I am watching Hell's Kitchen right now....yikes! And I thought it was loud here when it was time to cook dinner! :) I could never do what those contestants do; I'd be in tears every time.
Tonight, I made Tagliarini for dinner. I found the recipe in yet another book I read in the past week. Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half with America's Cheapest Family is the title; Steve and Annette Economides are the authors. Very interesting book with a decent amount of great-sounding recipes. Not too many that I can't narrow down ones I like! Dinner turned out well, and I made enough for lunch tomorrow. I only needed one pound of ground beef, but I had frozen 2 pounds together, so I browned the other pound that we can use tomorrow night for dinner....and that cuts down my cooking time for tomorrow's dinner! Yay! I think I'm finally finding ways to be efficient in the kitchen! :) Whatever I can do to make it less like Hell's Kitchen over here! Haha.
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New thought:
My cousin's daughter, that has AML, was able to be discharged from the hospital yesterday! So amazing! She had a rough couple of weeks following chemo, but she has recovered enough to be able to go home for a while. My understanding is that she is home for a little while then goes back for her next round of chemo. I've been looking at the updated photos and her color is so much better and she looks so much healthier. What a little fighter, for being just 6 months old now. God does amazing things. I don't know what her future holds or what the next round of chemo and treatment is all about, but praise God for what He's shown through this so far! He has never let things out of His control and I really hope that someone has seen this little girl and really discovered just how great God is!
There is a benefit for her on November 14. If anyone is interested, it's in NW Indiana and costs $10 a person. They are selling tickets now; food is included and there will also be an auction of donated goods. My wonderful friend Amy, who makes candles (Amy's Accents), has helped me out with getting some candles together to give to the benefit. I hear there are going to be a TON of donated goods to raise money for Miranda. The money is going to help pay her medical bills. If you're interested in donating money, please go to Miracle for Miranda on Facebook and check out where to send donations!
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Speaking of giving, if you haven't heard of or seen the blog/website/facebook page for Awaka Children's Foundation, you need to! My inspiring friend Kathryn is a part of this incredible foundation that is working to help children and adults in Uganda get the basic necessities - clothing, food, shelter. She has an adopted son, Deken, from Uganda and is working to bring home a little girl, Faith, in the next few months! She and her family are an amazing testimony of patience and faith and trust in God, with their adoptions as well as their pursuit to help all of the Ugandans. It is just indescribable how motivated she is to see that these people get the simplest of things. My family has decided to include Awaka in our montly giving. We aren't able to give as much as we'd like to, but to think that I can sit here in my house with my warm clothes and a full stomach really makes me consider how blessed I am. Of course, my human nature wishes I had more space in my house so my girls didn't all have to share a room or a bigger kitchen or whatever. But, I don't NEED any of those things. Some of these Ugandan people struggle to find shelter when it rains or clothes or shoes or food to just function each day. So, go HERE and read all about this foundation and ways you can help. If you aren't able to help financially, maybe you could commit to praying for them? Or maybe you know someone who is looking for a great charity to give to? This would be the perfect one. :) Of course, I'm slightly bias.
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My middle child turned 3 yesterday. How the time flies! So crazy to think it was already 3 years ago that my husband had the flu and I was starting to get sick, too......and then I went into labor. :) What a crazy night! What a wonderful outcome! She is such a beautiful girl, and she (I think) looks the most like me....so, of course, I think that's awesome! Haha. She started preschool earlier this month, and she has really just exploded with talking. She, like her big sister, likes to sing to herself and LOVES to do imaginary play. She could sit and "mix" and "bake" with my bowls and spatulas and pans for hours! Almost every day, she asks me, "Can I have a bowl and a spoon to mix?" But, if I give her one then I have to give the other 2 girls a bowl and spoon as well....and then I'm running out of mixing bowls and spatulas for the actual baking I need to do! Oh well. If she's asking for that and not cartoons, then I guess we're doing ok. I've been limiting their TV time much more now, too. Towards the end of July, I got pretty lax with turning off the TV when I should have and would just let them watch so I could get things done. But, since school started and we're back in our routine, they go with about 2 hours of TV each day (which includes movies, too)! I don't know what's recommended or normal for preschoolers, but for us that's great! It's only on now when I want to make dinner and occasionally just before school, when I need to get in the shower. And they haven't asked for their cartoons much recently during the other times of the day, so I'm ecstatic!
