Estrada Update

ESTRADA UPDATE

photo from allposters.com


I have been absent from my blogging community for several months. Life can be very busy and I have my priorities straight. God-Husband-Children-Self-House-Community-Blog. Blog comes in 7th. Here's what we have been up to.
Mikey- We are gearing up to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary this month. I am more in love with him than ever. He is a wonderful, amazing man and I am privileged to spend a lifetime with him.

ring from applesofgold.com

Lauren-Just finished her first year of college. She had several setbacks with her health but finished with straight vowels!

Matthew-Bridged from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. He joined a wonderful Troop through our church and they have welcomed him with open arms. Two weeks ago he finished his first ever sleep away camp. He attended a week long camp in Lake Arrowhead. We are thankful for the leaders and counselors that helped him through this difficult transistion. We are thankful for all the prayers of friends and family that literally got him through the week minute by minute. Matthew is braver, learned many new skills and appears taller.

Emily-Finished 3rd grade this year and is spending all her time doing "projects". She comes up with a lot of things to do and to organize. I never know what I will wake up to. She also enjoyed a week of VBS through our church and swim lessons.
We have also been painting all the kids rooms one by one and have completed the majority of the painting.
This week we have a visitor. Lauren's cousin from Kansas is visiting for 1 week while Lauren, Curtis and Ryan went to the XGames four days in a row.

Don't Quit

Our wonderful Pastor Zac Nazarian challenged us with these words this past weekend. He begins his sermon by coming out and saying he has a word for someone or possible several people and that is Don't Quit! I wanted to jump up and ask "Which part?" Don't quit the de-cluttering, the diet, the attempts at effective prayer, trying to be a faithful servant, encouraging wife, patient mother, persistant homeschool teacher, dedicated cook, attentive driver all around town with loads of distraction or full time triage nurse? Which one? All of them? His sermon did not build on this premiss. He went on to talk about something else wonderful and appropriate.

But he had me thinking...and since then I have considered quitting so many things. This is only Tuesday. His words just keep coming back. I am continuing on the path that God has set me on. I don't think about quitting for the typical reasons. I just get pulled away from my focus. I allow myself to get pulled away from my focus. No matter how much I plan there is always a pebble on the path. This past week we had a one day notice that inspectors were coming to our home escorted by a family member. My house did not seem presentable enough to me. Everything was cast aside so we could marathon clean for one night. Unfortunately the inspector found termites and we had 2 days notice to clear all food stuffs including refrig and freezer, pack up kids, dogs, hamster, fish and spiders. Again all is thwarted for our new focus. While we were evacuated I got the stomach flu. Our family of 5 was in 1 hotel room. Not a nice place to have the flu. It was very difficult to get moved back in as I was trying to bounce back with very little bounce.

So now It is one week later and I feel like a month has passed. I forgot what my focus was at the beginning of last week. So it seems easier to just move on but wait.....Don't quit!!!

So now I need to regroup and put my feet back on the path. Don't quit. Back on my declutter plan...back to the diet. I have to weigh in tomorrow and am not looking forward to it. The potential shame could keep me away. Don't quit!

Have you heard of the JOY principle? Put Jesus first, then Others, then You.

So devotions come first-steeping my mind in the word of God and keeping up with my Bible Study

Husband and children-Cut my husband's hair and have Gatorade for Him for his fast tomorrow and his uniform ready for Jiu Jitsu.

Children-keep up the snuggle time, PE and really be present for them.

Me-Declutter both body and home.

For the decluttering I plan on starting with trash and vacuuming.
Back to Weight Watchers in the morning. No excuses. Don't quit!

Prayer

Picture from allposters.com entitled The Virgin of the Rocks, The Virgin with the Infant St John, Adoring-the Infant Christ.

Prayer

I have been reading 2 books which issue the same challenge. Is God trying to show me something? The challenge is to spend 1 hour per day in prayer. As I read about this idea I thought I would share the aspects of prayer considered in these books.

The thought of spending one hour of prayer seems to me a discipline in self-control. Trying to control my thoughts Heavenward for one hour would be difficult. I would be distracted and recentering my thoughts over and over. I started reading about a prayer plan that takes a few minutes to concentrate on different aspects of prayer. This I can do!

Over the next few days-weeks-months I thought I would focus on the different aspects of prayer. To begin we will start with Praise and Adoration. I thought the photo above was perfect. It is the Blessed Mother Mary adoring her precious Jesus. We, too, can adore and focus on Him frequently. My next post will be on specifics of Praise and Adoration. For now, let us purpose in our hearts to spend some time daily sitting at His feet.