Happy "I Love You" Day!

February 14th, 2015…. some say it is arbitrary, but it is definitely a day that reminds us to think….what is love, actually?

Here are a few thoughts of mine on the matter:

When we talk about love, we begin to understand that we "love" many different things from our spouse, to our job, to coffee.
We as a family, we choose to look at love as a CHOICE!  A choice we make everyday….an action, not a feeling.  LOVE makes us feel amazing, but love can also bring sadness and hurt.  In a marriage relationship couples feel both.  Even in sibling and family relationships, we experience both.

In our 4 1/2 years of marriage, we have found that through the hard parts our action to love has brought us through the hard times.  Even when our utter foundations are rocked and cracked, our choice to LOVE each other has outweighed it all.

I love, LOVE!!!  I am thankful for LOVE!  I am faithful to LOVE!!!
I believe the love we feel on earth changes and sways, but the best love is the love we have from our God!  That is a love I aspire to learn…. a love that moves mountains….a love that brings differences together…..a love that truly means "I love you."

To my husband,
"Adam, I love you today more than I did yesterday.  Today I woke up next to you, thanked God for you, and choose to love you and I'll do the same tomorrow!"  "I love you!"


Plug:  The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman
This book has been our GO-TO study to check where our marriage is and learn to love intentionally everyday!  HIGHLY recommend this read for couples, families, etc…. GREAT BOOK!!!

Preparation for the Future

Week 6 was about children.....hope for the future!
I found this to be an enlightening week full of thoughts and ideas to store up and consider.

{Week 6 Challenge} Spend time with children around you and intentionally make a point to talk about the praise worthy deeds of the Lord, His power, and the wonders He has done.

{Week 6 Memory Verse}

{Week 6 Statement} "This week I will be intentionally focused on my example and discussions with the children in my life."

{Week 6 Lessons}:

• Make God apart of your everyday life (Deut. 6:7-9)
• Teach children to see God in every aspect of their life
• Children have a RIGHT to knw about God. They are 1st His children! (Psalm 78: 3-4,6-7)
• Tell children of God's love
• Show children God's love by your actions so they will trust in Him!
• Children are a blessing, not an inconvenience (Psalm 127: 3-5)
• It is an honor to be asked to raise God's children
• God regards children highly
• Interact with children with an open heart and mind....they may have things to teach us
• Show children the importance of serving rather than status (Matthew 18:5)
• Do not be a stumbling block for children (Matthew 18:6)
• It is our responsibility as adults/parents to share God's love with children (2 Timothy 3:15-17)
• Teach children to analyze, trust, and use God's word
• Seek the scriptures often to know how to do God's work

Action steps to living with God everyday and being an example for the children around us:

1. Know God's word - spend time in the scriptures as often as possible
2. Use God's word - ineract with God's word and apply it to your everyday life
3. Speak God's word - share God's love and forgiveness

This week I found myself focusing on these lessons in 2 ways: 1) preparing if the day comes when God calls us to have children, and 2) in the present with the children and families I interact with daily. Although it might not always be appropriate to sit down and talk about Jesus, specifically in a school setting or during therapy, but I can ALWAYS show God's love through my service and interaction with them. I found myself spending more time contemplating how I would speak to the children and how I would engage with them in a loving way to intentionally show them God's love and encourage them to trust me and therefore learn to trust God. This is a huge responsibility as a therapist and teacher, one that I do not take lightly and take even more intentionally after this week's study. I also spent a fair amount of time thinking and mostly praying about the future. Praying for God's timing, praying that I will have what it takes, that if we are called to raise children that we do it right, that we lead them to God and that we show His love. This week's recap questions Adam and I actually went through together and these are the points we came up with--->


How do we plan on incorporating God into our everyday life when/if we do have children:

1. Teach and model radical forgiveness
2. Teach and model critical thinking and analysis
3. Be intentional with our actions and words that they show love and forgiveness above all.
4. Spend time daily in God's word as a family
5. Spend time daily in God's word as a couple
6. Encourage our children to spend time and interact with God's word individually
7. Make child-approachable material available for our children to learn God's word
8. Highlight an attitude of thankfulness in our actions and words
9. Spend time daily in prayer as a family
10. Spend time daily in prayer as a couple and individually

This was an extremely informative and thought provoking week of study. One I am thankful I worked through. One final note that Adam actually mentioned while we were discussing the recap questions together. We were discussing the importance of preparing ourselves for God's calling and he said:
"Well, it's just like if you were to raise bilingual children. You can't learn the language along with them, it has to be something you already know and live." - A

This was a profound statement to me. God is a language, He is that essential and we can't begin to think that we can teach our children God if we don't already know Him. We are preparing NOW for God's calling. Thankful for my husband and thankful for this week of study!


