The ramblings of life…

It feels like I have been gone for a long time, don’t worry I am back now. Well at least my body is, my brain still may be MIA.

We had an awesome weekend starting a little earlier on Thursday then expected! Phil and I both helped our friend Megan move to her new apartment. Then we went to a party celebrating the end of boot camp (the workout class we have been in since January). The party was an absolute blast, our host Dawn went beyond and above what any of us were expecting. It was a great time with great people! Friday I had off (gotta love working for a Christian College that gives you Good Friday as paid holiday!!) and we worked on the bathroom most of the day. By the time we went to bed Friday night we had all the sheetrock hung (THANKS ROBBIE AND CHARLIE!!). It was great progress and the bathroom is starting to feel like a real room again!

Saturday Phil and I spent a few hours mudding and taping the walls, no to much fun. Honestly both Phil and I were exhausted already so taping and mudding was less than enjoyable! We then went to “Easter” Church Saturday night. It was such a great message and words I really needed to hear. After church we enjoyed a short evening with Phil’s extended family for a not-so-traditional Easter pizza party! It was great to see everyone and enjoy each others company!

Easter Sunday was like none other! We had decided a few weeks back that we wanted to do something very low-key, so along with Emily and Megan we did just that. The day was absolutely beautiful and we spent most of it in the sun. We made Kabobs and grilled them, had blankets out on the lawn and had good wine and ate in the sunshine. After our food we went for a bike ride, and came home and played wiffleball for a long time in the yard. It was such a blast! PD loved us being out in the yard and “played” with us the whole time.

Now for a few updates….

My leg is healing well, my physical therapist gave me permission to start biking! I am so excited to be able to do more and feel like I am making progress. Though it is doing much better, a few times I have forgotten and run across the yard or something like that and am quickly reminded to take it easy! Thankfully the pain is almost completely gone, a really good sign according to my PT. I am hoping that I will be able to start running again in a few weeks!’

The job search for Phil is proving to be more frustrating this time around. Though there have been quite a few potentials, in the end everything has panned out to be nothing. He has applied to many jobs, but is still waiting to hear back from them. We are hoping the with the second quarter starting companies will be opening up more jobs. Even though there are many entry level accounting positions open, we are finding that the people who have been laid off with year of experience are taking these jobs, leaving those with little to no experience job-less. Amidst the trials I feel that both Phil and I are learning to trust in God more everyday and do trust God to take care of us! If you hear of anything opening we would appreciate it!

The bathroom project is slowly making progress. We are hoping to be painting by the weekend, and from this point we will only have the floor left to tile, however we are waiting on this until Phil has a job again! So soon we will have a fully functioning bathroom. We are both really loving the way it is turning out, and are also ready for some order to return to our house. Though we are still having fun doing the project, we are both finding it to be more exhausting then any other project. I think with so much going on in our personal lives anything in the bathroom that is a little more of a challenge tends to get a little bigger than life… you can ask Phil how I am dealing with that!

Happy Tuesday!

Because of What He did for ME!

The last week I have been thinking a lot about my mortality. Did you know you can actually find out the date you will die? Check out: http://www.deathclock.com/ Ok, well maybe not, but I think it puts things in perspective a little bit! On Sunday during the sermon Jason Anderson showed this “clock” to put things in perspective. Honestly, it did the trick, and to be even more honest, I can’t make myself go and do it. Phil did it right away and told me his “death” date and it totally freaked me out! I don’t know if I am in denial, or I just feel strange about knowing a date I could die. But the funny thing is I will die, we all will die. So why do I not want to know a fake number that is computer generated? I should be living like tomorrow is my day, and today is all I have.

With Easter this next week I have been thinking a lot about what Christ did on the cross for me to save me. I am not worthy, I do not deserve grace or mercy. I am full of sin and corruption. Even when I strive my hardest to be like Christ I fall on my face. Thank God I have the hope of salvation.

A few weeks ago in class my professor was talking about grace and mercy, it really struck a chord with me. He used the example of speeding and being pulled over by a cop. The cop walks up to the car and askes, “do you know how fast you were going? He responds “no, not really.” The cop takes his license and registration and goes back to his car to run it. When he comes back to your car he says he is going to let you go this time without a ticket. That is grace, you deserved the ticket, yet you were shown grace. Now imagine the cop then says, “and you know what, he is fifty bucks, take your wife out for a nice meal.” That is mercy. This is what Christ did for us, we deserve death, yet he showed us grace by saving us from this. That would have been enough by itself, yet Christ goes a step farther and says I am not only going to save you, but to make you part of my family and give you the hope of heaven.

If you let this reality sink in, you and I should live out lives differently. We were shown the greatest grace and mercy, let us live lives full of grace and mercy. I want to live each day knowing this could be my last, I want people that I interact with see Christ in me, whether I am at the gas station interacting with the attendant for a short few moments or I am having coffee with a great friend or at home. I want my life to be the city on the hill for all to see.

I hope you all have a great Easter with friends and family, let what Christ did for you sink in, I challenge myself and you to not just let this be another holiday but make it a change in your life and use every moment to live in the grace and mercy Jesus has shown us. Because is what Christ has done for me, I will live me life for Him!

