Yesterday was such a beautiful day, not just because the sun was shining but because I was trying to enjoy and be in every moment of the day.  The day was filled with regular Monday morning paperwork, helping a new friend travel through the maze of setting up a new business and then spending over 3 hours with a bunch of girlfriends, sharing our lives and how God is working in our lives.  And being reminded it is okay to BE STILL and in the moment with the Lord when He is nudging us.

Then it was time to get home and get things ready for our 

potluck here in the campground.  I made chicken enchiladas (they didn't turn out the way I wanted them too but they were still tasty), bean and cheese enchiladas and then my favorite cottage cheese, jello, cool whip & mandarin oranges salad...not a bite was left...bummer no left overs.  Also enjoyed at the potluck was a cheese nacho dip & chips, taquitos (not sure how to spell it), guacamole, lots of fresh fruit and a very chocolatey chocolate cake for dessert.

It was a beautiful day and our potluck was held at the upper picnic pavilion.  The kids could play and the adults were able to get in lots of visiting.  We began at 5:30 and some visiting went on till after 8:00 pm!

It was great!!!  We were also able to visit with one of my RV Sista's, Linda C., her friend Ken and Cathy. 

It was lots of fun 

I had a bit of a rough night, still dealing with some indigestion and my phone kept going off due to messages and updates ~ finally about 12:30 PM I just turned it off...I needed to get some sleep.  I woke up at 5:07 this morning...it is so quiet and peaceful...I love this time of the morning when I can sit and read my Bible, talk with God, share my concerns and sit and listen to Him speak to me.

My little devotional book "The Duck Commander Devotional" began with

and the commentary on it said this verse is not talking just about how and what women are to wear but that we, a woman is a gift to our husbands and it made me stop and think about this for a bit...and I realized this is just another reason why I should and need to take care of myself...I want to be presentable and beautiful to my sweet hubby.    I want to be the perfect gift to Ron.  Sometimes I find myself just going through the motions of each day...but this morning I realized each new day is a new and wonderful day for me to be a special gift to my hubby.  A gift that is beautiful inside and out.  Thank you Lord for this gentle reminder, that I am not here just for me but to bless others and especially my hubby.

As I was sitting here just thinking about the Lord, my life and praying for friends and family I found myself thinking and praying for a sweet friend who is going through some really difficult times right now and how I struggled with life during one of my hard times and how the love and care of family, friends, pastor and counselor and the strong love and protection of the Lord got me through some very difficult times I opened my Bible to 2 Chronicles 20:11-17 and these two verses jumped out at me

 and

and gave thanks to the Lord for giving me these comforting verses that my sweet friend is not fighting this battle alone, that Jesus is right beside her, standing tall and supporting her just as He did for me time and time again.  And so I prayed for the Lord to be REAL to her, to bring her comfort, to surround her with family, friends and helpers to stand firm with her, holding her up as she can't do it alone for herself today and also giving thanks for the personal reminder to me that even though I face struggles, like we all do at different times, and we may feel alone in reality we are never really alone especially if we seek God and ask Him to hold us a  little tighter, stand beside us, holding up our arms when we aren't able and that with Him and through Him we (I) can not only get through the day but come out the other side whole and rejoicing in his love.

So as I prepare to "go out in the world today" I ask the Lord to give me opportunities to share His love in one way or another with those I meet along the way.

And if you think about it, say a prayer for my friend ~ that she will feel God's love surrounding her even during these difficult days.

Blessings to each of you reading this.

Have you ever started something and then quit in the middle, get waylaid, time passes and then something happens and you find yourself questioning "what happened?"

That's where I am this morning...wondering why I do or don't do the things I KNOW that I need to be doing.  Last night I had a horrible case of indigestion...with the chest hurting, thinking this could be it ~ it could be a heart attack, the mind thinking the worst and the whole time belching like crazy from deep within and just praying it would go away.  This lasted till after 1:00 AM...so much for going to sleep at a decent time of 10:45 pm.

As I laid there I found myself talking to God, asking him why I am such a failure when it comes to doing the things that I KNOW I need to do ~ specifically in the area of getting healthy.  As I was belching and falling asleep I kept saying "Lord, why can't I do this?  Why do I eat the things I KNOW I should not eat and not eat the things I KNOW I should?"    I cried myself to sleep along with praying for the indigestion to just go away...my chest and right shoulder blade were hurting terribly.

When the alarm went off at 5:45...I even contemplated just hitting the snooze button and going back to sleep till the 2nd alarm goes off at 6:30 but I pushed myself to just get up.

And I am so glad I did.

I often write about how God meets me right where I am and today is no different.  As I walked into the living room I glanced out the window towards Branson, the sun was just starting to come up, the sky was all shades of pink, yellow, blue and orange...a beautiful way to say Good Morning!  Thank you Lord for your beautiful created sunrise this morning.

I sat down on the couch and gathered my Bible, 

my favorite purple pen, my notebook and opened my devotional to

and I was reminded that it's not about me...my life is no longer my own.  

I am God's child and my life is His. 

I need to die to self so 

I can live for Christ!!! 

