Update 2/27/08

So, my dear friends, Lisa and Linda, have told me that I am due for an update in my blog. I made a promise to Lisa (who also bugged me, lovingly, about my Spark Page blog) that I would get to that today. So here I am.

First, for all of you readers who found my blog through a MSN group, please know that I have unjoined most of them. This was not because I was upset, angry, hurt (or any of the other million and one mama drama reasons to unjoin a group). My reason was simple: MSN was being a pain in the patootie and wasn't allowing me access. Rather than clutter up member lists with my non-participating self, I figured I'd just unjoin and save everyone the hassle. Lizz1176 has informed me that some of you over in Barf land have been asking about me. I'm okay and you're welcome to contact me via my blog. I'm sorry if this has caused any hurt or confusion.

I'm less than a month away from my NaNoWriMo editing goal. The goal is to edit my novel and have it ready to be sent out by 3/23/08 -- which also happens to be Easter AND my 11th wedding anniversary. I'm well on my way. My novel is broken down into five packets (200 pages won't fit in one manila envelope) and have already edited two of the five. I plan on working on the third and fourth one tomorrow and finishing up the fifth one by Friday or Saturday. This puts me well ahead of schedule, but I tend to be single-focused when it comes to my projects. Right now, I'm focused on NaNoWriMo.

I attend Wednesday night Bible Studies at my church with men and women, but have recently started attending a Women's Bible Study on Tuesday night. I got into it a bit late and as such, have two weeks of work to make up for plus this week's homework (another good reason for knocking out my NaNoWriMo novel early). The study is called The Disciple's Cross by Avery T. Wellis, Jr. and is Book 1 of 4. The study focuses on putting Christ as the center of our life and uses Luke 9:23 as its pretense: "And he said to them all, 'If anyone wants to come with me, he must forget [deny] himself, take up his cross every day and follow me.' I believe the leader of this Bible study chose this particular study for us women because we tend to put everyone before ourselves, naturally, but unfortunately, put the wrong 'stuff' before us. Of course we all know that the Bible tells us that we are supposed to love Christ, our husbands and then our children. But I know that as a women, I have often got the order mixed up a bit. Usually, the kids come first, then the house stuff, then the job stuff, then the husband, then me and then Christ. I hope that by the time I come out of this six week study, that I will learn the Disciple's Cross and put it into action -- putting Christ at the center of my life (above all else, including my children...and bumping hubby up to second on my list), spending time daily in the Word (this is where I falter the most), praying in faith (another weakness), fellowship with other believers (probably the only thing I've done right, and finally, witness to the world (dropped the ball on this one, too).

As you can see, I have a long way to go but I will not lose faith.

Something else I've been struggling with (which I'll only touch on briefly) is my unrest with working outside of the home. I've tried it before and I've always run into this brick wall. I'm not sure if outside the home is where God wants me to be or if I'm just not in the right place. I will go next month to take my parapro test so that I can be hired on as a parapro (teacher's aid). Right now though, I have a strong pulling to go into a private Christian school to do this and I'm not sure why. I don't know if it's a spiritual 'thing' or a fiscal one. About the only thing I do know is that it's not about me. I need to take myself out of the equation and maybe if I listen hard enough, He'll answer my question: Where do you want me? What do you want me to do?

The children are doing great in public school. We've had a few bumps in the road, but nothing major and overall, the kids are very happy where they are and they are doing well. I felt at peace when I put the kids back to school in October and that's the only peace I've felt since. So I believe I'm on the right track as far as the kids go. I only pray that I can get on the right track with me. Maybe this Bible study will teach me (and get me into the habit), of spending daily quiet time with the Father so that I might hear when He talks to me in that oh so still voice.

Hubby and I are trying to get right financially and are following the teachings of Dave Ramsey (another reason why I have so much unrest about my working outside the home). We've ordered some of his material (his envelope system -- which amazingly, I've found a way to do more or less in an excel file) as well as some materials for the kids (Financial Peace Jr.). We want to teach the kids the simple lessons in life about money handling so that they will not (hopefully) make the same mistakes we did in the past.

Oh! And the biggest news of all -- my brother is getting married 5/17/08! This would be why I am Sparking hard. I want to lose 24 lbs before the wedding. I've lost 2.5 lbs so far, so I'm well on my way (I started on 2/18/08). It's going to take hard work...but it'll be worth it. I was up there (VA) for Christmas and my brother saw me at 160 lbs. I'd love for him to see me at 140! (If the math isn't adding up right, it's because I gained some weight while I was back home -- go figure).

Okay...so I rambled on and on for about 45 minutes. I tell ya -- you guys might not get regular updates from me, but when you do, they're long!

I hope this answered all your questions and brought you all up-to-date. If you have anymore, feel free to comment!