I believe

This Christmas is just an utter joy for me. Here are a few reasons why:

1.) I talked to my dad on Saturday and am going to see him in the next week, he is in Indiana until January sometime.

2.) I feel blessed this year looking at the gifts under the tree

3.) The Lord has richly blessed me with a overall healthy year

4.) This is my second year as a married woman.

5.) My husband and I will be starting our own Christmas Traditions this year

6.) I am glad that I believe in Jesus, for now there is a reason for the season

7.) I am thankful for Mary and Josephs sacrifices to bring my King into this world

8.)We will be attending the candlelight Christmas Eve service at Church tomorrow night

9.)Last but not least, the children at Kiddie Kollege are excited that Santa will be here tomorrow night.

It has been interesting listening to the innocence of each child talking about Santa. Today many students made reindeer food, made their Christmas wishes, and spoke of all that they will be doing for Christmas. As I was in the midst of the children, I began to think back of when I found out that my parents were the wonderful Santa. Here's how it happened:

My family use to let us open a gift the last 12 days of Christmas, so one year I opened a Slinky Christmas Eve. I remember being in the bedroom with my sister, waiting so patiently to hear Santa on the roof top. We would look out the window every so often to make sure that we didn't miss him. I believe that I had to go to the bathroom, get a drink, something to see if Santa had came down the chimney yet. As I was in the hallway, I heard my parents talking in the Living room and there all of our Christmas gifts were being sorted in the living room in our special spot. Wow all those years of momma kissing Santa Claus:)

How did you find out about Santa's nonexistence?

Merry Christmas! Jesus is the Reason for the Season!

Daddy's Little Girl

Well this evening was hard on me. You see in August my father decided to leave Indiana for the trucking business. It makes perfect since, He has always wanted to travel and he loves to be alone. I was happy for him because this is something that he wanted to do and since he lost his business there really hasn't been anything he has WANTED to do. I didn't get to see him off, I received a phone call from him explaining that he had a few hours before he went on road training for 3 weeks. Well his first training he ended up with an addict, needless to say this was not a good situation for him. My father then went out for another 3 weeks with a christian man, great for my father. I was so excited that God had match them up. Since August I might have talked to my dad 6 times. In college we talked at least twice a week if not more than that. Once I was married and life became a little bit crazier I talked to him once a week. Now that my father is on the road, he has not had the financial stability to keep a cell phone, therefore, I only get to talk to him when he calls me.
This brings me to today. My father called me this evening while I was at Bible Study. I missed his call. I was lucky that he left me a voicemail, the last time we had talked was Thanksgiving, he called to let us know that he would not be joining us for a meal. Usually my father is decently upbeat when leaving me a voicemail. However, tonight it was not the same. He told me in a very mono tone voice that he was in Utah, he missed me, and he was sorry that he didn't get to talk to me.
Why is this so hard? He is my dad, and I am his little girl. When my mom and him had a divorce he use to take me dates every Saturday. We went to Toys R Us one time, bought all kinds of real baby things for my baby doll, the cashier asked if we were going to a baby shower. Now my father and I were not always together. He worked in Indy running his successful drywall company, he would come home on the weekends. However, he still made sure to call me almost every night to tell me that he loved me.
Today I sit here worried about my father behind the wheel of a semi in the snow, is he eating, does he have time to sleep, is he lonely. I just pray that the Lord would keep his hand on my father. I miss him and love him so much.

My First Experience with Chili

Children's ministries put on a chili cook off this past Sunday. The point was for you to make your chili bring it in to be judged, as well as donate money to eat, this is a way for Children's ministries to earn easy money and it is enjoyable. Well to make a long story short, Keith had asked me to make Chili because they were afraid that there would not be enough chili to go around. I went to the store on Thursday night to purchase all that I would need to make this chili in hopes that it would be good. Since they were worried about having enough I decided that I would buy enough stuff to double the recipe. As I got to the check out counter of the second store I have realized that I had spend about $50.00 on ingredients to make chili. As we were on our way to church on Sunday, my lovely husband the believer that he is asked me in doubt, are you going to enter your chili into the contest. I said well I guess I won't unless there is not enough and they can judge mine as well. However I continued to say that I thought it was good, definitely spicy, but missing something. Anyways my husband entered my chili into the contest for me. As the judges were judging they had one person for the blue ribbon prize, and three people tied for 2nd place with an honorable mention. As they were announcing the winners before the dinner, they went all the way through the line of who was first. Guess who was called on for tied in second place? that's right, this girl. I was surprised that they enjoyed my chili that much. My husband was very happy (and he doubted me:)). I was told that if I enter it next year there is a good chance that I would get first place!!! I thought that I would let you share in my joy of first time chili making as a hit!

