Comany Girl Coffee 1.30

Well, we're at the end of another week, and only one day left in January. Thanks for taking time to drop in on me! Grab a cup of Java, or tea if you prefer. I'm drinking mine in my new church mug. It reads "Mirabeau Chapel" and then under that, "discover your potential."

Actually, this week I've been discovering a lot about myself. Let's see...
*I work way more cheerfully and efficiently when I have a reasonable written schedule to follow.
*I enjoy my work much more with a family member or friend to help carry the load.
*I tend to try to tackle huge projects all at once instead of breaking them down into smaller, manageable steps.
*A little upbeat music or worship songs playing in the background helps to keep me going. : )

It was a busy week for us. Not only was I trying to keep up with my normal housework load, I also completely cleaned out the toy/guest room downstairs because one of my DH's Sr. High Youth leaders is going to move in with us for a while. I didn't realize just how many toys we have until I had to move them all out of that room! I don't know how my brother in law managed to share the space with the kids' toys for so long.

RH came down with strep this week. She's been at home with me since Tuesday. She's feeling a lot better since she's been on medicine and thank goodness no one else got it. I took her to worship night even though she's been sick and that really cheered her spirit. She sat next to me in the pew and it was so special to watch her raise her little hands to worship Jesus for the first time. I explained to her why the other people were doing it and about half way into the night, she lifted her hands as she sang the worship song. My heart soared as I realized that my baby girl was growing in strides in her walk with God.

As for me, I will continue to "discover my potential" as I walk with Jesus on a day to day basis. Thanks again for stopping by. I look forward to visiting with you throughout the weekend. : )

What have you discovered about yourself lately? I'd love to hear from you.

Worship Him

Last night I worshiped my heart out at our church. He is such an awesome God!

Psalm 100
Shout for joy to the LORD,
all the earth.

Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs

Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us,
and we are his;
we are his people,
the sheep of his pasture.

No Worries

If you are looking for Company Girl Coffee, you can just scroll down to the next post. After posting that nothing of great significance happened in my life this week, I had some pretty major stuff happen yesterday...thus the reason for this post! : )

Two quotes from last week's sermon on money:
"It's only money!" "It's all God's anyway!"

It seems like every time I hear a good message in church these days, there's always a life lesson that follows. Last week our Associate Pastor spoke on Luke 12. He focused on 2 Money LandMINES and how to defuse them.

LandMINE number 1: GREED. The Bible says to guard ourselves against greed. Greed is not just something rich people experience. In today's economy, it is easy for any of us to experience greed when we think only of ourselves. Two ways we can defuse greed are to think beyond ourselves, and to see beyond eternity. Sure I struggle to meet my budget, but there are other ways to give. I can serve at the local food pantry. I can donate clothes that my children have grown out of that are in good condition. I can even offer to babysit for a friend or neighbor for free once in a while so that she can get out with her husband, or just spend some time in peace and quiet. All of those things not only see beyond my own life, but can have eternal value.

LandMINE number 2: WORRY.
Luke 12:22-26 Then turning to his disciples Jesus said "That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life-whether you will have enough food to eat or enough clothes to wear. For life is more than food and your body more than clothing. Look at the ravens. They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, for God feeds them. And you are far more valuable to Him than any birds! Can all of your worries add a single moment to your life? And if worry can't accomplish a little thing like that, what's the use of worrying over the bigger things?"

The cure for worry? Remember who your Provider is. Here's the part I was really tested on this week! It is easy to trust God when everything is running smoothly, and bills are getting paid, and there is food on the table. Worrying about the bigger things is a different matter!

Yesterday we took two very big blows to our finances. Part of it was planned as a part of our budget. The other part was NOT. First, my DH went to the dentist to find out what was causing his jaw pain. He's been to our doctor, who thinks he has TMJ. The dentist confirmed that, and he was fitted for a night guard. That, we were prepared for. What we weren't prepared for was a chipped tooth, 3 missing caps, and 4 new cavities! Wow! Now I would normally worry about how we're going to pay for all that, but thankfully the dentist we chose was referred through a friend and gave us a "Pastor's rate." Plus he split the work into phases that will be a little less straining on our budget. No worries here! Thank you Lord for your provision!

