Choosing to Accomplish a No Goal Week 22 & Word-less Wednesday

I am not quite picking up where I left off or starting at the place I though I would. It seems impossible that a week is so full and yet so short. 


I am in vacation recovery mode and planning on a slow week so please enjoy today post.


When I started this blog last year I was entrenched in a great community that I dearly love and miss. Having people accept you as God has is always awesome.


At that time I had lost a member of my military community and as I grieved her lost I saw the limits to the type of communities I was creating. 


I long to stay in touch with all the wonderful communities I had been a part of through out the years but with distance, schedules and changing season remaining in deep relationships can be hard.


Creating new community is often difficult and requires much effort, but still I long to bring that sense of community to Edwards Granddaughter. 


I want to inspire and encourage and be inspired by you. I long to share the deep thoughts of my soul and hear what you have to say. 


Please join me how every you choose to bring community to you and me.


The tree from two Wednesday ago post is a pine, here is a color picture of it.

Here are pictures of the two birthday cakes I made for my boys. 

I am stuck either using automatic or black and white in manual till I figure out how to turn the black and white setting back to color. I find the whole thing hilarious. You have just got to love learning.

Let me know what you think of the pictures and which is your favorite. 

Next week I will be joining with some friends to bring you a series called

I will be writing 5 Days to Better Communication. This link will take you to a list of all the plan 5 Days of.

My Addiction

Hello Fellow choosers,

Somethings are prescheduled before our breaks. My post over at Homemaker's Challenge is one such event. If you are visiting me today, I am taking a mini blogging vacation, but you can find a post from me today about my addiction when you follow the link over to Homemaker’s Challenge.  You can find out what I am addicted to and decide for yourself if I have committed a crime; or maybe figure out what you are addicted too.

Don't forget to leave me a comment sharing your thoughts on defining simple or just letting me know that you were there.

You encourage me so much. Here is the link: Feeding My ---- Addiction. 

as always 

Choosing to Accomplish Week 21

My goals for this week are:

1. For my time in the Word: A Confident Heart by Renee Swope 

 

The meditation verse of the week is: 

Luke 17:18-19

 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

Am I living a grateful life? 

Two weeks ago my baby celebrated his ninth birthday. On Saturday, hubby and I celebrated our eighteen years, I am so glad I found you wedding anniversary and on Tuesday we will celebrate with the Wild Child as he celebrates his thirteenth years. I need to moment to reflect and be grateful for all those blessing.

2. For my time in Prayer:       

•                Praying daily for my hubby  

•                Praying for my children that they may build great friendship. The continual softening of my children's hearts.  

•                Praying for the women in Group 95 Hello Morning Challenge that they may have an awesome morning time with our Lord.     

•                Praying for friends and extended family that have needs. 

•                That God to open my eyes to the learning and growing opportunities before me.    

•                For the new relationships that we are all building and that we are all open to sharing our hearts and lives.

 

3. I will still be saying good morning to my girls in Facebook group 95 from the Hello Morning Challenge with Inspired to Action they were a great support during this entire ordeal. 

 

4.  May is our usual vacation month and with that being said I will be taking a bit of a vacation this week. I will be back refreshed and writing with my plans on Sunday night.

My Plans are: 

• To enjoy my husband and Boys
• Read some good books
• Spend some time thinking

 

I thank you all for support.

 

What are you Choosing to accomplish this week?

 

If you enjoyed this post, please stay awhile and read and choose to share Edwards Granddaughter with a friend. You can also subscribe by email and like us on Facebook, join us on Pinterest and Twitter.

 

Who Am I Choosing to Trust

The disclaimer: 
I am just a girl choosing to read the words of my creator and live closely to the calling He has placed on my heart. 

