Kids with a heart for God

Pause my IPOD by clicking the bottom arrow on the IPOD before playing these, or they'll play simultaneously.
.

The second appearance from New Pointe's High School Worship Band. This is team B.
Big applause due for these for kids.
They did a great job! Again, my digital camera fails to take good videos. My apologies

Something uplifting

As always, turn off the IPOD by placing your curser on the bottom arrow of the IPOD to pause it so that it is not playing the same time as the video. Enjoy.

Music is back

I lost my music for awhile. I'm happy I got it back again, for now.

Chocolate lovers rejoice!!!!

Walmart lowered their six pack Hershey bar price from $3.64 to $2.50. Chocolate lovers rejoice!! I bought two.

Stop the music

DON'T FORGET TO PAUSE THE MUSIC ON THE IPOD BY CLICKING THE BOTTOM ARROW BEFORE YOU PLAY THE NEWPOINTE WORSHIP BAND VIDEO. OTHERWISE, YOU'LL BE HEARING THEM BOTH PLAY SIMULTANEOUSLY.

A great day

Today was an awesome day that I think I will remember for a long time. We have to be at church on Sundays at 7:00 AM because of the areas we are serving in. Most days I love being there early because after I get my classroom ready and pray, I go and watch the bands rehearse. It’s just a great place to be. I try to get to bed early on Saturday, but this Saturday I was unable to do so. I was really tired and my brain was in a fog. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to teach my Sunday school class well because I was unable to focus well. I passed our lead Pastor, Dwight Mason in the hallway on the way in to church. He asked me how I was and I said that I was a bit tired. He stopped in his tracks and prayed for me. I prayed again before class started because I knew I was in for a struggle. On top of that, the computers went down and we had to do manual check in. The girls poured in and we got started. I felt the Holy Spirit take over and class went amazingly well. In fact, it was the best class I had done in weeks. Without the Holy Spirit I would never have made it.

After class my son Kevin played for the first time in the Praise and Worship Band. Earlier in the week he got his braces off. I still feel like crap but today was a great day anyway. Thanks God, you’re awesome!

Praise and Worship

I have two videos to share of the premiere of NewPointe's High School Praise and Worship Band. The videos are taken with my digital camera and are quite fuzzy. The kids did really well for the first time. Don't you think?

Update on last blog

I've been poking around some more on how to determine how much house a person can afford. Apparently that 30% of your income amount should include your real estate taxes and insurance. When I take those two items yearly total and divide them by 12 and add the two together, they nearly equal my current house payment. The house payment, insurance, and real estate still only equal 25% of our gross income. If your looking to buy a house I wouldn't dare go higher than that.

Home Sweet Home

I heard on Fox News that our government would help people refinance their mortgages to get a more affordable payment, if your payment was over 30% of your income. That’s the same figure our bank said Dave and I could afford way back when we got our loan in the 90’s. We looked at what 30% of our income was. It was more then double what we knew we could afford. The banks were telling anyone with good credit back then that you could afford a house payment that did not exceed 30% of your income. Maybe if you don’t eat, don’t have any utilities, don’t buy gas or own a car at all, etc. It’s totally unrealistic. I can remember sitting across the desk at the bank when we were told that figure and the look on Dave’s face. We still had time to talk it over, so we went home and discussed it. We were building a house, so we could have made it bigger. We chose not to. We’re only high school grads, but we knew that a payment that was 30% of our income was way too high. We had several friends who were building at the time. I can remember conversations with them about the amount the banks were saying they could afford. I’ll admit it was a boost to our egos to think we could afford a payment that big. I had visions of Jacuzzi tubs and marble counter tops dancing in my head. Dave was envisioning a four-car attached garage. Then the Holy Spirit jerked us back to reality. I’m so glad we didn’t get caught up in that. Twenty percent is more realistic, if you have a weakness for…… say…….food.

According to the Federal Reserve Bank map at the following website http://data.newyorkfed.org/creditconditionsmap/, most states in American are showing only an average of 1% to 3% of mortgages are 90 days delinquent. Only Southern California and Florida rates are higher, coming in at 6% to 7%. That means that about 95% of American mortgages are current or less than 90 days. Why the government intervention? If they're gone to refinance loans to get a lower payment, I surely hope they get their payment down to 20% of they're income or they will just default all over again.

View from my back door for sale

I decided to list one of my paintings on wood on Ebay. Item # 320340079691. I'm also for hire to paint anything and everything. Times are tough. We need to use our gifts for God's glory first. Then he may allow us to use them to survive. May God bless your gifts.

Update on Helen

My friend Helen made it through her surgery. She will be recovering at Walnut Hills Nursing home and will anxiously await going home to see her beloved dog, Ginger. I recently had the flu, so I won’t be able to visit her for a while. I will continue to pray for her recovery.

Pardon my Dust

When I have anxiety about talking to people, is it a sign that my heart is not in line with God? When I was younger every time I opened my mouth I would offend someone. After I had Kevin, I was too busy chasing him around to even have a conversation with anyone. I noticed that the amount of people I usually offended dropped dramatically. Not because I had better things to say, but because I didn’t have time to say anything. I had this mini-revelation that if I talked little I’d offend less. So then became my mission to say as little as possible. It’s funny how I deceived myself into thinking I had discovered this great way of getting along with everyone. I still had this unresolved question. Why do I make people mad when I do open my mouth? Maybe its because I have this critical, judgmental heart. I wasn’t saying it, but I was still thinking it; critiquing, judging, assuming the worst. When I would say something all that ugliness just came spewing out.

Like a master sculptor, God chips away at me. My heart is softening. My anxiety is lessening as I look at people and respond to them differently. I react with more compassion, grace, and understanding then I did before the Holy Spirit moved in. Sometimes I have to talk whether I want to or not. I still have anxiety when I do have to say something, but it is lessening. Thankfully He never tires of this work in progress. Maybe I should wear a sign that says pardon my dust.