Prayers and Thanksgiving

I have wanted to share some of my news with you for awhile now, but life has been so busy!

School has been overwhelming this quarter. I am taking Intro To Microcomputers and Intro to Healthcare. My computer class has been interesting, but it has been extremely labor intensive - I have 8-11 assignments due each week JUST for this class! I have barely been able to keep my head above water - but I have been able to get a 95 in this class even though it has been difficult. God is so good!

These are the last prerequisites that I need to finish - and last week I went to an information meeting for the LPN program and was able to FINALLY submit my application. This Friday I will be taking my Nurse Entrance Exam and if I get a good grade on it, coupled with my GPA, I should have a good chance at getting into the program that will be starting in April. I should hear whether I am accepted by the end of February or early March. I have been slowly taking classes these past 4 years to become a nurse. I have a long way to go yet, but I am on my way! By myself - I KNOW I would never have had the confidence to do what I have done - it is only with God's help - that I have made it this far! HE ALONE is the One who has carried me! I have been working so hard - but HE is the One who deserves all of the Glory!

My schedule has been intense - I work fulltime and go to classes two days a week. I also try to maintain my home the same way I did before taking all of this on. I get up in the morning at 4:00am and the FIRST thing I do - is sit down and read my Bible. I promised the Lord to ALWAYS start my day with His Word FIRST - and He has been so faithful - I have been able to finish ALL that has been required of me - even though some days I am EXHAUSTED!

I have been working a PRN (as needed) position at my work now for awhile - I like it because I am not beholden to a regular schedule. I have been able to make it work around my school schedule and homework. The only drawback has been that I struggle to get full time hours - which my husband needs me to have in order to help maintain our lifestyle. I have been praying that the Lord would provide these hours so that I could help my husband, he wasn't sleeping well - because he was so stressed about our finances. I received an offer from our Staff Coordinator for an ongoing shift - working a weekend option position as a Restorative Aide. God is so good - because this is the very position that I USED to have in Washington, and I LOVED it! The biggest drawback working as an Aide, is that you really dont have any extra time to spend with your patients. You barely have enough time to get the necessary things done during your shift. When you work with the elderly, you really NEED to be able to spend extra time with them! Some of them are so hungry for love and attention!

When this position became available, I questioned the Lord - was this something that He wanted me to do? It would mean giving up my Sunday worship time at my church - how COULD that be something that HE would want me to do!

I talked to our Staff Coordinator about my concerns and she put it into beautiful perspective for me - she told me "you know Kymber, God isn't only found in a church!"

She is SO right! I felt led to take the position - which has opened up SO many new doors of opportunity for me. I work 12 hour shifts on Saturday and Sunday now - I carry out the exercise programs with patients that the Physical Therapist and Occupational Therapists have on their schedule. Working 12 hour shifts provides me with the time that I have needed to spend with these precious people. I have been able to sit and listen to them, pray for, and spend time building relationships with my patients! Yesterday I was able to just sit and hold the hand of a woman who was in such distress. Her daughter had brought her a miniature Christmas tree to decorate for her room. She was so upset because it brought memories to her mind of Christmasses past - times spend in her beloved home with her husband who had passed away a few short years before. She had lost her home to a flood - and her family thought it best that she live where she would have continued care 24 hours a day - this dear woman longed to just go and visit her old home and her daughter (for whatever reason) wouldn't take her there to see it. She was SO depressed and nobody had the time to just sit and listen and hold her hand that day - but I DID!

Thanks be to God! This has been truly HIS doing! Even though I haven't been able to attend church now for the past two months, I feel closer to Him than I ever have - I KNOW that I am doing the job that He has called me to - and I feel so blessed to be given this opportunity!

Please pray for me and the people I care for! Pray that the Lord will bring me ever closer to Him - even though I am not able to have the fellowship/worship time with my Christian brothers and sisters right now. Please pray for me this Friday at 8:30 am as I will be taking the preentrance exam for the nursing program. Pray for the Lord's Will to be done in this area. Please pray that the Lord will continue to give me the strength to do all that needs to be done for my husband and son - to be able to meet all of their needs during this busy time in my life. And pray that the Lord will continue to preserve my health and keep me strong - that He will use the 5 hours of sleep I DO have - to rejuvenate my body to do His work!

Thank you dear ones - for ALWAYS being there to lift me up! I cherish my friendships with you! Please know that even though I may not always have the time to respond to you personally - you are ALL thought of often and I keep you in my prayers as well!

Blessings and hugs to you,

Happy Thanksgiving

Blessings to you and yours,

Blue Monday

Hi everyone,
I have the day off today so I thought I would participate with you all for Blue Monday!

