"She riseth also....

...while it is yet night." Proverbs 31:15

One of my favorite sets of scripture is in Proverbs 31. Start at verse 10 and read through verse 31. I read this every day at some point as this is the woman that I desire to be. I feel like I'm trucking along in this direction, slowly but surely except for verse 15.

Imagine this: a weekday morning at my house- the alarm goes off at 6:45am for Josh to get up for work. I tell him nicely a couple times to get up, then I get up and turn on the water in the shower for it to heat up. I nestle back into bed next to baby Jack and close my eyes. Aaaaaah......so nice. As soon as Josh gets up and gets in the shower I have to go into the kitchen to prepare his lunch, fill his waterbottle, and if I've just washed his work shirts, then iron. All the time I am doing this I am moving at the pace of a snail. My scripture reading and prayer get done 99.9% of the time after I'm finished doing all this and after the girls are awake. My shower ALWAYS gets taken after I do this unless I have to work prenatal appointments that day. It sounds like a lot gets done before 8am at my house- but it really doesn't.

If I say I'm going to get up before 6:30am Josh just laughs. I've said this SO many times but I can't seem to drag myself out of bed. I desire it, but I'm not willing to sacrifice for it. There's something about my house at 6:00am that I LOVE. I'm trying, I really am.....

Today I got online and read this quote that spurred me thinking about early rising again:

E.M. Bounds, a pastor who was born in 1835 wrote the following:

"A desire for God which cannot break the chains of sleep is a weak thing and will do but little good for God after it has indulged itself fully. The desire for God that keeps so far behind the devil and the world at the beginning of the day will never catch up.It is not simply the getting up that puts men to the front and makes them captain generals in God's hosts, but it is the ardent desire which stirs and breaks all self-indulgent chains. But the getting up gives vent, increase, and strength to the desire. If they had lain in bed and indulged themselves, the desire would have been quenched. The desire aroused them and put them on the stretch for God, and this heeding and acting on the call gave their faith its grasp on God and gave to their hearts the sweetest and fullest revelation of God..."

I love this! This man has an incredible gift with words.........

Ok, so long story short, the goal for this week is 6:00am. Let's see if I can do it.

Saturday is a special day.......

.....it's the day we get ready for Sunday!

I've tried over and over to use Saturday to prepare for the Sabbath. Although we could debate about the origins of the Sabbath being on Sunday vs. Saturday, I'll leave that opportunity for research up to you. Unfortunately, our culture these days doesn't respect the Sabbath day (whether one chooses to observe on Saturday or Sunday). There always end up being so many activities I feel the need to participate in on Saturday (baby showers, birthday parties, etc) that I don't end up fully preparing for Sunday.

In Exodus 31:16-17 we read ,"Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual acovenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in asix days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed." Eeek! I don't treat this covenant with as much respect and commitment as treat other covenants. I guess I better work on that.

Things I am doing/trying to do to keep the Sabbath Day holy/prepare for the Sabbath:
*Lay out all of the children's clothing for the Sunday on Saturday night
*Pack the diaper bag and put it next to the garage door on Saturday night
*Pack up my bag for the children's class I teach and put it next to the garage door on Saturday night
*Have easy, yummy, filling things in the pantry for quick breakfasts on Sunday morning
*Have the house ~spotless~ on Saturday night when I retire to bed so that I won't feel stressed by the mess in the morning
*Make sure my sweet husband has all of his church clothing options available and clean in the closet to speed up the process of getting ready
*Arise before everyone else so that I may pray, shower and dress before the hustle to get ready begins
*Wake everyone up with plenty of time to get ready so there is no rush
*Make sure the van is full of gas on Saturday night
*Listen to respectable music on Sunday
*SMILE!!

I'm off to start preparing for tommorow! I hope you all have a wonderful Sabbath. See you again on Monday!!

The moral of this story is......

Ok, so I took the kids over to my mom's new house yesterday to go swimming. Got them in their suits, slathered them with sunscreen and then put on my suit (the first new suit I've purchased in nearly four years). So about halfway through the very cold swimming experience my mom comments that my back is looking a little red. Ok, so let's go back a little- I'm pale, not just semi-pale, not that pretty pale that tans easily, but PALE and......I burn. I burn if I'm out at the park for an hour and don't wear SPF 65. Ok, so back to the 'little red' back. I ask my sister to put some sunscreen on it- she did- then I went on with my swimming/wading. Fast forward to last night- oh my goodness! I'm crispier than a burnt french fry at Burger King. My back is killing me- just wearing a shirt hurts and I couldn't sleep last night. Not only am I red, I'm so red I'm nearly purple. Ah....well I guess I had to get my obligatory burn for 2007 out of the way in the beginning of the summer. So the moral of this story- don't forget the sunscreen.

A Couple of Easter Pictures......

Mr. Blue Eyes

I can't believe my baby is so big. Eight months old! It seems like the time has just flown by. In the past month he started crawling, got four (Yes, all four came in four days!) teeth and has been pulling up on things. He actually got a bruiser on his right cheek from falling and hitting his face on the buffet in the breakfast room. You can see it in the picture. He's such a cheeser and will smile at just about anyone!