If Only Losing Weight Was This Easy!!!!

I totally am PMS-ing, bloated and feeling like the fish in this video!!! lol!!! Have a great Thursday!!!

Funny Video that Makes You Think!!

My husband came across this video the other night and while absolutely hilarious we saw an underlying meaning in it. It's so easy to judge and laugh at others and to look at their weaknesses and mock them and point out their sins. It's quite another when your judging, mocking and choices expose you to your "nakedness"!! The birds in this clip are fighting amongst themselves until an outsider comes by. The outsider wants to be accepted into the group, however the little birds make fun of him and start "gossiping" about him with each other. The bird oblivious to their behavior jumps in between them trying to befriend them. The birds then proceed to vigorously attack the outsider until he is ready to let go of the line. Little do the the birds know that the entire time that they are spending attacking him, they put themselves in the line of fire and when he finally lets go they go flying into the air and come falling down without their feathers. A very cute little short by Pixar!!

While I know that this is just a simple cartoon, I feel that this can teach us so much about focusing on the sin of others. Sometimes it's so easy to look at the other guy or gal and point out how bad they are to everyone. It's not so fun when you are the one that gets exposed to your sin. God knows EVERYTHING you do, say, type or read. He knows your thoughts, your plans, and your dreams. He knew you even before you were born.

In Psalm 139:1-18, the great Psalmist writes:"O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. You hem me in--behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you."

It's amazing how even in our world of technology where every keystroke and website visit can be monitored by the government, website service, or web designer; that we completely forget that there is someone even bigger that knows even your thoughts even if you never let them be known to others. When you remember that you are always "exposed" to your sin by the one who created you; it makes it a little less more appealing to do what grieves him.

In Galatians 5:19-23, God tells us what he wants us to rid from our lives. "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication,uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." Does that mean that if you do bad things, you will not get to go to heaven. Absolutely not!!

God gave us his son Jesus Christ who bore the burden of all of your sins. In John 3:16-18 we are told, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believes on him is not condemned: but he that believes not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." If you confess your sin to Him and accept Him as your Lord and Savior, you WILL inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. Even if you screw up after accepting Him into your heart and life.

If you have accepted Jesus into your life, like I have but still find yourself falling into the same sins and temptations use this great prayer from the the Bible "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Psalm 139:23-24. I've been saved since I was three and I'm still not perfect either and I have to pray daily for God's guidance.

God loves you so much and he wants to be with you and fellowship with you. Let him into your heart and life and you will see the difference he can make in your life. Does that mean you will be perfect and never do anything wrong again? Does it mean that everything will go well for you? Absolutely not!! But if you do sin, you can take that sin to the one who ALREADY knows what you have done, ask for forgiveness, and ask for his guidance on how to not fall into temptation again. If you go through hard times, you can lay your burdens upon him. He will help you, guide you and restore you. He will heal you, comfort you and bless you.

The text of this message is copyrighted by Sherlyn J. Edwards 2009.
Video by Pixar Studios and apparently a voice over was done by the You Tube poster.

Football, Friends & Prayer!!

I had a wonderful day yesterday. It started out with church and worship where we did one of my favorite songs "You Raise Me Up". I absolutely love that song and being able to play the flute on that song makes it even better! I then had my Sunday school middle school class. They always seem to give me a new perspective on God and the world around us. We then were invited to a friends to watch football but thanks to the wonders of the cable company the game was halted for a bit. Ray asked me to go to our house and check if we had cable and we did so, we invited everyone to our house, so I quickly did a quick clean up of our weekend mess and within a few minutes Ray and his friends were watching football upstairs. After football they engaged in guy conversation and we all ended the evening in group prayer!! God is so amazing and Ray and I are so thankful for our Worship Team and friends. What an amazing end to a great weekend.

SATAN BITE THE DUST!!!!

Sometimes I completely forget when I'm being attacked or hurt by someone, or when someone gets an unexpected illness, that we do not war against flesh and blood. This video by Carmen brought it back into prospective!!! TAAWWANNNDAA! Sword of the Spirit Coming at Ya!!!!

I LOVE JESUS!!! HOW ABOUT YOU!!!

I totally love this video!!! ;-) God Loves You!!!!

If You Give A Mouse a Cookie Review

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

This book happens to be one of my favorites for children. It reminds me so much of my boys and how if you give them one thing then they will ask for another and so on and so on!! My little one is infamous for this. He pops in our room in the morning and asks you to get up. From the time that he gets you up until the time he lays his sweet little head in bed, his requests are unending.

My preschooler absolutely loves the book. I wonder why!!

I've Been Invaded!!!! My Crazy 24 Hours!!!

