What God has done for me this week

Baby A and I attend a bible study every Wednesday morning. It's something we both look forward to every week and learn SO much from. This week my discussion leader shared that one time she was a part of another bible study and her leader would ask them each week to tell one thing that God is doing for them this week. The point was to take a moment and see God at work in your life each and every week.

This spoke VOLUMES to me. Sure I see God at work in my life. I see how he leads me out of the valleys and how he guides us when we are confused or seeking His will. But it's more than that. He is with me EVERY moment of EVERY day. So I am making it a point to sit down and tell what God has done for me each week.
This will be my Friday post here. I thought about just writing it in my bible study notebook but what good is it if I don't tell what God has done for me to others. I am no evangelist or eloquent speaker but neither was Moses (Exodus 6: 28-30) and he did great things for the Kingdom of God.  So I am sharing what God is doing for me each week and if nothing else it will be a great way for me to look back and see ALL the wonderful things He has done for me in the year 2014 and I just know He has some great things in store for me in 2014.

This week God has given me great patience. Thursday was a VERY trying day with Baby A. She whined about everything, nothing was ever good enough for her and I was finding myself ready to end the day at 8:00 in the morning. But then God showed his love to me through music. Baby A and I had to run a few errands that morning and getting her into the van was quite the struggle.  Our favorite song right now is One Sonic Society's Never Once and as we backed out of the drive it came on the radio. Both Baby A and I lit up as we caught each other's eyes in the rear view mirror and we both started singing (I was singing through tears) about God's faithfulness. The tension in the air was gone and it was replaced with unspeakable JOY! It was like a great big hug from God letting me know that he was right there with me through the struggles of raising a 3 year old. The smile on Baby A's face as she sang praise to God, was something that held me through the rest of the week with her three year old tantrums.
To make things even better that afternoon we went to get the boys from school and we heard the song again. Then while waiting in car line I picked up my Jesus Calling devotion book. I haven't read it much since I started my bible study but I just felt interested in what that day's verse may say. So I picked it up and the devotion said this: "Don't expect an easy path as you journey hand in hand with me, but do remember that I, your very-present Helper, am omnipotent". God is so good and I am so thankful for his grace and unconditional love.

For nothing is impossible with God  Luke 1:37 

***If you usually skip over my Monday Wellness posts, make sure to read the one I will have up this coming Monday. I get pretty real... more real than I have ever been on my blog before and it's a good one... you will not want to miss it!

Thankful

I am so very thankful for.......

Jesus Christ, the one that saved me! 

Without Him I would not be the woman I am today. 

I am so thankful for his unconditional love and his never ending forgiveness. I am thankful for his word and the chance to be apart of a bible study that teaches me, strengthens me and leaves me craving to know Him more.  

I am thankful for these three beautiful children that gave me the title "mom". The joy they bring to my life is like nothing I could ever describe and I am so honored to have them in my life. 

I am thankful for my family.... for being raised in a God fearing family that loves one another. So very rare to find these days and I don't take it for granted. I am thankful to see us all grow up and raise families of our own, to share laughs together, to share in the ups and downs and to help each other out. 

I am so thankful for a warm place to call home. On cold days like we have had lately, I am thankful for a roof over our heads, heat, clothes and shoes. Sounds simple but if we didn't have it oh how cold it would be. 

I am thankful for this man. My first and only love and the one I am lucky enough to spend the rest of my life with. He is the best husband to me and the best father to our children. He leads our family the way God impresses on him to do so and for that I am forever grateful. 

Happy Thanksgiving From the Rowland family!!!

Good Morning God: video

Baby A learned this song in the bible study we attend on Wednesdays. It absolutely thrills my heart to hear her singing to God and telling me about all she learns in bible study. She LOVES her teacher and looks forward to going every single week. There is no greater joy for me to be able to take her each week.

Random

*The other night while I was walking with my friend, Tim was at home with the kids like we always do. The kids were sucked into Homeward Bound and Tim was sitting in the recliners paying bills and such. The kids had been so quite and he noticed a few sniffles coming from Baby A. He looked up and sure enough she was crying. He tried to figure out what was wrong but couldn't. He picked her up and asked her why she was crying and she replied "I don't know why". By this point she was really really upset and he somehow figured out it was because of the movie. There is a part where a little girl (around 4 years old or so) got lost in the woods and was crying. The 3 animals found her and stayed with her keeping her warm through the night. This apparently made Baby A very sad and even though Tim explained that the little girl was ok and her parents found her she still was very upset. She kept repeating "I don't know why I am crying" and the boys kept asking why on earth she was crying at the movie, HA. Tim was at a loss.... he is clueless (as are all guys) to crying at sad movies, books or blog posts. He managed to take her outside and finally calm her down. Bless his heart when the hormonal teenage years get here. He might need to lock himself in his room to get through them.

* Scooter is not an very organized guy. His back pack is ALWAYS filled with tons of crumpled papers that are late getting to me because he just threw them in his bag. This drives me CRAZY! I have tried punishing him for not turning things in and forgetting homework..... that didn't help. I have tried reminding him a billion times to turn things in and that doesn't help. I am at a loss. I need some kind of tips on how to get your child organized in school. If you have tips or a good book that I could read please pass them on. I searched pintrest for some ideas but most deal with keeping rooms cleaned... we have very little problem with that, it's mostly school stuff. HELP!!!!

