Takin' Five on Friday - Expectation

It's Friday and Gypsy Mama always prompts us to write, simply write, without question, without reservation, for just five minutes.

Love doing this!

10:04

Expectations go deep, they can get us in trouble, they can break our hearts.  They're tricky things.
Have you ever considered what God's expectations of us are?  Does He expect us to be perfect, sinless giving and forgiving always?  Amazingly there's no way He could.
He has expectations of us being us, being human, imperfect, sinful, broken, lost, confused and everything else that makes us, well us.
That is awesome.  What a gift that He knows we aren't, won't, even can't be perfect and so the fact that He expects us to fall and loves us unconditionally anyway is the BEST gift we could ever have.
I in turn take such amazing comfort in my Father's love of me just as I am.  Now, that is an expectation I love having, the expectation that He is always there for me, yup so amazing!

10:09

Go, walk your walk and explore the road before you.  Take with you the expectation of crazy unexpected gifts from your Father!

DV-NMV

Big Things

Big things are happening.  Some is of our making is some is of the Lord's making.  Either way things are happening, great and amazing things, things that are making me smile.


We have lived in this old farmhouse for eight years, that means we've spent eight years on projects.  Starting with gutting the upstairs and putting in new wiring, heating, insulation, sheetrock and all that fun stuff.  We also updated the stairway to the upstairs, a few rooms in the main level, all new windows, a few new doors and since we had finished the inside we tackled the outside.  Last summer saw we gave the house a facelift.  New siding and steel roof (the Three Musketeers Bar house - chocolate brown roof, creamy tan siding).  We also added this wrap around porch to the front of the house.  I should go track down the before pictures.  The transformation has been a lot of work, but it has been such an amazing experience.  This summer we're finishing things.  I started this retaining wall/garden in March and this week we completed it.  Kudos to all you landscapers out there, that is HARD work!!  I'll happily climb on a roof and put steel on any day over tackling that brick laying project again.  Now to figure out what to plant...ugh.  Anyway, we get to celebrate some freedom from projects by going camping this weekend.  Oh, some much deserved relaxing is headed our way!
See so much is happening.  We've been working for eight years and now every time I pull in my driveway I just smile.  The whole satisfaction for a job well done is just awesome.
God is so great that way.  You work hard, lean on Him in faith and He will provide exactly what you need, exactly when you need it.  We have become a "God will provide it" family.  Ask me at any given point about something and that is most likely exactly what I will tell you.
We have been facing many things over at school as well.  The kiddos attend a small Christian School close by (55 children total K-8) and we have teachers retiring, marrying and moving on and honestly it's just one of those crazy seasons over there.  We needed to find part time choir and band teachers, a 5th/6th grade teacher and a principal (and possibly more that I'm missing - we use many hands with our curriculum set up) for next year.  We have a tentative 5/6 teacher and there is someone coming in for an interview next week for the principal position.  I have said for many months that God would provide us exactly what we need in the people for these positions.  He always has great plans and (again) will provide exactly what we need when we need it. (Please say a prayer for us if you could, that we be patient and content with His timing and provisions.)
Anyway, I'm feeling good about things.  Our group of teachers is amazing, I love each and every one for the things that they bring to Peoria Christian.  I know that we all work together to do amazing things in the lives of these children.  As parents, leaders, friends and God's servants we are giving these children an absolutely wonderful foundation for their lives.  Being involved in the happenings at Peoria Christian has taught me so much.  I'm not the teacher (never ever wanted to be one) type, so homeschooling would be quite a stretch for me, in turn I feel amazingly blessed to be able to have the option of Peoria Christian for this crew.
As it goes these are a few of the thoughts that have been rolling around in my head for the last several days.  God provides for His faithful servants.  Not always in the ways we expect, much less in the time frame we'd desire, but He does provide.  He alone ultimately knows what we need and is always at the ready to have it waiting.  From working on our house to serving at the school I feel the amazing things God is doing.  Yes there are things I see happening, but in the end I truly feel that He is right there orchestrating something awesome.
Blessings to you today.  Go see and feel the beauty of God around you.  Hear the birds, feel the warmth of the sun, see the garden growing, go on a grateful things hunt and count His gifts, they are everywhere.
Deo Volente - NMV

Takin' Five on Friday - See

Gypsy Mama prompts us again today and so my mind takes off wandering and wondering.

8:22

See

"Do you see it?"
"See what?"
"That, that over there."
"Where?"
"Right there!"
"Huh?!  Um, no.  What, where?"
"Ugh, never mind!"

Ever have one of those moments?  Where you see the perfect beauty in a moment and no one else around you sees it, or when someone catches a glimpse of beautiful sweetness and you're the one that misses it.

It's hard to always be ready to "see" life as it is and catch these moments.  Life in it's broken beauty, where things are so messed up they're beautiful.  How can it get so crazy around here and the only sound I hear is chaos but yet it's still absolutely the best music to my hears.  Laughter, squeals of delight, screams of joy, shrieks of excitement.

