Abundant Springs

I was listening to Cindy Rushton’s Romance Toolbox Virtual Seminar yesterday and ladies, there was some GOOD stuff there!

She said quite a bit that spoke to my heart but, one thing in particular was that our husbands and families deserve our BEST and the world should get our crumbs.  The fact is, for most of us, we shine for the world, giving them our best, and our families get our leftover crumbs ~ if there is anything left. 

Talk about convicted.  I prayed right then and there that I take that piece of sage advice and put it into action.

She also shared 1Peter 3 (The Message)

Cultivate Inner Beauty

1-4The same goes for you wives: Be good wives to your husbands, responsive to their needs. There are husbands who, indifferent as they are to any words about God, will be captivated by your life of holy beauty. What matters is not your outer appearance—the styling of your hair, the jewelry you wear, the cut of your clothes—but your inner disposition.

4-6Cultivate inner beauty, the gentle, gracious kind that God delights in. The holy women of old were beautiful before God that way, and were good, loyal wives to their husbands. Sarah, for instance, taking care of Abraham, would address him as "my dear husband." You'll be true daughters of Sarah if you do the same, unanxious and unintimidated.

7The same goes for you husbands: Be good husbands to your wives. Honor them, delight in them. As women they lack some of your advantages. But in the new life of God's grace, you're equals. Treat your wives, then, as equals so your prayers don't run aground.

Suffering for Doing Good

8-12Summing up: Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble. That goes for all of you, no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless—that's your job, to bless. You'll be a blessing and also get a blessing.

   Whoever wants to embrace life
      and see the day fill up with good,
   Here's what you do:
      Say nothing evil or hurtful;
   Snub evil and cultivate good;
      run after peace for all you're worth.
   God looks on all this with approval,
      listening and responding well to what he's asked;
   But he turns his back
      on those who do evil things.

13-18If with heart and soul you're doing good, do you think you can be stopped? Even if you suffer for it, you're still better off. Don't give the opposition a second thought. Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ, your Master. Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you're living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy. Keep a clear conscience before God so that when people throw mud at you, none of it will stick. They'll end up realizing that they're the ones who need a bath. It's better to suffer for doing good, if that's what God wants, than to be punished for doing bad. That's what Christ did definitively: suffered because of others' sins, the Righteous One for the unrighteous ones. He went through it all—was put to death and then made alive—to bring us to God.

19-22He went and proclaimed God's salvation to earlier generations who ended up in the prison of judgment because they wouldn't listen. You know, even though God waited patiently all the days that Noah built his ship, only a few were saved then, eight to be exact—saved from the water by the water. The waters of baptism do that for you, not by washing away dirt from your skin but by presenting you through Jesus' resurrection before God with a clear conscience. Jesus has the last word on everything and everyone, from angels to armies. He's standing right alongside God, and what he says goes.

Not only did this speak to my heart about my marriage but God is truly in the details.  You see, just after hearing that part of the discussion a dear friend of mine called me crying.  She is having a hard time at work because she has chosen to stand on Godly principals.  I was able to share this verse with her & remind her “to snub evil & cultivate good”!

If you’re interested in listening in on the seminars today live and at no cost to you simply visit http://www.romancetoolbox.com/seminar.html

Scroll down to the bottom and fill out the info under “Try Us”.  The seminar begins at 9am CST

Today’s Topics Include:

9AM CST
Fill Your Home with Good Things!

11AM CST
Maintenance!

1PM CST
Rebuilding from the Rubbish!

3PM CST
Honey Do’s to Make the Marriage HOT!!

Hope to see you there!

Tracy

As much as I like to complain about getting up with the baby between 3:30-5:00 each morning, it really does have its benefits. 

I get to spend precious time with my baby boy,  

I have some quiet time once he nods off again to drink my coffee and putter around the ‘net looking at interesting things.

 On the weekends, like today, when I don’t have to wake up the older kids

 Ashley & Adam for school and my little girl, Lily, stays asleep instead of waking up with me –

  Life is pure joy!

I've had this on my mind since the wee hours of the morning when my sweet little miracle (not quite 4 wks old son) woke up @ 5am and thought I should share God's Goodness, Mercy & Grace (not to mention sweet, sweet miracles) in my life.

I'll start with the miracles.  There are, of course, several miracles in my life each and every day.  When I find the car keys - miracle.  Drop a can of green beans and it doesn't hit my toe - miracle.  Drove by the car accident and prayed for those involved and gave thanks it wasn't me - miracle~ but the specific miracles I'm speaking of are my 2 littles.

I actually have 4 children, each one of them a miracle from God.  However, the last 2 are special to me and my husband (& 2 older children) because they are tubal reversal babies!!

Many of us have things in our lives that cause our circumstances to change.  After the birth of my 2nd child I immediately had my tubes tied. 

No more children for me.  No sir!  I was done, finished, finis, fin, the end!  Besides, my husband at the time didn't want any children to begin with (although I had a 2 yr old daughter when we met).  So, life went on but my marriage didn't.

