Names

My assignment for college class this week was to look up the meaning of my name. The teacher discussed how important the meanings of names are to God. Examples were given of the name changes from Abram to Abraham (A great father to Father of many nations) and Jacob to Israel (supplanter which means to take the place of especially through force or scheming to Prince of God; contender for God, strives with God).
I think I was just discussing name meanings on the trip to the convention. We named our kids knowing their specific name meanings.
Ethan Curtis - Ethan means firm/strong and steadfast; Curtis means curteous.
Elizabeth Catherine - Eliz means set apart for God; Catherine means pure.
Jesse Ray - Jesse means God exists and wealthy; Ray means counselor or mighty protection and guards wisely.

Curtis Brent - Curt means curteous; Brent means steep hill or hilltop

I had to look mine up again to make sure there wasn't something I was missing...
Nope! still the same
Kim means Leader of the warriors or chief of war
Lea had several different meanings - Tired (hebrew), bringer of good news (greek) and goddess of the canoe makers (hawaiian) LOL

I have always said I am the tired leader...... wonder if God could change my name for me too?

I encourage you to look up your name.... you might be surprised at how accurate it is. :) Just ask B-

sugar sugar

I'm kind of disgusted this morning. I got up and left to go on my walk and I got 1/2 way there and it started raining. Now is when I wish I had a treadmill. Grrrr. So I stopped at the Gateway Market to get some organic milk and look around.

Then I came back home and had a smoothie and some fresh bread that I bought last night at my meeting. One of the ladies makes homemade whole wheat honey bread. Oh WOW is it ever good. I should have gotten more than just one loaf.

The meeting was on essential oils and how to use them on the family. My mom talked me into buying the business package so we can get them wholesale now. I'm sure it will save a lot of money in the long run.

I think the most interesting thing I learned was about sugar. Just plain white sugar......
It is processed 3 times. First time through it gets processed with lyme (toxic). The second time through it gets processed with CO2 (carbon dioxide = also toxic). The third time through it is processed with...get this... pork albumin which is part of pork blood. Because this is all toxic and not good for our bodies, it gets in the blood stream and the immune system is overstimulated and suppresses the immune system.... so we are more susceptible to sickness and aches and pains, etc... because our body cannot fight off pathogens (yucky germs & viruses).

I mean... I knew refined sugar was bad for you, but that really put it into perspective. The speaker is such a firm believer in no sugar that she had free bottles of agave syrup and packets of xylitol to hand out to try instead.

surgery

Well, here I am, up in the middle of the night AGAIN. I slept great for a while though. Nice to be home after this weekend. I went to the Joyce Meyer Women's Conference 2007! It was indescribable. I feel like I had heart surgery or something.
TD Jakes shared the first night we were there and it was like he was talking you into something you already knew you wanted... a better life... but in order to get that life you had to have a new heart. Not that the old one was bad, but that it was weak and not pumping the blood correctly....
Then the next couple of days was the actual surgery taking place. It was painful to see the heart you think was doing the job it was supposed to was so weak and underused. Then there were tears and tears and more tears. After that was recuperation and rehab..... to realize I have to move again and get back to work after all of this.
Probably the hardest thing for me right now is that the presence of God was so awesome it was like being on morphine the whole time.... and when you are on morphine you don't remember a whole lot about the surgery and the pain... but I don't want to forget.

So that's my summary of the conference. I'm still trying to recuperate and process the whole thing.... but I know that I feel more alive and I know my life is different now.... and the morphine hasn't quite worn off and I'm still feeling the effects.

Revelation

Very busy weekend at work.... seems like my patients were very needy. I was able to sit down a couple of times and got out on time, so I didn't have to stay late and chart. For that I was thankful.
One of my questions for God this weekend was: Why do men start looking for other women when their wives are pregnant? You would think at a vulnerable time in a woman's life, men would get a clue. Yes, maybe it makes them more moody. It disgusts me. Cheating on your wife while she is pregnant with your own child and you made her that way in the first place. The only thing I can figure, is that they are running away from the responsibility they will have and don't want to deal with it.

I was watching TBN this morning for a little bit and received a great revelation.....
They were talking about how Adam and Eve were kicked out of the garden and an angel was placed there with a flaming sword. I've always been told or believed that the angel was put there so they couldn't get back into the garden. The guy was talking about how the jewish people believe that God knew that man was going to be sent out into the darkness so he put the angel there with the flaming sword so it would light the way back to where his presence was. Isn't that great?
Yes we are sinners - but God's greatest desire is that we will come back to Him. And if you really look back on your life, don't you see where God has flagged you down with his light?
"You screwed up again!!! but look! I'm still here waiting for you."

