February Wrap-Up

So February has come and gone and I have to admit, I didn't do so hot this month in my goals.  Here were my goals and how I did:

• Exercise.  I hope to do my exercise DVD at least 3 days a week and the other days I will try to spend some time dancing on my Dance Dance Revolution game my husband got me for Christmas.  FAIL - I exercised only one time this month, and it was running on the treadmill for just over 2 miles.
• Continue reading my Bible every day.  This is something that I need to keep myself accountable to others.  SUCCESS - I am still on track in my Bible reading.
• Set up field trips for the remainder of the school year.  I need to spend some time and focus on getting field trips set up and stop putting it off. MIXED - I've scheduled trips for March and April, but need to get something set for May still.
• Shop and have a cooking day.  I blogged about a cooking day last week, but I haven't even made it to the store yet.  SUCCESS - I had my cooking day, but of course we ate those meals so now I need to plan another one.
• Clean the basement, 1st and 2nd floors extremely well. MIXED - I cleaned, let the cats out, then my husband started construction in the basement.  Everything moved up to the first floor and now everything is dusty and cluttered again.  :(

That's where I stand.  I have to admit, I'm not pleased about the exercising and the field trip planning.  I need to really get moving on both of those.  I'm going away this weekend to a hotel with my husband for our anniversary and there is a pool there, but I'm not sure I want to be seen in my suit yet.   Here's to hoping March is better for me!

DUH!

Have you ever had a DUH moment?  You know, one of those times where someone has to tell you something so basic, because you didn't get it?  I've had a few situations this week where I just wanted to curl up and hide because I missed something so obvious, it should have smacked me in the head.

Last week I reported that I was reading through Psalms and Proverbs and how difficult I found it to read through so quickly.  Well, they had nothing on Isaiah.  I confess, I'm reading Isaiah just to read it, but I know that I'm missing a lot.  I told my kids last night that I am looking forward to getting a good study guide and reading through Isaiah again.  If you have any suggestions on a guide to use, please leave me a comment with the name of the guide.

Again, like last week, God has chosen a few verses to speak to me.  I am so very thankful that through the Holy Spirit, I am still able to be blessed in my reading of the Bible in 90 Days.  I read the following verse last night and just started laughing.  I happened to be in bed with my hubby and read the verse to him and he started laughing too.  It was a total "DUH!" moment.

For thus says the LORD,who created the heaven,

(he is God!),
who formed the earth and made it

(he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!):
"I am the LORD, and there is no other."

Isaiah 45:18

I did not add the parenthesis, they are in the ESV Bible.  Seeing those words in the parenthesis made me laugh.  I mean a true, LOL (laugh out loud).  Read it again, but this time add a DUH at the end of each parenthesis, go ahead, I'll wait.

"...remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
   I am God, and there is none like me..."

Isaiah 46:9

The Israelites had to be reminded repeatedly that God is God.  In these passages God is speaking through the prophet Isaiah telling them, God is God, the only God!  DUH!  I just have to laugh, because I'm not the only one who needs a slap in the face every now and then.  In fact, in 9 verses God says "I am God" in the Old Testament.  "I am the Lord" is written in 184 verses in the Old Testament.  Really?  God needed to establish Himself 193 times?  Wait, no He didn't.  God is God and it's us who needs the reminder.  Even I have to be reminded every now and then.  Do I doubt that God is God, no, but sometimes even I need a reminder that He is the center of my life. 

Picture from Stupid Fat Hobbit.

Repayment of Sin

Reading the Bible in 90 days is amazing.  I honestly never thought I would read the Bible in it's entirety, straight through.  It's been great to read each story and I have loved reading about the kings and the history of Israel.  But now I'm in Psalms.  Psalms has been a bit difficult for me. You'd think they would be easier to read since each chapter is a story unto itself, but for me, it's not easier. 

This program has me reading roughly 20 Psalms a day.  It does mean it won't take me very long to make it through Psalms, but with going through that many chapters a day, I feel like I'm not retaining much.  It's been rather discouraging to me to realize that. 

Of the books I've read so far (everything prior to Psalms in the Bible) I can give you a basic overview of each book with quite a bit of detail.  For Psalms, it's just all meshing together.  Someone asked me 2 weeks ago, "How can you possibly learn anything by reading the Bible that quickly?"  Thankfully, God reveals to us, what He wants to reveal to us when we study His word.

Today I read Psalms 81 - 108.  That's quite a few chapters.  But in there, God revealed to me a set of verses that stuck with me and I felt compelled to go back and review.

Psalm 103
⁸The LORD is merciful and gracious,
   slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
⁹ He will not always chide,
   nor will he keep his anger forever.
¹⁰He does not deal with us according to our sins,
   nor repay us according to our iniquities.
¹¹For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
   so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
¹²as far as the east is from the west,
   so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
¹³As a father shows compassion to his children,
   so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him.

Verse 10 is the one that stuck out to me the most.   Can you imagine what it would be like, if for every sin we committed, we were repaid how we ought to be repaid?  Let's think this through. 

What is the punishment for sin?  Death.  Not just death, that's not the scary part.  The part that should truly frighten you is the eternal separation from God.  I cannot begin to imagine being anywhere where God is not present.  I am so very thankful that "He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities."  God is so merciful!  As a believer in Christ, all I have to do is ask His forgiveness and I am forgiven! 

