Pressing On

We just hit the five year mark of when we felt God calling us out of Arizona and leading us on a new journey. First into the Midwest, then on to the East Coast and eventually to our current home in south Texas. To say its been a whirlwind would be an understatement. Sometimes, I look back in my photo stream and think “ Wow, that seems so long ago.” While another picture revealing the same time frame feels like yesterday. How can this be? Regardless of how it feels, time sure isn’t standing still. I find myself struggling again with wanting to use the time I have here on earth to truly matter. Am I making a difference? How have I spent these past five years?  One thing I have learned is that my physical address does not matter. God will use me wherever He plants me. Often times, I’m praying “God give me opportunities today to make an impact on someone’s life.” Then at the end of the day think “Well, He must not have had any for me.” Which is so not true. The problem is, whi...

Annie gets restless if I don’t get her out to run at least a few times a week. I often wonder how long I will be able to keep up. My hips, knees and joints scream in protest that first mile until they warm up. She starts off faster than I like but after a couple of miles we will typically fall into a groove and run along at a compromising pace. Unless of course we see a squirrel or cat. Then I’m doomed. The other day we got out earlier than normal. Young kids were waiting at various corners for their school bus to pick them up. I love those times. I love watching the kids impatiently waiting and playing games with each other. Mom’s hanging out, coffee in hand. It just makes me smile. We had just ran past one of these bus stops with several kiddos. Annie was doing great and staying focused when out of nowhere a little fluffy, yapping dog comes chasing us. This thing was small enough to run between Annie’s legs. Instead it just ran right up to her, barked and shot in another directio...

I’m sitting outside with my computer today. It’s that nice out! Beautiful, blue sky with just enough of a breeze for the wind chimes to sound. The birds are singing and Annie is contently, laying belly down at my feet because we played hard. I find all kinds of reasons to be outdoors on a day like today. I even took her for a walk after my outdoor group exercise. I still haven’t showered. So there’s that. Another reason to be outside in the breeze. I was glad I had my phone on a day like today so I could snap a few pictures. Everything is in full bloom. Trees now have their green leaves again. The contrast against the blue is always stunning to me.  Knowing that the heat of summer is coming soon and the humidity it will bring makes me want to truly savor this moment.  I often ask God, “Show me You today” and most of the time (not always) He does so in nature.  He will send a Cardinal to remind me of Phoenix. He has kissed my face with snowflakes in Chicago when...

I’m one of those messy eaters. I can almost guarantee when I have chips and salsa, I will be wearing salsa for the remainder of the day or until I can get to a change of clothes. I love hot sauce and basically put it on everything. If I am wearing white and even bring the hot sauce out of the refrigerator and my husband is around to witness it, he will jokingly say “Hope you aren’t attached to that shirt.” A few years ago, I found a new hot sauce that I love. It’s green and extremely hot! Appropriately named Green Dragon Sauce. Did I mention that it’s green? As if that’s a game changer. It’s not! I now have green dragon sauce running down the front of my top.  I think I need to buy more dark colored shirts and less white.  I love white though, don’t you? It screams clean and pure!  I have a few pairs of white pants and shorts. In fact, I wore a pair to the golf tournament last weekend. Jim went off to buy a hot dog, I actually thought, “It’s good I don’t eat hotd...

I can easily go down the path of fear, worry, anxiety and doubt. What if _________ happens? What if ________ happens again, changing my happy, little world? What if ________ never happens? What if ________ always stays this way? And I go about my day worried and focused on the blanks in my life that cause anxiety and fear; wasting hours that could have been spent on more valuable things.  I can look back on my life and see the hand of God all throughout. Even before I knew Him, He used ci rcumstances and events to draw me close to Himself.   Some of those that were once fears or caused worry in my heart, I now see that I had nothing to fear because He was there and saw me through. Not only did He see me through, He made me stronger in my faith in the process.   There are some things in my life that for some reason God has chosen not to change. Things that can still cause anxiety and fear of the unknown. The what if’s? The blanks in my life that I need to co...

It’s a snow day today in Houston. Yes, you read that correctly. Houston Texas has snow for the second time this season. I’m just as surprised as ya’ll. I mean, I love the snow and never in my wildest dreams did I think I would see snow falling in my backyard here in the South. But here we are. Do you think I should be concerned with these extreme weather conditions that seem to follow us?  We move to Chicago in 2013 and get one of the coldest winter storms in history. We move to Boston and receive a record of over 110” of snow that winter. Come to Houston and survive Harvey which we all know the incredible records that were set there. Well, maybe you don’t but you can google it. It was record setting!  And now we have snow which has to be some sort of record for Houston. Annie is in heaven and I am having a hard time keeping her indoors. Crazy dog! Today was suppose to be a great day with two of my friends flying in for our annual girls trip. I got up early with my hu...

When I moved away from Arizona a little over four years ago one of the hardest things, besides moving away from my family was moving away from my close friends. I have an incredible circle of friends who are like family to me. They are sisters who love me, encourage me, speak the truth to me and challenge me to grow. I’m forever grateful for them.  When I left Phoenix someone said to me, “You will never be able to replace that group of women” and I agreed. I wasn’t looking to replace them. In fact, for a time I had my guard up not wanting to make new friends because I didn’t want that pain of having to say goodbye again. The good news was, I didn’t  leave them, I  just changed addresses. Three times even! But, with technology and social media I don’t miss a beat. We still stay in contact, I follow along with what they have going on in their lives and they in mine. However, I do miss that face to face connection that comes by sitting across the table over a cup of c...