We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things.

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
But long that we’d have the faith to believe.

‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise?

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know the pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home,

‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise?

*God’s love for me is unchanging.

*God’s purpose for me is Christ-likeness.

*God’s Word is my final answer.

*God’s grace is sufficient for me.

God is good, faithful, and amazing.  When I have a little more time, I’ll try to catch you up on where we are and what’s taken place the last 11 months.

I love what God’s been doing in my heart and life.  Constantly challenging me, changing me, and transforming me more and more into the image of His Son, and I am so thankful for that.

One of the best books I read this year (it was so good, I read it through 3 times!) is Crazy Love by Francis Chan.  WOW!  Such great perspective, so challenging, and a fantastic message.  If you haven’t read it yet, you might want to add it to your list.

“He who grows in grace remembers that he is but dust, and he therefore does not expect his fellow Christians to be anything more. He overlooks ten thousand of their faults, because he knows His God overlooks twenty thousand in his own case…When our virtues become more mature,…we shall be more tolerant of infirmity, more hopeful for the people of God, and certainly less arrogant in our criticisms.” -Spurgeon

These words are kind of like a short sermon from Ephesians 4:32

“And be ye kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ sake hath forgiven you.”

I love the fact that any problem or situation, no matter how large or how small can be taken to our heavenly Father, and He is bigger than the situation, bigger than our fears, and can do so much more than we can ask Him or even imagine He will do for us.

I say this not just because of the things I’ve seen God do in my life, but also because of the things I see Him doing in other people’s lives.  Let me explain a little more…..

A friend of mine shared a prayer request with me some time ago…..she was very burdened and concerned for her daughter.  Her daughter had grown up in church and claimed to have a relationship with God, but last year, she walked away.

She just up and left.  She left their church, family, and walked away from God.  She got involved in many things and with many people that she shouldn’t have.  This went on for over a year, she didn’t care what anyone had to say, she was going to do what she wanted to do.

My heart was burdened for this family.  I thanked my friend for sharing this with me and told her that I would pray for her to have wisdom, and for her daughter to turn back to God.

This seemed like a tall order.  Her daughter wasn’t showing any signs of change.  No signs that she even desired to return to her family, or to God.

At one point, she said her daughter told her, why bother?  She felt she had already messed her life up, so what was the point in even trying to please God?

My friend kept emailing me, we kept praying, and I kept encouraging her not to give up.

Then, last week, it happened.  I got an email from her that her daughter had attended some church services and turned her life back over to God.  She moved back with her family, and has been attending church services.  She’s making an honest attempt to repair her relationship with her family and most importantly, her relationship with God.

I’m not going to share her name with you, but please, pray for this girl and her family……she’s taken the first step, but she has a long road ahead of her.

I can tell you first hand though, that God can do it.  He can strengthen and empower her to walk with Him and can restore to her the joy of her salvation.

I share this with you not only because my friend and I are SO excited about what God is doing in her daughter’s life, but also because I want to encourage you.

If you know someone who has walked away from their relationship with God……please, keep loving that person, and don’t stop praying for them.  I can’t tell you how long it will take them to turn back to God, but I can tell you that He is there with open arms, just waiting for them to return, so don’t ever stop praying.

And if you’re reading this today and you have walked away from God, I want you to know that it’s never too late, you can turn back to Him.  Whatever it is you’ve done, God can forgive, and He can use your life to glorify Himself.  No matter what you may think, He’s standing there with open arms just waiting for you to come to Him.

I worked at a restaurant in high school that served Garlic Parsley Potatoes, and they are one of my favorites and SUPER easy to make.

Here’s what you do:

Fill a medium size sauce pan 1/2-3/4 full of water.

Salt the water and turn the heat on medium high.

Cut up 10-15 medium size red potatoes (I cut mine in half and each half into quarters.)

Add the potatoes and let them boil until they are soft.  Don’t over cook them or they will start to  mash when you’re putting on the sauce.

When your potatoes are about halfway done, put 3/4 to 1 stick of butter in a small pan and melt the butter. (Please do not try this with margarine, it will not taste the same.)  You don’t want the butter to boil or burn, just melt.  Add garlic powder and parsley flakes to taste, stir up the sauce.  (For 10-15 potatoes, I use approx. 1 tablespoon of parsley flakes and 2-3 teaspoons of garlic powder.  You can use more or less depending on your taste.)

Drain the potatoes and put them in a serving bowl.

Pour the butter sauce over the potatoes and with a large spoon, gently reach to the bottom of the bowl and lift the potatoes on the bottom up so other will fall down into the bowl.  Keep doing this gently until the potato chunks are covered with the sauce. Don’t stir the potatoes or they will start to mash.

These are so yummy and look pretty too!  I’ve tried it with yellow potatoes, and it doesn’t taste as good.  Enjoy!

