What am I up to???
You will have to go here to find out what I am doing:http://monkeybusiness-nannykim.blogspot.com/
Monday, May 24, 2010
What is up?
What am I up to???
You will have to go here to find out what I am doing:http://monkeybusiness-nannykim.blogspot.com/
Friday, May 21, 2010
Alienore's birthday
It is Alienore's first birthdyay! Here she is pictured below!
She is supposed to have a birthday party here http://papillonbleuuk.blogspot.com/
We were so happy when we read the news!! WOOOOOW
We thought of putting on our favorite hat!
Or reading her a great story!
clapping our hands in celebration!
Or just shouting a birthday song!
But since Alienore is a doll---we got the dolls out to celebrate!!! Happy Birthday Alienore
She is supposed to have a birthday party here http://papillonbleuuk.blogspot.com/ We were so happy when we read the news!! WOOOOOW
We thought of putting on our favorite hat!
Or reading her a great story!
clapping our hands in celebration!
Or just shouting a birthday song!
But since Alienore is a doll---we got the dolls out to celebrate!!! Happy Birthday Alienore
Monday, May 17, 2010
Life
Life. It is beautiful. It is hard. It is work.I have been thinking about relationships. I have been thinking about people and the kinds of lives and experiences that have shaped them. I have seen that hard times really do chip away at the ugly surfaces, or the rough surfaces and slowly, chip by chip people do become more like diamonds as God works to remove those characteristics they have that need to be transformed.
It isn't always a pretty process, but it is beautiful. I think as we get to understand people in a deeper way that life expands. We experience more of true living. I do like to spend time moving furniture, making cozy spots in my home, enjoying food, wine, art, music, books,the outdoors etc.....but I think it is because we are to enjoy those things that come from our creator and those things that people create that express who they are.... However, the most beautiful thing in life I do think, is knowing God and knowing the people that are around us.
I just finished reading a book by Immaculee Ilibagiza with Steve Erwin called LEFT TO TELL: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust. Tough book. But beauty has emerged in her life through this horrible experience. They believe 1 million were killed in 100 days and Immaculee hid in a tiny bathroom with 5 and then 7 others for 90 days. They had to sit on top of each other. God did something special in Immaculee's life and drew her into Himself.
I am thankful that God works to make life very real. He does not allow us to be content with superficial things.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
One beautiful true Mother's Day Story (a God Wink)
This is such a blessed story that happened this Mom's day to one of my friends. I had to share it. I call these kind of happenings a God Wink. Here are her words:
"Some of you may remember that I requested prayers 4 or 5 summers ago because the diamond solitaire in my engagement ring fell out. It was the last night of our vacation bible school and I did not realize it was gone until I was tucking one of the boys in bed that night . So, I had no idea where it had come out. Needless to say, we searched everywhere at home, in the yard, in my car and l made sure to tell Mr. Don to keep an eye out for it at church. It was devastating because it had been my Mother's and she had told me before she died that she wanted me to have it. (She went Home in 1993 after battling ovarian cancer.) Well, it took a long while for me to come to grips with the fact that it was more than likely gone for good and I would never see it again. It was awful having to tell my father about it; but, he took it in stride like any dad of five children would. Losing it was a real lesson for me concerning earthly possessions. The funny thing is that the ring was one of the things that I worried most about losing, besides Ken and the boys, of course. To make a long story longer : This past Sunday our Sunday schoolers and I were looking up bible verses in the book of ACTS and reading them aloud. I was using my children's bible that had been given to me on my 7th birthday by my parents and siblings. It is quite battered with pages that fall out and I just put them back in. This bible has traveled with me several times over the years to church and back because it is great for me to use with the kids. At one point as I Iooked back down at the pages something little caught my eye as it was moving a little bit. As I picked it up and inspected it my heart just about stopped ! It was the diamond I lost !!!!! I have no idea how it got there. It was as if GOD just dropped it on the page in front of me. I am yet to find any type of indention among the pages where it may have been all this time. It turned up in the same place that I last knew I had it...our own parish hall/ kitchen ! And best of all, it was MOTHER'S DAY !!! Mother's day miracle ? Thank you all for your prayers, especially these past couple of years. God does answer them, just not necessarily when we want them to be answered. "
We have a really awesome God!I always feel like dancing to something when God does this. Here is a song I like for this:
"Some of you may remember that I requested prayers 4 or 5 summers ago because the diamond solitaire in my engagement ring fell out. It was the last night of our vacation bible school and I did not realize it was gone until I was tucking one of the boys in bed that night . So, I had no idea where it had come out. Needless to say, we searched everywhere at home, in the yard, in my car and l made sure to tell Mr. Don to keep an eye out for it at church. It was devastating because it had been my Mother's and she had told me before she died that she wanted me to have it. (She went Home in 1993 after battling ovarian cancer.) Well, it took a long while for me to come to grips with the fact that it was more than likely gone for good and I would never see it again. It was awful having to tell my father about it; but, he took it in stride like any dad of five children would. Losing it was a real lesson for me concerning earthly possessions. The funny thing is that the ring was one of the things that I worried most about losing, besides Ken and the boys, of course. To make a long story longer : This past Sunday our Sunday schoolers and I were looking up bible verses in the book of ACTS and reading them aloud. I was using my children's bible that had been given to me on my 7th birthday by my parents and siblings. It is quite battered with pages that fall out and I just put them back in. This bible has traveled with me several times over the years to church and back because it is great for me to use with the kids. At one point as I Iooked back down at the pages something little caught my eye as it was moving a little bit. As I picked it up and inspected it my heart just about stopped ! It was the diamond I lost !!!!! I have no idea how it got there. It was as if GOD just dropped it on the page in front of me. I am yet to find any type of indention among the pages where it may have been all this time. It turned up in the same place that I last knew I had it...our own parish hall/ kitchen ! And best of all, it was MOTHER'S DAY !!! Mother's day miracle ? Thank you all for your prayers, especially these past couple of years. God does answer them, just not necessarily when we want them to be answered. "
We have a really awesome God!I always feel like dancing to something when God does this. Here is a song I like for this:
Friday, May 7, 2010
Breaking monkey news
BREAKING NEWS....ALDIE MAN'S MONKEY IS IN A STATE OF SHOCK!!! THIS SHOCK IS A RESULT OF THE TAKE OVER OF NANNYKIM'S MONKEY BLOG!! yes, FOR REAL...MINKEY AS SHOWN BELOW HAS TAKEN IT OVER.
TO SEE WHAT IS HAPPENING AT THIS BREATHTAKING MOMENT GO TO THE LINK here:
http://monkeybusiness-nannykim.blogspot.com/2010/05/minkey-is-taking-over-this-blog.html
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Bathroom Divas?
Sheila at notesongs is having a Bathroom Beauty Snapper on Friday , May 7--I am just ahead of the game here! ps. the music that is playing is just for today, probably but you will see why as you read further. --SO TURN YOUR SOUND ON IF YOU HAVE IT OFF--FOR THIS POST MY DEARS!!
She tells us to take a picture of ourselves in the bathroom mirror. Well let me tell you.....my bathroom mirror here below is up high and is small. Man, I had troubles trying to take it.
So I took another one below in a bigger mirror in one of our bedrooms with one of my best travel buddies.
Minkey is my sock monkey that often goes on travel adventures with me. For example--to islands
Hmmm, is that trash in the background!! I don't think it could be here on this beach!!
To Mountains in the Seattle area-- which was a bit of a rough climb so that is why they look windblown.!!
And of course the Mountains in the NC area--
Minkey and gang have their own monkey blog here: http://monkeybusiness-nannykim.blogspot.com/ She also has a favorite song which you will hear playing if you visit her blog.(and it will be playing with this post here for a few days too) HEY Minkey seems to be taking over this DIVA Post!!!! But Sheila knows how that is---she has critters that take over her blog at notesongs!!!! WAY TO GO MINKEY!!
She tells us to take a picture of ourselves in the bathroom mirror. Well let me tell you.....my bathroom mirror here below is up high and is small. Man, I had troubles trying to take it.
So I took another one below in a bigger mirror in one of our bedrooms with one of my best travel buddies.
Minkey is my sock monkey that often goes on travel adventures with me. For example--to islands
Hmmm, is that trash in the background!! I don't think it could be here on this beach!!
To Mountains in the Seattle area-- which was a bit of a rough climb so that is why they look windblown.!!
And of course the Mountains in the NC area--
Minkey and gang have their own monkey blog here: http://monkeybusiness-nannykim.blogspot.com/ She also has a favorite song which you will hear playing if you visit her blog.(and it will be playing with this post here for a few days too) HEY Minkey seems to be taking over this DIVA Post!!!! But Sheila knows how that is---she has critters that take over her blog at notesongs!!!! WAY TO GO MINKEY!!
For those in troubled relationships
I love Paul Tripp's newest book. It is very helpful for those getting married and those already married!
In Paul D. Tripp's book on What did you Expect? Redeeming the realities of Marriage. He focuses on 6 commitments which I think are practical for those considering marriage. If you are not willing to work on these then you shouldn't get married as far as I can see , and if you are married then this is what you should work on:
1. We will give ourselves to a regular lifestyle of confession and forgiveness.
2. We will make growth and change our daily agenda.
3. We will work together to build a sturdy bond of trust.
4. We will commit to building a relationship of love
5. We will deal with our differences with appreciation and grace.
6. We will work to protect our marriage
I just finished reading chapter 3 which is really great. It is called , "Whose Kingdom?"
