I haven't posted in a couple days - always makes me feel like a slacker! :) It was a busy weekend. I made 2 cakes (4 mixes, a tiered cake and a double (the normal homemade size) sheet cake). Then I decided I hated them and started over. Lots of cake this weekend. In that process my house got ignored, my blog got ignored and unfortunately so did my Bible!
Sooo, since we are doing a study on how to study the Bible on Monday nights AND I'm a Bible reading slacker I figured it'd be a good post.
Here is what I do...
1) Using a Study
Sometimes I use a study guide for reading the Bible. It helps me to stay focused and the variety of topics keeps me interested. I am a HUGE fan of Beth Moore and am currently working on her Paul Bible study. Essentially with this one and all of her 90 day books you read a short section of scripture, answer a couple questions, she elaborates and the gives room for further thought and prayer. I really like these because I like filling stuff out - it makes me remember what I am learning and makes me put thought into it!
2) Using Shepherd's Notes
On this one it is more a chapter by chapter study of a particular book of the Bible. They give an overview of the entire book and then you'd read a chapter the read the corresponding notes. Think Spark Notes for the Bible. They also include three questions at the end of each chapter so again, I feel like I learn more when I write down my answers although they are a great reference as well.
3) What is On My Heart
Fortunately I feel like I know the Bible well enough that sometimes I just feel prompted to hit Psalms, or revisit a particular section about a particular feeling/focus/thought that I have at the time. I am not a fan of the "whatever page the Bible falls open to" approach but when I need to focus on something I have no problem being choosy.
4) Group Studies
Occasionally I'll get motivated to do a group study like Experiencing God but that is still a day-by-day study that you just get together and talk about. I don't think getting in my Bible JUST once a week is enough for me so I like things that keep me in it during the week. This one is set up for 5 days a week which would work great for me because I'm terrible about doing quiet time on the weekends.
5) Picking A Verse Apart
Occasionally God will knock me over the head with a verse and I can get it out of my mind. Then I use sources like StudyLight.org to look up the greek/hebrew words, figure out what the originally meant then retranslate it back into what it means to me. My favorite example is the "Do everything without grumbling and complaing" verse in Philippians. Did you know that meant EVEN IN MY HEAD?!?!? That verse just got a lot harder!
For myself I am not a fan of the "read the Bible in a year programs" because I get VERY checklist-y and get so that I may have read it but I didn't spend any time trying to understand it. I also try to stay away from reading books about God/Christianity/The Bible exclusively because I feel like it is important to read God's word directly too not just what other people think about it. (That being said I do read those books, but in addition to Bible reading, not instead of).
Anyway, that is an overview of some of the methods that I use to read the Bible. Usually when I finish a particular study or type of study I move on to something else to make sure I am staying in the word and keeping it varied enough to keep my attention. Again, I like to write things out but maybe some people would like to draw what they learned - to each his own as long as we are being faithful right?
So, how do YOU study the Bible?
Elizabeth
Monday, June 6, 2011
Friday, June 3, 2011
Funny Friday: It's CHRISTMAS!
We recently moved the majority of Grace's toys to the cabinet under the TV. It helps her get fewer out and keeps them out of sight when she's in bed (and I've remembered to pick them up). Almost every day she opens the cabinet (which was locked before) and says TOOOOYS! Like she completely forgot they were in there. It cracks me up!
If hubs or I are laying on the floor she will lay down next to us and fake snore. It makes me laugh SO hard!
Lets see, other funnies? She recently found her shadow and thinks it is the best thing ever.
And I've changed my mind - I want twins! I have two almost two years olds entertaining each other in my living room while I type this...almost an hour now and happy as can be! (Ok, I'm sure it wouldn't ALL be this easy but a girl can dream!). I'm debating taking them with me to the grocery store...that might kill my little fantasy world.
(HI MORGAN!)
Elizabeth
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Thankful Thursday Top Ten #9
This has been a rough week - Grace has a molar coming in (I think), work has been crazy and I haven't been feeling great. Nothing wrong with me or baby, just tired, slow and frustrated a bit at my tired slow-ness. But there were some thankfuls in it all!
1) A baby pool for my cute little girl! She has been outside in a pool for the past 5(?) days! Love it! I wish we had a better pool or play place to take her to, but part of me is hesitant to spend too much time in the sun and part of me always feels guilty for being "away" from my desk during the day.
