Vacation, vacation

When I found out that my work was going to force me to take vacation days at Christmas, I was upset. I only get fifteen vacation days a year and I need five of them for camp. I'm also using at least two this year for Summit. Combine that with the fact that I want to build up enough vacation days to take a trip to Europe someday in the near future, it doesn't leave a lot of extra days.

This year however, the fact that I had to take vacations days turned out to be a huge blessing. I probably wouldn't have taken the trip to Colorado if I hadn't been forced to take those days off. I knew I needed a break, but I had no idea how much I really needed it. Not only am I more rested (although my sleep schedule is whacked) but I feel a lot more positive in general.

I had a great time in Colorado. And I have a wonderful family. And crazy cousins. =)

I Celebrate The Day

This is without a doubt my favorite Christmas song ever. If you've never heard it before, I highly encourage you to go listen to it.

I Celebrate The Day - Relient K
And with this Christmas wish is missed
The point I could convey
If only I could find the words to say to let You know how much You've touched my life
Because here is where You're finding me, in the exact same place as New Year's eve
And from a lack of my persistency
We're less than half as close as I want to be

And the first time
That You opened Your eyes did You realize that You would be my Savior
And the first breath that left Your lips
Did You know that it would change this world forever

And so this Christmas I'll compare the things I felt in prior years
To what this midnight made so clear
That You have come to meet me here

To look back and think that
This baby would one day save me
In the hope that what You did
That you were born so I might live
To look back and think that
This baby would one day save me

And I, I celebrate the day
That You were born to die
So I could one day pray for You to save my life

Cousins, cousins

Christmases the last two years have been pretty "blah" for me. As you get older Christmas starts to lose a lot of it's luster and until you have kids I think it has a tendency to stay in the "blah" zone.

But at least Christmas means that I get to see my cousins. And although I won't get to see all of them this year, I will get to see most of them. And for the first Christmas ever (since I was 3 or so anyway) I'll get to see my cousin's from my mom's side of the family over the holidays.

Here's to hoping that 2010 makes for a much better Christmas than 2009! At least this Christmas will be spent with family. =)

Spending Time - Part 2

About a month ago I wrote a long post about convictions I've had this year about how I spend my time and about my attitude towards the things that are a constant part of my life.

Tonight while I was driving home I had a familiar realization come to me. That realization was that I've drawn closer to God going through this stressful year than I have during less stressful times of my life. and what it all boils down to is that I'm content to live on cruise control (set at MY speed) and as long as life is going well I just continue on. It's not  until I hit a bump in the road (stress, strained relationships, etc) that I come running back to Him. And once I weather that storm by leaning on Him I then slowly start going back to relying on myself instead of Him. It's a cycle that I can look back on my 23 years on this planet and see it over and over again.

I don't doubt that I'm going to fail yet again. But maybe, just maybe, I can learn to start leaning on God during the good times too. And maybe, just maybe, I'll stop relying on my own abilities to run my life and give it over to the Holy Spirit's leading.

It's pretty quaint that this is happening at the end of the year. I could say something dumb like "this is my 2011 new year's resolution". But this isn't my 2010 new year's resolution. This is the rest of my life.

Spending Time

What do I spend my time doing? At the end of the day when I look back at what I accomplished - did I actually accomplish anything?

I've been feeling convicted recently about making sure that I spend my time doing things with eternal significance rather than the useless things I usually spend my time doing. Before I get any further into this I should say that I don't think that we have to shun all forms of relaxation from our lives. If watching an hour of TV at night or reading a (good) novel helps a person to relax at night before they go to bed then maybe that event has a useful place in that person's day. My point is not to try to eliminate these things entirely from our lives. What I'm struggling with is how to put as many worthwhile things in my life so that I'm functioning at the highest level I can for His glory while not burning myself out in the process.

Burning myself out is an issue I've struggled with a lot in 2010 and I think a lot of my problems stem from the fact that I rely on myself rather than relying on God. I could write an entire post about that topic.

