Pickles

Upon closer inspection, what I thought were zucchini in my bountiful basket, were actually cucumbers. What am I going to do with 4 cucumbers??!  I decided to make pickles.  They're just refrigerator pickles and I have to wait to find out how they taste, but at least they look pretty :) 

Testimony

I had to give (ahem, had the priviledge of giving) my testimony to our small group this week.  Thought I'd post the written copy here for fun.  Enjoy :)

Like everyone, I have a past filled with sin.  Before I became a Christian, I hit the bottle pretty heavily, I could frequently be found in the arms of another woman’s husband, and I was behind bars more times than I can count.  Then, when I was almost five, God saved me.  J  Truth be told, the bottle was filled with milk, the other woman’s husband was my dad, and the bars I was behind were on my crib. 

I was raised in a home where both of my parents were Christians, both sets of grandparents were Christians, and many of my aunts, uncles, and cousins were Christians.  Going to church was normal for me.  I attended AWANA and one Wednesday night, my mom was making dinner while helping me learn my verses for that week.  We had a breakfast bar area and I was up on a tall bar stool watching her work and reciting what I would need to be able to tell my leader later that evening.  The verse for that week was Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  My mom was pretty good about trying to explain the verses to help us understand what we were saying, not just repeating random words and phrases to earn patches and snacks.  She explained that EVERYBODY has done wrong things including me: whether it was not sharing my toys, not obeying mom and dad, or prying my little brother’s fingers off of the piano bench while he was learning to stand on his own.  J  She said that God is perfect and He can only be around perfect things.  Because of my sin, I couldn’t be with God if things were left alone.  I thought about that and started crying.  I told her I wanted to be with God.  She came around the counter and told me that God sent His Son, Jesus, to earth to live a perfect life, to die instead of me for the wrong things I’ve done, and to become alive again three days later.  If I believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, I would be saved.  I told her that I did believe and she prayed with me.   While I may have been too young to fully understand everything about the Gospel at that time, I truly believe I was saved that night. 

God continued growing me over the years as I went through private Christian school, and attended AWANA, Sunday school and church.  I was baptized by my dad in 5^th grade.   I never really went through a rebellious stage, even in high school.  That lent itself quite nicely to the development of the “older brother” attitude that Craig Loftus spoke of last week.  I rarely showed it outwardly, but inside I was usually happy when my classmates got caught doing something wrong and were punished.  I was really good at following the rules, and thought they were getting what they deserved for straying outside the boundaries.  I was not gracious towards them, and God convicted me of that years later- enough that I emailed several classmates to apologize. 

More recently, God has been showing me some areas where my expectations of Him have been wrong.  He has shown me that I was viewing all of my rule-following as checkmarks to getting the blessings I thought I deserved for making the right choices.  It has been difficult to adjust my thinking to the fact that living life as the Bible commands does not automatically mean we will get everything we want.  I am learning that God’s plan is not always my own, but whatever He gives or doesn’t give, is for my good and His glory. 

            So to wrap up, I may not be able to look back at a sordid background and complete 180 degree turn that some people can see in their lives, but I am certain that I am a follower of Christ, and that God is working in my life to teach me how to live more like Jesus.

 

Bountiful Baskets

I ordered from Bountiful Baskets for the first time this week. Only $15 for all these yummy-looking fruits and veggies!  Pretty good deal if you ask me :)

All for nothing...

I spent the better part of two days prepping, cleaning, and staining our back deck. It looked great! Then it rained.  Now it looks not-so-great.  Hopefully one more coat will fix it, once the rain stops - which may not be until May!  Lesson learned...don't take chances with fickle fall Western Washington weather!

A little craziness

Well, our life has changed a bit in the last month!  And quite suddenly, at that.  We got a call from Tyler's boss that he may be needed for a short-term work assignment near our hometown.  After some debating, we said sure.  We got the call Saturday, got final confirmation Monday, and we left on Tuesday.  Those were some hectic days!  We brought our cat with us (her first time flying).  Now we're here for 90 days and really enjoying time with family and old friends.  We also bought a car so when we return home, we'll be driving across half of the US! :)  My days have filled with catching up with people, cleaning my parents' house (we're staying with them for the 3 months!), and making dinner most nights.  It's been so fun to hang out with my parents and sisters on a regular basis and see family I don't normally get to see.  We've also been able to visit Tyler's parents a couple of times which has been great.  A very unexpected turn of events for our summer, but it's been wonderful!

I wish...

...I had something fun to blog about, but our life pretty much consists of working on the house and hanging out together, with a few random trips thrown in.  I've decided to try again with blogging, but not make it so has to be some big thing.  It might just be a few sentences of something I'm thinking about.  Maybe I'll have some fun pictures thrown in every now again.  For now, I'll leave you with this.  Love this guy with all my heart, even after 6 years, 10 months, and 29 days :)