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Saturday, September 3, 2011

Excitement is in the air!

Hello all. I am so so excited about this upcoming year! I am filled with so much hope and expectation for the future that I can hardly contain myself!

Why am I so excited you ask? Well,there are a number of reasons.

Firstly, I am finally getting organized!! I have actually started to follow through with some things that I have talked about doing for years and have never done. One thing is a daily routine. What? I know, bad right? We had a routine, somewhat. But it wasn't a good one. Now I have finally created a routine that allows Madison to have a routine that is structured and gives her the independence she has been craving for some time now. (I will post this at my next post)

You see, I am excited about that because for many years I have been so disorganized at home its been a huge cause of stress in our home. Our home was a constant mess that was so overwhelming that I hardly ever knew where to start. And now since we don't have that burden anymore, I can finally get that second chance to start over. And get it right.

Not only have I come up with a workable routine, I have also come up with a 4 week supper meal plan that has helped ease the stress of last minute scrambling to figure out what to have for supper each night. Usually I am the one who does the cooking around here so this has made our lives easier. (I will post this meal plan as well, if you need ideas) :)

Also, we started our 3rd year of home schooling this past week. It went well too for the most part I think. Other than my lack of preparation for each individual lesson, it was great. But there was excitement in the air. Madison was skeptical because last year we were so basic that she got bored with it. But despite her skepticism, she got into it and actually enjoyed it.

Our Scripture we are using is Joshua 1: 1-9 and it talks about how when Joshua was taking over after Moses to lead the Israelites. He was scared out of his mind and God reassures him to let him know that if he keeps faithful to God's law, he will be successful and that God will be with him. And that God will never leave him nor forsake him no matter what. He gave Joshua a reminder that the land before him and around him, it was promised to him. All he has to do is go and take it. And God was with him. He just needed to be brave and courageous. And Joshua did.

This passage reassures me that God is into the details and that those promises given to Moses and Joshua are true for us too. If we stick with God's way, we will be successful and that He will neither leave us nor forsake us. I can handle that!

God is interested in the smallest details of life. No matter if its just making beds or doing the dishes or teaching Madison her multiplication tables, it matters. And that if I keep doing things His way and not turn from it He will be pleased with it. And if things get scary, and I get lost along the way, He will guide me to where I need to go.

Is life perfect with no challenges? HA HA! Absolutely NOT! But I am determined to look beyond our circumstances and strive toward the goals and dreams that motivate me to keep going. Nothing is going to keep me from attaining these God given dreams and goals and that's it. My Jesus deserves nothing but the best from me, right? And I am striving toward that goal of being my best every day. Am I perfect? Absolutely NOT! Not even in the slightest way am I perfect? NOPE! But that is okay with me because I am loved by Jesus Christ! And that is all that matters.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Gotta Start moving

Good morning, my friends.
I went to my new doctor yesterday and I got some bad news. I found out that my cholesterol is up, my dosage of my thyroid medication needs to be up and I am to go and get exercising to lose weight. The doctor wants me to do this because of my current size. I am the heaviest I have ever been in my life.
I remember when I was in my twenties, during my time at university I started working out at the university workout room. I did that for about a year or so and I dropped from a size 11 to a size 3. I lost 11 pounds of body fat and greatly increased my strength and endurance. And boy did I ever look GOOD!
Since then, I have gained 60 pounds and I need to get moving. Living here I have not been as active and have been eating more junk food. I am a salty snack kind of girl who also likes loves ice cream. In Calgary, we had trails at the end of our driveway that went around the park. So, I would take Teesha, our golden lab, for walks. Madison would often come along too. We also had more control of what food came into the house. We hardly ever had potato chips or donuts or cookies in the house. Generally, we would buy that stuff for birthday parties or something like a barbecue. My in laws (and us too) love that stuff and boy is it hard to resist temptations whenever that bag of chips are passed around.
So, now given my bad report, we have been talking of joining a gym or start swimming at a local rec centre. My husband has also gained 50 pounds so I am hoping that he will join with me along this journey.
Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit and we are to take care of our bodies if we are to continue doing His work and He needs us to be at our best for Him. Doesn't he deserve it? I believe so.
So join me and hopefully in a couple of months, I will be 20 pounds lighter.
Take care and have a great day!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

New Jerusalem

Hi Everyone,
I have added more items to my new bookstore and I look forward to hearing from you on how you like the store and products. I am and will be updating as necessary to accommodate your needs in a bookstore. The items I have chosen are books that have either helped me along my walk with Jesus, or items that have been ones that are bestsellers during my time at the Christian bookstore in Calgary.
There are items from Billy Graham, Dr. Kevin Leman, Max Lucado, Dr. Charles Stanley, John and Lisa Bevere, Joyce Meyers, Bill and Pam Farrell and others. The items so far are listed as Bibles, Christian Living, Marriage, and Family. I will add other categories such as gifts, music and clothing. I will also add Business books, and money management resources in the days to come. I hope that you will take a peek and maybe even start your Christmas shopping early. Have a great day and God bless. The website address is http://astore.amazon.com/tanyasrant-20

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Ahh the craziness of it all!

