pictures/19 years

My beloved and I don't get to have our picture taken very often. So I was happy when we had a moment the other day, and Kayla offered to take our picture. She snapped one.

Then my beloved decided he wanted a kiss.
I caved!! How could I not. ;0)

Then we finally got a decent picture.

I am thanking the Lord today for 19 blessed years with my beloved. Time flies when you're having fun. ;0)

A Funny Visual/Life Application

I pray that you all had a wonderful CHRISTmas. Ours was very nice. We were able to spend it with church family, which was a blessing. (my beloved was taking the picture)
A few days before Christmas the children and I went with my beloved to Tampa and Tallahassee. He had some customer visits, so he invited us all to go. We figured why not, anything beats an empty house. It feels like we are camping out here with air mattresses and the whole nine yards. So while we were in a hotel in Tallahassee I let my mind think on some things that I shouldn't have. I still haven't mastered Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. I need to make that verse my mantra. ;0) Anyway, while I was sitting there festering...I mean thinking... my beloved suggested I go for a run. With the "rain" that recently fell, I lost about 12 or 13 pounds. I have since gained a little back, so I'm up to 114 now. I figured I might as well take advantage of it and start working out, so that if I gain any more back, I will gain it in the right places. ;0) Since it was already late, I decided to go to the hotel gym and run on the treadmill. I put my ipod on and started my run. After about 5 minutes of running, out of the corner of my eye I saw someone come in. It was my beloved. I was so surprised, as he was getting the children ready for bed when I left. I turned to look at him. I started to say, "Hey, what are you doing here?" when I realized what I did. I "turned" to look at him. I forgot I was running on a treadmill. Need I say more? I slid off of that treadmill so fast. The funny thing is I almost landed on my feet. However, I think the force with which I landed, my upper body, mostly my elbow, landed on the treadmill again. It proceeded to spit me out again. My oh so caring beloved, let out a chuckle and walked out. I later found out he had come to check on me. Needless to say I moved on to the elliptical machine to finish my workout. ;0)

Anyway, I ended up with a nice reminder on my elbow. (sorry, I didn't realize how hard it is to take a picture of your own elbow)It then started to scab up, and it reminded me of a conversation I recently had with my beloved. I really don't understand why people pick at scabs. It always grosses me out, and it makes absolutely no sense to me. Why pick at a scab? It's only going to take longer to heal, and it's going to leave an unsightly scar. My beloved is famous for picking his scabs, which I always chastise him for. My beloved pointed out to me that I may not pick at any physcial scabs, but with the "rain" that recently fell, I have gotten quite good at picking emotional scabs. I dare to say that I have become quite a professional scab picker. Just when the Lord starts to heal my emotional owie up, I yank the "scab" off, and I need to start the healing process all over again. I never realized I did that until he brought it up. I go back and replay things in my mind over and over again. I let my mind take off with things I shouldn't. I told you I haven't mastered Phil 4:8 yet. Practice... practice I must.

My Mountain Man

Heating up the house has turned into an adventure. First we have to chop a dead tree down. We have since purchased a chainsaw since this picture. ;0)

After the tree gets chopped, my beloved has to split the wood into smaller pieces.

After splitting wood for a few hours, a break was needed. I love seeing him dressed in winter outfits. He even grew his facial hair to match the task.;0)

The job is very rewarding, and we all benefit it from it. ;0)

Hoola Hoops

I know that in my last post I wrote that I was in Kentucky. We ended up driving straight from Kentucky to our "home" in southern Florida. What a drive!! It feels so good to be around church family. I know we will only be here for a few weeks, but it feels like we slid right back into our lives here. My beloved will be preaching in Miami this Sabbath, and I will be teaching Sabbath school at our old church next week. We do miss Idaho though. They are getting pounded with snow right now. Awww...and we missed it. ;0) I'm not sure if that's a bad thing or not. lol

On Tuesday my beloved and I went to a dear friend's house to pray, and for fellowship. There was another older couple there from our church, aside from our friend. This friend is in the midst of maybe getting a divorce. She's the same friend that I have mentioned on this blog before. We started talking about marriage, etc. and some things came up that I never really thought about. I'm not too sure how or what to think about it. All three of them have gone through recovery, like al anon programs. They either are adult children of alcoholics, or had a dysfunctional relationship with a parent, etc. They either completed or are in the process of completing the 12 steps. They are big on boundaries. They told me that I need to recognize myself as Shereen, a child of a God, period. I should not be Shereen, wife to her beloved, Shereen, mother to Kayla, etc. The funny thing is, I have never emailed them. For those of you that have never exchanged emails with me, my signature line reads like this:

