can i lose my salvation?

I think Mark Driscoll does a great job of answering this question. Find it here (it’s only 4 minutes!) under Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer sermon series.

whodunnit?

I came across a quote in my seminary wives notebook yesterday. The only problem? I didn’t cite who said it! I love this quote. It sounds very Susanna Wesley. Does anyone know for sure?

“She says I shall now have one mouth the more to fill and two feet the more to shoe, more disturbed nights, more laborious days, and less leisure or visiting, reading, music, and drawing. Well! This is one side of the story, to be sure, but I look at the other. Here is a sweet fragrant mouth to kiss; here are two more feet to make music with their pattering about my nursery. Here is a soul to train for God; and the body in which it dwells is worthy all it will cost, since it is the abode of a kingly tenant. I may see less of friends, but I have gained one dearer than them all, to whom, while I minister in Christ’s name I make a willing sacrifice of what little leisure for my own recreation my other darlings had left me. Yes, my precious baby, you are welcome to your mother’s heart, welcome to her time, her strength, her health, her tenderest cares, to her lifelong prayers!”

24 weeks

I know I just updated last week. And I only have one thing to report. As of yesterday, thanks to the worst indigestion I am pretty sure I have ever had in my life (and a whole pack of Rolaids later), I can cross 4 foods/drinks and/or the combination of 4 foods/drinks off my list of acceptable foods/drinks:

1. Starbucks (namely Double Chocolaty Chip Fraps)
2. Taco Bell (namely the steak chalupa)
3. Carbonated beverages (namely Mountain Dew)
4. Candy (namely Gummi Bears)

I am not proud of the way I ate yesterday. Please believe me it is not how I eat every day. Noah and I were grocery shopping after church and I took the junk food a little too far. I know some of you health nuts are probably having aneurysms right now=)

Oh- and a couple pics. By this point, I am sure it is clear where (in my bedroom) I take all my pregnancy pictures this time around:

pointless…

I know. But fun. Since I am eating a late lunch at the computer, I thought I’d do something fun.

MY TO-DO LIST TOMORROW
1. Enjoy my hubby’s day off!
2. Finalize yard sale prices.
3. Make meals.
4. Enjoy NOT having school!
5. Go to the park- we always go to the park on Fridays!
6. Drink a WHOLE lot of water.
7. Take a nap!

SNACK THAT I ENJOY

Pizza (when there is only one choice, pizza always wins!) And, yes, it can be a snack as well!

THINGS I WOULD DO IF I WERE A MILLIONAIRE
In no particular order . . .
1. Totally stock our savings
2. Pay off ALL debt
3. Buy a new car…a big car. We could be in a Duggar van in a few years LOL!
4. Buy our dream home…in cash!
5. Go on all the vacations we have always dreamed of
6. Put away for college educations- all their college educations!
7. Support all the ministries we could possibly support!
8. Give, give, give!!!! And give some more! David has this dream of being able to help kids through seminary so they don’t incur debt…sound familiar?

PLACES I’VE LIVED(in order)

Ashland, KY
Ironton, OH (for like a month)
Williamsburg, KY
Corbin, KY
Louisville, KY
Raton, NM

“the” yard sale

David and I have been prepping for one massive yard sale for months now. We have never done one before and have no idea what we’re doing!

I am looking for any advice/pointers that anyone would have for us! Things to do, not to do…any pricing info, bargaining info…

I’ll take ANYTHING!!! Also, would this be a good time to introduce Noah to saving, giving, spending, etc. by doing a lemonade stand? Or is he still too young for that? He’ll be 5 (ahh…that can’t be!) in December.

tasty tasty

I whipped up some lemon squares this morning. They weren’t for any occasion- except that I am hungry 24/7. I thought I would share.

Lemon Squares

Crust:

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups butter, softened

Filling:

6 eggs
1 3/4 cups white sugar
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup lemon juice
3 drops yellow food coloring

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an enameled metal pan. Combine crust ingredients and pat dough into pan. Bake 15 minutes. Mix together filling ingredients until frothy. Pour lemon mixture over hot crust. Bake 20 more minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Dust with powdered sugar. Cut into squares.

i did it! i did it!

Hooray! I heard I should be drinking half my body weight in water…and I did it!

70 oz. of water later, at 7:02 p.m., I did it! I hope it all filters through before bedtime=)

And now I am off to watch The Biggest Loser…our favorite!

a “knowable” God

David is quite the fan of the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry, or CARM. He gets a lot of his information for counseling from them and has been utilizing their website for quite some time. Recently, he has been researching different beliefs and brought home a wealth of information last night on Kabbalah. I hadn’t paid much attention to it (it’s not like I’m busy or anything), but this morning I picked up the papers to put in our bedroom. I caught glance of a list of Kabbalah terms and the first one I saw was this:

Ein Sof: “the Unknowable God”

How sad.