As for deciding what's worthwhile and what's not, even that can be complicated. Fellowship with other believers is important. At what point does it become more than useful fellowship and just time wasted with no greater purpose? Having fun with friends isn't a bad thing. Where's the balance?

And then things like the normal tasks we have to accomplish everyday in order to our lives to function. Those have a place in our lives and we should do everything in our lives to the best of our abilities and for the glory of God. Part of life is work. There are many verses in the Bible that talk about diligence in working and being a good worker. I don't think there's any doubt that we're supposed to do our jobs to the best of our abilities. Do I go into work every morning with the goal of doing the best that I can that day?

Then we have the things like dishes, laundry, grocery shopping. Some of these tasks are more enjoyable for me than others. I suppose every person is different. Regardless, these things have to get done. These are part of our "work" even if we don't get a paycheck for performing these tasks. Do I do these tasks to the best of my ability? Do I even do these tasks? How long has that pile of dishes been sitting in my sink?
How is God going to use me for bigger tasks if I can't even complete the simple tasks that I already have in my life?

My goal right now is to change my attitude at work. More importantly, I want to become diligent and taking care of the simple tasks in my life like keeping up on the dishes and housework. These really are basic things in life. I should be able to handle them. I have a feeling it'll be a process with lots of failures and procrastination. It'll be good practice for when I ask God to help me to do bigger things.

Side note: For anyone out there reading this, if you haven't read "Do Hard Things" by Alex and Brett Harris, you should. Doesn't matter how old you are.

Convictions can be a powerful thing. The ability to respond to those convictions and pursue with diligence can be a hard thing to do.

Luckily, God can enable us to do hard things.

My Entrance Into Couponing Madness

I'm new to the whole world of couponing and the amazing deals that are out there to be had. I always used to look on coupons as great, but not really worth it. I'd see coupons for 50 cents off something I usually bought so I'd set it aside. Usually, I forgot about the coupon and never saw it again until weeks later when I was cleaning off the counter.

Recently, I discovered the HUGE assortment of online couponing sites. It first started when I ran across Money Saving Mom because she had posted a link to a $1 coupon for Campbell's soup. I eat the microwavable bowls for lunch at work all the time so when I saw a link somewhere for $1 off I figured, why not? As it turns out, the $2.99 soup was on sale at Fry's for $1. I stood there in the soup aisle somewhat bewildered because I wondered if the coupon would ever work if the item was going to end up being free. I figured it couldn't hurt to try and I needed the soup anyway so I put a few cans in my cart and proceeded to checkout. Low and behold, the coupon did work! My first ever coupon freebie!

I walked out of Fry's that night with a coupon high. I'm a sucker for a good deal. I ended up printing off two more copies of the coupon and used them before the sale on the soup ended the next week. Three free cans of soup!

I then started poking around Money Saving Mom again to see what other coupons she might have posted links to. I realized that she had posts that outline which items are on sale at a given store and what coupons match up with those items. That's when I started to realize that the real trick was finding store coupons/sales and combining them with manufacturer coupons! Basically, keep creating situations like the soup one above! And there are literally hundreds of blogs devoted to helping you do just that. I've found one specifically devoted to Target (Totally Target) that I love. I also find that googling "*store name* *date* deals" always brings up tons of blog posts that outline the good deals for that week. Sometimes one blog catches something that another doesn't.

And that my friends, is how my couponing addiction started.

Bible Quizzing

Those of you who grew up doing Awana or who knew me in the past when I was still in Awana probably know about Bible quizzing. For those who don't... Awana's Bible quizzing is an event that happens once a year where churches get together and the kids compete in...you guessed it, quizzing from Bible lessons. Probably sounds boring, right? But the kids love it and as a leader it's a lot of fun to take part in. I think a large part of the enthusiasm comes from their competitive spirit but at the same time I see them applying the verses that they've learned to their lives. As a leader that is always incredible to get to see.
Like Hebrews 4:12 says...
"For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."
Even if they memorize these verses as part of a competition, it is the word of God after all. It'll benefit them for life. 

My kids are in junior high and extremely excited about quizzing this year. Should make for a great time. =) 

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