"OVER THE TOP" THINGS ARE HAPPENING!!!

GOD IS AT WORK BIG TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HE IS DEMONSTRATING THAT HE IS ABLE TO DO EXCEEDINGLY ABUNDANTLY ABOVE ALL THAT WE CAN ASK, THINK, OR IMAGINE!!! EPHESIANS 3:20

MY HEAVENLY FATHER TAKES GREAT DELIGHT IN ME.
&
YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER TAKES GREAT DELIGHT IN YOU.

I just posted these verses in a comment on the LPM blog as part of a weekend challenge. Go here to see the post & see all the verses posted.


These were in my Bible reading THIS morning...

"Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the LORD your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you." Deut 31:6

"The LORD is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you, He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed." Deut 31:8

"May the beloved of the LORD dwell in security by Him, Who shields him all the day, and he dwells between His shoulders." Deut 33:12

"The eternal God is a dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms; and He drove our the enemy from before you, and said, 'Destroy!' So Israel dwells in security..." Deut 33:27-28a


These are some verses I journaled a while back, and came across this morning...

"O my soul, march on with strength!" Judges 5:21

"How blessed/HAPPY is the man whose strength is in YOU (the LORD)!" Psalm 84:5a

"Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary." Gal 6:9

"And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you won't become lazy, but imitators of those who inherit the promises through faith & perseverance!" Hebrews 6:11-12


These are 3 of the verses I memorized last year:

"The LORD is my strength & my shield; my heart trusts in HIM & I am helped." Psalm 28:7

"The LORD will give strength to His people; the LORD will bless His people with peace." Psalm 30:11

"Do you not know? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might, He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength, they will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary." Isaiah 40:28-31



"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of HIS might."
Ephesians 6:10


I need to be constantly reminded just how MIGHTY and POWERFUL our God is. He is the ONE & ONLY. There is no other god but HIM. He is EVERYTHING.
HE IS STRONG!!!

Jeremiah 32:17 "Ah Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You!"

Catching up soon...

I have major things to share!!! I can't wait to have time to post them. My plan is to do it next week... Christmas week. Just had to go ahead & post something more recent than the garden post. We are WAY past summer! Here's to catching up :-)

Gardening

I've been wanting to post some pictures of our garden for a long time, and today is the day! This is the first year we've really had a garden. We grew tomatoes & strawberries & watermelons a few years ago, but we've mainly relied on veggies & tomatoes from my parents garden. So a garden of this size is a first for us. We actually have 2 gardens though! We are growing corn, white half runners, watermelons, potatoes, and onions in what we call the "upper" garden, which is attached to my parents garden next door, and it's about 2-3 times the size of the one behind our house.

We have enjoyed squash (yellow crookneck & zucchini) for a few weeks now. Tim has never liked squash, but he does now! Yeah! And I have learned SO much about how to prepare them to eat. I learned that we love to eat zucchini raw. My first couple of attempts at cooking squash were learning experiences! But since then I've managed to saute, fry, boil, and bake them... make them into patties after grating... make an "off the chain" casserole (my mom found the BEST recipe!)... and put some in the freezer (in patties, casseroles, and sauteed ones).

I've realized that green beans are A LOT of work and VERY time consuming!!! I've been picking them, washing, stringing, snapping, blanching, and putting them in the freezer. I like the white half runners, but those strings! No matter how thoroughly I think I've stringed them, inevitably, I find tons of strings after cooking them! Anybody have any suggestions for that problem?

I've been thrilled with how well our jalapeno plant has done! And we've really enjoyed jalapeno nachos, fresh salsa, and cheese dip! My mom found a recipe for jalapeno sauce to put up in jars that sounds amazing & I can't wait to do that. I've learned you can seed & dice them & put them in the freezer. I haven't pickled any of them yet, and I'm not sure I'll do that this year... maybe next year when I have more jalapeno plants!














Tomatoes are my favorite & just started ripening last week! Whoohoo! :-) I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE fresh tomatoes out of the garden, and with almost every meal! I've already put some in the freezer for soups.

























Here's a picture of one of my red bell pepper plants...














One of our watermelons...














And one of my herb garden... Lavender, Oregano, Thyme, and Rosemary :-)






..






And I want to extend a great big thank you to my mom & dad for all of their expertise! I have placed a million phone calls to my mom for details, advice, and recipe help after we've "harvested". My dad has helped plow and taught us the ins and outs of planting and growing. We couldn't have done it without them. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
It's been a lot of hard work, but I know it will be worth it!

Me, Myself, and Lies

So thankful to have started this study along with so many others through the LPM blog. And I'm also thankful I'm not going solo on this one (and I did seriously think about going solo, thinking it might be easier and more laid back for the summer), but I already had 2 months off from the Esther study of "going solo", and I was ready to be back studying with a group! I know God put our little group together! There were a lot of people invited because I had a wild hair (& through the prompting of the Holy Spirit :-) posted an invite on facebook to all my female friends... but I trusted that God would put together the group. It made me nervous at times, and it was a struggle NOT to try to "control" it to make sure everyone fit together well, but He kept reminding me to just trust Him to put the group together. We met at Starb*cks on Tuesday evening. During our first meeting, we named our group "DID" standing for "Do it daily!" referring to a consistent, DAILY relationship with God & His Word & just doing the thing!

Rachel, Bethany, Jennifer, and Rhonda

DFCS Orientation

We finally did it! Tim and I attended the DFCS orientation!
We have been THINKING about taking this first step for MONTHS now... I tried to call and schedule us for one back in September 2008, but it just has not worked out until now.
I kept saying that we just HAD to do it sometime in May. (I started feeling an urgency and a peace about it.) Then my mom saw a notice in the paper for an event on June 6th called "Children Grow Best in Families" being held at a church in Calhoun. The event was for those interested in learning about fostering/adoption. We registered immediately. We were going to wait until after the event to schedule an orientation or see what our next step would be.
We arrived at the event that evening to an all-u-can eat Sonny's BBQ buffet. Talk about making my husband one happy fellow!!! Everything was SO nice! We found out quickly in the opening remarks and introduction of all the DFCS staff there representing 3 counties in the surrounding area, including our county, that this was the NICEST orientation the DFCS staff had ever been a part of. Did they say DFCS orientation?!?! I was ecstatic!!! :-) We were at an official DFCS orientation! Whoohoo!!! :-) We got a lot of good information, all of the paperwork we need to fill out, & we won a door prize! We plan to fill out the paperwork ASAP & be ready to attend the IMPACT training in July.

Update on books I'm reading...

This is what I'm doing for a short Bible study while I'm "in between" studies. "He Speaks to Me" by Priscilla Shirer.








I read Captivating while doing the Esther study & have 2 chapters to go before finishing it & re-reading!










I just started this book, but it has really captured my attention & has intrigued me. What a treasure!!! (This is a bad image of the book, but the only one I could find online.)











I also started the Mitford series, and did not expect to enjoy it so much! What a wonderfully charming, funny, uplifting series to read over the summer. I'll be on vacation in Mitford this summer :-) I've read the first 3 books so far.