I'm on my way!

Well, I have saved $47 for our trip to Disney next year! Or sooner if I get it saved in time! That was spending only $63 in groceries for the week and getting a $10 rebate check in the mail! How far will $47 go at Disney? It should at least replace Dave's grumpy shirt! Who isn't so grumpy about me saving money! He is even going to start tearing out the master bath this Friday!!

Time to return to disney!

This is Dave's Grumpy shirt that we got at Disney in 2005. It really needs to be replaced! And here is my plan!

I started couponing about 2 months ago and am learning all sorts of new things all the time! And I am saving between 40-50% most times I go to the grocery store now. In my mind, I am just counting how much my total goes down after I give them the coupons. Well I have more cereal and fruit snacks than I think we will ever need (although I'm sure I will buy more when I get cereal for 25-50 cents a box!) and my laundry room now looks like a grocery store! Tonight I went to Publix and my total went from $25 to $12! I was happy! And I started doing the RiteAid rebate thing. I really hope this will be the last time I buy diapers for Camden! (For overnite only!)

I got to thinking about how I need to really save the money I am saving and not just have it flow out of our checlking account into whatever I want to spend it on! So this is my plan. In the past, I usually spent $125-$150/wk on groceries. I usually tried to stick to $100, but it never worked. But in using the $100 goal, I am now putting into savings whatever money I don't spend up to $100. Also, all my rebates will go into savings. So if I only save save $25/wk (spend $75), then in one year, I will have saved $1300! So in one year, we are going to Disney world! Will keep you posted as to how I am doing. I need to be accountable!!

Delighting in glasses!?!

Well, the next point in my diary of delighting is that "to make room for delight, we have to commit". I remember the definition of commit from college days and it means to roll something over upon. I like that picture of me rolling over to God-giving myself and my burdens and desires to Him and just laying there-letting Him have control.

Psalm 37:5-6 says to "Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun."

If righteousness comes from God and it is goodness, I think I would like that to shine in my life. I would like people to see Christ in me. As a mom, one way I think of showing Christ is through my children. This may be a little scary since they do tend to show off in the wrong way a lot of times! But I do think our children's behavior is often, but not always, a reflection of how we act at home. I see how many of Nathan's bad behavior is an imitation of me. That's real nice! But I hope his good behavior is at least in part due to something Dave and I are trying to teach him!

Right now we have to teach him to delight in glasses! Although I have yet to see any indication of his needing them, the doctor's exam said she is able to trick kids who may not do their best for whatever reason has gotten into their head about needing glasses. But now that he has them, he doesn't want to wear them, of course! But he does look cute in them and hopefully he really does need them.



And Camden is delighting in going to preschool! Although he has been going to preschool for the past 2 years (and learned his letters last year), it doesn't really seem like real preschool until he is in 2-K and potty trained! So now he is in preschool! And since we waited until the day before to buy his backpack, he has the ugliest one they make! Oh well! Maybe he will wear it out this year and I have an excuse to buy a new one!!
Not so delighted at this point!

Dave picked out this backpack!

Delighting myself-part 4

Well, I will one day finish my diary on delighting myself in God! The next point that was presented is one that I really like, but again, have a hard time articulating how I need to apply it in my life.

"Nothing external can steal our right to delight"

I guess it seems to explain itself! If I am not delighting it is no one's fault but my own! I tell Nathan that he cannot blame others for his feelings, but then I catch myself telling him that he is making me angry! This is not true-I am letting myself get angry at his actions. If my response to his wrong actions is wrong, I cannot blame him. I can only change my actions, and of course discipline him so that he learns not to do the wrong again.

But I cannot discipline most people I encounter. I cannot let others rob me of my joy or let their actions make me stop trying to delight in God and what He has for me.

One example Beth Moore gave of something that can steal our delight is worry. Psalm 37:8 says not to fret because that leads to evil. Worry is a sin and it is a waste of time and a time and sleep killer. Although I have a mom who worries a lot, I tend to not worry too much, but when I do, I can't sleep. I don't know if this is a thin connection, but I have found that a lack of sleep (due to worry or children) robs me of delight because the next day I am short tempered. And then start blaming others for my bad mood! Letting the external steal my delight!

