It's Benjamin's 1st birthday!

I MUST update this blog! I always say it, but I have so much news all the time, but no time to write about it! Oh well! :)

Today is Benjamin's first birthday, and to commemorate my sweetie pie turning one, I have FINALLY managed to finish his birth story, which is over at my pregnancy blog if you are interested in reading it. I had people asking (rather impatiently, lol!) for me to finish it and post it, so I am mentioning it here too - it's DONE! :) I think I set a new record in my award-winning long-windedness though - be warned! ;) It's over 15,000 words long!!!!! I had no idea I wrote that many, but it's really just a record of EVERY detail for my own personal benefit. You're welcome to read it though, if you can spare a few evenings! ;)

I will have to update again another time (hopefully very soon!!) about Benjamin's birthday. I have no time right now, and next time I should have photos to go with the update!

The other thing is that the next round of Through the Bible in 90 Days started on July 5th (I am frustrated with myself because I meant to blog about it well enough in advance for anyone to read about it and decide to take part, tsk!!), and though I had no plans whatsoever to do it again before next year, here I am having completed the reading for Day 4, and on I go! :) The thing is, I have recently begun to feel HUNGRY to read it all again. I put the feeling aside, thinking I would just read the bits I wanted to read, but I really just have such an appetite to go through the whole story again in depth, not just dip in and out. So by the time July rolled up, I was eager to join in! I was going to do the 90-day challenge every January, but I'll be having a baby in mid-December so I don't think it will work out for Jan 2011! I'm excited to be reading again, and I feel less SET on completing it in 90 days this time - more relaxed about it. I actually have the Bible in 90 Days Bible this time, and I'm reading from that, not my own. I'll be updating about that at the usual checkpoints, but actually I haven't even signed up for it yet! I am just "on schedule" with what I know others are doing. I must find time to actually head over to the blog that hosts it (which slips my mind at this instant, oops!) and sign up and take part! The community aspect is important to get through the challenge. Anyway, yay - I finished Genesis and I'm into Exodus now! :)

School is currently going WELL (woohoo, it's been a sloooow start this year!) and I have much that I want to write about it, but never mind, it will have to be another time. I'm behind at my pregnancy blog too (17.5 weeks now and haven't updated since 15 weeks!) but I plan to catch up soon! I'm just so busy in my evenings, and not using the laptop as much as I used to, as well as reading the Bible, preparing school and so on, and I do not get online for longer than a few minutes in the day otherwise chaos reigns in the house! ;)

I will be back soon though!

Bible in 90 Days - Day 90!!

I DID IT!!!!!! I finished reading through the entire Bible just before 10pm tonight!! I'm sooooooooooooo proud of myself, because of how much time it has taken and how little time I have, and how behind I have been getting this past month. I didn't think I could catch up in time, but I made it - I completed the challenge in 90 days exactly!! :D

I had 3 days' readings to cover in two days (yesterday and today), so I just took all the short letters (James to Jude) in the New Testament that I hadn't read yet, for yesterday's reading, and then Revelation in its entirety today. I find Revelation quite scary, and my name is one that is written in the book of life (how incredible to be able to write that) so I shouldn't really find it scary. But I do. I can't even get my head round it!

I got so excited as I got to chapter 20 (there are 22 chapters) and my reading slowed right down because I kept getting distracted knowing there were only TWO CHAPTERS TO GO in the whole Bible! I STILL couldn't believe I would actually read the last words in the last sentence and be DONE! Even that close, I still couldn't imagine it. When I actually did read the last words, I felt absolutely euphoric! It's been the longest and most intense challenge I've taken part in that I've actually stuck at and completed - of ANY sort in my life. I thought I would probably do something like get up and do a happy dance, hehe! But instead my heart welled up with praise to God and I just lifted my hands to Him and gave Him the glory for what I had accomplished. Because it's all His! I was determined, yes, but I still couldn't have stuck at it without God motivating me and providing moments to read in my disorganised and busy days. Also the prayers and encouraging words of others (many of whom I never knew before now!) have been another provision of God to enable me to finish the challenge on time. Thank you to those who left comments here and blessed me with encouragement and prayers!! xx

I can't believe I have read the whole Bible! It's ALL in me now. I am completely changed by these last 3 months of reading. I have learned new things - too many to even assimilate myself, let alone share with others, but I need to go back and study a LOT more in much more detail.

I feel a bit at a loss of where to start or what to do next. I am praying about it, and I know God will guide me to some inspiration. I don't want to start having days where I am not in God's Word. It's a light to my path and health to my whole body, and I NEED it.

I know I am supposed to summarise at this stage - what things I got out of the Bible in 90 Days challenge, what things inspired me, what things have changed for me, and what I will take from it and where I will go from here. But right now I don't really know the answers to those questions. I feel a bit foggy of brain at this moment, and go blank when I try to think of the answers to those kinds of questions. I want to do them justice, not just say, "What did I get out of this challenge?... Uhhmm... welllll... I guess I got closer to God..." - which, don't get me wrong, would be GREAT if that was even the only thing that I got out of it! But I mean, I got SO MUCH out of it, and I just can't think of it all right now. I will try to give it some thought over the next couple of days and then come back and write a bit more about it, to finish it off.

I am just so happy!!! Thank you Lord for helping me complete the challenge on time, and thank you for your WONDERFUL Word!!! I love you more than I knew I could.

Bible in 90 Days - Monday Update (Day 88!!!)

Well, it's Day 88!! The 90-day challenge to read all the way through the Bible is almost over! The reading plan is 88 days long, so everyone who is right on track will have finished today, but (THANKFULLY!!!) the plan includes 2 "grace days" to fill the 90 days.

Last Monday when I updated, I was 5 days behind and feeling a bit discouraged. I'm so grateful for all the supportive and encouraging messages that were left after my post, because they really gave me a boost! :) Thank you!

Over the next couple of days I read 2 days worth each day, so I am now only 3 days behind, and I am obviously using the 2 grace days, which means I am a day behind!! I am supposed to be finished on Wednesday, and if I don't catch up that extra day by then, I will have to finish on Thursday. A GREAT achievement!! BUT, not what my perfectionist self wants to finish on! ;)

Tonight I am reading Day 85 and enjoying Hebrews and James. It's late and I am not in James yet, but I will read on till I finish it. Last night I finished my reading by torchlight in bed! It was late so I knew I should just go to bed, but I tossed and turned wanting to have the satisfaction of just FINISHING my reading for that day, so I clicked the torch on and read Titus and Philemon, and felt much better! :) I have really been enjoying Paul's letters. There's so much packed into them that I feel I need to go back and study each one in much more detail.

