Early Bird Challenge- Day 1: I See the Moon & the Moon Sees Me!

Alright- here I am on the first morning of my early bird challenge and it feels a bit like I have woken up in the middle of the night!  It is utterly dark outside my window and having not gone to bed at the hour I intended to last night, I can't help but feel ridiculously groggy! 

None the less, I am up.  The Lord made sure that I had no choice but to get up!  You see, when that blasted little alarm went off at 6:00am I quickly rolled over and reset it for 6:20- wouldn't you know that at that precise moment my sinuses launched a full blown attack and there just so happened to not be a tissue in sight, forcing me to get my butt out of bed to go get one.  At that point I begrudging so the Lord's humor and hand in the situation so made my sluggish trek upstairs, got my tea and a light breakfast and embarked on my Bible reading (see below). 

By this point it was about 6:20.  Of course no less than 15 minutes later Judah was waking up ready to nurse again, so I took my iPhone downstairs and somehow managed to keep my eyes open and finish my reading for the day while laying next to him in bed nursing.  He finally did conk completely out again which gave me the chance to come back upstairs to my computer and right about my already seemingly eventful day to all of you!

Really I should be thrilled with my progress since I had actually intended to start this little challenge tomorrow.  However, since my husband had to work today and we still haven't found a home church (erg!  So annoyed and frustrated on that front!) it felt more like a Monday, and since we have a busier week planned than I had originally thought I figured I might as well give it a jump start and get the ball rolling today!

Update- Now it is 8:26am, both boys are up for the day and I am scrambling to finish this post so that I can continue with the new schedule/routine I have laid out for our days in the new year!  Wish me the best of luck!

Now for my reading update!  I have my third day of reading for the Bible in 90 Days Challenge (from Mom's Toolbox) completed! No small feat!  To be honest though, I did actually start the challenge on December 30 because I knew that we would be staying at some friend's house for a few days to ring in the new year and I just wouldn't have the time to steal away and accomplish such large chunks of reading the first two days. 

So know I am back on course with everyone else in the challenge- and I must say that it feels pretty darn good to have read to the middle of Genesis 41 already!  So many of the stories in Genesis are so familiar that I think it is easy to forget or simply overlook their intricacies or the connections between people.  As I read about these ancient ancestors I find myself thinking how messed up, selfish and sinful they are, but then I realize that in so many ways I am not all that different from them.  It amazes me also that despite the blatantly horrible things many of them did at different points in their lives, the Lord still called some of them righteous and used their line to bring forth the Savior! 

It also jumps out to me how often in Genesis it says that the Lord heard His people and took pity on them or rewarded them.  The Lord heard Hagar in the desert, saved her and blessed her.  Isaac prayed on behalf of Rebekah and she became pregnant.  The Lord heard Leah, saw that she was unloved, and so gave her children.  The Lord remembered Rachel, listened to her and allowed her to become pregnant.  It shows you how important prayer is.  Undoubtably, these were things that each of them had prayed for over and over again for long periods of time and had most likely felt would never be answered.  But the Lord did answer them, remembered them, rewarded them- even at (or maybe mostly at) unexpected times.  It is encouraging to me to maintain (and increase) a strong prayer life, even for things I feel like will never change or happen.