What a difference a good night's sleep does for one's being.

Thank you to those who prayed for me.  

I woke up a few times in the night

but super refreshed when I woke up about 7:30.

Today is

Can you figure out my favorite one?

So make sure you get some Gummy Bears today!!!

Even though Gummy Bears are very yummy and brings smiles to our faces

we can have something better  every day

and we don't have to wait for a National Day to celebrate

We can celebrate

Jesus!!

this morning I am reminded

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.

Rather, in humulity value others above yourselves."  Philippians 2:3

God challenges us to do two things:  Love Him and love our neighbors.

Loving God because He first loved me!!!

How do I show God I love him.

By building my relationship with him.

In reading His word, praising His name,

studying His word - all demonstrate my love for him.

Lord, help me today to be intentional in my love for you and in my relationship with you.  Thank you for loving me when I fall short in my part of our relationship.  Help me to love those who I come into contact with.  Help me to not be discouraged when others fall short of my expectations.  Help me to know how to set boundaries and not feel used by others.  Help me to stand and be strong when others say one thing and do another...I don't want to be judgmental so Lord help me to hold people accountable for the things that I can and not take things as personal hurts because of their actions or lack thereof. Amen.

Rambling Thoughts

Sure wish I could figure out why I can't post a title on my blog posts.

Do you notice anything different...

yep I changed the name of my blog and the colors

...using my favorite colors.  

I also merged all my blogs into one.

I have been using a couple of different devotions and both spoke to me today.

The first one is from The Duck Commander Devotional and is found in Romans 15:4

And I am reminded that when I have questions, concerns, doubts or ??? 

all I need to do is turn to the Word and

He Will Guide Me!!!

And then from Proverbs 31 Devotionals

Tethered or Tattered

and that no matter what I am dealing with, 

thinking about, anticipating or even dreading

the Lord is with me each step of the way

along this journey of life.

Thank you Lord for all the ways you show me, teach me and love me!

A couple of people have asked 

"what have you been up to?"

Not a whole lot is my first response

but in reality life is full every day.

This past week we have gone swimming multiple times

and look forward to many more days of swimming.  

Can't say we lounge at the pool but many evenings find us locking the door to the office at 5 PM or so and then spending an hour or more swimming, treading water, talking

and just being together enjoying each other and where we are.

Last Wednesday we went on a drive, sorry no pics ~ forgot the camera !!

We love to go for rides and right now with the great weather we have been having, Ron has taken the top off the Jeep...I call it his two-seater motorcycle with doors.  We drove out to G.U.M.I. Camp ~ 

here is David...working hard at GUMI Camp

they are on target to open to our first Veterans on May 31, 2015!!!

On Thursday we went to 

White Water

and spent a lot of time in this wave pool.  

Liberty was with us while her momma and daddy were at the doctor's

getting their weekly check up on Miss Lily Mae.

It was not the sunniest day we have had here in Branson

but enough that all three of us got a bit of a sunburn.

And yep, I forgot the sunscreen :(

Thank you Jamie & Derrick for the tickets!!!

Friday, Saturday and Sunday 

found us busy here at the campground.

We have lots of guests here in the campground.

It is exciting to see so many people enjoying this beautiful corner of the world.

Friday night Ron and Ronnie went to Grand Country for the Branson USA show.  

Teresa and I stayed home as neither one of us were feeling very good.

Saturday was one of the hottest days we have had this year

~~ yep we spent almost two hours in the pool after work ~~

Sunday afternoon was busy getting ready to celebrate

Lily Mae & Liberty

with Jamie & Derrick

Here is one of the babies that made an appearance

and

Jamie & Miss Lily Mae

Baby Food Tasting

and opening presents

(the yellow blanket is what I made for Lily_

and that has been our week.

We hope each of you have had a great week.

PS ~ forgot one thing

Many of you know that I have been tired/exhausted all the time,

you will be happy to know I have a doctors appointment this

coming Thursday...if you care to pray for me and that appointment

I would sure appreciate it.

Thanks for reading!!!

Yesterday was 

Forever Friends...we are a group of ladies who gather together each week for a time of fellowship and food and then a time of sharing prayer requests, needs, and then prayer.  We meet on Monday's at 11 AM at Golden Corral here in Branson.  The group was begun many years ago by my friend, Barbara Fairchild to that women could meet and make friends.  All women are invited to attend.  We do take an offering most weeks so that we can help those in time of need: we have helped with electric, groceries, car repairs, etc.

