Diary of a Woman Learning

So as I read Genesis 1 today, the story of Creation took on a whole new meaning. Click here to read Genesis 1. The words that spoke to me today - due to personal issues that I've been dwelling on - are "separated", "after their kind", and "it was good". What I realized is that there are family situations that I've encountered in my lifetime - and I am still dealing with some of them - in which I have been outright rejected. I've been so hurt that my own family might judge me harshly and/or wrongly. Maybe that they don't even seem to care that I have children that they don't even know. It hurts. And I know that God will never leave me or forsake me, but it still causes deep pain that my earthly family finds it so easy to abandon me. However, in several instances, people (even family members) who have chosen for one reason or another to keep their distance from me or my family have come back around. I've stayed much the same, ye...

I've been gone for far too long. I know it's been too long, because my hubby has been asking if I've blogged or anything. I also know because God's been tugging at me to re-vamp my little blog here and create a Bible-led adventure blog. Okay, so probably not an adventure like you might think...but a journal of sorts for me to document revelations or thoughts that God might want me to learn. I hope that you'll read along and give me your own insights. I believe that the Bible is God's Living Word and that even though the Bible itself never changes, everything in it is true and it peaks to what you need in a particular moment. My first post should clarify that a bit, but because the Bible is God's Living Word, when I need to learn or know something, God will use certain words to get His point across to me. Or at least I hope He will get His point across or this will be a long journey! Each day I will read a portion of the Scripture and I will stop where I ...

So for much of our marriage, Hubby and I have not taken for granted all that we have been given. We lived in an apartment for only a few short months because our goal was to own a house. Don't get me wrong - our house was far from extravagant. However, every one of those 700 square feet was well-used for the several years that we lived in it. God provided exactly what we needed, when we needed it. And when it came time to move into a bigger home, God provided yet again. Each and every step of the way, God has provided for us in every way and beyond what we could have asked for. Yet as I sit here nearing the end of 2010 and subsequent beginning of 2011, I ponder my stewardship of those blessings. We have racked up more medical bills, more credit card debt, and we have less and less for our family's necessities and for blessing others. Why? Not solely because of the medical bills both for my surgery and our unexpected (and deeply loved) little miracle girl - but due mostly to eat...

This has been such an odd year. It has been filled with everything from total joy and complete love to desperation and sadness. We have endured loss, tight finances and excruciating pain. But we have also enjoyed a new miracle baby, countless small blessings and everything in between. We are so very blessed. And in the midst of it all, God was right there. Orchestrating every minute detail and working everything out for our good. It is so much more than I can possibly comprehend. I finally know what verse God is leading me to for 2011 and I am very excited and scared at the same time. I know that this verse is going to guide me through some personal challenges - and I pray that I am physically up for them. Regardless I know that God is so very good and He wants only to work good out of everything that I must endure each and every day. This doesn't mean that I expect everything to be wonderful and easy, by any means. But I do hope to search for the good, the lessons that God wants m...

Life is going on at a frantic pace around here - especially with the holidays coming up. However, we are all doing pretty well right now and we are truly trying to enjoy God's many blessings. He has provided for us in abundance this year, and as finances get tighter and tighter we become even more aware of what we have. We have shelter; warm, comfortable beds; heating and air conditioning; transportation; food...the list just goes on and on. We are trying to eat at home more often and that is a challenge in and of itself. If the challenge is not in the time it takes to prepare it when juggling a very hungy baby's nursing schedule, then it certainly comes in trying to clean the dishes and the kitchen so that it will be ready for preparation of the next meal. It seems nearly constant, however, I am reminded that not only do I have the kitchen to prepare the meals in; but the stove, the dishes and the food required. And on top of all that, I even have a dishwasher to wash the dish...

The last 7 weeks have gone by relatively smoothly. Hubby continues to work hard to provide financially and especially physically and emotionally as we adjust to my frequent inability to get things done as quickly as we would like. He often helps with meals and he enjoys helping with Peaches. Kiddo loves to help as well and we have found him to be a great assistant when it comes to getting needed supplies, giving the baby her paci, and even placing or removing Peaches from her car seat or swing. He lets us hear about if he doesn't get to hold her enough each day and loves to dote on her. However, Chuy continues to be timid and unimpressed when it comes to the baby...he still tries to check her out. :) Here are lots of pictures to make up for my lack of words: ABOVE: 2 days old BELOW: 3 days old, going to church :) ABOVE: 10 days old, just relaxing with a full belly BELOW: sweet yawn ABOVE: proud brother trying out a bottle (a rare occurence since Peaches is breastfeeding and is do...

