Hmmm. I think my "title" might be a little bit unfair as I doubt this post will be as deep and meaningful as it *might suggest :) However, I was all excited and ready to go a couple weeks (?) ago when I started my blog and wrote my first post and then...beep...beep...beep..beep..beep-beep-beep-beep-beeeeeeppppp..... flatline. Well, I don't want my blog to die so soon, so I decided since I don't seem to just magically find the time and, more importantly, the ideas to write about that I better just hop on and make a little magic of my own! Ha! So, this is going to be a general post about a few of the big (and a few of the not-so-big but equally important) changes in life recently, along with some musings of future changes I am anxious to implement as well.
First off, if I were to try and list ALL the changes in the life of myself and my family over the last eight months (ish) it would take many weeks and many posts and although someday I would love to document this time of great growing in my family, this is not that day. So, where to start? I'll start with the two biggest and most important changes we've made so far. First off, the family *diet plan, or to put it more honestly, the lack there of. The biggest plan I had for our family's diet a few short months ago consisted of, "we need to eat something, preferably today, hopefully a few times. Ha! Okay okay, maybe it wasn't THAT bad as I've always had an aversion to the pre-packaged type frozen meals and fast "food" style of nutrition (HA!) but aside from that I put almost zero thought into maintaining any kind of "healthy" or "balanced" diet of any type for myself, the kiddos, or the big man on campus around here.
As I have been so incredibly sick over the last two months I have had ample time to read and peruse MANY wonderful blogs, articles, and other educational information on eating healthy, organic, balancing nutrition, etc. I had no idea the kind of JUNK I was eating and allowing my family to eat all this time! I'll admit it ladies, I'm completely ashamed of myself. I figured we had a fairly healthy food-style but as I said, I didn't put a considerable amount of thought or effort into it at ALL. That has ALL changed!! I am so happy to report that not only was the transition much much MUCH easier than I originally thought it would be (I was totally overwhelmed by all the things I didn't know, was doing wrong, needed to be changed, etc) but the benefits have been immediate and astonishing! Now, just a year ago I would have never guessed I would have said that!
I can say that in a family of five, with 2/5 of us having major health issues and obstacles that sick time in this house is a regular hurdle to be cleared. It seems that for the last four years (at least) someone, or everyone, is sick... *big sigh. I just thought this was "normal" and I suppose in a warped sort of sense, it was "normal" for us. I just figured that with the above mentioned health "issues" coupled with three small children in school (germ-magnets; the schools NOT the kids), that sickness was merely a necessary evil of having a 'young' family. Boy oh boy did I learn a thing or two!!! Well, actually, just TWO... but what a HUGE difference two things can make! Simply by being more concious of the ingredients I use, and a little planning ahead of time to make sure that the meals/snacks each day had the "good stuff" we all need to get and stay healthy... well, that change alone caused me to see an immediate decline in the "sickness factor" of my family! Once I took that change and coupled it with "big-change numero dos" it was like night and day. Seriously!
Which leads me right into the second big change 'round here these days.... removing the germ magnet.... again, I'm talking about the school not the kids!
The other thing that has changed over the past several months is my opinion on the necessity (or complete and total LACK THERE OF) of sending your kids to a "traditional" school setting; ie public school, private school, charter school, magnet school, etc. Now, my oldest son actually began to partially homeschool mid-way through last school year, during his 6th grade "transition" period into middle school. He didn't "transition" well at ALL, and after much uncertainty I finally made the decision to attempt a home-schooling situation with him. Everything is always so much harder for that poor kiddo because he's my oldest, and so with him (as all you veteran mama's out there will know) everything is *new and *scary and *overwhelming and *uncertain, etc.
Now, I say partially home-school because at the time he left the public school system last year I knew ZERO about home-schooling and so I wasn't true-blue home-schooling him, as it turned out, I was just having him do public school work, at home. However, this huge time of growth that the Lord Jesus has brought me into over the last year has led me into some pretty powerful 'truths' about the nature of our public schools, and the sad sad way I've been failing ALL my kiddos by letting those brilliant beautiful little miracles just rot in the sad, failed human "experiment" we call... duh, duh, duh... public school.