The other major thing had to do with our furnace. Back in the fall we had someone come out to look at our AC and he thought he noticed a crack in our furnace when he was in our basement. We didn't have it in our budget to have a furnace tech come out at the time so we just tabled it since we weren't using the furnace at the time anyway. More recently we thought we smelled gas coming from the furnace. That was enough reason to call a repair man and get him out here as soon as possible. Yesterday he came out only to "condemn" our furnace and say that it needed to be replaced as soon as possible. OUCH! He even suggested that we might shut it down and go find other means of lodging until we could replace it.

Now I'm not an expert on this, but CO2 poisoning is a pretty serious thing, right? I immediately began to panic about the safety of my family. Luckily, upon further investigation, the tech. determined that we were ok to stay here as long as we bought a CO2 alarm. So out we go to get the alarm. He still condemned our furnace and we got a quote right away of $2500 for a new one. We get a partial rebate from our local power company and have family willing to let us borrow the money to get the job done. Within an hour of the first bad news and my initial worries, my mind was set at ease, and my family will be taken care of.

I have to ask myself and anyone who reads this that same question that Jesus asked His disciples. "Can worries add a single moment to your life?" Nope. If anything, they take away from precious time that we could spend doing something else. What a hard lesson to learn. Maybe next time, I won't be so quick to worry.

"Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done." -Phillipians 4:6 (NLT)

In Company of Friends

Nothing of huge significance has happened in my life this week. The best thing about this week was that I got to spend a lot of time in the company of friends. On Monday I took my kids over to a friend's house to play so that we could catch up. On Wednesday I watched my friend's daughter so she could go on a field trip with her son. When she came to pick her up, she stayed to chat for a spell. Yesterday I met with a friend for coffee and we talked about life in general. Tonight we're having friends over for dinner and Sunday is our usual date with my SIL and her husband.

I sure do value the importance of friendship. That's part of why I really enjoy Company Girl Coffee. I love to sit at my computer and share my life over a cup of coffee, then take time to stop over and see how you are doing. It always lifts my spirits and calms my soul to check in each week. I love to pray for you, laugh with you, and even cry with you. That's what friends are for after all! Many times I nod my head in complete agreement while I'm reading because I am either experiencing the same thing, or have been there before. So today I just want to say thanks girls, for letting me be a part of your life!

Whether I am opening the doors of my home to those who are near, or opening my heart to you out there, I LOVE BEING A COMPANY GIRL! : )

"Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in it's various forms." -1 Peter 4:8-10

Siestas and Scripture Memorization

One of my favorite authors and speakers is Beth Moore. I have done many of her Bible Studies and I have seen her speak. I have also been following the LMP Blog for a while now. One of the most recent things that I stumbled upon, along with thousands of other "Siestas", is her 2009 Scripture Memory Team. Twice a month I will be committing a scripture that speaks to my heart to memory. That's 24 scriptures in a year. You can check out the details for yourself at the blog.

The scripture I plan to meditate on and memorize for the second half of January is the same one Beth Moore has chosen. I believe it will help me in my efforts to create sanctuary here in my home. I love how she pointed out that the word "all" is used four times in the verse, and the word "abound" is used twice. Here is the verse:

2 Corinthians 9:8 "And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work."

I don't have time...or do I?

A while back Rachel Anne over at Home Sanctuary posed the question "What's in Your Pockets?" She asked us to make a list of things that we can do in 15 minutes or less, or a "pocket" of time. I personally had that list already, so I went to it, edited it, put it back in my folder, and called it good. I call it my "It'll only take a minute...or 15" list. The problem is, it's there, in my folder, where I don't see it every day. I probably don't even look at it once a month!

I have another mental list of things that I often refer to. I like to call it my "I don't have time for that right now" list. Actually, when I think about it, most things on that list can be accomplished in less than 15 minutes. What's at the top of the list? Shower. I know what you're thinking. "Gross...I don't want to know what she smells like!" Rest assured, I do get around to showering eventually in my day. But today I realized something. If I would just get up 15 minutes before my kids do (they are like clockwork) then I could shower in peace and quiet first thing in the morning.

