My New Journey: Week 1 Genesis 1

The Creation of the World

1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

6 And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7 And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. 8 And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

9 And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

11 And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17 And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

20 And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” 21 So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

27 So God created man in his own image,in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.


So who hasn't heard this wonderful beginning to the bible. It is one of the stories that we all remember. The story of the beginning and if you are a believer, then it is the story of how we all became. Clearly, this chapter is not one that is confusing in the least for me. But it is my goal to read the bible so I must start at the beginning. I would love to hear from you all about what this particular chapter means to you and if you get more from it then I do. To me, it is the wonderful beginning of the creation of the world. The time that God took to actually give us such beauty. We often take our world for granted...the sun, the moon, the ground, the water, the trees, the flowers,the animals, us ! All created by God with a purpose in mind.

My Bedroom Update

Ok...so that title is not quite accurate since I haven't posted any pics of the bedroom yet, at least that I found in looking back. So here it is. This is the bedroom when we moved in:

And here it is now after getting it all together:


I absolutely love the fireplaces in the house and I LOVE the hardwood floors. There are enough windows in the place that it feels so airy too. The closet space is a challenge we have been working with but we will get there. I also need more artwork on the walls but that will come with time. What I am not showing you in the bedroom is the weight bench that sits at the foot of our bed. Maybe this weekend I will take a pic just so that you can see. I took these pics from the entry way so that is what you see when you walk into the room. I purposefully set it up that way. I knew that we would need to keep the weight bench in our room when we took this house and that is something that I can live with since I use it too. I am really happy the way the house is coming along though.

All in all, I love this house. It truly feels like home and we still have so much we want to do. The outside is horrible. I will try to remember to take before pics so that you can see the tranformation. The backyard is non-existent right now. The shed needs a makeover and the computer room is still in need of some much needed TLC.

My New Journey: Reading & Understanding the Bible

On Sunday mornings most families are off to church with their families. Me, I am still trying to find my religious place in this world. Many of you here know me personally and some of you just know me from online or my blog. No matter how you know me though, you know that God is a huge part of my life but I struggle with organized religion. I won’t bore you all with my past experiences with organized religion. You can scan through my blog to find out more. Religion is a very taboo subject for some but for me it is an open conversation. No topic is too controversial for me. It is all about learning for me.
Since I have not been able to find a place that I can truly understand and fit into, I have decided to do something…NO, I am not starting my own religion…lol. I am going to read the bible. And not just read the bible but try to understand it. So here is my mission: on Sundays, I will post some verses from the bible (in order) on my current blog. Then I will comment on what I understand it to mean and what questions that I might have. What does this have to do with you, you ask? Well in order for me to fully understand it the way that I want to, I need multiple points of view…hence, your opinions. You don’t need to be an expert; I simply want your opinions and thoughts. Also, since I am sure that we have bibles with different versions, please feel free to tell me any differences that your bible might have. That might add to helping to understand things better.
There are people that I already know will be a great asset to this journey of mine and I hope that you will participate in this with me. Sadly, I do not know all your religious beliefs or views but this will be a great way to get to know each other better as well. I am seriously looking for different points of view, different religious perspectives on the readings. If you know someone that is passionate about religion, please send them my link (no matter their religion). I would love to have them participate and teach me a thing or two.
What I am hoping to accomplish with all this is a better understanding of different religions and how they interpret the bible which will give me a greater understanding of the bible and most importantly, a deeper connection with God. I will start this Sunday. Who knows, maybe you can learn something along the way too. :o)

Jose's Birthday...a few pics

So here are a few pics from Jose's birthday. There are more to come but I wanted to share.
Here is CJ helping Daddy blow out his candles.

And Jose with the kids:

And last but not least, Jose with me and CJ....

I will have more soon...

Another Birthday

Tomorrow is Jose's birthday and I am planning a special dinner for us as a family to celebrate his 29th birthday with some of his favorite things. After the crazy vacation we had in RI, it will be nice to just have a quiet dinner and really spend time with the love of my life. I will take pics and keep you all posted. It is just a little something but I don't want to ruin the surprise.

Also, the kids are going back to school on Wednesday so I am going to do a little back to school dinner tonight. I don't want to share either night so I decided to do it tonight even though it is early. Again, I will take pics and share here. I hope that I don't just leave them on the camera like I have been doing. :o)

Heading to RI tomorrow night !

I don't know how much I will be blogging for the next week or so. We are heading out tomorrow night to RI. I finally get to see my amazing daughter. Not just her though, we have so many people that we are excited about seeing. I am hoping to come back relaxed and with a clear head because God only knows how much I need it !

That's it...short and sweet for once !

50th Wedding Anniversary???? Hardly !

I was on FB this weekend for the first time in a long time. I noticed that my brother-in-law in Portugal had updated his profile pic so I decided to take a look since we all know that I love pics. I was stopped short by the title of one of the very few albums he has on there. It was my mother's 50th Wedding Anniversary Party !?!? Just goes to show you that my family is crazier than I thought and I clearly seem to be the only sane one in the family...how scary is that !

The pictures were great to see. Everyone was there and my mother clearly looked happier than she has been in....God only knows how long. Pictures of them with the kids and grandkids and both sides of the family. Pictures of their cake and cards and flowers. She does look really really happy. That is truly all I have ever wanted for my mother. Proving once again that the decision to leave here was the best one all the way around.

Some of you have already gotten what's with the title of this blog and others of you that don't know me well, will understand now. You see, my mother is NOT married. My mother is divorced or at least that what she has told me all these years and that is what she files as and legally puts on papers. Of course there is a possibility that she has lied to me all these years and that they were never divorced. It would not be the first lie that I have stumbled on this way. The bigger point for me though is not whether or not she is married since at this point, it makes no difference in my life. My problem with that party is that they are celebrating their 50th Wedding Anniversay. For over 30 years, they lived in seperate countries, led different lives and dated other people. Let's say that they are back together now, which would be great for her. How can you really justify having a 50th Anniversay Party knowing that you weren't together for more than half of that time. And the funniest thing of all this is that there is a picture of the card that my aunt got for them and she wrote in "Congrats, you made it to your 50th Anniversay". Well damn, anyone can make it to their 50th if they don't have to live together, be together or even be in the same country. That makes it real easy.

I am not sure where my biggest frustration in this whole thing comes in. Maybe seeing my whole family together, without me, hit a cord. I honestly don't think that is it because I truly want this for her but emotions come up in ways we don't expect sometimes. Maybe it's all the lies. Maybe it's the fakeness of it all. Maybe it's that I knew nothing about it at all and found it on FB. Or maybe it's that very few couples actually make it to their 50th Anniversary. It is truly something to be celebrated and not something to be mocked.

Clearly I have an issue with that celebration. Clearly I have issues with my mother and how she handles things. Does anyone else out there think that this is totally insane though ?!?! I would really like to get some feedback about this.