I really hope that tomorrow I will be able to read the best part of two days' worth in one day, even if it's just a day and half of reading, and then the same again the next day to finish off. I'm SO determined (desperate?!) to finish ON TIME!

Hopefully I'll have time after my reading on Wednesday (Day 90) to update here to say whether I managed it or not, although I expect I will be up pretty late reading, so maybe the next day?! I can't believe I am almost finished. I have grown to love immersing myself in the Word of God every single day, and I feel at a loose end about once I've finished. Hopefully I'll replace it with another type of Bible study very quickly, and not lose my momentum! :)

Bible in 90 Days - Day 76! And general (bite-sized!) update.

It's THE 22ND OF MARCH!!!! The challenge to read attentively every word of the entire Bible in 90 days ends on March 31st!!! Soooo close!

BUT.

I'm FIVE days behind. Urgh. I haven't written a Bible in 90 Days update for weeks, and that is approximately how long I've been struggling with being behind on my reading. I got lazy though, it's my own fault. I was sloppy at sticking to my own rules about not switching on the laptop before finishing the day's reading. For weeks I have been at least 3 days behind - never as little as two. Right now I am five days behind, which is the furthest behind I've been, and I'm kind of struggling to keep up with being 5 days behind too. I seem to have so much else going on, either in my head, or just "to do" in the evenings (which is my only time to read the Bible anyway) that it's getting harder to fit in LARGE readings. When I'm tired I read slower too, and I've been really tired lately. I do still read as I'm settling Benjamin for his naps, but he has gone down to two naps a day now (sometimes three), so there are not nearly as many opportunities as there were at the start of this challenge in January! I think he was still wavering between 4 and 5 naps (on a bad day!) back then!

The good news is that the 90-day challenge includes 2 "grace days" (it's actually an 88-day plan)! So if I use those up then I am only 3 days behind. I am currently reading Day 76 I think, and I'm finishing today's reading with John 15. I love being in the New Testament at last! But I'm surprised at how wistful and sad I felt at leaving the Old Testament behind. One thing I've taken from this challenge is that I have really fallen in love with the Old Testament and with Israel's history, and the "Ancient of Days" aspect of God. I've nearly finished the 4 gospels and am hoping that I will get ahead with the shorter books to come. I love the letters in the New Testament! The only thing about the New Testament is that it's SO PACKED with life-changing information! I want to slow down and absorb and apply it to my daily life, but I can't because I'm on a deadline! ;) I will definitely come back and study the New Testament in more depth later this year.

I still haven't thought what to do about continuing to stay in the Word after the challenge is over. I still can't believe I will REALLY and truly have read the whole entire Bible in such a short space of time, very soon! I am desperate to finish "on time", and I know it really doesn't matter if I finish a few days late, or even a few weeks late - the point is that I will still have read the whole of the Bible in a remarkably short time, and completed it - but I doooo so want to succeed at the actual challenge! To finish it within the 90-day period would be such a sense of accomplishment, and after 3 months straight, I WANT that! ;) I love that it has been almost 3 months where I have read a significant block of God's Word every single day! How refreshing for my soul! I do not want to go back to reading none of it on any given day.

I have such an unbelievable amount of stuff to write about here, but the time pressures and such have prevented that for quite a while now. I'm really missing updating here with the usual photos, news and thoughts! I hope I'll have time to do more of that once the Bible challenge is finished in a couple of weeks.

In case I forget, a few things I want to write about, off the top of my head (to help me remember when I come back to blog about them!):

* New reading curriculum for Arthur (Rocket Phonics - thanks Kimberly for posting a review that led to me buying it for my children!). We started it last week and will include Matthew in it as far as he's able.

* Currently reading (along with Bible - hmmm, maybe that is contributing to the behind-ness of things?!) "Managers Of Their Homes" by Teri Maxwell. At the risk of sounding repetitive, thanks once again to Kimberly for posting her family's schedule recently and citing this book as the framework for the schedule. I have had my eye on it for a couple of years, and just shied away from such scariness as Serious Scheduling until now! ;) Now it's bought, and I am in the middle of the painstaking process of putting together a detailed schedule for us to try. I think it will help me a LOT, and the kids too. I'm the type who works better from lists and so on. I'm also pretty desperate for some order, so I'm motivated! ;)

* Nathan is talking sooooo much! And almost completely normally, as in, constructing his sentences like the bigger boys, and with a huge vocabulary. His voice is so so so incredibly tiny and chipmunky, and we adults (Neil and I, that is!) almost fold up into a puddle of aww-ness every time he speaks to us. *sigh* Neil wants to call him Chip, in honour of his teeny tiny little helium voice! Bless! He's such a tiny cute little boy.

* Nathan's stats - only 32.5 inches tall at his 2nd birthday (double that and according to something-or-other, he'll only be 5ft 5in when he's fully grown!!), but he grew an inch in the 6 weeks that followed, and my mum said I should double that instead, given than he was born a month early. So, 5ft 7in, like Matthew's measurement was! :) This month (2yrs, 2mos) he weighs 24.5lbs! He's at the 9th percentile for height and weight. So teeny! He's my tiny little precious, as I probably tell him at least 50,000 times a day! :)

* Benjamin had his 8-month check. Flying colours, etc :) He is 70cm long (don't know the inches) just under 50th percentile, and weighs 19lbs 13oz - catching up with Nathey!

* Benjamin's general news - crawling all over the place, pulling up to kneel on everything and everyone, and then screeching with frustration when he can't figure out how to get "down" from kneeling. He is pulling to stand on the sofa, but it is the biggest exertion I ever saw a baby make, and his chunky little legs go all quivery with it! He wants to do this all the time and gets rather frustrated about not being able to yet.

* Breastfeeding update - Benjamin nursing probably 6+ times during the day (on demand) and waking 3-6 times (yes, you read that right) over night/evening and nursing then too. Tired mama. BLISSFUL mama. Which cancels out Tired Mama easily :) Matthew still having a bedtime breastfeed (yes, he'll be 4 in June) as Arthur was still doing at his age. Considering a 3-hourly routine for breastfeeding Benjamin during the day as part of the new schedule... Hoping for a new nursling by this time next year though, God willing! :)

* School - long break after Christmas. School in bits and pieces since then, involving mucho guilt-tripping for me, and (in hindsight) surprisingly large amounts of academic learning for the two older boys! Not sure how! But there we go! :) Spent last week reviewing a lot of maths, and are back on track with the Right Start Math curriculum this week. Arthur absorbing it much faster than he did before Christmas.

* Matthew STILL not potty trained, and starting to get concerned... He is hugely anxious about doing a poo all the time, and needs much reassurance the whole time he's trying to do one. He's never constipated, so it's a mystery. It's been like this for a long time. Way back into last year I think. Still doesn't appear to be ready control-wise with the wees either. Considering asking my GP about it.