In conclusion, God is good. There's no way around that. He really is. I'm ending with that. God is good.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Making the Most of My Time
I've always been fairly good at multi-tasking. When I worked outside the home, I did a great job in insurance claims. I'm not exaggerating, I'm just reiterating what my manager and boss told me. I managed phone calls, typing in claim information, recording statements, and handling paper files all at the same time. Those skills, I believe, helped me once I became a mother. Granted, I was able to ease into being a stay at home Mom. I had to go back to work after having Iris, but I still did my job well and got it all done so I could leave and pick her up from daycare on time. After having Lily, I stayed home. Managing two children, the housework, the cooking, and running all the errands can be overwhelming. Then we added a THIRD child to the mix. :) Things were a bit frustrating for the first few weeks, but I was able to quickly return back to my multi-tasking skills from my job and apply them to my children. I treated them as 3 claims. Iris was always the most critical "claim" - she is very attention driven and needs her questions answered ASAp. Lily is a little more laid back - doesn't require too much one on one attention but when she is wanting to cuddle, you better drop everything and hold her! Addison is still my little baby, so she is clingy and whiny and teething....which exaggerates it all.
Just like files at work, my kids have similar needs that I can accomplish in one task for all 3 of them. I can cook and feed 3 at once, giving myself a few minutes to run and do something else around the house. I can bathe them all at once, and I can put them all to bed together. But, like claimants, they have individual needs that need individual attention. And as poor as it might sound to compare them to files, it makes me able to fulfill their daily needs and still have all my hair! :)
Today, I applied my multi-tasking to another area: cooking. I've been reading up on freezer cooking and though I don't necessarily NEED to cook ahead for a bunch of meals, since I'm home every day, it is a good option to have for the uh-oh days or my just-in-case days. For dinner, I'm making a chicken and rice dish. I doubled the amount of chicken to boil, which will leave me with enough chicken for another meal or two that I can freeze. By boiling the chicken, I have also created broth/stock that I can freeze as well and make soup with at a later time. I make twice the amount of rice we'll eat tonight - that too will go in the freezer. So, I'm thinking maybe chicken rice soup later in the week? hehe.
I found a great basic baking mix in the book Frozen Assets by Deborah Taylor-Hough that I used a portion of to make 2 dozen wheat pancakes today and froze them as well. We are out of the boxes of toaster/microwave pancakes, so that helped out a lot. I would like to make the waffles as well to freeze, but first I have to find a friend with a waffle iron! I don't think buying one for the random one day that I feel like planning ahead and making a ton is really worth the money right now.
It's been a productive day, I'm pleased to say. The TV stayed off for most of the day, which thrills me. Thankfully, we had to go to basic cable, which doesn't offer any kid shows after 12pm, so the girls have had to be imaginative for most of the afternoon. They did their own pretend baking session while I did my real one. :) And now I hear Iris pretending to be the baby upstairs while Lily mothers her. Can't wait to see what the mess up there looks like! Regardless, I can relax with cooking at least one night this coming week. Hip, hip, HOORAY!
Just like files at work, my kids have similar needs that I can accomplish in one task for all 3 of them. I can cook and feed 3 at once, giving myself a few minutes to run and do something else around the house. I can bathe them all at once, and I can put them all to bed together. But, like claimants, they have individual needs that need individual attention. And as poor as it might sound to compare them to files, it makes me able to fulfill their daily needs and still have all my hair! :)
Today, I applied my multi-tasking to another area: cooking. I've been reading up on freezer cooking and though I don't necessarily NEED to cook ahead for a bunch of meals, since I'm home every day, it is a good option to have for the uh-oh days or my just-in-case days. For dinner, I'm making a chicken and rice dish. I doubled the amount of chicken to boil, which will leave me with enough chicken for another meal or two that I can freeze. By boiling the chicken, I have also created broth/stock that I can freeze as well and make soup with at a later time. I make twice the amount of rice we'll eat tonight - that too will go in the freezer. So, I'm thinking maybe chicken rice soup later in the week? hehe.
I found a great basic baking mix in the book Frozen Assets by Deborah Taylor-Hough that I used a portion of to make 2 dozen wheat pancakes today and froze them as well. We are out of the boxes of toaster/microwave pancakes, so that helped out a lot. I would like to make the waffles as well to freeze, but first I have to find a friend with a waffle iron! I don't think buying one for the random one day that I feel like planning ahead and making a ton is really worth the money right now.