It's all because of Jesus I'm alive

This weekend was amazing! We were able to visit our good friends in Ohio. The kids have gotten so big in the past six months that we have not seen them. The youngest one is talking now, today she was singing Scooby Doo I love you.:) We were able to catch up on life and where God has taken each of us. I enjoyed hearing about how God is working in their ministry and to see their future church. We saw many things in Toledo, met a few people, and had great food all weekend. Another thing that we did this weekend is church, a lot of church. A service that we went to on Saturday had an AMAZING child care facility. On Sunday night we had church in their living room. But the best part of this weekends services is the tent city service. This was a service that took place in a tent, I am assuming downtown. The special thing about this service is it was a service for the homeless of Toledo, OH. I have to admit that when we first walked in and saw the homeless sitting around, I felt uncomfortable. But as we walked into the area of the service, I saw families joining in for church. There were many homeless along with other people to support the cause. When the service began we sung All because of Jesus. If you have ever heard this song you would understand why I was effected by this song. As I sat there singing it's all because of Jesus I'm alive, I began to look around the room and see these homeless people praising the Lord. Wow, they truly are thinking it's all because of Jesus I'm ALIVE. Their life is in his hands from day to day. I saw these little children standing around, had no idea whether they were homeless or not, but I thought about my family. I thought about how close they were to being homeless, how I am sure that my dad spent a few nights in his car. I can't imagine my little sister laying on the streets praying to Jesus to stay warm in these cold nights.
I can honestly say that it was a very humbling service, we are blinded by our riches that we do not always see the other side of life. I pray that all who are without shelter tonight would be protected and kept warm. I also am thankful that God is faithful to me. It is all because of Jesus I am alive, it is all because the blood of Jesus Christ, that covers me and raised this dead mans life, it's all because of Jesus I'm alive.......

Thanks Barb and Andy for opening your home to us.....We miss you!!!

Halloween

Today was a great day at Kiddie Kollege! We had our fall party for the children. This is a time that each classroom has their own party, along with that comes trick-or-treating within the building and then having a small parade around the gymnasium. It is always interesting this time of the year to hear what each child desires to be for Halloween. We have decided to not let our 4 year old's and up dress up, because they tend to want to be ghost, killers, witches, etc. In our two's class we had Dorthy and the Lion, IU Cheerleader, and a peacock. We had two three classrooms. In the one there were fairies, princesses, and bumblebees. In the other classroom they were farm animals such as cow, duck, horse, and somehow Dumbo the big eared elephant.

As I think back to our ERC discussion on Sunday about how we feel about Halloween. I began to think about how I really feel about the Holiday. To me it is just a time where children get dress up and pretend to be their favorite character, it is an innocent holiday for the young. Keith and I have began to discuss what we want to do with our children, I am not for sure that we have completely figured it out.

Back to the daycare..... I saw a little boy of another 3's classroom whom was going on a field trip today so they did not party. I asked this little boy, what are you going to be for Halloween? He said myself. As his mother was standing next to him, I looked up for confirmation. She explained that he said he wanted to be himself, so he will be staying home and passing out candy. How precious is that. This little child who has no idea how deep the thought of being yourself runs.

How many times do we try to be someone we are not. This kids has the concept be happy with who you are..........
Happy Halloween/Harvest!!!

R.I.P. Ryan

Well, where do I start. I guess the facts would help all to understand what happened. My step dad has a stepson from previous marriage that he has raised every since he was a little tot. Last night I received a phone call from my mother. Hearing the doubt in her voice, just tells me it is not going to be good. My "step-brother" died last night. He was out riding his motorcycle when a lady in a vehicle decided to do an illegal u-turn and pulled out in front of Ryan. Ryan t-boned the lady practically cutting her car in half with his motorcycle. He was being life lined to another hospital, not expecting to make it to the hospital alive. This morning I received a phone call from my mom, they had just identified his body (not by face but by tattoos) this morning. Ryan is gone. He has a family of two small children who have been left behind.

Honestly, I had no idea last night when I received the call how I would react if he died. Well as I was standing in the church nursery, searching for my voice, trying to show my strength, the tears began to flow. I completely lost it. Ryan and I use to hang out whenever I would come and visit my mom when I was little. Though we did not always get along, we did have some good times. He always called me Kimmy, not too many people call me that (I can count on my hand). I remember one summer going outside and trying to learn to play basketball and football with Ryan. Early mornings of getting up to watch morning cartoons together before our parents woke up.

