I NEED YOUR HELP!! Amazon - A Breakthrough Novel Award

I need you to go to http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00121WDUG and read the excerpt from my book. Then I need you to write a review. You have to have an Amazon customer account to write a review. The next round of cuts will be from 1000 down to 100. The 100 books will be chosen based on the number and quality of the reviews each book receives. For information on reviewing see www.amazon.com/abna

· Go to http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00121WDUG and write a review before Feb 19th

· Forward this link to anyone who you think would read my excerpt and write a review

· Feel free to read other contestants’ excerpts and write reviews for them as well

For more information on the contest and the reviews go to www.amazon.com/abna

For those of you who already wrote a review - Thanks so much!!

Life is Good - So enjoy a picture!

Thought a fun picture was in order...

Ahhh... Hawaii! :)

Currently Listening From the Ground Up By Antigone Rising see related

Just an update

Life got crazy busy and will be again in the near future, so I decided to write a quick update.

My work has been busy. I have been under some extremely tight deadlines, but the work the work is fun and challenging, so it has been O.K. I have been working 10-18 hrs a day plus weekends. Yuck!

I am now drinking raw milk and taking Cod Liver oil. I'll keep you updated. I already feel better over-all and love the taste of unprocessed milk and cream. If you want more info, talk to Casey. She told me all about it. There is a website too, westonaprice.org.

God seems to be doing a lot in Layne & I internally at the moment. The only way I know how to explain it is that the prophetic on a larger level, is growing in both of us. We seem to have more grace and are able to stand up more under things that used to get us. Our favor and circle of influence is growing too. It is definitely God. It is so amazing, because when God does something, you just have to agree and step into it. The striving and fighting just isn't there. Don't get me wrong, there are seasons of war, but there are also seasons of seeing what the Father is doing and then doing it with Him. I feel like we are in one of those seasons.

We miss the prophetic group, but are using the time to grow personally.

Neisha is doing well, and growing by leaps and bounds. I'm really enjoying her at the moment. She has graduated from preschool and is in a pre-K kind of class now. She loves not taking naps anymore! The other day she said to me - Mom, you know how kids have lemonade stands? Why can't I have a painting stand and sell my paintings?  - 

I blame Jacob's influence!! Maybe he will have to help her do a few paintings that she could make a "stand" with.

Love to everyone! 

Just Goofing

Today is Casual Day at Kaiser. I'm all in. Thought I wouldn't cave to the pressure and pay $5 bucks to a charity for the priveledge of wearing jeans to work. I caved.

My next rant is about children's birthday parties. It's probably a cultural thing, but here goes. My latest pet peeve is people who invite you to their childs birthday party and it is a 5-8 hour event. Now really, how much party can a 5 year old stand? Let me clarify. I don't mind family events that last all day, or events with close friends. But really, when you are asking perfect strangers to come and sit through a kid's party that lasts more than 2 hours, I think the party is no longer about the kids, but about you. Kids really only have a party attention span of  maybe 2 hours. Plus, all of us poor parents who have to sit around and smile politely while secretly thinking about all of the things we could be doing or accomplishing with our precious Saturday time, really don't want to be there for more than 2 hours.

Now, if it's with close friends and people who actually like each other, then I'm like -Hey! Party away, Dudes! - But please, don't toture perfect strangers who commited no other crime than to have a child who happens to be friends with your kid. Big, long parties don't really impress the rest of us or convince us that your child is the prince or princess you think they are.

This has been a public service anouncement. If any part of this has offended you, then you are either guilty of the above crime or are taking what I say way too seriously!

Cool Beans

The title has nothing to do with my post, it's jsut something my friend used to say when she liked something.

So I think my brother had a good birthday. He said something profound. He said that looking back over the past year, he could see that God decided it was more important for him to be successful personally than to be successful professionally. He said if God had allowed him more professional success, he might not have worked so hard on personal and spiritual issues.

Leon used to always tell Layne that God is more committed to our success than we are, but that he is more committed to our character than our happiness.

I have found that to be reallly true in my life. Character building isn't always a happy thing until after the fact.

So like Jen, I was being Holy and listening to John Paul Jackson. He was talking about fasting and prayer and other stuff. He said that we don't do these things to manipulate or move God. That when we do fasting or prayer we create negative potential that allows positive things to flow to us.

He seemed to imply that God has limited himself by his own rules and that to have spiritual breakthroughs we have to create a place for them. He talked about positive and negative ions and how that two negatives can make a positive. He said that when you do something that actually costs you, you create a negative potential. So when you fast, it costs you. You create a negative potential into which God can put spiritual positives. When you fast and give the food you would have eaten away, you create even more negative potential. It reminded me of the story of David when he insisted on paying for the sacrife. He said he didn't want to give the Lord a sacrifice that didn't cost him.

John Paul mentioned about the pharasees who received their reward on earth for their fasting, and how Jesus said to do it in secret to our Father in Heaven can reward us.

It helps me understand why intercession, at times, seems to have more power when it costs us emotionally. I never understood that before, I just knew that powerful intercession often was accompanied by strong emotion. It makes sense to me that the cost is sometimes the emotion we expend. We are creating a negative potential. It also helps me understand the story of Reese Howels. (which by the way, if you haven't read the book The Intercessor about his life - you should) God often required that Reese live like the people he was interceeding for. He often asked him for personal sacrifices before he would allow him to pray for people.

Just a thought...