Pizza in Heaven

Pizza in Heaven

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I absolutely love this CD, and have a neat story to tell about it. I was at our local library a few months back and this CD with the quirky title caught my eye. It was called, "Pizza in Heaven". I was pleasantly surprised when I looked at the songs and found out this was a children's worship CD. After looking further, I realized that I actually knew the artist, Lori Beil. She was from a church my husband and I had attended for a season in New Glarus, WI. I remember several times Lori spoke during the open sharing time about what the Lord was doing in her life and in her family and I was always encouraged.

Little did I know how much my son and I would grow to love singing these songs together! Her folk-type singing is very appealing to me, and I think I enjoyed listening to it as much (or even more) than my son. I am always encouraged when I listen to God's word set to music. I struggle a bit with memorizing scripture and I find it so much easier to learn scripture through songs.

Well, I knew this CD had made a huge impact when something interesting happened one morning. I can't remember where we were going, but as I was buckling my son into his car seat, he started saying words like "Peace, Patience, Love" just out of the blue with a big smile on his face. I told him I was curious what made him think of those words. He was so cute as he said "Because Jesus put them on my heart, mommy!" It was then that I realized he was repeating the fruits of the spirit, which happens to be one of the songs on the CD and is my favorite (Fruit of the Spirit song). I started singing the song and he sang along with me; it was just precious.

Then something really cool happened. Recently, I started a little part-time work at our local YMCA and was there for a training session. At the training, I thought one of the gals looked familiar. It turns out she was Lori's daughter whom I met while we attended their church. I got a chance to talk with her a bit and told her how blessed we'd been by her mom's music and Pizza in Heaven. She told me she couldn't wait to tell her mom and that this would just make her day. Well, I was blessed again when I ran into her mom (who was picking her up from the training). Her daughter had called ahead and here was her mom with a brand new CD for me called We Want to Know You. She wouldn't even let me pay for it, but said how sweet it was to hear my story and she wanted me to have the CD as a gift. I was so touched. It is such a nice worship CD that I like to listen to when I have that precious time to myself.

It tickled me that God had connected us in this way through the CD and I was so glad I got to tell Lori firsthand the story about my son J and the Fruit of the Spirit experience we had in the car. I love how God is always at work, I know I shouldn't be surprised but it always tickles me when something like this happens. I just love it. Her website is called Pizza in Heaven. This link takes you directly to the Pizza in Heaven's lyric page. When you click on the individual songs, you will hear an mp3 clip. I hope you enjoy listening to her music too!


Thanks for visiting!

A Living Sacrifice

One of the things that really stood out from my year-in-review was a desire for more prayer and worship in my daily devotional life. I'll start the story by saying I took on a little cleaning project yesterday. The project was cleaning out the pantry. This was a huge deal. The pantry had become the place where I put things that were "overflow" or that I really didn't know where to put. I'd say to myself, "I'll just put them in the pantry." Well, things were so haphazard in there and were falling out all the time, I knew it would be a blessing to clean it out. Not just for me, but for L too. It just brings so much peace when things are less cluttered and disorganized. This entailed taking everything out of the closet, throwing tons of it away and sorting through everything so I could put everything back nice and orderly. So I was listening to my worship music player and it was just incredible what happened. A Chris Tomlin song came on, "How Great is Our God" and my heart just about melted. Immediately the song brought forth tears and I found myself in true worship. The words just flowed from my heart to the Lord as I sang, cried and just praised my savior. Here's the song, I really love the words.

How Great is Our God by Chris Tomlin



The words that tell of the Lord's sovereignty (time is in his hands - beginning and the end) were so moving as I thought about my depression and having this feeling like I'd never get better or I'd never feel like "myself" again. Now being on the other side of that, I see how everything is truly in his hands and again I just praised him for the work and healing he has done in my heart.

As if this worship time could get any better, the next song had the same effect. It was The Wonderful Cross by Matt Redman/Chris Tomlin. The words were just piercing. The agony which Christ took on FOR ME,
"See from his head, his hands, his feet
Sorrow and love flow mingled down
Did ever such love and sorrow meet
Or thorns compose so rich a crown

O the wonderful cross,
O the wonderful cross,
Bids me come and die
And find that I MAY TRULY LIVE."