* Neil is out of work again! Mutually agreed separation from his job the first week of March, and he has 3 months of paid "garden leave" (just leaving the job but still being on contract and getting paid), and then a month of full UNTAXED pay in May! :) No anxieties at all about the future and finances. God is sovereign, mighty and good. We have no cause to be anxious about anything.

* Need to move house! Currently exploring possibilities, but job situation throws spanner in the works a bit. Neil is working on becoming self-employed, but we're not talking much about that with anyone outside the family until it looks like it will pan out. Will be sure to talk more about that here at a later point! :) We are letting God order our steps, and He is doing so! :)

* TV officially DITCHED!!! Woohoo!! I am on Cloud 9, seriously. It has now been one month since we switched the thing off (the boys have not seen any TV at all since then) after Nathan pulled the phone cable till it snapped out of the extension thingy, and we had to plug the phone in next to the TV instead. Not enough plugs for everything, so we chose to unplug the TV, and wow oh wow, what a wonderful difference it made, even just that first day! By Day 3 I was begging Neil to let us continue to have no TV, although originally we planned to buy another extension cable so we could plug the TV back in again. Obviously we CAN plug the TV in, but we are not doing so. Now we have moved it out of the living room and into the kitchen, where Neil does his "work" (the vague stuff I am not talking about yet) for several hours a day - he uses the TV as a computer monitor. The living room feels just so much nicer and cleaner without the TV, and the boys are flourishing without it. I am even more anti-TV than I ever thought I was before, now that I've seen the startling effects! Never going back. Nevvver. They'll watch educational DVDs from time to time though, I should think, when we figure that kind of thing out. We have so much more time for play, school, just character training, imaginitive things, etc. They complained a fair bit on the first day or so, but I was surprised that they have not missed it at ALL since then. TV is subtley BAD BAD BAD for children. Mine used to watch such a lot of it, and I had no idea, and now we've done this I really see it for what it is with my own eyes. NOT good for children! Glad to be rid of it for mine! :)

* Also letting God order our family size, and waiting and hoping for news of a new little blessing, perhaps soon? I had a chemical pregnancy last cycle with a couple of faint positive pregnancy tests, so I see that it's definitely a possibility! So exciting! Neil 100% on board with completely trusting God to open or close my womb as He sees fit! Yay! :D

Probably tons more, but that's the mainstay of it in a nutshell. Will hopefully be back soon to pad those subjects out a bit more, and post long-overdue photos! Thanks to those who have let me know they're missing my updates! It makes me feel special! And motivates me to hurry up and do so! ;) *hugs*

Bible in 90 Days - Monday Update (Day 53) and general blog update!

I think it's Day 53?! I am reading from my own Bible so I'm losing count quite easily now!

I didn't update last Monday! The last 2 weeks of Bible readings have been more of a challenge, and I haven't even dropped in ONCE to any of the online communities taking part in this 90-day challenge for accountability and support. Which, I can now definitely say, makes a big difference! I didn't intend not to, I just got busy and distracted, and didn't quite meet my quota here and there, and just got complacent thinking I would "just catch up" another day (bad thought pattern!!). So I have been more lazy than before, over the last two weeks. I have found myself up to 3 days behind and then worked over the next couple of days to catch up, and managed! And then relaxed a little the very next day (d'oh!) and thus fell a little behind again, and so on. It has been a fortnight of falling behind and catching up continually, never staying on an even keel. I am not being as disciplined as I was with the evenings, giving the first part of the evening to reading until I had completed my Bible reading for the day before switching on the laptop. Actually I've been REALLY slack on that, totally. And it has borne fruit - getting behind and losing focus, and everything else has sort of become a bit chaotic and disorganised in my life as well, strangely enough.

I hate being lazy!!! It's such a weakness of mine! It just feels like such hard work to push against it, especially when I get a wave of the lazies. I get distracted easily and with the pace of the reading in this challenge, just a day or two of being lazy can put a HUGE gap between where I am and where I should be in the reading!

About a week ago I found a distraction, unexpectedly. I found a sunrise/sunset map of the world, which is continually updated in real time, showing where the sun is rising and setting on the world at any given moment. I just thought that was amazing! I was reading Psalms and dwelling on the awesomeness of God's creation, and how wonderful His works are, and that just topped it right off to see that at a glance. I would pop over to that site for a few moments at random times of the day, and before bed, just to see where in the world the sun was rising on a new day RIGHT at that moment. Then I hit on the idea of googling live web cams! What an incredible resource is available to us in this day and age!

But within a few days, I could tell that this fun and awe-inspiring activity actually had the potential to become quite addictive! I quickly bookmarked various web cams that worked well with good views, and enjoyed "chasing" the sun rise for about 6 hours straight through from early evening to very late at night! Every evening I would take Benjamin to bed at 7pm or so, and be able to do this amazing thing! I would breastfeed him, put him in his little Amby hammock and start to rock it with one hand, and with the other I would flip open my laptop, give a quick glance to the sunrise/sunset chart to confirm my suspicions that the sun was about to rise on the east coast of Australia, and pop up my Sydney web cam! ;) I would sit rocking my baby in cold and rainy England, and watch - LIVE! - the sky turn silver, then pink, then gold, in Sydney where it's summer still, and then actually have the privilege of seeing the sun burst up from the sea in beautiful colours. It boggled my mind to know that was actually happening as I sat there! Then I hopped right on over to Melbourne and waited for the sun to reach there. As soon as it rose there, I hopped to Adelaide and watched the pink and orange sky till the sun rose there too. In the evening I like seeing the sun rise in a fishing village in the Philippines. Amazing to be able to see it!

I started to watch the sun SET somewhere just after watching it rise somewhere else. Rio de Janiero and various east coast US web cams served this purpose, while England sat in the middle of it's "night". It was just AMAZING to behold. I became interested in learning about countries I was watching, while I waited for the sun to rise there, and just reeled at the ability to just clickety click and zoom in on a satellite photograph from orbit to hut-level in Bangladesh, for example. Amazing. I learned about cities and languages, and time-zones. It was amazing, but VERY distracting, and almost "too much" to know, you know? To have access to that kind of knowledge felt a bit strange, like it was too lofty.