Honestly though, in more seriousness, I really truely didn't know anything about the benefits of home-schooling, the JOYS of home-schooling, and even more importantly the biblical importance of "training up" ones OWN children. However, the Lord Jesus has been gracious enough to my darling children to "school" their MOTHER in this area... and so as of last week... all THREE of my
"babies" are now doing a 100% traditional, Christian curriculum-based, home-school. We are LOVING it!!! And again, the health benefit to our family... INSANE!!! We haven't had even ONE child-related winter-sniffle sickness at ALL in the last three months!! (Btw, that was even before the 'last' of the duckies made the final permanent transition out of the public 'fool' system, haha!) I am looking forward to many many MANY happy, fun, HEALTHY days ahead.
It's only looking "up" from here on out! Now please don't get me wrong, I am not at all saying that I think this adjustment will be without it's challenges, trust me, I've already had to hurdle MANY of those! Including an indignant and difficult staff at my middle son's elementary school (the final 'piece' of the family puzzle that left his school two weeks ago yesterday), they are doing everything they can to make this change a nightmare for me. However, I will 'fight the good fight' with them over the rights to MY SON and I WILL WIN. He's not a "paycheck" or a "commodity" (which is exactly how I'm SURE they view him, and the ONLY reason they give TWO HOOTS whether he's at "their" school...) he's a precious gift that God gave to ME (n-his-daddy-2!) to raise and I intend to do exactly that! I will update everyone on how that whole saga plays out. Oh, the drama. Ha!
Oh goodness, I can see I've already got myself a novella going here and I'm not nearly through the points I started out intending to make... so I'll just do a wrap-up of sorts and leave the rest for another day...such is life :) I want to say that the two main sources of this new-found wisdom in healthy eating habits and home-school education come from a beautiful couple I've never even met, or spoken to... but who the Lord none-the-less used in order to help facilitate the changes I'm sure he's been wanting to see in me (and mine) for a loooonnnngggg time comin'. So this is my little "shout-out" to them, from my ever-grateful heart for all they have (albeit unknowingly) done to better my family's lives, and no doubt that they will continue to do.
So, thank you, from the deepest place in my heart, Mr. and Mrs. Steven Anderson for everything you do in Christ, with love, that impacts the lives of little 'ole people like us. I'm sure I'm probably one of 1000s who have been blessed by this beautiful couple/family simply because they weren't afraid to stand up for the TRUTH in God's Word and speak it, pulling no punches. For the "good pastor" and his no-holds-bar sermons that have thundered right past my incredibly thick skull straight into my heart like an arrow of God's Truth, and for his beautiful wife for her candid, informative and riveting blog-posts that are ever-teaching me, and a shining example of a true "woman of God" that I can strive to follow as an example. Thank you Jesus, for people such as these! Rare jewels in a dirty world are they!!
And so I'll say goodnight and hopefully (maybe?) tomorrow I can write a "part two" to talk about the coming changes I am anxious, eager and admittedly terrified to make in the coming weeks/months/years... I hope this finds all that read healthy, happy and full of the joy and peace God's love can offer. With love in Christ!
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Hey, I did it!
Hey, I did it! It may seem like a small thing to just about everyone else living in the 21st century, but for me this is giant step as I am not only technologically impaired - to put it mildly - but also constantly running to play catch-up and years "behind the times" in just about every area of life. What did I do, you might ask? Well, I started my own blog!
I know, I know, to everyone else this seems like "no big deal" because everyone in the modern world has been blogging for years, but as I said, I am chronically "behind the times" when it comes to the technological/computer centered world that we live in. I find myself easily overwhelmed with the speed at which new devices, services, techno-trends, etc are coming down the pike, and so it is not uncommon for me to just "avoid" the new fads so as not to add more confusion (not to mention frustration) to my already busy busy life. To illustrate this point for those who don't know me personally: I don't own a cell-phone, I have NEVER played any of the new gaming-systems after the Super Nintendo, I have never even used an ipad, iphone, ireader, itunes (or any other such "i" device), and I also don't have a facebook/twitter/linkedin account!
