Author: rubyred110

rubyred110https://memoirsofaredhead.wordpress.com
rubyred110's avatar

What’s in Your Heart?

I took this picture at Ross’ school.Dsc03008

Stephanie is a room mom in his class and goes in to read with him and his reading buddy, Sean, twice a week.  (How great is that?)  Tuesday I got to go with her.

When we got there the kids were just finishing up recess, so I checked out the bulletin boards in the hallway. 

This is Ross’ heart.  My assumption is that the assignment had the students write as many things as they could think of that they love. 

**To be honest, I was a touch disappointed that I didn’t make it onto the heart.  😦  But the way that Ross jumped onto my lap in front of his class when we sat down to read completely showed me that I was in his real heart.  🙂

But anyway, click on the heart to make it a little bigger and easier to read.  He has all the major important things on there like…

  • Sophie (the girl he likes)
  • God
  • grandparents
  • Christians
  • cartoons
  • pizza
  • Guess Who
  • Coke A Cola 
  • football
  • Sean (his reading partner)
  • soccer
  • my family
  • network (I wonder what he’s thinking of on this one)
  • my books
  • rice
  • my church friends
  • my birthday
  • Superbowl
  • my six pack (he really does love his six pack:)

As an exercise, grab a big piece of construction paper and cut out a big heart.  Fill it with as many things as you can think of that you love.  See what you come up with!  Hey, if you love your six pack, throw it on there!

Mature Fitness Inspiration

Today as I spent my time on the elliptical machine, I saw out of the cornePhotow212557aspxr of my eye, a 7
0+ year old man with a walker…

Here’s to hoping that:
a.  I’m married by the time I’m that age 🙂
b.  My husband cares that much about fitness, even if he does need a walker to get around
c.  I can go a little bit faster than the precious lady going about 0.5mph on the treadmill (she was probably about 70 too)

Details

This morning I was reading some Scripture in Exodus, where all the instructions were given for the temple and the ark of the covenant to be built.  To be completely honest, I was sleepy and getting a bit bored.  So I stopped and said, "Okay, God, I need You to show me how to you want to impact and change my life through this."  Then I got back to reading.

Within a minute I realized just how detailed God was about this whole process.  He showed me that the details mattered to Him, just as much as they mattered to me.  God has detailed plans about my life that He is instructing me on, and I believe He’s even instructing those around me on, at perhaps a different level.  He really cares about the details in regards to the building of my heart and my life…I need to trust Him and follow His instructions.

He continues to pursue my heart to trust Him and that blows me away.

Way More

Last night I was asked to share a favorite promise that God gives in Scripture.  I never actually got to share it (guess I took too long to figure out which one to share:) but it’s been on my heart ever since, so here are my thoughts.

Ephesians 3.20 is a verse that my best friend and I used to share with each other in high school.  If one of us was going through something that we just couldn’t see a good end-result to, we would usually pray together and share encouraging words from God on the matter.  Ephesians 3.20 was our favorite and seemed to fit most circumstances.  Even now, about 1,000 miles away, we still remind each other of it at times.

"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us…"

You’ll notice that this is not a complete sentence, however, this sentence fragment, in and of itself, states something very powerful.  It’s not necessarily stated as a promise, which is probably why I hesitated to share it last night, but it’s serves as a promise of these three things to me…

1.  He is able

2.  He is able to do way more than I can ask or think

3.  There’s a power at work within me

This morning as I was driving to work, I enjoyed my time, immersed in the presence of Jesus.  I had an older song on ("All things are Possible")  and its connection to the verse on my heart caused  supernatural faith to be built.  I found myself forcing my eyes to stay open, becuase all I wanted to do was close my eyes to worship…it was a powerful time.  That song was followed by "Power of Your Love" and once I pulled up to work I had a hard time shutting it off.  "God, we’re gonna have a great day together,"  I said, and then finally got out of the car. 

God is able to do way more than I can even fathom…sure is good to know. 🙂

I’ve Got the Joi

There’s an old song that I used to sing with some friends in high school…

I’ve got the joy (joy) joy (joy) joy (JOY)….Down in my heart…Img_2290

I just realized you can’t reenact the song simply through written words, but this is a little song I always like to sing to my friend, Joi.

