Sorry it has taken me so long to post a blog. No reason other than I didn't feel like thinking too hard. It's been a good year so far. Nothing fantastic, but good. I started advertising my bookkeeping services and I think I have gotten about 4 new clients. My goal is to be able to work from home a bit more. We live at the beach, so it would be nice to enjoy it a little more. Next week I have an ad going into a local coffee news paper, so we will see how that goes. I didn't have to pay for the ad because I traded services with the owner. I did some bookkeeping for him and he put the ad in for me. If you want check out my website at www.sdlconsulting.biz
We are off on a cruise next month. I can't wait to go to California and then spend 6 days on a Disney Cruise. We are taking our 13 year old niece along and she will be staying in our cabin. I have a cousin and his 2 kids coming, aunts and uncles and relatives of one aunt coming too. Should be a lot of fun. I am hoping we can all sit in the same area for dinner. There are 17 of us all together. Of course my parents are coming along too. We can't travel to far without them ;) We have a full day in LA to explore, and plans are to do a few sight seeing things and then visit with some good friends in Laguana Hills. We are so hoping to move there one day, but it all depends if the US will let us in.
We have been going to a new bible study group. It's been very interesting so far. Everyone is under 30 and 2 couples have a kid about a year old. We are by far the oldest in the group, but so far it hasn't been a problem. It's been interesting listening to people so young look at the world. I remember being in that place and it sure is amazing how far our thinking has come in all these years. I am not saying we are smarter or more wise, but just how things change as you grow up and learn things about the world. The first week we were there they did a study on philosophy and Ethics, and thankfully they decided to stop doing that series otherwise we would have had to reconsider going. I have no use for philosophy and how it effects my christian life. My faith is based on very simple truths and I don't need to dwell into the knitty gritty of those truths. If others want to though, I have no issues with that. Just don't get me involved LOL.
Thankfully the next time they decided to change it and we did something else. It was still a video and I didn't totally agree with everything the speaker said, but that doesn't really matter. Yesterday we watched a speaker again and he was an evangelist... again, not my favourite thing but he was making the host uncomfortable, so I found that part interesting. I love it when people say things that aren't expected LOL... makes life interesting. The group of people we are meeting with are fun to be around and we are looking forward to getting to know them more. They aren't bothered by the fact that we don't go to church and infact haven't even asked why, which has been kinda nice.
So I was listening to a song today... by 10th Avenue North... it's called Hold My Heart, and when I first heard it just over a year ago, it would bring me to total tears. Today, it just made a small tear form, so I guess I am slowly getting better. The chorus goes like this...
One tear in the driving rain, One voice in a sea of pain Could the maker of the stars Hear the sound of my breaking heart? One life, that's all I am Right now I can barely stand If You're everything You say You are Would You come close and hold my heart
I am glad that slowly our Mexico thing is becoming a distant memory. It isn't too distant though because we still think of it often. I wish it could be wiped away completely, but life doesn't work that way.
We try not to think to hard about our future. If we do then we wonder where we will be. We both want to be in California, but we don't know if that is in the cards. For now we will just try to visit as often as possible. We have 2 trips planned for this year and I would assume we will do something early next year, even if it is just a visit with no set itineraries. Why plan for the future when you don't even know if it will show up, or how things will change. Granted that is easier to do when you don't have kids. We live for today.
So how goes our walk with God these days? Well... we still haven't found a church to go to, but the bible study group we go to has been nice. Our faith is as strong as ever though and we keep trusting God that he will lead us to where he wants. Now don't get me wrong, it isn't as if there are no churchs in our area, we just haven't felt the need to go to one yet. I truly believe that if God wants us in a certain church, he will make it very known to us. So far I have had no desire to start going to a church and deal with all the politics that come along with that. I still believe that church has no bearing on our walk as a Christian. I do miss the music aspect of church, but we have managed to find ways around that. So far this year we have been to a Toby Mac concert and just last weekend we went to the Rock & Worship Roadshow in Seattle. That works for me in worshiping God. What is better than an arena full of people all praising God for 4 hours.
We are enjoying our cat Minnie... she has a lot of fun. It has been nice coming home to a pet. A cat isn't the same as Louie (our dog), but it is still nice. A dog is a part of the family, but a cat is just a pet. We still miss Louie at times, but having the cat has been a nice change. I have been taking her outside on a leash and she has been doing pretty good. We got her on December 26th... I think it was a nice Christmas present for us. She is 3 years old and is a lot of fun. No real deep thoughts these days... I occasionally have them and wonder if I should write them down, but sometimes they take a lot of work to put down on paper. After hearing some of the speakers we have heard at bible study, I want to write about it, but not sure if it's worth it. I think people make God/Jesus way more complicated than what he is. He created us to commune with him, nothing more, nothing less. We are very important to God because he created us. We are his friends and he is our friend. How great is that. Why make things more complicated. Oh well... if people want complicated, then they can have it. I will stick with the simple things. I think there is nothing wrong with a simple faith.
Hope all is well for everyone.