To see the moment for what it is, God's greatest gift.  Everywhere, every single thing.  The blessings in the tough times because it shows us what and who really matters.

8:27

Have a blessedly beautiful weekend!!
SupportNPrayerz - LuvNHugz
Deo Volente - Nicki

Oh, How Does Your Garden Grow

My garden is full of green plants, deep green growing beauty...from a distance.  Up close it's a little less beautiful because those big green plants are all thistles.
I have managed to figure out this gardening thing a little bit.  I don't get a garden in early, I don't plant a whole lot, but I do enjoy the little garden I have, this year.  This has been an evolving process.  I first helped with a garden several years ago.  My friend Marie and I attempted one, I don't know that it ever grew anything, I never (I say never because I'm being completely honest) went and worked in it.  My Mom Veenstra and I started one and I walked through it a few times but honestly she did all the work in that one as well.  Such a good gardener, ain't I?
Then my dear sweet husband decided we could just till one here at the house and have our own.  We planted a few things and grew weeds, lots and lots of big scary weeds.  Well, I know the other stuff grew, it's just that the weeds got bigger and completely choked everything else out.  The next year was pretty much the same scary mess, I planted less because I knew how much of a disaster the year before was.  Last year was much better.  Still keeping it simple I discovered a few tricks to keep ahead of the weeds.  PREEN, amazing tool, don't think I shall ever garden without it again.  Newspapers and grass clippings, best ever other tool in my arsenal.  When we disc/till in the early spring I mix PREEN in everywhere.  After a few weeks (at least, though usually in my case, several) I start planting.  Laying newspapers around the plants and topping seeds with layers and layers of grass clippings.  You may not see much dirt in my garden because there is such a layer of everything else, but the few weeds that do come through are so easy to get rid of.  LOVE IT!
Anyway on to this year and my beautifully green garden.  Thanks to the PREEN I don't have much for weeds in my garden.  Nor did I have anything planted besides potatoes until this week.  I did have plenty of thistles growing though.  So after stopping to get a few plants at the greenhouses this week I tackled the garden with my new found Time At Home (what a concept, school is out and now we get to be home during the day, YAY) and learned a few things.
1 - Quite likely it doesn't matter what kind of gloves you have on pulling thistles out is going to HURT!
2 - Thistle roots go DEEP, a single sturdy root that sets down and could teach us all a lesson or two. (Seriously one was the length of my forearm!)
3 - After pulling a five-gallon bucket of thistles you start to appreciate them.
Say what?  Yes, I said appreciate them.  Think on this, they can grow anywhere, despite anything you throw at them and regardless that there has been practically no rain for weeks they were a beautiful deep green.  They aren't a pesky little thing that just lays around in the way, they know where they wanna grow and set down their roots, deep.  Prickly on the outside yes, but they've gotta have some defense system, no one likes them.
I can appreciate that.  I can appreciate that because once I take the time to weed my garden I can see the beauty in what I have accomplished.  I can feel the satisfaction in a job well done.  I will most definitely enjoy the foods I will be growing and most likely take joy in watching them grow.
My gardening adventures are really only just begun I would say.  The years so far have been fun though because I may not have been successful in the vegetable garden but I'm seeing some success in the life garden.  The garden that is growing an 11 year old, an 8 year old, two 4 year olds and a 3 year old.  Ha, small wonder that the vegetable gardens were what they were in the past years.
How does your garden grow?  The garden of your heart?  A life garden?  A patio garden?  A small flower garden (oh I hope to tackle these someday too) or a large one?  We're all cultivating and growing something each day of our lives, enjoy the beauty in your garden.

Takin' Five on Friday - Opportunity

It's been a while since I've done this, but I'm back because it's worth it!!

Love taking the time to capture these five minutes with Gypsy Mama and her "group" it's such a pleasure.

1:57

Opportunity, it means so much.

I find myself learning to reflect that each day is an opportunity to make it all that it can be.  I can choose joy (miss you Gitz!) or I can choose gloom.  I can see the beauty in a post jammies sandbox adventure or I can see the mess that in brings inside.
Opportunities are everywhere and each opportunity of living is more gifts within itself.  It's not just about a new job, experience or venture into the unknown, it's about living.

It's the chance to write unedited blabber from within because we can.  Because we're truly capturing what we're thinking.  It's the opportunity to be completely honestly real and know that we're accepted (and accepting) because of who we gather 'round this bonfire with.

It's a chance to be me.  In whatever form I let it take.  In whatever direction I go.  See the opportunities before me for what they are, God's blessings.

2:03

I just jump in on these five minute Fridays but I'm enjoying a reason to look up words in the dictionary.

Opportunity - a set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something

Oh, yeah, that's SOOOOOO a God thing!!!

