Sharing Her Heart

    This week has been a bit busier for me. I babysit everyday except tomorrow and then my kids and I will be helping a friend all day (which I'm looking forward to!).  So yea, it's been busy. But it hasn't been without it's rewards and joys. I have been doing more things with Arielle, even though I have extra kids in my house! I'm very amazed that I've been able to find the extra time. It' s good for me and her to strengthen our relationship. One of my many faults as a mother is that I often tell her "I'm busy, we'll do it later", and that's not right. Now when she's young is when I need to build a strong bond with her so that when she's older, she will want to talk with me and share her feelings. 'I' also need to enjoy her childhood as much as she needs to. It is so much fun to just sit with her and not think about my chores. It's great to talk with her and walk with her and teach her as much as I can. I love liste...

  Lately, I've been feeling changes in my heart. I've been feeling as if God is preparing me for something. I don't know what he has in mind, but I'm trying to be open to any and all ideas. That's difficult for me to do because I'm a person who doesn't do all that well with big changes (I guess that's probably most of us!), but I have to remember that as a child of God, he asks some pretty big stuff from us sometimes. Remember when God asked Abraham to offer his son Issac (Genesis 22)? That is a serious request. Can you imagine laying your son down on the altar and getting ready to kill him? How did Issac respond? What did Abraham say to him? I can't imagine it. But look at what the Lord says to him when he rewards him: "I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies,    and through your offspring all natio...

    I hope you all had a great weekend celebrating the resurrection of Christ. I sure did! I love the fresh feelings that come with holidays. I love the feeling like it's happening all over again for the first time and allowing my mind to imagine it all and letting my heart really feel. On Good Friday, I thought a lot about how that was the day that Jesus was crucified so many years ago. I tried to picture it all in my head and imagine what he must have felt the best I could. The grief and despair but also the hope and the faith that he had in God his father. The feeling that if he didn't do this, none of us would ever be able to join him in paradise.   Then on Easter Sunday, I tried to put myself in Mary Magdalene's shoes and imagine the sorrow when she found the empty tomb. Oh the grief that must have been in her heart! I also tried to imagine her incredible joy when she saw that Jesus was very much alive, and he called her by name! Can you picture it? You l...

   What a great week it's been! Monday was nothing special, just an ordinary day in my household. Tuesday we took advantage of the great weather and spent some time outside. I was also able to get a lot of baking done on Tuesday, even with babysitting my niece! I made 2 kinds of cookies, 2 loaves of lemon loaf and rice krispie squares. It sure is nice having some goodies in the house again! It's been a while since I did any major baking.    On Wednesday, Arielle and I went on a girls morning out. We just went into town to do some shopping. We spent an hour and a half and the local thrift store! I really enjoy shopping there because it's amazing what you can find there for very little money. I bought a pair of Calvin Klein cord pants that look brand new for $2.00! That is not a typo. I was very excited! I also found some other things for me and Arielle found a couple shirts. She was hoping to find a dress, but they didn't have a good selection for any kids s...

     Yesterday morning we had a guest speaker in church. He is a missionary that currently attends our church.  He had a really good message about discipleship. He said that if you were to disciple 1 unbeliever a year and that person was to also disciple 1 person a year and if the trend continued, after 16 years 64,000 people would know about Christ. Isn't that amazing? That is one crazy (but awesome) stat if you ask me. He also went on to share a story about a man in Africa. I can't remember all the details that well so I'll just tell you what I do remember. This man, his wife and child were looking for a place to stay. All that they were able to get was a 10x12' room. But they had faith and he wanted to do more to get the word of God out so he prayed for god to send him someone to disciple. The next day there was a knock on the door,and standing there was a man who said " I don't know why I'm here, I just am". From that one disciple, 70,000 lives ha...

        Yup, I'm still not sure what colors I want for my blog. I keep trying different things to see what I like. I'm just so undecided!! There are too many choices! Please bear with me  I will hopefully be done soon..... * Andrea *

  OK, so It's been almost three months since we started sponsoring little Alejandro. I'm eagerly (if not impatiently) awaiting his first letter to me. I check my mail almost every day in hopes that I will find that special envelope that will make this all more real for me. I see his picture on my fridge countless times every day and I just feel so much love for him, my 'son' in Honduras. I really hope that one day I'll be able to see him face to face and tell him just how much I love him. What a wonderful day that will be!    I often wonder what life is like for him and I can't wait for that first letter to give me a small glimpse. I wonder if he lives in the "really bad" part of town, over run by gangs, or the parts that aren't as bad. What kinds of things does he play with? What kind of imagination does he have? My thoughts are endless. When I look at his picture, I'm often overcome with the feeling to just pull him into my arms...