Fast forward 3 years and circumstances changed again.  I met a wonderful, Christian man and we fell in Love and got married.  He had no children of his own so we decided that we would look into getting a tubal reversal and whatever God had planned for us would be just fine.

I researched and found a wonderful doctor in Kentucky.  So, we paid for our surgery, flew from Florida on Friday, spent the weekend together, had surgery on Monday and flew home Tuesday.  I was 36 at the time. 

We prayed that God would bless us with a child and we knew that if He gave us one child we would try for another ~ people thought we were crazy!

We'll after a year of "life" we still weren't pregnant and my husband was sent to India for 6 weeks to work....our doctor told us that after a year of trying with no results to contact him and we would go from there.

Well, after 18 months still no baby.  I was going to call our doctor to see what our next step was when over Thanksgiving weekend of 2004 I found out I was pregnant.  By now, I was 37 and facing what "they" call AMA or Advanced Maternal Age!  We did our genetic testing and visited a "high risk" doctor (since I was so old!) and in July of 2005 (just 2 days prior to our oldest daughter's 15th birthday) we had our first little miracle ~ a sweet baby girl.

Fast forward another couple years and we found out in March of 2007 that we were pregnant again.  This time, I'm 39, turning 40 again and old lady visiting the high risk doctor.  This time we had more doctor visits and some scares but this past December~ 3wks before his due date~ we had our 2nd little miracle.

God is Good!

Despite my many faults He has showered me with Mercy, Grace & many, many Miracles!

Although I'm still learning how to balance a newborn, a toddler, a middle-schooler & a sophmore ~ my husband~my housekeeping & taking a shower daily~ I wouldn't trade it

Tracy

I woke up just before 6am this morning and snuck out of the bedroom quietly as not to disturb my DH and little sweetie, Lily; woke up my high schooler, Ashley, so that she could get ready for school then I was on my way to coffee, quiet time and a cruise through the blogs that provide me with such inspiration.

After about 30 minutes I heard Lily begin to cry a bit.  I went to get her so that Daddy could sleep just a bit longer.  Lily is almost 14 months old and stills sleeps with us on most nights.  Isn't it funny how God knows what we think is beautiful?  That's why we all think our children and the most beautiful

I picked her up and she wrapped her arms around my neck and gave me a big hug.  We did our morning routine of "Did you sleep well?" and she usually replys with, "uh" which I take to mean, "Yes, Mommy, it was a very nice sleep".  She sat in my lap, head on my shoulder watching her "show" while I looked at some blogs and until she was ready to venture out to play.

While all that was going on, Ashley was getting a shower and preparing for her day at school.  Ash is my sweet, steady, ready to be grown-up but still loves her mama, adores her sister, tolerates her brother, is good to others ~little lady.  She is a loving child, ready to get her learner's permit and a job~rushing into adult life way before it's time.  She's beautiful inside and out and I'm not saying that just because I'm her mother. They're having a pep rally at school today and she had on her school colors chorus T-shirt and wanted me to fold the sleeves so they weren't so long....I did and was rewarded with a "kiss" on my forehead...her favorite place.  She "kisses" by touching her forehead to mine.  I walked her to the door, told her to enjoy her day and off she went.

Then, it was time to wake up my middle little whirlwind, Adam.  He's almost 10 and full of the love of life.  He loves building things with his Legos, math, science, bugs, and our country's military~he'd wear camoflaged color (is camoflage a color?) clothes everyday if I'd let him.  He asked for "2 more minutes" of sleep, which I granted...He's involved with his school's cross country team, chorus and is starting violin lessons (he wanted to do it...really!!) Adam is my hugs and kisses, so sweet you just want to squeeze him, loving, caring, thoughtful, bouncing off the walls boy.  He's very smart and ruggedly handsome....

He's just about ready to set off for school....playing with his little sister...making her do big belly laughs...When he gets out of the car at school I'm sure to get my daily dose of I Love You, Mom and then a quick kiss, then out the door.

It'll be quiet, except for the slapping (that's what it really sounds like) of little bare feet on the floor as Lily runs through the house; the sweet language of a baby learning how to communicate with the world (because Mommy already knows what each word means) and the knowledge that all my "babies" will be home soon.

I am blessed with a house full of Love.  In the middle of all of the chaos that occurs each and every morning, today, I realized that even the noise is precious and will disappear from our lives as they get older.  Each moment is precious now and I rejoice in it.

Enjoy the day!

I got 'em...the braces arrived yesterday afternoon.  It was a painless procedure and I felt decent afterwards.  This morning, I'm a little more "sore" but I've taken some Advil (every 4 hours .....anyone got another remedy for this discomfort?).  Hopefully, I won't have more than this niggling pressure.

Tonight begins Missons Week at our church and I'm supposed to sing...we'll see how that goes since I'm over exaggerating my enunciation! (and spitting is sort of difficult, too)

The worst thing is that it's very hard to eat.  I'm only able to eat on the back molars at this point and since my bite is off, it's a funny looking sight to see.