The last couple of days I did that stuff, I felt increasingly strange with it. I really wish I could describe the exact feeling, but there just are not words to translate it. Suffice to say that I am very familiar with it from even back in my teens and older childhood, and I have come to understand it as the way it feels to begin to wander from God in some way, in my deepest core. It wasn't particularly noticable in any other way, outwardly, or even inwardly in my usual thoughts towards God and so on. Not just to wander off, but to take steps INTO something else, that pulls me away from God. There's a certain feeling, and it gives me a strange melancholy pull that I never feel in any other circumstance, which comes alongside feeling unhappy with some (or many) aspects of my own life, and a certain feeling of escapism. This is my whole past, before I became a Christian. It resurfaces when I take actual steps towards some activity or thought pattern that is in the opposite direction to God's path. When I pursue something sinful, knowing I am pursuing something sinful. Or when I revisit thoughts and memories of past times which I know God has called me OUT of. Things like that. I am beginning to recognise it more and more with each occurrance, and it doesn't happen much any more. But anyway, that was the feeling.

So with the ability to recognise it more quickly each time it happens, and also my increasing understanding of who God is and who *I* am in Him, this time I acted very quickly to put a stop to it. Often I am reluctant, because usually it's something "fun" or "nice" and although I know I should stop, I don't really want to. I usually don't have my eyes on God by the time I really recognise what's going on, and that makes reluctance more easy to come by as well. This time my eyes are still on God, I recognise that feeling, and I do not want to step outside His will for me. At all. So I stopped visiting the sunrise/sunset chart and the webcams. I feel better :) I would LOVE to watch the sun rise in Sydney when I'm tired and it's dark and rainy outside and I'm not doing much whilst rocking my little sweetie in a darkened bedroom - HOW I would love to! But I am choosing not to for now. I think it's an amazing thing to be able to see online and will probably choose to use it as part of school at some point with the boys - what a springboard for endless enthusiastic geography lessons, all of which can easily embrace and acknowledge God's handiwork! But not for me, for now.

Now I am working on catching up on my reading, and giving the first of my evening time to it before switching the internet on too. I still read when I can during the day while I am rocking Benjamin, and if he's taking a while to settle then I can get quite a bit read. I was three days behind yesterday, in Isaiah. Isaiah is 66 chapters long so it's quite a few days of reading in the 90-day challenge. I'm supposed to finish today at Isaiah 61 (and tomorrow head into Jeremiah) but I have read from Isaiah 16 to 40 today. In Isaiah it's about 12 chapters a day, so I am happy to have read a couple of days worth today. I don't want to be left behind in Isaiah when I am supposed to be in Jeremiah though, so I am eager to catch right up and then MAINTAIN it this time! :)

I found Psalms and Proverbs quite hard going, when I had eagerly looked forward to them as potentially easy reading. They were lots of little bits and pieces, and I could only take in so many bits and pieces before I had to take a break, and it was hard to get enough sessions (and breaks!) in during one day. I initially got behind in Psalms (by a few days, eventually) and was still in Proverbs while the rest of those on the challenge had already read Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs! I found those two books much easier to read, so whizzed through them to catch up. I love Song of Songs! It's so beautifully sensual and romantic! :)

Isaiah has so far been quite hard to read, because so far it has been all the prophecies against various nations, and 35 or so chapters of that in a row is quite hard! I'm excited about the rest of it though, because I know it is full of encouragement and blessing from here on.

So that is my update! Long-winded, but explanations were necessary! It was my birthday yesterday (I'm 34!) and so I didn't read as much as I would have, because I was sleeping in (lovely husband!) and on the phone to my family, etc, during times where I might otherwise have picked up my Bible to do some reading. So I'm glad to get caught up today. And I had a lovely birthday! Low-key and relaxing. I had no presents at all until Neil felt bad for not having organised himself (I baked my own birthday cake (and decorated it PINK - oh joy! Hehe!) and we ate a frozen meal that I had previously cooked!) and took the boys out late afternoon, returning with chocolates and other yummies, and some sweet figurines that I have had my eye on (more on these another time). He also made cards with the boys while I lay in during the morning. But even when I got up and had essentially no cards or presents, no special meal or plans, I did not feel unhappy or bitter about it at all. HOW I have changed since just a few years ago! When I see the changes in the way I feel over various things, I feel so surprised, because it's a really REALLY big change for me. It is 100% God's work in me, especially the last year or two, while I have been praying for this kind of change in my heart and attitudes. I am learning to be content and to give more of myself than I used to, especially regarding my husband and children. I am waaaaaaaaaaaay from "arriving" but am very encouraged at the changes I am already seeing. I would have been whining and miserable 3 or 4 birthdays ago if Neil had not done a thing for my birthday! ;)

This time I am just thinking how blessed I am to have four precious children. That is it! SUCH blessing has been bestowed on me that I pretty much don't feel a need for anything else, and if I start to think otherwise then just stopping and thinking of how God has blessed me with four little ones (so far!) fixes that instantly. Also, I lay in on my birthday (a Sunday) and it seemed kind of normal to me, not - Wow! What a TREAT! My hubby let me lie-in today, especially for my birthday!!! No, it's normal because my husband blesses me with that kind of generosity EVERY SINGLE weekend. So I'm not lacking in special treatment! :) Also, knowing I would receive some money from my parents, and having reached a point in my photography book where I'm starting to learn more about aperture and light, I decided I wanted to spend that money on a (second-hand! They're so expensive!) new camera lens. I won one at eBay (50mm 1.7 if anyone is interested!) a week before my birthday and it arrived during the week, so I had that WONDERFUL birthday present already! I admit I have also been somewhat distracted by taking endless reams of photographs since then, hehe!

I will finish this long entry now, but this is my favourite photo that I have taken with my new lens since it arrived. I'll post more of this kind of thing soon in my photography blog but I wanted to share one here that shows the difference this lovely lens makes to my photographs! :) This photo is straight out of the camera (unedited):

Nathan, aged 2 years and 1 month! :)



Sweet little boy! I will update again soon! :)

Bible in 90 Days - Monday Update (Day 39)

Is it Monday already?! The weeks are going so fast!

Well I feel like I have reached "the middle" of the Bible at last, being that I have started the book of Psalms today! I have enjoyed all the history, and feel kind of sad that the bulk of it is behind me now. I admit I have been a little lazy more than once of this past week, and - ahem - totally NOT stuck to my discipline of finishing my reading for the day before my laptop is switched on! Not once, or even twice, but a fair bit this week! :S The result has been that I got a full day behind on two separate occasions. BUT I have caught up both times. I had the whole of Job to read in one day (except the first 6 chapters - there are 42!!) yesterday, but I did it, and now I'm ON TRACK - woohoo! - starting Psalms.

I love the book of Psalms soooo much! It's probably the book in the Bible that I turn to the most, and have done consistently throughout my time as a Christian. I have been eager to read it, and I still am, but straight away I am finding that these songs and poems are things I want to linger over and take away to dwell on for a bit, rather than power through them one after another at the pace of this 90-day challenge! That's okay though. It's harder for me to keep up the pace of the reading right now (in fact I still have more to read tonight before bed, but I couldn't continue any longer. I just felt like I needed a break and to come back for more later, otherwise it would just sort of be WORDS, instead of liquid joy and sorrow and praise and anguish, tangible and real.

