Gem from shelovesgod.com

A man was sleeping at night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light and the Savior appeared. The Lord told the man he had work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock with all his might. This the man did, day after day. For many years he toiled from sun up to sun down, his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock, pushing with all his might. Each night the man returned to his cabin sore, and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain.
Seeing that the man was showing signs of discouragement, the Adversary decided to enter the picture by placing thoughts into the man's weary mind: ''You have been pushing against that rock for a long time, and it hasn't budged. Why kill yourself over this? You are never going to move it.'' Thus giving the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a failure. These thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man. Why kill myself over this?'' he thought. ''I'll just put in my time, giving just the minimum effort and that will be good enough.'' And that is what he planned to do until one day he decided to make it a matter of prayer and take his troubled thoughts to the Lord. ''Lord'' he said, ''I have labored long and hard in your service, putting all my strength to do that which you have asked. Yet, after all this time, I have not even budged that rock by half a millimeter. What is wrong? Why am I failing?''

The Lord responded compassionately, ''My friend, when I asked you to serve me and you accepted, I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all, your strength, which you have done. Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you come to me, with your strength spent, thinking that you have failed. But, is that really so? Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled, your back sinewy and brown, your hands are callused from constant pressure, and your legs have become massive and hard. Through opposition you have grown much and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have. Yet you haven't moved the rock. But your calling was to be obedient and to push and to exercise your faith and trust in My wisdom. This you have done. I, my friend, will now move the rock.''

At times, when we hear a word from God, we tend to use our own intellect to decipher what He wants, when actually what God wants is just simple obedience and faith in Him.... By all means, exercise the faith that moves mountains, but know that it is still God who moves the mountains.

William turned 6 on 11/23. We had a REALLY low key birthday for him. Picked up pizzas and made a rice krispy with peanut m & m "cake" per Chris's request, cuz his birthday was the 22nd. I thought I had candles, but didn't, so Will got an ancient taper candle stuck in the "cake." We got him a new bike, which he really needed.

Thanksgiving was at my Mom's house, where she cooked up a wonderful feast, as usual. I had to work for the first time in my life that day, and it was totally dead--hardly any calls. Very boring. We got a really late start to Thanksgiving and home late.

I am in my new office!! I'd take a picture, but it's kinda messy....it has a door, it's out of the way, it's ok if I want to be my sloppy (but organized!) self!! Yay!
I completed my second day being at home for my reservation agent job today. I was having lots of issues with internet and phone, and then I found out my equipment was not updated. It was a VERY long, painful, frustrating process to get to the priveleged place of having customers tell me first, that I am speaking too quietly, or that they can't hear me, or that they want me to PLEASE not charge that fee, or that I am being rude when I repeat myself loudly so they can truly hear me over my constantly breaking up phone line. I had nice customers all day, until the last one...and it took me a long time to get him out of my head. Big deal, he said I was rude when I wasn't and it was the phone line's fault, right? Nobody was murdered, no random acts of violence. I wish I could get over these dang meanities a LOT quicker. I had a hard time with that when I was a teller, too. Too stinkin sensitive. Still working at Key Bank in evenings, though the hours are reducing greatly because of changing technology. I may be there another 2 months. Baby steps to severance, baby steps to severance....

I worked like a dog this past week, for Key in evening, from like 7-ish PM to 11 or 12 ish AM and then at ACS doing reservations from 3:30 to 9:30 AM. Not fun. Not ready to be doing the reservation work at home either in terms of having my office ready...or my confidence. Next week, I'll take vacation at Key and go do reservations in office at ACS for the evening shift.

Today, since it was so beautiful, as a family, after church, we went to a few places to have some fun in the sun. The first one was Lake Sammammish, which was kinda boring, but I got some good pictures. I wanted to go somewhere else, so we checked out Gas Works Park in Seattle, which we all loved. So glad we got to have a great, refreshing time--safe, cheap, and great pics, to boot!

I'll put more photos on Facebook.

I have been a scrooge with news. But there is some. I have started a new job, as an airline reservation agent with Virgin America. They are newly installed at SeaTac airport. I will be doing 3 weeks of full time training onsite, and then, wonder of wonders, be working at home 30 hours a week! Yay!! Today was orientation.
Me so tired. Nine hours of sleep the last 2 days. My mantra, tatooed on my brain, is "...a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come on you like a bandit, and scarcity like an armed man." Proverbs something: something.
I will be putting all the kids in public school next week. It's hard work to get 4 people signed up and outfitted! Not for sissies! Open houses are tomorrow.
I tried to get a video of William up here recently, but blogger kept not working for me. It was funny, though. He was singing "Deep and Wide" over and over and over and over, and he was completely covered and encased in a blanket. SO CUTE. Another precious thing that I like to think about was how, after I told him that I come in his room and kiss him goodnight when he's asleep, after I get home from work, he excitedly said to Zoe, "Zoe, Mom comes into my room and kisses me at night!!!"

Anybody heard of Meetups.com? You can find local groups in your area that meet--many interests to choose from. I actually looked at one that was for shy and anxious folks. It had about 40 members. Guess how many people showed up at the last 8 events? Three.