Vision Forum Giveaway

Kim at Life in a Shoe is sponsoring another Vision Forum giveaway. Three winners will receive up to $250 each in Vision Forum products. Check it out at http://inashoe.com/?p=1853 and post a link to your own wishlist on your blog to be entered in the drawing.

Here’s my wishlist:

Thoughts for Young Men $8.00 p. 21

The Wise Woman’s Guide to Blessing Her Husband’s Vision $16.00 p. 25

Why Satan Wants Your Firstborn and What to Do About It $10.00 p. 27

Be Fruitful and Multiply $15.00 p. 31

Rebuilding a Culture of Virtuous Boyhood $10.00 p. 90

Beloved Bride; the Letters of Stonewall Jackson to his Wife $15.00 p. 33

Verses of Virture $20.00 p.33

Poems for Patriarchs $20.00 p. 33

Bible Lessons for Manhood from the Battlefield of My Father's Youth $25.00 p.19

A Church in the House $12.00 p. 21

How to be a Lady $14. p.77
Continental Soldier's Field Drum $22.00 p.87

Fun Projects for you and the kids $15 p. 98

Four Horse Set $16 p.78

Teach Them to Your Children $17.00 p. 80

Communion Bread (unintentionally)

Ever forget to add yeast to your homemade bread? This is a picture of some bread I made the other day in our bread maker, but I forgot to add the yeast! Ugh, so it was just like flat bread that you get for communion at some churches. ANyways, I tried using it for things such as PBand J, but it was hard to swallow. We got through about half the loaf and had to toss it. It just wasn't worth it.

Random thoughts

Today was a long day. My husband had to get up at 4:30 am because our church did a Krispy Kreme fundraiser today and since there are no Krispy Kreme stores on the our Island, they had to fly them over from a neighbor island. So they picked them up at the air port and then delivered them to the designated sites for the sale. He has been gone all day and it's 9pm now. They didn't sell them all today so they took the left over boxes (about 400) to a festival down town and were going to try and sell the rest at half price. Aye me...I hope that they are able to sell most of them if not all of them. So I just hung out at home with the boys all day today. It rained alot today but it was clear for a little while so I got to get the boys out for a walk during the morning. We have pretty good hill down to the ocean by our house which makes the walk back treacherous, only because I am pushing a double stroller that has two boys in it that together weigh around 50 pounds, and the stroller is pretty sturdy to begin with. I come home sticky sweaty every time. It's a good workout pushing them around. Moses loves tractors and anything big and yellow, they are called "datch," that is his word for tractor. So there is often construction work around our neighborhood so we often have datches around so we go and visit them. He always waves hi and bye and likes to touch them. He is so cute. He just turned two yesterday. We had a fun little celebration for him. One family came over from church. They have two kids, a boy 10 and a girl 8 who really like Moses and they enjoyed playing in the big cardboard fort that my husband made. So, my son Moses is growing tall...they really do sprout up before your very eyes. He is really starting to talk alot more; he is getting quite chatty. So how do you teach your child to not talk with food in their mouth when you have been encouraging them to talk for so long?? That is my present question.
Have I mentioned here on my blog that our family is living with another family? We share one house and we've been here for 6 months and have 6 months left on our lease. It's really a different experience sharing a home with another couple. They've been married almost 2 years(they also have a one year old girl) and we just had our 3rd anniversary, so it is good that neither of us couples are newlyweds. Ha ha...anyways, I've never met anyone else that has lived with another family, but overall, it's been good. It's also been a blessing since moving to a new place and culture is so hard, it's been helpful to learn things from them and to have the daily fellowship, where being in a new place and not knowing anyone you can feel isolated really easily.
.....now I've hit a wall...I'm tired and I should go to bed soon. I woke up at 4:30am too, didn't really fall back asleep until 5 or sometime after, then Elijah awoke at 5:45am to nurse then he went back to sleep and then Moses woke up at 6:15am.

Where Two or More are Gathered

God has really been working in my heart lately and I've been reminded again this week about the spiritual batter that we're in. The battle is real and I've been re-awakened to the need to be in prayer way more than I have been, and not just praying on my own but with other Christians. There is power in the name of Jesus, and when two or more come together to wage war, though we cannot see what is happening in the spiritual world, God hears and answers. There is so much power in prayer, I just want to encourage whoever reads this to have faith in God and believe in him to fight for you! Call upon his name and he will answer you. Sometimes we aren't strong enough to fight, or to pray for ourselves and we need to seek another out to pray for us or with us. I have been so encouraged when I am prayed for and when I pray with another believer. I just started meeting with 2 other friends for prayer and it's so encouraging and uplifting. God wants us to come together to seek him, we cannot do anything apart from him. It is wonderful and a must to have quiet time along with God, but it's so sweet to pray together with other believers. If you don't have someone to pray with, I would encourage you to pray and ask God for someone to pray with and he'll provide.

The Month of August was Busy

Well it's been busy here this past month. The hurricane came and right before it was supposed to hit it changed directions and moved away from us. God was merciful to us. So we survived and over prepared for nothing, I was so happy!
We had a friend from Washington come out and visit for 10 days and then we had a four day gap between my husband's parent's coming out for 10 days! We did a lot of activities during that time and it felt like a lot of go go go. It's wonderful having guests and family from the mainland visiting but it was pretty tiring. After they left last week I came down with a cold. So this past week has been getting back into our routine and resting up. One thing about having visitors is that we do more touristy things when they are here then we would do just on our own.

