Time to come home!

This weekend I got to go to our church's sister's conference...it was such a good time, of course! As always! Tereza, you were MISSED and I was thinking of you and praying for you. I know very well how it is to plan a fun trip and then not be able to go due to sick children. God knows! He sees you! And oh, the reward.....you know He will be faithful to meet you in your need with or without coming to the conference. =)

Coming home is always, the interesting part of the weekend. I'm on a high from the conference, and am armed with a new mind. Yet, as soon as I walk in the door I am bombarded with the atmosphere that I left. I have changed, yet my home has not.

Am I ready to deal with the same situations?

Today I thought about it on the way home. The thing that spoke to me was how God deals with us as a potter works with clay. He works with us when our heart is soft, he can mold us and we are pliable...but if our heart is hard and we are stubborn and proud - then if He DID try to work with us, we would be hard and brittle. And we would break! So then He can't work with us.

I thought about it today in regards to the children. The little things they do, like teasing and just doing things that get on my nerves. Do I immediately get them in trouble, dealing with them harshly, and they are MAD so they are standing there with their arms crossed and a scowl on their face - yet there I am, trying to "mold" them and teach them life's lessons? It will break the vessel if I do that!

So what was on my heart today is to deal with them in such a way that I don't try to mold them when they are not in the mood, lol, yet to wait for those moments when their hearts are soft and they are teachable.

Hmmmm. Lots of chances to work with that have happened already, and I've only been home 3 hours, lol!

After leaving the conference I went to the tanning place and tanned for the first time in 6 months! I don't usually tan, I don't like what it does to my skin in regards to aging - and the lotion, bleh. It doesn't smell bad at all, but I'm not one to be slathered in lotion, I don't like feeling "slimy". But I am definitely excited to be getting some color because....we are going to Arizona in 4 weeks! I am really looking forward to that, it'll be a 4-night stay. Hopefully (I bought 1 month of unlimited tans) I'll be tan enough by then to be able to lay out at the pool and not have to worry about getting burned.

Tomorrow I'm planning to start a 10-day master cleanse to get rid of the last 10 pounds. I actually need to lose more like 13 to get to my goal (110 - which is the mid/low range for someone my height...I am currently at 123 which is almost at the very top of the high range, aack!) but I figure 110 is a good, rounded number.

Tonight after I got home, DH & I were trying to plan our date night. We had originally set aside next Saturday night for us to go paint the town red, as we like to call it - we LOVE to restaurant hop and order a little something here and there, catching all our favorites during their happy hour when things are cheaper. We go to the big city that is 45 minutes away, out to dinner and a movie too. Usually once a month we'll go on an 8-hour date - it's sooo much fun!

Anyway, IF we did go on Saturday....it doesn't mesh very well with the master cleanse. I really want/need to be at a good weight when we go on our trip! So we decided that we'll go out TONIGHT to a local place we love just for a couple of hours, and then we'll do our big date night 2 weeks from today. So that will be fun....! But...

...and this always happens, I am starting to crash. I am getting more & more tired...bleh. I am an introvert by nature and actually really really love staying at home, day in & day out, with maybe 1-2 days where I have to venture out and do something social, hee hee! So a whole entire weekend which includes TONS and TONS of talking with people, carrying on many conversations, and even going out of my comfort zone to talk with people I don't normally talk to or maybe even, feel slightly inferior to but am trying to go against that.....(wow this sentence is getting long!)...plus sleeping 2 nights in a strange bed...plus the time change...!

Lots of things add up to Mommy crashing when she gets home. Oh! And, no naps. Usually I take a 45 minute nap during the afternoon, and I couldn't/didn't. I was having too much fun talking to Jeanette - she is pregnant again with #10!! So good to talk to her, she was lugging around her 14 month old who is really active and wanted to get DOWN all the time but isn't walking yet, so....I know that was a battle for Jeanette that she couldn't get much fellowship. Or at least, not as much as those of us there with no children. My heart went out to her, she also was starting to feel kind of nauseous from the pregnancy. But her heart is so good towards God, and her children - I love talking to someone so down to earth and REAL about how it is raising lots of children, yet with a strong sense of faith in what HIS plan is for her.

I also got to talk to Barb - who is pregnant with #13! I'm envious that Tereza gets to live so close to her, she's really a fun person to be with. It's weird that she's 11 years older than me, yet has almost double the kids I have, lol! All this talk about babies and having the children you have faith for, makes me want to have another baby! I wanted to go right home and talk to DH about having another one, but then it really came to me strongly that that is something to bring to God and pray about, and then if it IS His will, it is something that He can quicken in both of our hearts. I really have confidence that He will do that - I know that for now, we are in His will and that is the most important part.

Well...guess I better go put some littles to bed. Tonight is night 1 of a time change, which is always a challenge. Of course it's actually 6:30 "their time" instead of the 7:30 that the clocks tell me, so they're not really going to be that tired. I think I'll wait another half hour and put them to bed "late". That way it won't be such an earlier than normal bed time.

I hope Bret comes home soon so we can go, my energy is going down with the sun.

PS I enjoy reading Della and Tereza's blogs SO MUCH that I am going to try to blog more often. I am using the scheduled feature and it's really nice!!! So hopefully more posts will appear in the future. =)