   Last night was the science fair at the local school. I had the opportunity to go and check it out. It was really neat to see what kinds of ideas these kids had. There was something of everything, and yes, even the classic volcano. I didn't have a chance to see everything but there are two that stand out for me.    The first one is beans. The experiment was to grow beans in soil using 4 different types of liquids. There was water (of course), peach juice, 7-up and coke. They were testing to see what liquid would make the beans grow the fastest. The end result was: water makes the beans grow the fastest. Then I got to thinking. We can very easily use this experiment in our own lives. We can all be the beans,our soil is the world in which we live, and our liquids are a variety of things. What do we fill our lives with to help us grow? God, Wealth, Relationships, Success? There can be many different scenarios depending on where you are in your own life. The truth is...

   I never totally understood why my mom always had a table in the laundry room. Like really, what is the point? Your down there all by yourself folding laundry. How fun is that? Very Very Fun!! And SOOOOO Quiet!!!          Growing up I did not enjoy folding laundry because it usually meant being in the cold, damp basement by yourself with just you and a table full of laundry. It was not exciting at all. I would have much rather brought the laundry upstairs and folded it in the living room instead of in the 'dungeon'. Our basement wasn't that bad, it was just very cold, and eerily quiet when you were down there alone and for a girl (with a very active imagination) that's a scary place to be. I mean who knows what goes on down there when nobody's around, right? Or so, I thought. Now that I'm older however, I totally get it. Yesterday, I put a table in my laundry room. I...          ...

       What exactly is grace? That is something that I have struggled with for a while now. I hear a lot of talk about it: how God shows us grace, how we should show grace to others, how we should parent with grace, and on and on. So to understand more about grace, I've decided to read the book "The Grace Awakening" by Charles Swindoll. I've just started it but I wanted to share a bit with you.     One of the definitions he gave about grace is: " To show grace is to extend favor or kindness to one who doesn't deserve it and can never earn it". That is very clear for me. That's exactly what God does for us. He freely gives us the gift of salvation and we don't deserve it and we can't do anything EVER to earn it. But yet, in his grace he just gives it to us because he loves us. That is so awesome to me. When you really think about it, none of us can or will, ever deserve to be with him in heaven. There is nothing that we can do that wil...

    Friends are great! I really enjoy having women in my life that I can talk to and who really care about what I say. I like knowing that I can trust them with my secrets and my troubles. My favourite thing about my friends is "GIRL TIME"! You know what I'm talking about. The "Lets get together and be silly" times or the "I really need a shoulder to cry on" times or the times in between where you just want to hang out and not even talk that much. Girl time is so great cause It's time that you share with other "Girls" who deep down inside probably have the same insecurities and fears as you do. To some It's one of the few times in life where you can really be yourself. It's really awesome when you have a bunch of ladies who can all get together and who blend well together. Women who encourage you and who you can learn from and they from you. It's also really great when you have the same faith and you can grow together. It...

   Last night when I was reading the bible verse in my day planner, it really made me think. Again? I know! This happens way too often! The verse was 1 Peter 1:3 "All praise to God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation." The write up that went with the verse was: " Life is hard; then you die. That's one perspective. Here 's another: Life is membership in a forever family." I don't know about you, but I prefer the second perspective. How often in our lives have we been told the first one though? Why do we focus on how hard life is when we could be focusing on how much fun and freedom we can have living for God? If we are doing it all for him, life has meaning. If were just doing it for ourselves, it's worthless. As long as I live for him, I can have great expectations for my life and my future. My perspective ...

    Well, the birthday parties are over for my daughter for now. However, they are just beginning for my niece! She turned 1 today! Happy Birthday Sophia! We love you! Isn't she sweet? She had a great time playing with her cupcake! She made a nice mess too!!  Psalm 139:13-14 " For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mothers womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." Have a great day! * Andrea *

    Wow, what a weekend! It was a really great one, but very busy! We had friends from B.C. come out so we were able to spend some time with them and we had a couple of birthday celebrations for my daughter. On Saturday, Tim and I took Arielle to Build-A-Bear Workshop for her birthday gift from us. She had a really good time and chose a very cute lamb. Afterward, we took her out for lunch and then we came home. On Sunday, I took her and 2 friends to the movie theatre to see the movie "Tangled" in 3D. That was a lot of fun! After the movie, we went to Mc Donald's for supper.  The girls had a lot of fun and it was great for me because I didn't have to do it all in my house! Until now, all of her friend parties have been in my house, which is fine but last year we had 10 girls! That is a few too many to try to keep busy and to clean up after. So I thought this year we would do something different. We all really enjoyed it.  The parties are not ov...