Shereen, helpmeet to my beloved
Mother to our blessings;
Kayla 12, Britney 10
Micah 6, Elijah 4
http://www.w8ng4him.blogspot.com/

lol Should it now read, Shereen, child of the loving God? I had a hard time digesting that. They weren't saying that I don't love my beloved, or will stop caring for him and doing everything for him or my children, but that I need to recognize that above everything else, I am His child. At the end time, I will stand ALONE to answer to Him. My name is written in the Book of Life alone, it will not be linked to my beloved. We answer to Him separately, no matter how closely knit we are tied together. And I, of course, know that, but I find it hard to think of myself first as a child of God. My beloved and I have been together since we were 16. On January 8th we make 19 years together. I have known him longer than I haven't known him. ;0) Aside from it sounding like psychological mumbo jumbo, they said I need to find myself, who I am apart from my beloved and my children.
Well, today my beloved kicked me out of the house and told me to go take some time for myself. I went to the Christian bookstore and picked up a book and then......I didn't know what to do with myself. My beloved text messaged me to see how I was doing, and I told him I was bored. lol I was bored without him/them!! I then proceeded to drive back to our home and I ended up meeting him at the park with the children. So much for that.
One analogy that the sister from church shared was that we should think of everyone as having a hoola hoop around them. Everyone is playing with their own hoola hoop. We shouldn't/can't go into each other's hoola hoops to play. What we each do within our own hoola hoop is between us and the Lord. My beloved both thought the hoola hoop analogy was pretty cool.
I will admit that I think my beloved and I play in each other's hoola hoops all the time. ;0) Any thoughts on this?

Bring the Rain

Awww..thank you ladies for all the love. ;0) When I posted last, I wondered if anyone was still reading this blog.



As I type this, I am sitting in a hotel in...I think we are in Kentucky now, not too far from Tennessee. My beloved got a transfer from his job up north, which was a huge answer to prayer. He has to close out this quarter, and make an easy transition to the new guy, which they haven't hired yet. He figured he either had to make two or three more trips over the next few weeks, or he could stay in Florida and knock it all out. The only thing is, if he stayed in Florida, that means we'd be separated for about 3 or 4 weeks. So he asked me if we all wanted to go, so that we won't be apart for so long. Normally we can't travel like this because of the pets. The way the Lord works things out is always amazing to me. We had to put Butch down last week. His back legs were giving out on him, and he couldn't even stand to eat or drink. My sister and her beloved agreed to stay with the rest of our pets, which is what made this trip possible. We have been driving since Thursday. The children have been champs.



Since we moved to Idaho, it has only snowed two times, and both times it has been very little. It snowed maybe 1/2 an inch in the evening, and by the morning, it had already melted. The day after we left, my sister said they were getting 2 feet of snow, and the temperature had dropped to -3 degrees. We felt so bad, as the children have had their sleds ready for the last two months waiting for that first snow fall.



I'm hoping to answer some of your questions over the next couple of posts. I should have more time to blog, as our house in Florida is empty, and there isn't much to do, as far as cleaning, etc. I'm hoping to just enjoy the time off with the children while my beloved works.

Q. Do you have space for a garden come spring? Are you planning and prepping for one?
A. I do have space for a garden come spring, but we're not sure if we will even be living where we are at right now. Like I mentioned, my beloved got a transfer up north, and even though he can easily work from Idaho, it would involve some traveling. We would like to do away with all travel. In order to do away with the traveling we would have to move...again.....to another state. lol We're hoping to start packing as soon as we get back to Idaho. I would like to be in the new state sooner rather than later. The growing seasons up north are much shorter.

Side note: I questioned the Lord as to why He just didn't move us straight from Florida to the new state, as opposed to taking us to Idaho for a short time. My beloved and I both agree that we feel as if the Lord decompressed us, for lack of a better word, in Idaho. It's as if he stripped us of self, pride...etc. We have had an incredible learning and growing experience in Idaho. Not too long after moving there, we heard a song called, Bring the Rain. (lyrics are below) I remember that soon after hearing the song, my beloved and I were praying together. In his prayer he mentioned, "Lord, bring the rain." I remember grimacing as the words came out of his mouth. Not only did the Lord bring the rain, it felt as if He brought the storm. You know, I realized that while going through a storm, the Bible comes to life. ;0) Songs take on a whole new meaning. Having Him as my Saviour means SO much more. My prayer is that I can bring Him honor and glory through this storm. Maybe one day I can share when the sun is fully out, but right now it's still drizzling. ;0)

Here are some verses that helped me: (Below the verses are the lyrics to the song)
James 1:12Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

Romans 5:3Not only so, but we[c] also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope.

