Stressed?

Questions to ask yourself daily.....and if your me, to ask yourself 3x daily.
by Deborah Smith Pegues

1. Did I take the time to become clear on the nature and core reason why a certain stiuation threatens to stress me today?

2. Did I strenghten my spritual foundation by connectin with God through prayer, Bible reading and meditation?

3. Did I avoid foods that provide NO nourishment?

4. Did I sleep at least seven to eight hours that night before?

5. Did I engage in a physcial activity for at least 20-30 minutes?

6. Did my actions align with my core values relative to God, Family, etc.........

7. did I schedule my day to include only a few versus numerous major takes?

8. Did I spend within my budget?

9. Did I resist the temptation to do wrong in any way? ahhh....resist the temptation, today?

10. Did I make an effort to enjoy today rather than focusing totally on the future?

11. Did I say no to a request that would have distracted me from my goal or purpose?

12. Did I exhibit flexibility, even though I wanted things done my way?

13. Did I delegate a task rather than doing it myself?

14. did I evaluate my expectation when someone frustrated me?

15. Did I attempt to resolve conflict today by running away, exploding, or handling it God's way?

16. Did I make a decision to forgive and release the past?

17. Did I take appropriate breaks today?

My suggestion is that you print these out and have one by your bedside for the morning before you get out of bed, one in a kitchen area and one in your work area or at your office. At least that's my plan anyway, these are incredible tools for a life well lived! And if you didn't know I'm definately always looking to improve mine.

I succumbed......

my facebook name: myra micah periwinkle jackson or johnson, I was so tired when I joined I don't know if I spelled periwinkle with one "r" or two so you might have to try it either way. What is the exact periwinkle spelling and definition anyway?

Personal info: when I was little my dad would call me myra micah periwinkle pickle star johnson and i wanted that to be my facebook name but they said it was too long......jerks :)

friend me! I think i have a new addiction :)

Simple Yet Profound.....Clutter......

I have a friend that just posted this today.....i think she was simply just trying to recount her day for her records and her family and friends but it just resonated with me in a way that I thought I wanted to share it here for my records and those interested enough to read it. I emailed her to let her know how much this post spoke to me.....this is so my life over the past 6-8 months....beginning with the mess part all the way to the end.....except for one thing, I have a love/hate relationship with Sundays(some of you will understand that)....Saturdays is now my ultimate favorite day of the week(after all Sat. is the Sabbath anyway right? :) .....and sometimes SUNDAYS, just depends :) Ok, I digress...as you read, take careful note of the bold part near the bottom of her post, read it a few times and tell me what that says to you. I'll post more on what it says to me after I've had some sleep, which isn't happening as much as i need it to be. w/o further adoo:

"I love Sunday's! Usually it is a day for rest and spending time with family and friends. Though part of today I spent doing just that the other part I had a mess. This morning before Church I thought I would hang up some clothes in the closet - harmless right - well as I went on to the next job that needed attention I heard a big crash. I knew before I looked what had happened.
I knew that someday that rod would say enough is enough - You have to many clothes - lots that you don't even wear. Get rid someone else could be putting them to good use. So after Church, lunch at Mom's and a friends birthday party I came home to a mess. By the way the birthday party was great - Her girl had a Girls Birthday Band - they were so cute. We had cake and ice cream of course - my kids always love that. Even though Hannah didn't want to leave we had to come home a face the mountain of clothes waiting for us.
It's good to go though things every so often because we really don't realize all the stuff we pile up over time. I think God is just telling me Clean up Get rid and Be happy. Sometimes we can get so cluttered in our lives that we miss out on the joy of living and God's grace. I pray that I will be more thankful, helpful to my friends and joyful. God loves me and you what more do we need.

Keep looking ahead and loving each other
and God will take care of us,"

Ok, I'm off to try and get to sleep AGAIN! remember comment on what you think the bold part(or any part of her post really) means or what it means to/for you.....lets get a dialogue going as b/ would say!! b/ whatcha think dude, profound or am i just a few fries short of a happy meal? Or maybe being slow and REALLY hard headed is my problem....i'll catch up ya'll just wait for me and cheer me on :)
Peace out and prayerfully to sleep land, Lord willing!

Top 10 Reason to Sell Everything You Own and Be Willing to go to the Mission Field

10. it's time to declutter

9. it's just stuff anyway

8. it's time to go "see" the world

7. it helps get you out of debt

6. it supplies lots of other people with things they want or need

5. it teaches your kids to hold "things" loosely and "give" willingly

4. we didn't need, want or care for most of that stuff anyway

3. it frees you up

2. you might not have to go after all AND the number 1. reason to sell everything you own and be willing to go to the Mission Field.......

1. it won't be hard to find christmas presents for everyone this year!

it's good to have a sense of humor about these things ya know.....not easy but necessary.

I Actually Won Something!