It's been a productive day, I'm pleased to say. The TV stayed off for most of the day, which thrills me. Thankfully, we had to go to basic cable, which doesn't offer any kid shows after 12pm, so the girls have had to be imaginative for most of the afternoon. They did their own pretend baking session while I did my real one. :) And now I hear Iris pretending to be the baby upstairs while Lily mothers her. Can't wait to see what the mess up there looks like! Regardless, I can relax with cooking at least one night this coming week. Hip, hip, HOORAY!
Rainy Day Lazy Day
We have been so incredibly busy lately. I have started up again with my cleaning frenzies and have successfully maintained a daily and weekly schedules to keep the house as clean as can be without losing my mind. :)
Iris and Lily started preschool. This is Iris' second year and Lily's first. The classes are small, so the teacher combined them. Iris gets a one on one day with teacher on Wednesdays, which I am super excited about. She tends to be distracted and talkative, so I think that day will help with the focusing. Lily loves when she wakes up and I say "it's a school day"; she gets so excited to get dressed and ready to go. Let's hope she carries on that enthusiasm into high school!
Addy and I have been enjoying our Mom and Addy time on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She is extremely cuddly and clingy, so she is just soaking up all the attention she can get those days! And I really don't mind giving it to her, since she hasn't had the chance to get personal time with me since birth. :)
I am still struggling internally with balancing everything that I feel I should do as a mother - cook, clean, play, take care of kids and husband. I know I WANT to do all those things...I think I just try to cram in too much of those things at one time instead of setting aside the time to do them throughout the day and not all at 5 pm before hubby walks in the door! I am currently re-reading Sidetracked Home Executives by Pam Young and Peggy Jones. I read it once last year and really loved it, so I checked it out from the library again to kind of center myself on what's important day-to-day and what I can let go and not clean or do so that I can have the quality and not so much the quantity. Those ladies have hilarious stories that really make me feel better and not feel like such a failure; they definitely had much worse habits at one time and I take it as a confidence boost. :) I am also reading Can I Freeze It? by Susie Theodorou. It's a great book for produce and meats to freeze and how to freeze them; plus, it has yummy recipes for homemade sauces and dishes to freeze. I made the Basic Tomato Sauce this week with a bunch of cherry tomatoes my mom had from her garden. I didn't have the 8 lbs of tomatoes the recipe called for, but I have probably 3 lbs and it yielded exactly 2 cups of sauce that I froze and am excited to have on hand the next time we do a pasta dish. There are some fish/seafood recipes in there that I probably won't use. I am not too keen on preparing and freezing seafood. I just buy the seafood pre-cooked and frozen. Raw seafood scares me. :) That's why I'd never try sushi.
And from my previous posts, you can probably tell I've done a lot of reading lately. Some were children's books and some not, but overall I enjoyed all of them and look forward to receiving my next book from them. I get them from BookSneeze, a great site to receive books from Thomas Nelson Books to read and review on a blog and a customer site. You get to keep the books you review and choose the categories from which you receive the books!
So, today the sky is dark and it's raining. I have exactly 26 minutes to get the girls to the library for the Preschool Storytime I promised I'd take them to. And I'm hoping to get a few more food books to look at. Tonight is family movie night. We will be enjoying Marmaduke on our inflatable mattress and with popcorn! I really cherish these times, even if the movie seems less than exciting for my husband and I. :)
Iris and Lily started preschool. This is Iris' second year and Lily's first. The classes are small, so the teacher combined them. Iris gets a one on one day with teacher on Wednesdays, which I am super excited about. She tends to be distracted and talkative, so I think that day will help with the focusing. Lily loves when she wakes up and I say "it's a school day"; she gets so excited to get dressed and ready to go. Let's hope she carries on that enthusiasm into high school!