No matter what you’re facing in life, this song is a reminder that God is right there every step of the way.

So, turn your speakers up and relax for a minute or two while you get a blessing from this song:

You Never Walk Alone

When it seems that you prayed ’til your strength is all gone,
and your tears fall like raindrops all the day long
Jesus cares and He knows just how much you can bear
He’ll speak your name to someone in prayer

Someone is praying for you
someone is praying for you
And when it seems you’re all alone, and your heart would break in two
remember someone is praying for you

Have the clouds ’round you Gathered in the midst of a storm
Is your ship tossed and battered Are you weary and worn
Don’t lose hope someone’s praying For you this very day
And peace be still is already on the way

Someone is praying for you
someone is praying for you
And when it seems you’re all alone, and your heart would break in two
remember someone is praying for you.

Grace and I are thoroughly enjoying the summer.  We took a much needed vacation to see my family.  Grace had tons of fun with her cousins, aunts and uncles.  It was nice to just relax and take some time off from our busy schedule.

Grace finished her 1st year of pre-school and is busy reading and working on “projects” this summer.  So far, she’s been painting, has started using the sewing machine (under close supervision), drawing, and has even started a latch hook rug kit of Fozzy bear.  Of course, she hooks about 5 pieces of yarn for about every 25 that I hook, but it’s still fun to work on it together.

She’s at such a fun age and is sooooooo independent.  The other day when she wanted to paint, she got out her items to paint, her paint, brushes and a cup of water all by herself.  All I had to do was spread out the newspaper and help her put on her smock.

I’m loving my summer schedule, I teach all day on Tuesdays, and then half day on Wednesday and Thursday.  It’s sooooooo nice.  We’ve been going swimming on Monday mornings until about lunch time and then relaxing in the afternoons, either working on projects or watching a movie together.  I try to run all of my errands on Wednesday or Thursday afternoon after teaching and then we do something fun on Friday.  Last Friday, we took a road trip for the day.

Grace is still taking piano lessons and is doing fantastic.  I’m so proud of her.  This September will be 1 year of piano lessons and she’ll have finished the 1st 3 books in the “Music for Little Mozart’s” series from Alfred.

We have her little pool set up in the backyard and almost every afternoon, she goes out there to splash and I soak my feet in the pool while we eat an ice cream sandwich together.

I’ve been able to get a lot of projects done already this summer with my lighter teaching schedule.  I was able to stain her swing set before it got too hot out and I have a few small pieces of furniture to paint in the next couple of weeks.   I even sorted through her school uniforms today to see what can be used again this fall and made a list of the items I need for her before school starts.

I’ve officially lost all of my baby weight, but I may try for a couple more pounds, just so I have a cushion in case there’s a birthday or holiday where I put on a couple of LBS.  Then I won’t have to worry too much about being over my goal.

I’ve started taking violin lessons and I LOVE it!  My teacher is a friend of mine and she’s sooooooo good about giving me a lesson when I’m ready for one.  I just call her up when I’m ready for a lesson so that I have plenty of time to practice in between.  I’ve already started on a Christmas song, and I’m hoping that by Christmas, I’ll be brave enough to play in public…..we’ll see how it goes.

I hope that you’re taking time to enjoy your summer, your family and your friends.  Work and your to do list will always be there, but your family and friends are what’s important, so make a lot of fabulous memories this summer.

I also shop clearance racks a lot, I’m always amazed at what I can find on Clearance at Target and Gymboree. I was able to get some of Grace’s school uniform shirts on the clearance rack at GYMBOREE for $3.21! You just can’t beat that.

My other favorite place to save money is at the thrift store. I am always amazed at what I find there. Grace and I call it “treasure hunting” I’ve found her American Girl dolls, Hanna Andersson outfits (that look like new) recently, I found for myself a pair of Born Sandals and a pair of Uggs. Seriously, they were like $7.99 each, and both looked like new. I also found several pairs of capris for myself for this summer (last years are way too big…YEA!!!!) You just never know what you’re going to find at a thrift store. I have way too much fun in them.

Another place I go to save money is a liquidation outlet in our area. This place has food, clothes, toys, household items…..you name it. Most of it is name brand and is very inexpensive. I got myself some Calvin Klein summer tops the other day for $8.99. They are super comfy and I love them, especially for $8.99.

I try to stock up on things we need in the future when they’re on sale now. I have a rubbermaid bins in the garage that have all of Grace’s winter clothes for next winter already and dress and tennis shoes for her in the next 3 sizes she’ll need. All of them are items that I’ve found on clearance dirt cheap or are items that look almost new that I found at thrift stores.

Plus, I love putting clothes in her closet at season change, looking at the tags and saying to myself, I still can’t believe I only paid $3.99 for those shoes!