The kid's rooms

I never did post pictures during my cleaning challenge of the kid's rooms.  I have almost finished with the bunk bed in the girl's room; waiting on one more mattress.  So, I thought, better late than never!
Before: Girl's Room:

Crazy, ain't it!
After:

Boy's Room before:

After:

I ended up throwing out one entire bed, it was mine from when I was about 13!  It had lived a nice, long life.  I put all the girls into one room, finally, by reassembling the one bunk we had and purchasing a second.  Moved the bed that isn't a bunk into the boy's room and put the crib in there for the baby.  Now everyone is where they 'belong'.  It feels good to have that finished, now just waiting for that mattress!  :)

What you meant for evil, God meant for good.

Scripture:  Genesis 40:12- 50:26

Observation:  We see the life of Joseph from his time in prison to his death.  God gives us a glimpse into a man's life and how, through circumstances beyond his control, he uses those circumstances to give glory to God.  He was wrongly imprisoned and forgotten about by his cellmate, the butler.  However, we see God's blessing in that Joseph was placed in charge of his fellow prisoners.  Two years later, when Pharaoh is plagued by dreams, the butler remembers Joseph.  It is through an unfortunate circumstance, in this case the butler's forgetfulness, that God uses it for good.  Joseph is let out of prison and placed into leadership, second only to Pharaoh!  Through all these various trials, Joseph is placed in positions of leadership which ultimately prepared him for this day.  He is able to save his entire family from famine as well as all of Egypt!  As Joseph puts it to his brothers, "But as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good."

Application:  Sometimes we are tried and tested and go through persecutions all because, in the end, there is a greater purpose it is serving.  We only see a small glimpse of God's plan and may not understand why we are being hurt, but He does.  He knows exactly what hardships we need to face in order to prepare us for future events where those trials can be used as nuggets of wisdom to others to bring about God's glory.  If Joseph was never sold to Potipher, he wouldn't have had the opportunity to grow in leadership.  If he wasn't wrongly accused by Potipher's wife, he wouldn't have had the chance to further grow in leadership or meet the butler.  If he never met the butler, he wouldn't have been brought to see Pharaoh.  If he was never brought to Pharaoh, he wouldn't have been able to save his family from famine.  All these trials, though 'undeserved', proved to be exactly what needed to happen to save people from certain death!

Prayer:  I pray that I am able to keep the proper perspective when I am going through hardships so that I don't miss out on the greater blessings God has in store for others who'll benefit from my passing through those trials!

Day 3: Though Outside Forces Attack

Scripture: Genesis 28:20-40:11

Observation:  Jacob is sent away from his home in fear of being killed by his brother.  He dwells with Laban 20 years; 7 for Leah, 7 for Rachel, 6 for flocks.  Throughout that time, Laban is deceitful towards him, his wives 'quarrel' amongst themselves, and Laban's sons want harm to come to him.  He decides to flee while he is able and is pursued by Laban.
Now, even though all these negative things are being leveled against him by others, Jacob remains faithful and obedient to God.  God chooses to abundantly bless Jacob.  He is blessed with a very large, strong and healthy flock of many types of animals.  He is given 12 sons and many daughters through his two wives as well as their two maids.  On his way back to his father's homeland, he is reconciled with Esau.  He is a man truly blessed.

We also are introduced to Joseph, one of Jacob and Rachel's sons.  At 17 years he is sold by his brothers into slavery because they hate him due to the favoritism shown him by their father.  Joseph ends up in Egypt as a slave to the Pharoah's Captain of the Guard.  While in slavery, Joseph shows his hard work ethic and skills.  God chooses to bless him and he placed in charge of Potipher's household.
While in this position, Potipher's wife tries to seduce him.  He knows he shouldn't and avoids her.  However, one day he is unsuccessful and ends up in a confrontation with her.  He runs away but loses his garment in the process.  This is turned against him and he ends up in prison.

Application:  Even though both Jacob and Joseph were persecuted by others, family to boot!, they were obedient to God.  They still did what was required of them and did it well.  They also had proper attitudes while undergoing their persecutions.  Because of their faithfulness God blessed them abundantly.  Their trials and hardships didn't disappear, on the contrary, they seemed to become more frequent and more difficult.  Jacob is told by his sons that Joseph was mauled, Joseph lands in prison.

Prayer:  I pray that no matter what trials I face or what things people may do to try and harm me, that I will continue to be obedient to God and faithful to Him.  That I will remain diligent in doing good and with the proper attitude so that I am able to receive God's blessings that He has for me.

Another Challenge I'm going to try...

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I'm working on my spiritual fitness with the Bible in 90 day challenge so why not a physical one?

God is faithful in His promises.

Scripture: Genesis 17:1-28:19

Observation:  God is faithful in His promises.  God will bless those who fear Him.  Abraham obeyed without question in going to sacrifice Isaac.  The Lord provided a substitute for Isaac as a blessing to Abraham's obedience.  He then blessed Abraham and Sarah by giving them innumerable descendants.

Prayer:  I pray that I will obey God without doubting or worrying what will happen but trust in God knowing He never breaks His Word!