I took on the words like it was me singing them to the Lord and it was so powerful to present that to him, a living sacrifice. Like Romans 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

I just meditated upon the words as I sang them and felt such gratefulness, a thankfulness that words can't do justice.

I just love HIM! I love Jesus. My savior, My all.
"Love so amazing, so divine.
Demands my soul, my life, my all."

Help my unbelief ... and cherishing "uppy"

J wanted to go outside this morning after daddy left but it had started to rain. We stayed in the garage for a bit since he wanted to hear the thunder as the storm was coming in. It doesn't seem to spook him. Another new toy he's been liking and playing with a lot is his Elmo shape sorter. He likes to name the color of the block as he tries to find the matching shape slot.

Today in Beth Moore's book Jesus the One and Only, the reading was in Luke 9. Jesus came down from the mountain and again a crowd met him. A man pleaded with Jesus to heal his son of a demon. He shared that he had asked the disciples for help and they could not do it. The man said "but if you can do anything, take pity on us...to which Jesus said (Mark 9:23) Everything is possible for him who believes. The father had an interesting response, I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief! So here you see he has a desire to believe, yet confesses his lack of faith while crying out for help to overcome his unbelief. This is an area I can relate to. Many times I pray for things and maybe struggle to believe God will bring the change. But we have a big God! An all-powerful God! I need to check areas of my own unbelief and ask for greater faith. Jesus healed the boy and they were all amazed at the greatness of God. One other point she mentions that I agree with is how prayer is a critical element of faith.

After J's nap, I put on a worship CD for kids that I found for J. I heard about it on one of the other blogs that I follow. It's called Cedarmont Worship for Kids Vol. 1. The funny thing is as we listened to it, it really ministered to ME (even though it's kids singing). Each of the songs are ones I'm familiar with and hadn't heard for a while and I really enjoyed it.

J wanted me to hold him a lot today. I love this. Who knows how long it will be before he won't ask for that or want that. He says "uppy" when he wants me to pick him up. Then he helped me cook his quesedilla (he liked pushing it around the pan).
Here's a picture of him napping.

I've started selling a few things on EBay (like a camera that broke when I dropped it) so J and I went to the post office to ship out one of the items. I asked him what park he wanted to go to and he went back and forth but we decided on Elver Park which was nearby. We ended up playing there for an hour! We did a little of everything and I liked how he was "driving" with the steering wheel on the jungle gym and he would say "mommy sit in the car". I'd sit down behind him and he'd pretend we were driving somewhere. I asked him where we were going and he said to the grocery store. Cute!

I got my camera today! Long story short, I was supposed to be getting one from my credit card miles but they no longer sell the item so I just went to EBay and got the same camera that I had before which broke. I can't say how nice it is to have one again. I really miss taking pictures of J every day. I'll have to get back into that. My babysitter called at the last minute to cancel tonight saying she didn't feel well. Thankfully, our second babysitter (my husband's friend) was able to come. J actually cried when it was time to go to bed. He wanted Dave to read him books and was so sad when I took him upstairs. I can't remember the last time he cried about going to bed. We are so blessed that he is so easygoing about sleep.

We met with our life group to talk about Sunday's sermon on forgiving others. We each were able to share about people we haven't forgiven. Especially those we have pushed back in our minds that we just went on with life but when we think of them we know the pain and emotions are still there and there's more work to do. We agreed that our speaker mentioning to see this person's humanity is a helpful way to start the process.

Active times and quiet times

I thank the Lord that he continues to give me direction in writing my blog. This has been a great place to chronicle not only the rich times spent with our son, but also sharing what the Lord has been doing in my life. It is great to be able to look back and see the different things being learned.

February has been moving so fast it's hard to believe Valentine's Day is tomorrow. Half of February has passed!

