The countdown has begun: Sweet Baby James is just 19 hours away from turning One!

I'm praying that James' birthday will be a wonderful day for us as we celebrate [surviving] the first year of James' life. There are many obstacles trying to prevent that from happening, including having to reschedule James' birthday party due to a death in the family, James running a fever this morning (IDK if he's really sick or just teething) and Toby has been out of town ALL WEEK and I miss him dearly.

Currently I am exhausted and cranky, but I promise once I get in a better mood to post something sappy/sweet about my darling One Year Old.

My Sunday School class has begun to look at different issues in our culture today in an attempt to understand them in a more indepth way. We are taking controversial issues like homosexuality, abortion, seven day creationism vs. science, treatment of women, etc. and attempting to answer 4 questions:

1) What does our culture say about this issue?
2) What do non-Christians think that the "Christian" position is on the issue? Are Christians viewed in a positive or negative light because of it?
3) What do I think about the issue?
4) What does the Bible actually say?

The best part about this endeavor is that we are posting the topics on this blog and asking for both Christians and non-Christians to be VERY OPEN AND HONEST with their reactions to these questions. This week we are talking about tolerance. If you have a few moments, please check it out here and leave us a comment. We really want to know what YOU think and believe, it can even be very negative towards our way of thinking.

Hopefully this goes without saying, but just in case, here goes: Please don't start a fight with other commenters. Respect the fact that we humans all have different opinions and beliefs.

This is what the card from my sweet husband says:

For the woman who shares my life.

You are all kinds of love to me...
...you are my everyday love, my fold-the-laundry love, my steal-the-covers love, and my one-more-kiss love...

But mostly, you are my forever-and-ever love.

*swoon*

I took an EXTREMELY long time off of running because it has been so stinkin' cold outside!

This week I have hit the road again, this time with James and jogging stroller in tow. It definitely makes training for the 5k a bit tougher, but on the upside I don't have to wait on a babysitter.

This post is offensive. But it is truly how I feel.

I DO want to help people. I genuinely do. There are many out there who need a helping hand, people who can't find work, are disabled, or have had some unlucky breaks. These people should not be left alone to suffer without aid, but the aid should not come from the government, IMHO.

Our society has become very dependent on welfare and now we are starting an even bigger dependency on "bailouts" ie Stimulus Packages. We are well on our way to becoming a socialist country.

Perhaps I can't fully explain the depth of the situation to you without a one-on-one chat over coffee. Adrian Rodgers said it well when he wrote:

“You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”

HT: JaLyn Morris

My friend Debra (finally) gave birth to her baby boy, Kenton Samuel, on Friday afternoon. Isn't he precious?