Addy and I have been enjoying our Mom and Addy time on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She is extremely cuddly and clingy, so she is just soaking up all the attention she can get those days! And I really don't mind giving it to her, since she hasn't had the chance to get personal time with me since birth. :)
I am still struggling internally with balancing everything that I feel I should do as a mother - cook, clean, play, take care of kids and husband. I know I WANT to do all those things...I think I just try to cram in too much of those things at one time instead of setting aside the time to do them throughout the day and not all at 5 pm before hubby walks in the door! I am currently re-reading Sidetracked Home Executives by Pam Young and Peggy Jones. I read it once last year and really loved it, so I checked it out from the library again to kind of center myself on what's important day-to-day and what I can let go and not clean or do so that I can have the quality and not so much the quantity. Those ladies have hilarious stories that really make me feel better and not feel like such a failure; they definitely had much worse habits at one time and I take it as a confidence boost. :) I am also reading Can I Freeze It? by Susie Theodorou. It's a great book for produce and meats to freeze and how to freeze them; plus, it has yummy recipes for homemade sauces and dishes to freeze. I made the Basic Tomato Sauce this week with a bunch of cherry tomatoes my mom had from her garden. I didn't have the 8 lbs of tomatoes the recipe called for, but I have probably 3 lbs and it yielded exactly 2 cups of sauce that I froze and am excited to have on hand the next time we do a pasta dish. There are some fish/seafood recipes in there that I probably won't use. I am not too keen on preparing and freezing seafood. I just buy the seafood pre-cooked and frozen. Raw seafood scares me. :) That's why I'd never try sushi.
And from my previous posts, you can probably tell I've done a lot of reading lately. Some were children's books and some not, but overall I enjoyed all of them and look forward to receiving my next book from them. I get them from BookSneeze, a great site to receive books from Thomas Nelson Books to read and review on a blog and a customer site. You get to keep the books you review and choose the categories from which you receive the books!
So, today the sky is dark and it's raining. I have exactly 26 minutes to get the girls to the library for the Preschool Storytime I promised I'd take them to. And I'm hoping to get a few more food books to look at. Tonight is family movie night. We will be enjoying Marmaduke on our inflatable mattress and with popcorn! I really cherish these times, even if the movie seems less than exciting for my husband and I. :)
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Book Review: One Hand, Two Hands by Max Lucado
One Hand, Two Hands by Max Lucado is an extremely cute book for young children. It gives a simple description of different ways kids can help others and help make a difference. The length of the book is just right. I know for my young children, any longer and I think they would have lost interest. But I know it wasn't so short that they forgot the book either. I especially enjoyed the last pages where it asked for kids to think of ways that they can help. The illustration was very well done and eye-catching for my 3 year old. She enjoyed each page and liked to go through and talk about what was going on in the pictures.
Overall, I think the book was very well done and accomplished getting my preschool-aged kids to really think and talk about ways that they can help others.
Overall, I think the book was very well done and accomplished getting my preschool-aged kids to really think and talk about ways that they can help others.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Book Review: Outlive Your Life by Max Lucado
I have always enjoyed the writing style of Max Lucado. I think most people do. However, Outlive Your Life: You Were Made to Make a Difference is (in my opinion) his best book yet. It is not your typical call to action for Christians. He uses every day situations, everyday news headlines, and a deep love for Jesus to show us how we can reach the world.
Max Lucado is obviously well-versed in the numbers regarding poverty and hunger and homelessness. He doesn't stop there, though. He doesn't just quote some statistics and ask what we're going to do about it. He uses instances in his own life where he had the choice to make a difference in the simplest of ways, and he lets us know when he acted on them. Max Lucado has made helping others as real as I have ever seen/read it.
I cannot think of one instance in this book when I was thinking something other than "wow!". Great motivation, great inspiration, great conviction...all from a book!
Max Lucado is obviously well-versed in the numbers regarding poverty and hunger and homelessness. He doesn't stop there, though. He doesn't just quote some statistics and ask what we're going to do about it. He uses instances in his own life where he had the choice to make a difference in the simplest of ways, and he lets us know when he acted on them. Max Lucado has made helping others as real as I have ever seen/read it.
I cannot think of one instance in this book when I was thinking something other than "wow!". Great motivation, great inspiration, great conviction...all from a book!
Book Review: The Butterfly Effect: How Your Life Matters by Andy Andrews
The Butterfly Effect: How Your Life Matters by Andy Andrews is a thought-provoking book. Thoughts like "how can I change the world?" and "what can I do in MY life to make a difference?" are 2 of the first things that came to my mind.
This book starts out by telling the story of a schoolteacher that became a Colonel in the Union Army; his determination to not give up effected the lives of every American from that day on. The history of our country was saved by Johsua Chamberlain.
It then goes on to tell of the chain of people that ended up creating a corn that fed billions to date. Amazing stories and decisions people made ended in saving the world practically!
The Butterfly Effect has definitely caused me to consider how I can take steps to help others. The only negative thing about this book is its layout. It is a short read, but the way the sentences are spread out rather than just made as a short book with regular paragraphs sort of annoyed me. I felt like all I was doing was turning pages, which made the stories seem very broken up.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and will probably pass it on for others to read and hopefully be as inspired as I was!
