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(Revised version)

In so many ways, I have come to know the Holy Spirit in a new way this year.  After reading The Shack and attending most of the Summit Conference at church – my ears are tuning in (some days better, other days worse) to the voice of the Spirit and it is really refreshing.

I hear Him calling me at 5:30 – even when the alarm isn’t set – to get up and spend time in the Word.

I hear Him speaking to me when I’m worn out and exhausted from the trials of this life – physical, emotional, mental, spiritual…

I hear Him whisper encouragement to me when I’m facing a challenge in Marriage or Motherhood – to lay myself down and be quiet (cuz you know that’s the hardest part for me…)

Do you know the Spirit?

I know God the Father – Abba, the I AM, Lord God Almighty.

I know Jesus Christ – my Saviour, my Redeemer and King, the Lamb of God, the Risen One.

But the Spirit?  Hmmmmm.  The Comforter.  The one who speaks with groanings on my behalf to the Father.  And yeah, that’s where it has pretty well been for many years.

So in my studies and in my personal prayer time, I’m enjoying a new level of praying in a way that speaks to the Spirit, too.  It’s like a whole new world is opening up.

Kinda reminds me of when I went snorkeling off Grand Cayman Island 8 years ago.  I was on a cruise with my best friend, and we were part of a group that went out on a boat to go snorkeling and swimming with sting rays.  First, we all got out of the boat in about 15 feet of water.  We were swimming around getting used to the feel of the water (and the fact that I was swimming in water where the possibility of a shark coming by was not entirely out of the question).

I could see the shadows of rocks at the bottom of the ocean, dark and grey reflecting in the clear blue water. But when I put my face in the water, it was like an EXPLOSION of color came shining through my snorkel mask.  I could see almost every color possible.  It was literally breathtaking and I could not get enough of it.  The coral was brilliant and the sun’s ray’s would come shining through the water and highlight new spots of color and shapes.  The salty water was warm and inviting, and all thoughts of a shark literally dissolved in the incredible beauty I was seeing for the first time.

Taking my face out of the water, the sun was so bright and all the views that I previously thought were just gorgeous paled in comparison to the riot of color I’d just seen.

I think that’s what the Holy Spirit does for us.  We’re floating along (literally sometimes) and everything is wonderful and beautiful, and then we start to take a deeper look and the Spirit reveals amazing discovery.  We haven’t changed position – we haven’t gone anywhere new.

Maybe we’re reading that same passage of Scripture we’ve read many times for years – and all of a sudden, the Spirit reveals a new nugget of truth – and it’s like God’s Word opens up a completely new view of Who He Is and it’s breathtaking and awe-inspiring and totally amazing.

I’m so grateful for the opportunity to learn how to practically minister to others – in real, tangible ways – but even moreso for the opportunity to GO DEEPER in my relationship with the Lord in the process.

(I don’t have digi versions of my pics from snorkeling or I’d post them.  I’ll just have to go snorkeling again sometime and take new ones…)

And yes, I DID go swimming with sting rays.  I held one as a matter of fact.  It was TOTALLY awesome. But that’s a story for another time.

© 2010, Visit with the Queen Mommy. All rights reserved. 2006-2010.

Well, I’ll tell ya – I appreciate coffee A LOT this morning.  I was up 1x an hour almost every hour last night.  Just one of those nights.  It stormed a little – we had a “visitor” from the peanut gallery – and a variety of other things kept waking me up.  ACK!  So, with blurry eyes and a steaming cup, I’m typing away this morning…

I was WIDE AWAKE at 3:30 am yesterday morning, so it made for a long day.  I got a second wind in the afternoon and actually accomplished some things – so that was good.  Laundry just seems to be taking over – and I feel like I’m washing the same clothes 3x a week.  Especially Georgie.  She’s about got the POTTY training thing down, but every time she goes successfully, she wants a new pair of panties. lol.  I’m gonna have to ration them out, I think…

We had a tornado watch for hours yesterday – after sirens went off a few times the other night.  But it wasnt until the middle of the night that the rain finally fell and cooled things off nicely.   NOT a big fan of tornadoes – that’s for sure – but the rain really helped with the humidity that had been building.

And today I have my first mammogram – the baseline.  Every time I was serious about getting one scheduled, I was either pregnant or nursing.  And now, I’m just biting the bullet.

I haven’t tackled any Small Things this week, but I decided to keep my weekly task chart on the refrigerator.