And because I believe that, 

all I need to do is Ask God, talk to God,

cry out to God ~ like I did last night 

and He heard my cries ~

reminding me that I am not alone in this journey of life

BUT God is with me every step of the way!!!

And then I turned to the Bible reading for today

in my Women of Faith devotional Bible.

And the focus for the month of May is

And I found myself thinking about FAITH.  

And what it means ~

I don't have to walk this journey of life alone.

I need to BELIEVE, TRUST and have FAITH

that God is with me every step of the way

and I am not alone and never will be.

And the verse for today:

And this is what I heard the Lord telling me this morning:

1.  Be Strong and of Good Courage ~

Be BOLD, Exercise the authority I have been given.  Don't lose heart. 

I can take authority over what I put in my body AND I can 

call on the Lord to help me make good choices.

2.  And Do It!!! Three little words but three

very powerful words.  Just Do It!!

Don't allow other things to take the place of the Lord in my life.

Don't allow FOOD to be the EVERYTHING in my life.

Just

Do

It!!

Make one choice at a time,

live in the moment

and in that moment make it a healthy choice!!

3.  Do not get discouraged.

As I stepped on the scale this morning I was 

pleasantly surprised that I was down .2 of a lb...

Hey...that is down, not up,

Encouraging to say the least especially 

since I knew what I had eaten yesterday!!

I was Encouraged!!!!

4.  God is always with me.

He has never failed me

so why should I think today will be any different

He has never failed me

so why would He fail me today.

He Won't!!!

And my mind keeps going back to "And do it!" And I was reminded of a conversation I had with Margaret G. one day...I asked her "how do you know you are doing God's will?  How do I know that the decision I am making is what God would have me to do?"  She replied...Just Do It...take that step of faith and trust God that He will close any doors or windows if I am making the wrong decision and He will OPEN the path to move forward.

And so today,

I move forward.

One step at a time.

One choice at a time.

And I know

and 

HE 

WILL 

NEVER 

EVER 

LEAVE 

ME!!!

Good morning...I don't know why but I can't put a title on my post...go figure...maybe because so much is running through my mind I can't sum it up in a few words.

First off, can't believe it has been over two months since I have written a blog post and of course so much has happened since then.  We made a 5784 mile trip to Washington and Oregon and back to Branson...took tons of pictures...now to get them sorted and into some blog posts.

The best thing about our trip was seeing our boys and their families...took lots of pictures of the grands (future posts I am sure) was able to be there to celebrate Brandon's 34th birthday...how can my baby be 34???  And then also got to celebrate with Miss Opal on her 6th birthday...her birthday party theme was Pirates..she sure is a cute pirate and see friends and family and most of all just relax and have lots of fun.

And now we are back in Branson, gearing up for what we hope is a great season.  Campers are starting to come in, almost every day now.  Activities are happening all around town and at our campground.  Remember if you are in the Branson area we would love to connect with you.

Stay tuned for more regular updates on what we are doing and how the Lord is working in our lives.

The view this morning from the back deck of our apartment.

This was taken just before 6:30 this morning.

Panorama view overlooking Branson 

Taken about 7:10 this morning.

Have a Blessed Day!!!

Rambling...

Can't believe it has been almost a month since I last visited here...well, really I can...I have once again allowed busyness to take over, becoming so involved in the world and STUFF that I have sort of lost myself again...but last night and this morning God has been talking to me...when life gets so overwhelming and nothing seems to be going right and I finally give up and turn to the One that matters things begin to fall back into place, my focus gets brought back to what is important...my walk with the Lord, my relationships with people...not the reports, not the amount of snow that is falling, not my plans but God's plans.

God's plans, God's timing, God's desires for me ~~ not my plans, not when I want it or even how I want it.  Last night God brought me (us) to a place where we just had to say...the situation is what the situation is.  And to seek how God wants me to deal with things.  So I did what I always do, I cried out for help, sent out a very personal prayer request with the bottom line being "Lord, help me to have the right attitude, not one of frustration, anger or irritation.  To TRUST that God's timing is perfect and to know that GOD is in control, not me, not Ron, not even Fed Ex!!!

I received encouragement, scriptures to claim and reassurance that God knows the desires of my heart and when the timing is right, those desires will come to fruition.

This morning I was reminded that God wants 

Just as Isaiah walked naked and barefoot for three years seeking God, looking for a sign ~~ that is exactly where the Lord wants me to be ~ bare naked in front of Him, stripping myself of all the STUFF that I am busy with, worrying about, fretting over...to Come Clean with Him...he already knows everything He just wants me to be open, honest, truthful, eager for Him...BECAUSE then and only then will I be in a place where I can

.

Sometimes I need to 

grab my cup of coffee, my Bible, my prayer journal and just have a conversation with God ~ sharing with Him whats on my heart and then sip my coffee and quiet my voice so that I can hear what He has to say to   me.

I can still have my To Do Lists, make plans, dream of future activities...I just need to begin with God, seek His face and ask Him how he wants me to handle things.

So this morning I did just that.  And what a great feeling of peace I have, the frustrations of last night, the anxiety of not knowing, the irritability that was streaming through my bones (and Ron's too) are lifted this morning and for that I am thankful.  

