What´s hot and what´s not!

I don´t know if my cos Karen started this idea or if it was someone else, but today it felt like a good way to cover what´s going on with me! Whoever it was...it´s a great idea!
1. I was able to help a neighbour and mother of one of No 2's friends. Her sons have moved back to Ecuador and they will follow soon. She is unable to drive and needed to urgently do some paper work to legalize her son´s education back in Ecuador.

This implied driving between 2 different locations, both in opposite directions and half an hour away from the centre point: our home! I spent both Monday and Tuesday mornings doing this because they seemed to always forget a paper or need someone else to sign something. It was a bit of a run around but I am really glad that I was able to help her and show her God´s love in this manner. The last day, God really answered prayer about getting a paper quickly without yet again returning to point B before going back to point A. I told her that I had prayed and I believed God helped us.... It´s in these simple things God can reveal himself eh!

2. Yesterday I picked up one of my best friends and her family from the airport, after being away for 4 months. I´m so glad she is back and I´m looking forward to having our times together after this long interlude.

3. For my prayer friends and our weekly get together.

4. No 1 getting a job teaching English to small kids for 4 hours a week. He is helping missionary friends of ours who are involved in after school activities in a town close by.

5. Things seem to be going well so far at school for all 3 kiddies.

What´s not cool......

1. I´m off the beaten tract on my healthy controlled eating habits and I´ve been pigging out on chocolate etc... which leaves me feeling guilty and condemned as well as fat and ugly!!!

2. Haven't had much time to keep up with stuff in the home due to alot of running around... it´s like if the house is a mess...my life feels like a mess. I don´t like this, but´s hey it´s where I am at!

3. I´m anxious for the day when all the animals finally leave the house and how that is going to affect kid no 2 especially. (as well as the rest of us)

4. I´m finding it hard to wait on the Lord to confirm my job situation and balance that out with all the other responsibilities in my life.

5. I´m feeling very low and no...my period isn´t about to start!!!!

All my awards!!!

This is like way overdue..... but as the saying goes....better late than never....

1. This award was given to me On Sept 14th (by my wonderful, patient cousin!!) hence the better late than never phrase!

The author of this award said the following:
.."the thing that I love most about blogging is that I learn so much about a person just by reading their blog. I have met MANY wonderful people with wonderful stories to tell, and I am grateful every day for each person that I have the pleasure of crossing paths in life with. I wanted to create something special for the top ten people who have inspired me through their blogging; the stories they tell, and the lives that they lead with grace and dignity. I visit their blogs for inspiration and encouragement."

There are soooooooooooooo many of you that make me smile and I am going to award this to the following who mostly likely have recieved it already but so that you know I do appreciate you all alot:

Bonnie

Bunnygirl

Demara

Karolee

Sharon

Dianne

Sweetmummy

The Beaufort Lookout

Terri

Heather´s Brain

2. The next award I received from lovely Sharon on October 2nd!!!

This award was designed by Mike At Ordinary Folk and was originally offered by Christy of Totally Fabulous. She says the award is for “bloggers who are fun, cool, and of course Totally Fabulous!”. I wish to pass it along to all of you one my blog roll...:

3. The third and final award which I received yesterday, I owe again to my Cousin Karen (who seems to shower me with these things.... I think she doesn´t realize that SHE is the best!!!!!)

I couldn't trace the origins of this Award, but it is clearly passed on to those bloggers who "Lift us Up"

All of you in the blogworld lift me up in one way or another but I would like to may special mention to

Karen´s Ramblings

Carin

Bunny girl

Karolee

Karen tagged me...

Here´s another meme and although I like them alot...these thinking back ones I find difficult because I don't always REMEMBER what I was doing even yesterday....you know...water under the bridge...hahaha...

Anyway, enough blabbing and to the point... let´s see how well I do!

What was I doing 10 years ago

hmm... let´s see that would be 1997...

Well I was living in a different house half an hour away from where I live now....only had two boys.. getting pregnant with number 3 happened in '98. Was involved with the YWAM base leading and teaching on worship and being a sahm .

What I was doing 5 years ago

Considering moving house and looking around for possibilities and all the stuff I was doing 10 years ago!!!! I can´t think of anything else..but I am sure there is more! Sorry, I am not very interesting am I!!!

What was I doing 1 year ago

I began studying to be an auxiliary nurse to the elderly and disabled.

Yesterday

A pretty relaxed day. Having a cup of tea with my sister who lives down the road... my husband in a meeting with 2 other guys. watching a science programme with the kids on the tele... all in all a relaxed day!

Five snacks I enjoy

Hmm... like most out there chocolate...I saw that somebody else likes Greek yogurt with honey like me, that was fun. Most types of nuts. Digestive biscuits. English scones with cream and strawberry jam! ( there are more for sure, but I am limited to 5 here!!!!)