Because Brandon's birthday was during the week, we held his actual party this weekend. So as custom goes, he got to have two overnight guests and the party the next day, which increased the male population in my house making the male to female ratio now 6 to 1!! As the volume increased in our home my even more decibels than the usual boy clamour, my husband jokingly teased me about the baby lust I sometimes falter into. I reassured him that I was quite satisfied with my three boys!!! In our house last night Nerf gun wars were initiated and PlayStation tournaments were held. I think our staircase sounded like a summer thunderstorm for hours as boys ran up and down the stairs and into the solarium. I could hear the pop, pop, pop of the cap guns and the springy cling of the Nerf guns. Sophia curled up in her cat bed and looked at me like "Seriously mom, did you need to invite more boys here!!"

Like any good birthday hostess, we had a fun dinner planned. The boys designed their own individual pizzas, while Ray and I dined on my beloved pot roast. Despite the fact the pot roast aroma filled the entire house, tantalizing the taste buds of the adults, our boys and our guests still wanted the pizzas(children just do not know and appreciate quality dining). Once the little gentlemen were fed, then came the after dark hide and go seek (we called it ditch-em when I was a kid) which also seemed to burn off the sugar high. I was told it was too cold after a couple of games so they decided that another PlayStation tournament was going to begin soon! They then got Ray to come up and play teams on NCAA Football! Ray loves playing with Brandon, but the opportunity to play with more guys made it even more enticing!! One game later, and Josiah retiring to bed, Ray and I decided to go to bed as well. I'm not sure how long the little troopers were up, but I was so tired by the end of the night that I was hoping they would stay up late and sleep in late!!

Morning arrived and our little one came in and gave us his customary good morning and snuggle. Along with the I'm hungry, what's for breakfast and the sun is out mommy get up!! So up I go, reluctantly and get coffee going. By then I hear the roar of boys upstairs and now that it's time for breakfast. Simple breakfast for these guys though as they were in full tilt PlayStation mode and wanted to dine on cereal and fruit. This kept them entertained until lunch. After lunch, my parents were coming so I got the cake made and ready. We were then invaded by not one, but five other neighborhood kiddos that happened to stop by to play with the boys. So now we had 10 boys and 3 girls in the house!! I was kind of glad that there was a slight increase in the female population!! It was fun as we had a whole room full of kiddos for Brandon's cake!! Brandon was ecstatic as he was surrounded by family and friends and ended up having a wonderful time.

The house is down to normal male population and the volume has substantially decreased. My hubby has just left for work for yet another train trip, so I'm a little lonely, so I'm at the computer blogging away waiting for the kiddos to wear down so I can take over the television!! Sometimes I really enjoy the me time, but it's nights like this when I miss him the most.

Tomorrow night this lone female is going rogue on the boys and the TV is mine!!! The Golden Globes are on and I'm hoping The Curious Case of Benjamin Button garners a few rewards!!! That would make this blanket making experience even more amazing!! ;-)

And So It Begins....My Homeschooling Story

I never thought of myself as a homeschool mom. I actually was a working mom for five years. When my middle son was born, my husband and I decided that I would stay at home and raise the boys. It was an interesting journey for me as I was not a domestic diva by any means. I was the take-out, box-chef, frozen dinner queen!! I really didn't have time to cook so why buy all the crazy ingredients! I did spend a lot of time with Brandon though, reading, playing educational games, and talking to him which I now know was something that would lay a foundation for him as he started going to school. I was "homeschooling" him and didn't even know it at the time.

Kindgergarten was great for Brandon as he excelled above the other kiddos because he could already read and his teachers were amazing in making sure that he was challenged. When he started first grade, the trouble began and the teacher not only refused to give him harder work, she insisted that because he was a first grader he needed to read first grade books, not the science and mystery books that he was reading at home. That said, Brandon was bored and we started courting the possibility of homeschooling him. We had several friends that homeschooled and so we were able to tap in to all the resources available. We also learned about all the amazing curriculums out there. When we learned about Abeka and other curriculum that was Christian base, that made the aspect of homeschooling even more appealing!! After spending tons of time on the internet, we found what we wanted and started homeschooling him in second grade.

My first year was a rocky one...and I imagine any professional teacher that you talk to would also probably tell you the same thing. As I blog away on this homeschooling blog, I will share with you things that we have learned during our homeschooling journey as well as books, videos, and much more. I will also share our struggles and how we overcame them!! I encourage you to comment and share your ideas as well so that we can all work together to give our children the best education possible. I have now been teaching my children for 5 1/2 years. I also will be interviewing other homeschool moms!!! Welcome to The Homeschooling Princess!!