On Top of a Mountian

On a much different note from my other post... my husband and I got to go away together! In a rare, but much needed trip we went to Colorado Springs. It was fabulous, but let me start from the beginning.
We or I guess I should say I, have been wanting to see our pastor, who is also a "marriage expert" speak at his marriage conference for years. He often has them here at our church and every single time I have wanted us to go we have been going out of town for other things. On top of the fact that I never want to push my husband to go to these things if it is not in his heart to do so. But this time I did, not push, but I told him straight out that I really wanted to go and to this one imparticular, because it was taking place in Colorado Springs and I love Colorado. To my surprised, pleasantly, my husband said yes he wanted to go and went to work right away on getting the time off. That was nice. And even more surprising and wonderful was him thinking of and looking for a nice bed and breakfast for us to stay at. We had never done anything like that before and he thought of it and pursued it. I love him for doing that. We had such a good time there.
Okay, but all along the way from the time we decided to go to Colorado Springs for this marriage conference to the time we finalized our B&B it seemed like all the other times, when it seemed like everything was working against us to keep us from bettering our marriage and enjoying ourselves. From money issues, which was my main worry to our poor pastor needing emergency retinal surgery and not being able to make the conference. Ugh, as bad as I felt for him and I did, I was truly annoyed. Not with him, but with the fact that it was like just another thing working against us. I was worried that my husband would not want to go to the conference if they were just going to show a video of the pastor speaking and I wasn't going to push him to go if he was not interested. But to my surprise again he wanted to go still and we did. It was such a blessing to me to hear all we heard. God pointed out somethings to me that I could and needed to change and I think my husband learned somethings too. The conference was two days, but we only went one because we spent money on this Bed and Breakfast and didn't want to miss the breakfast at this place our first morning there. I wouldn't have minded missing the breakfast to go back to the conference, but again, I don't like to push. We stayed in for breakfast and got to tour Manitou Springs and other parts of Colorado Springs. We went to the top of Pikes Peak, I never thought I would ever stand on top of a mountain! I was so happy! Spending time with my husband, relaxing and being in awe of what a beautiful place we were staying in was all so great I was sad to leave. We had fun together. I fell in love with my husband again for making the efforts that he did. It is hard for him, I'm sure, to open up to me but he did. And I think it was even harder for me to try to open up to him in such a intimate setting (the marriage conference).  I can't wait to do this again. 
I could go on and on about the beauty of the mountains and the great things we heard in our partial marriage conference and how great the breakfast was at our B&B, it was so good. The only thing I would change was the innkeeper letting us know not to leave food in our car because it could attract bears! I had never even thought to worry about that until he brought it up as a possibility.

Friday at last!!

What a busy week! I thought I would have more time on my hands when my kids started school, but that is just not the case. I am glad though because most of my time this week was spent and both my kids Mom In Touch prayer groups. I went to my daughters for the first time and had to take my little one, of course. I came prepared. I brought his cars, three of them. Which I gave to him one at a time so he would not get bored with them all at once and I took him some milk in case he started to fuss. He ate a good breakfast and slept well the night before. Didn't matter though, he reacted just the same! It was awful! He was loud and yelling through most of the prayer time and was ramming his stroller into everything in the room. He was throwing his cars and juice cup everywhere. I was mortified, needless to say. These ladies, just like the ones as my oldest sons MITI prayer meeting were just as gracious and forgiving of his behaviour and encouraged me to comeback. We'll see.
I was so happy to be there because it was my time to pray for my girl. She really needed it this week and we needed it too. She has had a bad week listening, lying and with her attitude. Sometimes, well most of the time, with her I feel like I am at a total loss. She can be very hard headed and doesn't seem to understand the consequences of her actions, even to the extent that a 8, almost 9 year old should. All she sees is that we are getting on to her and that we are punishing her. I know this from finding a little note in her room that said "I hate mom, she is mean to me." Honestly this doesn't hurt my feelings. In the past it would have, but now I realize that she is a kid and doesn't mean it and even if she does, she won't for long. But, what does bother me is that she is not getting anything out of her punishments other than "hate" for me and seeing me as being "mean" to her. We have taken things away from her from privileges to toys, t.v. time, desserts, we have tried spankings, chores on top of her regular chores. What is next after all that??? All I can do is pray for her and us and give her to God. Ask Him and trust that he will guide us with her and that one day (hopefully in my lifetime) she will learn her lessons.
She is so precious and sweet. She is beautiful and loving and helpful and caring. She is not afraid to try things and she is smart. She is changing so much, so fast and I don't want her to spend so much time in trouble. I miss her when she is having to be in her room, punished. I hate not taking her places with me because she has lied again or destroyed something. She is my only girl and I want us to be close. I have seen lots of hard headed and rebellious daughters grow older and turn there hearts back to God and their parents, I pray for that, sooner rather than later, like today!