5 things I´d do if I suddenly had $100 million

1. Pay off my house
2 Take my family around all those countries I have been dying to visit and stay in really cool hotels!
3.Give away a bunch
4. Buy my mum whatever she wanted and pay off my brother and sisters mortgages...
5. Buy a Winnebago and or a house in Northern Spain!

5 locations I would like to run away to

Hawaii again that´s for sure
The Caribbean
Alaska
South America
NZ and Aussie to visit Karen and Bonnie!!!

5 bad habits I have

Jumping to conclusions about my kids!
perfectionism
forgetting the laundry in the washing machine like others out there!
Worrying
Forgetful!

5 things I like doing

Blogging
Reading
Watching I love Lucy , Home Improvement etc
Hanging out with friends
Going out to eat!
Baking ( I know that is one too many..but it´s an added bonus!!!)

5 TV shows I like...

I love Lucy
Home Improvement
Identity
Detective shows
Old movies


5 things I hate doing

Going to the Gynecologist
Cleaning windows
Cleaning up poop and throw up
Getting lost on the way to somewhere!!!
Having to watch what I eat all the time...


5 Biggest joys of the moment

One of my best friends in the whole world is coming back home this week after being away for 4 months
Getting into a schedule after the summer break
A cup of tea
My boys doing well at school
God´s tenderness with me

Most of you have done this meme so I will pass it on to
Karen´s scribbles

This is how to do it!!!

For all of you out there that want to know how to do a signature here are the wonderful instructions that Karolee gave me to get mine...

Here is how to do the signature thing.

Go to this site for your signature:
http://www.mylivesignature.com/mls_menu.php

Click on Create Signature then click on Using The Signature Creation Wizard and just follow the directions. Then copy the Hmtl code.

Then go to your dashboard. Click settings and formatting. Scroll down to where it says Post Template and paste your Hmtl code for your signature in that. Save it and you are ready to go!

Thanks again Karolee! If you make your own don´t forget to drop by Karolee´s blog and thank her because she is the one that took the time to explain it to me!!!! She is also a wonderful person to get to know so a visit to her blog will be fun too!

Be true to yourself!

To thine own self be true,

and it must follow, as the night the day,
thou canst not then be false to any man.

~William Shakespeare, Hamlet

This quote pretty much encompasses the experience I want to share with you.

Remember I shared with you how overwhelmed I had been with negative feelings about my practical after visiting the Nursing Home? Well I had another incident happen a few days earlier that confronted me face to face with that time too, but I had kept it to myself!

I was shopping with my sister in our local supermarket when out the corner of my eye I saw one of the ladies I had worked with at the Nursing Home. I am ashamed to admit this, but I avoided her and managed to do my shopping and leave the supermarket without her seeing me or having to talk to her.

What was I afraid of? I was scared to hear her say the words, "Well you didn´t last long did you?! It´s people like you who make this profession a laughing stock!!" or something along those lines.

As I was hiding behind the the boxes of crisps and the cleaning supplies, I tried to justify to myself why I couldn't´t handle talking with this lady and facing up to what had happened. The dreaded meeting never took place, but I left there feeling guilty and yucky inside.

Why? Because I knew I was running away, hiding and not facing up to what had happened. I didn´t want to admit failure and look blatant in front of her or anyone. I had stopped my practical... I couldn´t go on... and that was the truth... Why hide?...

I had nothing to loose really except my pride. Pride is pretending to be something that I am not... to be better than I really am.

I was like Adam and Eve in the garden hiding from God after they ate from the tree.

I was afraid of admitting I couldn´t finish what I had started... afraid of the consequences... Everything in me tried to convince me that being transparent was NOT the right way to go. What deceit!

I knew I was struggling with a false sense of humility....(which is pride ).... The Holy Spirit convicted me that I just had to accept and be up front about what had happened. To be honest and humble and in doing so I would find peace. To be true to God, myself and others. God would help me deal with whatever would arise as a result of the past.

I am ashamed now to say that I acted this way. I know that in hiding and running away you just magnify the problem and give room for lies to take over rather than lessen them.

I decided that I didn´t want to run away from it anymore... I wanted to face up to my failings and be humble and live openly with all that I am !

God in his mercy allowed me yesterday to meet yet another fellow worker from the Nursing Home while at the Market. I struck up conversation with her knowing that I could face all kinds of accusations. She was one of the few trained nurses in the Home and had always be helpful and caring to patients and fellow staff and towards me.

Inwardly I braced myself for the inevitable attack.....but you know what? It never came!!!!

She actually shared that she wasn´t working there any more because she had received a better offer to upgrade her studies and so took it. She even consoled me and confirmed the reality of some of my struggles!!! Talk about gob smacked!

