Dance

Dancing With God

       When I meditated on the word …Guidance.

I kept seeing “dance” at the end of the word.

I remember reading that doing God’s will is a lot like dancing.

When two people try to lead, nothing feels right.

The movement doesn’t flow with the music,

and everything is quite uncomfortable and jerky.

When one person realizes that, and lets the other lead,

both bodies begin to flow with the music.

One gives gentle cues, perhaps with a nudge to the back

or by pressing Lightly in one direction or another.

It’s as if two become one body, moving beautifully.

The dance takes surrender, willingness,

and attentiveness from one person

and gentle guidance and skill from the other.

My eyes drew back to the word Guidance.

When I saw “G “ : I thought of God, followed by “u” and “i”.

“God, “u” and “i” dance.”

God, you, and I dance.

As I lowered my head, I became willing to trust

that I would get guidance about my life.

Once again, I became willing to let God lead.

My prayer for you today is that God’s blessings

and mercies be upon you on this day and everyday.

May you abide in God as God abides in you.

Dance together with God, trusting God to leadand to guide you through each season of your life.

And I Hope You Dance With God !

~ Author unknown

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Moody Monday

Ok I am sure at least some of you can relate to this, and others will have no idea what I am talking about…  Ever have a case of the “uglies”??  You know, your hair is just not cooperating, you even contemplate cutting or coloring it…  Your skin seems dull and yucky, your clothes don’t fit right and everything you try is all wrong!  Then when you find something that will work you don’t have any shoes to match…  Now why we think this is a good time to shop is beyond me, maybe we are thinking retail therapy??  However if you have a true case of the “uglies” EVERYTHING you try on will be all wrong, I swear my butt is not that big in my mirror at home!  All mounting to your now incredibly UGLY mood….  During the case of the “uglies” everyone around you will be incredibly irritating; of course this has nothing to do with you and everything to do with them…  Your spouse will wonder what happened to his sweet, compassionate, dare I say loving wife….  Since she has now been replaced by “Cruella de Vil”.  Your poor children will scramble at the thump of your heavy footed step, and try and avoid you at all cost, (this is actually very smart of them)…  You then grab ANYTHING chocolate, to medicate yourself with, only to reflect back on the earlier clothes shopping experience, and think I really shouldn’t eat this…  By this point you don’t care, and you devour the entire super size bag of mega peanut M&M’s (ladies I am not talking the little size bag you get at the checkout, I am talking the HUGE bag intend for a candy dish for several people)!  As if all this isn’t bad enough every room in your house has exploded with clutter and messes… How on earth did this happen when for an entire month you have maintained such tidiness??? Ughhhh what’s a girl to do???  Pray tomorrow will be a better day, and this bout of the “uglies” quickly passes…. Until next time!

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Soaking Saturday

Well, I will start by saying I LOVE the RAIN, but maybe should clarify, I LOVE the RAIN when I am INSIDE (not getting wet)!  Ok, I know they play football in the rain, but had no idea they play soccer in the rain.  I kept waiting for a phone call from the coach to cancel today’s game (it never came).  So I show up to the field with all four of my children!  My eight year runs out to his team, while I juggle an over-sized umbrella two chairs, my HUGE purse, a poncho my 4 year refuses to wear, all while trying to keep track of him walking with an adult size umbrella,  and the basket of gum and lollipops he had to bring!  As if I didn’t get wet enough just getting out of the car, we were playing on the farthest field out…. UGH ok anyone who knows me, knows I hate being dirty, but I also can’t stand wet jeans!  That is the worst, having wet clothes plastered to your freezing cold body!!  After about 15 minutes I realize the boys can’t be out here, they are going to get pneumonia!  I called my dad and he graciously came and picked the boys up for me, while I stay with the eight year old and get even wetter!  Let me tell you that was a long 1 and a half hours!  The drive home, I turned on my heater and thawed a little.  The things we do for our kids!

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spring cleaning in the fall

Well, I have grounded myself….  I am not allowed to decorate for fall until I clean out/organize my garage!  Ughhhgg  this could take a while… But I am motivated, because of the weather change, which by the way I LOVE!  I even made homemade dinner rolls and chicken noodle soup today!  Anyway I started the garage clean out yesterday and took a load of garage sale stuff to my friends and bagged up two huge sacks of trash that has already been hauled off….  But I lost sunlight so I had to drag it all back in, today my back is sore (am I getting old)?  So I have been organizing my laundry room, boy am I a pack rat.  Slowly but surely I am plugging away at decluttering!  It feels great… The good news is I have been able to maintain the rest of my house, which is a rarity for me, usually when I work on these decluttering projects the rest of the house looks like a bomb exploded, and because of “Flylady” and my daily missions, I don’t have C.H.A.O.S. (can’t have anyone over syndrome).  Check out http://www.flylady.com  I also just got a magazine and in it was an idea on how to keep your linen closet well organized. Slip each set of sheets into one of its own pillowcases.  Then you will always be able to find a matching set.  This to me beats trying to find the lost pillow case or top sheet that matches the fitted sheet!  As you can tell by reading my rambling, I am spring cleaning in the fall!

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Good Morning Muffin

 Banana Muffin 

  

  INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 large bananas, mashed
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup butter, melted

 

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Coat muffin pans with non-stick spray, or use paper liners. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
2. Combine bananas, sugar, egg, and melted butter in a large bowl. Fold in flour mixture, and mix until smooth. Scoop into muffin pans.
3. Bake in preheated oven. Bake muffins for 15 minutes, muffins will spring back when lightly tapped.

