I am rolling, I am so busy I cannot seem to stop. Yesterday I shopped, a little for clothes, for groceries and for supplies for the upcoming mission trip. I CANNOT believe we leave Friday.  We will meet for extra time on WEd. night. From 5:30 -7;15 to ge all the last minute ducks in a row.  I hope the kids arent’ as nervous as I am.

Today, since I got up, we slept in because Greg got called out last night to work and we didn’t got to bed till almost 1 am.  I got up at 10 am this morning and cooked breakfast, then I have been working on Summer programming since then, I had to have everything in line for SOK with the themes, stories and etc.  I also created the brochure and took it to the church to make copies for tomorrow’s Youth & Children’s Committee at 4:30 pm, sigh, even after that I still have to get my group project done, answer questions for my last assignment in Adult Ministry, get my supervised ministry stuff together, and make sure I have everything ready to turn in on Monday for Class. This will be my last day of seminary for the semester.  HALLELUJAH!  If we can just get through this mission trip we will be FINE!  And I’ll be able to breath a sigh of relief, but this week is going to be nuts.  Pray for me !

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Next weekend, I will LEAD my very first mission trip.  I am taking my youth group, 2 girls and 3 boys, 3 parents, my husband and myself to the Mississippi gulf coast to do VBS in a FEMA trailer park.  We will arrive on Friday afternoon when the kids get out of school, have a kickoff event, have 5 hrs of VBS on Saturday, and have a worship service on Sunday morning.  It will be an amazing experience. Up until tonight’s meeting with the youth I DID NOT  feel prepared, but I have prayed and prayed that it would all come together and it is truly beginning to.  HALLEUJAH!  We have about a week and a half as we leave next Friday morning at 9 am.

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I am about to come to the end of my third year in seminary. I cannot believe that I have been through 3 years of seminary.  3 Down 1 to GO! :)  I have so many papers due before I can be done with this semester though, and I’m trying to turn everything in early because we’re going to be going on the mission trip NEXT weekend! So I am wanting to turn in my papers on Monday, May 1st early!  So I”m trying to do like 5 papers this week. IT is NUTS!  Please pray for me ya’ll!

THere is alot of amazing things going on in my life and I appreciate it and PRAISE God for it!

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Ok everyone I wanted to share with ya’ll a great blog for moms.  It is called Two Moms in a Blog.  I post parenting articles to it and there are many other categories as well.  Scrapbooking, Cooking with Kids, Christian Living, Fashion,  Home Decor, Crafts, Kids Crafts to name a few.  It is a fun place with lots of WAHMs and Christian ladies that post about life and all the things we deal with.  You will love it!  Crystal its owner sends out a newsletter weekly that you can subscribe to and keep up with what’s new there. There are also contests.  A photo one going on right now.  We exchange recipes, have recipe contests.  Product reviews, Jokes and inspirations, and Moms in Business and other business opportunities.  I would really like for you all to check it out.

My latest post there is about disciplining my 2 year old.  PLease come on over and post your comments on the subject.

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We found out last night, after having trouble with our dryer scorching a few shirts in the past few weeks. That is was burnt on the back and that the cord had burnt some too.  Thankfully, PRAISE GOD! It didn’t catch on fire and our house didn’t catch on fire as it could have!

On top of that, we had decided to go finance one today at a place here. And Greg’s mom calls this morning and says, We want to buy ya’ll a dryer. SO, now that’s taken care of and we’re not out a penny! Praise God!

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We had a good Easter here. I did something I had never done before at church. The visiting pastor that day asked me to come into the pulpit with him and read the scriptures. It was neat to get to do that. I was baptized on Easter Sunday when I was 8. So it was neat to be able to read from there so many years later.

We went to my Mama Sue’s for lunch and then to Greg’s cousin’s with most of his mom’s side of the family for supper. We had a cookout and all the kids played. Baker has LOTS of cousins on that side of the family. It so much reminds me of my mom’s side of the family when we were all little and everyone still got together for stuff. Its sad how time changes everything. But, I”m glad Baker can have the experience of it no matter what side of the family its on. He had a good time playing w/ his cousins. That is him in the above picture with the shades that his cousins, Mason and Christian gave him. They all looked cute in their “cool dude” shades as Baker and I call them.

