Magnificent Obsession

The last couple of weeks I have been really thinking about my relationship with God.

Of course I always feel him around me and turn to him when life is hard. Especially last year when I had so much going on with my grandpa who passed away and other health issues in my own life.

But what do I do when life is good or just busy?

I go to church every Sunday. I also go to a bible study on Thursday mornings.

But I don't pray as often as I should. I want it to be a daily thing in my life but honestly it's not. Most night I read and then fall asleep before I even think about it.

And I read my bible about once to twice a week. But I also want to be doing that daily.

How do I expect to have a close relationship with God when I don't spend any time with him?

I spend enough time to get my bible study done but I could and should be spending so much more time with him.

As with a lot of people I tend to spend the most time with him when I have trouble in my life. Any kind of trouble I run to him and pray constantly.

But when things are good I tend to drift away.

I don't want that.

I want God to be the most important part of my life and my top priority.

Before the dishes get done, the kids (I have my niece and nephew most days) get on the bus, before I plan dinner I should be spending time with him in his word.

I want him to be my obsession. Not a weird rolling around in the aisle with a seizure obsession.

But an obsession in the sense that he is always on my mind, in my thought, prayers, actions, and attitude.

I don't want to be one of those Christians who never spend time with God. I mean can you be a real Christian when you don't give him much thought?

I don't think so.

There is a song by Steven Curtis Chapman called Magnificent Obsession. It is one of my favorite songs that I have listened to over and over again.

My favorite part of the song goes like this

So capture my heart again

Take me to depths I've never been

To the riches of your grace and your mercy

Return me to the cross

Let me be completely lost

in the wonder of the love that you've shown me

This is what I want in my life and in my prayers.

I want God to show me depths I've never seen.

I want to thirst and huger for his word everyday in my life.

I want ever action, thought, word to be a reflection of who he is.

And I know that most importantly I need to get back into the word on a daily basis.

To really study it and know what it means.

And I want him to be my magnificent obsession...

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Book Worm

One of my favorite things to do is read.

Every night when Ryan and the hubby go to sleep I spend about an hour reading.

It's my me time. I look forward to it. You could almost say that I crave it. Especially when I have a new book that I am starting and am excited to get into.

Usually I read memoirs. The last year and a half I have really gotten into these types of books where you go through a tragic event with the author. Like Captain Phillips being captured by Somali Pirates, or Amanda Lindhoust being kidnapped and held for ransom, or Amanda Knox when she was going through her trail.

Or I go through a phase that I just want to read about one particular subject.

I really love reading about different cultures or just how different people live. When I was reading about the people living in Saudi Arabia I was just fascinated with what they did in their everyday lives that is so much different than how we live in America.

Other subjects I have read on are the Somali Pirates, JFK, and Bernie Madoff. And when I am going through a phase like that I will read about anything I can get my hands on.

And sometimes I read chick lit. Sometimes I just need something light to read where you don't have to use your mind too much. Something that's not so heavy. That might sound dumb but it really is what it is.

So one of the things I want to do on this blog is review and share the books that I am reading.

At the beginning of the year I wanted to read a book a week. But I am just too busy to keep up with that goal. And because I read on my Kindle a book a week gets expensive.

So instead I have made a list of the books I want to read in 2014. I might not get to all of them but I want to try. The ones that I have crossed off are ones that I have read. And I am going to start linking the book to the review that I do for it.

And I might even add more as I go along because there are always new books coming out that I get interested in.

Biographies/Memoirs 

No One Would Listen (reading) Harry Markopolos

The Madoff Chronicles - Brian Ross

The Witness Wore Red - Rebecca Musser

Killing Jesus - Bill O'reilly

A House in the Sky - Amanda Lindhout

The Aquariums of Pyongyang  (Ten years in the North Korean Gulag) - Kang Chol-Hwan

From Lance to Landis - David Walsh

Favorite Wife - Susan Schmidt

A Captain's Duty - Richard Phillips (Reading)

The Reason for God - Timothy Keller

A Long Way Gone - Ishmael Beah

Drinking and Tweeting - Brandi Glanville

Exposed The secret life of Jodi Arias - Jane Velez-Mitchell

Chick Lit

Confessions of a Hater - Caprice Crane

Big Drink - Kim Gruenenfelder

There's cake in my future - Kim Gruenenfelder  One of my favorite books

Last Night at Chateau Marmont - Lauren Weisberger

Family Affair - Caprice Crane

Queen of Babble - Meg Cabot

Queen of Babble Gets Hitched - Meg Cabot

Queen of Babble in the Big City - Meg Cabot

Do you have any suggestions for books that I should add to this list? I would love to hear them! 

Rants and Raves Friday

This is something new that I am doing that I am really excited about. Every Friday I am going to post five Rants and five Raves for the week. They could be about anything. Eventually I want to make this a link up but I need to grow my blog a bit more before doing that.

Rants

- My MIL. My  husband hasn't spoken to her since Christmas because of the drama that she creates. We have just been talking about her more this week and that is why she is a rant. She lives about two hours away and has only seen Ryan once in the last year and a half-ish.

- Stubbing my toe really hard yesterday and it still hurts.

- Cutting down on soda. I know it's better for me to drink water but I hate it. I'd much rather just drink coke all day.

- Texting and driving. I hate when I see people doing this. And the other day I saw a woman driving with her elbows and texting on her phone. It infuriated me.

- The cold weather.

Raves

- Twitter. Oh, how I love Twitter. You can follow me at @withthelanes. I have made some friendships on Twitter that I feel are stronger than some of the friendships I have in real life.

