Dear God, mess things up!

This was a hot day in Texas.

There's usually nothing I like more than a hot day in Texas, but today was hot.  Stinkin hot! Seriously.

It was so hot that your eyebrows were attacked by the sweat from your forehead the moment you stepped outside.

My car felt like it had been pre-heated to 375 degrees and was ready to bake me.

There's a melted passie on my driveway.  I'll take a picture of it tomorrow. 
(And then I might think about picking it up or I may walk past it a few more times.)


One of our nieces hung out with me today. She and I were sweating as we loaded up my car with little boys.  When we were pulling out of my driveway {sweating} she noticed my neighbor's sprinkler was on.  She kinda groaned and said, "Man, I wanna run through that sprinkler right now."  She was wiggling her legs as if she was ready to take off.  I thought to myself, "She probably would."

Duct Tape and Determination

I am not an organizational person. I don't do Pinterest worthy projects.  But I know how to use a role of duct tape effectively. Here's what I did today while trying to figure out what to do with the impressive collection of pants and shirts I have for my boys.

 What you see here is a whole bunch of size 2T pants.  I know I'll need them really soon but in this "Little House" I don't have the space for them.  The space I do have is being utilized.  So....

I grabbed my role of duct tape and a sharpie....

Here's where you say, "Oh my! She's a genius!" And I am.  I wrapped the pants in duct tape I did.

I wrote the size on the tape....

And stacked them in the closet along with a billion other things I'd like to wrap in duct tape.

Now when it's time for the 2T pants I'll just grab them, unwrap them, and throw them in the drawer.

I just realized that the colorful duct tape may have made this a Pinterest worthy project.

A Re-post: Mrs. Independent? No Thank You!

This is a re post from a few months ago 
but I needed this reminder today.  


And David said to all the assembly, Now adore (praise and
thank) the Lord your God! And all the assembly blessed the Lord, the God of their
fathers, and bowed down and did obeisance to the Lord and to the king [as His
earthly representative]. (1 Chronicles 29:20 AMP)

I read this the other day and was reminded of Eph 5:22-23, Wives, be subject (be submissive and adapt yourselves) to your
own husbands as [a service] to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife as Christ is the Head of
the church, Himself the Savior of [His] body. 

My husband is my king, he is my earthly representative of Christ. A sweet girl at my church once referred o her husband as her, "Jesus with skin on". That's absolutely correct. I was still having trouble with the thought of adapting and submitting until God revealed these verses to me. And in these verses he revealed these truths.

1. If I am praising my sweet husband, I am praising Him.

2. If I am serving my husband, I am serving Him. For example: Hubby's love language is touch, he loves to have his feet rubbed, hair rubbed, ears rubbed, neck, shoulders.... When I make time to serve him in that way I am serving my savior. 

3. When I am disrespectful I am disrespecting my Father. 

4. When I don't trust his decisions, that's my indication that I need to search my heart because I'm not fully trusting my Father. and I'd I don't fully trust my Father that's an indication of unbelief. Gd is powerful! Believe it! 

I told my sweet hubby that I figured out that he is my king and earthly representation of Christ and he thought that was a lot of pressure but I said, "think about the amount of pressure I'm under. If I disrespect you, I'm disrespecting God and if I don't trust you then I don't trust God." He said, "I like the way you're talking." I have fallen in love with my husband all over again. He is my king. My marriage is a triple braided cord. Ryan and I are twisted together with the Creator of the universe.

C25K

I can't jog a full thirty minutes straight yet. Infact, this week was the first time I'd run for more than 2 minutes straight in probably 20 years. But, I ran 3 straight minutes and I LIKED it!

Here's what goes through my head when I'm jogging:

First I praise Jesus because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made.

Then I ask His Spirit to fill me with determination and focus.

I try to keep my shoulders back.

I look at my feet a lot to make sure my toes are pointed straight. I'm a little fearful that I may trip over one foot and take a fall worthy of a commercial break teaser on The Biggest Loser(slow motion and everything).

I try to breath in through my nose and out through my mouth. That keeps my breathing steady and keeps me from hyperventilating and crying in front of people while inhaling loud breaths and exhaling loud groaning noises. Which has happened before.

I look at the time and it's only been a minute so I decide to stop looking at the time.

At about minute 15 my legs are burning and I think about how awesome that feels.

I think about lunch.

I think about mean coaches from my past that I've forgiven but it's still motivating to think about if they walked in the gym and saw me running, I would wave and smile. Or maybe stick my tongue out or make "coarse jesters". Ok I need to work on that forgiveness thing.

I think about the sweat that dripping onto my mouth and watch it spray when I breathe out.

I wonder if my footsteps are really loud on the treadmill.

I secretly wish someone would walk up and tell me I'm doing a great job.

I think about Dalton and hope he's not screaming because I want to get in the sauna after I'm done running.

I think about how lucky I am to be there.

I think about how it's ok to be proud of myself for finishing.

I think about how awesome I feel when I wipe sweat off my face with my t-shirt.

I remind myself I'm not doing it for anyone but myself and that this time is a time devoted completely to Jesus and Worship.

I wonder if I'm breathing too loud.

Have a great weekend.