Some thoughts....

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2010&version=NKJV

This has been on my heart for quite some time, but I have never sat down to write about it. Over the past year I have struggled somewhat in keeping up my daily walk with the Lord. To be brutally honest, I basically didn't have any daily time with the Lord. I prayed and trusted in what He was doing, but devotions and taking time to grow were not in the picture. There is an online parenting forum that I like to browse (it's not a Christian site) and it never ceases to amaze me what people believe about Christianity. Every so often on the site there is a "discussion" about religion and when reading responses, it hurts me to see the hurt in our world. So a couple months ago I kind of hit rock bottom. I knew I had to get back to daily time with the Lord (as much as possible considering I do have a 10 month old who sometimes makes it quite impossible) so I started reading the Psalms. I got to Psalm 10 and was struck by the truth of that Psalm and our current world. I don't have the time to type it out now, but I have linked Psalm 10 from an online Bible if you want to read it. The truth is, no matter how hurt this world gets, no matter how tough it seems, God will prevail and in that we can rejoice.

To add one more piece to this, I have a friend who is living in southern BC serving at a church with her husband. In her blog she wrote today about the blessing of buying groceries for one particular man (http://moresweetthansour.blogspot.com/2010/12/grocery-list.html). It struck me that this is what Psalm 10 is also about. God is using my friend and this ministry to be a "helper to the fatherless" so to speak. It's compassion. It's understanding that God sees the bigger picture. It's knowing that when we do our part, God uses that for His glory no matter how small that part may be.

It's Winter!!!

We have now entered my favorite time of the year. It's winter and Christmas is coming. My house is wonderfully decorated with Christmas lights, greenery, the nativity scene and, of course, the tree!!!! We continued our Christmas tradition of heading out into the woods to get the tree and this time Maddison was with us. She did great and didn't complain about the cold at all. It was a great day and we had fun finding and decorating the tree. That said, once we had it up, it fell down the next day! So we had to re-decorate, but it was still fun.

Life has been truckin' along just nicely. We have probably 6 inches or so of snow on the ground and more falling as I type, so that's been good finally. We are doing some re-training for our dog Emily as she is not reacting to Maddison all that well at all, but we have seen some progress so that is good. Maddison is keeping us busy doing her baby things. She pulls herself up onto every piece of furniture and LOVES to play the piano. If the lid is open, she's there! It's quite cute actually and I've gotten quite a few pictures of her there. She's also crawling everywhere and basically discovering that the world is much bigger then the living room! She enjoys going out on the sled for walks, which Emily also enjoys, and will just sit there and look at everything as we move along.

Dan and me have been busy but not, if that makes any sense. We've had some sound stuff that we've done, the Ladies Tea and a couple of Sundays to fill, but for the most part it's been a little bit slower then usual in between his weeks of call. He goes on call again next week, so that will make for an interesting week I'm sure, and then the week after that is Christmas, so it's getting close! We are completely done our shopping for the year, so now it's just getting the stuff wrapped and under the tree, which won't happen until the 23rd or so.

Anyway, just thought I would pop in and update a little bit for you. Merry Christmas!!!!

Well it's about time

So, I finally have some time to do some blogging!!! It's been kind of a crazy summer and life just kind of flew by, but even though I have bathrooms to clean and floors to sweep and mop, I can't do that right now, so blogging it is!!!

My last big post was about our Winnipeg trip. So since then, we done a camping trip with my family to Moberly Lake, BC for my grandpa's 80th birthday, a week of holidays camping and staying with Dan's family in Lloyd and Meadow Lake, a weekend in Didsbury with my brother and Aunt's and Uncle's, and many different fun things throughout the summer.

Our biggest thing we did a lot of this summer was renovations. We have replaced our electrical pannel, added a fan into our bedroom and a light into the hall, put new windows in, done some landscaping, and, the reason why I am blogging now instead of cleaning, making our living room window into a modified bay window. We also put a hole into our wall between the living room and kitchen in order to open it up a bit more. I love that hole!!!! I am sick to death of dust and messiness in my house, but now at least for a few months I won't have any more. We only have a door to replace yet this year, and hopefully that will be done sooner rather then later.