I'm also looking forward to the wisdom of Proverbs which comes next! :)

I'm continuing to think more about what I want to do with the Bible after I finish reading it on March 31st (or 29th?! It's actually an 88-day plan with 2 "grace" days!). I am already feeling pretty confident that there is no better way to start every single New Year than to spend the first quarter of it reading through the whole Bible, so I now intend to do this challenge starting on January 1st every year. Then I have the remaining 9 months of the year to do more in-depth studies. Oh how ALIVE it will make me!!! How equipped and strong, and how much wisdom I will gain!! I feel quite breathless with excitement at the thought of getting that much of the Word INTO me over the next few years! I do want to nourish myself more intensively and in specific areas over the 9 months each year that I'm not reading through the Bible at a faster pace. I don't know what that is yet, though. Maybe a study on Psalms? Or another book? Or maybe character study? An online study with a group for mothers? Wives? I like the study I'm seeing people setting out to start in various bloggy communities in February or March, based on the names of God. I LOVE the sound of that, and I'm already part of those blog communities, but they all start before I finish my 90-day challenge, so I don't think I should participate while I still have this on! Or maybe just a study which simply increases my adoration of God (like the names of God one), or my awe of Him? There seem to be endless wonderful options for Bible study! It is hard to choose what kind of thing I should pursue, and I would also love to study as part of a community online if possible, so I will have to pray and ask God to guide me. There will be time for quite a few different kinds of studies in 9 months, but I do want to have a feel for the 9 months as a whole, rather than just having no idea and then jumping into a study the day it starts, you know? I will pray and research! :)

I think that is all for this week's update! :) Next Monday will be the half-way mark exactly!!! Exciting! :) I can't believe I am really reading through the Bible and DOING IT, and enjoying it, and really really truly on my way to reading the whole thing in such a short time! And it's DOABLE, really it is. And it's changing me more than I had any idea it could. God is so amazing to me!

This week I have actually managed to have a couple of other entries, rather than just week after week of only "Bible in 90 Days" updates! ;) I updated yesterday (or the day before??) all about Benjamin, who will turn 7 months old tomorrow! So if you haven't seen that then please do! I posted photos! And he's such a sweetie pie! :) I totally plan to be back before next Monday again, maybe even a couple of times. I much prefer updating frequently where possible, and will try to keep that going! But definitely back next Monday as usual with the Bible update! I'm so enjoying it!

Bible in 90 Days - Monday Update (Day 32)

It's Monday again! Already! The weeks are just flying by, and I'm noticing that my blog just has Bible in 90 Days updates at the moment and nothing else in between! :S That was not the plan! But I guess I am using blogging time for reading the Bible quite a lot. I really do want to update here with non-Bible stuff soon!

So this has been a slightly unusual week in terms of the Bible reading. I haven't got a print-out of the passages I'm supposed to read each day, and I am reading from my own NIV Bible, not the Bible in 90 Days Bible. Our printer ran out of ink a while ago and we hardly use it so we haven't put out money for new ink yet! So every day I go to my bookmarked link which takes me directly to a PDF file which is a list of each day's reading to the specific verse. To my immense frustration at the end of last week, Virgin Media (our internet service provider) had a technical hitch in our area which took THREE DAYS to fix!!! Three days people!!! I was suddenly all too aware of how "attached" I am to the internet! It is a big social outlet for me, and I use it daily. Also Neil is doing a training course online once a week and he had to put off his lesson, which was very annoying! So, I couldn't check to see where I was supposed to read to each day. I figured since it's usually between 12 and 16 chapters a day, if I took 15 chapters per day then I would at the very least be up to date, and maybe even ahead by a few chapters after a few days! So that's what I did for a couple of days, and then I read 10 chapters the third day and felt too tired to read any more (I was in 1 Chronicles and reading lists and lists of names at that point!), when BING! Our internet came back, and I was amazed to find that I had read what I needed to to the exact VERSE that day! :)

Yesterday, I didn't get any reading done during the day because I visited my brother in hospital (he got appendicitis! They only just took it out in time! It was gangrenous right up to the intestinal join! Blaargh! Thank God he is okay! He is in hospital for a quite a while on a long course of heavy-duty antibiotics, and Sarah's due date with their second baby is THURSDAY this week - please pray that the baby stays put for a bit! Bennie will need 4 weeks of rest apparently. Yikes!). So then I had all of it to read in the evening, and it has been a while since that has been the case. I have gotten used to having only 4-6 chapters to read in the evening, and some days none at all, due to reading bits and pieces through the day! So yesterday I confess I got lazy and STARTED to read the Bible but put it down without hesitation when Neil got a movie out to watch! And forgot about it afterwards. So today I have caught up on yesterday's reading and started today's, but it's now pretty much bedtime and I have only read 3 of today's 15 chapters in 2 Chronicles. So I am behind at the moment, but not by too much, and I will catch up quickly if I put my mind to it.

This week I have loved reading about the miracles in 2 Kings, and been somewhat horrified at the extent of the violent wars and gruesome desperate measures (eating their own children during a terrible famine, for example *shudder*) later in the same book. I have ploughed through the lists and lists of names that I can barely pronounce, half of which look the same! I found that easier if I just read those passages out loud with a bit of rhythm, like they were poetry. I took them in quickly and easily that way, and - bonus! - got to actually understand each name by pronouncing it, as opposed to just skimming over a bunch of letters without bothering to take the time to form them into a pronouncable name!

I have been amazed at the vastness of one or two things, just facts and figures really. Like when Solomon built the temple of the Lord and he sent a message to Hiram king of Tyre, asking for men to cut cedar, pine and algum logs and send them from Lebanon for the temple construction. I loved what he (almost casually, it seemed to my reading eye!) said at the end, "I will give your servants, the woodsmen who cut the timber, twenty thousand cors of ground wheat, twenty thousand cors of barley, twenty thousand baths of wine and twenty thousand baths of olive oil." (2 Chronicles 2:10)

That part of Solomon's message seemed to me to read something like, "Also, send me cedar, pine and algum logs. My men will work with yours because I'll need lots of timber, since the temple must be large and magnificent. Soooo, how about I give your woodsmen 120,000 bushels (4,400 kilolitres) each of wheat and barley for their trouble? And I could throw in 95,000 gallons of wine and the same of olive oil. Deal?"

ACTUAL QUANTITIES, folks!! Those were the translations in the notes at the foot of that passage! My eyes about fell out of my head when I read them (since I have no idea what cors or baths measure!). I just can't fathom 95,000 gallons of ANYTHING, let alone wine and olive oil!! ;) It just seemed so incredible to see it written so normally as an amount to send off as payment for the men's labour!

