A Host in Heaven

Being a hostess really is a good time.  I love having people at my home and playing hostess. I have learned through the past couple months that it is okay to host a gathering even when your house is a mess! Infact, I learned most recently that there really shouldn’t be any other way! Why was it before I’ve always thought Oh, no… people are coming over I’ve got to clean every corner of my house. Why? We all know after everyone leaves it is going to be even more a mess then it was when you started cleaning the day before. So, I gave that a try this past weekend. I just picked up some things here and there but for the most part didn’t do a lot of cleaning. I was a little more relaxed and didn’t care so much that little wet feet were running on the newly moped floor or that sand was getting EVERYWHERE. It was fine. It was great to see my own children enjoy sharing all their toys and greeting the guests too. Children get so excited when they know their friends are coming over to play! We counted down the day to our beach party every day that week.  They had such a wonderful time that day and are still talking about it two days later! I wondered what Ivan thought as he looked down at this fabulous time we were having.  He would have been two this July and I’m sure he would have been creating lots of messes of his own. Instead he gets to greet all the newcomers into Heaven and be a host himself! It is in honor of Ivan James Hrouda I celebrate the month of July! I looked forward to having a gathering with all of you in Heaven with my son Ivan! I bet I won’t even have to worry about cleaning!!!

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Clean out your purse!

I finally did it! I cleaned out my giant saddlebag purse. When did I found TONS of trash and junk that I had forgotten.  It was kind of fun looking at grocery lists clear back from October.  It reminded me of what I was doing at that time.  I filled an entire grocery bag full of things I didn’t need anymore!  I can’t believe I was carrying around all that JUNK! With three kids it really doesn’t take long to have an entire restaurant, pharmacy and clothing department all in one bag! So, as I cleared out these items I noticed some of my stock was missing.  I put in some more band aides and a different lotion, and then made sure it was all more organized in different pockets.  And that was that.  It really didn’t take long and I wondered to myself why I hadn’t found time to do it sooner. 

Later that day I was helping with some children and one of them had fallen and scraped their knee.  I was so proud to know exactly were I could find that band aide!  I then was sitting next to a lady who was going through her purse like mad and asked me if I had lotion. I smiled, and it only took me a second to hand it over!

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  (Jeremiah 29:11)

You see I wasn’t just anywhere; I was helping our church with vacation Bible school!  I truly feel that God was letting me know I was in the right place at the right time!  He prepared me earlier in the day so that I could have that honor in helping others! It is something I enjoy doing and it makes me feel wonderful!

So, I challenge you to clean out your purse too!  What things can you get ride of and clean up in your life to help you on your path. The path God wants you on, because when you are there, you’ll know it!

BIG mouth!

Yes, we do.  We have big giant mouths in our house.  We can usually deal with the situations pretty good in our house, but when we get out of the house watch out!!!

I (my family too) tend to just tell it like it is.  A lot of times I don’t even think about it before it comes out of my mouth. Want to know a few of the things I’ve done lately?  Let me confess…. I made someone tell me if she was pregnant, told another she had large feet, told a mother of a two year old I didn’t want to hear her baby cry, told another lady she had an ugly table in her yard, told a neighbor she waved to much, told an acquaintance she WOULD like a watch like that, the list could go on and on.  If you know me, you know I will tell you the truth.  A couple friends joked (at least I hoped it was a joke) that they will need Heather rehab!!! I guess that’s one good thing about writing, you can always delete it.  But I can’t delete all those awful things I said.  In fact after I say them it bothers me so much! I think a lot of people do this, maybe not this extreme, but they do it too!  I wonder how much it bothers them.  I have been this way as far back as I can remember!  I have friends from elementary school that still can tell you the awful truths I told them. I often wonder if my truth telling is one of the reasons why I get along so well with children.  They do just the same.  However, that doesn’t make it right.  So, family, friends, neighbors, whoever I am sorry for my big mouth!

James 1:19

... let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak ...

I hope you can all learn from my wrong!

Dandelions, sticks and mud....

I went on a nature walk with around 30 kids this morning.  It was supposed to be my job to keep the children on the trail and make sure the kids could find special items along the way and put them into their paper sacks. All the children were excited to go on this adventure!  I, on the other hand, couldn’t quite figure out why so many would be so happy to walk along a SIDEWALK and find things. These children were wonderful; they looked “outside the box” or the sidewalk to find their gems of nature.  One child took my hand and led me to a tree with leaves on it that even I thought were huge. We folded it and put it in his bag.  Another child was excited to see some bark had fallen off the tree. She rubbed her fingers along the rough spots and then handed it to me to feel too.  As I felt the bark she pointed out to me all the colors on it.  It didn’t take me to long before I wished I had a bag of my own.  The children found beauty in everything.  Things that I look beyond everyday!  Dandelions, sticks, grass, rocks, mud and the list could go on forever. Infact everything to them, had a perfect beauty.  Those children will never know that it was my lesson this morning. It was my job to make sure they found special items, but they didn’t need any help, I did! I will never see the world as I had before.  I love working with children, they bring you a little closer to the Lord everyday!

“Blessed are pure in heart, for they will see God.” – Matthew 5:8

This is for my friend who ALWAYS puts others first….

