Update

After 3 long (VERY LONG) weeks of sleeping in a recliner due to the rotator cuff surgery I am officially back in my own bed~
Can we get a HALLELUAH? PRAISE THE LORD? a WAHOOOOO!!

I told my DH that I really wanted to try so he packed me like a fish on ice :) putting pillows on my side and he stayed real close to me so I wouldn't move or turn over on my shoulder and it worked like a charm. Now that he is leaving :( and I am praying I can stay there (in the bed) but will have to see. I am still having alot of pain and will see the Dr. this Wednesday and he will tell me if I need to have an MRI done to see if I damaged it or if I am just slow healing. Hopefullly it is the latter!

Today is the last day of Fall Break. We all had a good time and spent some really good quality time together! Today, the kids and I are just cleaning and getting back in gear for school. What are you all doing on this Monday? Did everyone else have fall break? How was is it?

Love and Blessings

Spiritual Sundays

Psalm 25:4-5

Show me Your ways, O Lord;
Teach me Your paths

Lead me in Your Truth and teach me,
For YOU are the God of my salvation;
On You I wait all the day.

The Discipline in Waiting ~ GROWING IN KNOWING

Cultivating the knowledge of God requires the discipline of waiting upon HIM. As used here "wait" means to "bind together"
through a process of intertwining, clearly suggesting the virtual envelopment of the soul with God. To wait upon the Lord is to foster a sensitivity both to HIS presence and HIS promptings, which quiets our hearts, focuses our minds through thanksgiving and praise, and allows HIM to reveal any subtle attitudes or forgotten sins that would dull our sensitivity to HIS voice

Study notes from the Spirit Filled Life Bible (NKJV)

As we learn, as we wait, we will be filled with HIS presence and our hearts and minds will be focused on HIM and HIS Ways!

Thankyou Charlotte and Ginger for hosting Spiritual Sundays please go visit them here! You will be so blessed!


Love and Blessings

Test Results from Dad

Got the phone call from Dad and I will be honest ~ I was devastated. This is not at all what any of us wanted to hear. I was truly believing and hoping for a good report but you know what. It. didn't. happen. I hate it that Dad had to hear the hurt in my voice because every time I have talked with him ~ He has been the one to encourage whomever he is talking with. I wish I could have been stronger for him and encourage him but the little girl in me who wants her daddy to be ok came out.
I think it is one thing for people who have cancer or any disease for that matter to be strong and deal with all that the disease brings ~ sickness, treatments, frustration for this coming into your life and not knowing what or how it will affect your life from this day forward but they should NOT have to be the ones to uplift or encourage others ~ WE SHOULD BE THE ENCOURAGING ONES!!!

I have to thank the Lord for this day because HE knew this day would come and he gave me first HIS Word to encourage me then HE arranged for my DH to return today before I received this news and then shortly afterward my sweet daughter and grandaughter arrived. Grandchildren are just the best medicine aren't they!

I spent some time with the LORD and HE calmed my fears, washed over me with love and gave me hope and much needed Peace during this precious time. While I don't know what will happen in the days ahead I do know this....When I asked my dad what I could do he simply said this "Just keep up your prayers"

and for all of you who sent my dad a card and are praying THANKYOU I know he has some of these taped to his mirror in his bathroom and some are by his bed. He said it has meant soo very much to him and touched him deeply. If anyone didn't get his address the last time and would like to send him a card please let me know and I will give you his address.

The Lord is moving, drawing my Dad close to HIM and I know there are wayyyy to many prayers going up for all of this to be for nothing! So thankyou for storming the Heavens and making the enemy mad! Now, here is the note from my dad that he posted today


Today at 3:58pm
I went into the Mayo Clinic yesterday afternoon for a CT Scan on my abdomen and torso. These were going to be the first views into the results since the radiation treatments and chemotherapy treatments began several months ago.

This morning I saw my doctor to go over the results. I must say that I hoped for better results.

My previous CT Scan took place on June 5, 2009 and it was used as a comparison to this one. On a positive note, the report noted that there is a marked improvement in the pulmonary embolism – but that is about the only bit of good news in the report.

The main tumor has not changed much – even with all the treatments. It is approximately the same size that it was. In addition to the main tumor, the doctor also said that there were some small growths on my liver. They also noticed an enlarged lymph node near my pancreas and other indications of metastasis.