Also the Sea that was made of bronze outside the temple, the huge container that was cast and made for the priests to wash in (ceremonially) - it held three thousand baths of water! That's 14,500 gallons!!!!

Another thing that warmed my heart this week amongst the lists of people and their descendents was in 1 Chronicles 26:4-5:

"Obed-Edom also had sons:
Shemaiah the firstborn,
Jehozabad the second,
Joah the third,
Sacar the fourth,
Nethanel the fifth,
Ammiel the sixth,
Issachar the seventh,
and Peullethai the eighth.
(For God had blessed Obed-Edom)

I LOVE that little "p.s." explanation for why Obed-Edom had so many sons! That's my personal feeling on it too! :) Exactly one chapter before that, 1 Chronicles 25:4-5, there wer lists of the singers set apart for service at the temple, and I LOVED this bit for the same reason:

"As for Heman, from his sons:
Bukkiah, Mattaniah, Uzziel, Shubael, and Jerimoth; Hananiah, Hanani, Eliathah, Giddalti and Romamti-Ezer; Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir and Mahazioth. All these were sons of Heman the king's seer. They were given to him through the promises of God to exalt him. God gave Heman fourteen sonds and three daughters."

I love it!!!! :) The Bible calls those with many children BLESSED. It's taken me a while to open my eyes to that way of thinking over recent years, but I am sooooooooo there now. Obed-Edom's descendents (as well as his sons - his grandsons too) numbered 62, and were "very capable men" who had "the strength to do the work". God really did bless that man. I am in the trenches of broken nights, discipline crises, potty training, teething, GIVING to several (I don't know if I can call them "many" just yet, especially after reading the above lists, hehe!) dependent little children all day and all night. And it's HARD WORK. It's tiring and wearing, and stretches me as thin as I feel I can go. God enables me, of course. But THIS is the bigger picture. A generation or two down the line, I could be looking at a large branched-out family from our many small children. I can barely imagine it now, but what if it IS more than a few dozen, just my children and grandchildren and their spouses, in total? And what if we DO manage to raise our children right in God's sight, and train them up in the way they should go? How He could be glorified in the lives of our offspring!!! Surely the more of them the merrier, for God's purposes! I wonder if there really will be a day when we suddenly stand back and realise we are the "top layer" of a large, branched-out family made up of very capable men, leaders in their families, with the strength to do the work God has called them to do, for His glory. What an AWESOME vision to aspire to, and to pray towards! I really do not think, when I consider it in this light, that one can have too many children.

Well, my smallest one is waking for a midnight feed, so I will finish here! Back BEFORE next Monday hopefully!

Bible in 90 Days - Monday Update (Day 25)

So I am past the three week mark, and almost one third of the way through my challenge to read through the Bible in 90 days!! I'm so excited!!

My personal weak point with sticking at ANYTHING comes somewhere between 2 and 3 weeks, usually more towards 3 weeks. But this past week has been steady and my motivation high. I have not fallen behind at all this week, and several days have finished a chapter or so ahead because I have just been too caught up in the story to want to stop at the place I'm supposed to. I now do at least half of my reading every day in bits and pieces as I rock Benjamin to sleep for his naps (he takes 3 (occasionally 4) per day, plus bedtime), and then read the rest as soon as I go downstairs after tucking the boys into bed. I don't let myself do a thing until I've finished my Bible reading - except get a drink and a snack sometimes. I pick up my Bible from the bedroom on the way downstairs from the boys' bedroom at bedtime, and then take it straight to the sofa, sit down and open it. Keeping that as a habit is the solution, for me. I go straight to it, the same every evening, and just keep going until I have finished. It is MUCH easier to do now that I'm diving into the Bible throughout the day when Benjamin goes to sleep.

I'm so enjoying it!!!! I'm really excited that I'm finding it so straightfoward, because I was REALLY nervous about starting. I was worried I would not be able to stick to it, and would get behind and not have the self-discipline to continue and complete the challenge. I wasn't sure I could do it. I know I am not even a third of the way through it yet, but I am 100% confident that I can do it! :)

This week none of the reading has been hard to take in, and I have been really caught up in parts of the story. There has been more gruesomeness with all the war in David's reign and the time of the judges, and I'm pretty glad to be past that part! But it's all so fascinating. I'm not supposed to do anything but just attentively read the verses. But these last few days I have also been reading some of the notes in my Bible (it's a Life Application Bible), and looking with interest at some of the maps and things relevant to the stages of the story I'm reading, in my Bible. Yesterday I broke down and put the laptop on halfway through my evening's Bible reading, because I just HAD to see a model of Solomon's temple and palace as I was reading about them. I was reading the measurements and not really being able to picture it in my mind's eye. I didn't think it would pull me off track from reading, because I was just so enthusiastic about reading it, and having some pictures to make it come to life a bit more.

There are zillions of links out there (I googled), but here's one that I found:

www.bible-architecture.info/Jerusalem.htm

It was helpful to see the pictures, and I did get slightly side-tracked reading another site that I can't find now I've googled again, about archaeological finds in Jerusalem. I'm so fascinated by archaeology, and have been since childhood, so I couldn't help myself! :) I did finish my reading right after that though!

So I am now at the end of 1 Kings. I find myself wanting map and pictures and time-lines to look at, just because I'm eager for more to learn about it as I go along, but I am trying to remember that I'm here to just READ the Bible for this challenge. What I'm a bit worried about is that once I've finished, it will be all "over and done with", sort of, and I won't actually keep up the habit of reading my Bible. I really want to get some tips well in advance, of the next thing I need to do. I think I will be better following another plan, or a Bible study of some sort - a structure that I can follow and be accountable for, because it is working so well for me at the moment. I think if I just randomly attempt to keep reading bits of it once I've finished reading the whole thing, I will simply not keep it up, and probably pretty quickly too. I think at the end, I will feel like I'm sort of wandering aimlessly about without a clue what to do next with my Bible! And I don't want to be in that position, so I'm thinking about the next step already (hoping for some advice!).

Well that is all for this week's update! I am on track and loving the challenge! I feel closer to God and uninterested in more "worldly" stuff at the moment, which is always a good place to be! :) Hope to be able to say the same thing next Monday! I hope anyone reading who is on the challenge has had a good week, and that God will reveal Himself to you through your reading over the next week too!

Bible in 90 Days - Monday Update (Day 18)

I'm almost 3 weeks into my challenge to read through the Bible in 90 days! This is my second regular Monday update, to link back to Amy's blog where she's hosting the challenge. What a week it has been since my last Monday update!

