A New Bible Study

Fall.

The time of year when the kids have been back in school for a while.

When the weather starts to cool down a bit.

And the time of year when new Bible Studies within churches typically start up.

The Women's Ministry at our church offers a Women's Bible Fellowship, however, it is held in the evenings. I am one of the very few women in our church who do not work outside the home, and after a long day of playing taxi back and forth to school, household chores, school obligations, and an afternoon of homework, toss in preparing dinner... I'm simply ready for a quiet and slower paced evening with my family. Not to mention that by the end of the day, my brain is fried and I just can't concentrate very well, therefore evening Bible Studies just don't work well for me.

A few months ago, my Mom approached myself and my sister-in-law, as well as her mother, about starting up a Beth Moore video series. The four of us don't work outside the home therefore a morning Bible Study was PERFECT for us. As I've mentioned before, we've been watching Beth Moore's video series called Wising Up, a study in the book of Proverbs. It's been wonderful and full of applicable things.

It's been working out perfectly for us and Beth Moore is an absolutely amazing Bible teacher. The Lord really blessed her with a gift. As our video series has been winding down, we've decided to start another of Beth's Bible Studies. This one has a workbook and homework to do.

Today was the start of our New Bible Study! And now until the Spring time, we will be doing Beth Moore's Believing God series. "Originating from a concept introduced in Isaiah 43:10, Believing God examines what it means to believe God rather than only believe in Him. Participants study the lives of Abraham and others from Hebrews 11 as examples of people who believed God. This study parallels a personal journey Beth took in coming to understand what it means to believe God."

Today was our first day! And not only are the four of us continuing, but the girlfriend of one of the nephews is joining us as well! She's young, a fairly new Christian, never been part of a Bible Study before, and is excited and hungry for what the Lord has in store for her. And we're excited to have her join us!

Today was the introduction. We have our workbooks, our index cards for writing down scriptures, and our schedule for the year ahead. It looks like it's going to be a GREAT study and I am very much looking forward to it!

Tired?? Nah, Exhausted is More Like It.

I'm not sure anyone could be more happier than I am that today is the end of the week and the weekend is upon us.

This week has probably been one of the busiest weeks in my grown up life. LOL. Yesterday when I was grocery shopping I felt as though I could have just sat right down in the canned good aisle and have a good cry, that's how exhausted I am.

On Tuesday, when I left here to take the girls to school, we did not return until twelve and a half hours later. I had Bible Study that morning, a PTA meeting, following by a parent meeting for 6th grade Science Camp. Which may not sound like a lot. But a lot of preparation work goes into my PTA meetings, and for the Science Camp, I am one of two Moms who are heading up the fundraiser, which has had me busy as well. Last weekend, I counted out 5500 raffle tickets and divided into 100 envelopes and stapled and sorted packets for the meeting Tuesday night.

It's still the beginning of the school year (even though we've been in school almost 2 months), and things are still getting going. We've had school wide fundraisers, PTA membership drive, planning meetings for the upcoming Red Ribbon Week and the first ever Family Country Hoedown! Lots going on, especially this last week. In a few weeks, the fundraiser orders will arrive and then we'll kick off our Christmas Sees Candies fundraiser, and then officially be in the final months of 2011 and the holidays will be upon us.

Devotional by Liz

I have 'met' tons of people over the internet through the years. Quite a few of them have become good friends.

Liz is one of those friends in particular. While she lives in Texas, and we've never met face to face, she's a true friend who I've emailed on occasion sharing prayer requests, life frustrations with, and answered prayers.

She keeps a blog, which is how I 'discovered' her so many years ago. Recently, she shared this devotional on her blog and I loved it so much that I thought I wanted to share it here, on my blog.

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I didn't forget 9/11.

On Sunday, I remembered where I was on the morning of 9/11 like so many of you did. Our pastor's sermon began with remembering the day, telling us where he was when he heard the news. We talked about it with our kids like we always do. We watched videos on youtube about the planes crashing into the Pentagon & World Trade Center towers. I paused to think about the awesome stories of heroism in the biography I read a few years ago "Let's Roll!" by Lisa Beamer, whose husband was on the ill fated Flight 93 that crashed into an open field.

But something struck me part way through the day.