This just shows how precious life is. My husband had said something as we were sitting in the pastors office after the news this morning that really hit home. He said it is interesting how cheap life is to those people who commit suicide and how much some people just wish to have life again. I always say that I love that I woke up this morning to live a new day. I don't ever want to take that for granite.

I ask now as my family is dealing with this loss that you would pray for them, there will be a lot of decisions to make. I just pray that this will be God's time to intervene in relationships.

It's time for healing time to move on; It's time to fix what's been broken too long; Time make right what has been wrong; It's time to find my way to where I be; There's a wave that's crashing over me; All I can do is surrender
[Chorus]
Whatever you're doing inside of me; It feels like chaos somehow there's peace; It's hard to surrender to what I can't see; But I'm giving in to something heavenly
Time for a milestone; Time to begin again; Reevaluate who I really am; Am I doing everything to follow your will; Or just climbing aimlessly over these hills; So show me what it is you want from me; I give everything I surrender... To...
[Chorus]
Time to face up; Clean this old house; Time to breathe in and let everything out; That I've wanted to say for so many years; Time to to release all my held back tears; Whatever you're doing inside of me; It feels like chaos but I believe; You're up to something bigger than me; Larger than life something heavenly; Whatever you're doing inside of me; It feels like chaos but now I can see; This something bigger than me; Larger than life something heavenly; Something heavenly; It's time to face up; Clean this old house; Time breathe in and let everything out

~Sanctus Real~

As I was listening to this on the radio today, klove station, I thought about my life. It has been amazing what God has done to me in the past year. I have just made it one year as Interim Director at Kiddie Kollege. In the beginning of it all I felt as though I was not good enough to do the position. As the year went on I came to a point where I realized that God would not have put me there as Interim if he didn't think that I could do it, if it was not His will. Now I am at a different stage, this is a stage of feeling like I couldn't be stretch by God anymore. I am in the process of trying to hire 4 teachers, over working my substitute teachers, teaching classrooms myself. As I think of the chorus of this song it says ~Whatever you're doing inside of me it feels like chaos somehow there is peace~ that is me. In that same time of feeling stretched to far from God, I also feel like there is a peace to be found inside of me. I know that He will take care of us and that Kiddie Kollege will make it. Please pray for my staff and I as we are in this journey together.

Having a Mary Heart In a Martha World

July 27th Keith had went away for District Assembly and I was debating on whether I should go to our Bible Study, ERC or stay home and get things accomplished. I was inspired to go so that I could get a Cotton Candy Blizzard from DQ, selfish reasons, huh?
So I went to Bible Study, because that was the thing to do, and then we opened our Bibles to Luke 10:38-42. Ladies, you probably know where I am going with this. To refresh your memory, let me share with you what the story is about. Jesus went to visit these two sisters, Mary and Martha. Mary was a laid back, cool cat, nothing is bothering her type. Poor Martha was a busy body, she was so upset when Jesus was at the house and Mary was just sitting around while Martha was preparing this lavishing meal to dine with Jesus. She wanted Jesus to talk to Mary about her behavior. Jesus said to her, Martha Martha, your sister is doing the right thing she is taking time out for me and you are too busy to enjoy the moment.
This reminds me of when my husband Keith and I are getting ready to have company over, or company is already there, and I run around the house like a chicken with its head cut off trying to make everything perfect. Keith gets so upset with me, because I will not relax and enjoy our company. I tend to say to him that if Jesus walked into our home I would want it to be suitable and comfortable for his stay. The truth is that it is just my perfectionism that I need to make comfortable.
You see I needed to be at that Bible Study, so whether it was just for ice cream, the Lord used that to get me to Bible Study to hear his word.
I don't know whether you are a laid back Mary or worry bug like Martha, but we all need to be in check of our relationships and lifestyles.You might find yourself staying busy to forget something else, or to help our in ministries, to make you feel like you have your life in order, whatever it might be, I know that I need to re prioritize my life to be pleasing to God.....I need to give God, myself and my husband more of my time.
Think about it, Are you a Mary or a Martha? I have been inspired to search further. I am beginning to read the book called, Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World.

Introduction

I have come to a point in my life where I realize that I need that place where I can let out my feelings and don't have to think about what people think about me. It is interesting how when I start to write out my thoughts I can't stop. Please don't judge me for what I write, I am only human. Please pray for me as I am in this journey with God and finding my place in life. Enjoy my writings and please comment. It is nice to know what others think.