Elijah turned one this past month too. I can't believe it. I am happy though that God brought me through this year without getting pregnant. Because both my kids were c-sections it was important that I at least had a year to heal. So now I have 2 one year olds! Moses won't be two until Sept. 28. So I am enjoying them immensely right now as Elijah now walks every where chasing after Moses. They have so much fun playing together.

I got to go body boarding again with Ryan a couple weeks back and surprisingly I got an incredible wave, first time ever. Ryan said that he pushed my board a bit to make sure I caught it and sure enough it was awesome. Later he told me I rode about 50 yards and let me tell you when I caught it I was amazed at what I was doing. So there I was gripping my board with all my might sure that I would fall off if I lost my grip and than be engulfed in the wave. Not wanting to find out what that would be like, I managed to lean back and grip tightly and ride like a pro, but then as I was facing the rocky shore with fallen logs (yes, it is a rocky shore here, no white sand beaches like in the post cards), it began to get closer and closer and the waves weren't slowing down as I imagined they would. I thought that it would just slow down and I could gracefully float off or something like that. My imagination had it figured out...anyways so I'm rapidly approaching the rocks and I'm not slowing, I don't know how to stop, I wanted to pray but all that I could manage was an "O God"(so grateful that he knows our needs even though we don't always know how to pray, or have time to pray!) before I crashed! I slid back on my board sure that when I hit my upper body would be saved by it's protection. Well I arrived on the rocky bank not sure exactly how I made it, except that as soon as I was out of the water I scrambled upon a fallen log and held onto it as the waves continued to roll in and slap against me. I couldn't move right away, I was kind of in shock by the whole experience and had to get my bearings about me as I processed what I had just accomplished and survived. This surely was an exciting feat as I am I simple mom at home with my boys most days, never thought that I would body board in the pacific ocean by the rocky shores in Hawaii. And to actually catch a wave was pretty exciting for me. So anyways, I managed to pry myself from my log and make my way back to where Ryan's parent's were watching our boys. I looked down as I was taking my flipper off so see my knee was a little bloody but it didn't hurt at all (not until later that is). I scraped off the little rocky pebbles embedded in my knee and all seemed fine. In all I came away with just had a few small scrapes and an bruise the size of a half dollar coin that turned every shade imaginable. Actually I was kind of proud of my "wound," almost like a souvenir that I wore to show that I had caught a wave and survived:) Hee hee. My husband told me later that he watched me catch it but then the wave rose up and took me away and he couldn't see me anymore until the wave died out at the shore. He said that he was a little worried at first because he didn't imagine that I would ride it all the way to the shore! Needless to say I have learned now how you're supposed to get off a wave and hopefully next time I'll manage that better.

Hurricane Flossie

Check out this link

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/08/12/hurricane.flossie.ap/index.html

http://www.prh.noaa.gov/cphc/pages/prod.php?file=/data/HFO/TCPCP2

I just want to ask for prayer for the islands of Hawaii. There is a hurricane headed our way and we don't know what is going to happen whether it will weaken or come as strong as it is now. Please pray us here...Pray for God's mercy upon Hawaii.

Heal Pain and Sore Legs

Well, it's happening...I heard that when you reach 24 years old your body starts going down hill. I don't know this to be a fact but it's happening to me! Okay so it's not that bad but I've recently begun experiencing pain in me heal and lately my feet and legs are achy tired at the end of the day most consistently, and I'm not pregnant! So I got online and looked up heal pain and came up with "plantar fasciitis" which means "It's an overuse injury affecting the sole or flexor surface (plantar) of the foot. A diagnosis of plantar fasciitis means you have inflamed the tough, fibrous band of tissue (fascia) connecting your heel bone to the base of your toes." (http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/fact/thr_report.cfm?Thread_ID=144)
"You're more likely to get the condition if you're a woman, if you're overweight, or if you have a job that requires a lot of walking or standing on hard surfaces. You're also at risk if you walk or run for exercise, especially if you have tight calf muscles that limit how far you can flex your ankles. People with very flat feet or very high arches are also more prone to plantar fasciitis."

Anyways, so after my reading at a view different sites I believe that the following have contributed to my sore feet and heal pain: wearing flat flip flops with no arch support every where I go since moving here. Going on long walks 3-5 times a week and pushing a double stroller( up hills too. --I do wear good sneakers when I do this however) . Walking around barefoot whenever I'm not wearing flip flops. Being on my feet for almost 12 hours a day! I do sit throughout the day, but with 2 little guys under the age of 2 I really don't sit a whole lot, so that and also carrying them too. Anyways, I did some more reading for what is the best sandal to wear and what nurses prefer most (since they work 12 hour shifts) and up came Birkenstocks. Well, as it turns out I own a pair of Birkis Aruba sandals and only wear them occasionally just because I prefered my flips because they're so easy to get on and off and go with anything you wear. So I put them on this morning and have been wearing them for like 6 hour now and my feet don't hurt at all(yes, it's gotten to the point where my feet are now hurting a bit in the morning too). I'm really amazed...and thankful that these sandals are helping and the pain has subsided so quickly.