Deo Volente!!
NMV

Dive In

Yes, it's practically summer in Iowa and we've already had the slip 'n slide out. I however am not talking about diving into the pool, I'm talking about diving into the working from home world.
I have a very good, amazing single mom friend that has been talking about wanting to be home with and for her daughter.  Saying that punching a time clock just isn't what she really wants to do as a mom.  I have this amazing opportunity at my fingertips (have for a while) but have been too scared to do anything with it
Yes too scared.  Step out of my comfort zone?  Um, have you met me?  Introvert extraordinaire and completely aware of it!!  I constantly remind people I live under a rock and am content with that.  Living in my own little bubble and I know that when I'm needed the message will get to me, sometimes late, but it will get to me.  The only time I jumped out of my comfort zone (yes I usually crawl out) was signing on with BeautiControl.  Something I will never regret and will always be a part of.  That company and my BC friends (family) taught me so much about myself.  They taught me that it is okay to take care of me and to put my needs first.  I need to be happy and healthy, centered and loved in order to best love those around me.  I did SPAS and went to meetings, and will ALWAYS be active with my reorder customers and with Julie and the team around me.  Quietly active as my (our family) schedule doesn't leave much time for me to really work that business.  That is sad for me because I love taking care of other women, letting them know that it is okay to take care of themselves and in turn taking care of myself.
The great part is that BC opened me up for the opportunity I am ready to take advantage of.  I NEVER would have thought I could manage a Melaleuca business.  I wouldn't have seen the possibility in it.  I struggle to do SPAS because I want to be home at night with my crew, at their ball games, watching a movie with the hubby or whatever.  Adding a SPA to the schedule was always really hard for me.  Getting a sitter be it Dad, Grandma, whomever, was a juggling act that became a struggle.  Add to that juggling an inventory, managing a downline and if I had to take time off I felt like I was starting all over.
What I've realized I can do is work something that works with my schedule and fits my terms.  I can work my business during the day.  Listen to a conference call while silencing the phone so we can still play, sending email while cuddling a kiddo in my lap, helping a mom (or dad) provide a healthier home, so that it's a happier home, oh yeah, I can do that!!  I can contact people, work when it works for me and if I want to go on a field trip or we have a crazy busy month that I can't "work" very much, it's okay because I don't get behind and have to start all over.
What do I do?  I share an amazing opportunity of switching stores.  You don't have to go to the big box stores for all your cleaners, wasting time choosing the best one from 30 while knowing that they're poisonous or caustic chemicals you're bringing in the house and spending more than you should because of impulse buying displays.  I build friendships.  It's a customer base of wonderful people that shop their online store for safe cleaning products, amazing vitamins and great personal care items for taking care of themselves and their families.
The best part, switching stores is to each customer what they want it to be.  Say what?  Yup, if she simply wants to take care of her family by buying cleaners, shampoos, vitamins and laundry detergent each month then she can.  If he wants to share it with his brother, sister or neighbor and build a customer base then he can.  The possibilities are endless.
I love shopping in our little local stores.  The hardware store that has all those basic necessities and the helpful friendly faces.  The clothing shop that has unique finds and someone that will help me find the fit and color to best suit me.  The bookstore with books, gifts, comfy chairs and the smiling face that will order whatever it is they don't have.  Having my Melaleuca business is just like having that shop.  I get to help people, serve them and their families in their health and wellness needs.  The main difference is I don't have to lock and unlock doors for store hours.  I can work whenever it works for me, I can make a difference every day without worrying about the overhead.
Oh, I'm so excited about this.  Excited that my husband won't have to work a hundred hours a week (feels like it) and that he'll be able to be home with us when we want him here.  We'll be able to do things together as a family that we couldn't do without this income.  We can bless others and grow friendships and make memories.
I guess if you're gonna dream, dream big!!  I always knew God was taking care of us, I just find it amazing to see how these things come together.  LOVE that BIG PICTURE!!!

Deo Volente
NMV

PS - If you want to join me, to dive in and dream big, just email me! farmboymom@yahoo.com  What if you just wanna wade in and make a difference at home?  That works too!

Takin' Five on Friday - Real

On real, really, I LOVE this!!

11:53pm

I just had this conversation with a girlfriend tonight that I love the other moms that make me feel normal.  You know the normal I'm talking about.  The oh, yeah, I lost my cool this morning because the first thing the kids did post waking up was start fighting over (fill in your blank) and I was "not in the mood" and ripped into them growling, "this is NOT how we start our day!"
Oh yeah, that's the REAL I love, the real that reminds us we're all moms that reached the end of the rope occasionally and have to hug out an apology with the sweet son and dear daughter caught in the moment. Also remembering those happy husbands that we scowl and growl at because, yup, that's also what happens when we don't communicate EVERY DETAIL.  I remind myself that my husband is just another member of the so sad husband club, going to bed alone because, no, I'm just not in the mood or maybe I do have a headache.

Okay so it's now 12:00am

But I'm on the couch, in what feels like 80 degrees with a boy finally passed out on my lap, listening to DH snore away and what's sad is that I'm HERE typing away on the phone instead of sound asleep resting up for day three of three Tulip Time 2012.
Ah, so real.

:0)
DV-NMV