A Triple Blessing

Welcome back!

I’ve always heard it said  that things occur in sets of  three.  Both in the case of good news and bad news.  For the past couple of years I have had a lot of friends who have found out they were expecting.  With both of my last pregnancies, there have been three of us pregnant, myself and two of my friends.

Likewise, I have witnessed many times in our community the deaths of people happening in threes, as well as the “Murphy” incidents occurring in our home in a set of “three” more than once.  It is just something about that magically number three.

This time my set of three was a triple blessing in more ways than one.  First of all this past week I had three wonderful blessings to occur, beginning on Sunday night with the sponsorship to Blissdom09 this coming weekend by Kelly McCausey and Mom’s Talk Network.

Followed by finding out on Monday that I was accepted into the distance learning program at Liberty University through their theological seminary where I had recently applied to finally finish my Master’s degree.

And finally the big news that I received on Wednesday which I have been dying to share but had to wait until all the details were clear and a contract was signed.  This news was overwhelmingly exciting.  As it will give me the tools that I need to accomplish several things that I have had goals set for months and months regarding another set of three, including finishing an application to join Proverbs 31 Ministries speaker’s team, having a professional speaker’s one sheet created for myself as a speaker, and help  landing a book deal for the “prayer journal and devotional guide” I have been working on.

The blessing is this I have been awarded a scholarship from the Cecil Murphy Scholarship Foundation. This scholarship will pay for the services from Kathy Willis, publicist and editor who will edit materials for me for my application as well as for my speaker’s one sheet and my book proposal.

It also includes my speaker’s one sheets being professional designed and printed by Tekeme Studios. This is a huge blessing for me that will allow me to achieve my goals and do so at the level of professionalism that I was hoping for. This was all made possible by the efforts of Kathy Willis and the generosity of Cecil Murphy. A huge thanks to both of you.

Photo credit : Lolly Knit

A Father’s Blessing

A couple of days ago, as I was getting ready for my day a friend of mine said a prayer that I would be blessed that day.   I know I receive blessings everyday, but this day the blessing would turn out to be a little different.  You see, I have been struggling recently with alot of anxiety over financial worries as well as medical issues with my children.  All of it was just sort of closing in on me.  I’d been in a real funk and was desperate to get out of it. I wanted and still do want my money issues fixed but at the point I was 2 days ago I was just about willing to do anything I could to fix them. You see that’s how I am, I”m a fixer. I want things to go smoothly so I try to fix “everything” and as many of you know in life not everything is fixable at least not overnight.

So, at this point I was ready to go out and get a job, outside of the home, not because I wanted to, but because I was feeling like that was my only option.  No, it was definitely not what I wanted.  I after all love being home with my children and I after all am passionate about my “job”  of writing, speaking and ministering, but felt it just wasn’t paying the bills like I wanted it to.

One of the most difficult parts of working from home is that my family (meaning my parents) has never seemed to really “get” what it is that I do. And because I have not chosen to follow the career path I had talked about going down in high school and back when I was living under their roof, I felt my parents were disappointed in me.

Well, this thought changed a couple days ago, when after my friend prayed I’d receive a blessing.  I did.  I was having a conversation with my daddy about my situation.  You see it was not until earlier this week that I admitted to myself, my husband and my mom and dad that I was having anxiety issues (this is not new to me I’ve had them before and will again).  So, he and I were discussing what I could do and I mentioned the idea of the “job”. He answered by telling me that I already had a job.   I was a writer, I was good at what I did. He actually told me I was talented, I had potential and that I could do whatever  I wanted with it.  He knows that I want to write and publish a book, I also shared with him about my ebooks, and other ideas I had.  He agreed they were all good ideas, and then said, “So what are you waiting for? What’s holding you back?”  I admitted that time and the distraction of my children being under foot 24/7 was one big issue. (They are precious and I love them but they make it hard to concentrate.)  We resolved it by deciding to let my mother in law watch them at couple of days a week so I could work uninterrupted and focus.

Then, he said, “what else?”  I then admitted that “fear” was my only other stumbling block.  He then asked me, “Haven’t you stepped out on faith before?”  To which I responded, “well of course”.  So he told me, “Close your eyes and step.”

Honestly, to me those were the perfect words, just what I needed to hear.  Months worth of worries seemed to fade, as well as over 2 years worth (that’s how long I”ve been working from home) of wondering if he understood and was proud of me faded.  It was as if he had just giving me “his blessing.”  And now, I’m ready to take that step I need to take.

Monday Motivation

Yes, it’s Monday already and I”m doing another Monday Motivation.  Today I did NOT have a hard time getting motivated.  Last night, I was given an idea, I hope it was from the Lord, and I just didn’t come up with it and begin to run with it without his blessing. But, Luckily I am still praying on it to make sure it’s something I should be pursuing.  I won’t reveal it to you all just yet, but I am very excited about the possibilities.

So, since I researched my idea until almost midnight last night I was really looking forward to getting up this morning and being able to do some more research and work on some of my follow up ideas.  Luckily, this gave me motivation to get some writing done this AM.  I got all my articles out of the way in the 2 hrs set aside for writing that I have each morning while my son is at preschool.  My normal routine is to do my devotional time for 30 minutes and then write for 2 hrs.  This morning I was able to do that and it felt good.

So, I hope the rest of my week goes as well…. here is my schedule:

Monday – Vaccum mop living/dining area, clean kitchen, do spring project – clean/organize linen closet.

Tuesday -  Tomorrow morning I have to take Lily to the health dept for an appt. at 8 am (dread).

Pay a couple bills in town.

Write 5-6 articles.

clean/vacuum my kid’s rooms

Clean out Baker’s closet .

Baker’s Tee Ball Practice – 5:30 pm

Wednesday – Write 5 articles.

Clean my bedroom/bathroom.

Label all supplies in office closet.

Thursday - write 5 articles.

2 pm appt with baby doctor.

Lunch with hubby.

Grocery shopping/errands.

Friday - Write 5 articles.

Interview with Sharon of New Urban Mom Podcast

compose my ezine and set up in WahmCart

create a new Mom-Daughter Connection podcast

Baker’s tee ball game at 6pm

Movie Night with my Friend who is on bed rest  at 7pm

Yep, it looks like I’ll be having a busy week.