Day 23: Trust

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. - 1 Corinthians 13:7

Oh Jesus! It all comes down to trust in a marriage! Love without trust isn’t love at all. Just as I trust You and have faith in You, Your promises, I pray that through my spouse trusting me, and I him, that we would be able to endure all things, good and bad. Hope for all things, present and future, and believe all things. Lord, please help me to remember to first, love You and spend my time with You. This will comfort me and help me to love and trust my spouse, even if there is damage and hurt from the past. We can truly hope, endure, believe and bear all things through You - because You, My Lord, are love.

Have you prayed today? Leave a comment and let us know

As a prayer captain for one of the Surrendered Marriage Prayer Group, this was my morning post. I felt almost uncomfortable posting it because it is not what I believe. Before, I continue let me just share my back ground here. I have been married for 18 years and hubby and I dated for four years before. I have been in a relationship with the man of my dreams for 22 years. The most important item in our marriage is our trust in the Lord. We made Jesus the third strand in our marriage 15 years ago and firmly believe that our trust in God is what keeps us strong.

Why, then do I have a problem with this prayer? 

The first two lines: "Oh Jesus! It all comes down to trust in a marriage! Love without trust isn’t love at all." 

Does it really come down to trust in a marriage? Do we have to trust to love? 

What does trust mean: firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.

Standing aside for one moment let us say that if this is the definition we are using for trust my hubby is totally trust worthy. He is reliable, honest, capable and very strong. We have endured much together and always returned to the strength of our love for each other. He loves God, is faithful and devoted to his family.So, why do I have an issue with trust being used in this manner. 


When I read my Bible I hear trust defined as only for the Lord.

Trust is mentioned

• 93 times in the New American Standard version
• 95 in the New International Version
• 134 Kings James Version
• 88 in the English Standard Version

So what does the Bible say about trust:

Psalm 56:11  In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?

When our trust is in God we do not need to be fearful or worried, it is a secure trust that will not lead us astray.

Psalm 118:8  It is better to take refuge in the LORD Than to trust in man.

 and

Psalm 118:9  It is better to take refuge in the LORD Than to trust in princes.

What is better than trusting in my husband? Trusting in the Lord.

Proverbs 3:5  Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding.

I am not even to trust in my own understanding. I am to trust and lean on the only person who can protect and save me: God!

Micah 7:5  Put no trust in a neighbor; have no confidence in a friend; guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms;

For me Micah seems the closes relating to marriage. The Bible uses the marriage relationship many times as examples of our relationship with God. Here in Micah we are to have no confidence in a friend and guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms. Well I hope your spouse is a friend who lies in your arms.

Mark 10:24  And the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answered again, and said unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God!

In Mark 10:24 we see Jesus continuing the warning about where you place your trust. Many times in the old testament we see Israel faltering because they choice to trust in things other than God. When we trust only in God He provides for all our needs.

I do not want to put trust in my husband to the point of creating an idol. An idol is an image but it is also any person or thing that is greatly admired, loved, or revered. We can idolize our husbands; after all they take care of us and are great men of God. They perfectly fit the description of an idol, how do we separate them from God like status.

By firmly placing our trust in the lord.

I see Corinthians 13:7  as this

• Love bears all things, no matter what my husband does I carry my love and I support him
• believes all things, I accept as true that he wants the best for us and that the intentions of  heart are pure. After all he is the greatest.
• hopes all things, in good times and bad I can love him because I know it will all work out in the end.
• endures all things. – I will suffer patiently through whatever comes our way

verse 8 goes on to say Love never fails. When we choose to love like God calls us too, it will never fail us.

A good example is:

Beginning on Tuesday I was not very trusting in my husband or surrender to the fact that he choose to change and cancel my dental appointment without consulting me first. He changed our family's appointment from Wednesday morning to just the children on Thursday afternoon.

My plan was to have the convenience of all four appointments at the same time so I would not need a second visit. To say the least having my plan shattered was not sitting well with me.

My Wednesday night post was my chosen journey to surrender and committing my plans to God. After this surrender I was amazed by how quickly God moved in my life.

Starting fresh on Thursday morning I called our dentist office and was told that they could fit in all four of us at two o’clock. 


