No Greater Love

On this Good Friday, I am reflecting on the fact that Jesus laid his life down for me. The perfect lamb, who knew no sin, was beaten severely and then nailed to a cross to die a horrible, painful death. For me. For you.

I am so thankful that my life belongs to Jesus. I am so thankful that He cares so much for me.

No greater love.

God bless you - Julie

Sick, again?

I caught that horrible flu my poor hubby had/has. Yes, he's still coughing a bit and really tired. He has been sick for over a week! I really thought I was going to be fine, but unfortunately, woke up sick on Sunday morning. I'm coughing up a lung (well, it feels that way, anyway) and just miserable. I had a lot of things I needed to do this week, so I was on the phone rearranging things.

I had a graduation meeting scheduled for Tuesday and knew Monday morning I probably wasn't going to be able to make it, but kept waiting throughout the day to see if I would get better. Nope. I had to call all the graduation families and tell them we would reschedule. I really thought we could do it next week, but now I'm wondering if I should wait until the next week. I just can't imagine at this point that I'm going to be well enough to do it next week. Thank goodness, it's April and it won't be putting us in a bad situation to wait an extra week to get together.

I also had two different doctor appointments set up that I had to reschedule. They weren't something that couldn't be put off either, so that was good. I guess more than anything, I'm really tired of being sick. This winter has been a horrible one for our family as far as sickness goes.

My son and I have been able to work on our Easter study this week. It's been such a blessing and we will probably finish it up after Easter (since I'm sick), but that's okay - the story of Jesus and his death and resurrection is a wonderful subject for any time!

I haven't been doing anything very exciting or fun - again, because I'm sick. Can you tell I'm more than frustrated with being sick? I tried to crochet some dish cloths, but I kept making errors and having to pull the stitches out. I finally gave up and decided it's probably best to wait until I'm well. I've been reading, which is always a lovely thing. I read this book


and it was really excellent. It's a suspense that will keep you on the edge of your seat. It also has a side romance line (not sweetly sick) that you'll be rooting for, too. It's definitely a Christian suspense and it really does explain the Christian walk very well. In fact, when the heroine is explaining what Christianity means to her, she explains it in such a way that totally makes sense, without being condemning to the person she was witnessing to. I highly recommend this book - you'll really enjoy it.

I am now going to read a book that Glenn Beck recommended called, "5000 Year Leap". I will let you know how I liked it after I've read it. It looks very interesting, though!

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter Week!!

God bless you - Julie

Getting back to the basics

I don't blog as often as I used to because I always feel such a pressure to put pictures and all that on my blog. It didn't start out that way. I wanted my blog to be a place where I shared what was going on in my life and to, hopefully, encourage others along the way. I think the pressure to make my blog something more is from reading other peoples blogs. There are a lot of blogs out there that I know they must spend tons of time on. I just don't have that kind of time. So, I've decided to get back to my roots. Writing. If I have time to share photos, I will, but if not, I'm not going to put off writing on here and keeping in touch with you all. Maybe I won't get as many readers, but so be it. It's just where I am in my life right now.

This has been another week filled with sickness. I had a stomach bug and then my hubby caught that cold that my younger son had. He has been really sick and I'm praying that he gets over it soon. I always worry about him since he has the health issues he has. The wind here has been horrible and I think all that pollen getting stirred up has only made his cold worse. I was sitting in my car the other day after getting out from swimming and you could see the pollen, thick like dust, on the windshield! It's horrible!

I have been busy with the graduation preparations and sometimes it really hits me that in less than two months, I will be finished with homeschooling my children. I'm excited for what the Lord has in store for me, yet I'm also sad because homeschooling really has been the greatest thing I've ever done! I'm so thankful that my homeschooling group wants me to continue to write articles for the newsletter and also be a mentor for the other mother's that are homeschooling. I just don't want to lose touch with the homeschooling community.

I haven't shared the fact that our family has been in search of a church again. We finally decided to go to my best girlfriend's church as we had heard so many great things about it. One up side about it was the fact that the assistant pastor at this church was the assistant pastor at another church we went to for years. After he left and moved out of state, things changed drastically and we left that church. He and his wife moved back and are working at this church now. Anyway, after making that hard decision to go there, another church opportunity came up. After that first time of visiting this church, my husband and I went to Safeway to pick up a few things and we ran into another assistant pastor that we knew from another church. We had always liked this man and his wife and had learned so much of the Bible under him. However, this church was having issues because the wife of the pastor was going around telling everyone that she wasn't called to be a pastor's wife and it created turmoil. Enough so that we decided that we had to leave there. Anyway, he told us that he was going to be starting his own church and we told him we were very excited about that and would interested and knowing more about it, which we are. However, it does create a turmoil for us because we aren't sure where the Lord wants us. We are in prayer about this but isn't it funny how we were searching for a church and then end up having to decide between two different churches the same day?

God bless you - Julie