Christmas Traditions: Day 2, Music

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I really love Christmas music.  Growing up in my home Church, music was a big part of the Christmas season.  It seems like my family and I have been preforming in one way or another at Christmas time until I was out of High School.  As a Church we preformed The Messiah every other year and then on the opposite years we'd put of a show at our church where we'd sing and the church would turn into a winter wonderland!  I have very fond memories of singing for people at Christmas time.  And I'm proud that that tradition continues at my home Church now.  I hope that you guys find some sort of church show to go and see!

Other than that there are a few singer that I love to listen to around the Christmas season.  Some of my favorites are Big Crosby, Andy Williams, Mannheim Steamroller,  and George Winston.  But mostly I just love the old Christmas Hymns and love sing those songs with believers where ever I am!   

Christmas Tradtions: Day 1, Movies

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Every family has Christmas traditions.  This week I want to feature some of mine from growing up.  We all know that I love old movies and that love didn't pop up from nowhere, my parents love old movies too!  We grew up watching Black and White and Technicolor, musicals and slap-stick.  One of our favorite family traditions is watching our Christmas movies together.  We have probably see White Christmas a million time...we know every word, which is kind of the fun of it. My mom and I like to watch Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer with a bowl of peppermint ice cream. Stephanie, Ben and I like to watch the Holiday Inn. I like to watch the Bells of St. Mary's because of the super cute 1st grade nativity play that is so precious and funny! My sister Amber, my mom and I like to watch Little Women. My dad like to watch The Three Godfather's with John Wayne, of course, it's a typical western (meaning someone you like dies) but it's a good one for Christmas!  And of course there's The Christmas Story, The Family Stone, The Santa Clause, and Home Alone.   But the best tradition of all is watching It's a Wonderful Life on Christmas Eve.  We've been watching it since I can remember on that night and we all cry at the end every year.  We live simple lives but it always reminds us what a difference we can make and how we can touch others lives.  The one movies or story I really do not like at all is A Christmas Carol.  It scared me as a little girl and I still don't like it now...but the muppet one is the most enjoyable to watch if I had too, the new Disney one is horrible! Super Scary!

I hope that I have mentioned some titles that you've never heard of or want to give a try! Please do!

Repair

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Have you ever been given advice or been told something and it just didn't sit well with you? Or because this person is older and you should probably listen to them out of respect or whatever it is you take their words to be true even though...as I mentioned they just didn't sit right with you?  I think these comments or nuggets of "advice" can really hinder your relationship with God if you take them to be true without researching what God's heart is on the matter. 

I was listening to my favorite Preachers over at Northcoast Church.  This week was Pastor Larry's turn and he was giving a message on great faith never being blind faith.  The story he used as an example was the old Bible School favorite of Jesus calling Peter and his brother Andrew from their fishing boat to become Fisher's of Men.  How many times have we been told the story about Peter's great leap of faith to follow instantly, without being told the back-story and the history that Jesus had with Peter and Andrew.  They had known each other long before, and brothers had witnessed miracles before Jesus called them to follow.

Often times because of these stories taken out of context by well meaning people, Christ followers think that the more crazy a thing you're doing the more in line with God's plan you are.  I loved what Pastor Larry said using Matthew 11:28-30    

²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” 

Pastor Larry said Jesus didn't say "Come to me all who are weary and I will show you what weary is!" And this my friends is what I've been struggling with.  My husband's chosen profession is Ministry.  I love this about him, he is a great teacher.  But I was told from numerous well meaning people that I should prepare myself for a life of misery.  No, of course they didn't say it like that but basically that I should not expect to live near my family nor ask God to bring me near my family because he would not grant me that, in fact he would grant me the opposite of that.

You know here I am roughly 4 hours away from my family, we made the decision to be here because it was right for us for now.  Maybe it will be right for us at a later point to not be in the same town as my family but that is not because God doesn't want me to be near my family.  This is not the God we serve. I don't know how I let my heart become hardened toward God based on the myth that God is so mean as that.  But I did, and you know what? It really doesn't say in the Bible that Megan should live here or there...but it does tell me HOW I should live where ever I am, and that is the most important thing to God.  Not where but how. I'm so thankful for that sermon from Pastor Larry because I needed to hear this in order to being to repair my broken relationship with the Lord.

