My new song....

It would come as no surprise to those that know me that music does it for me. I NEED music like I need water to drink and air to breathe. It is how I communicate, how I express myself, how I get out of my yucky moods, and even how I clean my house. I need my music and I need it loud. Luckily, I have a decent voice so it's not like I destroy anyones hearing capabilities when I sing. However, I much prefer to sing without anyone around so I can blast it up loud, raise my hands, and praise my Jesus.
I am not big on New Years Resolutions. I am sure it has something to do with the past and seeming to "lie" to myself with the various resolutions I have made. The last several years I pick things that I am going to work harder on. Maybe that's the same thing as a resolution, I just feel less pressure. My goals usually revolve around improving myself, my relationship with Christ, my husband, children, and myself. I picked a word in an earlier post that I want to focus on this year. INTENTIONAL. Living intentionally in 2009 and beyond is important to me.
I was looking around on GodTube.com and found a song that I have heard many times by Point Of Grace called How You Live. I knew most of the words and have sung the song in my car and in my kitchen but listening to it today, it all clicked. The words made so much sense to me and put into words exactly what I am feeling lately about my life, my goals, and the direction I want to go in (if it is God's will). I have decided to adopt this song as one of my "focus songs" for this year to help guide me in my goals. I hope this song speaks to you as much as it did to me.
What songs speak to you in your life right now? I would love to hear. Send me a comment and let me know.

Rough Day

Today was a pretty pathetic day. It was rough, to say the least. Have you ever woken up on the wrong side of the bed? Today, I think I woke up on the wrong side of the planet. It didn't help that I only got about 2 hours of very restless sleep after a tough late night meeting the night before. To top it off, the kids were loud, cranky, needy, and overall obnoxious. I don't normally say that about my family. They are usually extremely well behaved, sweet, and happy but, as I mentioned before, wrong side of the planet. The kids that live on the side of the planet I woke up on today were not so fun.
We headed over to Goodwill after taking the husband to work. I thought we could get them a small something new to play with and I could get out of my funk with a new craft project to work on, not that I don't have a plethora of projects already at home demanding my attention. But, I figured a little retail therapy couldn't hurt. Matthew cried the entire time at the top of his lungs, kept dropping the little car we found for him, and was overly whiny. Haley kept yelling, her version of talking, and trying to show me different things. Really, I just wanted to be left alone to wallow in my feelings so I could get over them. I didn't want the responsibilities of being a mom, wife, house cleaner, woman, etc. today. JUST LEAVE ME ALONE! I think I even tried to sell my kids to the cashier. No takers. (Partly kidding!)
We went home so that I could feed them lunch, get Haley on the bus to school (Hallelujah!) and put Matthew down for a much needed early nap (Double Hallelujah!) I needed some "me" time to collect my thoughts, read scripture, and pray these feelings away. The more the day progressed the tougher it got.
Craft projects weren't going right, I kept crying while praying, and I couldn't memorize my Bible verse for the week (a new goal of mine I will tell you about later.) I had five phone calls one right after the other, including one from my husbands doctors office that let me know on top of the pneumonia he can't seem to get over, he also has mono. I think when she told me that, I just started laughing. Do you ever do that? She surely didn't understand me.
Tonight was not much better. I have secluded myself in the kitchen while my family is enjoying each other in the living room and happily watching t.v. I would like to go to bed and wake up when I am back on my side of Earth. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day.
Do you ever have days like this? What works for you to help you get out of it and back to who and what you know you are? I would love some ideas.

Word for the Year!!!

UPDATE: - After staying up after three debating my word and praying about what God want's me to focus on this year, I feel that God laid a specific word on my heart. I have decided to change it to


INTENTIONAL
done with intention or on purpose; intended


I think to many times we just let life go by, let things happen and not use those situations in life to learn from. I want my life to be for a purpose and to live the way God intends for me to live.

I want to be intentional with my children while parenting, be intentional in my time and conversation with my husband, intentional with relationships with family and friends, and most important, intentional with my walk with My Lord and Saviour - Jesus Christ.

I think by being intentional then all of the other words that I have chosen will come naturally, including the word enjoy for being intentional in my life with those around me and the situations God presents me with, I will then find joy, peace, love, patience, and everything thing else I desire.


Laurie over at Tip Junkie is doing the word of the year. This is a word you pick to meditate and focus on over the year. So, I need to pick a single word to represent my goals for the year. This was pretty hard. I came up with several words that would really work for me.


FAITH
PEACE
PRAY
APPRECIATE
LOVE
BLESSED
ENOUGH


But I finally decided on one word that encompasses so many things that are important to me right now.

My word is......

to experience with joy; take pleasure in

I want to take time to enjoy all the blessing my Heavenly Father has given me.
My Jesus
My children
My husband
My friends
My home
I want to take a moment to enjoy my coffee in the morning while reading my Bible and falling in love with God more every day.
I want to get away from my daily chores and get on the floor and enjoy my children who are growing up so very fast.
I want to make it a priority to steal my husband away from the day and enjoy spending time with the man I call my best friend.
I want to Enjoy my life because I don't know how long I will be here or how long the things I enjoy will be here.