A – I can’t lose it.
B – it means my husband and other people can see it, so I feel a little bit more accountability.
C – it really helped me do more than I expected, so it was a good decision.

I had been keeping it in my Homekeeper Notebook and that worked well, except the public display reminds me in a bigger way.  I really like the format and content of the Weekly Home Journal from Graceworks Purpose Planners.

Well, I’m hearing rumbles of thunder this morning and its time to get Curly up and ready for school.  Oh yeah, the doppler radar is all yellow and orange and moving our way, so I’m gonna sign off and drink my coffee.  I plan to take a NAP today with the girls to keep the zombie in me at bay, and that will be a GOOD thing today!

Have a pleasant weekend!  Be sure to visit the other Company Girls today and through the weekend!

© 2010, Visit with the Queen Mommy. All rights reserved. 2006-2010.


Hello Company Girls! It’s been a pretty great week – for the most part – and I can’t believe Friday is here.

Our church has been hosting a revival with Life Action Ministries.  GOOD hard stuff.  Conviction galore – and God’s cleansing power and redemption is so amazing….

Do any of you have a great pasta salad recipe?  I love pasta salad and shared my favorite recipe earlier this week.  Do you have any favorites of your own?  When its hot outside, I don’t even want to THINK about turning the oven on, so feel free to share or link up to your fave recipe here.

And yesterday, I wrote about our calling as women.  We’re not just some floppy dustrag for the Kingdom of Heaven.  We are called to be a Mighty Woman of Valor.

Got some laundry to finish today – and other things to wrap up before the weekend comes.  Roy & I are attending the “Home Life Cafe” with Life Action tomorrow morning – I’m pretty excited about it, and things get wrapped up on Sunday.

I know Sunday is Mother’s Day – and Happy Mother’s Day to those of you who can celebrate!

Linking up with the Company Girls at Home Sanctuary Today!

P.S. - Do any of you gals Wii??? (Was that too personal?)  My hubby & I keep talking about getting a Wii and if we do, I’d really like some suggestions for the kinds of games your family enjoys.  Our girls will be 5 and 3 this summer – and if we get one, we know it’s an investment, so we want to put it to good use.  My hubby is a big sports fan – are there any games your husband just LOVES?  What about you?  Do you have any favorites (especially any workouts or exercise programs)?  What about your kids?  I asked this question at Mommies Coffee Break this week, and if you have something to say, please visit and let me know!

© 2010, Visit with the Queen Mommy. All rights reserved. 2006-2010.


Good Morning – it is a GORGEOUS morning here. Sunny, cool (but not cold) and looking to be a really beautiful day.  Got my coffee ready this morning – but you’ll have to settle for wheat toast with peanut butter this morning (although for people like me, that’s not something to “settle” for – I love it!)  My husband, Roy, prefers his toast with peanut butter & Bob White syrup (which is much like Karo syrup, but different).

We had a neighbor come by this week taking donations for an event she is involved in every single year for her niece.  We rarely get to chat with her otherwise, but just before she got here, Curly decided to get all decked out in her SWIMSUIT from last year, and Georgie was wearing her royal tiara and princess shoes.  Our sweet neighbor came in and chatted with us for a few minutes, when Curly announced, “Mommy’s having a baby!“  This is not the first time she’s done this – but having to explain that I’m NOT pregnant was interesting.  She hasn’t fully grasped the whole idea that we miscarried last November, and she really wants us to have another baby.  We have been trying to tell her she can PRAY and ask for another brother or sister, so she’s deciding to ask for TWIN BROTHERS…   Like my friend, Shelly said, Mommy has to be more specific when teaching these important lessons… LOL! more…

© 2010, Visit with the Queen Mommy. All rights reserved. 2006-2010.

Oh – Its so cool that Rachel Anne, from Home Sanctuary, made a Community for the Company Girls! I enjoy the visits from and to all the “coffee girls” on Fridays, and then I saw that Rachel Anne made a new place for us to visit together more often.

I started putting together a Queen Mommys Cafe community over at BlogFrog, too, last week after they made their big announcement!  This was a pretty smart move on BlogFrog’s part.  Tying a blog to a community – allowing the blog writer(s) to interact in better ways with their subscribers and readers.  Something like Facebook for bloggy friends…

I have not spent tons of time there yet, but really hope to build some interaction with you. I love reading your comments and interacting with you here, so it’s just another way to interact a bit differently.  You can join by clicking on the “widget” to the right of this post – and you can interact with me or the other visitors here at The Queen Mommy Cafe.

