My new friend

So on a sunny Friday morning I was out front pruning my plants getting them cleaned up and ready for the hard freezes coming up. When I lifted a few dead leaves I found this little brown lizard lying there. I was stunned it hadn't darted off yet as usually as quick as you see them, they are gone. When I moved around some more and it still hadn't moved I assumed it must be dead. So I gently picked it up by the tail to add it to my trash bag but instead the little booger latched on to the stick underneath him! He was alive?! So now I assumed it was "almost" dead but figured I would give it a chance. I called my husband out first to see this lizard. Why? Because I'm weird. He apparently knew some lizard knowledge I did not. He said they are cold-blooded animals and if they can't find sunlight to warm themselves back up they will end up freezing to death.
Well, after learning this I moved him to the grass in full sunlight to see if he would warm up and survive.

You can't see it well in this photo but as he started warming up he turned GREEN! It was really cool to watch. The whole time I'm like 2 inches from him snapping photos of course and he just calmly watched my every move but still never moved. My husband again came outside to see the lizard and when he came out the commotion finally scared or jump started this lizard enough to move. Do you know where he went?

Right straight to me and up on my boots! It was insane and I've NEVER seen one do this or even get near you like this! And I've lived around these lizards my whole life!

It kept going too! It started climbing my boot so I stuck my hand by it...

And what do you know - it hopped right on like we were pals!

My husband loves this next shot he got - he said it looks like the lizard is hugging me in thanks for saving him. Hehe, I'll let you decide.

This lil guy stayed on me for near an hour! And I just enjoyed every minute of it.

(this is also my January 28th picture of Project 365 of Me)

My daughter wanted to hold it too, so we tried it...

Sure enough - no problem there either.

God gave me a sweet moment that day - I'll never forget it.

Hidden Blessings

Around holiday time things get hectic. Stressful. And down-right nuts. Which allows things such as forgetting a backpack at home or realizing you don't have a clean bra because you haven't done laundry in...well awhile, to happen. The other day was a day just like that. Yet God gave me the grace to see through the oops'. It started like this...

We have dropped my son off at his school and my daughter and I are headed to our school (she attends and I work as a Teacher's Aide). I had realized by this point I forgot to put the bills in the mailbox this morning before leaving and had just missed calling my hubby to do it for me (and they HAD to get out THAT day) The radio was off and so the car was quiet and out of nowhere my 3 year old starts singing "Open the Eyes of My Heart" and she sings it all the way through perfectly. I was smiling away in the front thinking that sound makes every care disappear, even the mail oopsey.

Then after getting into the school I realized we had left her backpack, yes with her lunch in it, at the front door! So I frantically get someone to cover my work for 40 minutes or so and run back out to the car and proceed home totally flustered. On the way home I'm talking to God about the lovely start to my day and He reminds me - now I can mail my bills. Because I'm headed home. Okay so a smile came once again to my face and I realized even though I could have REALLY let all that chaos of the morning get to me (cuz you know when your morning begins like that the rest of the day is set...which some other things did come after) yet I chose to accept that God works around our silliness and sometimes offers us huge blessings and grace THROUGH our seemingly bad circumstances.

So this holiday season when something seems to be going wrong - look for God's grace and blessing in it because I guarantee it's there!

Rick Warren: Christians & Muslims

Big news in the Christian World is a speech Rick Warren gave asking Christians and Muslims - the two largest "faiths" of the world to come together to combat the 5 big world wrongs. People keep asking the question: "Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God?" (click on title to go to link of article)

First of all it seems he was simply asking we both make a team effort to fix some major problems in our world - he didn't ask us to agree on our biblical differences and opinions. I really am not for or against this as I'm not sure what to think of it. But I DO think that people are misunderstanding the key issue - that he wants to work alongside Muslims not BECOME Muslim. We work with sinners and so did Jesus, is there something wrong in working with them? Now to agree or conform to their ways, their thoughts yes that would be wrong for Christians but we can work with them - I mean we ARE a loving Body of Christ here to spread the gospel right? Yet we sound like shut-in extremists who don't want to talk to anyone peacefully about anything. It's our way or the highway - which yes I do understand it is either heaven or hell there is only one option and choice. But Jesus was a FRIEND to the sinners, even to the persecutors of Christians, so shouldn't we be too?

I'm interested on every one's take on this...