I went to Cato's yesterday!!! All I bought were some earrings that matched the top I had on, but that was only because the shirt I was going to buy........ Some other lady bought it right out from under my nose! Oh the nerve! It was my favorite shirt too.....:( the shiny purple one with the pink, blue and coral and gold stripes....from the fashion show. Bummer. I guess I didn't need it.
Some crazy people from church went with me.... we had a lot of fun. It was my day off and I really wasn't going to go shopping. Really. Edgey got off early and we went out for a very late lunch cause I haven't seen much of him lately. I am really going to have to make a point of it to spend quality time with him in the weeks coming up. With my college classes starting up again, it makes for some time challenges.

We did a proverbs lesson with the kids the other night.
Prov 10:26 As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that send him.
Since I have been doing my dietary changes, I have been drinking some raw apple cider vinegar with my meals.... (when I remember).... anyway, the stuff is soooooo nasty it is like a shot of Jack Daniels or Everclear.... if anybody remembers what that is like.....
For the lesson, I had all the kids try a tiny taste of the vinegar so they would understand the verse a little bit better. They still remember the jist of the verse very well. The story that went with it was about a little boy who kept piddling around everytime mother sent him to do something. In the end they missed out on some fun because it took too long to get work done.
Boy I remember that verse very well.... and will use it next time my kids are goofing off when they are supposed to be doing something.

The Mandatory reporting class was not boring! Hallelujah! It was actually very interesting because the lady that was teaching it actually worked at DHS and had great stories and discussion. Some of it was very sad though. There were pictures of kids and babies with horrible bruising and burns, etc...

I didn't walk yet today. The kids got up at 6:50. What's up with that? So we got breakfast and did school and now they are playing the play station. Ethan, however, is still asleep. He's been having a lot of problems with his allergies and benedryl is not helping him stay awake. I am so glad he is not in public school. I can't imagine how sick he would be sometimes if he isn't able to get his rest. That is the good thing about homeschooling.... and since the other 2 are already done it will be easier to focus on him.... but he better hurry up and wake up or he will have to do his stuff at grandma's house!

I'm not sure what I am doing today. I guess we don't have worship practice tonight.
I'm not really in the mood to do anything. I don't feel like shopping but I don't feel like staying around here and cleaning or anything either. What kind of mood am I in? Well, I had leftover spaghetti for breakfast if that tells you anything. :) I know, I am wierd. And I killed it in the microwave too. What's wrong with me? Part of the problem is that I am too cold to have a smoothie. What am I going to do this winter for my breakfasts? I guess I could have hot cereal. I wish coffee was nutritious.

KP

Went for a walk this a.m. again. I was freezing .... should have checked the temp better I guess. I was 3/4 of the way around the lake before I was getting at a decent temperature. Time to get out the sweat pants. I did have on a sweat shirt. What always amazes me is the people that wear the sweats when it is over 80 degrees. Today there were people in winter coats already, including the oriental couple. They were sitting on the bench today. The lady at one end of the bench and the man at the other.... what's up with that? No bag lady today but I did see her clear over on the SE side of Des Moines the other day while I was driving - dragging her cart around. The only thing left that is pretty is the bunch of yellow flowers along the river trail and some weeds that are flowering. I am waiting for the leaves to start turning now. The heron was along the river again. Hardly anyone was walking today. I only saw about 5 people.

The kids are finally getting up. I took Elizabeth swimming at the wellness center last night and watched her swim with my mom. I still can't find my bathing suit. I think she was totally wiped out after that. Otherwise, she would have been up early as usual. It's been so quiet this morning. Hmmmmm.

I have a class today at 1-4 at Broadlawns. Have to do my mandatory reporting class that we have to do every 5 years for my job. That was the only place I could get it done quickly... that's another long story though. I hope it is not boring. Usually its a 2 hour video. :(

We have to watch a video at church tonight too. We are starting evangelism classes from "The Way of the Master" with Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort. I am kind of excited about that though. I took a couple of tests on spiritual gifts over the last two weeks and found I am pretty darn low on the evangelism scale. I think I better work on that.... not one of my gifts at this point in time. But really, is it a gift? Or is it a skill? We are all called to proclaim God's good news. Just some thoughts.