Romans 8:17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory

I will keep going through the comments and answering. Once again, thank you for continuing to check on my blog while I was gone.

Lyrics to Bring the Rain

I can count a million times
People asking me how I
Can praise You with all that I've gone through
The question just amazes me
Can circumstances possibly
Change who I forever am in You
Maybe since my life was changed
Long before these rainy days
It's never really ever crossed my mind
To turn my back on you, oh Lord
My only shelter from the storm
But instead I draw closer through these times
So I pray
Bring me joy, bring me peace
Bring the chance to be free
Bring me anything that brings You glory
And I know there'll be days
When this life brings me pain
But if that's what it takes to praise You
Jesus, bring the rain
I am Yours regardless of
The dark clouds that may loom above
Because You are much greater than my pain
You who made a way for me
By suffering Your destiny
So tell me what's a little rain
So I pray
Holy, holy, holy
Is the Lord God Almighty

MIA/Sharing

Hello everyone. I am so sorry that I went MIA. Thankfully we are all well out here in the mountains. It has been an INCREDIBLE experience. I wish I could say it's been all good. The Lord brought us out here for a reason, and He is definitely accomplishing in us what we needed. Maybe not what we wanted, but what we needed. lol ;) Our characters are being put through the fire and refined. It has definitely drawn us closer together as a husband and wife, and more importantly it has drawn us closer together to Him. The Lord has shown us some areas in our lives that we needed to deal with. I have never felt so close to my beloved as I do now. I always thought we had an incredible marriage, to the point that I needed to check myself and make sure it wasn't a source of pride.
My beloved and I have been doing something every evening for the last couple of weeks. We haven't figured out a name for it yet, but for lack of a better phrase, it has been dubbed "talk time" Every evening once the children are in bed we cuddle up on the sofa and go through our entire day. We take turns going first. We literally share everything with each other. We go through our feelings when such and such happened, or our thoughts when this or that happened. There is to be no judging, just pure sharing from the heart. We share things that have happened in the past, as far back at 15 years ago, or as close as things that happened right before we left Florida. I think the no criticizing or judging part helps us to really dig down deep and share our innermost thoughts. We normally pray right before or right after. We just ask the Lord to bring to memory anything he wants us to share. I will say that this has helped me to see what areas of my beloved's life I need to pray for, and vice versa. I now know specific things he needs prayer for, as opposed to a general, "Lord, help him to be a good leader in the home," type things. I won't share my beloved's current "works in progress" but I will share mine. I don't think I know how to forgive properly. I forgive, but I don't know how to forget. ;0) I grew up in home that if you did something wrong, they wouldn't speak to you for weeks. There was no forgetting. The Lord is now definitely showing me and teaching me how to properly forgive. I wouldn't want to go through it with anyone else other than my beloved!!
Another thing that has kept me busy is that I took Britney to a new neurodevelopmentalist up here. So we had a new set of activities to work on and perfect.
I have a boat load of pictures to share. It's already dropping to the 30's and 20's up here, but it's definitely a different cold than when we lived in NY. Even in the 30's we go on 4 1/2 mile nature hikes/walks as a family.
Anyway, I better get off for now. My beloved is in Florida, and should be on his way to the airport as I type. We hope that that was his last trip to Florida, and we can finally put Florida behind us now.

Internet

Hi all. I wanted to take a moment to thank you all for checking up on me, for the prayers, and well wishes. I'm on someone's internet connection, so this will be short. We had a very hard time getting internet where we live. I called a few places, but when I gave them our address, they said they didn't cover it. I couldn't even get dial up. We finally found out we could get Satellite Internet. They are coming today to install it. I should be up and running soon. I have LOTS to share, and many photos to go with it. ;0) I have been keeping my camera in my pocket at all times, as you never know when you will see something amazing...... We have only been here a week, and we have some great experiences already. It also helps when you have a retired biologist as a neighbor. ;0) One of the adventures my beloved is proud of is how he exhausted a horse who escaped from a house across the road. ;0) Hopefully I can share later on today. Thanks again for your prayers, emails, and phone calls. I promise I will get back to them as soon as I can.
I have a renewed energy for blogging. ;0)