Expressing Thanks

I feel like I am pretty good about being grateful for the multiple blessings in my life. I am aware of how lucky I am and I realize (most of the time) that these things are a direct blessing from God. What I am not very great about is recognizing when my prayers get answered and then immediately giving thanks.

Sometimes when I am struggling, I wonder about how effective prayer is. I think we have all been there (or at least I hope I am not the only one). Where something is so bad that it feels my prayer is irrelevant. Specifically, I really struggle with this when someone has been diagnosed with a terminal illness; I keep praying but the person keeps moving closer to the end of life here on Earth. During times like this, I recognize that God is in control and that I can not understand his ways.....but I get to the point where I don't feel as though my prayer makes any difference. Although I go through phases like this; for the most part I strongly believe in prayer and just don't recognize the answers.

At the beginning of every year, my church (Northpoint) always really pushes "self feeding" also called quiet time. Each January, the church makes journals with reading plans to help each member of the congregation during quiet time. At the front of this journal there is a prayer list with a place for answers. At the beginning of the year (Jan-March) I was really good about using this journal. Once I began this blog, I quit using the journal and have instead been journalling privately on here. Well this morning I pulled out that journal so I could see what I needed to read next. I started glancing over the prayer request page and the number of prayers that have been answered is amazing!!! When I look through the list, I realize that not only did I ever acknowledge that these have been answered but I defiantly have not expressed thanks to the one who answered them.

So this is one very small part of my acknowledging how awesome it is to have a God that answers our prayers....

Weekend Wrap-up

I should have taken pictures, it really annoys me to not have any with my post. On Friday night I went over to Mom and Dad's to celebrate Clay's birthday (I actually do have pictures from this but my camera is not down here). THen on Saturday, Ben and I worked hard on the yard and cleaning house. We finished the night going over to Roo and Shelley's to watch a little 20 inning action of the Cardinals. Sunday we got up early and cleaned house before everyone came over for Steve and Kathleen's baby shower. I had such a good time, I always do when all of my best friends are around. The guys hung out outside during the actual shower and then we all cooked out for dinner.

It is hard to believe that Kathleen will be having her baby in like 6 weeks. I think that everyone is excited for the new arrival. It will be strange someone other than Clay and Elissa having a baby. I suspect others will be starting to come soon. We frequently try to decide who it will be :)

Live in the Now?

Sometimes I wonder if I am always just looking forward to the next thing instead of enjoying the moment. It seems like I am always excited about the weekend, the summer, or the next big event. The thing is my day to day life is great, why don't I just live in the present?

For instance, it has been so beautiful outside lately. I have been planting and watering my flowers, taking my dog for long walks, and playing softball. All things I love...BUT instead all I can think about is school letting out (even though I love my job), going to the lake, river, camping, baseball etc. Mentioning all of the things that I do during the summer just makes me smile. Maybe that is one time each year that I do live in the "now". Do I love the summer so much because I stay in the present or is it really just that great?

Here is a picture to show one reason the summer is SO WONDERFUL!

That's What I Love About Sundays

It was such a beautiful weekend! Ben and I did a lot of work around the yard and went to church on Saturday night. On Sunday evening we decided to do something fun. Steve, Kathleen, Ben and I went out to my parents to go fishing. It was a wonderful surprise when I found out that Clay, Elissa and the kids were going to go as well. We were quite the crew trying to ride in the truck to the pond with 7 adults (one being pregnant), two babies, a few dogs, and all of our fishing stuff. We looked hillbilly (just note the above picture).



Once we got to the pond it did not get much better. There were 5 or 6 dogs out there. Molly kept jumping in the water and Baldrick got caught on a hook. As you can imagine we were not going to be catching many big fish but we did catch a ton of small ones. Just take a look at Clay's big catch of the day :)


When we got back to the house, we had mom’s wonderful lasagna and watched Cardinal baseball. What a great evening!

Friday Night Dinners

Most Friday nights I have dinner over at my parents with Clay, Elissa, and the kids (I am always giving Clay a real hard time for not letting me know in advance if it is going to happen or not but that is another story). Last night I got there and Margaret looked different. She had obviously had a hair cut (read the Dodson Diversion's blog). In my opinion the hair cut made her look so much older. This added with the fact that she was very animated led to a night where I am reminded not only how lucky I am to have such a wonderful family (which largely includes Margaret and William) but also how wonderful it is to finally life close to the babies. Additionally, William has gotten to the age where he just smiles at everything. They are so cute and I am so biased!!

It also reminded me how excited I am for Little Red to get here! For those of you who don't know, that is Ben's name for Steve and Kathleen's baby boy.

Softball

Tonight was our first softball game of the season. We lost which is never good but it was a good time. It was super windy. Our team got started last year when we joined the church softball league. At that time we decided to be called the Nemo Yacht Club in honor of love of the lake. This year we aren't in a church league but still sport the shirts.

Easter Sunday

What a wonderful day. It was beautiful outside (pretty windy but I guess I can't be that picky). Ben and I woke up late, cooked some side dishes, and then headed to Clay and Elissa's. It was super fun and really nice having a table that was big enough for everyone (including grandma and Ray) to sit at. Margaret got some gifts (well basket's filled with some junk) and then went on a Easter Egg Hunt. Clay and Elissa hid the eggs then she walked around with her bucket. It was so cute because if you watched her facial expressions you could tell the moment that she spotted one. Then she would get the egg (a real egg) and chuck it into her basket. In fact, later on we hid fake, plastic eggs, and she just did not get the same enjoyment of them probably because they couldn't break. :) To make the day even better when we got home we got to watch baseball. To bad I have to go back to work tomorrow.

Flying Things

Even though we don't live in the country exactly, our backyard sure feels like it sometimes. Recently, we have been having a sugar glider come and visit us occasionally...it loves our bird feeders. We also get some really neat pictures of birds coming up close to our house. Unfortunately, Mallary loves them too!

The First Published One...

Well it is Easter Sunday and I woke up early because Molly was of course whining to get out of her cage (even though I am sure she did not need to). I thought about going back to bed but found myself setting up a new blog instead.

What is the purpose of this blog? Well I have no idea. I know that I love reading Elissa's and I want something to document our lives. I know that I used to be really good at writing in my journal but don't ever do it anymore so this would give me a way to do that.

It feels strange to be up on Easter Sunday and not go to church but we went yesterday at 3 instead. It was a really good services and I could not believe how packed it was. Tommy talked about how if you truly believe in the resurrection then you have to live by it. It can't be something that you just keep tucked away for heaven protection. Thank you God for sending your son to die for us!!!

Pretty soon I need to start cooking, we are going over to Clay and Elissa's for a Easter potluck. I have not been this excited about Easter in a long time and I think it is because Margaret is going to look for Easter eggs and I think it will be so so cute!

Ben has been really sick lately, he has been running a high fever all week (like 104 at one point). Yesterday was the first day he left the house since Wednesday. Hopefully he is on the mend.