So far, potty training Georgie is going pretty well. We’ve only had a few minor accidents, and have just one final hurdle, but she’s got the hang of it.  She was up at 3 am this morning to “go potty” and went right back to sleep after.  Woohoo!  That’s a big deal!

I had the great pleasure of talking with a good friend of mine yesterday.  Shel is one of my good friends from Missouri – and she knows me pretty well.  We kinda lost touch for a couple of years, got reconnected, and we’re talking about some serious book collaboration.  Like she said, we’ve always thought on the same wavelength, and we spent a lot of time talking through some ideas for a series of books, and although we live many miles apart, our thinking is so in tune, that our writing flows right along with it.  She has some brilliant ideas, and we’re having fun building some characters and plots.  I was so energized after talking with her – my creativity really fueled me for several hours.

And there was an A-ha! moment for me. I’m one of those serious-taking-the-mom-job-seriously kind of moms – and haven’t made a lot of room for fun.  I know some of it is the season of mothering I’m in – a toddler and a preschooler are busy in different ways than two elementary school kids are busy.  And I let myself get dragged down by the hard work of mothering too often.  After hearing a REALLY GOOD session via Cindy Rushton – with Molly Evert, the Counter Cultural Mom – I was really convicted about my attitude towards marriage & mothering.  I really have adopted the whole “Martha” attitude and really get caught up in the work that is necessary, without taking time to be “Mary” with my family…

So this weekend, after I get laundry caught up (cuz we gotta have clean clothes), I want to be MARY with my family and ENJOY our weekend and HAVE FUN together…

What are your weekend plans?

Thanks for stopping by! Please leave a comment, take a few minutes to check out my survey if you haven’t already, and feel free to join my Blog Frog Community today!

Oh and definitely check out the other Company Girls!

© 2010, Visit with the Queen Mommy. All rights reserved. 2006-2010.

Hey Company Girls – Where did this week go? Well, pull up a chair – I’ve got bagels and strawberry spread, and can put the kettle on for tea.  I’ve been drinking LOTS of tea this week for a sore through, cough / laryngitis.  The girls have been sick, and I caught it cuz they love to share with me. lol.  The tea & honey has been great, along with the horehound candy which is very soothing to a sore throat!

It’s been a whirlwind week.  Classes start up again on Monday – and I’ve got 2 counseling classes (debating adding a 3rd class later) that I’m VERY excited about.  I’m printing out the instructor notes and am intrigued about the topics.  The one course is Counseling for Women and one of Beth Moore’s books, A Woman and Her God: Life-Enriching Messages (Extraordinary Women), is the text. VERY cool!  Along with DVD lectures from the university, I’ll be learning more about women’s issues (and myself, for sure) and am really excited about writing a paper for this class. =)  (I’m a big nerd when it comes to writing papers!)

Georgie seemed to have an allergic reaction to a prescribed antibiotic and it was a bit scary.  After 2 doses, she seemed to develop hives, so the on-call dr advised us to give her Benadryl and she was good.  This morning we took her to her peds office and gave her another dose of antibiotic:  NO reaction. =)  So we’re still watching her.  It’s an antibiotic in the family of Penicillin, and we can’t just assume anything – we’ll have to watch and see what happens.  Both she & Curly have ear infections and eye/sinus yuck, so that’s how I got my lovely stuff…

And I made a major breakthrough in my kitchen this week, and I’m really proud of keeping up with it.  I cleaned my desk (which happens to be in my kitchen) and have been able to maintain my reorganized kitchen for the entire week!  That is a serious milestone for me.  I’ve been getting dishes washed & put away and although I’m not always going to bed with a shiny sink, it does get shined once a day, so I’m pleased with that.

I’ve also had the great opportunity to participate in an online study of Ruth called A Faith Like Ruth’s with Amy Bayliss, of Women’s Ministry Online.   The second session was yesterday, and it was really good!  Amy provides a printable outline and her sessions are recorded.  Worth checking out for sure!  There are more sessions to come so check her link for more info.  Here’s info for Session One and here’s Session Two.