No, I’m serious. My heart sank. At this point, all I claim to know about Kabbalah is that Madonna likes it and, now, the definition of this word. Maybe those who follow the teachings of Kabbalah have other gods as well. I don’t know. But I do know this:

I serve a knowable God.

Just like Paul in Acts 17, I want them to know about my knowable God. In verses 23-31 it reads:

“For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.  The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘In him we live and move and have our being’;as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Wouldn’t you have loved to have been a fly on the wall as Paul addressed the Athenians? The Epicureans didn’t believe that God would ever become involved in the affairs of mere man. With that in mind, can you imagine the response? And can you imagine Paul’s enthusiasm? Back in verse 16 we see that as Paul entered Athens his spirit was grieved by the pagan idolatry he observed. I would love to be able to hear the candor and passion that Paul must have spoken with as he noted such a sad and sorrowful portrait of men, who didn’t deny the existence of God, but thought He too grand and far off to have anything to do with their lives!

What good news Paul had for the Athenians! We see in verse 34 that some “joined him and believed.” What Paul saw is not far off from what we see today. In fact, it’s probably identical. What a blessed and needed reminder that we serve a knowable God. And it’s not that those around us don’t believe in Him as well. In many cases, they are misinformed and perhaps the Holy Spirit wants to use each of us to show others who in fact our God truly is.

23 weeks

today! Hooray!

A pic or two. As always, my hubby is always at work when I am ready to take a picture so I end up in front of a mirror taking it myself. Sorry for the poor quality:

Yes, I’m well aware my bed’s not made. We had school today and I’ll be pricing yard sale stuff until I die.

As close as anyone will get to my sweet Kaedmon for now:

I don’t do as well as my dear pregnant buddy Kacie at updating but I’ll let you know the first things that come to mind:

• My dreams are crazy, as usual. I have dreamed in phonics (am I doing too much school?). I dreamed that my orthodontist’s wife had a sunglass hut in the back of his office and each patient got their own pair of shades following each appointment with the orthodontist. I have dreamed horrifyingly- vivid nightmares about the deaths of two of my three children (not funny, I know). Point being, with this and every other pregnancy, my dreams are N-U-T-S.
• I love to eat. My gallbladder-less tummy doesn’t like me for that. I love pizza. For the same reasons, my tummy hates me. I love chocolate. You get the point. Due to these facts, my diet is a pretty well-planned out regimen of low-fat everything. My favorites: cheddar and sour cream baked lays, pepperoni pizza or meatball lean pockets, apples, chocolate milk, Quaker Oatmeal Squares, Eating Right brand low-fat waffles, smoothies, pretzels (with peanut butter if I am feeling brave), and turkey (breast and bacon).
• I have gained about 10 pounds.
• Sleeping is getting a little more difficult. Peeing is the first problem (I am averaging 4-5 trips a night- I know you wanted to know that). The little wiggle worm inside of me is the other. He cramps up into little balls at night and sometimes all I can do to sleep is to sit straight up with 3 pillows behind me.
• Kaedmon is starting to put on performances. I can sit back and watch my tummy form all kinds of shapes at any given time. Too fun!
• I have had quite a few contractions. I don’t really sit down during the day. I don’t drink much water. I am being my own critic right now and noting that I know I need to.
• The kinks in my back are getting a wee-bit out of control. I may need my first-ever prenatal massage *hint hint* to the hubby (who I am not even sure reads this blog).
• Finally, we are undoubtedly going to be the parents of a 4th son. Our first ultrasound was a wee-bit inconclusive (the OB even agreed with me). We have had the chance to have another one done and, let’s just say, they ain’t no mistaken this time around (did anyone catch that Kentucky grammar?)

We can’t wait to meet you, Kaedmon Gatliff King! Only 17 weeks to go!

they weren’t lying!

A week or so ago, I got an email from Facebook. It said:

“Thanks for taking the FilterForGood pledge on Facebook! I’m contacting you on behalf of Brita to let you know you’ve won a FilterForGood prize pack. If you’ll send me your mailing address, we’ll send the package to you soon. Congrats, and thank you for making the commitment to make a difference by giving up bottled water!”

I hesitated to send them our mailing address. I was so worried it was a scam. I googled the lady’s name who sent the email and looked up Brita’s FilterForGood website. Sure enough, everything checked out. I sent our mailing address back and looked what showed up today:

Woohoo! I am glad we have stuck to the pledge (almost 100% of the time) or I would have felt so bad for accepting the prize package. Sign up for the FilterForGood pledge! The prize packs are valued at $100 and David and I are still on cloud nine. We had both lost our old Nalgene bottles.

P.S. They also sent a $5 off coupon for a Brita pitcher. I would be glad to send it to anyone who wants it. That’s a great coupon!