I was making pancakes for Little man this morning. I went to turn them, discovered that they were sticking to the pan, and said (out loud), “Oh no!”

From the other end of the room, I hear, “You makin’ a mess, Mommy?”

I’m thinking he knows me too well!

Wow, wow, wow, and wow again.

We had another lady saved at church last night, and one of the men that accepted Christ yesterday morning was able to lead his daughter to Christ after church yesterday afternoon.

The baptism service for everyone has already been set for next Sunday night. Right now, it looks like we will have 22 people to be baptized – 20 from this week and 2 that were recently saved that haven’t been baptized yet.

Our preacher told us that when he called Bro. Dwight Banks to ask him to come back again, he told Preacher that God had already laid a message on his heart for tonight. I am very excited to hear what God laid on his heart.

It has been absolutely amazing to watch as God has been changing lives. Those who have just been saved have so much joy now, where there previously was none. It reminds me so much of when I accepted Christ myself.

If you’re in the area, come visit Pilgrim Baptist Church in Gastonia, NC tonight. Services start at 7 p.m. – and we’d love to have you there!

Our God is so good. He is so absolutely amazing. He has sent revival to our church.

After revival services last week, we had another teen saved yesterday morning. Then today in church, our preacher asked all who had been saved during revival services to stand up and give their testimonies. While one person was speaking, a lady stood up and went forward to be saved. Then another lady went forward, and another. All in all, there were ten people saved this morning! It was an absolutely amazing service. God is so good.

Preacher is calling Bro. Banks (Dwight Banks was the preacher for our revival this week) to ask him to come back for a few more days. I am so excited to see how God is going to work!

So far, eighteen souls have been saved. Not only that, but my husband answered the call to preach last Sunday night – on the opening night of our revival.

I cannot wait to see what God is going to do in the days ahead!

Sugar Free Spiced Tea Mix

3 cups Splenda
2 packets orange kool-aid
2 packets lemon kool-aid
1/2 cup instant tea
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves

Mix all ingredients except Splenda together in a blender. Transfer to an airtight container, add Splenda, and shake well to combine. If you add the Splenda to the blender it will grind down really fine and you will simply need to use less of the mix.

Makes about 4 3/4 cups mix. Stir one Tablespoon mix (one teaspoon if you added the Splenda to the blender) in a mug of very hot water, and enjoy!

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): trace Calories; trace Fat (14.0% calories from fat); trace Protein; trace Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; trace Sodium.

Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 0 Fat.

Last night’s service was great again. Our God is so good! We had two people saved at church, another saved after Wednesday night’s service, and one saved yesterday morning. I am just amazed at how God is working – it is so wonderful!

I made this bracelet a while ago for a pastor’s wife that came to speak at our Mother Daughter Banquet. Since she is a grandmother, the bracelet has her birthstone, along with those of her husband, their children, and grandchildren.

Oh wow. Church services were so good last night. The Holy Spirit’s working was so evident it was amazing. Three people accepted Christ as their Savior last night!

I am really looking forward to the services tonight and tomorrow. Each service has been good, but it seems that each one has been better than the last. I’m excited to see what God is going to do tonight!

Yesterday was a very special day for me – it was my spiritual birthday! I didn’t get a chance to post because it was a rather busy day. We’re having revival services at church this week (I wrote a whole post about it, and then forgot to actually post it! Oops), and I had other errands to run yesterday as well.

Anyway, it is so amazing to look back on that July 10 when I accepted Christ as my personal Savior. My life has never been the same! Thank You, Lord!

If you’d like to read my testimony, you can read about it here.

It never ceases to amaze me how intricately God created our bodies. One area that particularly fascinates me is how our bodies use the food we eat.

I had an appointment last week with a nutritionist. It was a very interesting hour. One thing she did was put me on the diabetic diet. This is not the first time I’ve tried to follow the diet, but at least this time, she gave me more information than my doctor did when I was in college.

Her main concern was that I limit my carb intake. We’ve been trying to do that since October, when my last doctor told me to cut back. This time though, I was given very specific guidelines as to how many grams of carbohydrates per meal I am allowed to eat. Then she gave me forms for me to write down what I eat every day. Every single bite. Wow.

It’s much harder than I expected! In a way, it’s nice, because I can eat some starchier foods that I haven’t eaten in a long time. On the other hand, most of my favorite foods have a lot more carbohydrates in them than I thought they did. Finding out that a small brownie has 20 grams of carbohydrate in it. . .well. . .that’ll keep me from eating too many any more.

Friday night my father in law made me special ice cream. He makes the best homemade ice cream I have EVER had. Period. He made me a special batch, so I ate some. Honestly, I ate too much of it. When I woke up on Saturday morning, my blood sugar was still high. The ice cream tasted incredible, but feeling like I did was a warning that I do need to be more careful.

Right now the absolute hardest thing about it is that I love milk, but I have to count the amount of carbs in it too, so I’m not drinking quite so much anymore. I didn’t realize how much milk I drank until I started keeping track of everything!

In a way, it’s tempting to want to rebel. But it doesn’t pay. I could eat what I want, but the price of doing that would be too-rapid weight gain (for now), and I certainly don’t need to invite diabetes to come any earlier. If I can put that off as long as I can by eating right, than you’d better believe I’m going to try.

So now my biggest challenge is trying to prepare the healthiest meals I can but while still keeping the grocery bill as low as possible. It helps that our garden is producing now, but it’s still a challenge. I do have an old frugal meal list I made out a long time ago, but it has so many high-carbohydrate meals on it that I’m trying to rewrite it. I don’t mind meals like that once in a while, but we can’t have them on a consistent basis. Rachel, that’s why I haven’t posted it yet, but I really haven’t forgotten about it.

I’ve been eating this way for about a week now, and it amazes me how good I feel when I really am careful. So I guess that means that the adventures continue. . .

It wasn’t supposed to rain today, so I washed a load of clothes and hung it out on the line.

This afternoon, I sat down at the computer for a moment to check email. I remembered that I needed to go get the clothes off the line, but figured I’d go do it in a moment.

I heard thunder, but I ignored it.

All of a sudden, I realized that it wasn’t just raining – it was pouring down rain. I charged outside to get my now-wet clothes off the line before they got completely soaked. I didn’t realize that it’s hard to run carrying a full laundry basket! Ha!

That’s what I get for ignoring the sound of thunder. Maybe next time I’ll take the clothes off the line sooner and I won’t have to re-dry the clothes inside.