As if I'm not busy enough! A QAL

I'm starting in on this late but it looks like so much fun!

I am going to make a baby quilt following this quilt-a-long.  I have placed a button on my page if any are interested.

Day #1 of Bible in 90Days, "Wait upon God's will instead of forcing your own."

Using the SOAP method:

S: (Scripture) Genesis 1:1-16:16

O: (Observation) God creating the earth and all of life.  The destruction of the Earth in a flood due to earth's wickedness.  The salvation of one family because of the father's righteousness.  Abram's beginnings and his journey to Canaan.

A: (Application)  God protects the righteous as He showed with Noah and saving his family from utter destruction. 

         God has a perfect plan for our lives; we tend to mess it up due to our own impatience and lack of faith.  With Noah, he obeyed and didn't rush God's plan.  He built the ark, he gathered the food, he gathered the animals.  It never once mentions him doubting or questioning God in this passage.  He was blessed, his family survived; they were the start of mankind's second chance.  Now with Abram, in the beginning he followed unquestioningly; he left and traveled.  We get to the account of Sarai and Abram and waiting for their promise of an abundant heritage.  Sarai doubted God and through her lack of faith coupled with Abram's impatience, Hagar is used to fulfill the promise through their own methods.  What they failed to recognize were the negative consequences that were to come from that one action.  Sarai's maid despised her and her child, Ishmael, was to be a wild man, against every man.  He was going to bring and cause strife his entire life.

P: (Prayer)  I pray that I don't try and rush your timing by doing what I think is best but, instead, wait upon Your best for me so that I receive Your blessings and not negative consequences caused by following my own desires.

Nearing the end...

I am nearing the end of the challenge.  I officially need to send in my 'review' by the end of next week.  I haven't finished all of the challenges as of yet; the two kid bedrooms I am hoping to have finished by the end of the week.  We are purchasing, Lord willing, a second bunk bed for the girl's room.  It is my hope that once that is in place and we rearrange where the kids are all sleeping, I'll be able to finish all three of our rooms!  I must say that this has been quite a time of growing and stretching for me.  I've never had a book with such a wonderful guideline to help me in my quest to organize my home and create a functional and homey atmosphere.  I plan on rereading the book every month as a new challenge period for myself in order to further cement it's teachings into my brain.

Today was a busy, yet very productive day.  I purchased, through a recommendation, a book entitled "Managers of Their Chores" that has been a huge blessing.  I have always struggled in implementing an effective chore system and this book has helped to create one.  It calls for assigning ChorePacks to each child, I also have one, for different chore times throughout the day.  We have Morning, Lunch, and Evening ChorePack times.  Today was the first day that I implemented the new system.  It was amazing to see how excited the kids were in using them.  I also really enjoyed using them because I had a 'list' throughout the day of what I needed to do.  Another thing that helped me today was one of the Mary challenges in my "31 Days to Clean" book and that was to write up a schedule of my day.  I was able to discover how much free time we as a family have if I'm following the schedule.  Some days will have less than others due to outside activities, Church/Bible Study/Piano, but with the schedule I was able to tailor each day of the week for my family.  It feels so good to be able to look around my house and, though it's not yet finished, see how far I've come.  Thank you all so much for following me on this journey and keeping me accountable as well as encouraging me.  It has helped me to stay with the challenges because I am one to just say, 'I can't do this today, I'll do it tomorrow' and never get it finished.

Pray for me as I embark on the next challenge of reading the Bible in 90 days, as well as maintaining my home and being the wife and mother that God wants of me.

As promised, the living room

I forgot to take the pictures last night for my living room 'transformation', so here they are.
Before:

After:

As you can see, I rearranged the furniture.  It actually created more room though it looks more closed in.  I also brought up the saucer for Jonathan and added new curtains.

Living Room

Well, I worked on my living room yesterday; didn't get it quite finished.  Urg.  Will finish it today.  With us being out of town last week, I had to go grocery shopping to restock our food stuff.  We also had church which really reduced available cleaning time.  I am getting really close to finishing this room which feels really good.  So, I pray that I finish is today and will be able to post pictures of it tonight!  I also finally picked up my last shelf, the one for Thomas and Jonathan's clothing for the closet so I'll be able to get that finished today as well.  Yes!  All in all, I am set to have a busy day.

I'm back from vacation

Well, we arrived home late Monday night, much to my children's disappointment.  They didn't want to be separated from their cousins; whose to blame them?  It was a full, exciting and fun week!  We enjoyed fellowship with our family for the week and then celebrated my in-laws 40th Wedding Anniversary.  We also enjoyed the 4th of July parade with the family before embarking home.  I came home hoping to finish cleaning the living room, however I just spent the day recovering!  I am tired after such a full week.  I am planning on doing my challenge for tomorrow and getting back on track to finish out the challenge strong.  Thanks for keeping me all accountable!

Not the best shot, but this is the "project" that I had to complete before we left for Cousin's Camp.  It is a family tree that I designed as a gift for Tom and Jan's 40th.