Like my watermelon! The other day I was delighting in a small watermelon growing in my yard. Well some person (probably a cute 2 year old) stepped on the vine and broke it! Now my watermelon has disconnected from it's source of life! I was crushed! But I can't let that external disappointment steal my delight!

I think out of this, I need to take away the point of focusing on God for my delight. Just like 37:3 says, delight yourself in the Lord. If I am focusing on God, who is inside me therefore not external, the things of life that want to pull me down will not have an easy task. There is much in the world to worry about, but their is more in God to delight in.

Amy

A delightful weekend!

I have been delighting this weekend, and although I am not calling it the end of the weekend until tomorrow night, it is Sunday night and I just read a great verse from Psalm 37-the chapter of my life this past week! Verse 23 says "if the Lord delights in a man's way, he makes is steps firm"

Point 3 from Beth Moore was if we delight in God, we will receive our desires. This reiterates verse 4, but it is good to say it out loud to myself. Not only do I need to give my desires to God; not only will He give me the heart of my desires; but if I delight in Him, then my desires are His and He grants them. God wants to delight in me, just like I want to delight in my children. And I have been delighting this weekend! It has been a fun filled weekend. After Dave took Nathan and two friends to the Riverdogs Friday night, Saturday he had to work and dove hunt; and Sunday was play practice. So I have been with my kids a lot this weekend! But it has been good! We went to karate (Nathan has a free month!), had a picnic in the park, ate chocolate cake at a bakery that is really a restaurant, hung out in the backyard in this glorious weather, and went to the chilly pool twice because it closes tomorrow (and got to ride our bikes home in the rain from the pool!).


I have found so much to delight in and not all involved my kids. I have a little garden this year which has eggplant, grape tomatoes, and watermelon (the zucchini and squash died!).


We have had several great eggplant parmesan dinners and lots of little tomatoes (which Camden likes to pick, red or green!), but no watermelon. I have had lots of little ones appear, but usually they have gotten knocked off by curious gardeners.


Last night, however, I found one that has potential! It still has to grow a lot, but it is much bigger than a tiny bud of a melon. I am excited! It is truly fun to be able to delight in small things!

Delighting myself-part 2

Ok, I am still trying to give my desires to God, but do need to wrap my brain around the next point of delighting myself in the Lord. This point is:

"Beneath the desires of our heart is the heart of our desires"

This sounds easier typing it today than it did last Friday night. It took me a while to finally understand this, although I am not sure why. It is a very important point, but I have 2 sentences written in my notes about it!

But what I am getting out of this is a continuation of explaining vs 4 "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart"

I know what I want in life, but God knows how I am to get it. And God will give me the heart of (what needs to happen before I can get them) my desires; if those desires bring glory to Him. For example, I want my sons to be Christians. This is a God honoring desire, one that He wants also, but on the way to getting that desire (thank God one has accepted Christ already), I myself need to be the kind of mom that shows Christ to her kids. If I want them to be Christians, but never show them Christ, will I get my desire? Not as likely.

That is an easy example, but the only one I can really bring to the written page. Beth Moore's example was better in that she said her desire was for her husband to be involved in Bible study and on the way to that desire being granted, she herself became a more godly lady (very involved in Bible study!).

Maybe one ultimate point is that if our desire involves the change of other people, we must first be changed our self. I know that is very true of relationships, esp. marriage! I can't change Dave, but can change myself, and when that change happens, I either don't see as big a need for Dave to change or he starts to change, but not because of me. Marriage is so dynamic in terms of growing together, it is hard to see who is changing whom!

Well, my ramblings reveal that I haven't gotten this one figured out yet! But I will keep trying. To sum it up, God only gives us the heart of our desires (which may then lead to our desires) and God's goal in giving us our desires is to bring glory to Him.

Amy