Sixpence None The Richer: Trust in the Lord

To go with the memory verse for this week.

Straight Paths

This verse has been very close to us in our walk in the ministry. I can not tell you how much we leaned on its comfort and security for years, and still do. When life is difficult and we can't see past the curve or what looks like a dead end we are forced to simply let go and trust Him to straigten out our roads or at least finish them for us but we must keep in mind that our straight and His straight could be completely different lines of straight :0).

Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all of your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.

101 Things to do...

In 1001 days. I have been putting this list together for a few weeks now. It really was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be, because I wanted to be realistic but also a little on the challenging side. Some of the goals on my list are simple but others are things that I will have to work a little harder to make happen, they even cause me to grow. Robin is my inspiration for joining this little what I am calling challenge. The reasons that I have decided to take this on is for the sake of motivating myself to finally do the many things that I keep putting off till later, to help me get some of this chaos organized, to make some things that I have been wanting to, not only do some of the things that I have and continuely put off nor the things that I have wanted to do for a long long time and that really need to get done but also and probably more importantly to cause myself to grow as a child of God. This will be a fun way to do it and keep me accountable. Click here to visit where it originated from.

The Mission:Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria:Tasks must be specific (ie. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (ie. represent some amount of work on my part).

Why 1001 Days?Many people have created lists in the past - frequently simple goals such as new year’s resolutions. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organising and timing some tasks such as overseas trips or outdoor activities.

Some common goal setting tips:

1. Be decisive. Know exactly what you want, why you want it, and how you plan to achieve it.
2. Stay Focussed. Any goal requires sustained focus from beginning to end. Constantly evaluate your progress.
3. Welcome Failure. Frequently, very little is learned from a venture that did not experience failure in some form. Failure presents the opportunity to learn and makes the success more worthy.
4. Write down your goals. It clarifies your thinking and reinforces your commitment.
5. Keep your goals in sight. Review them frequently, and ensure that they are always at the forefront of your thinking.

Here is my 101 Things to Do in 1001 Days!

Household
1. Follow a Task cleaning schedule consistently for 3 weeks
2. Re do Home Management Binder
3. Make a new chore chart for Superman and T-Rex and have them follow it for 2 weeks-wip
4. Bake bread every Sunday along with other homemade recipes not every Sunday but I am consistent which was the overall point
5. Make a price book-wip
6. Make my own personal Recipe Book
7. Make a snack system for the littles
8. Hang a clothes line
9. Work on making Sundays a delight and set apart
10. Bring more plants into the home-wip
11. Hang pictures on the walls
12. Make a routine of getting new pictures developed each month
13. Buy a new Bed spread>/s>
14. Organize boxes of photos
15. Get the 30+ rolls of film developed finally
16. Make a scrapbook for a gift
17. Decorate kitchen table with pretties

Health/Cooking
18. Make drinking 8 glasses of water a habit
19. Try several new vegetables
20. Cook with more vegetables
21. a new recipe once a month
22. Include Littles in the cooking process nightly when possible
23. Make a good breakfast at least 5 days out of the week
Finances/Frugalness
24. Start bringing in some extra income
25. Stick with our budget very strictly
26. Go one month with out spending unnecessarily
27. Save at least 5 dollars a month
28. Set up a weekly allowance for boys and teach them money management
29. Cut back on groceries by 100 dollars-getting there!
30. Visit Goodwill 1 time every 2 weeks
31. Buy second hand as much as possible
32. Live with what we have before buying anything new
33. Add monthly to boys savings
34. Plant a garden
35. Save to buy a Bosch bread maker

Family
36. Go “Junkin”
37. Write a book with Superman
38. Go camping
39. Write a song with Expreesso
40. Plan a trip to Galveston
41. Make a scrapbook for each child
42. Make a baby box for each child
43. Send a card to family members once a week for 12 weeks
44. Make a habit to send Littles art to their grandparents once a month and pictures to fill in their notebooks
45. Make a FAMILY wall with little mailboxes
46. Get family photo

Helpmeet

47. Make honoring him and encouraging him a life long joyful challenge
48. Agree to disagree
49. Make him breakfast in bed

Personal and Spiritual Growth
50. Be friendlier
51. Become diligent in prayer and establish better habits
52. Write a letter every 2 weeks
53. Strive to be more “relaxed”
54. Stop worrying about what others think
55. Run 1 mile then 2 with out stopping
56. Send a birthday card to friends and family
57. Be positive for a whole day
58. Give a spontaneous gift to a friend
59. Have fun doing something I hate
60. Bring dessert to a neighbor
61. Share my passion for Christ with a stranger
62. Run for Breast Cancer
63. Get back into my pre-baby clothes!!-I am close
64. Record my prayers for 1 week
65. Find a charity to contribute to
66. Start a prayer group
67. Read through bible in a year
68. Make Memorizing scripture a joyful habit-getting there thanks to Sarah
69. Don’t complain for 1 whole day and then 1 whole week
70. Establish routines to take care of myself better
71. Overcome camera shyness-trying but this is hard for me
72. Talk to the lady in front of me
73. Encourage the lady with a bad attitude
74. Become more optimistic!! :0)