And I just want to announce that she just got hired to work at my school today!  Woo hoo!  God is so faithful and I love being a part of His family.  To my sister, Joi, congratulations!  You’re right where He wants you to be.  Hanley kids are gonna love your smile. 🙂

Updates are good:)

Nothing in particular, just a post for my memoir:)

1.)Today was a great day for a snow day:)  I didn’t go into Hamtramck to work but I did go into (you guessed it!) Caribou to work.  Unfortunately I didn’t gravitate to my large stack of papers to grade, but I worked with my friend, and co-worker, Dana on our School Improvement Plan.  I probably haven’t mentioned this before, but I recently became the chair for our School Improvment Committee at school.  The is the biggest job-related committee that I’ve ever led and it’s more like a second part-time job…just what I needed, something else to do:)  I really do love it though.

The Michigan Department of Education is often unrealistic with it’s goals for us but in order to exist, we comply.  My hope is that God will use me at Hanley to cast vision for us to not only comply with the regulations, but to excel above them.  So far that task has been a bit overwhelming (what’s new:).  We are setting out to write a School Improvement Plan…and then implement it.  Honestly, it stresses me out a bit when I think about it, but if I’m going to be here to work I want to be an impact.  And so that’s why I love it that I get to do this.  It’s a ton of extra work…a ton…and I hold more responsibility than I personally think I should, but growth will come as I walk through this-holding God’s hand, of course.

In saying that, I don’t mean to compartmentalize God’s "role" in my life…but I do sometimes.  Honestly, I’ve only prayed about the school improvement thing once…and the rest I’ve done on my own.  Gee, I’m thinking there’s something wrong with that picture.  Hmmm.  My heart is heavy right now over a few things, with this being one of them. 

2.) I’m quitting Curves.  This is very shocking to a few people, but it really just needs to happen.  The good news about that though, is that I joined a different gym.  I’m pretty excited about it too-change can be an awesome thing.  I’m going to have a personal trainer and she’s going to basically tell me what to do.  Last night was the first session-it was actually a trial day.  My lower body’s a bit sore, but I feel great today!  Then this morning I went and jogged a full mile (yes, I am definitely moving towards accomplishing my running goals:). 

God continues to challenge me physically.  He’s my best cheerleader and my biggest fan.  I’m glad He’s also put a few others in my life who extend His cheering for me.  It really helps me through some tough moments.

3.)Do you ever have days/weeks where you don’t think you have enough time to spend with Jesus?  I’ve been going through that this past week.  How illogical is that?  God holds time in His hands.  He shaped it and formed it.  I really need Him to direct my schedule…somehow I think He’d do that better than me.  So, I’m sitting here writing, but I miss Him…and I think I need to go spend some time with Him.  It is Valentine’s Day, and He is the hottest date I could possibly have, right?   So, good night, and Happy Valentine’s Day.  Hope you spent time with the One who loves you the most.

I’m Not Lovin’ It

Wow…my stomach hurts…

I’d be lying if I said that I was on a "healthy eating kick" recently.  I couldn’t honestly describe it as that.  But my eating habits have certainly evolved into something more of an intentional way to fuel my body, as opposed to a way to indulge my every desire for food.  Make sense? 

Needless to say though, while I haven’t given up fast food items altogether, I’ve made much wiser choices when it comes to them-especially these past few months.  Between you and me, I’ve only had french fries once since the first week of November.  (I’ll accept all types of applause at this time:) 

This evening when I was running around, kinda hungry for some dinner, I decided to stop at McDonald’s and grab something quick, without having to step out of my eating regime.  A cheeseburger and small fries are a decent number of Weight Watchers points so I opted for that in my hurry.  Let’s see, about 7 o’clock this evening my body told me that it wasn’t such a smart choice for me to have that for dinner.  My stomach started hurting with a disgusting pain (do you know that feeling?).  The thing that stinks is that it’s past 10:30 and I still feel that way.  Not good:( 
Antimcdonalds
The best thing about it is that I will probably not be too tempted with McDonald’s cheeseburgers,
or any fries, any time soon.  🙂  All I need to think of is this disgusting, horrible feeling and it should do the trick. 

I’m simply not lovin’ it!