Last Monday when I updated here, I was a day behind, because I was preparing for Nathan's birthday on the Tuesday. By Wednesday (Day 13) I was getting so behind! I had caught up on Day 10's reading, but still had three days worth of reading to do, and one day usually takes me a good hour! Thankfully I had people praying for me to be able to catch up, and I was pretty determined not to fall badly behind, so I read the Bible for almost 5 hours on Wednesday evening from when the boys went to bed, until maybe midnight or later! And I caught up!!! I was sooooooo proud of myself! :)

Since then I have stayed right on track. I had trouble focusing on the words on Thursday evening and it basically took me most of the evening to read it. I was crazy tired for some reason, and my eyes kept closing and my head kept nodding every couple of LINES! I probably should have just gone to bed, even though it was early, but I was determined not to get behind again so soon. I got up and stretched and ate snacks every now and then, and was more able to focus for a while after those things, so I did finish it before bed. I think I was just worn out from a VERY late night the night before Nathan's birthday (it took me a long time to bake and decorate his birthday cake!) and then all that intensive reading the next night.

So now I have read through Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and these past couple of days, Joshua. I am reading Judges right now and will finish that tomorrow. This past week has been mostly the "law" books and then the Israelites moving in to possess the Promised Land. I have found quite a bit of it hard to read, because of the bloodshed and the intensity of the wars and, well, massacres really. Also the details of the sacrifices and the consequences of the people's sin. It has been kind of gruelling! I also worried at first that I was going to be so "put off" by reading such things that I would maybe question God. A helpful Bible in 90 Days email (I get them daily) around that time said I should allow myself to be amazed instead of appauled, and I kept that in mind!

I did not need to worry though. The past 7 days has been incredible. I think I said it before, but I'll say it again (and probably again and again over the weeks!) - the PACE of the reading is the key to the whole thing. I feel like I'm absolutely IMMERSING myself in God's Word, not just getting drip fed with bits of reading here and there. I'm soaking myself in it. It all links up and runs together, and I have no trouble piecing together the history or the events. It's all one story, and it reads smoothly (so far), but I never got that from a more drawn-out reading in the past. I had to look up things to remind myself what this or that was in reference to from earlier history. I am absolutely LOVING this challenge! I am enjoying reading every single day, even with the bits that have been hard to read, and particularly loving the effect of the fast pace. The fast pace is hard work, and you have to sacrifice time. It's 100% doable for ANYONE who chooses to do it, but you can't do it without sacrificing something of your usual time. But - sooooo worth it folks. I really do urge you to give it a try the next time this challenge comes around. I think there's a summer one as well, from what the emails suggest. I am also noticing how important it is to do the challenge as part of a community, not just on your own with nobody to be accountable to.

All week I have been finding myself thinking of things that I want to blog about in this update, and trying to remember them. Next week I think I will try blogging bits as I go along in a draft post, and then edit it and finish it on the Monday and post it. That way I won't forget stuff! And there's so much stuff. As I get further into reading the Bible in this way, I am starting to be.... affected by it? That's the wrong description, but I can't think of the words I mean right now. I am really starting to feel that God is changing me on the inside as I read and learn of Him. I'm excited about it!

A couple of things I am particularly noticing over the last 7 or so days is a real awareness of God's holiness. Seriously. And ohhh how grateful I am for Jesus, reading over and over and over the requirements and intense pressure on the Israelites to atone for their sins with sacrifices, and allll these rules and regulations, so that they might present themselves holy before a holy God, who cannot tolerate sin in His presence. I would never keep up! I would be instantly burned to a crisp before Him if I had to do those things, because I am too wretchedly sinful pretty much on a daily basis. I can't wait to read the progression of this beautiful story into the life and death of Jesus and beyond. I can't imagine how moving it will be to read that as part of the intensity of this fast-paced reading, even though I already know the story well and have read it before. Because without Jesus, where would I be?! He became the ultimate sacrifice, dying one time for all sins for all people, so that all people could be acceptable before a holy God. By taking ALL my sins upon Himself, I am free from the burden of laws and atonements, and free to approach my very holy God with boldness, knowing I am able to stand in His presence without fear of death!

This week's reading has served as a stark reminder of WHY Jesus came, and the depth and impact of His sacrifice for us. And seeing the alternative, I'm soooo freshly thankful!

Another thing for me this week has been a new and healthy FEAR of God. Understanding His power and holiness, and what He is able to do for those who are faithful to Him, as well as to those who are NOT, has really caught my attention!

A couple of other things of note are the way I lately want to worship and praise God at random moments of the day, and this weekend when Neil took the boys to the park and I stayed with Benjamin to clean and tidy and play with my sweetie pie, I put a Chris Tomlin CD on for some "background music" and not 5 minutes later had abandoned the tidying for jumping around with my hands in the air singing my heart out to my God! There's a song on this CD called 'God of this City', and before now I have enjoyed the song and sung along, but this time one little line changed the whole thing into body-and-soul worship for me. Just one line - "There is no-one like our God..." And it really tied in to the reading I've been doing this past week, and transformed the meaning of the song for me. I've been reading about Israel's God from ancient times, detached from me and my life, and the modern day. But in Exodus, Moses said to Pharaoh, "It will be as you say, so that you may know there is no one like the LORD our God." (Exodus 8:10), and that has been echoed throughout this week's reading too. And hearing a modern worship singer saying the same words - "There is no-one like our God..." - OUR God. Today! Mine! All of a sudden I saw afresh how Israel's God is MY God. The same today as yesterday, and all the yesterdays before that. This same God who parted the Red Sea and fulfilled His promises to His people, giving them the land as a possession all these centuries ago. That's MY God, the one I serve today. It was just an awesome realisation, even though it's not news as such - I already knew it, but I didn't really have my eyes open to how amazing it really is.

I have suddenly become really interested in Jewish history, and wish I had Jewish friends in real life so that I could ask them about their heritage. It would be amazing to follow that history right up to modern day!

When I was trying to catch up with the reading after Nathan's birthday, I started trying to squeeze in bits and pieces of reading any time I put Benjamin down for a nap during the day, because to settle him to sleep, I put him in his Amby hammock and rock it with one hand. I thought I could maybe read the Bible whilst rocking, since I am able to check my email on my laptop with the other hand so I should be able to read the Bible instead! ;) It worked so well that I have been doing that every time I settle him for naps. If he takes a while to settle, or takes more naps than usual on any particular day, I find that I can actually get quite a few chapters read like that! On Friday I actually read 10 chapters and only had like 4 left to read that evening, which was great! So I'm doing that every day and then reading whatever I haven't managed in the evening as usual. Another bonus of doing this is that I am literally dipping into God's Word all day long, and the evening too. It's ever so good for me, spiritually! I am really feeling the benefits.