Thank you Smiling Sally for organizing this fun event each week. To view other participants hop on over to her blog and join in the fun!

I have some wonderful new blue additions to my home that I would love to share with you - This first picture I have actually shared before...

This is a beautful blue quilt that I bought in Hawaii while we were visiting our daughter at her college in Oahu. I bought it because it reminded me of my mother. To recap the story, my brother and I decided to have a memorial service for my mom on the Big Island where my aunt lives. My mother LOVED Hawaii, so we decided to have a memorial service for her on the beach that she loved. As we were placing Lei's in the water on that special day, a beautiful sea turtle swam by. It is such a heartfelt memory for me that when I saw this quilt a few years later in Hawaii, I wanted to preserve the memory of that special day. It has sea turtles swimming throughout the quilt - It is such a special treasure to me - plus - it is blue - my favorite color that I spread throughout my house!

I have shared this picture of dining room chairs that I recovered, in a past post. To read the full post click here.

I have decided to try using some more of the toile material that I used for my chairs, in some curtains for the big bay window in our dining room.

I just tied the fabric up temporarily with ribbons for now - This is a work in progress that I won't be able to finish until after my classes are done for this quarter. I have been SO busy with schoolwork that I haven't been able do much else. I really should be finishing up homework today- but I needed a break - what better way to fill up my time then sharing a post with you today!

:-)

I wanted to see if the toile fabric would look okay here - or if it would be too busy - what do you think? I am not too sure if I will end up making curtains or just draping it into swathes like you see here - I could add dark blue tassels...any ideas? I would love suggestions!

Sorry that the pictures are so dark -I took them too early this morning.

Recently our neighborhood had a community garage sale and I found this great plate rack for $5.00! I have been looking for plates to use with it at my favorite Goodwill - I knew that if I was patient, I would find just what I was looking for.

Aren't these lovely? I got two of them for .99 cents apiece! I love it when that happens! If you haven't gone to your local thrift store lately I highly recommend it - you will be surprised at the treasures you can find there if you are patient. These are ironstone plates - on the back of them it reads"Johnson Brothers Stoke-On Trent England Coaching Scenes. Made in England."

I am sure that they would have cost more if I would have found them in an antique store. I love me a good bargain - don't you?

Here is another beautiful blue plate that I found at my favorite flea market here in Atlanta called "The Classy Flea" I am kicking myself for only picking up one of these - there were four of them available at $7.95 a piece. I went back to get more of them later and of course they were gone! ugh!

I have a pillar shelf in my kitchen that is a fun place to display some of my blue treasures. It is painted white and I felt that it didn't show my blue and white pieces to their best advantage so I followed a fellow bloggers suggestion and added some scrapbook paper to the shelves.

From this....

To THIS.... What do you think? My hubby thinks it is too busy...

I feel that it adds a needed splash of color - as you can see I LOVE the color blue!

Thanks for stopping by to visit me today for Blue Monday - I enjoyed sharing my blues with you!

Blessings on your day today,

Oh How He loves Us!

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16

Blessings to you this day as you bask in the love the Father has for you!

God's Call On Our Lives

We make calls out of our own spiritual consecration, but when we get right with God He brushes all these aside, and rivets us with the pain that is terrific to one thing we never dreamed of, and for one radiant flashing moment we see what He is after, and we say - "Here am I, send me."

This call has nothing to do with personal sanctification, but with being made broken bread and poured out wine. God can never make us wine if we object to the fingers He uses to crush us with. If God would only use His own fingers, and make me broken bread and poured-out wine in a special way! But when He uses someone whom we dislike, or some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit, and makes THOSE the crushers, we object. We must never choose the scene of our own martyrdom. If ever we are going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed; you cannot drink grapes. Grapes become wine only when they have been squeezed.

I wonder what kind of finger and thumb God has been using to squeeze you, and you have been like a marble and escaped? You are not ripe yet, and if God had squeezed you, the wine would have been remarkably bitter. To be a sacramental personality means that the elements of the natural life are presenced by God as they are broken providentially in His service. We have to be adjusted into God before we can be broken bread in His hands. Keep right with God and let Him do what He likes, and you will find that He is producing the kind of bread and wine that will benefit His other children.

Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest.

Blessings to you,

The Love Of A Father

The video that I want to share with you today is a very emotional one. It is about the love that a father has for a son and the lengths that he will go to realize the son's dream.

I am amazed at the depths that this beautiful father would go to for his child. He truly models God's Love in a very special way.

Watch and be inspired!



This video tells their story if you would like to learn more about this amazing father and son