2) A boss who's wife has been pregnant 7 times so when I start crying during staff meeting because I am THAT mad at a band he doesn't bat an eye. Gotta love it. (It was nothing he or anyone else on staff did, a band made me look like an idiot and I was MAD)
3) A buddy for my kiddo tomorrow. I am watching above said boss (also my father in law)'s youngest daughter tomorrow...she is 6 weeks older than my daughter so I'm HOPING they play well together and I'm able to accomplish everything on my list. Glad I got most of my errands run today! :)
4) Pot roast. It smells soooo yummy! I'm waiting for hubs to get home so we can eat!
(Side note: Pot Roast WAS yummy!)
5) A chance to rock my kiddo to sleep this week. She's been having a rough week. She also had a hard time falling asleep tonight so her daddy went in and loved on her for awhile - I love seeing the two of them together.
6) FINALLY took my glucose test. No results yet but I was glad I found time to do it and that someone was willing to watch my kiddo while I sat in the waiting room :)
7) My adversion to chocolate is over. I'm so excited I can eat chocolate again. I know, I'm lame but I really like chocolate. I'm actually thinking about baking a cake as I type...but then again, the doc already warned me about oreos, I don't want to get another speech next week (my weight gain is still at a healthy place, just a big jump that month).
8) A new baby to prep for! I feel like I'm ready to go but there are still a lot of little things to do. Clothes are out, the pack and play is ready, we have a crib and crib matress coming...still worried/concerned about breastfeeding but we'll see how that goes!
9) Sleep. I'm going to bed early tonight. It is amazing how that extra hour of sleep keeps me more energized...and with two almost two years olds tomorrow I'm going to need it!
10) And last but not least, 29 weeks of pregnancy! 11 weeks till baby day, 15 weeks till Grace's bday! (and 9 weeks till my bday!...and 13 weeks till Aaron's bday lol :)
1) A baby pool for my cute little girl! She has been outside in a pool for the past 5(?) days! Love it! I wish we had a better pool or play place to take her to, but part of me is hesitant to spend too much time in the sun and part of me always feels guilty for being "away" from my desk during the day.
2) A boss who's wife has been pregnant 7 times so when I start crying during staff meeting because I am THAT mad at a band he doesn't bat an eye. Gotta love it. (It was nothing he or anyone else on staff did, a band made me look like an idiot and I was MAD)
3) A buddy for my kiddo tomorrow. I am watching above said boss (also my father in law)'s youngest daughter tomorrow...she is 6 weeks older than my daughter so I'm HOPING they play well together and I'm able to accomplish everything on my list. Glad I got most of my errands run today! :)
4) Pot roast. It smells soooo yummy! I'm waiting for hubs to get home so we can eat!
(Side note: Pot Roast WAS yummy!)
5) A chance to rock my kiddo to sleep this week. She's been having a rough week. She also had a hard time falling asleep tonight so her daddy went in and loved on her for awhile - I love seeing the two of them together.
6) FINALLY took my glucose test. No results yet but I was glad I found time to do it and that someone was willing to watch my kiddo while I sat in the waiting room :)
7) My adversion to chocolate is over. I'm so excited I can eat chocolate again. I know, I'm lame but I really like chocolate. I'm actually thinking about baking a cake as I type...but then again, the doc already warned me about oreos, I don't want to get another speech next week (my weight gain is still at a healthy place, just a big jump that month).
8) A new baby to prep for! I feel like I'm ready to go but there are still a lot of little things to do. Clothes are out, the pack and play is ready, we have a crib and crib matress coming...still worried/concerned about breastfeeding but we'll see how that goes!
9) Sleep. I'm going to bed early tonight. It is amazing how that extra hour of sleep keeps me more energized...and with two almost two years olds tomorrow I'm going to need it!
10) And last but not least, 29 weeks of pregnancy! 11 weeks till baby day, 15 weeks till Grace's bday! (and 9 weeks till my bday!...and 13 weeks till Aaron's bday lol :)
Waking up Frustrated.
I hate waking up frustrated. And I guess I wasn't frustrated when I woke up but it didn't take me long to get there. A couple emails of "well, it wasn't MY fault", a daughter who does not like correction, a sink of dishes and a floor that desperately needs swept pushed me over the edge.
It's my fault. Well, maybe not all of it. If I hadn't ignored my chore list again it wouldn't have gotten this bad. If I hadn't read blogs about moms who's kids clean their house I probably wouldn't have started comparing. If the emails hadn't felt like a personal attack I probably wouldn't have taken it so personally. If I remembered that cleaning and organizing were a ministry to my family and not something to check off the dishes probably wouldn't have bugged me.