Hello there,
It has been very busy around here lately, and a bit of a comedy of errors too. I am at this very moment in time, sitting with my leg elevated and it has a lovely ice pack on it. Last week, at youth, my husband, being the creative youth pastor, decided to try a new game that he found off a youth ministry website. The game is called FUTBALL, which basically a cross between Canadian and soccer. It is played like soccer but using a Canadian Football League (CFL) sized football. We were excited and looking forward to having a fun filled night of running around with 5 teens. After the teens got there, we all decided to play at a large field behind two of the teens house. Three against three was the structure with Will, (my husband), as the coach /referee. About 15 minutes into the game, I found myself as the goalie and the ball was coming my way. Well, the other opposing player was pretty close and so I tried to stop the ball and BANG!!! All of a sudden my left leg was hurting, BAD!! I hobbled to the ground onto the sidelines and it I was out of the game. I was kept company by another teen and watched them all play. I got a pretty big & painful bruised bone and calf muscle now and I've been hobbling around with crutches ever since. I am getting better every day and its been frustrating and humbling. I hate not being able to do anything for myself or anyone else for that matter. I love being an independent woman who loves to serve my family (most days) and it's pretty hard to follow doctor's orders. With my being out of commission, he has to do more than what he had scheduled,but he has not complained one bit. And I am so thankful for him.
As I mentioned before, life has been very busy and its only going to be busier for us in the next while. My incredible busy husband has now become a Certified life coach. Our dream is to help others reach their fullest God given potential and glorify God in their lives. I am going to be helping him with that part of our business. It's pretty exciting. Hopefully, we will be able to make a difference in people's lives and glorify God. We have a website and its called
www.blessedlifecoach.ca if you want to check that out. This has been a dream of his for a while and for years now, people have been coming to him looking for advice, he may as well get paid for it, right? He also has the financial practice, and has plans for more.
I have also decided to pursue a dream of my own and start an online bookstore. It will be attached to this blog somehow soon. I am calling it, NEW JERUSALEM and its coming along. I have to add more items and figure out how its going to work. I am not a computer genius by any means, so it may not be a fancy bookstore at first.
You may ask, why all of these businesses? Well, we have decided that we are tired of living in poverty and we want to pursue our dreams of being able to give back to God's kingdom. We need a vehicle and eventually own a home again and we cannot do that if we do not have the funds available. Having a business of your own is the key to being financially successful from what I have learned, so we are going to give it our best shot.
One of our favorite books is entitled , "Rich Dad, Poor Dad", which is a book about what he learned as a boy growing up in Hawaii having his real dad, who was highly educated and had a good job but was poor; and his best friend's dad who taught Robert Kyosaki his secret to being wealthy. Robert and his wife were unemployed and homeless living out of their car and they became multi millionaires and this book explains how they did it. Its a great read and we recommend it. It really changed my paradigm regarding money.
I also started planning for this upcoming school year. Although it is my third year of home educating our daughter, I have never really planned the year out in previous years. I had a preplanned curriculum my first year and last year I followed a couple of workbooks and used the local library mostly. With everything changing so much last year, we wanted to keep things simple. This year though, it will be different. We have finally come up with a schedule and plan on sticking with it. I am late in the game I know, but this year I will step it up a notch. It's going to be a 4 day school week, since I work on Fridays. I am using materials I already have except for seat work materials. So, this way I am not having to spend a ton of money on curriculum. I am going to be following along on what Ontario Education recommends for grade 3, so its all good. I am adding extras, like Bible and world religions. Madison is showing interest in that topic, along with history and science and geography. I have excellent materials for all of these subjects, with experiments and the whole kit and kaboodle. It should be fun! We are going to be busy little beavers thats for sure. We have decided to join a local home school group that is a co-op so we can have some educational social times too. Madison has said that she wants to join Girl Guides and we are thinking it would be good to join the local 4H club. She will be more well rounded than ever I believe.
Thanks for reading and I hope I made sense to you. It's now 2:45 am and I need to get to bed.. yawn!!!
Good night and God bless.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Book reviews

Hello again my friends,
Today I would like to start a new chapter with all of you and start reviewing some of the wonderful books that I have had the privilege of reading lately. I was thinking it would be fun to maybe even start a book club with you! If you are an avid reader like I am, I believe it would be loads of fun to read and discuss each selection. What do you think?
I am currently reading a book called "The Damascus Way" by Davis Bunn and Janette Oke. Its the 3rd in the series called Acts of Faith. The first one is called "The Centurion's Wife" by the same authors, and the second one is called "The Hidden Flame". I highly recommend them to you, if you enjoy Christian Historical Fiction. The settings in each book is based upon the early Church and they have romance in them, and I love how story brings you a deeper understanding of how the believers may have felt. They suffered persecution, and struggled with their faith at times but never gave up. The sense of community they had together must have been amazing and I love how the authors bring that to life. Each of the books are highly readable and you don't need to know the Scriptures to understand them. I am on chapter 7 now and its been only a few days since I've gotten the book. I usually like to read them at night after Madison goes to bed. It seems to be the best time to do that for me. So, whenever you can, pick up a copy and join my adventures and let me know what you think of it, ok?
Happy reading!

