Family

I’m a giver.

By Lisa B on August 26, 2011

I don’t say that to brag, or to have people pump me up. It has its downsides too.

I wanted to clarify something I wrote yesterday (I don’t think very highly of myself).

Duck…Mom…I didn’t mean to hurt your hearts. There are lots of thoughts running through my head and sometimes they aren’t very pretty — that’s just the truth. The other part of the truth is those lies come from the devil. (Mom, you can’t take any responsibility for that!) The ones that whisper who do you think you are to want to talk to Ann? You don’t have anything to offer her. Best just leave her alone.

In truth, I let those thoughts talk me out of meeting her and it’s entirely possible I missed out on a blessing from God. I do that sort of thing a lot when I’m not doing my quiet time or reading God’s word. I become lazy in focusing on the Truth and fall for the lies.

Duck and I had a great conversation last night. He told me how much he loved me and how I’m beautiful on the inside as well as the outside — “you have a heart of gold” he said. I needed to hear him say those things to me — to remind me — but it was also a little uncomfortable for me to receive those words.

You see, I’m a giver. My comfort zone is in giving. I would much rather give something than to get something. I want to help people, and I feel uncomfortable at time receiving even money for my work. I have been working on that and getting better

When I was talking with Duck last night, I realized that in my head, I was helping Ann by not going to talk to her. I was helping her get to her hotel room and sleep a few minutes earlier by not having to meet me or talk with me. That way of thinking is so engrained in me.

God’s been working on me though to get me out of my comfort zone of giving and wants me to receive His blessings and be thankful for them. So I’m continuing with my thankfulness!

10. awesome parents who I have always known love me no matter what I do

11. a warm hug and encouraging words

12. a daughter who actually said thank you this morning for her breakfast

13. listening to Duck help Doodle with homework

14. sweet comments from online friends I haven’t heard from in awhile

15. Sudafed

16. grocery store where we can get food to prepare for the storm coming

17. cooler weather signaling my favorite time of the year

18. Cokes

| Filed Under: Blessings, Family

Giving Thanks

By Lisa B on November 24, 2010

When this week started out, I thought of all the normal things I’m very thankful for …

… my home, no matter how dirty, keeps me warm and dry

… food, that I’m not going hungry

… freedom, the freedom we have in America is something some take for granted

But today I’m thinking about what I’m really thankful for the most … and that’s life.

I’m thankful for …

… the life behind every one of the Twitter avatars that come up in my stream. Some of you I have never even met in person, but each of you have touched me in one way or another.

… the life behind every one of the Facebook pictures that I’m friends with. Most of you I’ve met and yet, you still want to be my friend.

… the life of my closest Skype buddies who I’ve yet to meet. Y’all are a great support to me when I feel like pulling my hair out.

… the life of all my Proverbs 31 Ministries sisters. I’ve just recently become really involved with this ministry and every one of you have welcomed me into the fold with open arms and most importantly prayers.

… the life of every one in my family. From parents, in-laws, sisters, brothers, nieces, nephews, great-neice, great-nephew, cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents — even the ones who have passed from this world. They’ve all had an impact on who I am right now.

… the life of Duck and Doodle. Duck is my best friend, my provider, my caretaker. Doodle is my best daughter who’s growing up too quick. She’s beautiful, smart and artistic.

… the life God saw fit in talking me out of taking 7.5 years ago. If it weren’t for His love, there are many of you I would not know today.

most importantly, I’m thankful for …

… the life of Jesus and that He would give up His life for me is sometimes unbelievable. I am so unworthy. I went to Women of Faith a few weeks ago with my best friend from college and her mom. It was a great weekend of reflection and catching up on 16 years worth of life. Looking back at how I was when she and I hung out, all I could think was I’m a totally different person now. Jesus is that difference and I’m eternally grateful for that.

I wish you a very happy Thanksgiving. May you remember everything that you have to be truly thankful for in this life. Please feel free to share what you’re thankful for in my comments area. I love y’all.

| Filed Under: Blessings, Family, Holidays, Personal

Lessons from a Doodle

By Lisa B on October 22, 2010

She’s not much of a Doodle any more, but seeing as how that’s what I’ve used for her nickname here, I should probably continue to use it. She’s getting tall — up to my eyes and probably could wear my shoes if she wanted to. This past week and a half, she’s said some interesting things. She’s growing up and I’m not sure I’m ready for it.