I have not been able to go very often since we changed the day of the meeting (we used to meet on Tuesday's) but while working on Sunday afternoon I did the stuff that usually bogs me down on Monday mornings so that I could go...I have been missing my FF and connecting with the ladies.  I was glad that I was able to attend.  It was just what I needed ~ to be with other Christian ladies and being encouraged.

If any of you ladies are in the Branson area and would like to attend, just give me a call at the campground, 417.338.1038.  I would be happy to have you come and share in this special time.

As I have shared on here and yesterday at FF that I have been struggling with getting things done, getting myself back on track with exercising and eating right.  And was encouraged with words and hugs.  Well that encouragement continued this morning as I rolled out of bed at 5:51...the alarm had gone off at 5:45...I heard someone say..."you can do it" and so I made my way to the bike...oh how my legs were hurting and it would have been so easy to just give up and crawl back into bed...but I didn't...I told myself

and I did...I did 30 minutes on the bike...5.91 miles and burned 307 calories...better than yesterday ~ that is a good thing right?  I also drank my first of 3 bottles of water for the day.

After exercising I gathered my Bible, devotional book and journal...glanced outside at the beautiful sunrise and made my way to the sunroom...it is so peaceful in there and I am so thankful for the peaceful setting to study God's word, learn and reflect.

Something I struggle with is falling back into old habits/thinking patterns and over the past couple of days I have found myself asking "why is it so much easier to do the things that I don't want to do?  why is it so much easier to be the victim and not the conqueror?  why do I let the old negative tapes rewind and play over and over in my mind?"  and so this morning I asked the Lord to help me and was reminded of 

and was reminded that

Christ loves me, there is no doubt about it...HE Love Me!!!  I am his daughter, I am the daughter of the King.  Yes I have been hurt in some horrible ways BUT I have been healed in my heart.  And even though I have been healed it does not mean I won't forget what has happened to me...BUT I can take the love that others have shown me, given me and SHARE that love with others...just because I have been hurt in the past doesn't mean I have to live in the hurt today...I can be free of the pain and share my healing with others, to be an encouragement to others.  

Further reading this morning I came across a quote from Lori Swindoll:  Each of us have something broken in our lives: a broken promise, a broken dream, a broken marriage, a broken heart.  And we must each decide how we are going to deal with our own brokenness.

Wow!  Wow! Wow...thank you Lord for showing me that it is okay to be healthy, to be loved and to love others.  And to use the pain from my past to encourage others and to let others know that the past is in the past and it does not define who we are today.    Yesterday Barbara shared from 

(I am reading it right now) and you can check it out here, and the one thing that struck me was "I am not the abuse of my past" and Jesus confirmed with me this morning that I am not my past...yes I am who I am due to my past but my past does not define me.

As I was getting ready to end this post I was reminded of something that I talked with Marla & Charles about often...how my life is like a spiral graph

we start life in the center of the circle and as we go through life and move through the circle we may come to the same situation or a memory come back up but how I dealt with it the first time is different then the second time, the third time...and that is where I am today...for who knows why, lots of the issues of the abuse from my past keeps coming to the surface right now but how I deal with it is different from the times before...that is how my healing has been...each time IT comes up I deal with it differently...I no longer let anger control how I deal with things, now I turn to God, asking Him to help me through these rough waters ( or as Charles used to say "get those wild horses back under control")  I respond differently and the hurt and the pain doesn't surround me like it used to.

I don't know if that is making any sense but it does to me.

I would like to ask that as you think of me, say a prayer for me to be open to how God wants to use the pains of my past to bring Glory to His Name!!!

As I have thought about my time with the Lord this morning I have reflected on a few things...first off this is how I think God was reacting to me this morning

as I opened my devotional...oops let me first back up

I had set my alarm for 5:45 AM but since it was almost 11:30 when I went to crawl into bed I changed it to 6:45 AM  but alas God woke me up at 5:31 AM...umm remember me telling God he needs to wake me up if I am going to exercise and spend time with Him...well he did this morning.  And it was okay...I felt good.  So I got dressed in my exercise clothes (today a Dutton t-shirt and shorts) and headed to the activity room and the bike...boy am I out of shape...I did 30 minutes on the bike, rode 5.68 miles burning 297 calories...not the best I have done but hey...30 minutes on the bike today was 30 minutes more than yesterday :)

And then I came out to the living room, the sun was shining bright and the room looked so inviting and peaceful...and then I opened my devotional book...the little pink one I showed y'all yesterday.  

The title "Honor God with Your Body"...the scripture reference

 

just got me laughing...I know the scriptrue is in reference to sexual immorality but if you think about it it really does encompass our whole body...our physical body and how God bought each of us with the death of Jesus on the Cross and then His resurrection.  Our bodies are temples for the Holy Spirit to reside in us...and so we need  must take care of our bodies each and every day.