15 minutes. That's all it takes. Here's the kicker...that's WITH shaving my legs AND Shampooing/Conditioning my hair. I kid you not. I timed myself this morning. It takes less than a minute to shampoo my hair and slap on some deep conditioner. Then I took less than a minute to shave my underarms. Less than two minutes to shave my legs, and less than a minute to wash my face and body. And I was not rushing it. By then, I was ready to rinse my hair and hop out of the shower. Are you counting? That's' a total of about 6 minutes, and then I spent another three minutes or so pampering myself with some body lotion and moisturizing my face. I try not to spend a lot of time on my hair, so 5 minutes to blow dry the hair and a minute to put on minimal make-up. Voila! I am ready to face my day! Sorry if that little scenario was TMI, I just wanted to get my point across.

I CAN take time to take care of myself. When I do that, I feel a lot more generous with my time to take care of others around me. I am building my house here. Proverbs 14:1 says "The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down." How do I build my house? By a number of things. According to Rachel Anne, Sanctuary is in the small things. So I've been paying close attention to how much time I spend on each small thing that I've done today. Here's a list of just a few that take less than 15 minutes, some less than 5.

• Make my bed
• Empty the Dishwasher
• Make breakfast
• Rinse the dishes and load the dishwasher
• Start the laundry
• Make two phone calls
• Organize the vacuum supplies
• Take the trash out of the van
• Empty the kitchen trash and replace the lining

My list goes on, but you get the idea. A lot of the time I look at my list and I think "Oh, I'll get to that later." The thing is, if I do it NOW, I feel good about getting it marked off my list. I also free up the valuable time that I'm going to need later in my day. For what, you ask? My family. When I eliminate procrastination, my kids and my spouse reap the benefits. Then they don't have to hear that ever so common phrase "I don't have time right now."

What can you move from your "I don't have time" to your "It'll only take a minute...or 15" list?

Ten Things Tuesday

It's good to see that X Box Wife is up and running again. I love participating in Ten Things Tuesday! It sounds like she has a sick little one though, so my prayers go out to her today as she heads to the doctor to find out what's wrong.

I have so many things to be thankful for that I don't even know where to begin! That is why I usually try to find a common theme. How about I keep it to all the things that I am thankful for so far today? You see, for every hard moment I have in my day, I try to think of something positive. It goes something like this...

1. I didn't get much sleep last night so I had a really hard time crawling out of bed this morning. However, I am very thankful that my 7 year old is old enough and considerate enough to get herself and her siblings something for breakfast while I wake up.
2. I didn't get to Starbucks to treat myself to a latte today like I had planned. However, I am thankful that I have my own trusty coffee pot at home with some yummy creamer to make up for it!
3. I didn't get the laundry started before I went out the door this morning because I was in a rush. However, I am thankful that I caught up on laundry yesterday, so I only have one load to do today.
4. Oops! I forgot about the baking soda I sprinkled on the carpet downstairs last night to clean up a mess. However, I am thankful that it didn't get stepped on and smashed into the carpet to make matters worse.
5. The front of the piano fell down because the wood splintered and the screw fell out. However, I am thankful that it was hanging by a thread on the other side so no one got hurt.
6. I had just gotten home from picking up my kindergartner at school and the office called to tell me my 2nd grader needs to come home sick. However, I am thankful that everyone was still in their coats, hats, shoes, and mittens so it was easy to go get her.
7. I forgot what it was that I came upstairs to do...am I losing my mind? However, I am thankful that my 2nd grader reminded me that I was going to take her temperature and give her some medicine, if needed.
8. I didn't remember to put dinner in the crock pot this morning. However, I am thankful that the exact same meal can be cooked for 4 hours on high instead of 6-8 hours on low.
9. I am out of dishwasher detergent because I didn't get any the last time I went to the store. However, I am thankful that dishes can still be washed by hand, and I do have soap for that.
10. I am feeling a bit guilty that it's 2:00pm and I haven't even finished up my morning routine yet, let alone started my afternoon routine. However, I am thankful for 10 things Tuesday and the opportunity to pause in my day and be thankful before I get back to work!

Have a great week everyone!