Love Your Neighbor

We have lived at our new address for about 9 months. I guess I have realized now in our second house that it takes some time for your house to really feel like home. We moved to a great neighborhood MUCH closer to Andy's workplace and that in itself is such a major blessing. We have the BEST neighbor's too. I grew up in a great neighborhood and had friends and neighbors that were like family to us and I feel like our neighbors here are just the same. We feel really blessed and thankful that the Lord planted us right here for a time with such great love in giving us sweet neighbors! Also, we have done some major painting and some updating in our home and it has been tiring at times, but overall very rewarding. I have learned a lot about painting and de-wallpapering that HGTV just doesn't tell you about, but it has been fun and the girls have been able to help me with a few projects! Sometimes I feel bad for Andy because he works very hard and it seems like there is a never-ending project list awaiting him at home. However, he never complains, unlike me, and he really does a very good job. He has so far in the nine months tiled, repaired the drywall ceiling, hung bead-board (that was tough), built new front porch rails, replaced a toilet, sink and lighting in the bathroom, and various other little projects. I think he really likes learning new things and it has been fun and bonding to work together. Anyways, to sum it all up, I just feel thankful and restful today in our home, thankful to our awesome Lord who loves us so much He never leaves out any of the little details in our lives.
The entire law is summed up in a single command:
"Love your neighbor as yourself."
Galatians 5:14

p.s. Thank you to all my friends that have told me they read my blogs.....sorry for pouting about that one!

One Hopeless Romantic

I am a romantic. I have recently discovered that my "ideas" about/of/for this world are based on very idealistic and fantasy-like notions of the world around me and how I think it should be. Webster's definition of romantic is this.......full of or dominated by thoughts, feelings, and attitudes of or suitable for romance; passionate, adventurous, idealistic. Yeah, yeah.......that sums me up pretty well. So my question in all of this is.......do I live this way? What does the Lord think of the "romantic" notions in my head, did He plant them there, create me this way or is this fleshly? See........I try and write these light-hearted blogs and now I am getting deep.....too deep even for myself to understand. Okay so is this why I feel so restless sometimes, kind of bored or something, is there something inside of me, some inner-quality that I am too afraid to expand on or that I am holding back for some reason? Or maybe this is discontentment at it's best. Why am I filled with weird thoughts and desires that seem great for a moment, but then I realize they are leading to no where in particular??

Today is Mother's Day and we had a very sweet day. Andy headed to work after church and I was pretty cheerful about that, suprising enough, just thankful that we were able to go to church together. Anyways.......the children gave me a Tim McGraw CD, not the newest one, but his newest Greatest Hits and it is real good.......okay back to the point and connection to all this.......one of the songs that I have heard before a few times on the radio, but never really "heard" if you know what I mean is called The Cowboy in Me.........great song and probably one of the main reasons I have typed this rabbit trail of a blog.........here are some of the words that keep going through my head .....
The urge to run, the restlessness; The heart of stone I sometimes get;
The things I've done for foolish pride; The me that's never satisfied; The face that's in the mirror when I don't like what I see; I guess that's just the cowboy in me.

That is the "jist" of the song........of course to hear it with music is better........I don't know it just struck a chord with me, but I can be kind of odd like that sometimes and of course that yearning I've had since I was a child (that I think all girls have) it's just mine never went away.......to have a horse and live on a ranch.......I guess that's why one of my favorite movies of all time is National Velvet.......young Elizabeth Taylor!!

My final thoughts are this.......Lord, help me to decipher this...........what is this strange "restless" stirring for adventure that I feel all the time.........what does it mean and what do you want me to do........whatever it is, please Lord, help me find peace in it, the patience to wait on you for the answers and the courage to stand still or to go wherever it is You want me to go!

Maybe instead of titling this blog One Hopeless Romantic I could rename it One Hopeful Romantic (in Christ)!

What if No One Reads Your Blogs, Then What??

To one of my best friends Christy. Thank you for tagging me, I feel very honored. I would LOVE to list random facts about myself and then go on to "tag" seven of my blogger friends. Since you are one of my only friends who blogs and who reads mine (other than Ang and Tracey who I also love very much) AND because you pretty much already know EVERYTHING about me past and present, I guess there wouldn't be anything exciting to share.......
(This could be just an excuse to get out of participating, but I'm really not doing that......okay maybe a little bit...............)

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all my friends who are the BEST mother's hand picked by our Awesome God to walk with their children! Thank you for sharing your lives with me and allowing me to learn from some of the greatest mother's I know.

A Day in the Life

Wake up: 6:30 a.m., maybe 7:00 am if we are really fortunate!
And that is about all that I am sure about; pretty much all the hours from there until around 8:00 p.m. (bedtime) are somewhat of a blur really. I guess we usually get a little bit of a rest stop from 2-4:00 for nap (any awake time before 4:00 doesn't qualify as a nap).
Okay, I am really exagerating and really exhibiting a poor attempt at trying to write funny blogs like my friend Tracey who has been blessed with the true gift of "storytelling". Right now as I sit here typing I am realizing just how poor my attitude so quickly gets and really over analyzing all that that means. We are so blessed with happy, healthy children, great job, home, cars, we are happily married and working at it and still my discontentment can be so BIG sometimes, it is really embarassing to confess. I guess I just really am ready to live more on purpose, to choose to be happy instead of grumpy, to choose to follow Christ, to face my fears, and not allow this great life I have to just pass me by. I really hope something more exciting happens tommorrow so I can write about a funny story or event in our home or maybe something happened today and I was just too busy to notice!