- Fridays. I love Fridays because Ryan can stay up later and we can watch movies and pig out on popcorn.

- Being healthy. Last year was such a difficult year for me health wise. Everything ended up being okay but it has made me realize how blessed a healthy life is.

- My husband. He really is the best man in the world. I told him yesterday that I felt he wasn't giving me enough attention. I know it's because he is so busy and stressed with work. But when we went to bed he practically laid on top of me. And stayed that way the whole night.

- Hobby Lobby. I am going there Monday to stock up on wreath supplies. And the ones that I make will be added to my ETSY store.

This is the wreath I made yesterday for one of my girlfriends. It's way too cute!

Getting to know you….

You might be wondering why I haven't put any pictures of myself or family on my blog. Well, simply because people on the internet can be crazy.

Seriously.

I had a blog and twitter that I had used for years. My profile picture was of me and my son. One day I just decided to search my name in the twitter app and found that someone was posing as me.

And that's when I decided no more pictures.

I might (something I've been debating) post pictures of myself eventually. But I haven't decided yet and won't post them till I am one hundred percent sure I should be doing so.

It's one thing to take my picture but a whole other thing when you mess with my son.

The person was tweeting about being a mom, what they were supposedly doing with my son, and random stuff like talking about sweet tea.

It's just weird and creepy.

So I decided I wanted to keep blogging and twitter-ing but not at the expense of my family.

And that is why you will never see a picture of my family on my blog.  It's just not worth having them on the internet for people to do whatever they want with.

Another thing that I love about having a blog where no one knows who I am is the freedom that comes along with it.

I mean I can blog about my crazy mother in law (and I mean CRA-ZY), about my weight issues, and whatever I want to blog about with no one knowing who I am. You might be passing me on the street and you would walk right past me without a clue.

But of course I will tell you some things. I mean why stick around this blog if you don't have any idea of who I am.

So…..

- My son is seven years old. Will be eight in July. It is totally true that you don't know how fast time goes by until you have kids.

- I have been married since 2005. We have been together since 2001 and met in high school. We were best friends for a couple years before we started dating.

- We just moved into a new house in Feb 2012. It's a David Weekly house that we built. Thank God for having an upstairs where I can store all the toys.

- Oh, we live in Texas. Which is like the best place on earth. Houston-ish.

- We have a Great Dane named Molly. She is adorable and also trained as a guard dog because my husband travels for work. He is in the oil field.

- I am so proud of my husband. He has climbed the pyramids in Egypt, stood on the Kjeragbolten, and driven a Lambo in Singapore.

- Growing up my dad was in the Army. Yes, I was an Army brat. He retired after being in for twenty one years. I spent a couple years living in Germany and started kindergarten there.

- Other being in Germany when I was younger I have never been overseas. I am terrified of flying.

- My whole family is Army. One of my brothers was in for six years. The other has been in twelve years and counting. He is fixing to be deported to Guam. My grandpas and some cousins have also been in the Army. It's just part of my family's blood I guess.

- I am also terrified of the dentist. Seriously. I'd rather deal with a toothache then go have it checked out.

- My son has a speech delay. We noticed in when he was about three and he has been in therapy ever since. We have seen his speech improve greatly over the years but it is still behind for someone his age.

- I am a Christian. I have been since the third grade. My dad was in the Gulf War at the time. We were at church when the first bombs went off. I remember going and listening to the radio with my mom and brother who were both crying. That night I knew that Jesus was looking over my dad. Thankfully he came back about a year later. And my relationship with God has been there ever since.

- I love reading. I am going to put my reading list on here eventually. My favorite books to read are memoirs and chick lit which is funny because memoirs can be such heavy books while chick lits are usually a light read.

- I always spell Wednesday and Tomorrow wrong unless I have spell check. I hate those two words.

- I love sports and my husband hates it. I will watch pretty much any sport besides tennis and golf. My favorites to watch are football (obviously), swimming, and gymnastics. And I am such a happy camper when the Olympics are on and it's sports like 24/7 (like now).

- Orange kool-aid is always in my fridge. I love it and don't drink much else. It is like my coffee or soda for some people.

Well, I think that is enough for now. If I think of anything else I will add later….

With the Lanes….

Can I tell y'all how happy I am with this new blog?

I love the name, the design, and what it means for me.

Lately I have been thinking about "making" things happen instead of just waiting for things to happen. I remember reading (probably on Pinterest) that if you want something bad enough you will find a way.

And this year I want some things. Enough of the excuses or waiting for the right time to start something. Because in reality life is always crazy and it's never the right time to start anything.

So here are some of those things….

I want to have a blog that is fun. A blog where I can be myself and talk about whatever I want. It might be anxiety about my son's speech delay, a craft I am working on, or something about my crazy mother in law (that subject is endless).

And I have some plans for this blog that I am excited about. Like a Rants and Raves linkup, craft tutorials, and other fun things.

I also want to sell some wreaths. They are not only fun to make but could be a business for me. It blows my mind to think about having a wreath making business. So I am going to work on "making" that happen instead of just thinking about it. I only have four wreaths in the shop so far but will be adding more as I make them.

Check me out on ETSY here.

Weight. Oh, how I hate this subject. Last year I lost thirty pounds but I still want to get rid of another thirty but I can't seem to stay away from the ice cream. And while I haven't gained any weight I haven't lost anymore either.

I am happy to say that yesterday I started running and getting my butt off the couch again. And today I am going to try to start eating better. I love using MyFitnessPal and know that once I get started I will be focused. It's just always hard to take that first step again. Sitting on the couch watching reality tv with some type of junk food is just so much easier.

But I know it is something I need to do for my health and my son.

So it begins today.