The Top Items in Variety

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So it's been so long since I last blogged.  Mostly because I could not string two sentences together that were not dripping in hormonal ranting.  Seriously! I tried and tried to write but all my drafts were completely nonsensical! So let me give it a try today and we'll see how it goes!

So God has blessed me with a really good job while we're here in the Bay Area.  So I'm working full time which, so far, is going really well.  God is giving me the energy to stand all day and He is also giving me the patience to talk to people all day...which is the most challenging.  But it keeps me pretty busy.  The worst part about working full-time is that I only have a chance to do house work on my days off.  So things pile up and my days off aren't really "days off."

The hubs and I celebrated our one year anniversary on Sunday.  It sounds horrible, but we wanted to kiss this past year good-bye in hopes that this next year would be better for us.  We love each other so much but the stresses medical emergencies and moving twice and still feeling like "we don't belong here"  was not exactly the "honeymoon year" that people dream of.   It was the looooongest year of my life.  So Good-bye Year One...and Hello Year Two, please be nice to us.

Yesterday I had my second doctor's appointment and heard my baby's heart-beat for the first time.  Not knowing anything about these monthly doctor's appointments, I didn't know that listening to the baby was on the agenda, so my husband missed it because he was in class.  Oops.  I felt so bad! But we're both happy that I heard it, and everything is going well.  I also got shanghaied into getting a flu shot.  I've heard negative things about getting a flu shot and the possible effects on baby so I wasn't really going to get one.  But my doctor said that they had one and they were going to give me one, I didn't feel like it was an option.  So I prayed that everything will be ok.

So now I'm 15 weeks along! I really love pickles and egg salad sandwiches featuring cut up pieces of pickles!  Other than that I eat a lot of soup, which I attribute with keeping me healthy, cause I haven't gotten sick yet...and I need to keep it that way!  I still fit into my clothes, even though I've got a little pouch tummy but I still just look like I've gained weight.  And truthfully between my tummy and my Ach-hem...chest...the chest is winning by far.  Holy cow! I mean I was so small before I didn't even wear a bra, now I'm bursting out of my B-Cup getting ready to move into C's! Crazy!

So that's pretty much what has been going on for us.  Until next time...thanks for stopping by today!     

Hmmm...

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Well...where did October go?  I hope you all had a good one! I'm doing pretty good.  I'm in my 12th week (the last week of my first trimester) and getting excited!  Of course their are a few changes going on that everyone should be aware of:

Number One: I am hormonal.  I have mood swings like nobodies business.  Last night my husband and I were talking about sleeping (I have mad heartburn so it's uncomfortable to sleep) and I was saying that he didn't know what it was like to be pregnant.  Then he said..."this is hard for me too, I have to deal with something...your hormones."  I laughed because it's true...and I don't really feel bad, only when I reflect on how many times a day I am happy and then immediately mad...then I feel a little..nope it passed.

Number Two:  I am hormonal.  This makes me very sensitive.  I am very offended by people telling me or my husband that we shouldn't find out what we're having.  I am also very offended by people being Giants haters.  I don't like going on facebook and seeing all the things my family members posted about the Giants being booed and nay-sayed.  That's not nice, we're Giants fans and 90 percent of the time, being a Giants fan means you are rooting for a loosing team.  Can't you let us just enjoy it?

Number Three: I am hormonal.  Prone to rants.  Prone to bursting into tears.  Prone to impatience. Prone to being crazy.

Number Four: I don't think this feeling is going away anytime soon :(

A New (to me) Song

The Glad Game

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One of my favorite movies is Pollyanna...in the movies the little girl plays a game where she finds the positive in every situation.  I don't know if it's hormones or what but I've been a little blue for the past few weeks. Things that would ordinarily make me sad for a little while, makes me sad for a long while.  So I need to play the glad game right now and, well essentially count my blessings.