Overall, as I said earlier, this was not a very good report. That said, I am where I am.

I discussed with my doctor what we can do next and she recommended more chemotherapy treatments. So, beginning Monday, I will start another round. According to my doctor, I will undergo six new treatments to try to ward off the latest growths.

I’ve talked to all of my family members about the test findings and everyone is understandably upset. Since today is the first day that we got the initial news, it will take everyone a little while to process it. The thing is that I think everyone jumped to the conclusion that I am almost dead – and the truth is that I’m not that much different than I was yesterday. We received some new news, but I am essentially the same as I was yesterday.

For me, I don’t feel much different than I did yesterday. I still don’t have any pain nor do I have the symptoms the doctors keep asking me about. I suspect that as this disease progresses, I will have more of the symptoms, but I don’ have them today. While the news about the new growths is scary and alarming, I don’t want to dwell on those things that I cannot do anything about. The treatment of the disease is in my doctors’ hands and God’s hands. I have some things I can help with, but dealing with the treatments is out of my hands.

For my part, I will do what I can to help through diet, exercise, prayer, and attitude. At this time, that’s about all I can affect.

So, I will begin another round of chemotherapy treatments on Monday and we will see where we go from here.

Doug Woods



Believing for Salvation

Friday Funnies

T.G.I.F.

I am sooo glad it is Friday ~ my DH will return today at least for the weekend. I am praying for a good report from my Dads Dr today and well it is Fall Break here and that means....no schedule, sleeping in and just enjoying my children being home! Oh how I love fall break!

When I linked up with Kim at Homesteaders Heart and saw her funny pumpkin picture I knew I had to find a funny with pumpkins to keep with her theme. I hope I didn't disappoint anyone! Happy Friday everyone. Enjoy your family! Love your husbands! Play with your children ~ you will be blessed inside and out :)





Love and Blessings

Dad

Today my dad is having a ct scan to see about the tumor in his chest. We get the results tomorrow.

Today is thankful Thursday. I am Thankful that I can share the burden on my heart with all of you KNOWING that you will join me in prayer for my sweet Daddy. Asking for peace while he awaits the results but that He would feel the PRESENCE of the LORD and that Angels would be encamped all around him, his hospital room, his bedroom and that his heart would be softened to hear and receive Jesus!

I love you all and am sooo thankful for each one of you!

Love and Blessings

Who is leading your home?

Who is the head of your household SPIRITUALLY SPEAKING?

At the encouragement of my dear friend Kat I am going to share and ask you women and men in this blogworld about the position of Head of the Household and who leads it in your home.

Of course I have to share who leads in my home, that is only fair right?! My answer ~ My husband.

But for years that was definately NOT THE CASE! Not only did he not lead but guess who was the one who kept him from taking his rightful place? ....ME! Why you ask?

because I NAGGED him
because I put myself in his place
because I didn't trust him to do it the right way
because I judged his walk with the Lord and because I didn't see what I thought was enough prayer, or reading the Word ENOUGH then he surely couldn't be doing all he should to be the godly man that I needed him to be or the Spiritual Head of the household that our family needed him to be ~ so by golly someone had to do it......

you know what all of this equaled?

ME not trusting God and not allowing God to do what HE WANTED to do. I was Fearful. I was WRONG. PLUS, so many other things that the Lord had to show me and discipline me for but in it ~ HE showed both of us the way. He showed us how VERY much He loves us and how to grow in intimacy not only with HIM, but with each other.

First of all I want to share that as close as your husband is to you is as close as he is to God. If your marriage is struggling in communication there is a high chance that your husband is not communicating with the LORD. pretty much 100% chance.
They can never be close to HIM and not to us ...why? Because the LORD would never allow it. Think about that for a minute.

Secondly, I learned that the more I nagged my husband about his prayer life or his time spent reading the Word the further away he would go. One day, I was posed with the question "Why does that bother you Loren?" "Well, because I am afraid if he isn't spending time with the Lord then, well, you know"...."OK why are you scared?" "and if you were really honest wouldn't it be true that you aren't trusting the LORD to do HIS job in and through Brian and truly you are putting your faith in Brian and not in the LORD?" OH SNAP I was busted! Honestly I was putting my faith in myself and judging that because I was attending Bible Study & I was in the Word then I had to be the one to lead us. Has anyone been there? It is truly a sad place to be and it leads to disaster! It brings so much strife into your house and trust me ~ everyone feels it ~ especially the kids!!

