the B-I-B-L-E

thank you media cache & whoever pinned this on pinterest
Thankfully,  the one on my table isn't as dusty!

It's Sunday morning & time to get ready for church.  The Bible sits by my bed,  but it's not the one that I bring to church.  I need to find that one.  I need to read this one, FIRST.  This is a daily that needs to be more of a daily.  I need to read God's word as His love letter to me.

thank you free images I'm giving credit

Early on in my   dating relationship with my husband,  we were in different states.  It was before emailing was prevalent & so we relied heavily on the postal service.  Of course,  we talked on the phone every day.  But it was those letters that really caught my heart.  I would anxious wait for the mail & tear into the envelope when it arrived.  Then,  I'd read it quickly.  Then,  I'd read it slowly.  Then I read it again before stacking it with the others.  Sometimes,  before putting them away,  I'd read all of them,  in order of their arrival.

 Pretty sappy,  but they were my physical signs of affection from the heart of the one who said he loved me & who I loved.  It was my link to the one who was so far away.  It was something,  I could touch & hold on to when I would start to doubt our relationship.  They were true love letters.

There is a TRUE love letter that I forget about & that's the Bible.  I don't want to forget this daily.  I don't want to relegate it to the shelf.  I want it opened & messy from the daily wear & tear of constant use.  Oh Lord,  help me to remember...

Read a blog, be encouraged, love this daily

thank you red sea holiday for this stock photo

It's Saturday, day 3 of the challenge & I'm scrambling a bit because I really should be getting ready to go to Baby Girl's band competition (I still have an hour until the house wakes up but I haven't packed the "stuff" yet that I usually pack the night before, but we had the highschool football game to go to... yada, yada, yada). And so, I started this morning with a bit of reading others who are doing the challenge. Oh my, I am so encouraged to be joining this community. This is part of why I LOVE this challenge. Frankly, I thought I'd just be reading this year. But I had a prompting of the heart that said, write, you need to WRITE. But I don't know how to write. I certainly don't know how to blog. Nobody reads my stuff. And so I was going to just read other people's stuff.

thank you media cache

 The stirring in my heart wouldn't go away. Seriously,  I didn't want to do it.  I didn't feel like writing & I know myself enough to know that if I didn't FEEL it,  I wouldn't endure the challenge when it got hard.  So, I put a condition on it. I wouldn't do this challenge unless a "good" prompt came to mind, unless, it was something that would be easy for me to write about on the fly. Unless,  it was something fun.   And so, the prayer went up & stayed tuck away for 2 weeks. Then bam, it hit me while doing my "to do" list (for that story you can read my intro ). I, still didn't want to do it, but when I took the dogs on a walk, all these ideas & different blog post came into my mind. And then, when I got home, I started taking pictures of some of the "daily"s. And it's going to be fun. I had alot of fun doing them (you should have seen me setting up the picture of the toilet.. hee, hee). And that's when it hit me. I'm going to join the 31 day write challenge. I'm going to have fun & not stress. I'm going to read so that I can think better.  I'm going to read my own stuff & really that's all that matters to this blogging stuff. 

So,  anyways,  I didn't have any pictures of me reading (maybe I'll get one of my kids to take one later & add it here, but even if I don't, I'm NOT going to stress about it).  So,  I searched free images of ladies reading.  Ha, ha that was fun,  I did think of putting one with beautiful tan legs sitting by a pool with a book open was fun.  But I did choose one the closest that looked like me (NOT).  Well,  I do have a straw hat like that... hee, hee. 

New Reads

One of my favorite things to do is get lost in a good book.  It can be a bit dangerous when you have small children since all hell breaks loose as my nose was buried in a historical novel (that was my favorite genre when my kids were little,  loved the Morris series!)  I couldn't put it down as I was involved in the main characters lives & would say to myself,  just one more chapter.

But soon,  I had to give this up for light reads or 5th grade chapter books (since my kids were girls,  I started reading the American girl doll series,  I actually liked them).  I have tried to keep up with what my kids  were reading & have been surprised that I've liked them.  One of my rules with movie going was that the book had to be read before seeing it on the Big Screen.  Most of the time,  the kids agreed with me that the book was better.  Now that the kids are older,  there are more opportunities to read again.  This weekend was State Swim meet (Superstar got another medal to add to her collection).  This meant lots of opportunity to sit & read as we waited to watch her swim less than a minute.  I started reading   Divergent.

 I know my kids want to see the movie & have read the book already.  So,  I picked it up at the library (along with an audio book by John Grisham,  made the long drive go faster).  But,  I digress,  the books I've been reading lately have been those that my teenagers have been caught up in.  They seem so realistic.  That's how I felt about Hunger Games & now how I'm feeling about this book.  This stuff could really happen.  And it makes me long for Jesus to come before any of this tribulation stuff.  Sigh.... scary.... though I know who is the Victor,  I still do not want to have to fight.  But I guess that's what makes it a good read.

Snow Day..... AGAIN

There were peals of "hurrahs" & "yipees" when the call for school reach came on Monday night saying that the administration had decided to cancel school the following day.  SNOW DAY!

It meant they didn't have to pack their bags for a swimmeet or plan a lunch to avoid cafeteria food.  It meant that they could sleep in & not worry about "that" test or turning in "that" paper.  And I let them have their "day off",  but when the call came again, for another snow day, they were actually a bit disappointed knowing that they had to shoulder some of my responsiblities while I had a full day of work to go to.  It didn't seem as fun when it was too cold to go outside & play.  And frankly after building one snowman,  it didn't seem worth the time & effort to make anymore.

So,  when ANOTHER snow day was announced for today,  I think they were seeing the consequences.  They'd have to stay in school until June.  They were missing all the chatter of their friends at the lunch table.  They were missing out on much needed practice both for swimming & show choir.  All the pleasure of snow days had lost it's shine & now I was hearing groans & sighs ( I was going to write "peals of groans.... but that didn't sound right).

There is a spiritual analogy here somewhere....

yup,  CS LEWIS wrote it.... a much better analogy than I could have come up with... one of my favorite books

awww.... that's an idea for a snow day,  to curl up in front of a fire with a good book & a cup of tea