To Be A Mentor...

On Saturday the ladies of my church held an all day mini-retreat.  We focused on the Biblical art of "mentoring".  I was privileged to be on the planning committee.  To say it was a success is a huge understatement.  Women who have went to church together for 20 years talked to each other.  Ate lunch with one another.  We had a fabulous speaker who spoke in two sessions on the hows and whys we need to be a mentor and the hows and whys of being the mentee.  Several women of our church hosted and taught breakout sessions on various topics.  I got the chance in the afternoon to slip into one about "living a balanced life".  It was hosted by two of our younger women with little ones running around the house.  Brandy and Jennifer did a marvelous job.  I know God was so honored by their speech and what they had to say to us as a group.  Both of them stirred my own heart towards balancing my own life in ways that God can use me.  I struggle with that concept.  I allow Satan to whisper lies into my ears that tell me, no one wants you, no one would ever come to you for anything, you are not usable for anything let alone something for Jesus.  Lies, all lies. An I believed them.  Believed.  But...no more.  God can and will use me as long as I am willing to be used wherever He places me.  I am praying right now that some young woman asks me to come along side her and be her friend and help her.  To mentor her.  All it really means is to be her friend.  To pray with her.  To pray for her.  To show her how God can use the circumstances we go through for His glory and her benefit.  My own daughter attended and both of them felt the tug of God towards a woman to ask to mentor them.  One young lady was so touched by Saturday that she is flat out on fire to kick this whole thing to the moon and back.  God is just awesome.  The day flew by and I hated to see it end.  Our pastor told my friend, Kelley, and I Sunday night that he had never heard so much positive responses about anything before.  Oh, how that did my heart good.  That remark told me that the Holy Spirit had moved the hearts of our home based women.  Moved their hearts towards one another and towards God.  Days like Saturday can only strengthen our core at church.  Now we can branch out and surround other women in our community and bring them in for the next mini retreat we do.  Growth, depth and change is what this was all about.  I have mentioned before I felt a dryness in my life.  Desert-like.  What I know now is that when these dry times comes...rain is on the horizon.   Soul quenching rain that makes new life flourish and grow.  Sure with this growth will come eventual pruning.  But that will just make the branches stronger.  To be a mentor to a young woman's life is so worth the desert I have traveled through.

Five Months Old!!!

Hey Mimi!!  Guess what??  I am now officially 5 months old.  I can bounce really good in this bouncy thing! It is super fun!

Here I am in this chair again with you, Mr. Frog.  I still don't get why Mimi puts us together about once a month.  She does some strange stuff Mr. Frog.

Don't worry Savannah.  I will help you with Mimi and all these pictures she takes.  Just do what she says and she will quit soon.

Wow, being a big sister is thirsty work.  I think I will take a swig of my apple juice.  What's apple juice Piper???  Can I have some???

Please. please, please let me have just a taste.  I am so thirsty and mommy never lets me have a drink of nothing.  I'm practically starving around this joint!!

Sorry, little sister....but you will just have to wait a while longer before mommy lets you have any apple juice.

Dang it!!  I was so close!

Savannah you are such a sweetie.  You weigh around 18 lbs. and are about 26 inches long.  You are a chunk to carry around!!  You make our arms go to sleep for sure!  You love, love, LOVE your mommy.  And you love your routine too.  You are starting to really "talk" up a storm and you follow your sister everywhere with your big blue eyes.  It won't be long before you are sitting up by yourself and crawling around the house.  I just love squeezing you  and kissing all those cheeks and chins!!

Pumpkin Patch Time!

I am so sorry for the lack of posts lately.  As usual,  I have been super busy.  Yesterday I went with my daughter and my grandgirls to the local Pumpkin Patch.  It was a glorious day!!!  This has been just a beautiful fall.  Here are a few shots from yesterday.

Piper makes sure you see ALL her teeth when she smiles!!

Little Savannah is a somber little baby though.  So sweet.

 Piper really was just helping to steady Savannah.  Not a real headlock!

 I love this shot.  Piper is obsessed with finding the moon!  She found it!!