I went to a conference one year and afterward this precious man who taught came up to me and we were talking. I remember sharing my concern about my husband and he looked at me and said "You don't strike me as a woman who is conniving or manipulative but your issue here is FEAR. You have got to STOP putting yourself on that Cross ~ stop being a human HOLY SPIRIT ~ LAY HIM DOWN AND TRUST THE LORD. He encouraged me that every time I picked up my DH and carried him (emotionally or spiritually) that I needed to stop, repent and pray FOR BRIAN!!! Ok many times I laid him back down but as time went on I actually started to recognize WHEN I would do this and I would stop, pray, lay him down and guess what..... I changed and not only that but so did my DH :)

I had to first repent to the LORD. I had to then repent to my husband for taking the place of Spiritual Head of our family and TRUST even when I didn't see anything, I mean anything. Brian is and will forever be the Spiritual Head of our family.

There are times when I would get upset because of something I wasn't see him do that I thought he should be doing and I learned that at those moments when I was upset it was the HOLY SPIRIT prompting me and showing me something about me. I may have a judgement against someone or I may have a fear in regards to something. Again, this was the LORD speaking to me ~ teaching me ~ helping me to forgive someone or to put my trust in HIM more and more!

Let me just encourage you, if you can relate to anything that I have shared and if you are leading your family spiritually, girls ~ it is NOT our place ~ it is not our job! Our men have everything in them to lead us and God will guide them and they WILL be all you ever dreamed them to be but our job is to love them, to pray for them and to lift them up and trust them and God, no matter what we see or don't see. Share your heart with your husband but make sure you come to them "in love" not in accusation. Share your heart with the LORD ~ HE knows it already but desires for you to share with HIM. Dialogue with HIM, HE will speak back to you and LONGS TOO!! The LORD will honor this and when your husband sees that you honestly are supporting and believing that HE can and will lead ....OH MY, it will bring you to a whole new level of love with the LORD and with your husband! I PROMISE!

It is a journey, it will take you places, but the destination is AMAZING ....

IN HIM

My Daybook

FOR TODAY...October 13, 2009

Outside my window... damp and gray day

I am thinking... Only 1 more day until fall break! WAHOO

I am thankful for... so much....My daughters who have been my beauticians and makeup artists since I am unable to do that myself right now :) My mom who is taking the next 2 days off since DH is out of town to help me and the wonderful day I had for my birthday yesterday

I am wearing... my silky pjs for now

I am going... to parent/teacher conferences tonight

I am reading...the Love and Proper Feeding of our Husbands by Dr. Laura, SCHOOLED, The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein, and Face of Betrayal by Liz Wiehl

I am hoping...my dad gets good results from his ct scan on his chest tomorrow. (results are friday) He is really tired and his cough is still bad.

On my mind... Salvation for Dad

Noticing that... time seems to be slightly faster then it used to be, could it be that God is moving the timetable forward...come quickly Lord Jesus for I am ready and waiting

Pondering these words...Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you......Jesus

From the kitchen... homemade soup, chili, paninis

Around the house... enjoying this cooler weather!! windows open :) I LOVE FALL ~ The colors, the smells, the decorations!

One of my favorite things~ falling more in love with Jesus

From my picture journal...




Love and Blessings

Movie and Book Review

For my Birthday my sweet husband took me to a movie! I had read an article in "Community Spirit" about a Christian movie called "The Secrets Of Jonathan Sperry" It is by Two and Five Productions.

This movie is soooo wonderful and the messages are MANY! Gavin McLeod from the Loveboat plays a sweet elderly man who befriends a group of young boys inviting them over for "Bible Study" and gives them many life changing lessons about living and seeking Christ. Robert Guillaume (Benson) also plays in this movie as so I won't spoil anything I can't tell you much except that he is a cranky old man who turns away the love and help of one of these young men but the young man is persistant!
This sweet movie will speak volumes to all who go see this wonderful Family film! For anyone who has friends or family who don't know Christ PLEASE take them to see this movie!!! You and they will be SO GLAD YOU DID!

