With All My Heart

I am so excited to blog today! The Online Bible Study started and let me tell you it has been AWESOME! On Thursday's they do what is called a blog hop. I picked the 1st topic! Our verse to meditate and pray over this week was from Deuteronomy 6:5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. This was from the ESV. Wow! What a powerful verse. I decided to give verse mapping a shot and let me tell all of you right now I am so glad I did! It took me on such an amazing journey and I dug so much deeper into God's word!
What I found just made sense to me and tied it all together. First I looked up this same verse in my NIV bible and it changed might to strength. So I looked up the definition of strength. Which by the way has multiple definitions but the one that spoke to me was the degree of intensity of a feeling or belief. Hmm...when something is intense I think of it being potent. So then I looked up the word potency: the power of something to affect the mind or body. Wow!! So going back to the verse I started looking at the words heart and soul. In Hebrew your heart was considered the seat of the mind so basically your heart=mind and after some searching determined that your soul=body. So that word potency just came alive to me on my page. Your heart and soul kind of intertwine. You can't have a heart(mind) without a soul(body) and you can't have a soul(body) without a heart(mind). Have I confused you yet? It just spoke volumes to me! Our heart is the most precious thing we have. So why shouldn't we love God with ALL of it. That brings me to the word love. Which is defined as an intense feeling of deep affection. There is that word intense again! God commanded His people to love Him above all else. It is God's desire for us to love him with total sincerity without reservation and with all our faculties.
So what does this verse mean to me? God commanded it. In fact in Matthew 22:37-38 Jesus tells the Pharisees that this is the Greatest Commandment. God said do it! And like Lysa said at the end of Chapter 1. There are six words that sum up the Old and New testament. Whatever God says do, DO IT!!!!  I believe if I can love the Lord my God with all my heart and with all my soul and with all my strength I will find myself saying #YestoGod when I didn't think I could. I am feeling beyond blessed to take this journey with an amazing group of women! I feel God working! I am tickled pink to see what the next 5 weeks hold!! Love all you guys and I am praying for you!

Sweet Summertime

I really can't believe that it is the middle of July!! This summer is really flying by! We have already taken a family vacation the first of June! It was to celebrate Nene's 70th!! We went to Branson and stayed on Lake Taneycomo!! Beautiful scenery, good food, and quality time spent with family! My parents came up on the 4th to have a little vacay for themselves and we kept Lizzie(their dog). I have signed up for a Online Bible Study titled What Happens When Women Say Yes to God? I am beyond excited to do this study! I know God is going to show up and do AMAZING things!! Already women from 107 countries have signed up! WOW!! Just blows me away! I may take to the blog to post about my excitement once it begins!! Till then..

Nate is 3

Nate just turned 3 and I asked him a series of questions that I plan to continue and make him a book to keep and treasure forever!! I think it is gonna be so neat to see how his answers change over the years!
Nate is 3What is your favorite color? Blue
What is your favorite toy? Dinosaurs and trains
What is your favorite fruit? Bananas
What is your favorite tv show? Dinosaur Train
What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? French fries
What is your favorite outfit? Boots
What is your favorite game? Set Mark Go
What is your favorite snack? Goldfish
What is your favorite animal? Thomas (our dog)
What is your favorite song? Row Row Row the boat
What is your favorite book? Blue Mountain Mystery
Who is your best friend? Daddy
What is your favorite cereal? Cheerios
What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play with Thomas the choo choo dog
What is your favorite drink? Milk
What is your favorite holiday? Christmas
What do you like to take with you to bed at night? blanket
What is your favorite thing to eat for Breakfast? Yogurt
What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Pizza
What do you want to be when you grow up? A Daddy

　

A Whole Year Away...

I haven't posted in a whole year. Well actually over a year. Alot has happened in a year! I have been at home with Nate and he is growing like a weed!! He just had his 3rd birthday! Almost doesn't seem possible.  My brother enlisted in the marines and just left today on his 1st deployment! He also got engaged to his longtime on again off again girlfriend! They are set to be married April 19, 2014.   I couldn't be happier to gain a sister!! Life is good!! I am looking forward to this next year and to see what all it has in store for us! I also hope to get on here and post more..till then....

Wait...TWO?

I can not believe it is already February. January flew by at rabbit speed!! Which means that next month is March! NaterBug's birthday is the 10th of March. He will be TWO! Is that even possible I find myself asking? I have been getting things in order to throw him a MaMi birthday party (Mickey Mouse).  I have made the invitations myself and they really turned out so cute (in my opinion). I will post pictures later from his party!

But I still can't believe my little sweet angel is going to be two.  He is growing way way way too fast! I just want to slow it all down.  He is so smart and full of energy! His vocabulary is growing daily. He can say most of his colors. But everything is BLUE!! He can say A B C on most days! He can say two. He can point out his eyes, nose, ears, mouth, hair, belly and we are working on our elbows and knees.  He truly amazes me everyday! He is most definitely the light of my life! I am very excited because starting February 15th I will officially be a stay at home mom! This makes my heart so happy and warm! I am excited to see where this journey will lead.  It is something that I have prayed about and hoped would become reality and I almost need to pinch myself to make sure it really is.  I know that I am truly blessed to have such a loving and supportive husband and such a healthy and vibrant little boy! Such a sweet sweet life!

Lifestyle Change

The holidays have came and went.  Nate really enjoyed the holidays! It was good to see his face light up! The New Year is here and actually it is now the middle of January.  I have been so busy I haven't had the time to blog.  When the New Year started I had made up my mind to make a change.  I was going to have a new lifestyle! The past two weeks I have been working out faithfully. And honestly I do feel better. I have been trying to make conscious decisions to eat healthier!! So far I am down 6 pounds! YAY!! I know I will feel so much better in the long run! So I am going to keep pushing myself and make this the NEW ME!

Toddler Life

At some point Nate became a full fledged healthy toddler! I sometimes wonder did it just happen overnight? I was looking back at pictures yesterday from when he was just a year old and how he still looked like a baby.  But now he looks like a little toddler full of energy! One thing is for sure he will always be my baby! ALWAYS!! He is continuing to grow in leaps and bounds both physically and developmentally! He truly makes my heart melt.  He is my whole little world! Its funny because I feel like I could write all day long about him.  Motherhood has been a fun and loving adventure! I spent the whole day Sunday with him, just me and him.  It was a very trying day.  He was pushing his limits! Which I know just comes along with having an 18 month old. But I do believe I was about to pull my hair out.  But at the same time when it came time to put him to bed I just wanted to snuggle my ''baby'' up and love on him.  I do believe that is the true definition of unconditional love! 

I always give Nate a kiss every time I put him in his car seat.  It just became something I do! And the past few months he would always wave and say 'bye-bye' to me. So cute and sweet.  This morning we were running a little late so I was in a hurry and I stood up and I heard him make a kiss sound and then I realized that I hadn't gave him his morning smooch!  But he reminded me! I said to him 'I'm so sorry, mama forgot'! But he is so smart he remembered!! The whole way to drop him off I was just thinking how lucky and blessed I am to call this little guy mine!  He is doing things everyday that amaze me.  He is like a little sponge just soaking it all up! As I have said before I am just trying to be the best parent I can be with what is in my heart! I am sharing some pictures of my little toddler! Hope you enjoy!!