We are well, but busy for the most part. Baby Girl (Peaches will likely be her blog name) and I have colds, so we are feeling a bit under the weather, but at least we are functioning to some extent. The boys are doing pretty well. I hear "the beast" stirring so I have to get off for now, but we are still around - I just do not have a spare moment to update you all properly yet. It's a madhouse...but I LOVE it! :) With love and prayers for you... P.S. Please be in prayer for my step-dad. He was rear-ended while getting into the town in Tennessee where he was to work for a few days and his car was totaled. By most accounts he should not have survived, but he has only some scratches on his left arm from where his watch was thrown off of him and he is in quite a lot of pain with an already bad back. Thank you so very much and I hope to update you better very soon.

It has taken so long to update you all because our schedules are so very out of whack right now...nothing like a new baby to turn your world upside-down and right-side up at the same time! We are all so in love with her! My doctor's appointments had been going really well and my doctor didn't want me to go past my due date, especially since there is a margin of error in the ultrasounds and measurements to estimate the baby's size. However, this time it was pretty well right on - I have a little one! (Okay, so she's not tiny...but so much smaller than Kiddo was when he was born!) This is likely much more detail than you want, but I really want this recorded for my own reference as much as that of my family's. Feel free to skim or even skip to the pictures! :) Thursday morning we got up early and went to breakfast - I was told to eat well, that I didn't have to fast! Woo-hoo! We ate at IHOP because it was pretty much the only thing open and we waited so long for o...

I'd hate to get your hopes up so I have to title my posts so that you know what to expect. :) I finally have a few pictures to share with you...they are not great, but my photographer took them during a quick break from school work. He's a busy guy, you know. :) We had another doctor's appointment today and it went very much as expected - though I was hopeful I had dilated more. I've gained a little bit of weight this time, Baby Girl has dropped a bit more and we set up an appointment for next Tuesday. If I've not gone into labor on my own by then, we will set up induction for later in the week. My doctor doesn't really want me going past my due date given the size of Kiddo when he was born. Baby Girl looks like she is quite a bit smaller, but we still don't want to push our luck because the ultrasound can be off by almost a pound. We'll likely do some more walking in the next few days - the Targets and malls are getting much of our time lately. I can ...

It's still been a lot of ups and downs around here lately as technology seems to be refusing to work/run reliably. It just wears me out, but I know that these things are certainly not necessities and are just to make our lives easier. As I come to adjust to that fact and also to the fact that what I have works at least part of the time, I try to work around things and just be thankful for the times that they do work. That's tough this late in pregnancy and trying to start homeschooling and praying for funds to pay off bills and so on and so forth...but God has not let us down yet - and I don't believe that He will ! I have another doctor's appointment tomorrow, late in the morning, and I am so very anxious to know if I have dilated any more. I am pretty certain that I have because Baby Girl is so determined to get outta there. I told Hubby the other night that I didn't think she was going to wait for me to dilate or start having contractions - she was about to cr...

I cannot express to you the way that this blog post title sums up the entire year of 2010 so far! Ugh! There have been a couple of redeeming experiences - namely Baby Girl and my gallbladder being done away with, however, for the most part it has been a very tough year. The past few weeks have been some of the hardest, for sure. I expressed in the last post that we had been having computer issues - well, they got even worse. My PC still randomly reboots and my live-in technical support (a.k.a. Hubby :) has tried just about everything. The only thing left is to replace the motherboard and that would cost nearly as much as just replacing the computer altogether. My monitor already freaked out and died on me, so really there is not much left on this computer to keep us up and running. I had been using Hubby's computer in the interim and last week I walked in the office and went to turn on the monitor at his PC and there I saw the "blue screen of death". Really?!? Well, lo a...

After quite a hiatus from my blog, I have returned to update you all on the goings-on. The break was not at all intentional, though, my monitor died and I had very limited computer usage during that time. There is still a possibility that there are some fishy things going on with my computer, but my in-home techie tells me that for now it is safe to use...and it has very recently been "backed up", praise the Lord! :) If it does go out, it will likely not be a cheap fix - Hubby thinks my motherboard is about to crash - and that would mean that I would likely be on the other computer for some time until we could afford to get mine fixed. That would stink. But we do what we have to do, and in the meantime, I'm just glad to be back on here. I'll start with Music Camp: we had a blast! We had about 32 kids come Monday-Thursday morning and then on Thursday night we put on a performance for the entire church and families of the kids. The kids learned a whole musical called ...