It seems to me that as soon as one of these gadgets or fads becomes "all the rage" that the next second you turn around there is something new! exciting! better! coming out for everyone to obsess over and it just takes me too long to get comfortable with one new technological invention that, by the time I feel like I've mastered something, it doesn't matter anymore because it's "out of date". My husband has a fancy smart-phone, top of the line "gadget" that can do everything my laptop does (and more!) and it's so loaded with features for your "convenience" that I can't figure out how to even make a phone call on the silly thing!
So, that being said, about five years ago I decided to just embrace my techo-impairment and live my life without all the modern computer fads, toys, and "conveniences" that we are constantly bombarded with in today's world. It was very freeing I must admit. I no longer had to spend time and energy (time and energy that I don't have to spare, I might add) trying to learn how to manage some new social-networking site, game, phone, or other computer-related device only to find out once I'd spent the time to 'master' it that it was obsolete. I remember around about the time I figured out how to really navigate my "myspace" page effectively, everyone started telling me that myspace was "out" and no-one was using that anymore, but facebook was "in" and everybody was switching to use that instead. I thought to myself then, no thank you! I quit! (Haha.)
Now, I know it's hard for most people to believe, or even really fathom this but, my life has been just fine and dandy all these years... that's right, I am totally content and fulfilled, and rarely ever run into any "problems" living my techNO lifestyle! Admittedly there has been the occasion here or there where I had car trouble and wished for a cell-phone, or needed some on-the-spot information where a portable internet device of some sort would have been beneficial. Yet, somehow, by some strange twist of fate, I have actually survived even those instances. I have found that it is quite possible to get through life, quite happily I might add, just as people have done for thousands of years before the 20th century! To top it all off, I have actually seen so many of my friends and family who seem to have become almost addicted to their technology-- behaving as though they couldn't possibly survive without it-- as they seem to have forgotten that those of us in my generation and older didn't even have ANY of these things for most of our lives!
Now, all that being said, hopefully will explain a little bit why finally starting my own blog is such an incredible leap for me personally. So I would like to take just a moment here, to now explain why I wanted to join the ranks of the online bloggers in the first place. It's really quite a simple; As a bible-believing Christian woman myself, I needed to find a way to connect with like-minded ladies around the world who share in my convictions and beliefs. The more rapidly we are seeing changes in the world around us, the more and more difficult it is to "stand firm" in beliefs that the Bible teaches us that have become increasingly "un-popular" and even, "politically incorrect" to the point that many people now-a-days not only reject the teachings found in the Bible, but also become upset/defensive/offended by folks who continue to hold fast to those beliefs themselves.
Not so long ago, Bible-believing Christians could gain support and encouragement in their continuing walk with Christ, as we strive to make the right choices and to "push-out" the sin in our lives as it oh-so-subtly creeps in unawares, from members of our church family. It seems to me one of the main reasons that God puts such importance for believers to attend church regularly, as there is much more strength in like-minded people gathering together to hold fast to standards we know to be true, than for someone out in the world "on their own", so to speak. Unfortunately this is also something that has become increasingly difficult in the world we live in today.
Since this is the situation that I am faced with at this point in my life, I began to see the increasing need to find a way to connect somehow, someway, with other people who share a passion for the Bible as it is. In addition, many of my convictions and beliefs are relatively new to me as well. I was saved at 6yrs old and attended church on a semi-regular basis for the majority of my childhood years, however I was raised in liberal churches and have come to find out over the last several months that many of the things I have been taught over the years is either lacking, twisted a bit, or just plain wrong. That being the case, there is even more of a necessity for me to connect with conservative Christian women because in some ways I am the proverbial "babe in Christ" since many of my now-held beliefs, convictions and doctrines are very new to me. Therefore, I have questions, and a lot of them! Since I'm unable to find support and answers for those questions as they arise from somebody in person locally, I came to the conclusion that I needed establish some friendships online instead. I came to that conclusion about two or three months ago but I didn't even know where to start when it came to beginning my journey as a "blogger", haha!
I am an avid reader of several blogs that I have been blessed enough to come across over the last several months, that in itself is a story of "divine intervention" I am sure! As a matter of fact, being lead to those blogs ties in directly with how my eyes were finally opened to the many areas of understanding I was lacking in, biblically speaking. It was a "domino-effect" of sorts, finding one truth that lead me to another and another, and so on and so forth to bring me to where I am today. That is quite a long story in and of itself, so I will try and make another post explaining my "journey of discovery" here in the next couple of days.
