Something to think about

I have had two interviews to fill my open spot not show up this week and haven't heard back from the one that did show up last week. So I have been feeling discouraged and frustrated. This passage was my devotional for this morning:

It amazes me how God can always show me the right passage or send me the right person to feel better.

Isaiah 40:27-31

²⁷ Why do you complain, Jacob?
    Why do you say, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord;
    my cause is disregarded by my God”? 
²⁸ Do you not know?
    Have you not heard? 
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth. 
He will not grow tired or weary, 
    and his understanding no one can fathom. 
²⁹ He gives strength to the weary 
    and increases the power of the weak.
³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary,
    and young men stumble and fall; 
³¹ but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength. 
They will soar on wings like eagles; 
    they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not be faint.

A week of good-byes

This is a week of good-byes.

It started Sunday night when I had to say good-bye to a couple in our church that are missionaries. They are leaving to do some traveling before they head back to Brazil. They've been here on furlough since last summer. I feel like I've grown really close to the wife and just really enjoy spending time with both of them. So, I was crying my eyes out Sunday night.

Then yesterday, Natasha left to go back to college. It was great having her home, but I know she was ready to go back and I think Tom and I were ready to have our empty nest again. LOL. But I cried anyway.

And Friday will be the last day for one of my kids. Since he doesn't live here in town, chances are I won't see him a whole lot after this. So I know that Friday's going to be a very hard day for me. It's always hard when a child leaves. I guess I wouldn't be good at my job if I didn't get so attached to them, right?

So, if you see my crying this week, you'll know why! :)

A brief update

I haven't had much time to post lately, so I thought I'd post a brief update.

We are limping along with one car right now. For the most part, it's not a problem. But it can be an inconvenience. And we are just praying that this one stays running well.

Tasha is home until August 13th. She had a great summer in Denver, but she was glad to be home.

I will have two openings coming up in my child care, so please pray for me to fill them. I may have already filled one, so just pray for wisdom and the right family/families to come along.

Just as we got the 2007 tax stuff paid off, we got a letter about 2008. I need to get that stuff together and file it and then we'll start paying on that. We still haven't got any more bills on the 2006 stuff and I haven't tried to call them. It's so hard to make a phone call here during the day. But I'm going to have to break down and do it.

As always, I appreciate all of your prayers. Hopefully I'll be able to post a debt update in the next day or so. :)

6 months ago...

6 months ago, on January 30th, I began exercising. Since then, I have exercised 6 days a week most weeks. In fact, last week was the first week I hadn't exercised 6 days, but I did manage to get in 5 days because I took our little DVD player and an exercise DVD with us. Plus, we just did lots of walking. I have never maintained an exercise program for more than a few weeks so this is super exciting for me!

The last couple of weeks have been crazy busy for me with Vacation Bible School and then vacation. Hopefully this week, I can get back in the swing of things because it's about to start getting crazy here! Lots of stuff coming up and I feel a bit overwhelmed. Just going to tackle it a little bit at a time and try not to stress out.

Over 50 pounds lost!

Just a brief little thing to share here! When we weighed in at church yesterday, I was under 260 pounds and have lost about 54 pounds since the fall of 2010. About 30 of that in the last 3 months. God is so good! I am loving the First Place 4 Health class that we're doing at the church. Our members as a total have lost 117 pounds since we started in June!

I miss my dishwasher!

As I mentioned quite a while back, our dishwasher died (back in January). I've tried really hard to have a positive attitude about it and not let it bother me too much. But days like yesterday, I really, really, really miss it. This is the pile of dishes I had to to wash by hand after lunch yesterday:

This was on top of trying to get 7 kids down for a nap (including an infant). Yeah, I really miss my dishwasher!

Broke the $5000 mark!

Just since we started Financial Peace University up again in February, we have paid off a little over $5000 in debt.

$200 towards student loans
$118.02 + $75 towards our Napa bill (PAID!!!!)
$386.78 towards our 2007 tax bill

$125 towards our 2006 tax bill
$375 towards one credit card
$345 towards one credit card (settled in full-so PAID!!!!!!)
$75+388.26 towards one credit card (settled in full-so PAID!!!!!!)
$250 towards one credit card (

$500 towards our Bass hospital bill

Bass physician’s bill $35.50+26.91
$18.80 for a doctor bill
$1412.33 towards our house

$333.36 for 2011 real estate taxes

$340 for 2011 Oklahoma income taxes

For a total of: $5004.96