* If you guys would send up a prayer for us we would greatly appreciate it. Rascal's teacher doesn't seem to care much about his allergy (or if she does she isn't showing it very well). This may sound so minor to most but it's not and trying to get EVERYONE to see it's not is wearing me down. Don't get me wrong... I am my child's advocate and I will surely step in when I have to but that doesn't make it easy. I manage to stay strong for the most part but last week was hard.. I mean really hard for me. I threw myself many pity parties wishing we didn't have to deal with this stuff, stuff like: reading EVERY single label on EVERY single item (not just food items but lotions and lip balms too), talking to teachers and parents about his allergy and getting looks like I am overreacting or exaggerating....... I get this EVERYWHERE and I want to jump in their face and let them hear how just ingesting a simple nut sends my son into an anaphylactic reaction, (Meaning his face starts swelling, tongue starts swelling and next comes difficulty breathing or even cardiac arrest. Scary huh??). I wish we didn't have to worry about him being singled out or left out due to his allergy. I can't send him to just any friend's house, birthday parties etc.. and if I do I have to pack his epi pen and benedryl and go through a brief (yet most likely intimidating) tutorial on how to use the epi pen and what signs to looks for. It means we skip out on things like muffins with mom and donuts with dad because we don' know if there are nuts in the products and if not, were they cross contaminated with nuts because that will send him into a reaction too. I have to send him to school, church and other people's homes and pray that he doesn't accidentally come in contact with a surface that has nut bits/oils on them (including children sneezing/ coughing after eating nuts or not washing there hands after eating nuts). 

So anyways after throwing myself pity parties I read a wonderful devotion that simply said . Entrust your loved ones in My hands. They are much better off there than in your own hands!!!!! How great is that??? I love that my creator knows my heart aches and the fact that I am trying to be the best protector I can for my children but even that isn't enough. Only placing them in His hands is the best. There is no doubt I would not be able to let Rascal out of my house (the only place that is TRULY safe for him) if it wasn't for the peace of knowing God has this in his hands. I read a new verse that day that spoke to me in a very powerful way:

The Lord replied, " I will personally go with you, Moses, and I will give you rest- everything will be fine for you." Now just insert your name in there instead of Moses and this can apply to every single one of us.... including Rascal! 

* Lucy has started chasing shadows. Now I know that sounds funny (and it is) but we aren't talking about an occasional playtime. I'm talking about 99% of her day is spent sitting in a corner staring at the wall waiting for shadows to move. It is the most annoying thing ever, mainly because when she sees the shadows move she barks, whines, or scratches/ bites at it. This has been going on for a good 3 weeks now... ever since she lost her balance while walking on her back feet and falling to hit her head. I really am wondering if she made herself crazy by that fall. We may contact the vet to see what they think. Here is a picture of her with her face behind our door just waiting for a shadow:

She sat this way for a good 30 minutes. One plus to this is we always know where to find her and it always looks like we have trained her to sit in time out. lol! 

*The kids were playing in the front yard a few weeks ago and the boys were trying to pull each other on a sled by just a skateboard. Well as you can assume, this didn't work so well and they were getting frustrated. I was out walking with my friend and so Tim decided to remedy the problem for them. He hooked up the sled behind the riding lawn mower and gave them rides around the yard. Can we say redneck? I was a bit shocked when I walked by our yard and saw this. He claims he was just helping the kids have a little fun. I am not sure I want to know what our neighbors think of us now. 

* I posted several low carb recipes on my recipe blog. If you would like to see them just look for the low carb label to the right. If you click on low carb all recipes under that label will appear. 

Rascal's Baptism

Back in April Rascal came to Tim with questions about salvation. He had been asking questions for some time but he finally felt like this night, April 19th 2013, was the night he was ready to say the sinner's prayer and become a child of God's. Tim had the privilege of showing Rascal the scriptures and talking with him and answering any questions he may have had. Then Tim led him in the sinner's prayer and we rejoiced over his decision. 

On June 23rd sweet Rascal was baptized. It was a day so filled with joy that it put Christmas to shame. Tim spoke that morning at church (and he always makes me so proud of what a amazing man of God he is).

We had several being baptized that morning and sweet Rascal was the smallest/ youngest one. When he stepped into the baptism pool oh how my tears just flowed. Such wonderful tears of joy, the feeling is like nothing I could ever put into words. 

I couldn't get great pictures due to my crying so my mom got these for me. The glass in front on the baptistry gave a horrible glare and Rascal's little head was right in that spot. So our pictures came out blurry and not very good. 

As much as I wish for a good picture, it doesn't take away from the fact that Rascal is a child of God's and will spend eternity with his creator in heaven. 

This was such a HUGE blessing in our family. We were also so blessed to have so much family come to see him baptized that day. 

God is so very good and we give Him ALL the glory for these blessings He has so richly given to us.