We have also done a lot with the sound ministry this summer and Dan is finally feeling like things are happening there, which is nice!!! We now have 5 sound people for the church, which is very nice because that cuts the workload down a lot. We have seen improvments in communication and procedures that we would like followed with the sound ministry and it is nice to see that these things are happening.

I have been working part-time all summer and it has been enough, praise the Lord, so that we don't need a renter for our basement. And because we bought my parents old piano, we had to move the TV downstairs, so now our entire house is ours and it has just been a huge relief!!!! We bought a new couch/loveseat/chair set for upstairs and moved the old ones downstairs, as well as all our DVD's and CD's. The drums and guitars are also all downstairs. So upstairs is now much more of a living area and the downstairs our recreational area, and that is exactly how we wanted it!!!

Maddison has been busy growing and learning and cutting teeth. We finally saw the first tooth break through over the Labor day weekend, and even though we lost a lot of sleep with that tooth, it was good to finally see it in. She currently loves to stand up and use her exersaucer and jolly jumper and she is also trying to crawl. I would rather she not crawl, but I know that I'm not going to win that battle because Dan wants her to crawl and is helping teach her. Little does he know that a mobile baby is not the relaxing baby we now have!!

Fall has come and tomorrow we are having family pictures taken, so that will be fun! We also have my bosses wedding next weekend, so next Saturday night Maddison is having a sleepover at Grandma & Grandpa's and we get a night without baby!!! I am very much looking forward to that, but am also really hoping that Maddison does good for my parents!

And that is about it. Short and sweet right? Hopefully now this fall I'll have more time to blog and be able to keep you updated more.

Thoughts from Maddison

Well, I have let Maddison "type" on the computer a couple of times now, but for some reason I can't seem to get it to copy onto my blog.... I'll keep working on that.... and write a little bit more later!

To Winnipeg and Back.....

in 3 days!!! Dan's cousin Dustin was getting married on June 5th in the Steinback area, so we had a quick trip to Winnipeg over the last weekend!!!! We flew out of GP at 6 bells on Friday morning, got to Winnipeg at 11 am and spent the day with my good friend Allison and her family!!! Good times!!!! Then on Saturday we left their apartment and drove to Steinbach to meet the rest of Dan's family and attend the wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and a great day.... although it was over fast! Then on Sunday we drove back to Winnipeg, dropped off the things we had borrowed at Allison's and flew back to GP at 2:00 pm.

It was quick, but still very good. Maddison travelled VERY well and we were so proud of her. And now we have finally recouperated and are back into real life!!!!!

Food For Thought

I have felt spiritually bone-dry for quite some time now, and although I have been seeing God work in my life through my husband and daughter it has been a challenge. Part of it, and this is the major part, has been my decline in devotions. I have always been faithful in devotions, but for the past few months have started to put other things before them. Now I understand that devotions do not necessarily have to be spending a full hour pouring over the Bible every day, devotions can be singing worship songs, praising as you clean house, going for a walk and being reminded of God through creation and many other things, but there is still nothing like being refreshed by reading the Bible and being spoken too by the One who created the universe. This morning I finally put God first in my day. Amazing what that can do. I feel energized, alive and ready to survive the busy week I have ahead of me.

"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in reighteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work" 1 Timothy 3:16-17

This morning I needed the reproof, correction, instruction, completeness and equipping. Guess what.... God gave me that. Yes people, God still speaks. I have to remember to tell Dan that God gave me the hug that Dan prayed for last night.....

What a Year

What a year it has been. One year ago today I was celebrating with my friends and family as I married my best friend Dan. We had a GREAT day and enjoyed our wonderful honeymoon in Radium Hot Springs, BC. We were full of plans and excitement about what we were going to do last summer. Not too many of them actually happened.....

