Devotion 2011

In 2011, I have been working on being more prayerful and digging into God's word daily. I'm on a mission to read through the entire bible in a year. So far, all is going well, even though I am about 13 days behind. I have decided to start a little log to keep up with my reading/thoughts/prayer/etc. I think this is going to help me to be more disciplined when it comes to my reading/prayer life. I think it will also help me to actually meditate and think about what I have read rather than just read through it just to get done with the reading, which is what I've done in the past. This is going to help me out a lot when it comes to praying for others/events coming up. As you can see, there's a spot for both of those. On Sundays or Wednesdays or whenever anyone says, please pray for "whomever" or "this specific event" I can actually write it down and not forget, which I am notorious for. Or I'll pray for that specific person one day and then for the rest of the week I've already forgotten. I can now actually pray for this person or that person all week long or all month long or however long I need to! And then of course, thanking God for my many blessings that week. I also like this idea so that a year from now, I can look back and see what I've studied, what I was praying for at this time in my life, etc, etc. Guess you could sort of call this a bible study/prayer journal. We'll see how it goes! I have also added Ben, Brylee, and my name to the bottom. This is for specific things going on in our lives during that week. Then I have a seperate sheet with our names on it. I gave an example of Brylee's. I have added specific things that I want to pray for each of us consistently every week. Of course, you can see some of these things I don't have to worry about for a while but I want to start praying about it now. I have this saved on my computer so if you would like a copy, let me know and I can email you an attachment. I actually tried to upload the document to the blog and it wouldn't let me so I just took a picture.

September Update

::sigh:: What a busy month we have had. I don't think I've sat down and watched one game of college football yet. My Saturday hasn't been free since August. I am not complaining at all though! It's been fun! Tiring, but fun! Here's a little update. The last Saturday in August was my precious niece, Mya's, 3rd birthday party. The next weekend, we went to the lake for Labor Day/my father-in-law's birthday. The next weekend was Habitat for Humanity and Brylee's friend, Violet's first birthday party. The next weekend, my cousin, Ron, got married which turned out beautifiul. Here's a pic of me and my bros before the wedding.

The next weekend, I helped host my friend, Audra's, baby #2 shower! She is due in November and we can't wait to meet that sweet little Hannah!
This weekend is Ben's BIG test, Brylee's friend, Reagan's first birthday party, AND my sweet niece, Zoe's, 5th birthday party. ::sigh:: Still not done! lol The following weekend, we have an old neighbor of ours getting married at the zoo. The next weekend, I am helping host my sister-in-law's "Welcome Baby" shower AND we have our friend Daniel who is getting married. The next weekend, I am going to do NOTHING!!!! At least, I'm pretty sure I'm going to do nothing unless there's something I've forgotten about! I have been needing to have a garage sale but I think I will skip that weekend and just breathe! Hope I don't eat my words ;)

This month, Brylee has officially become my little walker. She is walking everywhere! The other day we went outside to play, and as I followed her around just watching her, it hit me......"Oh my word she's not my baby anymore". Of course she'll always be my "baby" no matter how old she gets, but she is literally, not my baby anymore! She is a toddler! A couple Wednesday nights ago at church, I was told she was the oldest one in the nursery. Holy cow when did my sweet little girl become the oldest?! They also told me she is finally opening up. She hardly ever talks in the nursery but this same Wednesday night her teacher said she was responding to the questions that were being asked and everything! It made my heart melt when I heard that. One of these days I'm going to sneak in there so I can watch her "pat her bible". ::more tears::






This month as I mentioned, we had Habitat for Humanity which we did on September 11. I thought that was pretty special. How awesome it was though building a house for someone else in need. The girl was actually there helping that day which was neat. I think in order to get a home you have to put in so many hours along with a bunch of other requirements. Poor poor pitiful me "severely" injured myself too! I began hammering in my first nail of the day and "whop" right on the finger!



Here are a few pictures of us about to lift up one of the soon-to-be walls of the house. My friend Chelsea took some good pictures with her camera. I'll post some more when I can get them from her.


I can't wait to see it when it's finished. I think they said it's supposed to be complete by December. What a wonderful Christmas gift for the sweet family!

In hubby updating, Ben decided to injure himself at flag football last Sunday. Yes, they call it "flag" football but it's not!! He and his friend ran into each other and he almost got his teeth knocked out. And now his tooth is fractured and he has to have surgery. This was really inevitable! It's just not meant for him to have teeth bless his heart! One time he got them knocked out playing rugby in college, one time he dove into a pool and hit his teeth on the bottom of the floor (don't ask me!), another time a ski came up and hit him, and now this! And I'm thinking there may have been more instances than just that. Anyways, he has been going around in pain for over a week now. And maybe this sounds weird, but I am really sick of not being able to cook! He's been living on campbell's soup (which is stinkin expensive these days!), macaroni and cheese, spaghettios, jello. Pretty much anything he can just swallow without chewing. And we still have over another week of this too. He takes his board certification test this Saturday and he didn't want to get the surgery done until after that because it would hinder his studying. AND we were going to take a fall vaca to NC but now that's not looking good because he'll have to take off work for this now. At least not in October we won't. We're hoping for November. ::fingers crossed:: AND guess what!! He played flag football again this past Sunday! I consider my hubby to be the most intelligent man I know but geez, what is it with men and their lack of common sense?

Also this month we started a ladies bible study on Thursday mornings. Today was our 3rd time to meet and we have a great group of gals. We are studying one of Emerson Eggerichs' books, "Motivating Your Man God's Way".

This is the same guy that started the amazing "Love and Respect" ministry. Which by the way, if you and your spouse haven't done it, I suggest it! It will change your marriage and your outlook on marraige and your husband/wife. But this book we are studying is changing my outlook too. It's great so far and I'm really excited about it! Stay tuned for more info on that as we get further along in the study.

Happy Fall Yall! Enjoy this weather!
Lisa E