Living Stones

We had a awesome service on Sunday at church…. Pastor Steve talked about being a living stone in God’s plan. Today I was quite aware of how God has placed people in my life even my co-workers! I had been meaning to send a picture of Morgan’s rolls to a friend at work and I finally had my phone with me when I thought of it, so through that she shared it with another lady and we had a conversation about the heat and how it affects baby’s which totally explains how Morgan has been this past weekend. It is crazy for me to grasp that God is that big to orchestrate something so small to be so effective and at just the right times! Not only that but through the Monvee process of being challenged to spend time alone with God for Matt and what he is learning by doing that and what I selected out of a few books Monvee suggested to me, the timing on what I am reading fits perfectly into what Matt is learning. I am starting to completely forget the phrase ‘by chance’ this happen, it is totally how God has things planned out and worked in to our lives.

It is amazing to consider who God has placed in your life to have an impact on you. Take a few minutes to think about how God has put people into your life for a reason, it could be great things or it could be things that were not so great at the time but you look back on it and you can learn from the lesson you were taught, and see why it happen and why they were in your path.  We are a living stone in Gods large plan, how do you fit into it and how can you use your God given talents to serve in the capacity God wants you to? Another thing that is sticking in my mind from the last few sermons is if I serve others like God wants me to and others are serving like God wants them to, we don’t have to have this selfish mind set, because I will be serving you, so someone will be serving me and meeting my needs. As Pastor Steve said Sunday – STOP BEING CRABBY PEOPLE give grace to those around us and see how it affects our community. What does it do to your heart to be kind to others, to slow down and have a kind conversation? Try it at Wal-Mart with the checkout clerk EVEN THOUGH they are remodeling and things are not in the places they use to be. How do you feel when someone smiles at you or goes out of there way to be kind to you, even though you don't deserve it?

 Here is the picture of Morgan's leg...

What happen to July?

Next Friday is the end of the month! ahhh! here is what we have been up to in July....i had lost my camera the week after we got back ...Matt found it in the chair i sat in by the fire at the lake......here are some pictures finally!

AMAZING check mix we took to staff retreat

 We slept in our tent, we haven't done this in quite a while

 beautiful view of the lake

God's paintings are breathtaking - we sat out here for a while and watched the dragonflies eat the bugs

 Saturday we went to the Minor's and hung out with Morgan's friend Harvey

 And we went for Morgan's first boat ride...not to often does the camera fog up because it is so humid out

 I have seen the windows fog up from the inside...but from the outside???

 Gross picture i know... but this is huge for me...its my planner....i have way to many calendars (5) and i am sick of keeping them all up so i thought about this for a while and i am going to toss out 1 and set up appointments in my phone and utilize that instead of paper. I scheduled my first appointment in my phone today! yaya! big step.

mixed bag

a little rant.... Last week we were in Minnesota and the government had shut down…Matt was hoping to get a chance to fish while we were at the lake. He looked into if they were selling licenses and they were not, it also stated that DNR would be enforcing the law and if we were fishing you could get penalized…while today on Minnesota public radio they were talking about how the DNR is not around…….. So on the government site that Matt was looking at and that the government took time to write up this document in case there was a government shutdown citizens would know what was going on. – or in other words the government can make junk up and citizens believe it, why do we put so much trust in our government that is made up of so much greed and earmarks and not in God? The legislators that have shut down the government are getting paid…but the rest of the people with government jobs are not…..UGH! I try not to pay attention to the news to much because it just annoys me and I have other things I can keep busy with. like reading the bible more and trying to understand God’s hand book on life, instead of following the odd decisions of our government. I know we should all take a personal responsibility to it since we elect people into the government, yadyyadayyada...... Anyways enough of my rant! I feel better now :)

I have no pictures to share this time because I can’t find my camera …I am really hoping it is in the pile of laundry I have yet to do from the weekend. Morgan is enjoying being back at daycare so much that she didn’t nap today…which isn’t uncommon but it makes for one tired little girl.

We really enjoyed our time up at the Norby’s cabin. We have such an amazing staff and a great team that God has assembled! We had perfect weather for being on the lake, we had a little rain 1 night for a bit (we slept in a tent), but it was the perfect rain and I enjoyed the smell of it. We went put-put golfing one night and out to get ice cream the majority of the time we spent in the water. Aaron and Lauren brought up there wonderful hammock so I spent some quite time enjoying the beautiful view, the perfect temperature and more quite time!

Since ‘little bug’ has been sleeping for a little while it is time to get some reading in and then hopefully get some rest!

getting into the swing of things again

We spent the last week in Northern Minnesota at a Staff Retreat for the church..i will hopefully post more on that later. After a week of relaxing and Morgan staying with Grandma and Grandpa ..i don't want to do anything. During the week and into the weekends i get into such a routine that i will put off things that will take me out of my routine because i know how hard it is for me to get back into the routine..i thought taking a nap this morning would help my motivation...nope didn't work, maybe brushing my teeth putting my contacts in and brushing my hair could help kick me in the but again...NOPE....spark (a vitamin drink) and some lunch..nope that didn't work either!! the only productive thing i have done is unpack Morgan's stuff....but the list of other things piles up in my head and i am already stressing my self out for this week because i am putting off so much that it will have to get done through out the week.

Maybe the reason I am lazy is because its super hot and humid and we have just been at lake with PERFECT weather, and i want to go back!! Since nothing seems to work i figured i would blog about it and maybe i could type out some reasoning to start moving. I need to get back to running for the 5K in September...but i think that might wait for another day as well.

Before we left Matt's sister was down for a few days - Nova was sad because her flip flop broke!

 We took the dogs out to the Nature Park to get some energy out of them and enjoy the beautiful afternoon

 Aussie found a gofer hole and they wouldn't stop digging! as you can tell my Mable's face she had stuck her face in the hole a few times...Aussie's beagle side definitely came out once he was on the trail of the gofer!

Now that Morgan is down for a nap and I have wrote out how i feel about getting back into the swing of things i think its time to get some stuff done! It is great to see that if i just express how i feel, i feel better and can move on to the next thing or get over my laziness! :)