So, I'm going to set off with a new attitude now. I will attack my work list and my home list and by the end of today hopefully my mind will be renewed!
It's my fault. Well, maybe not all of it. If I hadn't ignored my chore list again it wouldn't have gotten this bad. If I hadn't read blogs about moms who's kids clean their house I probably wouldn't have started comparing. If the emails hadn't felt like a personal attack I probably wouldn't have taken it so personally. If I remembered that cleaning and organizing were a ministry to my family and not something to check off the dishes probably wouldn't have bugged me.
So, I'm going to set off with a new attitude now. I will attack my work list and my home list and by the end of today hopefully my mind will be renewed!
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Grace's Birth Story
I wanted to get Grace's birth story in writing before having baby 2 because I did not want to blur details. It probably would have been better not to wait two years, but live and learn!
I was at work the night I went into labor. We got done with the "work" part of the night and were tearing down tables and chairs, cleaning up, etc. I was having contractions but wasn't sure they were "real"...finally about an hour later (12am on Wednesday morning) I decided I needed to get home, figure out what was going on and get prepared. (I do remember telling one of my coworkers that if I could clean while having contractions he could certainly get off his butt and lend a hand...that must have been the hormones talking).
When I got home and told hubs I thought I was in labor he told me he was going to bed and to wake him up when the contractions were close enough to go to the hospital (this was 5 days after my due date...a Wednesday, I was scheduled to go in to be induced Friday morning). Of course my paranoid self wasn't sure when I should go so I bounced on the exercise ball, timed the contractions and tried to mentally prepare, walked up the stairs about three times to wake him up but kept turning around...my bag had been packed weeks before :). Finally I woke him up around 4:30 and told him I thought maybe it was time and he asked if I had called the hospital. I talked to some on-call Doctor and told him my contractions were about 5 minutes apart. He said, yes, yes come in you are a-gonna have a baby! (I have no idea what nationality he was but it made me laugh pretty hard). So we went into the hospital, did the admissions thing, and went up to be monitored.
It seemed like we were in there forever but at this point I was NOT leaving without having a kid! Finally they moved us into a delivery room. Sometime in the morning - maybe 7am or 8am they started me on pitocin because I wasn't progressing very quickly. I think around that same time we finally called my mom - we figured we had plenty of time and might as well let her sleep. I waited until she got there to have an epidural because Aaron specifically said he did NOT want to be in the room when that happened and I did want to go as long as I could without medicine...but I also didn't want to remember just intense pain so I was willing to take the drugs. It took a half hour or so after she got there to get the medicine - I remember she stood by the monitor when I had a contraction and said "oh my, that was a rough one" or something to that effect...Aaron, quietly, said "yeah, she doesn't really like it when you give her the play by play." (I had mentioned to him earlier that I could feel them and didn't really need the comments!) Good husband.
I started crying like a school girl right before I got the epidural - I think it was just nerves and adrenaline. I had NO idea what to expect - I also asked the Dr giving me the medicine what the odds were that I would end up paralyzed and every other horror story I had heard. Then after the medicine kicked in I was good to go! We sat around talking, preparing, etc. I did make them turn A Baby Story off on TLC - I didn't think THAT would be a good idea! They kept telling me I needed to stay on my left side - never said why, only that I needed to lay on that side...and that the epidural medicine was liquid so it might not completely numb my right side...joy. (It turned out fine). It seemed like it took FOREVER for me to dilate but once I got to 5 it went pretty quick. Finally at 5pm I was ready to push (again, started bawling because I had NO idea what to expect.). I remember throwing the oxygen mask on the floor because I couldn't breath. I remember throwing up a little bit of orange jello. I remember getting REALLY mad at the Doctor and nurse. Apparently I was supposed to push while they counted to 10 three times for each contraction but I could NOT catch my breath. Some of the more memorable quotes were..."You get two 'I can'ts' and that was one of them." "You have to be the mom now, no one else is going to get this baby out." - These people I thought were nice and my friends got MEAN! :) My Doctor also tried to get me to touch the baby's head on her way out which I thought was just odd.