This book starts out by telling the story of a schoolteacher that became a Colonel in the Union Army; his determination to not give up effected the lives of every American from that day on. The history of our country was saved by Johsua Chamberlain.
It then goes on to tell of the chain of people that ended up creating a corn that fed billions to date. Amazing stories and decisions people made ended in saving the world practically!
The Butterfly Effect has definitely caused me to consider how I can take steps to help others. The only negative thing about this book is its layout. It is a short read, but the way the sentences are spread out rather than just made as a short book with regular paragraphs sort of annoyed me. I felt like all I was doing was turning pages, which made the stories seem very broken up.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and will probably pass it on for others to read and hopefully be as inspired as I was!
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Book Review: The Boy Who Changed the World by Andy Andrews
The Boy Who Changed the World has a great series of stories about men who changed the world. I did find that my 4 year old had trouble following the stories. There are quite a few and after a while, she was getting confused as to which boy was which. Also, some of the wording seemed a bit difficult for a child between 4 and 8 (as is indicated is the target age for this book). Might be good reading for 8+ yrs old. Overall, great moral of the stories. Great encouragement for kids to follow their hearts and work to change the world themselves.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
I Stand in Awe
GOD IS AMAZING! Just wanted to start a blog that way. :)
Seriously, though, He is. I have no explanations for most of the things that happen in my life - good or bad. I just know the peace and strength God gives to go through bad times and the humility and amazement during the good times.
God has seen me through many things. Sometimes I thought I felt like He wasn't there, like He wasn't providing a way through a rough patch. But, in the end, I realized I never ASKED for His help. Yes, He very much wants to help His children and guide them and give them great things....but He also wants us to ask. I can't just assume that God is going to tell me what to do with my money or my time if I'm not even asking Him for direction. If I'm doing it all my own way, God may not intervene. It's going to Him FIRST that is going to get me where I need to be or in the direction I need to go.
And it's the great times that I need to remember Him as well. I know I do a lot of asking and pleading and begging God to help me when I'm down, but I know I need to make sure I'm thanking and praising Him once I'm through those times or over those obstacles. If I'm not willing to give Him the credit that is most certainly due Him, how could I even go and ask Him for MORE help? I am not dumb enough, though, to say I always acknowledge Him. I do forget and I do get cocky and I let myself have credit that I don't deserve. It's a slippery slope.
Now, to segue into another topic. I have a cousin who has 5 month old twins. One of the twins, Miranda, was diagnosed a few weeks ago with AML (leukemia) and has been through one round of chemotherapy so far (10 treatments in that round). She had a spinal tap this week that showed no leukemia cells in her spinal fluid, so that is really good news! PRAISE GOD! She is not yet in the clear, but that is a positive note in a painful couple of weeks for her. The poor baby has had numerous blood and platelet transfusions, spinal taps, tubes down her throat, needles in her arm, all kinds of morphine and medications, and many many x-rays and exams. I cannot imagine the hurt she has right now, and she isn't old enough to tell her mother where it hurts or how bad. She can only cry. My heart really breaks thinking about it. I cannot hold back tears.
My first reaction, were I not a Christian, would humanly have been "how could God do something like this to someone so little?" And I can definitely see how people ask that and then go on to say there can't be a God, God doesn't care, etc. It does, in our simple human eyes, seem awful that a tiny baby would have to suffer. All I have been able to bring myself to say is this:
"Only God knows the reason, and only God is in control of it all." And as many times as I say that to myself, I am still crying when I think of her. I know God can see the big picture and He knows just exactly who He is trying to reach by letting this play out as it has. I may never know who was changed for the better spiritually by this whole situation, but I have to trust God to take care of it all. Seems like a cop-out to some....saying that God is in control.....but I truly believe it. I have no crazy story to tell of how I came back from the brink of death or saw a light or whatever, but I know of many daily things that God has shown me through people and situations that can only lead me to conclude that it is not ME that is in control of anything but GOD who is in control of EVERYTHING.
