Preggy!

Hello Friend!

The start of a new life is extremely important either physically or spiritually. Heaven rejoices everytime someone gives their life to Christ. Pregnancy is also recieved with joy when it is within the confines of marriage. No wonder the bible says we should desire 'The word' as new born babes desire milk. I began to think about which aspect of this process could be referred to as labor. Labor as I look at it is the pain and anguish you go to trying to launch yourself (child)into this new life in Christ. Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Except you're not the one in labor. God is.

God is wonderful isn't He? All the time!

To all my pregnant friends out there. Congrats.

Pregnancy shopping is fun during the 1st and 2nd trimester but usually not the 3rd. I loved going through websites, you probably will too. Fave's are:

Liz Lange
Mimi Maternity
Old Navy
Macy's
Wet seal (believe it or not they had stuff that fit)
Belly Dance Maternity
Bloomingdales
Motherhood Maternity

Darlene Zschech - Here I Am to Worship

Memorial Day!

Hello Friend!

How was memorial day? Wish the so called weekend was longer right? Well wrong... I had planned to sleep as much as I could but ... couldn't. Ended up doing some spring cleaning instead. Needless to say that I ended up with a very runny nose, eyes that have been all red and teary all day.

I know you must have probably gone shopping during the weekend. Lots of people did. It'll be fun for us to know where you do most of your shopping. So let's know (Take the poll on the right).

Memorial day remembers the American men and women who put their lives on the line for the nation. They are truly heroes. I found a wonderful website a year ago. When I came from Nigeria I was really surprised to find out that people actually threw their old clothes away (as in trashed them). I tried to find a church that collected old clothes but didn't find any so I searched online and found a website for Vietnam veterans. You can donate so many things to these people. They have a list of items you can donate online and can also come pick it up at your home. So if you have anything lying around that doesn't work for you anymore click here for more info.

L8r

Anointing Sunday!

Hello Friend,

Today was another anointing Sunday in church. I didn't get to sleep at all cos of the kids (i.e. Saturday night). Finally both were asleep at 6 a.m and I decided to take a 30 min nap before I start getting ready to head out for prayer in church (which is at 7.30 a.m by the way). Next thing, I wake up at 11.16 a.m!!! Can you believe it. That hasn't happened before. I'm like 'the devil is a liar'. My body starts to tell me 'Just don't bother getting up or you'll break down, you need the sleep', but I ask God for strength to get me up. I get up and rush up and down and around lol and zoom out at 12.05 a.m. Missed prayer meeting and workers meeting but I got there in time to hear 'The word' and we also got our anointing. Praise God! We're anointed for Divine Visitation throughout the month of June. The anointing of God is very important and I didn't want to take it for granted.

I had been thinking yesterday about a number of things. Do you know that women multi task all the time? Women are care givers. It amazes me what some women have been through and how they've coped with it. You know! How despite it all they remain strong. We sometimes forget to care for ourselves but we cannot afford to. Are you out there struggling to give your ALL to a relationship with a guy(boyfriend/fiancee), your husband, child(ren), parents, relatives, in-laws or at home, work, school, biz and so on. I'm not saying you shouldn't but there is a but. (Speaking to myself too) Don't give sooooooo much of yourself that you forget to make sure that you're rapturable (i.e that you make it to heaven at the end of the day).The bible says that we will each stand alone before God - 2 Cor 5:10 Married or single. It wouldn't be nice for the people we are loving and caring for to make it to heaven and we don't. Men!!! God forbid. We will all make it in Jesus mighty name. So let's make sure that we don't forget our personal relationship with God.

Mary or Martha?

Jesus said to Martha (when she was complaining about Mary not helping her out to get all the food and stuff ready for Jesus) "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her" As a young child growing up. I struggled with this a bit. I'm like but she was running around for Jesus. It took me a while to realise that Jesus wasn't saying it was a bad thing to run around! He just basically meant 'Ensure that your personal/intimate time with me is not compromised'. At least that is how it was revealed to me. Ain't that something!!!

As we love and care for all around us may God grant us the grace to sit at His feet when we ought to hmmm... Amen. Let us find intimacy with God despite the busyness of Life. May God help us. Got to go.

L8r

Coming soon!!! As requested by you readers. 'Before you walk down that aisle'. (Questions you need to ask yourself)

Are You Fed Up?

Hello Friend! Today was pretty stressful. Was running around like a headless chicken for like 10 mins before I calmed myself down (If you who haven't seen a headless chicken before, you'd probably be horrified right now). I had a 1001 things to do at the same time but like I said I calmed myself down and started taking things one at at time. I'm like 'I only have two hands, and two feet (and yes! a back!!!) lol. Would have loved to gist you more about my day but we have to get to the topic of the day. Summary is - Got to school successfully and then had to come back grab a quick nap and then go for night vigil.

During testimony time in church, someone gave a testimony about a friend/relative (can't remember exactly which one), who collapsed cos she was just fed up. She had had it up to here (If you can see me raise my handover my head). She was rushed to the hospital but is thankfully 'fine' now. I noticed that 3 other people gave testimonies about stress and they overcame it with God. All of them women!!! Hmmm... food for thought.

How do we avoid collapsing from stress? The only reply I can think of is 'relying on God'. That is the only solution. But you know I have friends that ask for advice and when I say rely on God, it's the last thing they want to hear. Been in the situation myself. You're just like I know that already! Can you give me something to work with here.