I am usually rocking Benjamin to sleep around 1am after a change and feed, and I often am soooo tired at that time that it's the closest thing to feeling like a chore (without being one - I am still blissful!). I rock and try to do it for the least time I can get away with, and then feel frustrated that he stirs awake again and I need to start rocking again to re-settle him. Well the other night after I started rocking him in the dark at 1am-ish, I didn't even notice when I started to pray, but I did. I prayed so long and so fervently and with such enjoyment that I eventually came back to earth with a bump and realised that I'd been rocking a completely-asleep baby unnecessarily for 15 minutes, hehe! ;) So, I kind of look forward to praying at the 1am "rocking" now :)

God is definitely changing my heart. I am finding myself less and less able to tolerate certain things, like basically all TV (which I barely watch anyway), since there's very little TV without some sort of sex, violence, swearing or ungodly attitudes. I feel repulsed by such things lately. Neil watches aggressive and violent TV programmes pretty much exclusively every evening, and I can't STAND it. I was not happy about it before, but now I just can't bear it. I feel like it's poison. It's polluting him and polluting our home, and by extension it's polluting me and the boys too. I am committing myself to praying for God to change his heart daily (well, 1am-ly, (hehe!) since that's when I started praying about it), to cause him to find such viewing repulsive and just want to SWITCH IT OFF! Urgh! Horrible stuff on TV these days. I want to throw the whole thing away, but Neil is very attached to it!

Well this is a very long update! But I had soooo much to say this week, and it's all good! :) Oh, one more thing before I sign off - on Friday Benjamin was difficult to settle for naps and seemed more fussy than usual, and so while I rocked him in the Amby I tried singing to him quietly - lullabies and such. It helped for his first nap, but the second nap was taking a while to achieve and I wanted to read my Bible! So I opened it to where I had got to, and started to sing the words to lullaby tunes, hehe! That way I was reading it, and he was getting his soothing lullabies. Genius. Until my sweet baby boy heard this to the tune of Golden Slumbers:

"Iiif two men are fiiighting,
Aaand the wife of one of them
comes to res-cue her husbaa-aand
from his aaa-ssai-lant,

and she reaches ouu-uu-uut
and seizes him by his private parts,
you shall cu-uut off her-rr-rr hand.
Sho-ooww her no pii-ii-ty."

Ahhh, nighty-night... Sweet dreams darling! That verse is Deuteronomy 25:11-12. No, I did not need to look that up! I didn't even realise what I was singing until the words were out, and then I stopped and the words of the verse combined with the soothing tune sung in that setting tickled me for some reason and I laughed and laughed (disturbing the baby, but oh well!)! So, the verse is committed to memory! ;)

I will be back next Monday!! I'm so excited about this next week's reading! And totally determined to succeed at the challenge! :)

Bible in 90 Days - Day 11 Progress Report!

Well, I am working through reading the Bible in 90 days, starting January 1st like I said in my last post! There is a lot of reading but I'm really enjoying it! Genesis was done in 4 days, Exodus in 3! And now I'm on Day 11 and still going - so excited! :)

I read every evening after the boys are in bed. It's the best (read: only!) time of day for me, as they get up around 6am and I'm usually incapable of anything until at least 7am in any case, let alone trying to get up before they do to get my reading done then! My motivator is not letting myself online till after I have finished reading, and so far it's working.

Except for yesterday! :S Nathan's birthday is tomorrow (I can't believe he'll be two!!!) and I had to put reading the Bible second last night as I had birthday-prep things to do, which could only be done after the boys were in bed. I hoped I would get enough time to read before I went to bed, but I knew it might not happen, and it didn't. So I'm a day behind as of today. Tonight I have yet more birthday prep things to do (bake and decorate the cake, yikes!) but at least the presents are wrapped now. I am not confident of getting any Bible reading done tonight, but I am determined to catch up as soon as birthdayness is behind us. I will also attempt to read little snatches today as I'm rocking the Amby to settle Benjamin off to sleep and things like that, but again, I'm not setting my hopes too high! I don't think I will get any read today, but I will try. I am actually really enjoying reading the Bible at this pace, and the stories are really coming alive for me as I read them, more than they have when I did the Bible in a year (I only read as far as Acts though, so didn't finish - and it took me 18 months to do that!).

So that is my update! :) Amy is asking everyone to link a blog post every Monday with a status update, so that's what I'll (try to!) do.

Hopefully I will get chance very soon to update about Nathan's birthday (my BIG tiny man!!) but I am not really finding the extra time to blog while I'm devoting much of my evening to reading the Bible lately. I will Facebook it though! That's quicker! ;)

Read Through The Bible in 90 Days - I'm in! :)

Yikes! But I soooo want to read the whole Bible, cover to cover. I have followed a book called "Cover to Cover: Through the Bible in a Year" a couple of times and the first time (when I was housebound with M.E. for two years) I got as far as Acts and then didn't get any further. It took a year and a half to get that far, and I was in a fairly good routine with it. So now I have four children aged 5 and under, and am horrendously behind with the housework, and newly homeschooling, and probably nutso to try to take on a 90-day challenge like this one! But...

God is higher. The Word of God is higher - a higher priority. If my first priority is firm in its proper place, then everything else in my life will fall into line. I know that I NEED to somehow carve out that extra bit of time (though I have no idea how yet, just that I will need to sacrifice something - probably internet time) to get that wonderful Word into my heart and mind and soul. I will be so excited if I actually complete the 90 days having read the whole Bible! I am not too sure I will manage it in 90 days, but I will be very very happy to actually read the whole thing, even if it takes me a bit longer!

I normally wouldn't think I stand a chance, except that it seems there's a huge bloggy effort to join in with this challenge. Many of my favourite bloggers are taking part, and I think with the support and encouragement online on a daily/weekly basis, I might actually be able to maintain the momentum and DO IT! :) I'm excited and nervous, and can't wait to get started!

I signed up with Kimberly at Raising Olives, but it's being hosted by Amy at Mom's Toolbox, where you need to sign up as well, here. Amy will be posting every Monday to encourage readers and so that we can comment as to where we are in the reading. I'm using my NIV Bible and not the 90 Days Bible. Amy has a printable list of readings for anyone who is not using the 90 Days Bible, which I plan to follow. It's a lot of reading! I know I will have to sacrifice some online time. So far I am thinking I will start reading the Bible after I come downstairs from putting the boys to bed, and not allow myself to go on the computer until the reading is done for that day. This will either mean I am online less, or else I stay up later. I know it should NOT be the latter! But I think I will struggle to stay disciplined over that one. I will pray about it. But I'm excited for the challenge! Join me if you can!