Lent-Day one

Last year I did this, I posted on our churches FB page a daily devo for lent.  I'd either write it, or i'd use something I had read or another friends' post on lent and share it with our church family.   This year I thought i'd also post them on my blog in case other wanted to access it (I don't know if the churches FB page is open to the public or just our peeps).  At any rate...here is what I posted.  You can also go to www.snchurch.com and listen to Ryan's sermons, and also see his "2nd looks" to reference how I began this lent devo.

Lent.  As Ryan said yesterday in his email to you all, it’s a sobering time.  Why is it sobering?  We are preparing our hearts to witness first hand our sin before us.  The purpose of seeing our sin before us, examining it, contemplating it with the Lord is to then release it to him.  That it is forgiven and forgotten.  My sin is a very sobering thought when I sit and really enter into my habits, my hiddenness, my capacity to lie, cheat, steal, destroy…but what is more sobering and yet incredibly hope filled is that this is also the time that God shows us that even though our sin is ever present, He has sent his Son to bring us freedom.  What Christ walks through in these next 40 days, the road to the cross and his resurrection, is what brings us freedom! What would we do without this freedom?!?   Entering into your sin is not to put distance between you and the Lord,  or to be a time to invite punishment on youself-it’s to bring you together, to move towards the One who says, “Come to me, those who are heavy laden and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30.   Together, let’s walk this road. 

Prayer.  Prayer is the first part of the journey.  Pause would be another word as well.  This isn’t just a time to think about something you should give up like TV, coffee, meat, thrifting (that’s more for me than you all I suspect!)…fasting is a part of lent.  But there is a purpose behind fasting.  That is the pause and prayer part.  Pause and take inventory of your life.  What is something that keeps you from Christ?  Ryan talked this weekend about barriers in our life, what barriers are keeping you from experiencing the Freedom that Christ gives to you, to me?  That barrier might be the thing to fast.  Because when you are drawn to that particular thing, to enter into that activity, that is when you have a choice-do I break the covenant with Christ I have during these 40 days and enter into this activity, or do I use that hunger that I have for said activity and move towards prayer?  Ceasing participation in what you give up is not a punishment or even suppose to be something relatively easy where you wouldn’t miss it.  Another layer to consider is this-it’s also a very small token of sacrifice as you see, taste, sense, experience in a very small way, the sacrifice Christ is about to make on our behalf.  What was that even like for him?  To give up his life?!  What would it be like for us to sacrifice and fast some small, yet significant thing in our life for 40 days to allow us to journey with Christ towards freedom?  So, pause.  pray.  Think about something to sacrifice that would move you towards Christ in prayer during these 40 days. 

What a blessing it will be to journey these 40 days together.   Peace to you. 

Long time to type

It's been a year and a couple days since my last post.  A LOT has gone on since then.  It was a year ago previous to that post that I had posted.  MAN...our adventures have taken me away from this.  I hope to re-engage in this blog.  I had been away from it for quite awhile for many reasons.  Some obvious (working full time, full time mom stuff, husband to attend to, etc...etc...) but other things not so obvious (who reads this...who cares what's going on, what I have to say, etc...etc....) So...needless to say, i'm going to discipline myself to post, regardless of how unimportant or important my rants may be.

Here is a synopsis of our last year:

1) Went hunting for a home...
2) Went to Yosemite on a family camping trip that was so epic the kids still talk about it
3) Came back, got some financial affairs in order
4) PAID OFF OUR CREDIT CARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (now onto school debt-roll snowball roll!)
5) Started to hunt for a home again
6) Put in several offers on homes that we kept getting outbid on
7) Found a little home that someone took our bid on and now we call it home.  "Evelyn" is her name.
8) Settled in...
9) Now I am getting itchy / antsy to start renvoating.  BUT how do you renovate when you are on a budget-hello pinterest and blogs and HGTV and friends and thrifting and ideas and.........

There is so much more about our year...but suffice it to say now, that's the big news.

I'll come back and talk more later.

drama!!!!!

OH MY GOODNESS....I had to figure out how to detach my old biola email address from this blog to a new one...I thought I was techy-I apparently am not since it took me a hour to figure it out. SO...It's been almost a year since my/our last post about our family adventures. I want to try to fix that. I have a LOT to catch you up on....i'll attempt to post a small novel (i promise!) each day to start to update you. In the meantime...we off to Basketball practice for the little guy! Talk to you soon : )

Let the snowball begin!!!

For those of you who have followed our journey through debt....I just wanted to share a wonderful bit of news!! Back in November, I was asked to sub in my mom-in-laws district office to help out with office work. As of today, March 10th, we have paid off our first credit card!!! We have four more to go....but, we need to celebrate the 'wins' here!! We are celebrating by having a 'destroy the card' night with the kids since they have sacrificed as well with me going back to work.

Also...be praying. There might be the opportunity to have a permanent job at the district only working 25hrs a week for 11 months!! That would make sure i'd be home in time to pick up the kids from school....and have July off with them this summer!! We'd have to figure out two weeks in June and two weeks in August....BUT....it'd be pretty awesome.

Thank you all for your support over these months and years. It's been such a blessing.

YAHOO!!!!!

catching up

Do you ever feel like you are constantly catching up!??! I just found our small digital camera with photos from before christmas!! Here is one of our Adventures in Glendale to see the 'snow' and santa...




At the Americana, they did that bubble snow for about 15m. We ran so fast to get to where the snow would be (we were stuck in traffic getting there) while Ry drove to find a parking spot.



And every mad dash to see snow and santa would only be complete by an In n Out dinner!!!

So....at least it's not Easter when i'm posting these!!

SNOW

We experienced this beautiful view this morning outside our window

I don't think that I will ever get used to this lovely view...I love our foothills

This is right outside our porch. Good Morning, Sunday! We love this welcomed cold weather!
have a great Sunday, friends!

Back to school...

I'm back to school at Biola now. Last Monday was the first Monday back. Sitting here at the computer getting my Monday schedule down...planning out direction sessions...thinking of questions to ask about the books the classes are reading...realizing I should have read more this weekend than clean and watch the Super Bowl and write a short post on the blog...sigh...

BUT...the weekend was a.maz.ing! The weather was beautiful and we had plans all weekend and all of a sudden they all got dropped due to illness (we have been sick on and off since we moved here-hurray allergies). So we were home all weekend instead of traveling all about. How nice was that to just have a free weekend!

What did you all do? How was your Super Bowl ? : ) Have a great week!