Women In The Word

Wow, I went to my first Women in The Word Bible study in Genesis yesterday. Though its not my first WIW study, this one intrigued me the most. As a former Athiest, I have to admit this was the hardest book in the bible to swallow. This book is one of the many reasons I had doubt and shunned my loving Father. I cant wait to hear how the story unfolds.

The teacher of this study, Wendy Hodges, is the head pastor's wife. And she has such a gift for explaining things that I can understand. Her love for Christ is astounding. As she started explaining what we are in store for, she spoke of all the questions, non-believers always have. And I am not even kidding you. ALL of those questions escaped my lips at one time or another!!

"Where did Cains wife come from?"

"Are dinosaurs biblical?"

"Why do we have a bunch of races if we started with Adam and Eve?"

and on and on...

I honestly cant wait to begin!

Now... I have to go find the study guide before its sold out! Eek!

Is that hyphenated?

Ok, So this is a question I didnt anticipate when I named Eli, so I will explain...

My Sons name is Eli Simpson Merritt.

NO - that is not hyphenated.

Simpson is his middle name.


LJ and I struggled for a boys name this time around. We really couldnt agree on anything. I really liked Malachi, but he didnt. We knew we wanted something biblical. But they are all pretty old school. I loved the name Jude, but that was our dogs name.
After going around and around we both liked Eli. NOT Elijah. There are SOOOOO many Elijahs. I dont like common stuff. So we went with Eli. Not only is it biblical, but my mothers name is Elizabeth. And hey we are all about honoring people we love around here.
Simpson is my maiden name. I was born, Melanie Joy Simpson. I lost that name when I got married the first and second time. My father has all girls. No boy to carry on the Simpson name. And it is not likely that my sisters would honor our Dad by naming their child Simpson. I am the only weird one who likes weird names. So there you have it.
Eli Simpson Merritt.
It is not a hyphen, it is his middle name.

School's Out for Summer

Ok, So I haven't really kept up with this blog like I wanted to. Truth is, I am just not that exciting! The past couple of weeks have been uneventful, but I am thankful. We had my youngest brother over last weekend to attend church with us, which was totally awesome! He liked it so much he stayed another night to attend Life Group with us! I was stuck tending the little kids, but he says he had a great time and even participated, which is more then I did, my first time! It was so nice getting to spend time with him! We even bought him a new Quest bible, which he seemed REALLY excited about, in fact he barely put it down! Praise Jesus!

Dakota graduated on Wednesday from Preschool at Sexton. It was bittersweet. It is so hard to fathom that he is going to be five years old this year. My little baby is turning into a little boy. Where has the time gone? Skylar successfully finished 4th Grade and is now in her final year of elementary school. Although she did get one "F" on her report card in writing, which we kinda expected. But everything else was A's and B's. I have decided that I am going to do one day a week through out the summer, of some sort of teaching, so that she doesn't lose track. I decided to start today with bible studies that I found online. Today was the story of Abraham and Sarah having a child at age 99. Skylar was reluctant to go outside to do it, but when we got out there and I started reading - she really listened. When I did the study and asked the questions, she got all of them right. It was amazing! She had 2 worksheets to do and happily did them, Dakota had one to do too. He happily colored his. When I said it was time to go back inside, Skylar wanted to finish coloring her worksheet. All I could do was smile, to see God's light shine in them.

We also went to the Taste of Pinellas this weekend, which was hot but filling. I had so much food, I thought I might burst! LJ scored a t shirt from crabby bills. My mom and step dads restaurant had booths there, so we stopped there first and filled up on their stuff. Then as we started out to try other booths I got pooped on. GRRRRR. Stupid seagulls! But all in all it was a great day! With great food!

So that was my last week in a nutshell. Hope yours was equally as pleasant!