{Prayer} "I pray for each of you, for your influence on children. I pray that you first look to God for guidance and then lead little ones. I pray your heart is open to the children around you and that you recognize that they are 1st God's children. You have been honored to raise them and influence them, they are a blessing. I pray you own this blessing and take responsibility for it by showing them the radical forgiveness and love God has for you. Amen." - K

Blessings,
Kristin Noel

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Day 4 - I DID IT!

The day I finished!

Yes, that's right I FINISHED!!!!!! I met my goal at 10:24pm on Saturday night!  Deadline Sunday @ 6:15am........I made it...early even!

I owe day 4's success to my husband, Adam!  He encouraged me every second and even spent the day reading and editing my literature review.  If you have ever read a lit. review you know it is extremely interesting to the researcher and well......not to anyone else.......that's saying a lot!

That man spend the day cleaning the house....as I had definitely NOT done the previous 3 days and with various runs to the kitchen.....I had tea cups sitting here and there and well......he is a saint for helping so much!

I finished...with the encouragement of my parents and Adam......it is finished!

Well.......that being said, a thesis is really never FINISHED until it is handed in and approved so we have months until it is really FINISHED, but the big start is in......I'm waiting on a few method things and will probably add a few more articles here and there as I come across them in the next month and edit phases, but for now, it is in a working order and I did it!

Close to 100 articles read and put into place.......for now I can say....I did it!

Ok....now the 100lbs of weight can be lifted from my shoulders that I've been carrying around for the past 10 months.......no wonder I felt so heavy at times!

In true "t" word fashion:

Acknowledgments


Adam Veteto:  To my husband, you are the bread to my life and the life to my bread and I love you for all that you are and the strength you encourage in me each day!  Thank you for the smiles!

Melinda Whiteman:  To my mother who taught me never to give up and who has encouraged me every second of this project with famous words of wisdom "it will all get done, don't stress." I love you and I thank you.

Vince Whiteman:  To my daddy, you have taught me so much about life and loving life even when you have to work hard at it.  For always reminding me that life is all about what you enjoy and about enjoying what you do!  I love you and I thank you.

Kayla Whiteman:  To my sister who always loves me even when I seem too busy to call and who always reminds that things will get done in their time and in God's time!  I love you, I thank you, and I miss you!

Rev. Steve:  I thank you for the encouragement and the sincere thoughtfulness you bring to every conversation we have.  I thank you!

Family and Friends:  To all of you, you know exactly when to send a thoughtful card, text, or message to encourage me and for your caring I thank you!  For your friendship I thank you!

To my GOD:  You are truly what brings me every joy!  You are what gives me strength to continue when all feels worthless.  You are who makes me laugh and cry all at the same time which somehow makes everything feel right.  You are where my hope and dreams are from.  You are the reason I get up every morning, the reason I sing, and the reason I want to be a better person - even when it hurts to grow.  You are my strength and my ever constant companion and to YOU I give my heart and my life to Your will and Your plan!  To You I thank you!

Day 3

Today began at 4:45am!  That's right.....after the events of Day 2......I decided it was time to get up and tackle this thing with ALL I had left in me!

I did have the hope that I would get it done early on Friday and be able to surprise my family in Illinois at Easter dinner, but, we all know that didn't happen.......the "t" word beat me again!

Day three was full of....the same old thing!  Writing, reading, re-writing for a solid 18hrs....breaks for an apple and peanut butter, sweet potato, and almonds now and again!  Food = Good ....."t" word = YUCK!

Though it was the same thing over and over and as the hours past my head and back and feet and....well my entire body wanted to cry and scream and give up.....but

As I got further and further into the "t" word, I began to find that well......I love this information and the tiny print in the articles didn't feel as much of a burden as a blessing!  I know a blessing in all this writing and reading and re-writing.....yes a blessing!

Day 3 was a saver!  Although it was an awfully hard day, at the end I felt I had accomplished a lot and was well on my way to a finished product!

