Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Update

It's been so long since I've written.  I've been pondering so much in my heart over the last months.  The family is doing well.  Super busy with school and basketball.  I love basketball season!  Sophia, Jackson, and Audrey are all playing this year so I'm in for lots of basketball fun!  Randy is the assistant coach for Jackson's team at school and they are both enjoying that! 

We had a nice Thanksgiving.  It was so good to have Andrew home.  I don't get to see him enough!  Andrew is a senior at American and about to start his final semester.  How did that happen?  He is a finance major.  He has been accepted to the graduate program at AU and is planning to pursue a degree in data analytics. I'm not too sure what that is, but people act like its a great degree.  He will take some of the classes for his graduate degree this coming semester and plans to finish up next May.  Then, he is planning to move to Australia.  Yes, Australia!  As some of you know he spent 6 weeks there this summer with Campus Outreach.  For those of you that contributed to his trip, thank you.  It would not have been possible without your generosity.  I had sorta braced myself for him to come back and tell me he was going to go on staff with CO.  I had not braced myself to hear what he did say.  He did not plan to go on staff, he really wanted to pursue his Masters and then move across the world and work in his field and just be a faithful Christian and church member in Australia.  He said only 5% of Australians are churched so it's likely that even fewer are believers.  He joked that he spoke the language.  So he plans to spend his life in Australia.  Wow.  He told me this back in August.  He's researched immigration, which is not easy.  My response was better then I expected.  I said, "I can't think of a better way to spend your life."  My heart however was reeling.  I had plans to be an involved grandma and that was going to be a little difficult halfway across the world.  But the Lord has gently reminded me of the prayers I prayed so often for little Andrew.  I prayed he would love the Lord with his whole heart.  I prayed he would spend his life on something that mattered.  I prayed he would make good choices.  God is faithful.  He has answered my prayers.  If I go too far down the road I get sad, because I am selfish, but God has given me grace for today.  He could be chasing after the world and all it has to offer. He could be wasting his life.  He's choosing to lay down his life in service to God.  I have no greater joy.

Another thing that has been overwhelming my heart in these last months is my sweet Lydia.  She got hit with a dodgeball during a game of blindfolded dodgeball.  She was blindfolded and so was the sweet boy that threw the ball.  She was hit very hard and at close range.  It was obviously a total accident.  She however lost consciousness and received a concussion, which has been so much more than we ever thought possible from a hit in the head with a dodgeball.  She's had headaches.  She's on prescription medications.  She's been in physical therapy for her eyes and neck which were injured.  Her blood pressure is out of wack.  Her memory was affected.  She had memorized 300 digits of pi for a contest in her class, and post concussion was unable to say 4 numbers in a row.  Its been a long journey.  The injury happened at the end of September.  She is slowly getting better.  However, her migraines have been getting worse.  They were present prior to the concussion but they have been horrible since the concussion.  They do not seem to be related to the concussion.  She actually spent Sunday night/Monday morning in the ER getting intravenous meds to help with a debilitating migraine that had been going on for about 6 hours.  It was her second on a week.  Praise the Lord, they gave her an MRI, which had not been done since her injury and EVERYTHING looked perfect.  This was a huge relief to me, because she has had so many head issues since her injury, I was starting to think something more serious may be going on.  The ER did refer her to a neurologist, so I hope that we can get some answers and she can get some relief.  Seeing her in so much pain and not being able to help her is so hard for me.  I'm reminding myself that God is good.  That God is allowing her to suffer this for some reason and praying it will be used to point her to Christ. 

Anyway, I better run!  I've got school today and I'm not ready yet!

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

Happy New Year

And just like that.....another year has ticked by and it;s time to turn to a fresh page.  Just writing that sentence makes me want to buy a new calendar and pull out my rainbow fine tipped Sharpies and get busy planning my life!   Hello 2019.

Last night the kids had a little party at the house.  They each had a friend or two over and we had pizza, a chocolate fountain, toasted the New Year with Sparkling Cider and sprayed confetti in the Living Room.  Those were the highlights. 

There were so pretty low spots in the night too.  Tears were shed.  But being surrounded with friends made it bearable.

Such is life.  Highs.  Lows.  Fun.  Sorrow.  Relationships

Each new year I can't help but think of how to make the coming year better.  What to do....I mean I need to eat right, exercise, clean my house better, manage my money better, take more time for myself, study God's Word more, serve others more, care for extended family more, and read more and blog more and make more memories and disciple my kids better......and go more places and do more things......It's a bit overwhelming to be such a hot mess.  Oh and as I glance around my cluttered bedroom I'm remind I definitely need a better laundry plan and should certainly pack rather then blog.  I'm moving in 3 weeks people!

As I was talking to an acquaintance a couple weeks ago about how delicious the coffee creamer I was indulging in made the coffee I was drinking I said jokingly that I may make it my New Years resolution to drink coffee with creamer every afternoon.  I joked that may be one I can keep.  Except the more I think about it the more sure I am sure that I wouldn't keep that resolution either.  I am absolutely sure I can't even manage to do something I love everyday.  That is just how I am.  I'm not lazy, well I sorta am, but I'm also sorta a boss at accomplishing tons each day.....its just not everything.  It's just not everyday.  I'm just a total work in progress.

So this years resolutions are a little more general.  I want to exercise more then I did last year and lucky for me I set the bar low with very little exercise last year.  I probably averaged once a month....so if I did once a week I'd be killing it, but even once every other week would be an improvement!

Last year I resolved to read more books, and I did read more, but not counting the Bible....
I read:
What was Mine
Unoffendable
12 Ways Your Smartphone is Changing You
Women of the Word
and am almost finished reading:
Therefore I have Hope: 12 truths that comfort, sustain, and redeem in tragedy
That is only almost 5 in a year.....so I can probably do better this year.


But really this year I don't even want to focus so much on what I'm doing, but rather who I'm becoming.  I want to be a more mature woman of God.  I want to KNOW God's word better.  I want to be kinder and more patient with my family.  For this to happen I'm going to have to be more sanctified and that will only happen by the washing of myself in His Word.  So last year I just wanted to finish reading the whole Bible, but this year I want to really study books of the Bible.  I want to memorize passages from the Bible.  That is all that will change me.  I'm too halfway.  I'm too chill.  I'm too sinful.  I can't change on my own, but I can keep growing in the Lord and he can keep chipping away the rough edges.  So the process continues.....

Happiest of New Years to all of you.  I wish you all clean houses, great health, fabulous bodies, fat bank accounts, and dream vacations.  But in reality I know this year may be filled with love, happiness, riches, joy, tragedy, heartache, poverty, or sorrow I have no idea, probably a sprinkling of it all.  I do know that God is faithful.  I do know that he loves me and has a beautiful plan for each of our lives.  Let us walk in it.