Oh...I also dyed my hair last night.  It's called Ginger Twist (sounds pretty, huh?!)  The color on the box sure was.  It was described as a light brown copper color.  My husband thinks it a tad too dark so I'm off to the store to find a suitable highlight color...the things we do. (I like it, is brings out my pretty blue eyes....it'll fade over time, etc.)

Guess I thought that if I was going to get braces, I'd do some other changes as well....I'll let you know if the diet works.

Thanks for all the notes of encouragement.  I'm sure I'll be fine throughout the "ordeal" and after it's all over I'll have purty, straight, white teeth.

Enjoy the day!

Today Ashley and I are getting braces!!

Imagine my surprise when the dentist said...."Have you ever considered braces?"  I knew that Ashley was needing them and realized my good friend works for a wonderful orthodontist we were on our  way!

So, please, be praying for my family as right around 2pm I'll be finishing up and on my way home.  I've been told to expect everything from not eating for 2 weeks (hmmm, I needed a diet!) to "it only hurts a little" and "it hurts so bad for awhile and then again each time the braces are adjusted". 

 My wonderful husband says he has to work late tonight......

Well, it seems like it anyway. 

With the threat of another hurricane looming, all of the counties in the Central Florida area have closed schools and government buildings for the day.  The thought was that "Hurricane" Ernesto would have such high winds that it would cause unsafe driving conditions. 

Ernesto made landfall about 11:30pm last night and is dropping a ton of rain (which we need!).  The forecasters are now telling us that the winds will be 30-40 mph and squally rain for us this evening.

While I am glad that our state's government is taking virtually every storm serious (as they all have the potential to become deadly) since the awful hurricane year of 2004 (our city got hit with 3 of them..ugh!) I'm just trying to decide what to do with the whole family home today!

Please keep everyone in the Ernesto's path in your prayers as now they think once he's over the Atlantic he'll gain strength and pose a threat to the Carolinas and up the East Coast dumping a lot of rain and possible floods.

So....how's the weather where you are?

Tracy

Have you ever felt that way?

Life is so busy that the days fly by and you realize that you have almost nothing accomplished but a lot of running around in that hamster wheel you said you'd get off of.

Well, that was my week!  A week of spinning my wheels with little to show for it.

What was my week filled with?

• I have a new neighbor whom I love dearly and I've been visiting with some this week
• My husband has the opportunity to work from home when he chooses and quite honestly, while I love him here, it throws the whole household off kilter and our routine alters.  He does a lot of phone conferences so the children (and baby) and I try to stay out of the way and be as quiet as we can but the computer is in the family room (and he needs to use it during his calls) so we end up in the bedroom....meaning that nothing else in the house gets much attention
• Taking my son to and from school
• Various shopping trips for this n that....it just had to be done "now"

By each day's end I've been so tired and ready for bed with the baby (8-ish!!). 

I did get the outside area near my front door filled in with pea gravel and partially decorated with planters and gee-gaws and it looks so much nicer than it did!  I'll post pictures later.

It's my hope that, starting tomorrow, I can slow down the extra "stuff" so that I can begin the job of managing my home.  (I really, really need to dig into that Clean Heart, Clean Home journal!)

I've been trying very hard in the "Encouraging Your Husband" arena but I'm not sure I'm a very good student this week.  I've, wrongly, found myself resenting that my husband has chosen to stay home with us instead of leaving for his workplace.  I truly love him here...it's just hard for me to adjust everything.  I'll get it figured out!

I've so much more to tell you but it's time to get ready for church!  There are things going on (aren't there always) that make me believe the adversary is trying to get a hold on us.  Please be believing with us that changes are made in our hearts and we continue to renew our minds  to the Glory of God.

In the meantime, kiss your husband, hug your children, stroke your pets and thank your friends,

Tracy

Ashley

Fifteen years ago today..right about this time (2:33 p.m.) my first baby girl was born.

What an unspeakable joy to hold a baby for the first time....especially your first.

She was so small and totally dependent on a Mama that didn't have a clue what to do except to love her with all my heart.

Since then she has been a constant source of joy.  She is a true God's Girl.  Sweet, sensitive, loving and beautiful - inside and out.

Mom

A Year Ago...

I was in the hospital with my newborn baby girl, Lily

Yesterday was her birthday.  She had a wonderful time!

   You can just about see her in the green balloon!

Tomorrow is my oldest daughter, Ashley's birthday.  She'll be 15!!  What a sweetheart she is.  She is so helpful with Lily.  They really have a special relationship.

She had a few friends stay over last night.

This morning, Mom is up all alone....

Lily and Daddy are still sleeping:

and Adam was banished to the living room to give the girls some privacy.  He's such a sweet boy.

Later on we'll all be going to my Aunt's house for a family party.  Such Fun!!

But right, now...I'm going to enjoy the quiet!