Want to hear a great song that has inspired me? Click Here!! 

"Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.

"Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.

Matthew 5:13-16 (The Message)

Perfection

Today was just one of those days, nothing bad happened, there was nothing to make me sad or upset. Yet all day there was a cloud over my head. However when I got home, all was redeemed.

On my drive home I enjoyed the sun shining and good music to make me smile. As I got out of the car my dog and husband greeted me at the door welcoming me home. PD was very excited and wanted to play so I ran around the yard enjoying more sunshine. After a while I lied down on the grass and looked into the sky. The sun started to wash away my day and leave happiness. Phil came and joined me and we lied on the grass with our dog just enjoying the day.

After a while we got up and moved to the porch to our hammock where we snuggled up in the warm air and I slept. There is nothing more perfect and peaceful than a warm spring day snuggled on a hammock with my head on my husband’s chest sleeping peacefully. These moments make all the bad ones better.

OH and guess what? I wore a skirt and sandals for the first time this season… all is well in the world.

Our New Tile!

Here are pictures of the bathroom so far! Phil is working on the grout today... We might be able to use it TOMORROW!

Ladies and Gentleman… We Have TILE!

Over the weekend we made some great progress on that bathroom that I am totally excited about! Phil and I were both volunteering at church this weekend, so our time to work on projects was quite limited. My goal for the weekend was to completely tile the shower, however in order to do this we had quite a bit of prep work first! Saturday after getting home from church around 7:30pm we had to fur out a wall and put up the cement board so that we could tile the next day. Then Sunday when we got home from church we hit the bathroom hard! After a few road blocks… like not having the correct tools to cut natural stone and a trip to Home Depot … we started the actual tiling around 4pm. It started out really difficult, but after we both got hang of how to work with the stone and a good system down it started to go up really fast. My sister was our runner and helped us sort the stones and always made sure we had enough ready. Because the mortar would dry out if left out, once we started there was no going back, so we were up tiling until 1:30 in the morning! It looks awesome and both Phil and I are really happy with the way it turned out. Now I just need to stay awake at work!

Today we are going to do the grout, then tomorrow we can seal it and we will have a fully functioning shower! I am very excited for this!

I will post pictures soon... for some reason they will not upload today!

Finally Friday

This morning I have been working on things for running for World Vision… and man this stuff gets me excited!! Honestly, I am sitting here itching so badly to get out and run. There are about twenty-five people who are running with Northwestern for World Vision! It is so cool to see others catch the vision for what we are doing and join us. Also just having the accountability and support of others is going to be great… now I just need to be able to run!

It feels strange to be looking forward to something like this knowing it will probably be the hardest I have ever made my body work and not be able to train! Honestly God is teaching me how to rely on him so much right now. Even these last few days I feel like I have grown so much, and I am feeling thankful for the things God is bringing me through.

Over the last few weeks I have been going through some pretty rough stuff with my family that I can’t share right now, but have been really weighed down and feeling pretty lost. At the start of this week I realized that I really needed to get some things out, but really did not know who to turn to. So I just started to pray that God would bring people into my life, and he has! Over the last two days there have been a few people that I have been able to talk to and I am SO grateful! Those of you know who you are, thank you. Honestly the conversations and the love and compassion you have shown me has been overwhelming.

This weekend both Phil and I are volunteering at church. In between things we are also hoping to get the shower tiled in the bathroom! We will see how far we get… Hope everyone has a great weekend!

On reading...

Yesterday I was working on a paper for grad school and started looking through our book shelf to find some resources for the paper. As I was looking through them I realized that there are a ton of books on my shelf that I have bought and never read. You see, I like to think of myself as a learner, and really, I do enjoy learning. However sometimes my intentions and actions do not line up. As I looked through the books I realized there were so many good things I could learn and got excited about being more intentional about reading things.
SO, here I go… I am going to start being more intentional! The first book I am going through is Praise Habit by David Crowder. My Mom gave it to my a while ago, and I have just not made it a priority, but that’s going to change! The book is about how our whole lives are praise, not just our worship or “set aside times.” In the first chapter he talks about how he as a kid would “find” God in different things, church, bible study, camp ect. Then as a junior in high school went through a traumatic time and felt lost in “finding” God. To hear how he started living a life of praise from this is really cool. I am looking forward to reading the rest and sharing what I am learning!

What books have you read latley that you enjoyed?

Job Update: Phil has a few different options from his company; it looks likely that he will start on Monday again. We are very thankful for Gods provision through this all. I feel like every time we are in this situation we grown and learn more about who God is. It is just amazing how God takes care of his children, he sure it taking care of us!

Bathroom Update: We have taken the last few days “off” since we were fairly burned out from the weekend! However that is about to change! Tonight we are going to finish the plumbing to the bathtub and get the cement board up on the walls so we can tile! My hope it to be able to have a working shower by next week! Phil is at Home Depot right now getting a few more things including a toilet that we are going to install temporarily until we are ready to tile the floors.

Thanks for your comments yesterday, its so great to know I am not the only one!