This movie as you can imagine does not have the Financial backing as many of the hollywood films do so it is showing in only select theatres but I would encourage you to support this film. To see the website go here




My friend Kat loaned me her copy of this wonderful book by Ron Hall and Denver Moore titled "What Difference Do It Make?"
If you read their first book called "Same Kind of Different As Me" you are familiar with their story. Ron is a White man, a professional and somewhat wealthy man married to a precious woman named Deborah. Denver is a homeless black man who never learned to read or write, he worked in cotton fields until one day he decided he was tired of working for "the man." He jumped on a train not knowing where he would end up. Through Divine Intervention and the Lord giving visions to Deborah in regards to meeting Denver and how he would change their community let alone their lives, they finally meet and grow in their relationship. This book shares with you a little more detail of how the first book came to pass but it also shares with us how it affected and changed people lives like me who read the book and how the Lord leads them to change and help the lives of the homeless. You know, I have a huge heart for ministry. I have been in ministry here in my hometown called "Standing in the Gap" I cut hair for these people who could not afford to have their hair cut each month. My family delivered food, prayed with these precious people and it touched all of us deeply. When I read the first book I could relate to the heart of this ministry but I have to be honest it is the spiritual aspect of both of these books that spoke to me. In the first book it is Deborah who is the prayer warrior and the one who as I said receives visions about meeting Denver. So many women as Ron says were afraid of the relationship Deborah had with the Lord and really didn't come around her much. In "What Difference Do it make?" it is Denver that just really shows me that loving the Lord and reading the Word is so simple. Just do what the Word says. He says to Ron "Mr. Ron, all these white folds be invitin us to the Bible Studies. How come none of em's invitin us to their Bible doins?"
He shares this "I notice a lotta folks doin more lookin at the Bible that doin what it says. The book of James says, don't just listen to what God has to say, do what HE says."

Denver and Ron share their journey since the death of the precious Deborah and how the Lord continues to grow and stretch them as friends and as individuals. They live together, travel together and love the Lord and share this message with anyone the Lord leads them to.

I highly recommend this book (or both if you haven't read the first one ) for anyone who has a heart for helping those in need. For anyone who wants to see a story of miracles and Gods hands at work through many divine appointments. For anyone who is struggling in their faith ~ read this! You will be inspired, you will be encouraged and amazed by your Heavenly Father and trust me ~ you will be changed!

To order this book please visit Thomas Nelson here

You say it's your bday?

Well it's my birthday to....YA! LOL Yes Today the 12th is my birthday and we had the family over the celebrate on Sunday. My brother and his g-friend were sick (get well guys) It was a wonderful day filled with my family, food and lots of love and laughter!

My husband made me a yummy chocolate cake that you will see Rylee enjoyed more than anyone else and together we made homemade chicken soup and chili along with some homemade corn bread and herb cheese bread .....OH MY was it all delicious!

Thankyou for making my day so very special and thankyou Lord for loving me and setting my feet on solid ground I love you soo


39 and holding ;)



sweet kisses from momma



Rylee and NONI


she loves her Jenna





CHOCOLATE!!!!!


happy Monday ....love and blessings ~ I love you all

Spiritual Sundays

The following is another story from the Devotional ~ Voices of the Faithful Book 2.....


The Rest of the Story

I know that all God does will last forever; there is no adding to it or taking from it. God works so that people will be in awe of HIM Ecc 3:14 (HCSB)

When "LIN" became a Christian, her outlook on life changed greatly as she found hope and strength to care for her elderly mother. She was anxious to share her faith with her family members, so we gave her a copy of a movie called Good News to show her mother.

Watching the movie, the mother's eyes grew wide. She suddenly exclaimed, "I have heard this story before! When I was a very young girl, a foreigner came into our village and told us the story of the Most High God who created the heavens, the earth, and everything on the earth. He came back another time and told us about a flood that covered the entire earth."

Evidently a foreign missionary during the 1940's brought the Gospel story to her village, but then disappeared forever. The timetable of his visit coincided with the civil war, which resulted in foreigners being expelled from the country.

The elderly mother said, "But the foreigner never told me that God had a SON!" At last she had heard the rest of the story and immediately expressed her desire to follow Christ. After 75 years of waiting, this mother joyfully came to faith in Jesus.

Seeds sown by one of the faithful sprouted that day. He is faithful.
L.M.R. East Asian Peoples

What about you ~ are you sewing seeds today?

For other Spiritual Sunday posts please visit Charlotte and Ginger here





Love and Blessings