And along those same lines, I saw that Tricia of Handfuls of Purpose, has also posted two weeks worth of the study of the book of Ruth, too, called Reflections of Ruth!  You can copy and paste her posts into your word processing or text programs for printing out yourself.  She’s broken down a study for each day of the week, and I highly recommend checking them out.  I’ve copied them onto pages for printing, and think I’ll follow up Amy’s study with this study from Tricia.  Here’s Week One and here’s Week Two.

Oh and if you love having a household notebook, Tricia has designed 8.5×11″ planner pages!  I love Graceworks and enjoy the beautiful design, layout, and practicality of her pages.  I’m THRILLED that she’s got notebook size pages and she’s planning to produce more.  These pages are available for DOWNLOAD for printing at home – yahoo! – and she’s got a special for January.  For more info, click here.

So that’s it for this week. Feel free to visit the rest of the Company Girls at Home Sanctuary today…

© 2010, Visit with the Queen Mommy. All rights reserved. 2006-2010.


Hey Coffee Girls – grab a cup of Joe and a toasted bagel or cinnamon raisin English muffin with cream cheese and settle in.  We’re buried under snow.

Okay – we’re not entirely buried under.  Our sidewalk was shoveled last night and driveway was snow-blowed.  But still – we’ve got lots of snow.  It is a snow day – schools all around us are closed, closing or on delay.  We will be playing in the snow later this morning.  yay!

LOVING. IT.

I have been getting a workout shoveling the driveway and sidewalk – have done that twice in just a few days – so that’s been a good thing.   Other than the back twinges, they’ve been really good workouts.

I’m getting my written recipes organized into ONE Recipe Notebook (okay – one main notebook and one holiday notebook) and that feels really good.  I’m just copying recipes from 3×5 cards onto 6×5 cards (2 to a page) and inserting them into page protectors in a 3 ring binder.  I am keeping the keepsake recipe cards – written out by my grandmother or my mother – and using 4×6 photo page protectors for those.   With tabbed section dividers – my recipe collection is all in one place.  As opposed to a 3 ring binder, a 3×5 file, and a 4×6 recipe book… Condensing and eliminating.  Whew!

This has been a hard week for me, though.  Very emotional.  My hormones are still wacky.  NOT. FUN.  For anyone in my house.  I’m up – I’m down – I’m turned around.  Can’t think straight.  Keep losing stuff.  And just feeling – in general – icky.  Half exhausted, normal cycles have yet to return so it’s wearing on me.  Not to mention the feelings and emotions I’m still processing after my miscarriage.  I keep wondering how long this is going to last.  I’m not rushing through – it’s not even been two months yet – but the physical stuff just keeps me going round & round…  (I’m avoiding birth control pills which always wreak havoc on me despite the promise of a return to normal cycles.  My body is not normal anyway and I just have to let time heal…)  It’s a little like postpartum depression – only there’s no “partum.”

Have had some funny moments, too.  I’m telling you what – my girls have kept me in stitches for the past couple of weeks.  They’re both far too smart for their age and keep saying stuff that just blows me away.

Example:  Tonight Roy came home with a pair of snowboots for Georgie from a gal at work.  They’re cute black snowboots with glittery black fur inside.  So Curly sees them and assumes they are for her.  I tell her they are for Georgie and she is kinda miffed.  Once Georgie puts them on, Curly catches my eye, then hangs her head and says, “I’m a little disappointed.”

Oh my word.  And Curly has been doing some exercises every day.  Jumping jacks, windmills, sit ups, push ups, toe touches and more.  She goes through her routine while I count.  We keep adding new things like stairs.  Tomorrow – I think I’ll join her.

We’ve been talking about eating “helfy” more often and telling her that too much sugar will make her sick and that healthy foods will make her strong is starting to sink in.   If I tell her that she can have only one cookie because two have too much sugar – she’s getting it.  And we’re choosing apples and carrots and popcorn and other things instead…

YAY!

This is good for us because we need to make changes to our lifestyle.  Move more.  Eat less.

My one GOAL for 2010 is to lose 5 lbs every month. I have far more than 60 lbs to lose, but to say I have to lose 60 lbs this year is pretty overwhelming.  So, I decided to set a goal to lose 5 lbs per month.  That’s just over 1 lb per week.

Manageable.  Doable.  No excuse-able…

So there it is – my week in a nutshell.

Linking up with Under Grace and Over Coffee, too!

© 2010, Visit with the Queen Mommy. All rights reserved. 2006-2010.