1. Care about others. And by caring I mean praying for others. On our anniversary, Duck’s group had been invited to do music during a revival service. The pastor got up and asked for prayer requests and Doodle raised her hand and shared one. She had two, but the pastor didn’t hear her correctly. I told her that was ok because God knew she tried to speak up and hears her prayers. The fact that she spoke up in a strange church where she didn’t know anyone surprised me. But it was absolutely awesome to hear her requests for other people and hear the concern in her voice.

2. Don’t be hard on yourself. We left the house a few minutes later than I would have liked. When we pulled into Bojangles (don’t judge me – she won’t eat anything else for breakfast), the drive-thru line was long. I made some kind of comment about how I messed up and we should have gotten up earlier. Doodle said, “stop being so hard on yourself Mom! Everyone makes mistakes.” Thing is I am often very hard on myself for what I do wrong and I see Doodle reacting the exact same way. Especially when she misses something on homework.

3. Don’t speed. Before we went on vacation, I was late leaving the house to pickup Doodle from school. There’s a side road I take to her school through a residential area. I thought the speed limit was 35 but the cop who pulled me kindly told me I was doing 45 in a 25. So when I did get to the school, Doodle was fussing at me because I was late. When I explained to her what happened she promptly asked if I told the cop that “my daughter is waiting on me and was very worried something bad had happened to me.” Um. No. You don’t tell cops that sort of thing. They don’t really care. This morning I was speeding up on the highway to pass a car and get over for our exit and she reminds me ever-so-kindly to slow down because we can’t afford another speeding ticket.

We can learn a lot from our kids. Some of it you might not want to see (like the bad habits they’ve picked up from you), but all of it we need to see.

| Filed Under: Family

The Great Unplugging

By Lisa B on October 3, 2010

It was supposed to be last week. Then the rains came, and didn’t stop. So we postponed it to this week. Tomorrow we’re packing up our motorcycles and heading to the mountains. We’re celebrating our 14th wedding anniversary a little early this year. I’m just thankful we’ll get to go this year. I really missed not going last year.

I’m leaving my computer at home – so no email, Twitter, Facebook, working on websites, none of it. I will have my cell phone to call home, but other than actual voice calls, I’m not going to use my phone. This is major for me. I’m quite the computer addict. I decided to leave you with a list so you may know when it’s time to go on vacation or just unplug for a bit.

5 of ways you know it’s time to unplug

when you dream in code (html, css, php)
when you wake up in a panic realizing you didn’t set your alarm last night, rush into your child’s room to wake them up for school only to realize it’s Saturday
when you get a speeding ticket on a back road because you’re running late to pickup your child from school
when you hear your spouse snoring down the hall, and you’re still working on a project
when your child has to ask you repeatedly for a drink

and one last bonus way to know when you’re ready to unplug, when you feel like this:

Yes, that’s me. I remember the exact moment this picture was taken. I don’t know why I was upset in the first place, but Dad had sat me on the kitchen table. My oldest sister, Sue – who is 11 years older than me and should have known better – snapped this picture of me which made me even more upset. And Dad got mad at me. I couldn’t understand it. But Dad didn’t get mad at me a lot, so it kinda jerked me back into reality and stopped the gushing.

But if you’ve been feeling like this, I pray you get a vacation sometime soon! Or if you can’t do a vacation right now, just get a book that doesn’t make you think and go somewhere away from your house for an hour. Give yourself permission to unplug. I promise Twitter, Facebook, and the rest of the Internets will still be there when you get back. After all, you’ll be here when I get back, right?

| Filed Under: Family, Motorcycle, Personal, Vacation

General Update

By Lisa B on January 22, 2010

So much to say, so little time Here’s some bullet points for ya. You’re welcome!

