Greetings, Moms!!! I hope you’ve had a wonderful day today. Were you able to do anything special or fun with your family? I have been taking special care of our son as he had surgery on Monday . The surgery was successful; the pins and tension wire were removed from his elbow. He’s very resilient in that the first day out he says, “Mama, look!!  I can turn my wrist full rotation out!! “ I was greatly excited to see this as this has been a limitation due to the hardware being in the elbow. I just wanted to open this up casually before getting to the challenge. I didn’t want to leave you hanging for too long. 

Now for our challenge to think about. I am part of a Mom’s Connect Group in our church. We read through books to study. We will sometimes do a devotional study as we are now. The current study that we are doing is “Grouchy to Great: Finding Joy In The Journey Of Motherhood.” The challenge that was presented to us was to write five things we are grateful for. We are to do this for the next five days. While this activity may end in our group; I choose to keep it going and will continue in my journal. I find that this activity really puts a different perspective on how you decide to open your day. Maybe you had interrupted sleep. I for example last night and the last few weeks have been up several times in the night due to pain in my back. I could have chosen to complain about it, but I haven’t. I in fact have been putting things up with friends “Thank you Lord for the middle of the night wake up. What do You have planned for us these wee hours??” I will now post for you my five things that I have been grateful for since the start of this activity. 

Monday:

I am grateful for...

1. Family; whether we agree or not we will come around one another. 

2. Special friends that are there for you in good times and difficult times, but that I too can be there for them. 

3. Small Group-Mom’s Connect-friendships made and reconnected. 

4. Pastor who cares for us in the church and those who are not that we mention for prayer. My church family. 

5. God bringing people into my life and opening doors to opportunities that I never saw coming. I am excited to see what God has in store for these opportunities. 

Tuesday 

Grateful for....

1. Successful surgery for our son. Great surgeon, caring team. Huge Praise! First day out FULL ROTATION OF THE WRIST!!! The hardware and tension wire prevented him from having full range of motion. 

2. His friend called just to check on him. The encouragement that came from the phone call. We were all blessed. The support of others praying and checking on him — grateful!! My friend Bev, my co-conspirator who spent the day with us at the hospital-beyond blessed!! 

3. My husband, his service to our country, a Veteran, provider for our family.  That he’s able to allow himself vulnerable to express how great love between us. 

4. God’s Word, able to read it daily; grow from the reading and able to apply to my life. 

5. For being able to change perspective on things in my life that otherwise could be negative. I put a perspective of positivity on it instead. This also has become an area of ministry as I was able to minister to someone at the hospital during our son’s surgery. 

Wednesday 

Grateful for....

1. God’s Amazing Grace! 

2. The Lord is my Shepherd wherever He leads I’ll go. 

3. Beautiful warm sunny day.

4. Middle of the night wake up times. 

5. When plans don’t seem to fall into place-God puts them into place in His time. 

I hope to hear some of the things you’re grateful for. I pray that you will be able to see the good and not let circumstances steal your Joy, but that you’ll be able to keep your Joy!

Have a great day Moms!!

Hi, Everyone! Hope you're having a great day. I had an early start to my day. The alarm went off promptly at 5:30 am. I got up got myself ready as usual. I then made a light breakfast. I then got into my area that I love in my living room and spent some time with the Lord there. I got into the Word, then started thinking of songs to have ready for "Rockin' it Out Time" with my great friend Bev. She's a Godly Mom, Sister in the Lord, Co-Conspirator, now that last one that's a good one. She is because we are usually teaming up on our men. We love them, but when they need to straighten up we are on it. We have fun at it and they don't see it coming. We also will plan meals and other fun things right in front of them at times and they miss it. I love Bev because she will talk to me about things, she will get with me on the scriptures. While at times I may shed a tear, she may push me, I most likely won't like it, but I know it's for the best. I love when she brings things to me that I need to hear, need to read, or even just a hug she brings to me and that's all I need. 

You ask about this Rockin' it Out Time. Well, here's the low down on that. This is how we got it started. I had gone to physical therapy for my back. The doctor prescribed aquatic therapy due to my bone disease, Osteogenesis. He didn't feel that regular therapy would be the best option as weight bearing could cause more injury because of the fragility of my bones.  They're compromised because of the bone disease. I was injured during aquatic therapy which landed me three days to the hospital of which by the time I was released I could not walk. I then spent the next three months learning to walk and care for myself again. Bev was one of the loving ladies that came over to help me through this injury. She would talk to me about the sermon our Pastor was bringing to us each Sunday. She would talk to me about a devotion she read, but one of the important times was when she brought me a book Red Sea Rules. This was a very good book and it helped me so much during the healing through my injury. If you'd like to get a copy of Red Sea Rules just click the link.  There were so many lessons learned during this time and with reading this book. We also would spend time watching DVD's of The Gaither's and many others that she'd bring over. We would crank the volume on the television to sing out the hymns and other music choices we would play. Now that I am doing better Bev isn't here every week like she was early on in the recovery of my injury. Now we look at our calendars and plan a day that we can rock out to music and learn some stories behind the most cherished hymns that we grew up on and grew to love. Today was one of our "Rockin' Out Days"; I love the time with her. I know these are memories that I will carry with me forever. 

I must get going now is time to make preparations for supper. 

Have a great day Moms!!