I am, by no means, diminishing the power & importance of September 11, 2001. I will never forget the horror of that day. But it hit me like a ton of bricks that so many of us have our own 9/11s in life. We measure life that way, creating a roadmap of our life based on what happened before or after our 9/11. Those milestone dates will never be erased from our memory. Without thinking at all, I bet you can tell me exactly where you were when you got the news about 9/11. You can tell me how old your kids were. You can tell me what you did the rest of the day. And maybe even the day after. You can remember vividly who told you what was happening or whom you were with when you found out. And most of all, you can remember the terror that filled your heart. The questions that spewed from your mind. The fears that we all felt.

Maybe your 9/11 was the day you found out you had cancer. Or the day your child died. Or the moment that your spouse came to you & said that he/she wanted a divorce. Your 9/11 might be when the doctor walked in & told you that your dad was dead or that your friend would never walk again after the accident. Maybe it was the day that you lay in a hospital bed & handed your child over to his adoptive parents. It is different for all of us.

Life is like that. Horrible, awful things happen. We think we are safe, protected, secure....and then something slams into our life that reminds us we are just humans and that we're as fragile & weak as the rest of the world.

Today might be someone else's 9/11. Keep that in mind when you face the world today.

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Fall Has Arrived...at Least at our House

My favorite season, if you can call it that here in Southern California, is the season of Fall. Love the warm colors, love the coolness of the mornings, love the clear views of the mountains once the Santa Ana Winds have come and done their thing. I usually wait until October 1st to decorate for Fall, that way it's up the month of October and November. But this year, Fall came early for our household. I had some ladies over from church last night as we finished up a book that we are going through and I wanted the house to be decked out for Fall. So I decorated over the weekend. I'm ready for Fall. I'm ready for the recipes I only cook in cooler weather - stew cooking all day in the oven, tortilla soup, chili, and other recipes I don't cook when it's hot. I'm ready for a trip to Oak Glen and to the Pumpkin Patch. I'm ready for Fall to fall upon Disneyland. I'm just plain ole ready to be done with summer. LOL. Even though we really have had a mild summer for the most part here in Southern California.

Remembering 9/11

Every blogger across the internet world will be dedicating a post today to the significance of today's date and what happened to our great country ten years ago.

September 11, 2001.

It's one of those days in history where you know exactly where you were. Much like the events of the Challenger explosion (for me), or an example of my parents childhood, the day that President John F. Kennedy was shot and assassinated.

It was a Tuesday. Hannah was almost 17 months old, not walking, and an only child at the time. She'd had just woken up for the day and Steven had gotten her up, and was changing her wet diaper.

The phone rang, it was my Mom calling. She knew we weren't morning TV watchers, therefore she was calling to tell us that the Twin Towers had been hit. We turned the TV on and there we sat for hours and hours and hours on end, glued to the ongoing news, just like everyone else in the country.

I remember going over to our neighbors house and telling her to turn her TV on. I remember Steven not working that day. I remember at the end of the day sitting outside with the neighbor friend talking and taking a break from the nonstop coverage on TV. I remember hearing reports of people we knew, acquaintances from the church we were attending at the time being stranded somewhere as air travel had been stopped.

What do you remember about the day?

Helmets

We've always been a family that pushes the wearing of helmets. The girls wear them when they ride their bikes, their scooters, and I've even made them wear their helmets when we've been the local skating rink.

When my brother was 14 years old, back when helmets weren't a law, he had a skateboarding accident. His skateboard hit a rock and he landed on his head, resulting in a basal skull fracture. He survived and didn't suffer any long term brain damage. Although he did loose some capacity to smell and taste as a result.

So helmets aren't ever not an option in our family.

What happened on July 20 of this year only confirmed the importance of helmets.

Hannah was in an accident on her bike which resulted in her being transported via ambulance out of the campground to the local trauma hospital whereas she was diagnosed with a pretty bad concussion. To read all the details, visit the post on her blog.

Her concussion was pretty bad and she had a helmet on! Had she not been wearing a helmet, the outcome would have been a lot different than it was. After a few hours of repeating herself and asking the same questions over and over and over again, she was practically back to herself by the time we were discharged from the ER shortly after midnight. Had she not been wearing her helmet, she might have ended up with a much more severe head injury.

The purpose of this post you might wonder?

It's for those of you who don't enforce your kids wearing helmets. This post is to hopefully to get you to change your thoughts and views on helmets. And start making your bike riding, scooter riding, four wheeling kids to wear helmets! Helmets can save lives!