Ok, not much has actually made me smile lately but this did........today or yesterday I can't remember which I get the following email, entitled: YOU WIN

Hey Myra, you won the giveaway. Congratulations. I'm sure that I should have your mailing address somewhere, but I don't know where. Can you e-mail that to me? Thanks. Hope you guys are doing well.
b/

Here's what I won: http://th.eophil.us/ Scroll down 4 or 5 posts to the post entitled Book Giveaway AND mark this site on your reader cause this guy has some good stuff to say, read about and discuss!! Not to mention HE GIVES STUFF AWAY FREE!!! AND PAYS THE POSTAGE! What a guy, what a guy....and thanks Kirsten for laughing....matt said you guys probably just wanted us to have it, like maybe we needed to read it or something. I guess that means he(matt) didn't think my caption was very funny...oh well, his wasn't either :) I'm just stoked I won and it made me smile, that's a feat lately, ask matt. Thanks /'s!!!

Is this the Moment?

"What if you knew somewhere in front of you was a moment that would change your life forever, a moment rich with potential, a moment filled with endless possibilities? What if you knew that there was a moment coming, a divine moment, one where God would meet you in such a way that nothing would be the same again? What if there was a moment, a defining moment, where the choices you made determined the course and momentum of your future? How would you treat that moment? How would you prepare for it? How would you identify it?"
From Chasing Daylight by Erwin McManus


I believe we are in the midst of the moment, but it is hard to see. I can't wait to look back on it. May God lead our choices today and onward!

God's Playground

There really is so much out there to discover!

I've been reading lately on the Charlotte Mason stlye of homeschooling. I have attempted to read some of her stuff over the years always to get discouraged with it due to the depth of the reading. She was way more intellectual then I will ever be, yet I am continually drawn back to her methods because I believe them to be so true. So this year, I am back again trying to glean and apply what I can to our daily routine. One of the biggest challenges this week has been to have the children get from 4-6 hours a day outside. We've always been out-doorsy but if you think about your day and all you do 4-6 hours outside is a great deal of time outdoors. However, I must say since Sat. we've accomplished it!

We are also incorporating nature walks into our daily routine, taking our nature journals along to jot down what we see, hear, discover or would like to draw, trace or rub drawing. This week we are studying leaves.

Wonderworks TN

We got away for two days recently and were blessed with tickets to wonderworks. it was a cool discovery-type museum and had a dinner show. The dinner show would have been good, but it was made much better by the fact that we were involved in a few parts of the show. All the kids started the show up on the stage for a fun rendition of the hokie-pokie. Then I was brought up with four other guys and we were seated on four buckets and told to lean back on each other, then they took the buckets out. It was very strenuous, but I'm sure funny for the audience to see us straining. Josiah was the hit of the night as he was brought up and used to help the guy balance spining plates. As you can see he was holding three plates at one time. The funnest part happened before that as the guy was preparing Josiah to balance the first plate on his finger, he was trying to get him to keep his finger straight and firm, so in the process had Josiah looking away and the guy started acting like he was going to put his nose on Josiah's finger and get his nose picked. When he was done and we were all rolling in laughter. The guy told Josiah what he was doing and asked "Is this the finger you use to pick your nose?" Josiah said "No." Then the guy asked "so what finger do you use?" and Josiah proceeded to show the whole audience his middle finger. Ahhh, the innocence of our kids. I wish I would have got that on video, it would have made a youtube favorite.

Another Trip to.......

The Largest Tree House in the World! If you'd like to go with us we'll head out from our house around 3pm tomorrow (SUNDAY). Pack a picnic dinner if you want. Should return back around dark.

Late Birthday Post

Some very sweet friends of mine gave an a GREAT birthday present a few weeks back....a swedish massage....and it was the bomb!!! I recommend it, highly...here's the site....
http://www.transformyourself.massagetherapy.com/

And while I'm remembering my great, relaxing, birthday present here's a few shots that a friend took that night....Thanks Toree! Kirsten and Coty, can you send me the pics you took?!?

What John-John was Singing for Breakfast

I took alittle longer to get up and going this morning. Around 8am we started talking about eating breakfast and this is what John-John started singing...."we are hungry...we are hungry..." I just had to find the song and include it....nice way to start the morning!

I had fun acting like a kid again today

Got up, made french toast then loaded up the van and headed out.

Matthew Woodard joined us for a hike up to the quarry on Viola Hwy behind a friends house. yea, that's where we took the pic back in the fall that is at the top of our blog. When we went before, we saw the caves, but not the lake. this time we found the lake, and weren't expecting to swim, but we couldn't resist, so we jumped in. Matthew, James, John-John and I swam to the other side. I helped the boys on the way over, then told them I'd pay them a buck if they would swim all the way back by themselves. They both did it. Then we explored the caves and headed back home for lunch.

Got home for lunch and naps, then went swimming for the last time at the Gilley Pool this summer. Our family has all gotten into the diving boards for the last few days. Myra has gotten back to doing one and a halfs, and flips with twists. I've had fun with flips, back flips and trying to get my dive from the high board looking good. All the kids go off the two lower boards, but I have to get Rachel after she jumps in. the rest go at it. Johnathan loves the high dive. Bekah is doing great at swimming and Rachel is close. I hate that we have to wait till next year.

This evening we had some people over for my Birthday dinner. I grilled out burgers, dogs, and Ribs. it was good. Vicki made a great chocolate cake and the fosters brought a chocolate cream pie.

It was a great day, thanks to all that joined in the fun. Thank You Myra for loving me and making it all happen. May we all learn to live like kids more often. Enjoy life, Love God, make the most of your time with loved ones!