Favorite Photos from the Egg Hunt Today

 

New Project–Scripture/Quote Art

Here is my improvised project I worked on that I needed a projector.  It came out better than expected, but can’t wait to tweak it some and get the result I want.

The Just Shall Live By Faith Habakkuk 2:4b

It’s printed text transferred onto painted particle board via mod podge and then distressed and sealed.

William Borden Quote

William Borden gave away a life of luxury to become a missionary and died at 25 on the way to the missionfield. He had no reserves, no retreats and no regrets.

New Animals on Farm & New Flowers Blooming

Two mother ewes and two baby lambs.

Henry petting the baby duck with Uncle Johnny.

Henry the turkey go moved this afternoon for the upcoming egg hunt at Fresh McKenzie.

Some flowers in our yard this afternoon.

Entering the Third Trimester

So grateful to God to have made it this far and with an uneventful pregnancy.  We will soon learn about the glucose test and see how the rest goes. 

I am trying to keep myself active on a daily basis for my own health and attitude needs.  I just believe exercise is the best medicine even though it takes every ounce of my being to force myself into it.

I also feel I could sleep much later than I do.  Which part of me says to take advantage of Henry’s recent sleeping habits of sleeping late, but the bigger part of me likes to take advantage of the quiet time in the morning to build my soul up.  I think we are all better off with that choice .

Dave and I have actually discussed a couple of names.  And a couple have made it to his “maybe” list.  I have learned to be patient with our differences in the way we do things over the almost 10 years we have been married.  I used to be convinced that my way was just right.  Now I try to allow him to do things his different way without high pressure of just wanting to get things done.  Although sometimes I do get impatient.  No lie.  And I do agree that I don’t think we will ever really know “the” name until the end.  Just how we roll.

Henry’s level of acceptance and understanding that he has a baby brother seems to be going up.  Yesterday his father asked him if he had a check up and he replied no and then asked if his mommy did.  He told him that it was the baby that had a test.  So cute.  Sometimes he gets pretty rough with me and I have to tell him that he could hurt the baby.  He always responds by apologizing to me and the baby.  It’s so adorable.

Here is what baby center says about this week:

By this week, your baby weighs two and a quarter pounds (like a Chinese cabbage) and measures 14.8 inches from the top of his head to his heels. He can blink his eyes, which now sport lashes. With his eyesight developing, he may be able to see the light that filters in through your womb. He's also developing billions of neurons in his brain and adding more body fat in preparation for life in the outside world.

Encouraging Church Service Tonight

Listen Here.

God keeps bringing back Matthew 6:33 to my mind when I worry/wonder about things or how I or we as a family or going to get from point A to B – fill in the blank for the area – physically, directionally, spiritually.  And I am constantly encouraged and remind to seek first the kingdom of God and all these things things will be added.  So encouraging.  That’s the note the message ended on but it’s so fresh in my mind.

The message was on the beginning of James 4.  He gives greater grace to the humble.  God’s grace, God’s Word is what enables us, when issues surface in our life in our spirituality to take the wrong and move on quietly.  Loved it.  Grace becomes greater than the issue.  I loved the quote about Abraham Lincoln’s life.  How is wife was prone to one moment be laughing hysterically and the next freaking out of her mind.  She once slapped a maid and when the maid’s father went to Abraham Lincoln about the offense, he ask if the man could dismiss this one incident when he himself has quietly live with this every day of his life.  Only a life of grace enables us to take the offense, take the wrong, even if we have a case and move on.  Numbers 12 – Mariam had a valid case against her brother but God corrected her.  Numbers 13 – The 10 of 12 had a valid case about the reality of the land.  Numbers 14 – the princes again spoke the bad words.

So much to react to but the bigger issue is to be submitted to God in James 4:7.  Resist the devil – in anxiety.  In his misleading about who we are.  Remember who you are.  A child of the king.  The devil will flee.

James 4:8 – Draw near to God.  How?  Worship God based on His Word in John 15:8

But you can listen yourself.  Loved it.  So thankful.

Cool Art Ideas & Glucose Test: Check

I am so in love with this work!  IN LOVE.  via.  I have got to try it!  LOVE!

