Adventures in La La Land

It's been a crazy few days, and tomorrow is going to be more chaos! I'll try to crank this out before Saturday is over . . . 1. So this happened: I am seriously flabbergasted. I do not understand who is voting for this buffoon. I cannot fathom someday referring to him as President Trump. What is going on in this country?!?!  And then this started appearing all over facebook: So does that mean I'm not supposed to vote at all? Oy. Politics. 2. On a much less controversial note . . . we had a couple fun events with Lucy's school this week. On Thursday, we went to the zoo. I know one way to get to the zoo and there was major construction, so I had to try a different route. I'm always so proud of myself when I successfully navigate downtown by myself. Haha. (I did get a little lost on the way home, but I figured it out!) I left Levi with Niki because I was worried it'd be too cold for him, but it ended being the perfect weather for the zoo. I was glad ...

1. Lucy had her first field trip this week. We went to Klackle's - the local orchard that is the  place to go. We've never been there before because it's expensive and we're cheap, but Lena and I each just had to pay $5 (the school paid for Lucy). All 3 of us got a bag of apples, a pumpkin, a donut, a cup of cider, and free reign [rein?] of the place. I think you usually have to pay individually for the rides and activities, but we could do anything. It was a tiny bit cold, but could've been so much worse, and the girls loved  it. Their favorite part was definitely the carousel. Lena's too short to go on it by herself, so I had to go with her every time. Whew. Apparently when you turn 30, spinny rides start making you nauseous. 2. I finally bought Lucy a Halloween costume this week. Lena is still young enough that she doesn't care, so she will be wearing something from the dress-up closet. I did look online a little bit for Lena and was flabbergasted onc...

After the disastrous marriage chapters, George gets to parenting. Again, she's a little over the top, but I appreciated a lot of what she had to say. Here's the part that I have questions about: She talks about how important it is to pray for our children. Agreed. But then she says this: Each morning when I woke up, I knew I would be asking God during my prayer time to touch my girls' hearts and open them to Jesus. I also knew that God's Word says, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear" (Psalm 66:18). I didn't want my sin and shortcomings to keep God from "hearing" my request for my daughters. No sin was worth its momentary pleasure when laid beside the eternal salvation of my children (109). I'm not sure I agree with that.  I know I said in my last entry that I wasn't looking to tweak God's word, but this verse was written by David in the Old Testament before Jesus' death. Do you think it still applies t...

1. I've been a reading fiend this week. When we were at the hotel last weekend, I spent like two hours browsing the library's ebook selection and picking out books I wanted to read. Unfortunately, instead of "branching out" as was my intent with doing my "30 Before 30," I've backslid into my old ways. I think I read 5 or 6 Christian romances in the past week. I'm starting to realize it's not healthy, though. They make me super emotional. I really need to stop. 2. I've been feeling incredibly guilty about the amount of screen time my girls get, lately. So I decided one day this week that we were going to have a basically screen-free day. Lucy and I each got half an hour in the morning to check facebook and watch YouTube videos, but then the plan was to be done for the day. The morning went fine. We usually don't do much screen time between 10 and noon anyway. We did a little bit of school, played, and did chores. But the girls always hav...

I've been a Christian for at least 20 years and still struggle with prayer. One of my most popular posts ever is my thoughts on the matter. I wrote that post almost four years ago and still have a lot of the same questions. So I'm always on the lookout for a good book on prayer. I got an email from Proverbs 31 Ministries about Ma x Lucado's new book called " Before Amen " a few months ago. And then P31 revealed that they were going to do an online Bible Study to go along with it. So I signed up for the study and bought the book. Both were a little bit disappointing.  The online bible study mostly reiterated what the book said and linked to cheesy videos. And the book itself . . . Let me preface this by saying I started the book with preconceived notions. When my dad saw the book he said, "Oh Ma x Lucado. Pastor Chris says his past few books sound like they were written while he was waiting in the airport terminal for his flight to arrive." I was ...

Ok, I finally got this entry written.  Be prepared.  It is LONG.  And I copied and pasted a lot, so I'm sorry if the font size/type changes throughout. Haha. Thanks again to everyone who gave me their input.  I found a lot of it so helpful.  Here are some of the things that really spoke to me: The most common response was that the reason for prayer is to have an intimate relationship with God.  I certainly agree.  Many times in the New Testament, Jesus is shown going away from the crowd to pray for long periods of time. As for my questions about presenting our petitions to God, many of you pointed out that God does indeed change his mind sometimes.  Laura said, There are instances in the Old Testament where God had seemed to decide one thing, but when a righteous person went before Him and asked for something different, He "changed his mind." One example--in Exodus 32:11-14, Moses convinces God to "change His mind" or "repent" (vs. 14) of ...

I posted this a few days ago, then immediately took it down because I was scared of people's responses.  I've gotten quite a few facebook messages about it, though, so apparently many of you have already read it and wanted to respond.  So here it is again.  I actually just finished a book that addressed a lot of my questions, so I might make a follow up post.  But I (think) I would love to hear your input.  Be nice. Lol. My Problems with Prayer Let me just preface this by warning you this may come off a little sacrilegious.  I'm a little scared to even post it.  But I'm just being completely honest and searching for answers.  I'd love some feedback on this one. I think prayer is very useful for communicating with God.  It's essential for praising Him and thanking Him, and I'm grateful that Jesus' sacrifice allows us to "approach the throne of grace with confidence . . ." (Heb. 4:16).  I even think prayer is effective for seeking d...