I hope you enjoy your year as well.

Brandy :)

Not Me Monday...

I will be participating in this idea on Monday's. I got it off of one of my favorite blogs. Click here. I would love for you to join in. Either add this to your blog or comment me with what you definitely did not do.

This week I did not go to Wal Mart in my pajamas and flip flops in the snow to buy craft paint and bananas. Of course I didn't because that would be completely embarrassing.

I did not get extremely frustrated that my car remote (the little thing you attach to your keychain to lock and unlock your car door) would not unlock the front door to my house. I mean, come on, who does that. Of course that remote only works for the car!!! I didn't get frustrated about that after nearly a minute of trying. Nooooo, not me!!!

And I most certainly did not feel a little excited to take my husband to the E.R. with pneumonia because it meant I could have some time away from my darling children and have undivided attention from my husband. That would be cruel and unusual punishment for my husband. And even if I did, I would not tell you about it. :)

Look, no kids!

And I ABSOLUTELY DID NOT allow my five year old to cut 7 inches off my hair while my lovely husband stood by taking pictures and yelling "Oh Good God"! (He tells me this was an audible prayer that my hair would not be as bad as it looked when she was cutting.) Of course I did not do this because that would be completely insane. No one in their right mind would do that, especially a woman!

Hope you enjoyed some of the things I DID NOT DO this week. I would love to hear yours.

The Secret is in the Sauce: Win a Keurig Platinum Brewing System and $50 worth of K-cups

The Secret is in the Sauce: Win a Keurig Platinum Brewing System and $50 worth of K-cups

Win a Keurig Coffee Maker...

Win a Keurig Platinum Brewing System and $50 worth of K-cups. Go here.

Do you love coffee? Or tea? How about Chai? Maybe some hot chocolate? What if there was a brewer that could brew all of the above. ONE brewer that did it all one glorious cup at a time.

That's what a Keurig does!

"The Platinum offers the full spectrum of features including Auto On/Off, Digital Clock, Adjustable Temperature Control and the "Set Your Favorite Cup Size" option. The largest available 60 oz. removable water reservoir holds up to ten cups before refilling and the removable drip tray allows for easy cleaning and the use of travel mugs. The sleek, award-winning design is a unique footprint among Keurig's line of home brewing systems and includes both a blue lit water reservoir and blue lit LCD display."

And Keurig is nice enough to be giving away one of their top of the line Platinum Brewing Systems on SITS (a retail value of $199.99)!!!

So, if you're not a coffee drinker then you can buy tea or hot chocolate. All of the K-cups are big name brands too like Celestial Seasonings, Ghirardelli, and Caribou Coffee.

First, go to Keurig's website and look around. Learn a little more about the benefits of all of their great brewing systems and their K-cups. Come back here and leave us a comment to enter. Post about this contest on your blog and you'll earn five extra entries!!

http://thesecretisinthesauce.blogspot.com/2008/12/win-keurig-platinum-brewing-system-and.html

Frustrated...

I opened the mail yesterday and there was a large envelope inside, you know the large manilla kind. Only this one was white and not manilla. Completely does not matter, I know. Anyways, it was addressed to my old house and the writing was my Dad's. I have not spoken to my dad in over 2 years and the only reason I spoke to him last was because I called to wish him a happy birthday. He has only met my nearly 6 year old a handful of times and only because we were there at the same time he was. This came from no effort on his part. Well, I guess that is not entirely true. He did drive out for her birth which was suprising but nothing much since then. He has never met my nearly 2 year old son nor did he even know I was pregnant with him. He didn't call me after my heart attack or after my son nearly died in a freak accident.
Can you hear the frustration.
Back to the white (manilla) envelope. Inside were three separate envelopes. One was addressed to all of us and one each to my children. I opened the one to all of us and it was a Christmas card. There was a post it note on the inside that said..."Sorry, no gifts or goodies this year....still looking for a job." AAAAHHHH!!! Does he actually think we care about goodies and gifts? He obviously doesn't realize, or doesn't care, that a relationship has no financial committment. I guess the emotional committment is much to high for him.
I know my Dad loves me, he has just never been good at sharing it. I wish with all my heart that I had a Dad. I see commercials, T.V. shows, and situations in life where a father and daughter sit and talk, have a meal together, talk on the phone, anything. I cry. I would've loved to have had that. I try, as best as I can with a complete stranger. I send pictures of my children and cards. I have several websites that he can view. NOTHING!!!
I didn't show my children the cards for them. How do I explain that to my very inquisitive almost 6 year old? I don't know how. She has a grandfather that loves and cares for her very deeply and takes the time to have a relationship with her, even though it might be a little out of his comfort zone at times. She has two beautiful grandmothers who love her with incredible depth, pride, and joy. She never has to question who these people are in her lives. She has people who are not even related to us that show more of an interest in her daily life than this man has shown throughout her entire life.
Maybe it is wrong for me not to show her this card and not continue to tell her about my father, but I want to protect her from the same disappointment and sadness I have felt. Is that wrong? What else should I do? I am worn out from this and have moved on, at least I think I have moved on. It still hurts at times though, especially at this time of the year.