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Henry and I went to get my glucose test done today.  I really waited until the last minute on this one.  My planning was a little poor in that I didn’t realize I wasn’t allowed to even sit in my car during the 1 hour wait after drinking the liquid.  Henry was such a trooper only having two magazines to look at and two very small toys from my purse.  I drank the stuff as fast as possible and the wait wasn’t that bad.  Henry was dying to have his turn in the chair.  I kept trying to tell him that the test wasn’t that fun.  It hurt.  He didn’t buy it and hopped in the chair when I was getting ready to go and told the tech it was his turn.

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We did another round of lawn clean up this afternoon after cleaning the house.  I am trying to spend some time each day (I wish), I mean each week cleaning up the lawn.  Henry was having fun outside until the thunder started rolling.  He really got freaked out.  It was kind of cute.  We barely made it into the house before the downpour.  He then asked for lunch which he had just eaten 1.5 hours before.  But growing boys need to eat.  I am letting him watch a show for distraction from the the thunder while eating.

Missionary Books, Pinterest Post & More

I make a habit of reading a rereading missionary auto/biographies because I find them so encouraging.  I recently finished one I had read before on Amy Carmichael and now am nearing the end of the one I have read at least once on Hudson Taylor.  I highly recommend them to anyone who has a heart for Christian missions.  Speaking of Christian missions, I was so encouraged to hear callers from Istanbul, Turkey on Grace Hour today.  It reminded me of God’s heart for the Muslim world and the great work that is happening there.  It made me want to move to Turkey!  Seriously!

Henry and I worked on making a couple of pillows today.  I had some left over fabric.  I am not sure if I like them, I was just itching to do something crafty.  I really want to find a projector so I can work on a project I have been dying to try.  I am in the process of an improvised test run – we will see how that turns out in another 24 hours.

I haven’t done a pinterest post in a while so here goes:

I love different types of fonts.  I love text.  Via.

Letterpress REALLY, REALLY intrigues me.  Via.

Interesting Island in a bright kitchen.  Via.

I really want to have a garden this summer.  Via.

I read this book a few years ago.  So good.  So.

I wouldn’t mind this kitchen at all!  Via.

I want to attempt to make something similar to this number sign.  Via.

Do you love the bead board?  I do!!!  Via.

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My husband is probably on his way home from school.  He has long days during the week as he works a new job (pray for him!) and takes Bible College classes as he prepares to graduate with his associates degree in Biblical Studies.  I am so proud of him. 

Galkowski Grandparents & Cousins

Grandma, Grandpa, Vinny (my late brother), Rachael (me), Will, Kat, Liz, Matt.  Back to Front.  Left to Right.

Pain

PAIN:
Over the past few months I have been meditating on suffering, pain, blame, overcoming, temptation, coping mechanisms.  They all seem to go together.


Memorizing the first chapter of James, it dawned on me that temptation isn’t always indulgence, lust, gossip, temptation can also be what we do with our pain.  We all of have pain.  There is pain that we may never know growing up in the western world like the depths of poverty in developing countries.  Starvation.  Temple prostitution.  Living outside in the elements.  Pain comes in many forms in our world too.  Abandonment, loneliness, failure, isolation, divorce, abuse, lack of purpose, watching a loved one suffer, death.  How do we deal with this pain?  Speaking from my own experience, there is a deep need in the human soul for identification, recognition, acknowledgement, someone to really know you and to know the deep parts of your soul.  Someone to really know your pain.  We were created for this.  To be known.  To be loved.  To be identified with.  The temptation with all of this is to search for that person, those people to meet that deep innate need.  But that search leads to more pain.  It leads to a struggle or a great war in the soul of isolating yourself because of continued hurt while at the same time still on a desperate search to be known.  For someone to know your pain.  This leads to many other temptations that we all fall prey to or have in the past – blaming others, gathering others to agree with our blame, verbally vomiting on innocent parties to defend our cause, mentally checking out, isolating ourselves further, injuring ourselves in another way for minor relief of a crippling pain, self medicating, running away from pain, denial, avoiding attachment, self indulgence, deeper sin.   Pain can begin by an infliction from another but be perpetuated by our own choices.  We are all there, have been there and will again be there.  In this fallen world with imperfect people, pain is inevitable.  