Lets see, finally at 6pm on the nose Miss Grace emerged into the world! They cleaned her up real quick while I got stitches (I tore pretty bad and by the way, local pain meds would have been welcome...ouch!) and then handed her over to me. She was BEAUTIFUL! And I remember thinking that although it hurt a lot and wasn't a walk in the park I would do it again in a heartbeat for this little girl.
Some things they didn't tell me was that she was face up (which I think contributed to the tearing) and that the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck - which was why they had me lay on my left side. When I was on my back or right side her heart rate dropped significantly.
I will probably come back to and edit this but again, I wanted to get something out before baby 2 is born because I don't want to forget the details or blur them together!
I was at work the night I went into labor. We got done with the "work" part of the night and were tearing down tables and chairs, cleaning up, etc. I was having contractions but wasn't sure they were "real"...finally about an hour later (12am on Wednesday morning) I decided I needed to get home, figure out what was going on and get prepared. (I do remember telling one of my coworkers that if I could clean while having contractions he could certainly get off his butt and lend a hand...that must have been the hormones talking).
When I got home and told hubs I thought I was in labor he told me he was going to bed and to wake him up when the contractions were close enough to go to the hospital (this was 5 days after my due date...a Wednesday, I was scheduled to go in to be induced Friday morning). Of course my paranoid self wasn't sure when I should go so I bounced on the exercise ball, timed the contractions and tried to mentally prepare, walked up the stairs about three times to wake him up but kept turning around...my bag had been packed weeks before :). Finally I woke him up around 4:30 and told him I thought maybe it was time and he asked if I had called the hospital. I talked to some on-call Doctor and told him my contractions were about 5 minutes apart. He said, yes, yes come in you are a-gonna have a baby! (I have no idea what nationality he was but it made me laugh pretty hard). So we went into the hospital, did the admissions thing, and went up to be monitored.
It seemed like we were in there forever but at this point I was NOT leaving without having a kid! Finally they moved us into a delivery room. Sometime in the morning - maybe 7am or 8am they started me on pitocin because I wasn't progressing very quickly. I think around that same time we finally called my mom - we figured we had plenty of time and might as well let her sleep. I waited until she got there to have an epidural because Aaron specifically said he did NOT want to be in the room when that happened and I did want to go as long as I could without medicine...but I also didn't want to remember just intense pain so I was willing to take the drugs. It took a half hour or so after she got there to get the medicine - I remember she stood by the monitor when I had a contraction and said "oh my, that was a rough one" or something to that effect...Aaron, quietly, said "yeah, she doesn't really like it when you give her the play by play." (I had mentioned to him earlier that I could feel them and didn't really need the comments!) Good husband.
I started crying like a school girl right before I got the epidural - I think it was just nerves and adrenaline. I had NO idea what to expect - I also asked the Dr giving me the medicine what the odds were that I would end up paralyzed and every other horror story I had heard. Then after the medicine kicked in I was good to go! We sat around talking, preparing, etc. I did make them turn A Baby Story off on TLC - I didn't think THAT would be a good idea! They kept telling me I needed to stay on my left side - never said why, only that I needed to lay on that side...and that the epidural medicine was liquid so it might not completely numb my right side...joy. (It turned out fine). It seemed like it took FOREVER for me to dilate but once I got to 5 it went pretty quick. Finally at 5pm I was ready to push (again, started bawling because I had NO idea what to expect.). I remember throwing the oxygen mask on the floor because I couldn't breath. I remember throwing up a little bit of orange jello. I remember getting REALLY mad at the Doctor and nurse. Apparently I was supposed to push while they counted to 10 three times for each contraction but I could NOT catch my breath. Some of the more memorable quotes were..."You get two 'I can'ts' and that was one of them." "You have to be the mom now, no one else is going to get this baby out." - These people I thought were nice and my friends got MEAN! :) My Doctor also tried to get me to touch the baby's head on her way out which I thought was just odd.
Lets see, finally at 6pm on the nose Miss Grace emerged into the world! They cleaned her up real quick while I got stitches (I tore pretty bad and by the way, local pain meds would have been welcome...ouch!) and then handed her over to me. She was BEAUTIFUL! And I remember thinking that although it hurt a lot and wasn't a walk in the park I would do it again in a heartbeat for this little girl.
Some things they didn't tell me was that she was face up (which I think contributed to the tearing) and that the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck - which was why they had me lay on my left side. When I was on my back or right side her heart rate dropped significantly.
I will probably come back to and edit this but again, I wanted to get something out before baby 2 is born because I don't want to forget the details or blur them together!
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