For now I will just say that the very first blog I ever read belonged to the wife of a pastor from a small church in Arizona, and I thank God every single day that I "happened" across this beautiful family! My life, and by extension the lives of my entire family, have been completely changed over the last eight months! I am devastated that I lived so many years believing in lies, or not believing/knowing things that I should have know. That being said, however, now my children have the chance to learn and grow in the Lord the way I should have and they will not have to go through so many painful lessons that I endured, that could have been avoided if I had been taught correctly. I will be eternally in debt to Pastor Anderson and his wife, Zsuzsanna, whom I could never even begin to repay -- so I take solace in knowing that Jesus will reward them on my behalf someday!
To conclude this, my first blog post, I just want to send out a heartfelt prayer to everyone who has participated in leading me closer to the Lord to where I am today (and God knows who those people are) that they be blessed in their lives now and going forward. I would also like to invite the Christian women who "happen across" my new blog to introduce yourself because I am eager and anxious to start building fruitful relationships with any and all ladies who can continue to teach and guide me in my personal walk with Jesus. I am on a mission to change the harmful ideas, perceptions, habits and beliefs that have held me back, not only from having a close fellowship with my Lord and Savior, but also from living the best and most healthy life possible and giving those tools to my children so they don't have to learn the "hard way" as their father and I did. I desire to make those changes as quickly as I possibly can and I am keenly aware that I still have a long way to go and a LOT to learn! Thank you for taking the time to read my first post, there will be many more to come!
I know, I know, to everyone else this seems like "no big deal" because everyone in the modern world has been blogging for years, but as I said, I am chronically "behind the times" when it comes to the technological/computer centered world that we live in. I find myself easily overwhelmed with the speed at which new devices, services, techno-trends, etc are coming down the pike, and so it is not uncommon for me to just "avoid" the new fads so as not to add more confusion (not to mention frustration) to my already busy busy life. To illustrate this point for those who don't know me personally: I don't own a cell-phone, I have NEVER played any of the new gaming-systems after the Super Nintendo, I have never even used an ipad, iphone, ireader, itunes (or any other such "i" device), and I also don't have a facebook/twitter/linkedin account!
It seems to me that as soon as one of these gadgets or fads becomes "all the rage" that the next second you turn around there is something new! exciting! better! coming out for everyone to obsess over and it just takes me too long to get comfortable with one new technological invention that, by the time I feel like I've mastered something, it doesn't matter anymore because it's "out of date". My husband has a fancy smart-phone, top of the line "gadget" that can do everything my laptop does (and more!) and it's so loaded with features for your "convenience" that I can't figure out how to even make a phone call on the silly thing!
So, that being said, about five years ago I decided to just embrace my techo-impairment and live my life without all the modern computer fads, toys, and "conveniences" that we are constantly bombarded with in today's world. It was very freeing I must admit. I no longer had to spend time and energy (time and energy that I don't have to spare, I might add) trying to learn how to manage some new social-networking site, game, phone, or other computer-related device only to find out once I'd spent the time to 'master' it that it was obsolete. I remember around about the time I figured out how to really navigate my "myspace" page effectively, everyone started telling me that myspace was "out" and no-one was using that anymore, but facebook was "in" and everybody was switching to use that instead. I thought to myself then, no thank you! I quit! (Haha.)
Now, I know it's hard for most people to believe, or even really fathom this but, my life has been just fine and dandy all these years... that's right, I am totally content and fulfilled, and rarely ever run into any "problems" living my techNO lifestyle! Admittedly there has been the occasion here or there where I had car trouble and wished for a cell-phone, or needed some on-the-spot information where a portable internet device of some sort would have been beneficial. Yet, somehow, by some strange twist of fate, I have actually survived even those instances. I have found that it is quite possible to get through life, quite happily I might add, just as people have done for thousands of years before the 20th century! To top it all off, I have actually seen so many of my friends and family who seem to have become almost addicted to their technology-- behaving as though they couldn't possibly survive without it-- as they seem to have forgotten that those of us in my generation and older didn't even have ANY of these things for most of our lives!