Here are some helpful tidbits---they are helpful in forming relationships and continuing them:
"..all of the horizontal battles are the fruit of a deeper war. The most important war, the one that needs to be won, is not the war they are having with each other, but a war that wages within them individually. Real change is all about winning this war."
"Sin makes us shrink our lives to the narrow confines of our little self-defined world. Sin causes us to shrink our focus, motivation, and concern to the size of our own wants, needs, and feelings. Sin causes all of us to be way too self-aware and self-important. Sin causes us to be offended most by offenses against us and to be concerned most or what concerns us. Sin causes us to dream selfish dreams and to plan self-oriented plans. Because of sin, we really do love us, and we have a wonderful plan for our own lives!"
"....Sin is essentially antisocial. We don't really have time to love our spouse, in the purest sense of what that means, because we are too busy loving ourselves, and if our spouse is willing to do that, we will have a wonderful relationship." {I had to laugh at this, but it is often so true!}
We "are kingdom-oriented people. We always live in the service of one of two kingdoms. We live in service of the small, personal happiness agenda of the kingdom of self, or we live in service of the huge, origin-to-destiny agenda of the kingdom of God. When we live for the kingdom of self, our decisions, thoughts, plans, actions, and words are directed by personal desire......We seek to surround ourselves with people who will serve our kingdom purposes, and we evaluate them not from the perspective of the laws of God's kingdom but from the perspective of the laws of our kingdom."
He gives an example of a couple named Gwen and Barry. "There was no doubt that Gwen and Barry were very attracted to one another and that this attraction had produced strong affection....The question is, however, whether what they were experiencing was love. Could it be that Gwen was not attracted to Bary because she loved Barry, but because she loved Gwen? Could it be that her attraction was much more self-oriented than she knew? What felt like love may actually have been excitement that this man she had gotten to know seemed to fit nicely into the dream she had always had for her life."
"The self-orientation of sin can produce a powerful attraction to another person, but that attraction should not be confused with love, because that attraction cannot do what love will do when the reasons for the attraction die. And the death of the dream happens to every couple. None of us gets our dream in the way that we dreamt it, because none of us is writing our own story. God, in his love writes a better story than we could ever write for ourselves."
"Could it be that as Gwen and Barry begin to face the harsh reality of the death of their individual and shared dreams, they are not struggling to love one another but are being given the opportunity to love one another more than ever before? It is when attraction wanes, flaws show, and the dream dies that real love has its best opportunity to germinate and grow. For Gwen and Barry, this sad and disillusioning moment is not the end of it all, but the beginning of something wonderful.......this is an opportunity to exit the small space of the kingdom of self and to begin to enjoy the beauty and benefits of the kingdom of God........Gwen and Barry's marriage did not die; the selfish dream did, and when it did , real, sturdy, satisfying, other-centered, God-honoring, perseverant love began to grow."
"It means that the trouble that you face in your marriage is not an evidence of the failure of grace. No, those troubles are grace. They are the tools God uses to pry us out of the stultifying confines of the kingdom of self so that we can be free to luxuriate in the big-sky glories of the kingdom of God......marriage is not an end to itself. No, the reality is that marriage has been designed by God to be a means to an end."
"It is only when a husband and wife each live in a purposeful and joyful allegiance to the plans, purpose, and Lord of the kingdom of God that their marriage can really be a place of unity, understanding, and love."
"Marriage is a beautiful thing that only reaches what is was designed to be through the methodology of a painful process......Could it be that just when you thought God had abandoned you and your marriage that he is really very near, giving you the best gift ever---transforming grace? This grace rescues you from the one thing that you cannot rescue yourself from--you."
This book is excellent and I am only in chapter 3!
In Paul D. Tripp's book on What did you Expect? Redeeming the realities of Marriage. He focuses on 6 commitments which I think are practical for those considering marriage. If you are not willing to work on these then you shouldn't get married as far as I can see , and if you are married then this is what you should work on:
1. We will give ourselves to a regular lifestyle of confession and forgiveness.
2. We will make growth and change our daily agenda.
3. We will work together to build a sturdy bond of trust.
4. We will commit to building a relationship of love
5. We will deal with our differences with appreciation and grace.
6. We will work to protect our marriage
I just finished reading chapter 3 which is really great. It is called , "Whose Kingdom?"
Here are some helpful tidbits---they are helpful in forming relationships and continuing them:
"..all of the horizontal battles are the fruit of a deeper war. The most important war, the one that needs to be won, is not the war they are having with each other, but a war that wages within them individually. Real change is all about winning this war."
