From Super Cleaner To Crashing

I am thinking I started out my day with a bit much enthusiasm for cleaning. What was I thinking?!! Saturdays are suppose to be an easy day! I was up just before 7:00and had breakfast with Madison. I started cleaning the kitchen including scrubbing the floor. I also decided I was tired of looking at those stains on my carpet so I moved the furniture and vacuumed and got James to help with shampooing the carpet. We ran out of the Kirby brand we like to use so we had to buy a different carpet shampoo. It did the job for the most part but there are still some areas that did not come up that my Kirby brand would have removed. Having a 3 year old, I need a dependable carpet cleaner so I'll be sure to have my usual on hand next time! Once the carpet was shampooed I had to wait until it dried before I could vacuum it again and move my furniture back. It felt like an all day event. In the mean time I managed to get some laundry done. I was also hoping to tackle some "cooking in bulk" to help through out the week. But as I sat down to plan my meals for the week I realized this was not the best week for that. I was going to cook and then freeze my meals ahead of time so that all we would have to do is thaw them out and warm them up as we got home. But in the recipes I picked for the week it would not be saving much time on them as they were quick and easy dinners. So I'll save that thought for another weekend.

Now my child is in bed...that's right, you read that right. Madison did not get a nap today so I always put her to bed a little earlier to make sure she gets her rest. She's a grumpy one when she doesn't get her sleep but then again who isn't?
So tonight, it's just me. Madison is upstairs sleeping and dreaming sweet dreams and James is at a church leadership conference. I'm thinking some good chic flicks are in order. These nights are rare so I'm taking advantage of it!

I wanted to share some scripture I have read this evening. I was needing some "lift me up" after cleaning all day and just feeling exhausted. Sometimes when I do not know what I want to read in the Bible, I use my blackberry Bible app. It allows me to choose from so many versions of the Bible and search key words that make for a fast search. It's another long passage that I wanted to share just because I found it so inspiring. It comes from the Message Version of Romans 5: 1-11:

By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us - set us right with him, make us fit for him - we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that's not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand - out in the wide open spaces of God's grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise. There's more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we're hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we're never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary - we can't round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit! Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn't, and doesn't, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him. Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we're at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his Resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus the Messiah!

I find scripture so encouraging. It's what I read when I'm needing to be lifted up. It's also what I read when I'm feeling like I'm on top of the world and needing to praise God even more. I am thankful for today and the energy God gave me to do some much needed cleaning. So very thankful for the hope I have in Christ and how it keeps me going daily. Now off to relax for the evening and to have some "me" time!