What a wonderful night of worship tonight!  It is always a gift to minister at a Celebrate Recovery and to be reminded that we all need God's forgiveness and sanctifying work in our lives!

Tomorrow we'll really begin the work of preparing to leave the trailer for two and a half months.  As you can imagine, this is quite the undertaking!  I'll post some pictures of that "exciting" (insert sarcasm and eye roll) project soon.  In the meantime, here are a few pictures from the past few weeks!

Josh and I sang a little duet in the truck before this concert. It went like this . .
Josh, "You've got to go sing."
Me, "But Baby it's cold outside!"
Josh, "The church is waiting."
Me, "But Baby it's cold outside!"

I cannot believe that this fall tour is almost done!  We left for California on Sept. 30th and now we are 7 1/2 weeks later and we're preparing to head back to the Pacific Northwest.  We are warming up for our busy season with 5 church services in the last 4 days of the tour! :)  Then we get a little break during Thanksgiving week before the real insanity begins with 21 concerts/church services between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day.

We're excited to finish this tour off with a bang! and look forward to what God has in store for the holidays!  He is so gracious to include us in the work that He is doing in so many places and although our upcoming schedule is a little daunting, mostly we're just excited! :)

Last night when Josh was praying he said "Thank you Lord for getting us here safely to . . . wherever we are!"  Bahaha, that is our life!  There are times when I wake up in the morning and have to look out the blinds to remind myself where we are.  That's okay though, because this is our "Great Adventure" and God is with us every step of the way!

If you are not familiar with the book "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" by Judith Viorst and Ray Cruz let me clarify.  First, keep in mind that I have never seen the movie based on this book that came out last year, so my comparison to my day comes from the book.  I taught preschool for several years and read this book many times.  It's the story of a little boy who wakes up on the wrong side of the bed with gum in his hair, and his day continues that way.  Some of his frustrations are due to unpleasant circumstances, but much of it has to do with his less than pleasant attitude - therein lies the comparison to my day yesterday.

Like Alexander, I too woke up on the wrong side of the bed (praise God I did not also have gum in my hair or that might have put me over the edge!) and just could not shake my crummy attitude!  I told Josh I had "I don't wanna!  You can't make me!"itis and I wanted to take a sick day!  He smiled and continued preparing the trailer for our planned travel.  Humph!

Some days are just like this, though, right?!  Please tell me I'm not the only one! 

I am definitely feeling the pressure of the upcoming Christmas concerts (read: I have to sing songs I haven't sang in a year!).  I am feeling stressed at the thought of preparing to leave our trailer for two months and the need to make sure we don't forget anything!  I am also carrying around the weight of my concern for my friend with cancer!  But, I think there's something more to it!  In my study of "The Armor of God" by Priscilla Shirer, she states that according to Ephesians 6:12, "Everything that occurs in the visible, physical world is directly connected to the wrestling match being waged in the invisible, spiritual world." (Priscilla Shirer)

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." (Ephesians 6:12 ESV)

Our family has been prioritizing time in God's Word together and individually!  My boys memorize Scripture daily and their homeschool curriculum weaves Biblical truths throughout all of their lessons!  And last night was the 20th consecutive night that Josh and I read the Bible together (this is not a legalism or self-righteous thing, it's just a commitment we made to develop this habit!).  The Enemy knows there's power in the Truth of God's Word and he's getting pretty irritated with these disciplines! 

So, although yesterday felt terrible, horrible, no good, and very bad!  Today is a new day!  God's mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-24).  Yesterday I was grumpy, lethargic and irritable, but today I will lean into my Heavenly Father and let Him shine His love through me!

"This is the day that the Lord has made; [I will] rejoice and be glad in it!" (Psalm 118:24)

Take that, Satan!

Here's a post from this week last year.  I decided just to link to it because there were too many pictures to copy over to this page.  Read about our adventures with lions, tigers, cattle drives and snow, by clicking on the cows below! :)