On Thursday, Julian and I spent the morning with our Titus mom's playgroup at our church. It's nice that after several months I'm moving beyond just acquaintance with a couple of the women there. One of these ladies is Eileen. She has an 11 month old son named Jackson. Jackson has beautiful blue eyes and for an 11 month old is pretty big. He outweighs Julian by about 5 pounds! Yet Julian is on the small side as far as the charts go. But they're getting to know one another as Eileen and I get to know one another more. We hung out and kept our eyes on our boys and watched them have fun. I notice Julian is getting a little more aggressive when it comes to sharing of the little small cars people bring. When he wants a turn he stands in front of their car or puts his hand on the steering wheel, something that makes the child at least a little upset. Sometimes he has to keep waiting but other times the mom's step in and let him have a turn. He's pretty good about playing with other kids it's just the cars right now that he gets uptight about.

As far as milestones go, when we have the chance we're starting to let Julian walk on his own and follow us instead of carrying him. Partly it's a help to us since he's getting so heavy to carry all over the place. He tends to wander a bit, sometimes lagging behind and sometimes going ahead. But it's been good to start this slowly and continue to let him learn the art of "staying" with mom and/or dad.

We had fun making "mug cake" together. (see Tracey's Kitchen blog for the recipe.) This is basically a small little cake that you make in a large mug using 3 minutes in the microwave. Julian was trying to eat it using a large wooden spoon so I traded him with a fork. He seemed to have more fun trying to feed me than eating himself so he'd get some on the fork for me, I'd eat it, then I'd get some on the fork for him and he'd eat it. It was yummy especially with a bit of whip cream on it.

Later we went out and played in the snow again. We only stayed out for about 1/2 hour or so. I can't wait until Julian likes sledding as we have a great little hill just outside our door. But so far it just scares him so we hang out and play in the snow and watch the cars go by. Things he likes to do.

When Julian got up from his nap I had the stereo on and he and I got into a little dancing together. He started the dancing going around in a little circle and I was imitating him but being a little goofy and he was laughing at me and I was laughing at him. This went on for a few minutes until we got tired. One of those sweet moments to cherish.

Then I asked Julian "painting?" and he ran for the basement stairs since we have all his art supplies in the basement. He ended up doing 2 wonderful finger paintings. I would ask him what color he'd want and he'd choose one and then we'd do another color and go on this way until the picture was full. I had daddy come down to see his beautiful artwork and we ooh'd and awe'd and then hung them up on the wall. I'm glad we've been doing these different activities to help with that "cabin fever" feeling.

I don't have as much to share for Friday. But one of the main highlights was my time alone with God. This time I studied from the book by Beth Moore called A Heart Like His which is about David. Most of the study comes from the books of Samuel and today we were in 1 Samuel 13. She wanted to share some of the background of David's life leading up to him being king and this section focused on Saul. Saul ends up being the disgraced king who is removed from his post because of his inability to follow the Lord. In this situation, Samuel had told Saul to wait 7 days for Samuel's return and they would then offer up a sacrifice for an impending battle. On the 7th day when Samuel hadn't arrived yet Saul went ahead and offered the sacrifice himself instead of waiting. He said later it was because the people were pressuring him to get it done. This was Saul's first "test" and he failed it. Just this little slip and the kingdom was no longer his. Samuel declared "your kingdom will not endure". So I asked myself, how many times do I have a situation that I'm waiting on, maybe it's something I've prayed about and prayed about and haven't really heard from the Lord and yet instead of continuing to wait I just move ahead and do what I think is best in my eyes, I put my stamp of OK on it when in fact I'm not really sure if that's what God is wanting. In general I know I'm not good at waiting. Yet it's in the waiting that sometimes God is wanting to teach me and train me that I end up missing out. There's another lesson to be pulled from this where Saul said part of his reason was he listened to others. This is another trap I can fall into is looking for others approval and OK instead of looking to the Lord and doing something even if others may not approve. If God is leading me in something, I don't want to shrink back and not do it because I was worried what others would think.