Day 2

Brutal is the only word I have to explain Day 2.  I got up around 7am and got right to work......no workout.  Those of you that know me personally know that about 6 out of the 7 days of the week I am up working out ......so not starting the day off with a good workout was strike 1.

I knew there was going to be a point in this challenge where I felt overwhelmed, discouraged, and basically loose all hope....that day was today!  I opened up my inbox to find that YES Inter-Loan Library had sent me all the articles I requested...WOW.....I forgot how many.....Check 1 (overwhelmed)!

As the day progressed I began to find more and more to look for in the articles and as the list of "read" was still less than the list of "to-read"......Check 2 (discouraged)!

After a delightful break for about 2 hours of teaching music lessons, I sat back down wanting nothing more than to get on Pinterest, blog, read my book.......but I knew I had to sit down and read MORE research papers.....MORE?  Yes.... MORE!..............Check 3 (loss of all hope)!

So having not taken a shower since the morning, belly grumbling because it is hungry, head splitting with a headache from doing nothing but reading small print research articles ALL day......at 9pm.............................I had had enough!

I joined my husband in a lovely glass of red wine (maybe 2 or 3), made a lovely Greek Salad and sat down and watched Food Network for the remainder of the night.  I was even too tired to read in my book!

So...... Day 1 was full of hope and excitement over learning all the new information and finding links and dreaming of this project........Day 2 was when the reality of the challenge and this whole project for the "t" word really hit me......and it did too.....POW.........like getting hit by a bus!

I went to bed....hoping and praying that Day 3 would shed some light on this dark, dark journey I am in!

Day 1

Day 1:

I slept in a bit more than intended...I stayed up a few extra hours reading The Pioneer Woman's love story.....so I was up at 7 working out and did pure cardio of Insanity (I'm thinking of buying the workout and joining the challenge....that is after this challenge is over!).  I had a lovely breakfast and got to work.

What I got done:
- outline of major points and sub points
- wrote a brief introduction to get things rolling and further outline the project
- identified...well hundreds of research articles
- organized folders on my computer with research I had already had and put them on my desktop to put others as I gather them.

I have made it through at least 3/4 of the articles I have at this point! I'm waiting on my favorite people Inter Loan Library who go and make copies of the articles and send them to me.....I love them!

I just checked my inbox and lots of them have come in so I can get right to it tomorrow morning!

I am turning in for the night - going to read a bit and then hit the sack......I'm a tired girl!

Decided that the workout really took a lot of time that I should probably spend reading papers so.....tomorrow the workout is going to have to take a rest!

The plan is to get up early like 6am and get to it!

Goodnight!

Challenge Accepted!

I have long been aware of the fact that I just simply need to get this "thesis" thing done!  The dreaded "t" word that I would like very much to write and design itself and contact me when it is through.  Right!?!

After a chat with my advisor I realized that if I want to graduate in December I better get this proposal in ASAP!  Ok...that's all she needed to say to get my butt in gear! So here it is!

This is my spring break (that is from work) so I get Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday off - well minus a few students on Thursday afternoon!  I have 100% completely committed myself to finishing this proposal by Sunday morning at 6:15am (which is our sunrise service for Easter)!  That's right Adam.....that means no housework, no meals, no laundry, no wine and movie nights for 4 days! :)

The challenge:  Begin and complete my master's thesis proposal by Sunday (April 8th, 2012) @ 6:15am.
Preparations:
1) I've cleaned my desk completely free of any other work, school, fun, etc.....that means no blogging - well I'll blog each night about my progress....so stay tuned!
2) I've prepared short, easy meals like homemade granola bars to keep me out of the kitchen and in the office!
3) I've put away all music/fun stuff to keep my mind off of what REALLY needs to be done.

*I've also got a non-research book (The Pioneer Woman's Biography of her steamy romance with her cowboy of a husband) ready for my every night get away from reality.  This is a time I WILL need after a day with the "t" word!

So that is it readers......the next 4 days belong to my thesis and only it!  If I don't pick up the phone....it isn't because I don't want to talk with you, but rather the major "t" word is keeping all my attention and likely every ounce of energy I have in me!

I've made a checkpoint list of what I would like to get done each day and I'll keep you posted every night with my progress!

So there you have it.......the challenge.....the goal.......the plan!

Now for an early night sleep.......early morning workout to get me going......and I'll see you tomorrow!

Day 1...... bring it on!