That means physically, spiritually, emotionally and since for the past few days I found myself planting the seeds of getting back on track...I am so thankful Jesus met me right where I was at this morning!!!

And so as I have gone throughout the day making good food choices (planning what I was going to eat before I got to Golden Corral and Forever Friends), purposefully drinking water instead of soda pop...still haven't had a cup of coffee since I started the Elimination Diet on May 26...I love coffee with creamer...and since I have found out dairy is not my friend I just haven't drank any...water has become my drink of choice...with lemon or strawberries or blue berries...yummie!!!

Also walking to the cabin instead of riding the gator and going for a swim in the evening after working all day and spending time with my hubby in the pool...

...being intentional in what I do, say, eat and drink.

Do you do things just because or intentionally?

What little tricks do you use to make good eating/drinking choices?

I would love it if you would share in the comments.

Good morning from Branson, MO!!!

This was the view off our back deck at 5:45 this morning 

Isn't God's beauty amazing!!!

Yesterday I told Ron "I need to go to church."  He wasn't able to attend as he and Ronnie were busy cutting down trees, trimming trees and replacing lights so I went by myself...I don't like to go by myself but I KNEW that I needed to be in church...so I went to 

And God met me there...as I have said in recent posts, I have been struggling with getting back on track and that is in all areas of my life...one being my relationship with the Lord.  Well, just as He always does, He met me right there.  I like to sit in the front row (Ron does not) so since Ron was not with me I walked right up to the front row and sat down and just listened to the music that was playing and talking to God in my heart.  Some sweet friends came in that I hadn't seen in months so we gave each other hugs...so good to connect with friends...that's another thing I deal with...missing my friends from home (Blaine, WA) and though we meet a lot of people sometimes a hug from a good friend is so welcome.

Barbara spoke on Acts 2:14-39...not exactly clear on all she shared but a couple of things jumped out at me "get over yourself" and "give all of me to Jesus"  and I KNEW that Jesus was talking to me...I get so wrapped up in me, my issues, my needs, my WANTS...me..me...me...myself and I...and I need to be shaken up a bit and reminded that life is not all about me...I am not saying it is wrong to think about yourself or take care of yourself...but it is wrong to always be focused on yourself.  I was feeling chastised and humbled at the same time...yet I felt glued to my seat...that Jesus was sitting right there with his arm around me holding me still to listen. 

And then Jamie from the Statlers Revisited (Roy also sings in this group) came up on stage and sang a couple of songs.  I can't remember the songs he sang but I do remember feeling like God was right there hugging me and saying "yes, yes, yes" 

"Statler Brothers Revisited," The class of "57" and their band reproduces the smooth four-part harmony that made the Statler Brothers. Enjoy songs like Elizabeth, Flowers On The Wall, Do You Remember These, I'll Go To My Grave Loving You and More! Wed & Thurs    @ 8:00 pm (Wed only in July. No Shows in August)

And then there was just quiet and then Roy came up to speak...as soon as he started speaking I knew he was going to sing "The Secret Place"  (if you click on the link and go down about 2/3 of the way and you can click on the song and hear part of it) and I continued to feel God talking to me, saying "come clean ~ you know it is what you need to do"  and He kept talking to me the whole time Roy was singing. And so I visited that Secret Place, shared with Jesus (he knew already) and was reminded by Jesus (through the words that Roy was sharing)...just ask Me, just come and sit with Me and talk with Me.

And so when I got home I found myself sitting with Jesus, just sharing.  Oh what a few minutes with Jesus can do for a person...try it, you might like it.

A friend of mine told me about listening to Christian music on YouTube...I am loving it...I turned on a 4 hour Christian music station yesterday afternoon while I was working...that was about 1:45 and the next thing I knew it was 5:47 PM...where did the time go...I felt so peaceful and accomplished so much and for that I am thankful...lately I have been having a real hard time staying focused on tasks needing to be done...not yesterday....thank you Jesus for sitting with me yesterday afternoon.

After Ron got done working, about 6:30, we went for a swim...we just love being able to go swimming...and so often we are the only ones in it...it is like having our own private pool...we swam a few laps and then we both went to the deeper end of the pool and treaded water, moving our arms and legs, over a half hour...loving getting that kind of exercise...it's fun and refreshing and we have time to talk about our day and what's going on with us.  Another thing I am thankful for - the place where we live and work...it is beautiful and peaceful.

Hope each of you reading have a place just for you, where you can meet with the Lord and also a place of calm and beauty that you can go to just to relax and enjoy the calmness of the day.