My thoughts exactly!

"I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much."

"Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies."

~ Mother Teresa

To the pumpkins in my patch!

Being a Christian is like being a pumpkin.

God lifts you up, takes you in, and washes all the dirt off of you. He opens you up, touches you deep inside and scoops out all the yucky stuff... including the seeds of doubt, hate, greed, etc.

Then He carves you a new smiling face and puts His light inside you to shine for all the world to see.

This was passed on to me from another pumpkin. I liked this enough to send it to all the pumpkins in my patch.

Happy Fall!

Grocery Outlet is AWESOME.

The economy sucks right now and even groceries are getting expensive. Since Ivan & I are trying to curb our spending and live on a budget, I have been looking at just how much we spend on groceries.
So today, I decided to go to Grocery Outlet... a store whose name alone makes me think of dusty packages of expired generic food. I put my prejudice aside and decided to go in. Oh. My. Gosh. This store is awesome.
I know this is too much information, and you probably don't care, but I am telling you anyways. Here is my own product list and comparison, just like they do at Winco or Albertsons... lol. I was on a time crunch (and had no fridge) since I went on my lunch break, but they do sell perishables and produce at great prices too.

~~~ I bought ~~~
- 4 bottles of Amys Organic salad dressing (healthy AND delish)
- 4 bottles of wine (Cab, Rose, Pinot Gris & a blend)
- Peanut Butter cracker sandwiches (my favorite!)
- 3 Marinara Sauce (Name brand)
- 1 Alfredo Sauce (Also name brand)
- Tortilla chips (generic but not expired or dusty)
- Tostitos Nacho Cheese dip (cause everyone needs a little cheese)
- Ocean Spray diet cran-grape juice (6 pack of individual bottles)
- Irish Spring body wash (cause it makes Ivan smell gooooood!)
- Ceramic Glazed plant pot (very elegant - creme & espresso colored)
- 6 superduper big scented candles (I bought the same ones at Target & Walmart a few weeks earlier, so I KNOW these are good)
~~~ GRAND TOTAL ~~~
$44.08

Amazing isnt it? :) At any other store I would have spent around $60 on just the food, drinks & body wash, even with sale prices. The candles and ceramic pot would have cost about $70 at Target! It would have cost about $130 for everything I bought. Which gives me a total savings of...... drumroll......... $85.92.

Totally worth digging through the dusty expired generic crap. Don't you think?

I can't breeeeeeathe....

I am so "blech" today. Don't know if its allergies or a cold, but I have a killer headache and my nose is running like crazy. And my ears are stuffed up too.
But the good news is that I stayed home from work and am laying on the couch... planning on spending some serious quality time with my remote. :)
Have a great day people!
Oh... and the Bead for Life party is still on for tomorrow. Email me if you want more details!

Women Of Faith - Infinite Grace

This weekend, my friend Sarah & I went to the Women of Faith conference. The theme this year was "Infinite Grace." It was so great to hang out with Sarah (as always!), especially in a setting like this one. I really liked hearing the speakers talk about their lives. It was really cool for me to see how every one of them could speak about the raw pain that they have been through in their lives... and even find humor in it now (Yes, Christians can be funny too... lol).

There was a booth there for WorldVision, an organization that (among many other things) helps AIDS/HIV ravaged countries. Their goal was to get as many children "sponsored" as possible. God was really pulling on my heart to do something, so I decided to ask Ivan if we could sponsor a child from Uganda. He said no... so the next day, I did it anyways. :) Okay, seriously though, I called Ivan the 2nd day of the conference from the WorldVision table, practically in tears because I felt so strongly that we needed to help one of these children. I asked him AGAIN if we could make room in our already tight budget to help a child. One of the things I love about my husband, is that when he knows something is important to me, he will usually let my heart guide our decisions. That being said... we now are sponsoring a beautiful 5 year old girl from Uganda named Fiona. 87% of the money we give goes directly to the child and her family. That's a really high percentage compared to some other child sponsorship programs. (find out more at the World Vision website)

It was a great weekend & I am looking forward to going again next year!

Determination

"Okay God, I get it. No seriously. I GET it. You don't need to rub it in, I know that I am lacking in determination, motivation, persistence, and stick-to-it-iveness... but does every church service have to remind me of it? I guess you've got my attention, so I am listening... What next? Love you - Gina"

That's been my dialogue with God the past few weeks. It seems like everything is pointing me to my own poor attitude. I have been struggling with wanting to give up lately. But Jesus doesn't want me to. This weeks sermon at East Hill was about Determination. A few weeks ago, it was about Persistence. Each week, the worship songs could be the playlist to my life. I went to the movie "Fireproof" this weekend... guess what its about? A marriage on the rocks, where the husband refuses to give up on it. And the only way he can, is by listening to God. Are you catching the drift here? I know I did!

I have a newfound feeling of determination. And it feels good to be spiritually refreshed.

New Blog Title

For some reason I felt like I needed a catchy title to my blog... not just MY LIFE or something like that. :) So I tried "My Life Is..." so that I could title each blog with what my life was at the moment I was writing. But MAN! It's hard to come up with descriptive titles to blog entries that begin with "My Life Is..."!!! And I am OCD enough to feel obligated to stick to my own rules of formatting... How annoying!

I am hoping that having a new title will help me be more free in how I write my blogs. Lets see if my theory works!

So my new title is...... drumroll..... "A Day in the Life of Me."