Things I've learned this week (and yes, I know it's only Wednesday)...

1. You can only defend your faith so far, then it's up to the Holy Spirit to do the rest.

2. I'm too quick to feel offense by things that were most likely unintentional, but I'm learning to recognize it quicker and talk myself out of a pity party.

3. I don't like being so busy that there is no time to just sit. No time to think. No time to read. No time to pray. We were taught by our parents that busy is good. If you're not doing anything productive from sun up to sun down then you are being lazy. The problem with this is that I find I lose myself in the busyness and forget the important things. Then I go to bed at night feeling like I'm missing something.

4. After all these years, I'm still afraid of the phone. I used to be afraid to call anyone I didn't know, even to order pizza. I thought as I've gotten older I'd get over that. Well apparently not! This whole phoning libraries has got my stomach in knots every afternoon. I actually have a pep rally for myself before I start phoning, "You can do this, Erin, they're perfectly non-scary people."

5. Credit Cards are evil!!! Well, I already knew this, but it was brought home like a punch in the gut when I got my bill and it was a lot more than I thought. So I've hidden my credit cards and decided I'm not leaving my house for the next year so I don't spend money. We had paid it all off and we were doing so good. I'm not sure what happened, but I totally fell off the bandwagon. So now it's all out there, I have to be accountable and not spend money I don't have. I also realized that every time I pull out the credit card, I'm not trusting God to provide for me. I'm also prone to instant gratification, so I have to kick that in the butt.

6. I'd rather lay all my faults on the table in plain view so no one can unearth something and find me a fake. The problem with this is that I belittle myself and let people walk all over me. I'm learning to not place so much value in what others think of me, but find my self-worth in God.

7. No matter how bad your kids are or how rotten a day with them has been, all you have to do is look at pictures of them and you quickly start thinking that they are wonderful and perfect. After all, there aren't that many pictures of them throwing tantrums, screaming at each other, being disobedient and just being plain naughty. No, no...we only take pictures of the good times. Maybe there's a reason for that.

So there you have it. I'm on a learning curve this week. Maybe I just need to get out. Oh yeah, I'm not going anywhere...shoot!