A Blog Sabbatical

In following God's lead to focus on my writing, I am taking a blog sabbatical.  I am not sure for how long.  I will miss all of you, and your comments.  Thank you for encouraging me over the years.  I hope to be back, but only God knows my future in bloggie land.

If you'd like to stay in touch with me, my personal email address is:

razn6@netzero.net

I will still be posting to my parenting tips column over at Titus 2 in Action twice monthly. I'd love to hear from you over there.

God bless you!

Thankful Thursday #61

Welcome to Thankful Thursday! If you'd like to participate, just copy the T.T. button on my sidebar and paste it into your post. Next write down five things you are thankful for this week. Finally, come back here and link up with Mr. Linky. It's that easy!

Here's my list for this week:

1) I am thankful that God has given me Tim as my husband. He knows how to love me, hold me, protect me, and esteem me. He makes me feel like the only woman in the world - like a princess.

2) I am thankful that God has called me. I don't deserve to be called, and God knows that - He made me and knows all about me, and He loves all of me. There's nothing hidden from my Abba Father and it's ok, He loves me.

3) I am thankful for my children. I have been blessed with six amazing children. I value the relationship that I have with each one of them.

4) I am thankful for my extended family. They are all Christian's and that is a privilege! They are great supporters and encouragers.

5) I am thankful for my friends. God has blessed me with some special ladies that I can confide in and who love on me. I enjoy every minute I spend with them.

After prayer and much deliberation, I've decided to take a blog sabbatical. I don't know for how long. I've enjoyed meeting all of you and I will miss you and Thankful Thursday. I've noticed recently that many of you put up two links for TT. Be sure to share the other link because my hope is that you will all hop over to the other Thankful Thursday blog and begin linking up there on Thursday's. I will be focusing on writing for publication. I feel that I will be back, I'm going to follow God's lead on that one. Thank you for your faithfulness and support.

Got Talent?

If you've been a church goer than you've probably heard the story of the talents.  If you want to reference it, look in Matthew chapter 25.  I will sum it up here. 

There was a rich man who was going on a trip so he called together his three servants.  To one he gave 5 talents, to the next 3 talents, and finally he gave the remaining servant 1 talent.  They were to watch over these talents while he was away. 

When the ruler returns, the servant who had been given 5 invested the talents and was able to return 10 to the master. They servant who was given 3 talents did the same and returned 6 talents to the master.  The servant who was given 1 talent, gave the master this story of being afraid of the master so he buried the talent and returned it to the master.

Needless to say, the master was angry with the servant who was given one talent because he didn't use it, so the talent was taken away from him and given to the one with 10 talents.

At my writer's meeting (Richmond Christian's Who Write), they described the talents as being gifts (like writing). We've all been given at least one talent.  God expects us to use it/them for His glory.  For all of you writer's reading this:  If you've written something then carefully put it away in a drawer (or it's lost on your hard drive) - that's not using your talents!  You've buried it. 

I want to be like the other two servants, who gained a return for their talents.  It's a new year, and we have new opportunities to be used (published) by God.  I am going to submit more articles this year because I want to glorify God with my talent.  I hope you resolve to do the same with your talents.

I'll leave you with this quote by Oliver Holmes, "Don't die with a song still in your heart."

Thankful Thursday #60

I am sorry but something is not working with Mr. Linky today!  Please leave a comment to link up until the issue is resolved.

Welcome to Thankful Thursday! If you'd like to participate, just copy the T.T. button on my sidebar and paste it into your post. Next write down five things you are thankful for this week. Finally, come back here and link up with Mr. Linky. It's that easy!

Here's my list for this week:

1) I am thankful that my Sunday (Sabbath) was peaceful and relaxing. For the first time, in a long while, my whole family played games, threw the football, and just had a wonderful day. Now this is a goal I will have for future Sundays.

2) I am thankful for the opportunities we have because we live in America. Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to become who we want to become. The sky is truly the limit in this country. Thank God for America!

3) I am thankful that most of the snow has melted (Don't mention this one to my kdis!). It was fun, but I'm so over it!

4) I am thankful that I've lost 3 pounds my first week of doing Weight Watchers! It is such a great program!

5) I am thankful that I am doing a Beth Moore Bible study on Daniel. I'm already learning so much, and we've only done two weeks! This stuff is so rich and filling!

