26 November 2009
By Amber
In Thoughts on Thursdays
“Remember people aren’t perfect”
When we got married it was to a human and like it or not someday they will prove to not be as perfect as we thought. We have to remind ourselves in good faith that our spouse isn’t intentionally trying to hurt us. When he gets crabby and has a headache he isn’t mad at me he just doesn’t feel good. We need to learn how to decipher when an emotion is directed toward us and when it is just a result of not feeling good or having a bad day at work.
On the flip side we also need to watch ourselves and guard our mouths and actively try to reign ourselves in when we notice that we are snapping or getting down on people for something that isn’t their fault.
24 November 2009
By Amber
In Life
Ryan and I had a small tragedy not long after I moved up. Dutch my lovable wonderful 2 year old do, started acting weird. He was getting moody and protective. Ever the optimist I was convinced that he just wasn’t adjusting well to the move and such. A while back he nipped at my Sister in Law Becky but I decided it was an isolated incident. Then months later while my In-laws were taking care of him he nipped at Ry’s dad. Not cool he was starting to get more and more protective and would growl quite a bit (at everyone but me of course.) But I couldn’t give up I wouldn’t give up I have a deep connection to Dutch since he got me through some very hard times. We worked with him and tried to expose him to other dogs and people as much as possible, then his most accessible friends moved 
We decided to get him a live in friend to help…we didn’t do enough research not nearly enough. We got an adorable little Jack Russel terrier that we named Zoey, she was full of energy and great for Dutch, after a little getting to know you time they got along great even slept in the same bed. But then it happened Dutch nipped at one of the neighbor kids and scratched his finger. We can’t have that it was his 3rd time nipping and he was growling as well. We weren’t sure what to do we couldn’t re-home him since he was getting aggressive but I couldn’t stand the thought of putting him down. We started calling family to let them know what was going on and the ‘other’ in-law’s said they would take him they didn’t want us to put him down. We didn’t have a choice.
Then we were left with just Zoey, on her own she was way to much for us, on her own. We took her on multiple walks played with her all the time but we just couldn’t where her out It was hard to get anything done around the house, she needed a friend. With Dutch they would where each other out but alone we just couldn’t keep up. So we had to make another hard decision and found her a new home.
So lesson learned do your research before getting a dog (we did with Dutch but not with Zoey) and avoid this heart break. Its bad for both the humans and the dogs and I’ve recently learned its the most common reason dogs go to the humane society. We are looking forward to another dog and WILL NOT have this happen again.
20 November 2009
By Amber
In Faith, Pray
Seems Innocent enough huh? That is until you look up Ps. 109:8 “Let his days be few; and let another take his office”
Ok really? This could be taken so many different ways a direct threat, permissive threat or just bad taste. Why are people always taking scripture out of context? This is just part of a speech by a man who is being persecuted. He is referring to those who are trying to shut down God’s work and he is talking to God not giving permission to anyone to do anything.
Its no wonder Christians have a bad rap, why would be open ourselves to this? Now admittedly I don’t know who started this or what their intentions were but it just looks BAD.
We should pray for our President and all of our political leaders. Even if we don’t agree with everything they do, they are the ones in office. The deserve the respect of the office Pray for our leaders that God would touch their lives and the decisions they make.
20 November 2009
By Amber
In Green
There are a lot of reasons people go green:
Health
Money (depending on how you do it)
Save the world or just take care of it.
Practical
Its the trendy thing to do
With the exception of the last one these are all reasons I do what I do.
Health
This is the main reason I started I have skin allergies to harsh chemicals as well as I was feeling run-down all the time. After reading my friends blog at www.happyfoody.com (although she doesn’t post as much anymore) and doing so studying my self I found out that I was doing it to myself!!! Our bodies weren’t created to eat chemicals (umm Adam and Eve anyone?) and my skin just couldn’t take it. This started a massive change it what I eat and what I clean with.
Money
A lot of the things I do that are green are also economical, eating leftovers instead of take out at work. Cloth napkins, a programmable thermostat, thrift shopping, that sort of thing. Even using cloth bags saves me .05 each at Target and the grocery store!
Taking care of our planet.
I don’t believe I’m going to save the world but I can take care of it. If we have the technology to recycle then why not? If I can choose between a recycled notebook and new harvest why not? Really what would it hurt?
Practical
Even if you have a dog you don’t need 300 plastic Wal-Mart bags, I used to go out twice a week and clean up my yard not after every time what a waste.
19 November 2009
By Amber
In Thoughts on Thursdays
“Make Time for Each other“
This is one of those things we all hear but how many of us do? It doesn’t mean it has to be a date out on the town or a couple of hours. Just make sure that at least once a week you have time together just you that you aren’t focusing on kids, work, household things or money. This can be as simple as sitting on the couch and talking or as elaborate as a vacation. As Nike says “Just DO IT!”