I follow a blog written by Patrice that journals all the ups and downs of her son, Jonah, with EB. I read the blog and I pray for them often - I cannot even imagine what life for them must be like each and every day. However, I find that Patrice - while real and bold - is so very inspirational to me. I love to get updates on Baby Jonah and hear how well he is doing. Anyway, she was tagged by her friend Katherine and has now challenged those of us with blogs. I figured I could play along because, well, it's pretty boring around here lately. :) What experience has shaped you most and why? Becoming a mother - I'm sure you might have guessed that. I learned at the age of 22 years what it was like to have someone else depending on me for every single thing. I had suffered from poor self esteem and I found myself, though obviously overweight, so very proud of my body and what it had to do to create a new life. My body did all that it was supposed to do and protected and provided for ...

Wow! Sometimes it seems as though time is creeping along and my Lil' Princess will just never come...and other days it seems as if these last several months are just a blur and she'll be here in a blink! We are getting more and more excited - Kiddo has even begun telling Lil' Princess goodnight before bed and he tells her often that he loves her. I have to say that it has to be one of my absolutely favorite things to hear and see. So sweet. She is quite obviously growing well, however, I have begun to retain some fluids now. In the last 2 weeks I have gained 5 pounds...and I certainly feel it in my legs and feet. It's partially related to me doing VBS and other things, but I've been able to sit much - just not with elevating my feet. It didn't really help that before my Monday appointment at 2:30 I had not been home since about 9 am due to errands and Kiddo's allergy shots. It was hot and I was tired. Hopefully my next appointment will yield better news on t...

Just wanted to hop on here long enough to tell you that all is well. VBS - though a short week - was exhausting and a huge blessing to me! I had a great time. I will tell you more about it later, but I didn't want anyone to worry about us since it has been so long since my last post. Everyone is doing great - including Lil' Princess - and this weekend will hopefully prove to be a relaxing one. Hoping for many blessings for you this weekend!

This last week has been a long one and we are glad to have the weekend behind us now! Poor Hubby worked on what should have been a minor project with our vehicle (we have only one car, but he does have a work vehicle - provided by his work, solely for work. However, they are gracious enough to let us use it in emergencies for personal use...and they know that Hubby does not take it for granted or abuse that privilege.) This minor project was to change out the spark plugs on our vehicle with over 100K miles before we were to go on an overnight trip with my parents this coming weekend, in order to celebrate both my mom's birthday and Hubby's. There was also a possible fuel filter change to take care of. This project started on Friday morning and as of Monday evening (sparing you the horrible details) was still ongoing with a very poor prognosis. Long story short, it was the brand of spark plugs we purchased and though it is now much, much better, it is sitting in the parking lot ...

*Sorry the spacing is off...ugh! Blogger. But I'm not going to fret about it - it is really grating on my perfectionistic tendencies and I'm trying to work on that. :) * The last week has been relatively busy, but we're making it. My reflux is still under control, even though I decided to take my pill only once a day instead of twice as I'm prescribed. I figured that the less medication in my system, the better...because then it isn't in Lil' Princess' system either. It's exciting that I can reduce the amount and still have great control, because before I got pregnant I took this and another medication and rarely had relief. It's definitely a God-thing! Praise the Lord for relief from heartburn! :) The Bible study group was a wonderful blessing. God has pieced together our little group of four, and we all hit it off great...like I knew we would. We have so much in common, yet so much that makes us unique and special and I am truly looking forward to ...

The last week has been a lot more of the same old thing, but I feel so much better! With my acid-reducer, my acid reflux is under control (even when I forget to take a dose, like I did last night - oops! ) pretty much all of the time. My energy level is better - though still not quite where I would like it to be - and I feel like I can accomplish more in a day. I even recently signed up for e-mealz which has really helped my meal-planning dilemmas. (Not that I follow the order on the list at all or even eat at home every night, but we are making great strides!) In fact, I've learned a few easy recipes that my family (read: my picky eaters ) are truly enjoying! Lil' Princess continues to move and my belly is growing at a pretty surprising rate these days! :) People no longer seem afraid to ask if I'm pregnant and ladies at church - that know how much we have wanted this and for how long - are beginning to ask if it's okay for them to touch my baby bump. It's so much...

There isn't really a lot going on as of late. Life is great, though. I feel better since I've started the iron supplement - it's not a drastic improvement, but I don't feel as if I could fall asleep at any given moment. It's been nice - my energy level is not up to par, but that could be the acid-reducer and the iron working against each other. I may just have to take 2 iron pills and that should help. I'll just take one a day until my next appointment, though. I figure 4 weeks should be long enough to know if I need more or not. Today Kiddo's summer session of golf will start up, so he is very excited! It will last for 8 weeks and then there will be a short break and a new fall session after that. He really has a great time and seems to enjoy playing golf more than many other sports. Don't get me wrong, he is all boy and loves to play with baseballs, basketballs, footballs - he just really doesn't care to abide by the rules or follow the faster-pace...