A phone call from God

So I have lost my phone, my beautiful iphone that connects me to the rest of the world.I love it way to much and God has seen fit to take it from me. I am sure it is lost in the couch or put in some unknown place. I have to admit last night I was pretty upset and frustrated over it. Well to be truthful I was seriously frustrated over many things, sickness, husband, kids you name it. Everything was getting on my last nerve. I'm sure you've been there.
Fast forward to this morning I got kids ready for school, started dinner, loaded them in the car and what song pops on Francesca Battistelli's "This is the stuff" have you heard it? If not here are some of the lyrics to give you an idea of what the song is about.

I lost my keys in the great unknown
And call me please 'Cuz I can't find my phone

This is the stuff that's getting to me lately
In the middle of my little mess
I forget how big I'm blessed
This is the stuff that gets under my skin
But I gotta trust You know exactly what You're doing
It might not be what I would choose
But this is the stuff You use

So right on point with my frustrations even has I drove behind someone going 5 mph UNDER the speed limit. Then these words struck me

 So break me of impatience
Conquer my frustrations
I've got a new appreciation
It's not the end of the world

Sigh. Yup that is what I needed. My prayer today that I can get past my frustration and not allow it to rob me of the blessings each day brings. By the way if you see my phone let me know.

Organizing Carissa

I admit I not good at organizing. I tend to be scatter brained and all over the place(tell me you haven't noticed!). I saw this posted on my facebook wall this morning! It is a must try for me. I long to be more organized.
Kitchen Command Center
From there I was inspired by the directions on how to create me a personalized dry erase board! SWEET! Now finding the time to put it all together will be fun. We have had a sick kid or two every day for the last two weeks.
I still have a craft table and raised beds for the garden on my to-do list. Well actually on Eric's to-do list. Yes I have him building furniture and garden things for me now. Hey I figure if his first project was a finished family room in the basement certainly he can handle a little building...right?

Complaining...

God has really been convicting me lately about complaining. I am a complainer, I don't think I am meant to be but it kinda comes naturally. It is hard and I am trying but it's hard! My mom always questioned when people use to ask her to pray for patience she would say "as soon as you ask you will be put to the test". I feel the same way about complaining. Once I started asking God to help me things to complain about showed up everywhere! The kids, the husband, the dogs, the bills, the family...the list goes on I think you get it. Now I am even complaining about me asking God to help me stop complaining. OH goodness! I am amazed at what God puts up with, seriously I am because I would of given up long ago on me. The divine Grace and Mercy never giving up and always growing me up, always refining me, always loving me. Wrapping his arms around me saying "Oh my sweet girl how much you are loved!" Let me boast about my weaknesses because his power is made perfect through them! I love how the Message puts it 2 Cor 12:9

 My grace is enough; it's all you need.
 My strength comes into its own in your weakness.
Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ's strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.

God loves smudges too

I was dropping off the kids to Mother's day out and saw a Mom talking to the teacher. She was a well put together Mom dressed in the latest fashions along with her child. I overheard a little of the conversations and she was telling the teacher "Yesterday we went to the park and had a picnic, then we went to the zoo and had such a fun time!" I looked down at Micah and Kerith with what looked like some leftover breakfast on their faces and who did not even have their hair brushed. Not to mention me, I had just put on some clothes. No makeup, one very stressed out breakout all over my face, hair back in a ponytail. "Oh my" I thought and was so embarrassed. Here I am barely surviving motherhood and look at her. I mean really look at her taking her child to the zoo, the park AND a picnic and ALL in ONE day looking like J Lo. Seriously? I am lucky if I get to shower and I can't imagine taking all of my crew to the park by myself let alone the zoo, oh goodness I can just see the chaos that would be. I use to dream I would be that kind of  Mom. A picture of true perfection with all my ducks in a row. The Mom I am looks nothing like the Mom I described above, and looks nothing like the Mom I always envisioned I would be. I am slowing learning to be the Mom God wants me to be. It is hard because I tend to be a perfectionist and well those tendencies will have me in the nut house very quickly around this house. Praise the Lord for my smudges, for my messed up hair, for my non-matching clothes, and even my broken out face. God loves our smudges because he loves us where we are and doesn't require clean up before we come to him! Amen!

Jesus put the song in heart

I was browsing the internet earlier this week and found they had a Psalty website where you could order Kids Praise CD's! I grew up on Psalty so I ordered a couple for the kids and I. We've been jamming to Kids Praise 4 today. You can really see all the media kids have these days when my kids looked for movie on the screen of the laptop when Psalty started talking. I have been having a great time singing "Jesus put the song in my heart" and the kids have had a fun time singing with their Mom.

4 months!!!

Our Wedding Vows:

I found a copy of our wedding vows looking through an old wedding planning book from 10 years ago. I love our vows they speak a lot to who Eric and I are and the love we have for each other and our God.
I would love to have them on the wall or in a keepsake some place, after all we did write them ourselves.

Eric:
I Eric take you Carissa to be my wife. With my deepest joy I receive you into my life that together we may be one. As is Christ to his body, the Church, so I will be to you a loving and faithful husband. I promise that I will lead our lives into a life of faith and hope ever honoring God's guidance by his Spirit through His word no matter what may lie ahead of us. I promise to love you,honor you, comfort you in times of trial, encourage you and strengthen you and remain in this covenant with you throughout my life. Giving myself in purity and in love I give you my life and this promise forever until death.

Carissa:
I Carissa take you Eric to be my Husband. With my deepest joy I come into my new life with you. As you have pledged your life and love, so I too happily give you my life and in confidence submit  myself to your headship as to the Lord. As is the Church in her relationship to Christ so I will be to you Eric. I promise to love you,honor you, comfort you in times of trial, strengthen you in weakness and encourage you promising to remain in this covenant with you throughout my life no matter what the future holds. With all that I am I give myself to you in purity and love until death.

I had a post planned

but lost my train of thought. It's been a rough week. We've been dealing with sickness again and it seems to linger with fevers and vomiting. It all comes at a time when I have been struggling with all my roles of wife, mom, and everything those two things bring. I don't mean to sound negative in my posts. I often use my blog as an outlet for myself to write things down and vent. It is what it is. God has been convicting of my attitudes. How am I to teach my children to not whine if they see me whining? I am working on it. It is tough. Pray for me.

On a less serious note I have been working out and doing a lot of Wii workouts, my recent favorite is the Wii Zumba. It burns a lot of calories and makes you sweat like no ones business and it flies by which is important to me because I hate working out. Not a good quality when you got 100 lbs to lose. I am learning to like it and I hope one day I can say I love it but hey one thing at a time. Small steps. Myfitnesspal.com also has been a great tool for me in my fitness goals. Eric has jumped on board with me and we are both working out 4-5x a week and he is really helping me stay encouraged. It is a downer when you have PCOS to lose weight because it makes things a lot harder but I have lost before and know I can do it again. I mean if I am doing it with 5 kids 5 and under surely anyone can make the choice to be healthier right? I'll be posting my progress.

I hope this week to make some soap and enjoy basketball, my favorite sport in all the world, but right now I am going to eat my lunch. It's been a tough day and after I eat my lunch I may take a nap.

March snow and the T man.