Mommy and her precious babies.

Such sweet babies.  I just adore them.  Piper is such a great big sister too.

When we got home I was changing Savannah for dinner.  Doesn't she look just like a mini-sumo wrestler!!  This baby is the best baby to kiss on and squeeze!!

I have lost my MIND!!!

I just returned from......um...gulp...Walmart.  It is 10:53 at night.  I almost cried before I got to my car.  Help me...I have lost my mind.  Tracy, I am officially blaming you for this lapse in my better judgement.

Revival

This week is "Revival" week at my church.  It all started  on Sunday with a Homecoming service.  We had a great service followed by "Dinner on the Grounds".  While we don't really eat outside, as much as I would like, we do all gather together in the family life center and eat a big pot-luck lunch together.  It really is a lot of fun.  Each night this week through Wednesday we are having a service at night in order to revive us as a church body.  Our speaker is really very good.  He is funny and so smart about God's Word.  He asked us on Sunday night if we were "available."  I went forward, as many did, and prayed.  I am available.  In many ways.  But am I available to what God wants???  Do I want for my life what God wants?  I must say that I feel revived to what journey God is leading me towards and through.  We are forging new territory at church with our women's ministries.  I love that.  I really feel a deep love and desire to serve and love on the women of my church and my community.  I have many hurdles to jump over.  I am resistant to lots of change in my life but whether I like it or not.....life is always changing.  Mine is, yours is.  Did I see my own life turning out this way??  No, I did not.  I never imagined myself as a middle-aged, divorced woman.  If I linger on those facts too long a severe depression would just sneak all over me.  But.....Praise God there is revival.  I am so much more than those words.  I am a child of the King.  I am precious in His sight.  Do I feel like that??  Not really.  But I cannot live and grow on what I "feel".  I must live on what I know.  The only way to thrive is to revive with the sweet words of God.  I am anxious as to what message God has for me this evening.  It can only be good.  I want good.  Not happy.  We are so steeped in this world with the act of being happy.  When what we need to be steeped in is the goodness of God.  I would so much rather be in a good place with God than to be happy without God.  I am happy, don't get me wrong.  I like the feeling of happy.  But there have been times in my life when I was happy but deep in my soul I knew things were not good.  I may not have planned the events of my life to be what they are at this season of my life but I can say that I am happy.  And I am in a good place within my soul.  Tonight at our revival meeting the Pastor spoke on the times we are living in.  How they are perilous and ungodly.  He spoke on II Timothy chapter 3.  We are living in very difficult times.  But for the Christian we are also living in a precious time.  What opportunities we have for the Lord right now.  Am I taking the opportunities that God is laying before me?  Am I using this time wisely?  What am I doing with the time that God has so wonderfully given to me??  I want to do so much.  Am I doing it??  Lord, thank you for reviving this woman.  I am so grateful for your goodness and for  this season of my life.

Learning to smile

I take a lot of photographs.  A lot.  I take photos of landscapes, animals, people, especially my children (reluctant) and grandchildren ( sometimes more reluctant)!  So lately Piper has been very difficult to get a good shot of.  She will not look, she runs away, she just will not cooperate at all when I pull my camera out. This results in fewer and fewer pictures and that makes for a very sad Mimi.  So the other night Megan and I stopped by Erica's house and I brought my camera with me....just hoping!  I started asking Piper to smile and she just kind of looked at me.  I smiled at her and said, "Smile and I will show you your picture."  I took a photo of her Winnie the Pooh and she saw it and "Bam".  She started smiling.  Yay!!!

Smiling on Aunt Megs' lap

Smiling with baby Sally.

Here is what you get when you tell a toddler to just smile natural and not "cheese" it up.

Silly faces...I think we are on to something with this whole, "I will show you your picture thing."

I told Piper to show me her teeth just a little when she smiles....sometimes you get what you ask for.

Now that Piper knows she can see on my lcd screen her picture right away I bet I get a whole lot more photos of her.  Poor Savannah missed all the fun because she went to bed.  Don't worry I will catch her next time!