I mailed half of my Women of Faith stuff out today. So Mandy @ Pennies and Blessings, Heidi, Jenny 86753oh9 and Punkinmama — your stuff is officially in the mail. Please let me know when you receive it! To Charlene @ A Virtuous Woman and Annabelle @ Christian Momma my sincerest apologies. It will be Monday before I have a chance to mail yours. Ran out of mailing supplies
I want to specially thank Charlene @ A Virtuous Woman. She won 2 days of giveaways and wrote me an email to say give one of them away to someone else. Well, it just so happens that the new official winner of Sheila Walsh’s All that Really Matters book is a lady I know in real life. One that I had no idea read my blog until she left a comment on that post. So congratulations Monica! Now you don’t have to be mad at me
Monica is a lady at Doodle’s school that I know well enough to say “hey” to — when I talked to her today and told her about the book, she thanked me for my blog. Ya’ll … that floored me. My blog? She thinks it’s neat. I told her that it felt good to be writing again like I believe God wants me to do. I mentioned getting overwhelmed at reading other blogs and the mentality of “well they said it so I don’t need to.” Monica confirmed God’s calling for me. She said “I don’t read those other blogs. Write for me.” Thanks Monica for sharing that with me today. You blessed me more than you know
For my BlissDom ladies, I’ll have a post up Monday with tips for ya’ll. Shoot, I might have to make more than one I’ve got so much to share! So check back then to look for it. And even though I’m not going to BlissDom any more, I’m still going to keep the MckLinky up — so link up and get to know some of the other ladies going!
I’ll be disappearing from the blog and Twitter this weekend. We’ve got a lot of good stuff going on, and I’m going to try doing life off my computer and with my family. I hope you make that kind of time this weekend as well.

| Filed Under: Blessings, Bloggin', Family, Women of Faith

Why I’m not going to BlissDom

By Lisa B on January 20, 2010

Months ago when the tickets went on sale, I jumped on one. I was on the fence. There were some bloggy friends I would love to see again and some that I would love to meet. I wanted Duck to go with me — after all, he’s my cowboy. Can’t go to Nashville yet again without my cowboy!

So I put it on the calendar. As the weeks progressed, other things got added to the calendar. Like the Upward Basketball schedule. Duck and I are coaching Doodle’s team again this year. I really enjoy it, but our practices are on Thursday and the games on Saturday. Ok, I thought. I can miss one practice and one game. But Duck can’t. Not really. Oh, and Upward pictures are that Saturday. Hmmph. I don’t want to miss those too.

Then Duck’s on-call schedule was released. He put the dates on the calendar. Yep, he’s on call that week. So he’s really, double-y triple-y out of going. And that was the final feather that knocked me off the fence onto the side of not going. See, Duck’s on-call weeks are very stressful to him. I need to be here to run things. I need to be here to run practice and the game if he happens to be called into work.

It’s not that he couldn’t handle it. Seriously we are blessed with great grandparents that take Doodle and do what’s needed. But I need to be here. I’ve been praying for quite awhile that God would lead me one way or another — that if I go, He’ll work everything out. If I don’t go, He’ll work everything out. And He has. I have His peace inside me that I need to be here {see an obvious pattern?}. I’ve already sold my conference ticket to another Christian lady who said I was an answered prayer. While God was closing the door on me going — He was opening the door for her to go. Seeing as how the conference is now sold-out, I can see how He used me buying that ticket for His good.

Don’t get me wrong. I not only need to be here, I want to be here. Maybe I will meet ya’ll next year if the scheduling falls just right. I still have some advice I’m going to give ya’ll who are going and I’m definitely praying for all my friends who will be there.

Go enter my Women of Faith giveaways (ends today!) and I’ll be back tomorrow with the winners, and BlissDom advice!

| Filed Under: Blessings, BlissDom 10, Bloggin', Conferences, Family

Reentry is hard

By Lisa B on January 18, 2010

From Thursday through Saturday, I spent time with many amazing women. We prayed. We listened. We talked. We worshiped together. We laughed. We cried. By the end of our time together, we were pumped up for God — ready to do His work. We were excited and ready to get back home to our families — to share what we learned, what we heard, and what we did.

Reentry is hard.

But many of us were dealing with things back home. When we stepped off the planes we had to adjust. We had to hold back. Perhaps the airport is not the right place to dump all of our enthusiasm on our families. Perhaps they were really thankful that we were home and wanted to share their stories instead of hearing ours. Perhaps we did or did not do something that hurt them or made them angry while we were gone.

Reentry is hard.

But they are often hard on themselves when they don’t see all these things happening on a daily basis. They are quick to observe all they are doing wrong and slow to appreciate all they are doing right.

– Power of a Praying Woman, pg. 36 by Stormie Omartian

This is me. To a capital T. I am hard on myself for everything I did wrong. When I look back over the weekend, there are things that I did wrong and things I did right. The ones eating at my soul are the things I did wrong.

Reentry is hard.

This morning I sat down with my journal and poured my heart out to God. I couldn’t even put into words some of what I am feeling, but I know God knows and understands what I need. I also prayed for the other ladies I met this weekend who are going back home to bigger struggles than I can even imagine.

Reentry is hard, but God is bigger than my problems.