Craft, Hobbies, New skills
75. Learn to sew-I am trying
76. Make my own soap
77. Make pillows for livingroom
78. Learn to cut my littles hair
79. Make my own cloth diapers
80. Learn to make skirts for me and Butterfly

Parenting/Children

81. Limit tv and video game consumption to only 30 minutes a day or less changed it to 0 a day and 3 hours only on Friday and Saturday which is 1 hours for video game and 2 left for a movie
82. Take them to a fun place 1x a week-so far so good
83.Do more crafts-needs more work
84. Establish a special time with each child daily
85. and monthly
86. Write a book with Superman
87. Train them in the word more consistently

Personal and Family Education

88. Control personal computer time and evening tv
89. Read aloud to family for at least 1 hour
90. Plan out the entire school year for boys
91. Make learning fun!-trying
92. Learn some Hawiian
93. Research my heritage
94. learn more about adoption
95. Read the bio of Amy Charmicael
96. Read How to Raise Godly Tomatoes again
97. Read 3 “Classics”
98. Don’t quit reading a book until I have finished it
99. Read Adler’s book “How to Read a Book”
100. and James W. Sire’s “How to Read Slowly”
101. also Bauer’s “The Educated Mind”
102… make a nother 101 things to do list!!

I am anxious to see how motivating this is going to be for me.

What's going on...

Superman and Expresso left this afternoon to go on a strictly 6 yr and older male camping trip. We have been preparing for it all day. Little T-Rex was a little hurt that he could not go but not to worry I have lots planned for us!! I am so enjoying and looking forward to spending some GOOD one on one time with him. It is amazing how different he is when it is just him. He just beams and I am able to see him more clearly. He doesn’t have to fight for attention. We are both sitting under a fort we made watching Dinosaur (his pick) and eating brownies. Little Butterfly just laid down for the night. I am a little nervous to be home alone with out Expresso… it is the first night in a long long time.

I hope to continue my preperations for our new homeschooling year begining Tuesday after T-Rex falls asleep. I am almost done. If you want to read more about my preperations check out my homeschool blog, Growing Minds of Wisdom. I am going to try to keep these two blogs seperate from eachother as much as possible. But as homeschooling is a BIG part of my life and journey I know that their paths will cross at times.

Well, I am typing on our new laptop!! Our other one sadly passed away but don’t cry though it will be missed we have been blessed with another to fit our needs. One of our needs is to beable to unload our camera and of course share them with friends and family. So there will be pictures coming soon.

Weekly Memory Verse

Psalm 19:14
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Oh… this is my prayer and the memory verse for the week. Last weeks verse is not completely hidden in my heart yet so I will continue to work on it to this week.
Thanks Sarah again for the encouragement to be in the word! If you feel led to join in memorizing scripture please go visit Sarah.

Thank You!

I found a lovely little award waiting for me over at Christine’s the other day.

The Nice Matters Award is given to “those bloggers who are nice people; good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Also for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world. Once you’ve been awarded please pass it on to others who you feel are deserving of this award.”

I was so excited and honored to know that my simple little thoughts on life have been encouraging to a friend and that being nice is a quality that I hold… I try. I have to say that Christine herself has been a huge encouragement to me and a God blessing in my life.
Now I get the pleasure to pass this Nice award on to others who have blessed me with their encouragement and niceness. Here are a few of the many:
Sarah
Jill
Amy
Trina
Robin
Stacy

Ooh, that was hard… there are so many of you!!

Ladies let us prepare for Battle

I believe that it is essential to our spiritual nourishment that we hide God’s word in our hearts. The word is our only weapon in the spiritual battles we face on a daily basis. I myself have not been abiding in the word like I should and have been encouraged by a follow blogger, Sarah, who does a Memory Verse meme every Wednesday on her sight. I want to encourage you to visit her today or soon and join in memorizing scripture.
Last weeks memory verse was 1 Thessalonians 5:16 “Rejoice always, pray with out ceasing, giving thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for your life.” It is truly amazing how God spoke directly to my heart through this verse. He is so good. Let me lead you to Psalm 1 for a little reflection on the importance of being in the word:
The Way of the Righteous and the Wicked Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of waterthat yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
This weeks memory verse is:
1 John 3: 18Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
I pray that the Lord will speak to us all with this verse and change us to become more like His Son. Grab your swords and begin preparing for the battle.