I have our old Sunrise Church songbook and took some time to sing and worship the Lord. Then I had a prayer on my heart that I asked the Lord. It was a prayer that the Lord would help me to flee temptation when it comes into my life. I know some of my main triggers (for having willpower in what I'm eating) or things that trigger anger or impatience and I believe God's word that he will help us out of temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13: No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. So my prayer is that I would flee instead of "flirt"!

Later in the afternoon Julian and I went to a new library for us, one in Verona. It was huge and had lots of things for kids (a castle, a fake grocery area, a train set, puzzles) and Julian and I moved from section to section playing in the various areas. He loved playing with the cash register in the grocery area and he also liked the trains. After that we went down the road for some ice cream before his afternoon nap.

Later in the evening we had our friends Mike and Cassie over for dinner and catching up. We had Indian curry chicken which Julian did surprisingly well with and had a really nice time sharing about what we've been doing in our lives.

The things the Lord reveals

Had a pretty good day today. I am an outdoors person and so is my 20 mo. old son so it's getting hard being indoors so much now that it's been below freezing so many days. I like the fresh air and exercise and taking my son out in his "car", a red car with a steering wheel, horn and handle so I can push him. Well today we were finally able to go out and we took our half-hour morning walk. It was a little cold at 27 but the wind wasn't bad. Julian chatted away while we were walking and I like to use the time for prayer. Julian and I had some time later to worship as I found a really great CD with 100 classic Bible songs for kids. He loves music and I love singing to him. He moved and grooved a little bit but then was off playing with his Little People.

Julian still takes a morning nap (what a blessing) so I had a nice quiet time. I'm moving along in my Women of the Bible study and this week we're reading about Deborah from Judges. I've done a study of Judges in the past so this is good review. It amazes me how the Lord puts her in an incredible place of leadership and she has such a heart of faithfulness. It was pointed out how Deborah makes herself available to the Lord and this is where I started getting convicted ... I thought deeper about that and asked myself, am I making myself available to you Lord? Really available? Or just available for things that "suit me" or that I like to do (or have to do). I feel the Lord stretching me in this area to really lay some things down and open myself up for other areas & ways he may want me to serve him.

I had some worship time and it was really nice. I haven't for a long time just sat and been still before the Lord in this way, listening to worship music and opening my heart for whatever the Lord may speak and bring to mind. I was especially moved by Fernando Ortega's song Give Me Jesus. I've heard this so many times but today it really touched me. Being still before the Lord and listening to this I thought about the lyrics "you can have all this world, give me Jesus" and again felt the nudge of conviction. I was asking myself, can I really say that and have it be true for me? Am I that surrendered to the Lord and not in love with the world or are there some things in the world that are capturing me and pulling me away from Him? I can come up with a few areas of my life (eating/leisure time/prayer time) where I battle to have Him first. Thank the Lord that he continues to show me these things, but better still Lord give me a heart so on fire for you that I act on these convictions and take ground in these areas I struggle. That is my prayer. So it was a really good time with the Lord today.

We had an invitation for lunch so we joined my friend (and babysitter) Karen at Culver's, literally our favorite restaurant. It's great for kids. Plus we get free ice cream with the child meal which he and I share. All he really ate were the fries! He ate a few bites of cheese & some crackers but kept going back to the fries. He loves to say hi to people when we're out it's so cute. Later we ran some errands at Target and he kept saying hi to people he saw in the aisles. He kept asking for different things off the shelf saying "tank-oo" which is the way he says thank you, as if by saying thank you I'd grab it for him. We came home and the first word out of his mouth was a pretty close "groceries". He loves helping me put groceries away. If he can lift it out of the bag he's all over it. He hands it to me, I say thank you and he's off to get the next item for me. It's one of the things I look forward to now after shopping. My little grocery partner.

He had an afternoon nap and when I got him up he surprised me with his game of peek a boo. Normally he hides his face with his blanket and says "peek a boo" and I say "Where's Julian?" and he pulls the blanket from his face. Well this time he put his blanket over my face! He's never done that before so it caught me off guard but within a second or two I was the one saying "peek a boo". It's wonderful to see him initiating games.

What a fun day.