I had a friend ask me to write another blog…I was surprised, but I thought about this friend and what I could write to help her along, here is what I came up with.

2 Chronicles 15:7

But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.

I have always admired those who could run long distances.  Some people just seemed to have the ability to do so.  I had REALLY admired those who could do a marathon.  It REALLY sounds cool to me when someone says “Oh, I ran a marathon just last week and beat my time from last year”. Girls would just say that like it was no big deal. Well, I wanted to be that person too!  So, I started running. 

Man, at first I couldn’t even run a mile. NOT ONE MILE!!! I couldn’t stand to listen to myself breath so I turned up the ipod. I couldn’t get out of my mind how much farther I HAD to go.  It was a struggle to get there.  Keep in mind before this I had NO running experience at all.  I got some e-mails and ran some with a group from the Y. Well, now after much running and some more running I have trained myself to run the half marathon in Norfolk on June 18. Now, I’m no racer, but I know I can make it that far and that was my challenge in the beginning.  The funny thing is, I LOVE running now. I don’t listen to any music, I just run.  That one mile that was so hard to do in the beginning is easier now and I can go so much farther.

I have met up with some REAL racers for some long distances runs.  It just takes a few minutes and this group is nowhere in sight! I’m left there on my own to figure out the path we had previously sketched out in our minds. I kept up my rather slow pace, enjoying the quite neighborhood. About 20 minutes later I heard “the fast group” coming from behind me and was wondering how this happened. I ran a little faster, the feeling of “the fast group” BEHIND me was great! For that second, I felt like a fast runner and it was great for that second…then they past me! After they were ahead of me, someone shouted back to me that they had actually took the wrong path. I just kept on running and at this point in my training even walking a little, but I finished.  My two legs took me the same distance as “the fast group” just so much slower. I enjoyed telling people later that day for a little while I was ahead. 

So, to my friend who doesn’t need advice but will get it anyway from me. It’s ok to put other first; in fact it is the way God intended. They may even need you to show them the right path!

Give thanks to the LORD

First of all I would like to say thanks for reading this. I’m not much of a writer (or speller for that matter), but I do have this vibe to write every now and then, so I thought I’d try it. After all, the Lord is my strength where I am weak, right!!!

1 Chronicles 16:8

Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done.

I am feeling a little OVER blessed today. Do you ever have those days too? Thank you Lord for our wonderful family, friends and all that you have given us today and everyday!

Let me tell you a little bit about our family.  Russ and I got married in August of 2004, right after we both graduated from Wayne State College. 

It wasn’t long after that that we found out we were pregnant with our first-born. William (name coming from my madden name and Russ’s middle name was born in early January 2006 just missing our tax break! We were excited to have him, although I was a little nervous he was an easy (and is) child to take of.  In fact I began wondering soon after why some women didn’t want more than just one because it was just so much fun taking care of him.  Wasn’t long after that thought that I became pregnant with our second child.  Levi (this was the name of all my boy dolls growing up) was born in May of 2007.  The boys are now BFF’s and I love that they can play (and fight) so well together! I was still hoping for that girl and so we decided to try one more time.  That pregnancy didn’t go so well and we had a stillbirth in the 20^th week. Ivan James (this was the name Russ had picked out within the first couple weeks of pregnancy, James was his Grandpas name and just seemed fitting now that Ivan was with his great grandpa). It was meant to be. This took place March of 2009.  Trying to fill my heartbreak we got pregnant once more and had our baby girl Faith Kathleen in January 2010. Her first name needs no explanation and her middle is my mothers first. I remember my mother-in law saying to me after she was born…Heather, you gave birth twice in one year!  All I can say is… I guess we have to go out with a bang right!??

While I was pregnant with Faith Russ and I had decided to purchase a lot and build our dream home. I can remember while we were in college and we filled out some book that Oprah had said if you planned on getting married you should read this together…..so I made Russ sit down and do it with me once.  Anyway, in this book it had asked what your future goals were and one of Russ’s was to own a house on lake before he was 30. Well, we moved in at the end of October and Russ turned 30 in May. I’m not sure why everyone thinks building a house together is a death to your marriage, Russ and I enjoyed picking things out and working together to create a place for our family to grow and build memories.  My brother-in-law worked as our contractor and did a fabulous job. He did a great job of playing the role of “finding a middle” . He also was wonderful at being so kind with my wild imagination!!!  I remember bringing him magazine spreads and making up ways he had never heard of doing things.  Really though, the house looks beyond our wildest dreams! It sort of has a rustic feel to it!

Russ works at a small door company in town. He works very hard and hardly ever takes vacation so when he does take an afternoon off I get excited to spend that time with him.  This was his first job out of college and he his fantastic at what he does. Without all his hard work we would not have the many blessing we have today!  God works though him in many ways to help us along everyday!

I am mainly a stay at home mom.  I like to spend my time with the kids and learn form them the way life should be enjoyed.    I like to help out at a fitness centers daycare a couple times a week and enjoy teaching swim lessons in the winter months. But mainly my heart was designed to be a mother and just absorb the love children have in their hearts.

Yes, we are truly overwhelmed with blessings!