Our Plans:

1) Sell my house

2) Renovate Dan's house (paint, redo both bathrooms, new windows, siding, furnace and hot water heater)

3) Do some landscaping

4) Do a some camping

5) Start my 3rd year of school

6) Save all of my working income

7) I don't remember what else we had planned.....

What Happened:

1) We discovered I was pregnant

2) We replaced the furnace and hot water heater

3) We found out that Dan's sister was pregnant and had cancer

4) We didn't sell my house but we rented it

5) We had multiple trips to Edmonton to see Dan's sister

6) We painted the baby room - that was the only thing we painted

7) I never started school because I was pregnant

8) Dan's sister passed away

9) We had a baby girl

10) After both of us said we never wanted to own a minivan - Dan's parents gave us there old one that his sister used to drive

11) We had to figure out a way to survive on one income because I was laid off

12) We had to furnish a baby room

13) A lot of other stuff happened as well.....

So basically this year turned out entirely differently then what we expected it to be...... but they say that if you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.... and so we did, and aparently He laughed a lot!!!!!!

It has however been a wonderfully great year and I have enjoyed this year a lot. We have had ups and downs and joys and sorrows, but through it all we have discovered that God is faithful and will sustain us though it all. We have grown closer together and are both still looking forward to the next 75 years (or however many that God gives us...) together.

I love you Dan!!!!

Maddison Renaye

So, this has been a while coming, but I finally am sitting down to post about the birth of my daughter, Maddison Renaye.

I won't post all the details and whatever, because really, who wants to read about every single detail of my labor?????? But here are the basics. My due date was February 7th, and I was seriously hoping she would come on that day, or before. She didn't, and I was getting cranky. So for the next few days I really worked on keeping myself busy. On Wednesday, February 10th I woke up at about 11:30 pm with contractions. They were between 5 to 10 minutes apart and so I couldn't sleep, so I went to the living room, where I spent the rest of the night. I woke Dan up at 6 telling him he wasn't going to work, and then we waited. We decided to go the hospital at about 9, but after getting there and getting checked we were told I wasn't far enough along, so we went home. Contractions continued throughout the afternoon and at about 5:30 I told Dan we needed to go in again. So we did. After getting checked I was told that I was far enough along, so they admitted me at about 7 pm on the 11th!!!! Blah, blah, blah.... labor, labor, labor..... and finally at 5:32 am on Friday, February 12th, after 30 hours of labor, she arrived!!!!!!

We had found out that baby was a girl, so from about 20 weeks along we knew she was a girl, and had decided on Maddison Renaye for a name!!!!! She was 6 lbs, 10 oz and was 19 inches long, so she was a small little package, but she was the perfect size!!!!

We have adjusted well to parenthood and having a baby in the house, and even Emily has adjusted!!!! Things are for sure different, but we are loving having a baby and the joy that she brings into our life!!!!

Waiting.....

So, while I am waiting oh so unpatiently for my baby to get here.... I just thought I would pop up and let you know what I've been doing for the past couple of weeks. The answer is.... pretty much nothing. My sister had her baby just over a week ago, so baby Abigail is now here but is still waiting on her cousin to show up. Come on baby! I finished teaching piano at the end of January and now have until the middleish of March before I am back to that (depending on when baby arrives obviously!), so literally I am pretty much doing nothing. And this waiting is not so easy at times.... oh well. What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger right?

Apparently Once a Month it is.....

Apparently I will only be writting on here once a month.... oh well! I'd better get used to it because once baby comes I'll have zero time anyway (at least that is what I'm prepping myself for)!!! Not to much has happened during the month of January. We've got all the baby stuff ready that we need, and the rest will come at the baby shower I'm sure, so we are ready for that. Our basement renter moved out and we have since rented it to another gentleman who will be moving in shortly. Our house is still for sale, and we are hoping that it sells soon! And that's pretty much it. The life of leisure sometimes!!!! At least I'm enjoying the rest and relaxation while I can!!!!