"Sin makes us shrink our lives to the narrow confines of our little self-defined world. Sin causes us to shrink our focus, motivation, and concern to the size of our own wants, needs, and feelings. Sin causes all of us to be way too self-aware and self-important. Sin causes us to be offended most by offenses against us and to be concerned most or what concerns us. Sin causes us to dream selfish dreams and to plan self-oriented plans. Because of sin, we really do love us, and we have a wonderful plan for our own lives!"
"....Sin is essentially antisocial. We don't really have time to love our spouse, in the purest sense of what that means, because we are too busy loving ourselves, and if our spouse is willing to do that, we will have a wonderful relationship." {I had to laugh at this, but it is often so true!}
We "are kingdom-oriented people. We always live in the service of one of two kingdoms. We live in service of the small, personal happiness agenda of the kingdom of self, or we live in service of the huge, origin-to-destiny agenda of the kingdom of God. When we live for the kingdom of self, our decisions, thoughts, plans, actions, and words are directed by personal desire......We seek to surround ourselves with people who will serve our kingdom purposes, and we evaluate them not from the perspective of the laws of God's kingdom but from the perspective of the laws of our kingdom."
He gives an example of a couple named Gwen and Barry. "There was no doubt that Gwen and Barry were very attracted to one another and that this attraction had produced strong affection....The question is, however, whether what they were experiencing was love. Could it be that Gwen was not attracted to Bary because she loved Barry, but because she loved Gwen? Could it be that her attraction was much more self-oriented than she knew? What felt like love may actually have been excitement that this man she had gotten to know seemed to fit nicely into the dream she had always had for her life."
"The self-orientation of sin can produce a powerful attraction to another person, but that attraction should not be confused with love, because that attraction cannot do what love will do when the reasons for the attraction die. And the death of the dream happens to every couple. None of us gets our dream in the way that we dreamt it, because none of us is writing our own story. God, in his love writes a better story than we could ever write for ourselves."
"Could it be that as Gwen and Barry begin to face the harsh reality of the death of their individual and shared dreams, they are not struggling to love one another but are being given the opportunity to love one another more than ever before? It is when attraction wanes, flaws show, and the dream dies that real love has its best opportunity to germinate and grow. For Gwen and Barry, this sad and disillusioning moment is not the end of it all, but the beginning of something wonderful.......this is an opportunity to exit the small space of the kingdom of self and to begin to enjoy the beauty and benefits of the kingdom of God........Gwen and Barry's marriage did not die; the selfish dream did, and when it did , real, sturdy, satisfying, other-centered, God-honoring, perseverant love began to grow."
"It means that the trouble that you face in your marriage is not an evidence of the failure of grace. No, those troubles are grace. They are the tools God uses to pry us out of the stultifying confines of the kingdom of self so that we can be free to luxuriate in the big-sky glories of the kingdom of God......marriage is not an end to itself. No, the reality is that marriage has been designed by God to be a means to an end."
"It is only when a husband and wife each live in a purposeful and joyful allegiance to the plans, purpose, and Lord of the kingdom of God that their marriage can really be a place of unity, understanding, and love."
"Marriage is a beautiful thing that only reaches what is was designed to be through the methodology of a painful process......Could it be that just when you thought God had abandoned you and your marriage that he is really very near, giving you the best gift ever---transforming grace? This grace rescues you from the one thing that you cannot rescue yourself from--you."
This book is excellent and I am only in chapter 3!
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Running/ a snap of life
Today there is a photo meme going on at Sailor and Company.jpg)
It is called RUNNING. I know you will really wonder what the photo below has to do with running!!!! (Plus we can't touch up the photos!! so this is blurry)
But every morning I do my jogging . Where? In my home. I have a loop that runs through my kitchen (the above pic), dining room , smaller living room, and other smaller dining area to the kitchen and back around!! Sounds weird but it oh so works for me. I can also jog in place and watch some HGTV or even EWTN if I want a sermon. Doesn't matter how hot or cold or rainy. I also use this time for prayer! So it works!! Have a nice day!
It is called RUNNING. I know you will really wonder what the photo below has to do with running!!!! (Plus we can't touch up the photos!! so this is blurry)
But every morning I do my jogging . Where? In my home. I have a loop that runs through my kitchen (the above pic), dining room , smaller living room, and other smaller dining area to the kitchen and back around!! Sounds weird but it oh so works for me. I can also jog in place and watch some HGTV or even EWTN if I want a sermon. Doesn't matter how hot or cold or rainy. I also use this time for prayer! So it works!! Have a nice day!
Monday, May 3, 2010
I had a great birthday
I had a great birthday with my little grands--but I posted about it on my other blog (I have too many blogs) here: http://spindlecottage.blogspot.com/2010/05/my-birthday-get-away.html
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