had a picnic on Labor Day. It was a beautiful day.

School is going well. We've taken a few weeks off with my sister's visit, etc. But next week we'll be going full steam ahead again.

Not much else to share today....
Remembering 9-11 eight years ago. Sad....
Remembering my friend, Debbie's birthday and the little guy Nicholas that use to live across the street from us, today. Happy...

Blessings until next time!

Pondering...do you read this?

If you read my blog, would you mind leaving a comment below? I'm considering abandoning blogging. :D I don't think anyone reads my blog anymore, which is part of the reason I haven't been really blogging.

My favorite season...

My favorite season would have to be autumn. I'm not sure why. It makes me happy and sad. Happy because it takes me back to my childhood-the raking of leaf piles and then jumping in them, the changing of the leaves colors, the smell of the crisp, cool air, baked goodies of cinnamon and apples-like cider and homemade applesauce, football games, the start of a new school year-new school supplies and school clothes, bonfires....

Sad because it means the days will grow short and dark, winter will be coming soon. Long days inside, many days of gray...well that's what I remember as a kid...yet I loved winter too...it meant sledding all day on Saturday and afterschool and then yummy hot chocolate with marshmallows, Christmas coming soon, fires in the fireplace.

I love spring too...the fresh grass, the budding trees and flowers and plants. The days getting longer again...and summer vacation approaching. Ahhh summer...the lake, cherries and cherry pit spittin' contests...watermelon seeds too...lol, the long, warm nights-staying up all night, catching fireflies, the fireworks at the 4th of July...

Definitely, Autumn is my favorite though! :) Your's?