Limits - Good or Bad?

The first day back to school, after the long Christmas break, went well. I had gotten up on time and everyone seemed motivated to stay on task. I was armed with my new schedule and the drive to stay focused.

The day flowed without any interruptions - until the kids came home from school. Filled with information about their first day back, they all began talking to me in unison. It was as if they hadn't spoken for hours and then someone uncapped them, all at once! Chaos suddenly surrounded me!

To read the rest of this post, follow me over to Titus 2 In Action.

A Blog Award - Just for fun

While I don't usually participate in blog awards, I thought it might be a fun change.

Tiffany, over at Happily Ever After, has awarded me the Beautiful Blogger award. I am supposed to tell you seven interesting things about myself and then nominate seven other blogs for the award.  If you are reading this and would like to participate than consider yourself nominated!  All of your blogs are fabulous!

Here's my list of seven interesting things about me (ok, they will probably only be interesting to me!)

1) If I had to choose between a chocolate goody or a handful of chips, I would pick the chips every time.

2) I'm happiest when I'm singing.  If the radio is on and I like the song, I feel compelled to sing along.

3) I have a secret dream - Move to Tennessee and get a job working for Thomas Nelson Publishing.  (Hey, a girl can dream, right?)

4) I joined Weight Watchers last week, and when I got to the meeting there were several of my classmates who had come to join, too!!!  We laughed about that one - The class of '85 is over 40 and over weight!

5)  I don't have a favorite color.  Growing up I would say that rainbow was my favorite, but I suppose that doesn't really count.

6)  I have always hated the analogy, "Is the glass half empty, or half full?" My philosophy, "If you started with a full glass, then it's half empty, if you only filled it up half way than it's half full?  DUH!"

7)  Science was and still is my favorite subject, history - my least favorite. (I HATE the history channel. But hubby and oldest daughter LOVE to watch it. - TORTURE!)

Ok, that was fun (for me!) so I hope you decide to join in.  I'd love to learn 7 interesting things about YOU, so leave a comment and let me know you joined in!

Enjoying Sunday's

Remember the sabbath to keep it holy.

This is one of the 10 commandments.  So why does it seem to be the hardest one for me to keep?  I would gladly take one day of the week off to relax and focus on God, just not Sunday!  This is the day I use to prepare for my week.  To do the last minute things I need to do for my Monday.  But it's wrong - a sin.

I've come to the conclusion that I need to write down everything I "do" on Sunday, and then plan to "do" these things on Saturday's.  I'm determined to learn how to keep this commandment.  How do you prepare for Sundays?

Thankful Thursday #59

Welcome to Thankful Thursday! If you'd like to participate, just copy the T.T. button on my sidebar and paste it into your post. Next write down five things you are thankful for this week. Finally, come back here and link up with Mr. Linky. It's that easy!

Here's my list for this week:

1) Happy New Year! I am thankful that it is 2010 and it is a fresh new year. I look forward to facing the good and bad of the year with the Lord.

2) I am thankful that during this extremely COLD season, my house is cozy warm. I have a fireplace which adds to the overall warmth. I am blessed to have a home and warm clothes for myself and my family.

3) I am so excited to be in a new Beth Moore Bible study on Daniel. I went to my first meeting (150 women!) and it was amazing. I can't wait to see what the Lord wants to tell me (and the other 149 women) over the next 10 weeks.

4) I am thankful for our Christian school. It is a nurturing environment with a loving staff and devoted families. God is good.

5) I am thankful that my Ashley is turning 8 on Saturday! She is number 5 (out of 6) and a pure delight. Soft spoken and loving, she is a joy to be around. God bless you, my daughter with a wonderful year ahead.

New Year, New Opportunities

I am writing this post on the first Monday of 2010.  Having the chance to start fresh because it is a new year is quite refreshing.

For me, I've bought my new Franklin Planner, and I've established attainable goals for my 2010.

Next step, getting up on time and staying on schedule - ALL DAY!  Ok, this is where I tend to fall short.  I can become so easily distracted by this or that.

What's a homemaker to do?  GUARD MY TIME.

I've learned that I have to guard my writing time, my cleaning time, my appt. time if I hope to be successful.

I pray that as you are reading this, God will give you the strength you need to guard your schedule and be successful in 2010.

If you have any tips for staying on task, please share them with me (us).  We can learn so much from one another.