This I credit to trusting in the Lord and his almighty grace. Despite the fact that my hubby and I are not perfect we love each other and God’s grace is the intercessor in our marriage. God bridges the gap between us and fills in those imperfect places. God sees the intentions of our hearts and creates the grace and forgiveness for our shortcomings that is needed.

I ask you today to do two things:

1. Choose to trust in only God

2. Choose to love the way He commands us too.

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Reviewing Inspired, Organized & Effective as I am Booking Through Thursday

Welcome to my Book Review and Booking Through Thursday Post, this week question:


If you had to choose to live within a novel, which would it be?

The answer is:

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery because it seems like such a simple time. They had lots of out doors and fresh air.

My Book Review this week:

Source: amazon.com via Eileen on Pinterest

Inspired, Organized & Effective by Darrin Salle is a self-published eBook by a Zimbabwe businessman. That alone impressed me. After all that has happened in that country, to start a business in the mist of so much turmoil and be successful is impressive. The book gives truth to the statement “Life is what you make.” Humans have the ability to create and succeed under any conditions we just need the motivation.

Now to the book: 


I loved that all the questions from the book are listed in order at the end. It makes it just a little easier to work through the questions. 

Inspired, Organized & Effective is short and well written, packed with lots of helpful information on the subject.

Darrin defines:

• Inspired = energy
• Organized = energy well directed
• Effective = reaching the right destination

Darrin challenges you to define your priorities, clarify your purpose and them make your hard decisions or hard choices. 


He sees the benefit of planning and I loved how he suggest we use our planner to:

• Allocate time for progress activities -- These are activities that move your forward, take you to a better place, or improve your situation. 
• Allow time for maintenance tasks -- these are tasks that need to be done but they only prevent you from falling backwards 
• Allocate time to prepare for meeting, projects, and events.
• Allow time for follow up work, after meetings
• Allocate time to think.
• Allow time for interruptions

I will be integrating this format into my weekly goal post on Monday.


Quote from the book that inspired me:

• Freedom begins on he day you take responsibility for your own attitude.
• A Middle Eastern proverb says that from the seeds you plant with your mouth, you will reap a harvest. Our words are seeds. What sort of harvest can you look forward to?
• "Choice, not chance, determines destiny." the bible friend
• "The issue is not a lack of time, but a choice you have made." Charles E. Hummel

Choosing to share my love of books. What are you choosing today?

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Should I Choose to Plan

I feel that I lost another day and I am uncertain as to where it went. Mr. Nobody took my day and flushed it down the toilet and I realized that I am lacking organization. I hit a literal dead end.

I did not complete my Bible reading yet and decided to study out planning in the Bible.

I was surprised by what I found. They are no scriptures that command us to plan. 

Proverbs 6:6-8

Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!It has no commander,no overseer or ruler,yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.

This is the go to scripture for planning but do you think ants plan. I might find it hard to imagine them sitting around making to do list and conference calls. They do not have a committee to build a new nest. So it leaves me to wonder what about the ant God wants me to try to consider. 


Proverbs 15:22

Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.

There are many places in the Bible were we are commanded to seek advise on our planning. There is an expectation that we will plan. This is what humans do.

Proverbs 16:3

Commit to the Lord whatever you do,and your plans will succeed.

and

Proverbs 16:9

In his heart a man plans his course,but the Lord determines his steps.

When we do plan, we must leave room for God and except that he provides with gladness. I love the concept that God has already laid out my steps for the day. I should repent of thinking my day was not great because He planned it for me. God could have though, "This girl needs a break and I will schedule her one."

Proverbs 19:21

Many are the plans in a man’s heart,but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.

When our plans do not include the Lord's purpose we end up like Jonah in the belly of the whale. Was I not choosing to focus on my purpose today? 

Proverbs 21:20

In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil,but a foolish man devours all he has. 

We have to plan in order to store thing or we have nothing left to store. If we do not plan what we will do with our money, it will soon be gone and we would not know where it went. Here we are being told that the wise plan. 