This has been a busy week so far I had seminary on Monday, I painted my office at church on Tuesday, I ran errands most of the day yesterday, and I have to clean house today for a jewelry show here tonight. Busy busy busy!

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As many of you may know, I have a ministry, Beauty By Design Ministries to preteen and teen girls and their moms.  On my website for this ministry, www.beautybydesignonline.com I have a blog where I share with the girls and their moms as well as with youth ministers, who have someone like myself come and speak to the girls at a retreat, mother /daughter day or something else along those lines.  Below, is one of the entries I posted about prayer journaling, something I enjoy doing greatly.  You can visit my blog at www.beautybydesignonline.com/blog to read my entries like this one.  Thanks!

Prayer journaling is a lost art, well journaling for that matter.  Just as this world has been taken over by email, rather than snail mail, text messaging, rather than a good old fashion phone call, we are plagued with wanting things to be quick and easy.  Too bad we can’t email God, or can we?  Well, the point is that we must take time to slow down and talk with Him, however we might choose to do it.  But girls?  Do you make time for talking to God, and more importantly listening to Him?  If not, I encourage you to start, and this wonderful art of prayer journaling is a super way to make time to “sit at his feet” , and truly talk to and listen to our Lord and Savior.  I owned my first prayer journal at the age of about 13.  I’m not exactly sure why I started using one, I always loved to write in a diary or journal, and it was about this time in my life, that I was learning about what it meant to have a QUIET TIME, or Time alone with God.  This became an important part of my everyday life as it should, and I began to write my thoughts, dreams, hopes and prayers down in a journal.  My mom bought me a pretty one at the store and I began to write.  To date, I have more journals than I can count.  I recently bought a pretty zebra striped one from the dollar store, and it is almost half full already, if that gives you any clue of how many I go through.  I tend to write large though.

Ok, so I know you’re wondering, what do I write, how much do I have to write, all the common questions when we are asked to write something.  Well, you write down your thoughts, your cares, your worries, your problems, your dreams, your hopes and even your prayers.  I find it comforting, and meaningful to write down what I want to say to God.  Ok, now I know the next question… How do I talk to God?  Well, girls, you talk to Him just like you’d talk to your best friend.  He is, just like he or she, dieing to hear from you about yoru day, so he’s ready and willing to listen.  Then, as you read your devotion and Bible Reading for the day, you begin to listen to what he’s saying to you through what you are reading, through the circumstances in your life, and you write that as well.

I hope that you will begin this process today.  Pick up a journal that you will be happy to carry around and write in and get that pen to paper!  God Bless!

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Lately I’ve been reading If You Want to Walk On Water, You’ve Got to GEt out of the Boat.  In fact, I just finished it yesterday! VERY GOOD book! I highly recommend it to anyone.  Funny thing about me is I don’t just read a book, I study a book. So, I took lots of notes from this one!  ANd highlighted or underlined in my personal copy of it.  No one would want to purchase a book from me on Ebay :).    Anyway, this book has given me some hope I don’t seem to have had lately.  Yesterady, as I finished reading this book, the only note I wrote down from it was this, “Every time someone gets out of the boat, their God gets a little bigger.”  That’s an awesome statement to me.  GOD is an AWESOME GOD and we must remember just how BIG He is.  Here are a couple of statements from this book on hope.  “When I hope, I believe that GOd is at work to redeem all things regardless of how things happen to be turning out for me today.” 

“Our ability to live in hope is to remain focused on Christ during the storm.”

“Whenever Jesus calls someone to get out of the boat, he gives them the power to walk on water.”

I know that this power and hope that comes only from HIM is what is carrying me through the last few weeks and will carry me through the next few weeks. I just keep hoping that he’ll renew me and give me a better situation. 

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