Why I Blog

I was tagged by Butterflykiss21 with a meme to list 5 reasons why I blog.

1. I signed up for a Blogger account over a year ago, but I didn't know anyone else that blogged and so I stopped. I started to see that a lot of the Moms that are a part a homeschool group that I belong to have great blogs and so I had the encouragement to get mine started.

2. I orginally thought of using this blog to keep track of the things that we do as a part of our homeschool and eventually plan to get around to that. :-)

3. I love meeting through the blog world, and the best way to meet them is to share your thoughts and then have them comment.

4. Blogging provides an outlet for me to share some of my feelings and it allows me to see that there are actually a lot of people who feel the same way. They may live in New Zealand, but they feel the same way. :-)

5. Being at home with the kids most of the day, it provides a nice outlet to mingle with people of like (and sometimes different) minds.

Now I tag, Ann, Shereen, Rona, Laura and Justice Fergie

Don't Throw Out That Shampoo!

Have you ever bought a new shampoo only to realize that it just doesn't work the way you thought it would?

Well don't throw it out. Use it to clean your bathroom. That stuff that's that's in the tub is the same stuff that in your hair, so use the shampoo to clean it!

It works for me!

For more ideas that work, visit Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer.

Looking Past The Anger To See The Hurt

I have Praise Team rehearsals on Monday nights. I'm the leader and last night was one of those nights that I wanted to just come home and type up my resignation. I normally plan out the songs for the month, but for whatever reason I hadn't done the songs for March yet, including the songs for this Sabbath. So the beginning of the stresses was trying at the last minute to think of songs that don't require much rehearsal time.

One of the Praise Team Members gets to rehearsal and immediately she is confrontational. "Where is the musician? Why do we have rehearsal at 7 if we are not going to start until 7:15. We might as well start at 7:30, and on and on and on throughout the entire rehearsal.

By the end of the rehearsal my patience had thinned and so I decided to call her on my 30 minute drive home. God would have it that her husband would have her cell phone and I would have to wait until he made it home to speak with her.

About 15 minutes later she called me back. I begin by telling her that I'm not trying to be confrontational, I just need to get some things strait. At this point I am still very upset, but not looking to make matters worse, so I took a deep breath, said a quick prayer and went on to tell her how I felt about how the rehearsal had gone.

She apologized for being negative and unsupportive. I then asked her if she had any issues with me in particular that she wanted to discuss. She said no and went on to say that she was having a very bad day.

I asked her if it was anything that she wanted to talk about and she went on to tell me that today was the date that her Mother was murdered. She went on to say that February's are very hard for her and November's as well (her Mother's birthday).

I prayed with her before we got off the phone and let her know that she could call if she needed to talk.

I'm writing this post to say that often times we get so caught up in our own problems and issues, that we forget that other people have struggles as well. As Christians, we must take time to look past the obvious anger of others and be able to see the hurt that is buried deep within.

Those who hurt others do so because they are hurting inside. I could have very easily called her and given her a piece of my mind, and don't get me wrong, if she had answered the phone when I called, I probably would have. But what in the world would that have accomplished? Has God now been glorified? Has she seen Jesus in me?

In order to separate ourselves from the world and be Christians in the truest sense, we must show love to those who seem unlovable. We must have enough Christ in us to be able to see the hurt and love them in spite of the anger they so readily display.

For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. Luke 6:32

Show love today to someone who is undeserving. It's what Christ does for us.

Cup Stacking-A New Sport

My husband was watching the news the other day and there was a story on about a competition for cup stacking.

In this sport, cups of identical size are used to stack the cups in different sequences. So for example in the 3-3-3, there are 3 sets of 3 cups each. Each set of cups is stacked in a pyramid in a particular order, in as little time as possible.

This sport uses both sides of the body as well as both sides of the brain and improves gross motor skills as well as concentration.

The pack to get started is 29.99, which can be a little pricey if you have several kids, but it includes 12 cups, a bag to hold the cups, a stacking mat and a timer. I'm going to order a set for my kids to help with hand eye coordination.

You can check it out at the Speed Stacks website. Get ready to be amazed! I'm still in awe at how fast those kids can stack the cups. :-)

Psalms Sunday #8

Psalm 8

1O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
2Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
3When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
4What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
5For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
6Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
7All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;
8The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
9O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

When I consider thy heavens...what is man that thou art mindful of him?

My daughter and I learned some facts about stars once. Did you know that there are stars that are larger than the distance between the earth and the sun. The earth is more than 90 million miles from the sun!!

I don't even know what to say. God has created galaxies upon galaxies, trillions of millions of miles deep and wide, and yet He cares about the intricate, sometimes seemingly meaningless details of my life. What an Awesome God we serve!!

We ought to tell more people about Him. :-)