Proverbs 27:1

Do not boast about tomorrow,for you do not know what a day may bring forth.

I want to be wise and still humble enough to accept what God sends. I want to surrender to His control. 

2 Thessalonians 3:10

For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.”

What makes the ants wise is that they work. You would have to wonder where they would find the time to plan. I have never seemed a group of ants just hanging out. They have no distractions, just the knowledge that they need food and shelter. The ants work so that they shall eat.  

Time to restock and decide where I am headed. What I walked away with is that God expects me to plan within his purpose for my life. He created humans to plan. He knew that I would plan but He wants me to be like the ant and work hard.

So I am making a to-do list of sorts.

For tonight I will:

• Write this blog post
• Finish our budget for May
• Scan an Algebra book
• Return some emails

On Thursday I will:

• Have my time with the Lord 
• Home school 
• Exercise
• Go to our dental appointments 
• Go to the post and mail some boxes
• Write by Book Review and Booking through Thursday post.

Today was just missing that since of accomplishment. I accomplished a serve migraine, and I hope this post is coherent. 

I chose to commit to doing the Lord's will. If it is God’s will I will live and complete this to do list.

James 4:13-15

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

What will you be choosing tomorrow? 


Are you choosing to leave room for the Lord's will? 


Comment about one thing you plan to do on Thursday and I will update this post with my progress in the comments also.

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Choosing Black & White {Word-less Wednesday}

We are reading through the manual for our Canon G10 camera and sharing my progress with you, my wonderful readers.


I discovered that in manual mode I can take pictures in black and white and I love that. The nine year old and I took a walk and I took some pictures of the World in black and white. I loved these shots but I am so glad we have color to play with.

My Front door Sign

Photo Feedback picture

My neighbor's red rose, this is my favorite you can see the water droplets on the leaves, an effect that is hard to accomplish in color. My camera was set to manual, black and white, in landscape mode. 

This is my favorite tree in our neighborhood can you guess what type of tree it is from the picture.

On our walk we stopped to pick up the mail and inside was the book I have won a few weeks ago. One Thousand Gifts has been on my list of books to read since last November when I got the app. I excited to get started reading it. 


And I made my closing black and white just for this post. You can make things black and white with your photo editing software.

As always which item was your favorite, and am I really better in black and white.

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Choosing to Share Life in Perspective

Before we moved into our current home, we had the opportunity to speak with the tenants and ask if they had any problems with the unit. They were very honest and told us they had a roach problem. They recommended we have the house sprayed before we moved. Although they did not know what had caused the problem they suspected that it was choice of plants in the front garden.

If given the choice I would have chosen to live at a different location.  I have an intense fear of roaches since early childhood. But, the house was everything else we wanted and I strongly felt it was a blessing from God.

Since moving in, I have seen a total of 4, according to my Wild Child, “You are over reacting it has been about one a month.”

My children think I am over reacting. They firmly believe that I am not being rational. “They are only roaches. Flies are dirty also and we do not see you trying to eradicate them.”

But, is that not true of fear. Most fears are by nature irrational.

We all have our ‘thing'. We all have some fear that might be viewed by another as irrational.

My Wild Child is an animal lover; he is one of those special people who sees the beauty of all creatures. It does cause my heart to faint that I am disappointing him. I am doing something he is against, something he thinks is evil.

He posed this question: “What have roaches done to you?”  

I seized this opportunity to teach my children why we should not judge the choices of others. Each human life has a path the almighty has carved out for them. You cannot judge the choices of another unless you have walked their path on issues that are not clearly labeled in the Bible as sin.

I explained to my boys what roaches had done to me and why I am traumatized for life.

As a young girl, on one of the many trips my mother and I took, I had the unpleasant experience of awaking to the disgusting and creepy feeling of a roach crawling on my face. Since then I have struggled with even seeing one in pictures. Thinking about roaches make me shutter and emotional.