Every word that I have read today is important and I look forward to the time when I can go back and read Psalms slowly.  For now, I am thankful that God is teaching me this lesson today.  Thank you Lord, for being merciful and not dealing with me according to my sins.

Regular Bible vs. eReader Bible

Top view of my bible, laying on it's back.

It is day 36 of 90 and I am very pleased at where my bookmark is in my Bible.  Technically, I just put a bookmark in my Bible where I'm supposed to be at so I could see it, because I'm doing this reading on my eReader version of the Bible.  But the view is wonderful.

I am reading in Nehemiah today and heading into Job as well.  It's been wonderful reading in the Old Testament and learning things that I've just nodded my head and agreed to when people were talking before.  I was able to have a relevant conversation with my husband last night and our questions challenged each other.  Even more special than that, I was able to directly look up the verses I wanted to use because I had read them and knew where they were at.  WOW!

A bonus of reading in my eReader is that I am able to insert a bookmark at each stopping point.  If I ever want to go back and read the Bible in 90 days again, I'll be able to just read to my next bookmark.  To leave 90 bookmarks in a paper Bible would be a little ridiculous, at least for me.  I keep 4 in my regular Bible as it is, and to me, those are too many.  My eReader is light, easily transportable for reading on the go, has a print size I can adjust and is a pretty pink color too. 

Don't get me wrong, I love my Bible.  It's also pink and it is an ESV Study Bible.  It has these great columns on the sides of each page so I can take notes in it.  (I'm all for taking notes in my Bible to read later.)  But for this reading plan, the bulky Bible wasn't working for me.  In this fast-paced reading outline, I'm not reading to study, I'm reading to read.  It sounds almost blasphemous to read the Bible and not study it, but even with the amount that I am reading through, I am still learning. 

What is your preference in reading the Bible?  Have you tried reading it on your eReader?  Do you prefer one translation to another?  I'd love to hear your thoughts.

February Goals

It's February and time for me to set some new goals for this month.

• Exercise.  I hope to do my exercise DVD at least 3 days a week and the other days I will try to spend some time dancing on my Dance Dance Revolution game my husband got me for Christmas.
• Continue reading my Bible every day.  This is something that I need to keep myself accountable to others.  
• Set up field trips for the remainder of the school year.  I need to spend some time and focus on getting field trips set up and stop putting it off.
• Shop and have a cooking day.  I blogged about a cooking day last week, but I haven't even made it to the store yet.
• Clean the basement, 1st and 2nd floors extremely well.  Sort of like a Spring Cleaning, but not.  My parents have a cat and it's had free reign of those floors since November, while my cats have been locked on the 3rd floor.  Before I let them loose, I want to clean as well as possible to remove the other cat smell.

Some of these are easy and some are difficult, but each one can be accomplished.  Over the last month I have learned to ask for help when I need it due to not being allowed to do anything.  For some of these goals, I'll be asking my family to help me.  I am sure they'll be willing to help out, especially the kids when they find out if they clean, they get their cats back!

January Wrap-Up

It's time for my first monthly wrap-up.  In January, my goals were:

• Stay on track in my Bible reading
• Rest and recover from surgery
• Organize my closet and weed out clothes I don't need
• Quit smoking

So how did I do?

• I am right on track in my reading.   I'm using the Bible in 90 Days plan and I've read from Genesis to 2 Chronicles 7:10.  It's quite a bit of reading and I'm glad to be doing this plan.  I've also started reading during meal time with my family and we're doing the New Testament in 100 Days with Stewartstown Baptist Church.  
• As of tomorrow I will officially be off all restrictions!  I'm going to exercise and get back into my normal world.  I'm very excited that everything has gone so well with this round of surgery. 
• My closet looks amazing!  My husband has created a walk-in closet out of a room that used to be our bedroom on the 3rd floor of our house.  But we removed the dressers and hung hanging shelves from bars on the wall, so in moving all the clothes around, I was able to weed out a lot of clothes. 
• Quitting smoking went well.  I had one bad day last week and I went and bought a pack.  It tasted gross.  I finished it off (only because I felt like I had to after spending $6.00 on them) and haven't bought more since. 

Overall I am very pleased with how well I have stuck to my goals.  

Exciting Things!

Can you believe that this is my 101st post?  I've broken the 100 mark!  How very exciting for me.

Speaking of exciting, I've got some interesting news this month.  For starters, my parents have an apartment now and will be moving out next week.  It will be wonderful to have my house back, but I will miss them too.  They have been an amazing help to me, especially over the last month during my recovery from surgery.

Second, starting Friday, I'll be posting on a monthly basis over at Today's Housewife.  On the first Friday of every month, I'll be posting something on the topic of faith.  I am honored that I'll be joining a wonderful team of ladies who blog on the topics of faith, family, finances, home, food and hobbies. 

Lastly, this month my husband is starting a new job.  He will be working with the National Guard on a full-time basis, training teams as they are getting ready to deploy next year.  It's not too far from home, so we will still be able to have dinner every night together. 

Overall, there are quite a few things for me to be excited about.  Not to mention the fact that I am officially restriction free as of tomorrow regarding my post-surgical limitations.  I'm looking forward to exercising tomorrow and running around with my kids.  I haven't had a chance yet to use my new Dance Dance Revolution game that I got for Christmas.  I think I'll be playing that as soon as I can!