Devotion

A warm cup of coffee in hand, with just a splash of cream, I sat down this morning and peered out the window at the world. The sun is shining, the birds are flying around, the airplanes white streaks break apart the blue blue sky and our little garden is growing like crazy! I can't even believe it. Life has been a little bit crazy lately, it seems like I am always saying that but its so true. Of course what point of life do you ever come to that isn't "crazy". 

Long story short I have been praying that God work on different areas of my life...patience, bigger faith, Christ like love for EVERYONE. That all to say that when I sat down to read my devotional for the morning God hit me right in between the eyes. God has a way of growing you into a better person through ways in which our selfish selves can't often see. Here is what my devotion said...

We do not know what we ought to pray for. (Romans 8:26)

Often it is simply the answers to our prayers that cause many of the difficulties in the Christian life. We pray for patience, and our Father sends demanding people our way who test us to the limit, "because..suffering produces perseverance" (Rom 5:3). We pray for a submissive spirit, and God sends suffering again, for we learn to be obedient in the same way Christ "learned obedience from what he suffered" (Heb 5:8)

We pray to be unselfish, and God gives us opportunities to sacrifice by placing other people's needs first and by laying down our lives for other believers. We pray for strength and humility, and "a messenger of Satan" (2 Cor 12:7) comes to torment us until we life on the ground pleading for it to be withdrawn.

We pray to the Lord, as His apostles did, saying,"Increase our faith!" (Luke 17:5). Then our money seems to take wings and fly away; our children become critically ill; an employee becomes careless, slow and wasteful; or some other new trial comes upon us, requiring more faith that we have ever before experienced.

We pray for a Christlike life that exhibits the humility of a lamb. Then we are asked to perform some lowly task, or we are unjustly accused and given no opportunity to explain, for "he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and...did not open his mouth" (Isa. 53:7).

We pray for gentleness and quickly face a storm of temptation to be harsh and irritable. We pray for quietness, and suddenly every nerve is stressed to its limit with tremendous tension so that we may learn that when He sends His peace, no one can disturb it.

We pray for love for others, and God sends unique suffering by sending people our way who are difficult to love and who say things that get on our nerves and tear at our heart. He does this because "love is patient, love is kind...It is not rude,...it is not easily angered....It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." (1 Cor 13:4-5, 7-8).

Yes we pray to be like Jesus, and God's answer is:"I have tested you in the furnace of affliction" (Isa. 48:10); "Will your courage endure or your hands be strong?" (Ezek. 22:14); "Can you drink the cup?" (Matt. 20:22).

The way to peace and victory is to accept every circumstance and every trial as being straight from the hand of our loving Father; to live "with him in the heavenly realms" (Eph 2:6), above the clouds, in the very presence of His throne; and to look down from glory on our circumstances as being lovingly and divinely appointed.

(Streams in the Desert by L.B.Cowman)

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO OUR WONDERFUL MOMS! 

To our moms who raised their children well, who poured their lives into us. Who taught and showed the love of Christ to us. Thank you <3

Today is one of the days that I sit here alone pondering Mother's Day. Jonathan had to work because Mother's Day is a mandatory holiday to work at the Spokane Club, so we won't be going to church together...nor having breakfast together...nor calling our moms together. As a family, with no children yet, Mother's Day is a day we honor our mothers. But honoring our mothers seems so very hard from a distance. I wish we could be near to make them a yummy breakfast, give them their card/gift, see them smile and give them hugs and spend a wonderful day with them. But with us here in Spokane WA and them in Baraboo WI and Mechelen Belgium that all is really hard. But even still Happy Mother's Day :)

Yesterday our night plans were cancelled so when I got off of work I headed to the store to see what I could cook up for dinner that would be delicious. For some reason I have this amazing passion for cooking...I would spend hours in the kitchen to make a tasty meal if I had to! So We had the gorgonzola and asparagus at home... I picked up the steak and lobster tail and we had a great meal for under $20. That beats the $100 plus we would spend going out to a restaurant somewhere! So here we have lemon/butter glazed lobster tail, marinated steak, gorgonzola angel hair pasta and asparagus. This meal with prep and baking took about 30 minutes! Yeppers thats right...30 minutes!

Painting, Rummikub & Flowers

  At last here are our painting pictures. these are the two colors we went with. I think my friend Elizabeth put it best when she said that the blueish grayish was 'yummy', I totally agree! It was lots of fun tackling this project together. We live in a very small apartment so there is not much to do in regards to projects. Jonathan is quite the handy man, I actually love it a lot. He has even built a shelf and hung it in the kitchen for us!Speaking of handy man. Last night my knight in shining armor unclogged our toilet! Haha this was the first time something like this has happened and of course we didn't have a plunger. After his brave run in the dark to grab the plunger from the garage he went to work on this nasty beast. He got it, yeppers now we didn't have to worry about what we would do in the middle of the night : )

These are the flowers we got from Costco this last Sunday. They are so beautiful! I love flowers and I think that all this warm weather and sunshine has gotten me in the mood for gardening. The only thing is that we don't have much of a space to garden in...and the deer will probably eat everything we plant. But oh well it will be fun :)

