Seasons of Opportunities

The pond is quickly becoming one of my favorite places to read. It used to be poolside, but considering, this year our pool management has been the pits and the pool has developed pond like characteristics - only without the fish, we have not been doing any swimming in it. There has however been quite a bit of tadpole catching and baby frogs hopping about, so how can summer get more educational than that. (LOL) The kids actually enjoy fishing, so we use my mother-in-laws pond and they even get in a little swimming. But the fishing comes first because it's a bit hard to catch one after you scared them all off by jumping off the dock a few times.

Confidence  trusting in Christ's sufficiency over my own 2 Corinthians 3:18 "And we all, ... are being transformed into His image with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." Seems like God is always testing us, challenging us, and molding us into His character. This year my word is Confidence. O ver and over, I have seen that Confidence is not something about myself that I develop or achieve, instead it is trusting in Christ and what He can do through me. At the end of last year and the beginning of this year, I had a proposed challenge to accomplish - re-designing a wedding gown. A friend of mine's daughter was getting married. She wanted to use her mother's wedding gown, but update it to a more modern look. In my own strength and ability I had no confidence, but with the Lord's help I was able to do it. It was so exciting to watch her walk down the aisle. More recently, God has allowed other challenges in my ...

Life has a way of just taking off... We get busy... Time passes... And some things get put on the back burner because they don't demand as much attention as the urgent.

Ok... so this is my new favorite song!! I love the lyrics to this one. I don't think I had ever heard it before, but I happened across this a few days ago, and I just keep playing it over and over. Due to some recent circumstances, I guess this song just really stood out to me. 

It certainly seems like these Monday posts are ending up on various random days except Mondays :-)  Confidence   my word for the year God is really working in my life this year and I am confident this is my word! Confidence, for me, means trusting God on a whole new level. Allowing Him to work through me and do for me what I cannot do.  (I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.  Phil 4:13 ) Wish I could have gotten closer to this blue jay. There were three or four of them out one morning just squawking and carrying on. It was so much fun to watch them and be reminded that even more than God cares for them... He cares for me.

... on Tuesday It is better to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence in man.  Psalm 118:8 My week of fasting and praying was a roller-coaster of ups and downs, but overall, I feel as though it was beneficial. The Lord encouraged my heart, blessed me, and also convicted me of some areas in my life that need work. I got a temporary "new" job and found something I lost ten months ago. But most of all, my heart is thankful that I have such an awesome personal God, who cares about everything no matter how big or small that is happening in my life; who uses all things for good to stretch me, grow me, and draw me closer to Him. I am still working on getting in the groove of taking a day of rest. After years of using Sundays as a catch up day, it isn't easy to change pace. This week, I prepared as much of my meal as possible on Saturday. I did have to do some cooking on Sunday but I was finished with cooking and dishes by 2 even after not getting home from church til ...

For the  Lord  shall be thy  confidence , and shall keep thy foot from being taken . Proverbs 3:26 Since my word for the year is CONFIDENCE, this year I am switching my Monday titles from My Intentional Mondays to Quiet and Confident Mondays . As I look back on the year and reflect on my Intentional year... there are places where I can see growth, and places where I can see failure. There are lessons learned and many more to learn. As Christians I don't think we ever really stop growing, changing, and attempting to purge sin, pride, self-righteousness and become more Christ-like.

2 0 1 7 It's the beginning of a new year!  Have you made new years resolutions? I am not really making any...  I do have some goals Devoting more time to concentrated prayer Eating Healthier Improving my organizational skills Working on improving/expanding my sewing business Focusing on celebrating a specific day of rest (Sabbath) to tune in to God and family

Well, Christmas is over and a new year is soon to begin. Do you have any new years resolutions? I usually set a few goals but don't make many resolutions.  This is my Personal Manifesto, that I came up with while working through the book, Overwhelmed , by Kathi Lipp and Cheri Gregory. One of the things Kathi and Cheri suggest is to set the values you want to live by in advance, so when something comes up, you already know how you want to handle the situation. Check out this post on Kathi's website .  I printed my manifesto off and plan on framing it and hanging it up to remind me of the person I want to be.

Christmas is right around the corner! WOW! is about all I can say... It will come whether I am prepared or not. It does every year.... So, I am trying to do my best, not stress, and attempt to keep my focus on the only thing that really defines Christmas, and that is CHRIST! He is my reason to celebrate! I am excited to be announcing the winners of two of my recent giveaways - Charlie the Tramp and Liked . Rachel won Liked for her girls! Hurray!! And the winner of Charlie is Becky! CONGRATULATIONS Ladies!! I am also so excited about the book OVERWHELMED by Kathi Lipp and Cheri Gregory. I have been reading through it, and just absolutely love this book!! Stay tuned for some amazing specials if you order this book coming up Thursday.

This is how I feel sometimes when I am writing on my blog.  I have spent most of the day putting in a comma and the rest of the day taking it out. — Oscar Wilde Well... the Thanksgiving holiday is over, and now the Countdown to Christmas has begun. Thankfully this weekend, I had two little helpers taking down my fall decor and putting up Christmas stuff. Our Thanksgiving holiday was nice, plenty of food, family and fun. We also participated in our town Christmas parade Saturday evening.