Just wanted to pass this yummy, and pretty healthy recipe on.  I have a disclaimer though (I HATE bananas) seriously can’t stand them!  It’s a texture thing.  But I purchased a bunch of green bananas (the way my hubby and kids like to eat them) and the next morning they were brown!  So I went in search of a recipe I wanted something without walnuts like banana bread, although I am sure you could add nuts as an option.  I found this banana muffin recipe and it had a 5 stars rating and tons of awesome reviews, so I made them…  Let me tell you, I even LOVE them!  My kids thought I made cupcakes… This was a big hit with our family.

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books

 “At First Sight” by Nicholas Sparks

Take out the tissues….
Many will remember that Jeremy Marsh and Lexie Darnell fell in love in “True Believer.” This was a totally unexpected happening in Marsh’s life. He’s a divorced man in his mid thirties, a columnist, used to life in the big city. But he has moved to the small rural town of Boone Creek, N.C. to start a new life and marry Lexie, a librarian, who is expecting their child.

Fatherhood, home owner, small town dweller – all at once it’s a bit much for Marsh to accommodate. To top it off he develops a bad case of writer’s block, and begins to receive email saying Lexie isn’t all she pretends to be.

Will the two be able to overcome these obstacles for the sake of love? It’s a teary trail to the answer…

Now I know why I read romance novels!  I only rate this book a 2 **on a scale of 1-4. 

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Parenting

Today’s message was given by Joel Wurgler with Youth for Christ….The topic was parenting….

Observation:

1. Nothing can replace direct supervision (being present)
2. Don’t assume anything (if you didn’t see it, don’t take sides with one child over the other)
3. Everyone involved in the problem will be part of the solution.  (Example the children need to look each other in the eyes and apologize)
4. Don’t make mountains out of molehills…  A child’s/teens decision making frontal part of the brain isn’t fully developed (for girls until 25 years old, and boys 29 years old) that doesn’t mean they can’t be mature and make wise decisions, it just means the development of skills for reason and logic aren’t fully developed.  If you really want to make an issue of something, make sure it’s about one or two things, don’t have a list of like 5 expectations.
5. Teach them that sharing is a value that’s treasured by your family. (No such thing as private property even if they paid for it with their own money).

 For discipline try the Tea Spot! 

TEA SPOT:

T   take    E   everything   A   away    for   S   short   P   periods   O   of    T   time

Be realistic in your time frame, don’t ground them for a month when in three days you know you’re going to cave.  Start with a day or two and add more according to the crime.  The punishment must fit the crime. 

Goals for Children

*To be empathetic- able to consider the needs of others, and not be selfish

*To make relationships be important*To have truth telling more important than winning

*To have a well-stocked soul, well furnished mind, and be a well appointed individual.  

Principles over Plans

Life is false to formula, which makes parenting with a plan hazardous! 

The most important thing you will ever do is LOVE your kids like crazy! 

Proverbs 3:3Let not mercy and kindness [shutting out all hatred and selfishness] and truth [shutting out all deliberate hypocrisy or falsehood] forsake you; bind them about your neck, write them upon the tablet of your heart.

Proverbs 19:22That which is desired in a man is loyalty and kindness [and his glory and delight are his giving], but a poor man is better than a liar. 

All your children crave is Love and Attention!

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Super Saturday

Boy, does my hubby know how to score points!!  He said this morning he was going to the store to buy “milk” and came home with milk but also a huge fall bouquet of flowers.  I was in the kitchen making pancakes, and he said “do you like these?”  When I turned around there he was holding the flowers out to me!  I wrapped my arms around him and he said, “I thought you could use these since you weren’t cherished yesterday.”  Ahhhhhhh  What a guy! 

 

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crushed

Ever wonder how children can be our greatest joy, and cause us such heart break??  This evening was one of those MOMents…  Allow me to give you some background…. For starters my children are the only children I know of all of our friends and family that do NOT have chores.  I single handedly do everything with the exception of put their laundry away for them!  I am not complaining and that is not my issue.  But when your teen acts as though you are the lowest form of creation, and then says something cruel and heart wrenching to you in front of his buddy, (which by the way his friend was shocked, and quickly added “I love you Mrs. Gilley”)…. It has a spirit crushing effect.  I tried to let it roll off, and walk away as my oldest was back peddling saying “I am just kidding”…. Anyway I went in the kitchen and started cooking dinner, my cell phone then rings and it is my hubby, he could tell by my tone that something was wrong, and asked what it was….. well need I say the flood gates opened and the tears fell, I explained to him, that I was deeply hurt by our son….He of course was furious and told me he would skip his appointment to come home and deal with the problem.  I assured him that wasn’t necessary, really I didn’t want him blowing up and making our son have an even bigger reason to have an issue with me.  But Spike called his cell phone and let him have it…  Which of course resulted in an apology by our son, I do believe it was sincere, and he claims he was kidding and didn’t mean to hurt me… I am thinking he felt really bad when he saw that I was actually crying.  (I know when ever I saw my mom cry, it tore me up inside) wonder if it effects my boys that way???  He asked that I forgive him, which I of course granted him, forgiveness.  I do feel better and we all had dinner together, he seems to be kinder (and I am going to savor it, cuz who knows what tomorrow will be like).

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hi, howdy, hello…

Ok, Becky you got me started… Of course Em had to hold my hand and get me up and running.  I am extremely techo challenged.  Em is the techno~queen!  We shall see if I am able to navigate this blog….

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