I'm very thankful that today my baby is the size of a lime.  I'm so thankful to have reached this point in a pregnancy!  For the first couple months every pain in my lower abdomen was nerve-wracking, so it's nice to be able to relax.

I'm thankful for a job that I like and employers who appreciate me.

I'm thankful for a husband who is such a hard worker and who proves to all single women that good men are out there and worth the wait.

I'm thankful for babies! I'm thankful for my little nephew Jax, and our new little niece on the way, I just call her our little turkey babe.  I can't wait to see her, and I'm so happy that God has blessed my dear siblings with little ones!

There are so many more things I'm thankful for, and it does my heart good to think about them! I'm going to do it more often! 



  

Slow Assent

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There has been so much happening here lately I wish I would do a better job at blogging! I've been going back and forth in my mind if I should even continue to blog because I don't write as much as I should.  But I haven't made up my mind to stop because I value the friendships it has brought me.

My husband and I have been here in the Bay Area for nearly 2 months.  I seems like such a short time when I type it, but I feel like it's been forever!  As my husband studies away, preparing for mid-terms, I sit here reflecting on this past year.  I was discussing with my husband how much we have gone through in this past year (almost year) of marriage.  It's been really challenging, dealing with sicknesses that came out of the blue and cost so much more than anyone would care to pay, dealing with the excitement of a pregnancy and the loss of the same.  And then there were the emotional struggles all couples have to deal with while transforming 2 lives into 1.  So many challenges so so many things we'd love not to have to deal with again.  I've never been hit with so many things at once in my life before.  All I keep praying for is that God has us swinging up-ward again even if it's slow.

I want you to know that I have been working on getting back into the word and prayer.  I say this because it is my heart to use this blog as a place of encouragement to Women of Faith.  But I needed to keep working to get back into that place, so the encouragement can come from a genuine spirit.  So I'm working on it :) 

Sometimes You Just Need

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FYI That last post was totally just supposed to be a work in progress :/ I must have hit publish out of habit! Thank you so much for responding.  It is truthful that I'm am going through an ebb, so I'm not ashamed that you know it too.

I told my husband last night I needed to cry. But last night he was in worse shape then me...tired and worn out.  And I am just smart enough to know that keeping my heart to unfold to him later would be wiser, that way he could be what I need.  Which he was this morning.  I realized that there are things missing from my life that I need in order to feel close to God. One is worship through music.  I used to have heavy doses of it weekly, being apart of a thriving worship team.  It's something I need and it can be hard to find. But I can commit to finding it for myself.  So that is one step in the right direction.  I spet sometime this morning and I already feel better.

Another thing I needed was to talk to my hubs...mostly through hyper-ventilating tears.  Our entire first year of marriage was one giant series of "lesson learning."  And believe me we are learning loads! Everyone struggles in life, and God allows it in order for us to learn.  For example, if we never had to struggle to pay our bills we'd treat money frivolously.  There are so so many things we've learned in our first year together...the scary thing is...I don't think this learning is ever going to stop. I'm pretty sure that God is going to continually be shaping us, and sometimes it's not going to feel good.

The problem is for me is that I get discouraged when going through these lessons and I feel like instead of being shaped for my own good I am being punished.  Maybe I'm not doing good enough, well the fact is I'll never be doing good enough.  But I am being shaped for a purpose and that purpose is to be used of God.  It isn't easy.  I used to work with clay and I know how much I had to work it to make it what I wanted it to be.  I just need to remember that this is what's happening...the loving hand of our Potter is shaping me!    

Honestly...

I've been going through a season of feeling very far away from God.

There have been times where my passion and excitement for Jesus as been on fire! It's the most wonderful place to be. Safe and secure in the love and peace of Christ.  A place where everything seems to be an opportunity and joy is all around.  This doesn't mean everything was perfect in my life at the time, in fact there was a lot of uncertainty, but I was fully engaged in worshiping the Lord.

I know that there are time when our relationship with God goes through ebbs and flows...But I feel like I'm in a serious ebb.