Friday, August 12, 2016

Summer Coming to an End

I cannot believe that summer is nearly gone already. I love summertime so much, "living" in shorts, loving the beautiful blue sky and warm weather. Even when it's 90 or 100 degrees I love it. This month (August) is super busy for us.  My oldest son gets married in 8 days (August 20), then Sarah's 15th birthday is the next day!

Things are beginning to change for Women's Ministry and Bible studies as our Pastor's wife had been leading the Bible studies in our church for over 20 years and has now resigned. My Women's Ministry Leadership Team and I are working hard at getting Bible studies ready for Sept! We may have to push the start time to October. We have a Pre-Fall Bible study event coming up at the end of August where we will provide options to the women of our church. Change is good, right?

So I haven't blogged since April and I was hoping to do it more frequently. I put the Leadership Team together in April and we had our first meeting in May. I went to Nashville for the Women's Ministry Beta Conference and came home with a huge stack of Bible study materials, reference books, etc. The training was awesome and the trip went by rather quickly. I met some awesome women from all over the US and Canada - although there were only 26 women there.

I attended our Summer Celebration (church of God event) via webinar. That was the first time they offered the webinar and since I don't have a vehicle, it would have been very difficult for me to get there - some 120 miles away.

It is really hard for me to say what I've been doing for the past 8 months, besides what I already told you. It seems like time has flown by and I can't seem to account for it. I had all these wonderful plans to get rooms cleaned up, painted and organized in my house this summer - yet so far, I've only partially organized one room!

I've been struggling for several months with my health. The doctor now thinks my thyroid is hypoactive and has changed my medication. I started on Enbrel for my rheumatoid arthritis, but the side effects, although minor are annoying. I am not sure I want to stay on this medication - one, I have to inject it and two, are the side effects worth what the medication might do?! And now I have canker sores in my mouth/tongue which I haven't had an issue with before I started Enbrel, yet the doctor says its not from the Enbrel, but from the methotrexate which I've been on for years!
Enough about that...

With September looming over my shoulder, I find it hard to believe that Sarah will be in the 10th grade already. Sarah has become quite a singer and this year she will be in two choirs! She is still taking AP classes and getting very good grades. I'm so proud of her.

Now you know what I've been up to the last 4 months - sort of. Thank you for reading, commenting, and visiting my blogspot





Tuesday, April 19, 2016

More Changes...Some Good and Some Not So Good

It is kind of sad to see Dee & Jim's RV up for sale, but we all have to make changes sometimes however; I am happy for them, too. Moving into a non-mobile home seems to be exciting for them.

I am in the process of some changes that are not so good. I had to file bankruptcy because I was unable to keep up with my debt after losing my job and (less income). I'll be saying good-bye to my vehicle (Blue Jay) which was originally purchased as a toad. I plan to save to purchase a vehicle later on.  For now, I do have two feet and the bus is available too!

I have a conference coming up next week in Vancouver, WA for my Women's Ministry, then the training in Nashville at the end of June and my church now wants to send me to another conference in late July!

I am super busy right now. Oh! and we are going camping in eastern Oregon over the Memorial Day weekend with family and friends - there will be 16 of us and 8 dogs! I forgot to update you all in my last post, about my newest grandchildren, I have a 3 1/2 month old grandson, Wesley and my granddaughter, Phaedra is now 16 months old. 

It's been gorgeous here for the past few days - in the 80's. I love it. I cannot wait for summer!

Thank you for reading my post. I do appreciate that and your comments too. ;) Take care...

Miriam









Monday, March 21, 2016

God Has Other Plans

That was a really long dry spell. Although things have changed a lot for me and my situation, I still do long for the 'Dream'.

Not long after my last post, I had another surgery which left me still weak, painful and with the addition of no feeling in two finger! Around the same time, Sarah came to me and said she really wanted to go to High school here and graduate with her friends. She said she only agreed to RV'ing because she wanted to make me happy. :( At that time, I decided to put my RV'ing dream on hold.

Three months later, I was still not able to work, lost my job and applied for social security disability. It took about 6 months for that to get approved and to make financial adjustments from losing my job.

During this time, God began working in me. He led me, 'kicking and screaming' to Women's Ministry. I say that because I, personally would have never chosen this as my calling.  But then again, we don't get a choice! I really thought God was talking to the wrong person, but over time, He showed me where He wanted me and what I was going to do for Him.

I am the Women's Ministry Coordinator for our church now. It has been about 8 months and now in just a few more months, I will be headed to Nashville, TN for a Women's Ministry Leader Training conference at Lifeway. And believe it or not, I am thrilled to be going.  God has brought me to this place where I am actually excited for this ministry. And since this all began, I have been up in front, speaking to groups three times!  I do not do that! God does that.

So now I face this RV blog where nearly 3 years ago I truly believed we were headed out the door and on the road. Then without warning we came to a screeching halt and an immediate left turn!

I am Chasing the Dream of Jesus now and I still have hope that one day I will get the opportunity to live the dream of full-time rv'ing.  I often wonder if God already has a particular Christian man in mind (who currently owns an RV) to bring to my attention when His appointed time arrives. 

I keep in touch with Dee and Jim via their blog and Facebook and some others, too. And I feel a little guilty for not going to the chat room anymore.  Although, it has been awfully painful for me to type over the past couple of years. I just work on emails and this blog a little at a time now. 

I began a Bible study online with IF:Gathering.com. It is amazing, so if you would like to see what it's all about, go to IF:Gathering.com or download the app for both iPhone and Android. I attended a local IF:Gathering event recently and it was so incredible. The Holy Spirit was present as we worshipped. God is so amazing.

Now you know where I've been and what I've been up to since my last blog...I hope to keep this going. God bless you.

Miriam