Move It Mondays

Happy last Monday in January!  Wow, I'm amazed at how this month has zipped by!  It's late in the afternoon but I wanted to give a little rundown of how my day has gone thus far.

After my pumpkin spice Eggo waffle with bacon this morning (I can't believe they're still in the stores!) and dropping my son off at school, I was determined to get some work done around the house.  Last week I was running in and out everyday with errands and I missed being home getting things done.  I mopped the family room, kitchen, living room and hallway floors.  I vacuumed the furniture (it gets filled with dog hair, ugh) and polished the wood tables.  I put some crushed tomatoes in the crock pot early in the morning, and to that I added homemade meatballs which we had with spaghetti, garlic bread and salad.  Yum!

Then I started working on our taxes.  Do you feel the gloom entering the room?  I remember a time when I would spend and hour, maybe an hour and a half with interruptions, doing our taxes and be done with them in no time.  Today I spent about 2 hours on them so far and I'm still not done!  Yes, I use H & R Block software and it helps make it easier.  It's just that there is so much information and so many credits/deductions/taxes, and it feels like they change things every year!  Believe it or not, after 2 hours I've had to stop because I need my daughter's college forms before I can finish entering everything.  I also want to see my daughter's return and if it isn't more advantageous for her to put the college deductions on her return instead of ours.  She hasn't even gotten her W-2's yet, so I'm at a standstill.  That's okay, though.  At least I got a good portion of it done.  I'm ahead of the game.

We had an awesome service at church yesterday.  Our pastor was back at his old church doing some work that needed to get finished, but he left a short video introducing a couple of men from our church who gave amazing testimonies of how God uses even our pain to bring blessings.  One of our pastors has MS and he talked about the struggles he faced but also the help from the church and his family.  He now travels throughout the United States talking to folks about what he's been through and how Jesus Christ has given him joy in his pain.  He even speaks in public schools!  The other gentleman is a security guard at the school.  At 7 months of age he had to have an operation to drain the fluid he had in his brain.  As he describes it, his head was the size of a watermelon and his body was like a carrot.  The doctors told his parents that if he survived he'd be a vegetable.  Today he is 40 years old, married and a father of 2.  Sadly, his body is riddled with terminal cancer, but he continues to trust in the Lord and teaches Sunday school to the middle schoolers.  It was heartwarming to listen to these men.  Rather than being angry or bitter because of their circumstances, they encourage others to follow Jesus because in the end, our lives here are temporary.  This earth is not our eternal home.  We choose heaven or hell when we accept or reject Jesus.  The beauty of it, is that once Jesus is Lord of our lives, even in the trials we have peace.  That's something only the Holy Spirit can bestow.

I pray everyone has a productive and joy-filled Monday.  God bless!