February Prayer Journal Page

Here is the February Prayer Journal Page.  It's so hard for me to believe it's that time of year! Click on the image below to take you to the download.  

My children use this during their Bible study time to learn about praying for others.  I felt extremely burdened for my children's prayer life as a part of my drive to Focus more this year.  

If you click on the image above, it will take you to the download page. You can also click HERE  if clicking on the image doesn't work. Check back often, as I will be adding another image in March!  

Enjoy and be blessed!

Amanda 

Bread For Daily Use-

Photo Credit 

Ugh.  How often do I walk past my desk to go do dishes, or help with fractions homework, or sit and watch TV, and I don't receive my daily bread from the Lord?  How often does He beg me to spend time wrapped in His word but "I" have too much to do, and wind up with just cake?

Now cake is great... don't get me wrong.  But bread is filling.  It is full of nutrients, and vitamins.  It's satisfying.  Cake, is well, sugar.  You feel great for awhile, but after a short bit, you come down from the sugar high, and still in need of being satisfied.  It's a lot like life, isn't it?  The Lord has the filling, satisfying manna for us, but we brush it off for cake, and then are still left wanting more.  

How often at the end of the day am I left with a hunger that could have been satisfied with God's Word? With His love, and promises? 

I want my Bible to be worn, and loved.  Something my children all fight over because they know it is full of not only God's words, but little bits of bread that the Lord gave me while reading it.  

Blessings Friends!

Amanda  

The Headpod for Dylan

One of the reasons I initially started this blog was to chronicle our family.  In that, I wanted to show God's glory through the boys, and the things we are doing for them!

Last August, I got a phone call from Jim, our wheelchair clinic guy, who asked me to go look at a product that a therapist from Arizona had called him about.  It was the Headpod.  He told me to watch the video, and see what I thought.  Needless to say, this mama cried through the video. And then I went to see how much it was.

After confusion about conversions from Euros to Dollars (I cried, at one point in my conversion it was $2000) I figured out there was a converter on the sight, and, cried again, when I saw it was $250.  We bought one, and had it shipped from Spain.  I cannot tell you how much it excited me to have this little jewel, and be one of the first 100 people in America to have one.  

Here is my son, Dylan, using the headpod with head switches.  The head switches activate activities on the computer.  We feel so blessed to have this in our home.  Our speech therapist loves that she can use it with the Intelleswitch, the Occupational therapist uses it with his Ipad, and we use it to feed him etc.  I really wish we would have had it earlier, but we are already seeing a marked difference in his voluntarily holding up his head. We attribute this to the fact that we are pretty sure he does not like it.  It's still motivation, right? 

Am I Addicted to Facebook?

Okay, so this little funny is circulating on...Facebook.  Ignore the irony here for a moment. LOL.

But, this image popping up in my news feed, coupled with my pastor preaching against Facebook, has to give you reason to pause and legitimately ask yourself that Question.

Am I addicted to Facebook? 

So, at first glance, I would say no.  But when I observe my behaviors, I would have to say honestly, Yes.  Of course I can justify the need for Facebook- South Texas family can get a glimpse into our daily life, I get insight from fellow Christians and quotes and perspectives that make me think and ponder what God wants from/for me, sharing my thoughts from Bible studies, and the like.  

But when I get a notification that something has happened on Facebook, 4 devices ding at me.  WOW!  When I am sitting here at my computer writing a blog, I click back over the the facebook tab, and THEN I pick my phone up and check my facebook. Really?!?

At first glance, I can justify my sin (addiction to Facebook) by giving a Biblical (ministry tool) reason.  But is that really what I am using it for... and do I really need Facebook to be a light to the world?  Facebook takes time away from my family, Facebook takes time away from God (when I neglect my devotions or Bible reading to spend time on Facebook), and Facebook exposes us to verbage and behavior we wouldn't normally allow into our minds and homes.  Things come up in our news feeds that disgust us, but we look/read them anyway.  See where I am going with this?  

My pastor said one thing on Sunday that I will just throw out there, and explain how I feel about it.  Facebook gives you "courage" to say things you wouldn't normally say to someone's face.  Recently, I had used Facebook to tell someone what I thought about their recent behavior, and bad attitude towards another (who in this case was actually my husband) and informed them I was deleting them from my Facebook to avoid looking at the continued nonsense.  Now, given the opportunity, I would have said all of those things (and more, truth be told) to that person's face.  Okay, I have not arrived.  I have a flesh to fight.  I can't say that what I did/would say was right or wrong, but Facebook actually gave me a chance to sensor my words, and be a little more tactful about how I used my words.  But I see his point.  In most cases, people let their fingers do the walking and talking, instead to taking the time to censor themselves.  They wouldn't think about things like, for instance, their testimony.  I am grateful I had the opportunity to hit the backspace key (a lot), but still express my feelings on the matter.  

And, this conversation wouldn't be complete without the portion on games on Facebook.  Not only are some of them just down right evil (not the farm games people!) in nature, but think about the time it takes away from your children.  I used to play the farm games.  They, in themselves, are not inherently evil, but the hold you allow them to have on you (gotta harvest grapes in 4 minutes, who cares about the dishes or my devotion, or that my husband has been waiting for me to spend time with him or go to bed!), and what they hinder you from doing.  I don't play computer games anymore.  I don't want something like that to have any hold on me, or keep me from what my ultimate love should be- God.  

And I glorify God by honoring, cherishing, nourishing, and ministering to my family. 

Focus- Fifteen days later-

I wish I could tell you it's been easy- but apparently I have a little ADHD in me.

At the beginning of the year, I pledged to have more focus.  Well, it's been a trying time.  It seems Satan wants to throw at me every dart (with something shiny trailing behind!) to take me in directions that are not where I need to go!

I have however done the following in an effort to get Focused:

1) Worked on cutting out the unnecessary travel in our schedule.  My goal is to get us down to one day a week traveling into town (20 miles one way).  This is two fold.  The first part of that is cutting down expenses on travel.  We travel a lot for therapy for the boys, so any unnecessary gas money spent hurts the budget.  The second part is that it keeps the kids from having to do extra school the next day to make up for being gone.  Less study time equals more family time.  See where I am going here...?

2) Started working on a Home Organization Binder.  These are so multifaceted, you could spend months finding the right printables, finding the right binder, etc.  But I think mine is finally coming together.  By the way... Erin over at HappyOrganizedLife  is doing a whole month of tips, and free printables she normally sells on her Etsy sight.  I love her pretty pretty organizing stuff!  She does some amazing custom work as well!

3) It's week 3 into the new year, and I am FINALLY back on track with my daily devotion.  I must say, the one I am using is really a killer, but I like it when God shows me where I need to change, and I have been needing to focus on HIM more than anything!  When my focus is on Him first, my days go so much better!

4) I have been a Stampin' Up! demo for 2 years, and I am really starting to focus hard on this finally, without taking time away from my family.  It's been so therapeutic!  I love crafting, and helping people make pretty things!  I am focusing on blogging over on that blog pretty regularly (pre-scheduled, so I can do more at once) and working also on being more consistent with posting on my business facebook page as well.  

So, that's my story, in week three of a 52 week challenge, and I am sticking to it!

How's your One Word Challenge going?  Are you sticking to it?  Where have you had the most issues this soon in?  Let me know below if you would like!