This last week has been really crazy for both of us. Jonathan works 5 days this week. 2 of those work shifts being nights. And I am working 6 days. Doesn't leave much time for anything else. Leaves us feeling exhausted at the end of the day. We have filled the remainder of our non-work time with going to the gym, taking walks in the state park (that is our back yard) playing rummikub and just kicking back to watch a movie. (The Blindside - which is a great movie by the way. I don't think I have ever watched a movie that was so heart warming throughout the entire movie) Tonight we have small group which we look forward to alot. I got up and made whole wheat banana chocolate chip muffins and whole wheat dinner rolls. I felt pretty ambitious. We also chatted with Jonathan's Oma (Grandma in Dutch) and Aunt and Dad over skype early this morning. Technology is amazing! Now I am off. Off to another long day at work, but at least I have something to look forward to at the end of my shift :)

Everyday Life

This blog was originally designed for those far away to be able to have a look into our lives. Since it has been around though we have not been doing a very good job at keeping it updated frequently. I often covet the ambition of other bloggers with their almost daily blogs. So here is to my attempt to be a better blogger, to keep you all updated on our lives.

So we told you Jonathan got glasses a while ago. After we got the prescription adjusted he now can see clearly. It has been a bit of an adjustment but all in all they have been great. Hopefully these will also be a great help to him in his flying. Here is a picture :) (also note one of the new colors of our living room!)

The weather has been so weird here lately. It was really wonderful for a couple weeks, then it turned really really cold. Now today it is beautiful again, which I am thankful for because I nanny today...this means we get to go to the PARK!!! Although it seems to be a bit boring at times, because there are just a bunch of little tots running around babbling some type of baby talk that only those 4 and under can really understand, I get to bask in the sunshine and breath in something other than stale air! 

It seems lately that our schedules have been rather packed full of work. I have been given more hours at work and am still nannying on wednesdays. Working 6 days a week is really not my cup of tea but we do what we can...all that we can save now will really help us out come this summer! Jonathan has been busy with school and is working usually between 3-4 days a week. He has completed 1 class, has a week left of another and then has to finish his biblical preaching class. We are both looking forward to school starting this summer. July 12th to be exact. The thoughts of it are overwhelming at times for me...my husband up in the sky with a bunch of sheet metal around him maintained by students...ugh. But we both know that this is the direction God has called us in. He will keep my husband safe through his numerous flights to come. We would love it if you would pray for us in this new adventure we will be beginning in July. For safety, finances, little stress on our relationship, time for family and friends...i am sure the list could go on! We will keep you all updated.

We painted our living room last week...the colors are so wonderful, it really warms up our home that used to have stark white walls. We rearranged our furniture and love the new look! 

My sinuses, stomach and head have been feeling really yucky for a while. So Sunday I decided to make some changes in my diet. For 2 weeks I am going to try to eat as close to all fruits and vegetables as I can ( I have incorporated natural peanut butter so far as more of a filler ). I also will only be having sugar (dessert) once a week (unless it is a special occasion or I am at my grandparents house) So monday started my no sugar...and yesterday started my fruits and veggies. We also went to the gym last night and we worked out hard core. I really just wanted to fall over and give up...sweat running down my face, legs burning, throat sticking together...but I finished my 10k, on the elliptical, in less than 40 minutes! Today I feel great, no bloating...more energy. I just have to have more snacks throughout the day because I find myself getting hungry. If I don’t take something with me I would prob go to the store and devour an entire shelf of dried noodles...talk about bloating :)

The Rock & Worship Roadshow

      
This Sunday was the Rock & Worship Roadshow here in Spokane at the arena. The tickets were $10 at the door...that meant no advance purchase! We had the opportunity to go with a couple from our small group...pictured below here....

We had to wait in the rain and very windy winds. Being that I straightened my hair for the day I was a bit anxious as my curls started coming back :( When we finally got in we quickly found some really great seats. There were lots and lots of people.  We saw The Sidewalk Prophets, Remedy Drive, Fee, Francesca Battistelli, Family Force 5, David Crowder & Mercy Me. Yeah, all of that for only $10 was AMAZING!!!

Life These Last Weeks

    These last couple weeks have been really crazy busy for us...well mainly Jonathan. Last week Jonathan received his acceptance packet in the mail to start flight with Moody this July. We looked over all the information, calendar and the financial chart. Wow, we can’t believe that this all starts in July! To prepare for school in July Jonathan has been taking his bible classes through Moody to get them all out of the way before flight. He had an 8 week Biblical Studies Capstone class that ended with a 36 page paper! That paper took up 2 solid weeks of writing and studying. Now with that class out of the way he still has Global Culture and Biblical Preaching classes left to finish. These two classes should be  a lot easier than the one he just finished. 

Jonathan got his new glasses this last week too! We will put up a picture as soon as I get a picture taken. They have taken some time for his eyes to adjust as this is his first time ever wearing glasses. They look really great on him :)

Besides the crazy school schedule we have still found time to have fun and enjoy this time we have off together. The weather here has been wonderful...yesterday being 64!

the fall of day

We live in one of the most beautiful areas of Spokane. I mean the state park is our backyard! Last night as I was finishing up cutting Jonathan's hair the sun was descending on the horizon and I couldn't help but snap a picture of the beautiful colors in the clouds.

This same night, on our adventure to the grocery store, we saw the moon rising in the sky. This moon was unlike any we had ever seen before...it was HUGE! We tried to get a picture of it while it was still near the ground but with all the city lights we had no such luck so we raced out of town up onto the flats of the countryside. The moon was so big and beautiful.