Today I choose Joy...

and will do what I can and that will be enough, what needs to get done will get done (thanks Dee for encouraging me during your difficult days) and throughout it all I will have JOY!!!

I will live in this moment and not stress about tomorrow.  Thank you Lord for bringing me back to this place of comfort, love and peace in my life.

Question of the day:  Are you living in God's Joy, Peace and Love?  

If not, what is stopping you from being in the best place 

~~~ the place God wants you to be in.

Ugh...

Ugh...that is how I am feeling...

...I think the busyness of Christmas,

New Years, snow,

stressing out over things that really didn't need stressing out about, snow, fighting getting a cold, did I mention snow and freezing temps, like really cold temps...yes we actually got down to -2*, felt like -17* and just plain doing too much...it finally caught up with me...

...the worst headache I have had in many years,

...congestion, tightness in the chest/back

...coughing, backache oh yeah, the headache from @#$%&*.

Yep I went to bed Wednesday evening about 9 PM and

crawled out of bed about 3 PM on Thursday

for about an hour...while I made some soup and ate said soup,

and found my bed, my pillows and blankets till 

7:20 AM this morning (Friday).

I am happy to say the headache is now about a 1-2 instead of 10+,

still have the tightness in my chest/back,

still coughing and feeling congested...

...I did get up and work for about 6 hours,

celebrating I got all the End of Month and Year reports done!!!

and now I am snuggled on the couch, 

finally checking emails...can you say over 600!!!

And that just overwhelmed me so I decided to 

write this very lame blog post.

And trying to get all the i's dotted and t's crossed

so we can go on vacation in

29 days and 26 minutes.

Can't wait to see our kids and grands!!!

And friends and family,

our family at Northwood Alliance Church.

Time to go lay down...

...I will write more later.

Brrrr...it's Cold!!!

Woke this morning at 6:00 AM to 0' but felt like -15'

that is just too darn cold.

To warm myself up I rode my stationary bike

for 45.05 minutes, 9.65 miles and burned 495 calories.

Got on the scale and am down 1.6 lbs this week for a

weight loss of 8.2 lbs since 9/1/13 with a total

weight loss of 23.2 lbs since 8/1/11.

I need to lose 16.6 lbs to get to my first goal.

The sun is shining bright and looks beautiful on the snow,

the skies are clear.

This was taken at 7:53 this morning, isn't it beautiful?

I began my Bible study this morning reading 

and I was reminded that I am the one who is to seek the Lord.

He is always waiting to hear from me.

That just warms my heart to know that 

God is ALWAYS here for me,

I just need to call on his name.

And then Mark 10:46-52

and the question Jesus asks Bartimaeus

Jesus asks not only Bartimaeus what he wants from Jesus

he asks that of me too.

What do I want Jesus to do for me?

God wants to know what we (I) want?

He wants specifics, the desires of our heart.

Laying heavy on my heart is reconciliation within my family.

I have prayed off/on for healing in a specific relationship,

that of my sister and myself.  I have cried out many times to God

and to her...all to no avail...but I am reminded this morning that 

I need to be diligent in my seeking God for healing and

remind myself I have done everything I can do ... 

it is now up to her and God.

And I know it is all in God's timing.

I need to be patient and continue to trust Him,

continue to pray for my sister and because I don't know 

what is going on in her life

I just pray...

Lord be with Joanie, 

love on her like I am not able to do.

And then my focus changed from being on me to

what does the Lord want me to do.

Am I ready and willing to do what the Lord

asks me to do?

I am trying every day to say 

"Here am I Lord.  What do you want me to do?"

And then I ask myself

"Am I really willing to go where the Lord would have me to go?  

Or am I like Asa in 2 Chronicles 16:7-10

Just after that, Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said, “Because you went for help to the king of Aram and didn’t ask God for help, you’ve lost a victory over the army of the king of Aram. Didn’t the Ethiopians and Libyans come against you with superior forces, completely outclassing you with their chariots and cavalry? But you asked God for help and he gave you the victory. God is always on the alert, constantly on the lookout for people who are totally committed to him. You were foolish to go for human help when you could have had God’s help. Now you’re in trouble—one round of war after another.”

10 At that, Asa lost his temper. Angry, he put Hanani in the stocks. At the same time Asa started abusing some of the people.

Or a little child who gets mad while playing with someone and grabs her ball and goes home crying because she did not get her way?  Don't I respond like that sometimes.  Get mad, storm out of the room because I don't like what someone said or implied?

But God is not like that...his grace gives us second chances, he loves me no matter what, he loves me not my sin.  Even though I don't like what so and so said to me or did to me I need to stop, be quiet, listen and then do what is right even if its not what I want to do.

Thank you Jesus for giving me so many second chances, 

for loving me in spite of what I say or do that is not right or nice.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to right those who I have wronged.

Help me Jesus, to be quiet more, 

to listen more,

to think before I react.

Thank you Jesus for loving me!!!

And thank you for showing me how to extend grace

to others and myself as you extend it to me.

Amen.