Sitting by the Window

After a lot of work, we are in our home. I am sitting at the kitchen table looking out over our back yard and doing my bible study home work. I came across a couple of things I felt I needed to share, they jumped out at me from the page.

James 3:13  One of the definitions of Wisdom= is unwaivering and without hypocrisy.

God has shown me so often how I have defeated myself in my prayer life by praying and having doubt that he would answer. Or knowing His word and yet not beleiving it was for me. I often still have to examine my thoughts and ponder am I beleiving him?

Deuteronomy 4:9 "Only give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your sons and your grandsons.

Have I taken the time to share, what God has done for me? I fall short in this area, I have to admit.

Please take a few minutes and read Deut chapter 4, a call to obedience.

Christmas is Here

My husbands job moved us away from Reno, we were gone for five years. One of the things I missed the most was the Christmas Eve services at Grace. Starting the celebration with the focus on Christ has truly been a blessing to me. It is about God giving, what was most precious to Him.

This year I have the pleasure to be behind the scenes at Grace. God has bless our church with a staff, elders, and a body of beleivers that I didn't experience anywhere else. One of the main gifts I have received is seeing the hearts of the staff as they prepair the Christmas Eve services. The antisipation that many will come to Christ in these services. The focus that lives will be changed and the excitement in knowing these people will know the hope that only our Lord can supply. 

It is truly a precious gift to be apart of this body of beleivers. I just wanted to say Thank You to all of you, and Merry Christmas.

Ten weeks of study just came to a close

I am so thankful that Grace has a women's bible study. Each study is such a wonderful journey. I always meet such wonderful women who are seeking to know more of God, and some who don't know Him but have many questions. But most of all as I strive to complete the homework, the time I have with God I would not trade for anything. To get a glimps of what I mean look at my study tab.

Buying a home causes insanity.

My husband and I are buying our first home. I cannot beleive the hoops you have to jump through. Hurry up and turn in all the long list of items required and wait. Oh we also need this and this, and we wait. We are now in the inspection, appraisal and repair stage. We were told yesterday if all goes well we are looking at the end of December or beginning of January to close. I have to share the crazy part, my mother gifted us $1000 in cash to go toward our down payment. She included a letter stating it is a gift. They lender decided that it the letter wasn't good enough, she had to fill out a form and sent a copy of her bank statement. As she took two withdrawls of cash from her credit union and in one of them she included $100 for herself, she now had to fill out two forms, and we might have a problem because she took out the money for herself. What!!! are you kidding me. And we wonder why the housing market is having problems.

Making Ravioli

I married an Italian man who loves to eat, I know there is no surprise in this. One of his favorite things are the Ravioli's that have been passed down from gerneration to generation. After we had been married a couple years I asked his mother to teach me to make them. The tradition is that you have them for Thanksgiving and enjoy them until there are no more left in the freezer.

This is truly a labor of love, as cleaning and preparing spinach for a couple of hours is not my idea of fun, and that is just one of the many ingredients. I learned over the years to make the filling Friday night, make the dough and roll out Saturday with the help of my daughters, daughter in law and grandchildren, and to break and bag on Sunday while watching NACSAR.

On Thanksgiving Day all the labor is worth it seeing the joy on my husbands face.  I have to admit the first couple of years it bothered me, as I had cooked Turkey, Stuffing, and all the traditional Thanksgiving treats, and my husband piled his plate with only Ravioli, and after another helping, he might sample some of the other items.

Buying a home

I never realized buying a home could be so unsettling. Our loan was approved, we made an offer, they accepted our offer, they sent the wrong paper work, after weeks of waiting, we hear that the home was sold to someone else, last night we heard that our offer still might be good, but there are two other offers. The bank that ownes the home is in Texas, and the person in charge of the loan is on vacation. Do we wait, do we look for another home? I am needing to continually needing to lean on and rest in the fact that God is in charge, and it will be in his timing.

Self Employment

I love being self employed, the freedom in it has always allowed me to attend bible studys, go on field trips with my children when they were growing up, and allowed me to be available when I have friends in need. As a bookkeeper I have found so much pleasure is being able to use my skills to help others.

One of the drawback is dreaming that I have piles of work to do and I cant seem to make any progress never getting to the bottom of the ever growing piles. I know many of you have experienced the same type dreams in whatever profession you have chosen.