Now, all that being said, hopefully will explain a little bit why finally starting my own blog is such an incredible leap for me personally. So I would like to take just a moment here, to now explain why I wanted to join the ranks of the online bloggers in the first place. It's really quite a simple; As a bible-believing Christian woman myself, I needed to find a way to connect with like-minded ladies around the world who share in my convictions and beliefs. The more rapidly we are seeing changes in the world around us, the more and more difficult it is to "stand firm" in beliefs that the Bible teaches us that have become increasingly "un-popular" and even, "politically incorrect" to the point that many people now-a-days not only reject the teachings found in the Bible, but also become upset/defensive/offended by folks who continue to hold fast to those beliefs themselves.
Not so long ago, Bible-believing Christians could gain support and encouragement in their continuing walk with Christ, as we strive to make the right choices and to "push-out" the sin in our lives as it oh-so-subtly creeps in unawares, from members of our church family. It seems to me one of the main reasons that God puts such importance for believers to attend church regularly, as there is much more strength in like-minded people gathering together to hold fast to standards we know to be true, than for someone out in the world "on their own", so to speak. Unfortunately this is also something that has become increasingly difficult in the world we live in today.
Since this is the situation that I am faced with at this point in my life, I began to see the increasing need to find a way to connect somehow, someway, with other people who share a passion for the Bible as it is. In addition, many of my convictions and beliefs are relatively new to me as well. I was saved at 6yrs old and attended church on a semi-regular basis for the majority of my childhood years, however I was raised in liberal churches and have come to find out over the last several months that many of the things I have been taught over the years is either lacking, twisted a bit, or just plain wrong. That being the case, there is even more of a necessity for me to connect with conservative Christian women because in some ways I am the proverbial "babe in Christ" since many of my now-held beliefs, convictions and doctrines are very new to me. Therefore, I have questions, and a lot of them! Since I'm unable to find support and answers for those questions as they arise from somebody in person locally, I came to the conclusion that I needed establish some friendships online instead. I came to that conclusion about two or three months ago but I didn't even know where to start when it came to beginning my journey as a "blogger", haha!
I am an avid reader of several blogs that I have been blessed enough to come across over the last several months, that in itself is a story of "divine intervention" I am sure! As a matter of fact, being lead to those blogs ties in directly with how my eyes were finally opened to the many areas of understanding I was lacking in, biblically speaking. It was a "domino-effect" of sorts, finding one truth that lead me to another and another, and so on and so forth to bring me to where I am today. That is quite a long story in and of itself, so I will try and make another post explaining my "journey of discovery" here in the next couple of days.
For now I will just say that the very first blog I ever read belonged to the wife of a pastor from a small church in Arizona, and I thank God every single day that I "happened" across this beautiful family! My life, and by extension the lives of my entire family, have been completely changed over the last eight months! I am devastated that I lived so many years believing in lies, or not believing/knowing things that I should have know. That being said, however, now my children have the chance to learn and grow in the Lord the way I should have and they will not have to go through so many painful lessons that I endured, that could have been avoided if I had been taught correctly. I will be eternally in debt to Pastor Anderson and his wife, Zsuzsanna, whom I could never even begin to repay -- so I take solace in knowing that Jesus will reward them on my behalf someday!
To conclude this, my first blog post, I just want to send out a heartfelt prayer to everyone who has participated in leading me closer to the Lord to where I am today (and God knows who those people are) that they be blessed in their lives now and going forward. I would also like to invite the Christian women who "happen across" my new blog to introduce yourself because I am eager and anxious to start building fruitful relationships with any and all ladies who can continue to teach and guide me in my personal walk with Jesus. I am on a mission to change the harmful ideas, perceptions, habits and beliefs that have held me back, not only from having a close fellowship with my Lord and Savior, but also from living the best and most healthy life possible and giving those tools to my children so they don't have to learn the "hard way" as their father and I did. I desire to make those changes as quickly as I possibly can and I am keenly aware that I still have a long way to go and a LOT to learn! Thank you for taking the time to read my first post, there will be many more to come!
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