The boundary lines

I'm not going to lie: lately I have been focusing a lot on negative things. As each day passes, I find something negative to dwell on and stress out about. Surely, in the busy life I lead, there are plenty of things to stress about and be negative about. BUT that doesn't mean I have to focus on them, nor does it mean there aren't any positive things going on either. We have had some quite wonderful things happen to us lately - yet I still find a way to dwell on the negative. As I was reading today's reading in my Everyday Bible, (one of my goals is to read through the Bible this year. I've done well and only skipped a few days, which is really good for me!) the Psalm of the day really brought this point home. The two verses are from Psalm 16: 5-6 which say:

Lord, you are my portion and my cup of blessing; You hold my future. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

These two verses just hit me right between the eyes today and I had an "aha!" moment sitting here in my recliner, drinking my coffee with my cozy blanket covering me and keeping me warm. I hadn't given much thought to the fact that the Lord has been our portion over and over again these past few months. Every time I thought we were going to go under, He took us in his hands and carried us through. What could have been a major disaster turned into a little hiccup. The best part of this verse is seeing that HE holds our future. Duh! Something I already know but forget on a daily basis! I worry so much about the future and about the unknowns and I try to plan, plan, plan so that every angle is covered. It's exhausting and totally unnecessary! This is not to say that a little wise planning ahead isn't a good idea, but we can get really carried away with it and start stressing out over something we cannot control today! God holds my future so I don't have to keep worrying about it.

I like how it says that the boundaries lines have fallen in "pleasant places". That just sounds so sing-songy and happy. But it is true. God has already placed the boundary lines around us and given us our inheritance which is eternal life in Heaven with Him when we believe in His Son who died for us. What a wonderful and truly beautiful inheritance!

It's just like God to bring a verse along in your everyday reading of the Bible to whack you against the head and make you realize how good you have it and how much He loves you. It makes me wonder what kind of blessing I missed out on the days I skipped...

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Now for an update on those wonderful blessings God has been doing for us!

This past weekend we purchased a 1999 Honda Odyssey (mini van)! I absolutely love it! Even better is the fact that we were able to pay it in full and walk out without a single payment. Well, except for the "small" amount of money we borrowed from my dad to make the full purchase possible and that we will be repaying as soon as we get our income tax return money in. :) I have to say that this van was definitely a God thing. Ever since I drove my sister's Odyssey when I visited them in MA 3 years ago, I decided I wanted one once I was married and had kids. Fast-forward to us having to sell my Honda Fit when we moved into the house (so we could afford the $300 increase in rent) and Waylon started driving my dad's pick-up truck until we were able to get another car. The pick-up had no A/C or heat, or radio (it was stolen TWICE when my brother drove the truck). It also has to have 3/4 of a tank of gas in it at all times or you risk blowing the fuel pump which costs $400 to replace. Needless to say, we were very grateful to have a 2nd vehicle BUT it's dependability had much to be desired. Add on top of that the fact that when we started using it, it was mid-June in Texas with 95+ degree weather. Poor Waylon drove that thing all over the metroplex with no A/C in the hottest Texas weather of the year. He was a real trooper! So to say that I didn't have a very strong feeling that this van was "it" for us when I found it on autotrader.com is an understatement. We bought it for about $2000 LESS than every other Odyssey I could find that was around the same year with MORE mileage on it than ours. Granted, it doesn't have all the fancy bells and whistles. It's version with power locks but not the automatic doors on the sides (I was just a teeny bit bummed about that, but I got over it in half a second!). It was very well taken care of on the inside and the outside is almost impeccable! It also has brand new tires on it and a 6 disc CD changer. Our hope now, is that the PT Cruiser and the van will last us for several years as we grow our family. The cruiser is only 3 years old so it should last for quite some time and the van is a Honda, and we all know that Hondas last forever. Which is why I love them!

So that's one of the blessings lately...

Some others are: I finally changed my W4 to married and having 1 child which increased my paychecks by $210!! I'll get the first check with that increase next month and I'm looking forward to it!

Our rent is going down by $100. Yess!!

Our insurance is going down by $20 a month. (at least until the accident I was in makes it on there and then I don't know what will happen...)

On that note...I was in an accident last week on Wednesday. I was driving home in bumper to bumper traffic and was looking down and not paying attention when I rear-ended the car in front of me. Thankfully no one was injured. My car basically tore off the bumper on the other car (which was plastic and foam!) but did some big time damage to the front of my car...well over our deductible. So...our PT Cruiser is getting all fixed up this week and I was told today by the repair shop that it should be ready by Friday. In the meantime our insurance covers rentals so we were given another black PT Cruiser to drive. I forget that we're in a rental since it's basically the exact car we have. Moral to the story: keep your eyes on the road at all times!

Brooklyn is still struggling with sleep at night but we have discovered that she does like to sleep on her belly now. So we put her on her belly a lot when it's bed time. She has been sleeping with us lately due to her constant waking up and crying for long periods of time during the night. I'm afraid it's starting a really bad habit and that it will be hard to break but right now I just need to do what gets me the most sleep at night. Which is letting her sleep with us. And I still don't get great sleep because she moves a lot and takes up a lot more space than before. She also rolls over in her sleep which makes things a bit more tricky.

We still haven't mastered keeping the house clean OR organized but we won't give up or quit. I'm determined to find a way to keep things semi-clean and organized. There's got to be a way!

There are some interesting prospects for my future in teaching and also another path I'm considering pursuing which would involve going back to school. There is also yet ANOTHER possibility that would involve my love of the piano. I'm not ready to blog about all of that yet because everything is very tentative and I don't even know how I really feel about half of it. I may decide to go in a completely different direction next week so I'll wait till I've put more prayer time into it and feel some sort of leading. Either way, nothing would be an immediate change...they are all quite a ways down the road for me. Still exciting though since I like change.

There is a baby crying in my house...I wonder who it could be?? Someone isn't sleeping very deeply tonight...