If we were created to be known or loved, how do we meet that need?  Psalm 121:1 -2 I lift my eyes to the hills from whence comes my help?  My help comes from the Lord.  Really?  It seems like such a cliché.  Can the Lord really help me?  YES!  Jesus Christ is THE answer.  James 1:21 tells us to receive with meekness the engrafted Word which is able to save our souls.  We can search high and low and try to find help from people and things that will always end up coming up short at some point.  Or we can take God at His Word that faith comes by hearing, hearing the Word of God and set ourselves on the path of true healing from the inside out.  Because, we can run away, but we take ourselves with us.  And other people, when they/we give a part of themselves/ ourselves apart from God, we are just spreading our opinions, hurt, pain which equals one putrefying sore adding infection to another in Isaiah 1:6.  What is the Word of God?  For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart Heb 4:12.  We don’t pretend our pain isn’t there.  We bring it boldly before the throne of God in Hebrews 4:16.  We know that our help comes from God and if we don’t know it, we ask God to help our unbelief.  We trust that God is doing a work in us and He is not the Author of sin but the Master Artist of taking something so horrible and turning it into something for good in His Kingdom because He created us, He loves us, He knows us and He identifies with us.  Get yourself in the Word of God and get yourself onto the path of healing. 
 
March 24 My Utmost for His Highest:
Decreasing for His Purpose

"He must increase, but I must decrease"
—John 3:30
If you become a necessity to someone else’s life, you are out of God’s will. As a servant, your primary responsibility is to be a “friend of the bridegroom” (John 3:29). When you see a person who is close to grasping the claims of Jesus Christ, you know that your influence has been used in the right direction. And when you begin to see that person in the middle of a difficult and painful struggle, don’t try to prevent it, but pray that his difficulty will grow even ten times stronger, until no power on earth or in hell could hold him away from Jesus Christ. Over and over again, we try to be amateur providences in someone’s life. We are indeed amateurs, coming in and actually preventing God’s will and saying, “This person should not have to experience this difficulty.” Instead of being friends of the Bridegroom, our sympathy gets in the way. One day that person will say to us, “You are a thief; you stole my desire to follow Jesus, and because of you I lost sight of Him.”
Beware of rejoicing with someone over the wrong thing, but always look to rejoice over the right thing. “. . . the friend of the bridegroom . . . rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:29-30). This was spoken with joy, not with sadness-at last they were to see the Bridegroom! And John said this was his joy. It represents a stepping aside, an absolute removal of the servant, never to be thought of again.
Listen intently with your entire being until you hear the Bridegroom’s voice in the life of another person. And never give any thought to what devastation, difficulties, or sickness it will bring. Just rejoice with godly excitement that His voice has been heard. You may often have to watch Jesus Christ wreck a life before He saves it (see Matthew 10:34).
March 25
Maintaining the Proper Relationship

". . . the friend of the bridegroom . . ."
—John 3:29
Goodness and purity should never be traits that draw attention to themselves, but should simply be magnets that draw people to Jesus Christ. If my holiness is not drawing others to Him, it is not the right kind of holiness; it is only an influence which awakens undue emotions and evil desires in people and diverts them from heading in the right direction. A person who is a beautiful saint can be a hindrance in leading people to the Lord by presenting only what Christ has done for him, instead of presenting Jesus Christ Himself. Others will be left with this thought— "What a fine person that man is!" That is not being a true "friend of the bridegroom"— I am increasing all the time; He is not.
To maintain this friendship and faithfulness to the Bridegroom, we have to be more careful to have the moral and vital relationship to Him above everything else, including obedience. Sometimes there is nothing to obey and our only task is to maintain a vital connection with Jesus Christ, seeing that nothing interferes with it. Only occasionally is it a matter of obedience. At those times when a crisis arises, we have to find out what God’s will is. Yet most of our life is not spent in trying to be consciously obedient, but in maintaining this relationship— being the "friend of the bridegroom." Christian work can actually be a means of diverting a person’s focus away from Jesus Christ. Instead of being friends "of the bridegroom," we may become amateur providences of God to someone else, working against Him while we use His weapons.

2 Chronicles 20:17