God bless and take care.
Acts of Faith Complete Series: The Centurion's Wife, The Hidden Flame, The Damascus Way

Monday, May 16, 2011

Moving to the country, gonna eat alot of peaches.....

Well, folks I have some news for you. Seven months ago,my family and I packed our bags and our dog and cat and boarded a plane headed east. We are now living in the country, with my in laws on their 10 acre lot.
As with most cases, there are adjustments to be made. Firstly for us, its been very different living in the country as compared to the city. There are so many things to think about that we have never had to think about in the city.
For instance, we had a run in with a skunk and our dogs. They chased a skunk that was in the backyard and got themselves sprayed. EWWWW!! We had to wash them both with tomato juice and boy did the house STINK!!! My in laws have a cattle dog named Harley, (They're bikers, can you tell?) Our timid Teesha and Harley have gotten to be best friends now. There are 5 other cats here too, along with our cat. They have all had to do some adjusting too.
Then, of course is the chores that need to be done. We had to till the garden with a noisy old roto tiller and did some planting last fall. I don't garden At all. During the winter, Will went out and had to use the snowblower for a few hours. Yeah, that was different from the tiny yard in Calgary! Oh and then there was renting the log splitter to split the logs so we could have firewood. And I had to learn how to stack it properly. Then we had the power go out during a snow storm and learned that since they are on a well there is no water available to use during the outage.Yep, not in Calgary anymore!
But I think we can manage that stuff because it has been a learning experience. We have had to learn how to live with others and respecting other's space and schedules. We have to submit to them and that is humbling. I think it keeps us accountable to others. It has been stressful at times and makes us want to move out as soon as possible but we wouldn't trade them for anything. I especially love the relationship that Madison and her grandma have now. They have so much fun together.
We have also learned to not be so attached to stuff as we came with all we could carry onto the plane. We had a trailer in Calgary and we had made arrangements with a guy to rent to own the place. We would eventually come and collect our belongings which we were storing in the shed, in the summer. Well, that lasted about a month and then we pretty much lost everything we had. I felt like Lot's wife in the Bible as she turned to look at her stuff, she turned to salt. We were very discouraged and sad at the time. So, we are literally starting fresh here.

Monday, September 27, 2010

What a year!

Hello my friends, Its been a long time, almost a year since my last posting. There has been so much going on in our home this past year and its been an amazing one. So much has been happening that all I can say is PRAISE YOU LORD!!! You have been there in such an awesome way for us as a family and all I want to do is proclaim Your goodness to all who will hear. It has been a hard year, in a number of ways. I found out that I was pregnant with our second child in March but lost it through a miscarriage in my 12th week, on April 18th. We were very sad since we were very excited and looking forward to another blessing to our family. My husband called our baby "junior" since we all wanted a boy so much. I am over it for the most part but there are moments when I miss being pregnant.

It was also a rough year for us in our marriage but through some counseling, things are all good now. Our pastors counseled us and on August 8th, we renewed our vows and it was awesome. It was pretty scary since it looked like we weren't going to make it. But God intervened. He held us and told us what to do and when we obeyed Him our marriage was restored fully. I thank Him everyday for that.

It was also hard being a homeschool mom. I simply don't know what I am doing, and somehow we made it through our 1st year. We went through the curriculum that we purchased and its a good one to use to start out with. I went along with the teacher's guides for the first few months, but I found their lessons to be kind of silly. So, I figured I could do a better job and we just winged it mostly. Thankfully, it was just grade 1 stuff, so I managed pretty well. Now if only I could stay organized and stick to a schedule!!!

But we have some exciting news! We have decided to move closer to our family, in Ontario Canada. We are moving in a few days and its been kind of stressful but we know that this is where we are supposed to be. We are going to be living on an acreage in the country, instead of a big city, which is wonderful. We want to live on an acreage but being basically city slickers that would be a disaster to do that right away, at least for me it would be. So, we are blessed to have my husband's parents accept us into their home and stay with them for a little while and train us on how to do that successfully. So, we are busy trying to get the house packed and ready to go. We had a few yard sales and sold some stuff so its all good, and our furniture is staying.

Since we are leaving, it is obviously very hard to leave our wonderful church family and friends behind. But Jesus has gone before us and things are happening there that its just confirming His leading. We had our last Sunday at church today here and it was hard and there were lots of tears shed. My husband actually preached today and they prayed over us after he was done. But God showed up in a huge way before all of that. The pastor said that it was to be a healing service which was awesome. And this is kind of unusual for our church, unfortunately. Most of the congregation came to the front and either stood to get annointed with oil or prayed for us. Our friend brought his brother who has a cocaine addiction came for the first time and we all prayed for him to be delivered from it. God is so Good!!!

Just remember folks that no matter what may be happening in your life right now, remember that Jesus loves you as you are and there is nothing He will not do for you in your time of need. I pray that you will look to the bigger picture and not to your circumstances you are in now. Get into God's word, spend time with Him. His peace will fill you and you will be amazed at the changes that you may see.

Love your sister in Christ Jesus,
Tanya