I have given birth to 3 beautiful babies. I cannot for one second believe that the moment a baby takes its first breath or the incredibly traumatic situation at the moment of birth is just a random act of nature. The cosmos didn't just happen to make the cells divide and develop as they did for my children. There's no accident in nature, no randomness, no evolution. God has designed everything we can see, smell, taste, hear and feel. He has given it purpose, a name, a sensation. He brings together all the right elements for a baby to develop inside a woman and for it to be born. There is just too much there for me to logically believe it's all left to chance. The intricate makeup of everything in world just begs for a Creator, someone who specifically designed each thing. Gave us all just the right amount of cells to look and act as we do. Gave woman specific bodies to handle the birth of a child. Gave men specific bodies to help create the child. Gave humans the right formulas mentally to be able to love and have compassion and have the ability to make decisions, like whether or not we will choose to believe in the One True God.
Shame on us for not seeing God in everything. How humbling it is to see that we are not in charge, not in control of our lives, but rather that God is. And praise God for what He is doing in our lives and for His willingness to worth through our stubbornness to show us just how Great He is!
Seriously, though, He is. I have no explanations for most of the things that happen in my life - good or bad. I just know the peace and strength God gives to go through bad times and the humility and amazement during the good times.
God has seen me through many things. Sometimes I thought I felt like He wasn't there, like He wasn't providing a way through a rough patch. But, in the end, I realized I never ASKED for His help. Yes, He very much wants to help His children and guide them and give them great things....but He also wants us to ask. I can't just assume that God is going to tell me what to do with my money or my time if I'm not even asking Him for direction. If I'm doing it all my own way, God may not intervene. It's going to Him FIRST that is going to get me where I need to be or in the direction I need to go.
And it's the great times that I need to remember Him as well. I know I do a lot of asking and pleading and begging God to help me when I'm down, but I know I need to make sure I'm thanking and praising Him once I'm through those times or over those obstacles. If I'm not willing to give Him the credit that is most certainly due Him, how could I even go and ask Him for MORE help? I am not dumb enough, though, to say I always acknowledge Him. I do forget and I do get cocky and I let myself have credit that I don't deserve. It's a slippery slope.
Now, to segue into another topic. I have a cousin who has 5 month old twins. One of the twins, Miranda, was diagnosed a few weeks ago with AML (leukemia) and has been through one round of chemotherapy so far (10 treatments in that round). She had a spinal tap this week that showed no leukemia cells in her spinal fluid, so that is really good news! PRAISE GOD! She is not yet in the clear, but that is a positive note in a painful couple of weeks for her. The poor baby has had numerous blood and platelet transfusions, spinal taps, tubes down her throat, needles in her arm, all kinds of morphine and medications, and many many x-rays and exams. I cannot imagine the hurt she has right now, and she isn't old enough to tell her mother where it hurts or how bad. She can only cry. My heart really breaks thinking about it. I cannot hold back tears.
My first reaction, were I not a Christian, would humanly have been "how could God do something like this to someone so little?" And I can definitely see how people ask that and then go on to say there can't be a God, God doesn't care, etc. It does, in our simple human eyes, seem awful that a tiny baby would have to suffer. All I have been able to bring myself to say is this:
"Only God knows the reason, and only God is in control of it all." And as many times as I say that to myself, I am still crying when I think of her. I know God can see the big picture and He knows just exactly who He is trying to reach by letting this play out as it has. I may never know who was changed for the better spiritually by this whole situation, but I have to trust God to take care of it all. Seems like a cop-out to some....saying that God is in control.....but I truly believe it. I have no crazy story to tell of how I came back from the brink of death or saw a light or whatever, but I know of many daily things that God has shown me through people and situations that can only lead me to conclude that it is not ME that is in control of anything but GOD who is in control of EVERYTHING.
I have given birth to 3 beautiful babies. I cannot for one second believe that the moment a baby takes its first breath or the incredibly traumatic situation at the moment of birth is just a random act of nature. The cosmos didn't just happen to make the cells divide and develop as they did for my children. There's no accident in nature, no randomness, no evolution. God has designed everything we can see, smell, taste, hear and feel. He has given it purpose, a name, a sensation. He brings together all the right elements for a baby to develop inside a woman and for it to be born. There is just too much there for me to logically believe it's all left to chance. The intricate makeup of everything in world just begs for a Creator, someone who specifically designed each thing. Gave us all just the right amount of cells to look and act as we do. Gave woman specific bodies to handle the birth of a child. Gave men specific bodies to help create the child. Gave humans the right formulas mentally to be able to love and have compassion and have the ability to make decisions, like whether or not we will choose to believe in the One True God.
Shame on us for not seeing God in everything. How humbling it is to see that we are not in charge, not in control of our lives, but rather that God is. And praise God for what He is doing in our lives and for His willingness to worth through our stubbornness to show us just how Great He is!
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