Every living creature has a right to live but not in my home. I would not invite a lion to dinner and I did not extend the welcome mat to the roaches.

I know that God has a lesson for me and my children here, as I set about finding out how to naturally evict my unwanted houseguest.

Roaches are not mentioned in the Bible, God had more important topics and graces to teach but I did find these two scriptures. 

Leviticus 11:20

All flying insects that walk on all fours are to be detestable to you.

And 

Deuteronomy 14:19

Also every creeping thing that flies is unclean for you;they shall not be eaten.

In Leviticus 11:20 the words used in most transitions are abomination and detestable.  

Abomination is a thing that causes disgust or hatred, while detestable means deserving intense dislike.

Thankfully they is nowhere in the Bible that requires me to love roaches and Deuteronomy 7:28 says 

“Do not bring a detestable thing into your house or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction. Utterly abhor and detest it, for it is set apart for destruction.”

And that is what I am doing. I have set apart for destruction this repugnant, repulsive, revolting, disgusting, horrifying, awful, heinous, reprehensible, nauseating, offensive, contemptible roach.

My two natural alternatives for dealing with these creatures are:

• A mixture of soap, ammonia, and water to spray on sight

And

• A mixture of borax, sugar and water paste for them to take back to the nest and self-destruct

How would you choose to deal with these reprehensible insects? Please leave me some advise in the comments.

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Choosing to Accomplish Week 20

My focus scripture for this week is: 

On going Projects:

1. Meal planning – recipe testing  

2. Creating a weekly routine

3. Rebuilding and super gluing the boys Lego. 

4. My Homemakers Challenge monthly post

5. Photo albums

6. Putting together our two thousand pieces Coca-Cola puzzle. This is slowly become my personal mount Ervest. 

My goals for this week are:

1. For my time in the Word: A Confident Heart by Renee Swope 

Source: amazon.com via Eileen on Pinterest

 

The meditation verse of the week is: 

John 21:15

"Do you love me more than these?"

Jesus asked Simon Peter this question three times: "Do you love me?" It is a good question to ask ourselves in our daily walk with the Lord. 

2. For my time in Prayer:       

•                Praying daily for my hubby  

•                Praying for my children that they may build great friendship. The continual softening of my children's hearts.  

•                Praying for the women in Group 95 Hello Morning Challenge that they may have an awesome morning time with our Lord.     

•                Praying for friends and extended family that have needs. 

•                That God to open my eyes to the learning and growing opportunities before me.    

•                For the new relationships that we are all building and that we are all open to sharing our hearts and lives.

3. I will still be saying good morning to my girls in Facebook group 95 from the Hello Morning Challenge with Inspired to Action they were a great support during this entire ordeal. 

4. Homeschooling: Completing our school schedule daily wanting to move into a 4 day week.

5. Homemaking: time once again for updating our budget.

6. Blogging: only as able

Last week blog roll:

1. Choosing a Mother's Day Heart 

2. Reviewing Journey on The Hard Side of Miracles as I am Booking Through Thursday 

3. Journey Begins with Choice 

4. Choosing My Passions (Word-less Wednesday)

5. Feelings I Do Not Choose

6. Choosing to Accomplish Week 19 

7. My doctor's are worried about my food intake so I will be keeping a food diary, just to make sure I am actually eating. 

Source: amazon.com via Eileen on Pinterest

8. Listening to the audio of The Next Story: Life and Faith after the Digital Explosion by Tim Challies. This is a very in-depth book about the use of social media and electronics.

9. Working out for an hour each day. Hoping to find a program that will track both my exercise and meals.

10. Organizing my computer files, limited the note taking programs to one.

I thank you all for your support.

What are you Choosing to accomplish this week? Leave your top three in the comments or leave a link to your blog post.

If you enjoyed this post, please stay awhile and read and choose to share Edwards Granddaughter with a friend. You can also subscribe by email and like us on Facebook, join us on Pinterest and Twitter.

 

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