If you're under stress out there, wherever you are, I'd like to encourage you. We have a prophecy every year and every month in my church, and the prophecy for June is 'My month of Divine Visitation'. I learnt a few things yesterday at night vigil - It is only the visitation of God that can make a permanent difference in our lives. The rest will only be temporary. I also learnt that a dead person cannot be stressed with the issues of life, only someone who is alive can. So the fact that I am alive is reason for thanks and reason for hope. I can then ask God to visit me. To visit my situation. We all have different situations. For instance if you want God to visit you financially, you can ask Him to visit you by sustenance and back it up by scripture Ruth 1:6. If it is your career tell him, your marriage, your husband, your children, your health, your home, whatever desire it may be. Read the bible, pray and live a lifestyle of worship. (like we hear every time). God is ever faithful. He is the only one that cannot fail you.

Having taken care of our spiritual being which is the most important part of us. We can then take care of our body. I have done all sorts of things to relieve stress. Good things oh! I'd like to share some with you.

• Eating chocolate - Some people hate chocs but sorry I don't. It relaxes me. Not good for the calorie count thingy but it works. I try not to go overboard ofcourse.
• Watching my fave programs - I find that I don't always have time to watch TV. So I set the cable to record them. Then when the baby is crying at night and I'm about to go crazy I play them. When I was single. DVDs' worked. I'd slot in 'pirates of the Caribbean' like 11pm at night after coming back from work and 3 hr traffic and doze off. lol. Didn't make a difference to me if it was only the first 15 mins I watched.
• Listening to soft gospel music- Worship and praise God and relax at the same time
• Or like I said yesterday I'd blast some serious gospel music in the car to relieve exhaustion or frustration
• I chat over the phone with my friends too. I'd like to have time to do this more often though. But then I have to buy call cards which means remembering to go through the route where they sell them etc So I hardly get to, but I try to.
• Go shopping - Haven't had the time to do this too but of course I have to recommend it. It's very therapeutic and can get expensive too. lol (You can actually determine how much you'd spend before going out if you don't want the spending to add stress to you). If you're a shop a holic... I don't recommend shopping to relieve stress that might get a bit out of hand.
• I spend a little time doing something I love. I love drawing and painting. Just started it again two wks ago. Once the kids are sleeping I get my paper and pencil out and draw my stress away
• I also take myself out for a treat. Once in a while you can dress yourself up, don't bother if you don't have a babysitter. Dress the kids up too and go to a nice quiet restaurant to eat. The kids may shout and scream away but just enjoy the fact you're out at a fancy place. It's fun. whenever I can, I do that.
• Take a bubble bath - Try it. I remember when I used to fill the tub at home in naija (when I had the time to) my brothers would start laughing and be like 'what are you feeling like?', 'you will finish all the water in the pump oh! lol. If you're not in naija you don't need to worry about that. It's a good way of relaxing. At least once in 6 mths.

Of course stress relief things I'd love to do are go on a VACATION!!!, have the entire day to myself at a spa or something, have a get together with girlfriends (you know! out at the movies together, or dinner at home, or at a restaurant), exercise at the gym for like 2 hrs but I haven't gotten around to all those yet. So if you can get those into your schedule as a single or married person, please do. If you have any suggestions of what you do to relieve stress that I can also try please let me know. So I can try them and share them with others as well.

Let's also remember to encourage one another. If you can, encourage someone else today either by prayer, The word or physically (with a treat or item). It's memorial day weekend oh! So do something fun or at least rest.

Do not get fed up. May God help us all in Jesus mighty name. If you're on the go all the time log on to http://biblegateway.com/ to read 'The word'.

L8r

Hello Y'all!

Wow!!! My first post ever!

Hello Friend! I'm so excited. I always heard about this blog thingy but didn't know exactly how it worked and frankly I wasn't interested. I was like 'a few people obviously have more time on their hands' lol. But the good thing is that I've always been open to learning new things so it didn't come to me as a surprise when I got hooked at the end of the day. Started planning my writing strategy yesterday and trust! my head began to race with all the stuff that I want to share. Of course that all went puff!!! in the air once I started typing.

Woke up this morning exhausted cos of the kids ( hardly got any sleep), so my typing may be a bit slurpy (yea...yea...). 'So you think you can dance' premiered last night whooohuuu! http://www.fox.com/dance/ Love the show!!! A nice start to the ending of 'Dancing with the stars' http://abc.go.com/primetime/dancingwiththestars/index and 'American Idol' http://www.americanidol.com/. Congratulations Jordin.

I mentioned 'So you think you can dance' cos I think dancing is a good way to relieve exhaustion (bizarre as it may sound) and a great way would be to dance or choreograph to Praise & Worship songs in the mornings. Aside from the fact that you get to move your body, you actually enable your mind focus on God and God alone for a while. That of course will be the ideal situation. However, I find that in the mornings moving my limbs are a hassle for like the first 30 mins after waking waking up. What works for me is 'blasting music' in the car and i'm talking about gospel dance music. I play different kinds of songs but when I'm exhausted I need something really fast. That's when I crank out my 'TBone' or 'SOL' cds' or I just plug my Ipod in. I don't need slow music at that time at all!!! I think music is the beat to life you know! All we're going to do in heaven is praise and worship God. Don't get me wrong slow music is also great but I'm talking about those times when after chasing your child(ren) up and down/ doing house work/ cooking/ doing assignments/work (or whatever else you have to do) all at once you need something to really get you going. At least I do. 2007 is my year of praise and wonders so it even suits the season as well.

I have a case study to look at as well as loads of reading assignments, so I have to go now. Will be back tomorrow. Apparently I didn't think studying for my Msc and taking care of two kids less than 2 yrs old would be hard. Go figure. But of course God is my ever present help in time of need.

L8r.