It felt great!!! I felt great!!!

Not only because she had made me feel right about my decision at the time to leave, but also because I had decided to stand up for what I had done and be honest instead of running away and hiding. God gave me the grace to do it... and you know what.... I prefer that much more than running away!

I hope you would feel encouraged next time you find yourself in a similar situation to stand firm and be transparent and not run away..... ...God is faithful to help us with whatever might become of the particular situation we dread and to be at peace with yourself is well worth it! There is such a darkness that surrounds you when you hide and try and cover up.....which reminds me of one of my favourite verses that shows us the opposite :

Hey Karolee.... I got it to work! I did it again and realized where I had gone wrong....thanks a bunch for your help!!!!

Allergies

Over the last three years my honey has been suffering with an allergenic cough and although he has submitted himself to a battery of tests nothing had come clear until this summer when the diagnosis revealed that it could be the cats & dog.

Upon discovering this and wondering why it had never shown up before (which the doctor couldn't really answer well, except just say sometimes these don´t show from one year to the next! and then all of a sudden yes!...lovely explanation eh!!) the allergies specialist (would that be called an allergist...hahahah!!!)said that she would conduct another test just specifically for cats and dogs.

Stephan new that this news would cause an uproar in our house and that´s why the doctor suggested to do this test and not to take any drastic action until we got the results, but we wisely did mention it to the kids back then that this was a possibility so they could be prepared.

Stephan´s allergenic cough has been complicated by the development of asma, which has shown a 23per cent decrease in his lung capacity . He now is using a "puffer" as part of the treatment (which is somewhat costly one I might add). The use of the inhaler will be re-evaluated again in 2 months time.

Monday evening was "D" day and the long awaited test came back and sadly confirmed our suspicions. We now had the daunting task of finding new homes for our lovely pets!

I started to get the process going and wrote an announcement for a local paper and started sending out a few emails. It´s been really hard for the kids because now this situation was no longer just a possibility ....it was a reality.

But God in his goodness has begun to answer our need in such a special way... it´s almost unbelievable. Just a day after receiving the news a real good missionary friend of ours got word of our predicament and was just "LONGING" to have a fox terrier like "Lady"!! He called me up yesterday morning and came over and got her that very evening!!!! He and is wife are over the moon and excited to have our Lady and we know that she in turn has found a wonderful new home with them. Isn´t God good?

Although it´s been a perfect solution, this morning felt a sadness and longing for Lady... all the kids are feeling it too. It will be a bit of an adjustment for sure, but I believe it will be worse when the cats are gone too..... but I´m sure that if God helped with the dog...He will do the same with the cats.

I am blessed that God is involved in the details of our lives even with these things!!!!

http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54485/301/1361143315D4BEBDB4EB8BB114A8D846.png

Hey Karolee...why does it not show the pic but this? I did exaclty what you said ...any ideas??? Anyeone???

A word of encouragement!

Yesterday after I wrote my post about my struggle the Lord spoke this verse to me:

Isaiah 43:18-19
18 "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. (NIV)

18 "Forget about what's happened; don't keep going over old history. 19 Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand-new. It's bursting out! Don't you see it? There it is! I'm making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands. (Msg)

I just so happens that sweetmummy and Carin and have done a post with the very same verses, so it´s interesting to see how God is saying similar things to us! My cousin Karen also has this as a special verse for her too.

God is exhorting me to forget and not dwell on what happened in the nursing home... that He is going to do a new thing. I feel hope welling up within me. Thanks for your prayers!

My battle

This Friday my sister and I did our Red Cross visits in a town close by here. It was really nice to see them after the summer break, and they are always sooooooooooo happy to chat and catch up!

There is a couple that we used to visit that now have moved into a Nursing Home and no longer use the pendant/telephone services that the Red Cross provides, but we decided to look them up in their new home anyway.

What I didn't count on when visiting them was that I would be flooded with the negative memories of my time working in the nursing home. Click here for my post when I worked in the nursing home. It took all I had to ignore those feelings while we visited them . Because they were so happy to see us, I was able to survive our visit pretty well.

Needless to say, when we left, I felt overcome by feelings of sadness and failure. I was glad my sister was with me. I didn't feel like crying... when it hurts so bad sometimes it goes beyond the crying feeling if you know what I mean. It was a hit below the belt!

Since then I have been fighting against these feelings and gone over what I could have done, what I should have done...you know those mind games you play somehow hoping by doing so you can change history.

I am sick at how quick I am to believe the worst about myself. It is easy to just somehow get lost in the overwhelming feeling of it all. What makes it worse is we are in financial straights at present and the need for me to get employment adds pressure to this whole panorama.

I would appreciate your prayers and that God would do a work in me and provide the job I need to be able to keep our heads above water!!!! Thanks!