Delight thyself also in the  Lord : and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Psalm 37:4 I started writing this post last Monday (on Halloween) but it never got posted because I spent all day sewing sequins on my daughters costume. She wanted to be one of the "American Sweethearts" from the Cowgirls and Angels movie. This is as close as were able to come, but thankfully she loved it. And as a mom, that made me happy. This from last week: I want to share an amazing answer to prayer with you, because I am so overwhelmed this morning by God's goodness, even though its something minor and we don't deserve it. Several weeks ago, 18 days to be exact, my son settled on his Halloween costume. Now, normally we don't buy costumes, we kind of make our own,

Last week I didn't write my Monday post because my daughter and I made a trip out of town. Her grandmother (on her dad's side) passed away and it was a pretty good drive, so I didn't want her to make it alone. On the up side, I enjoyed a few days with my sister. Went thrift store shopping and got some cool bargains, and got to spend some time with my married daughter, whom I miss of course now that she is out on her own. The kids also enjoyed their fall break from school, which worked out well, since they were missing school anyhow for a few days. Looking forward to getting back on routine this week. I also have a ton of sewing I am working on, so I really need to get to it.

This weekend went by in a flash. From sewing to taking a ride through the country with hubby and kids, attending a funeral, church, a little time of play with dear daughter at the playground, and a baby shower... I don't feel like I have had much time to even stop and think! But counting those blessing of time with family, health, fall weather, enjoyment of Gods creation. The WINNER of the Veggie Tales devotional giveaway is Becky (entry #2 chosen by random.org). I actually deleted her entry by accident but put a comment in for her. (Sorry Becky, sometime my devices have a mind of their own). A big thank you to all those who took time to enter. A new giveaway will be coming soon, so stay tuned.

It's starting to feel just a little like fall in our area. Not really full blown, but some of the trees are starting to change and ditch their leaves into the driveway. I think it is such a beautiful sight. Personally, I am a warm weather kind of gal, but after long days of summer heat, a little coolness in the air is refreshing. This week I took a shopping trip with my daughter. She has been doing some coupon shopping lately and is getting good at it. I used to do it years ago, but time and other things kind of got in the way. It has been fun to start back doing some here and there. Kroger had some pretty awesome deals this past week. I also rode a bike! Yikes! To say the least, not being used to it, the seat was quite uncomfortable, but my daughter wanted me to ride with her to the playground close by, so I left my comfort zone for a bit and just did it! It's probably not something I want to do every day but every now and then, I think I can handle it.

 Fishing.... Seems to be the trend these weekends... But I love it! As I strive to be INTENTIONAL in bonding with my family and my teenage grand-kids, if fishing is what they love to do, then a fishing we will go. Plus, what better place to read than soaking up some sun, enjoying a warm breeze, with my favorite people in the beautiful nature created by the Creator. Not only that... but this weekend was a success! Nine fish! Ten, if you count the teeny one I caught and released. We had a good fish fry (baked for me, thank you, with a bit of lemon juice and lemon pepper for flavor).

Happy Labor Day!! Are you taking a break from your labor today? Or are you doing some extra labor that you've been putting off for a while? I am hoping to get some serious work done around my home and yard today, with school being out and having a "free" day.  But... I am not sure how much I will actually get accomplished, since my grandson wants to go fishing and my daughter has a friend over. But time with the kids is of more value... so the rest may once again go on the back burner for another day.

I am once again amazed that Monday has arrived already! I am really not sure where the time goes. I had a wonderful weekend, spending it with a dear friend of mine and her family in celebration of my daughter's birthday. We went to the local Aquarium and enjoyed some picnic and park time, and then to my favorite used bookstore. It doesn't get much better than that. We spent our Sunday at the Lord's house and now Monday! School is keeping me extremely busy! I am doing my best to be a dedicated teacher, and all that lesson planning is paying off. The kids seem to be enjoying it and we have also been able to do some fun projects too. I am also working on my sewing projects including curtains for my daughter's new home and a make it from scratch, including pattern and all, vest! That one has been a bit of a challenge. As far as my clean Martha house, it has come to a halt for a couple of days as last week was just crazy busy and I was not able to keep up with the dail...

I am always amazed at how quickly the time passes from one Monday to another. And here it is another Monday! I began diligently working through the book Having a Martha Home the Mary Way. I got this book for review quite a while back. I did some of it, and read through it, but wanted to really tackle my home setting up a more regular cleaning schedule. This is kind of my kick off. After the yard sale de-cluttering I began back a few weeks ago, I didn't want to get slack and fall off the wagon again. Although, I am really enjoying the Mary Challenges, the Martha ones have honestly been a bit more difficult. I am just struggling to find the time to do all the things I need to do! There are days, I end up having to take a couple days to finish the challenge. And today is one of them!

Well this is our kick off week for school!! Today being the first day! I am excited, though not sure the kids are as excited as I am. I am eager for the routine and schedule that comes with fall, school, and responsibilities. It's not that there isn't any routine in the summer, it's just so much more relaxed and not much seems to get done. I spent most of the week last week prepping school books, supplies, organizing, cleaning, etc... The kiddos will be in the fourth and sixth grade this year. I just can't believe how time flies. On the blog this week, I will be reviewing several books, as well as, hosting an awesome giveaway from Family Christian Stores . Don't forget to stop back on Wednesday to check out what I got from them and enter for your chance to win!