I Believe

I believe.

These are words that are relevant  at different times in our lives.

When we are children and we reach an age where we are told Santa and the Easter Bunny (or even the Tooth Fairy) aren't real.

We have a choice, Do we believe?

Yes. I believe.

I'm 31 years old and I believe in Santa, I believe in the Easter Bunny. I Believe in magic. Not in the same way as I did when I was a child. I believe in the magic, in the spirit, in the MEANING of these things. I believe for my children, I believe for myself. I believe.

More than that, I chose to believe in God long ago. I was 8 years old when I asked Christ into my heart when I got the question "Do you Believe?" and I said "YES!"

I was recently introduced to a movie called Do You Believe and it forced me to look at my life, to answer that question of belief.  I answered Yes. With all of my heart I believe. No matter what, I BELIEVE.

Through out my life there were smaller questions of belief.
 These are the questions I want to focus on today.

I believe everything will be okay. In this life... well... LIFE HAPPENS. Things go wrong, struggles appear, yet everything SOME HOW will be okay. Why do I believe this?

When my father died, I thought my world was ending. He was the parent I was closest to. We rarely clashed and I loved him very dearly. I entered a depression that I thought I'd never leave. I wanted to die. Then little things woke me up. Some more amusing than others.

I went to the hospital after Dad died, problems with my healthy, and my mother and I were awakened by something. The hospital had not just my father marked as dead but when he died they marked me as dead too! I was quite literally a "Dead girl walking" They fixed it quite easily but the point was that it woke me up and made me realize I didn't TRULY want to die. I still had someone to be there for, my mother. who would be crushed if I left her too. I laugh at it now, I laughed at it then, but it still woke me up!

In the midst of it all, I was being bullied at school, by students and teachers. I needed out. I had befriended a person that was homeschooled. I decided to be homeschooled for a while too. Being homeschooled for nearly a year and a half, getting a different experience, woke me up.

Years later I was diagnosed with a disorder I had since birth, all the while being told I would amount to nothing.

I've overcome many things my disorder could keep me from. I got a college education, I found true love, I have 3 wonderful step children. I amount to many things, I'm also an author. Everything has turned out just fine. AND My mother is now my best friend!

So yes, I believe. I believe strong.

I also believe in more than just doctors. My experience of doctors says that they don't care like they used to. They think more about being a liability and less about helping their patient. My Aunt Liz and I both say something "They treat the symptoms not the cause of the symptoms. Not the real problem." That is our experience and the experience of many others.

So myself and others take things into their own hands. Not badly, research is done. I started using Herbs a few years ago when I had horrible migraines and none of their prescription meds were helping. I took feverfew and it was the only thing that helped. So what do I believe in? Natural remedies.

I've recently discovered essential oils and we use them in our home, diffuse them, use them topically but it's helped with our sinuses, headaches, and insomnia. 

My husband who has tried many things for sleep has found that essential oils are the best thing for him.

I believe in the big things and the small things. I believe that essential oils are good for health and cleaning and a little bit of everything.

So I declare this about all that I believe.
"  Yes, I believe
I believe with all that is in me
Yes, I believe
Though the world rises up against me
I will be faithful
To the choice I have made
I am determined
I will not be ashamed
To live so the whole world can see
That yes, I believe" -Yes, I believe by Point of Grace.

Love or... not?

Alright so I had fully planned on saving this post as a joint thing with a couple of my friends from college. I still REALLY want to do that but this subject has come up again a LOT and it's time I touch on it even a little bit.

It's no secret I'm a newlywed. 6 months into my marriage and I love my husband more every single day.

Do we fight? Of course! It would be unhealthy if we didn't!
Do we disagree? Honestly, we disagree MORE than we fight! lol
Do we have our problems? YES!

Do we let that get between us? NO.

If you think this is one of those marriage advice blog posts you are one of the few people that don't know me who read this. Keep reading, I promise it wont be that bad!

So I'm a newlywed, what do I know about seasoned, weathered marriages? A little more than you may think. I'm a proud people watcher, I'm also a proud learner from my own mistakes as well as the mistakes of others.

My dad used to say "There are too many mistakes to make in this life to make them all yourself. Learn from the mistakes of others as well as your own." I have taken that and run with it.

There is more. I went to a Christian University. Yeah, I know what some of you are thinking, but it was required that we take Marriage & Family. I learned a lot from that course.

But in my short time as a married person I've learned a lot more about love than I could ever imagine.

That brings me to this point, way too many people are getting divorced because they "fell out of love."

Love is not a cloud, or a staircase you can fall from. Love is LOVE. It's an action and a CHOICE.

Do you wake up one morning and say "well it's time for a divorce, I don't love my spouse anymore?" If so... there is a problem here.

What about the marriage vows? In sickness and health? Till Death do us part? Do ANY of these ring a bell? What do they mean?

They mean that it is a PREREQUISITE of marriage to love your spouse no matter what.

Okay, things happen, cheating, abuse... things that shouldn't happen. THOSE THINGS ARENT LOVE! Those things break the marriage vow as much as falling out of love does. Those things are also a whole lot harder to fix, since love IS a choice.

Are there times I want to yell and scream and just go off on my husband? If there wasn't I wouldn't be human. But what do I do instead? I choose to calmly tell him how I'm feeling, and we sit down and talk it out. There is closure and we are fine. I don't stop loving him, because we just fixed the issue.

Know what else I do? Every day I wake up and say "What kind thing can I do to show my husband how much I love him?" It could be something as simple as the dishes, cleaning a room in the house, making him a yummy meal or dessert (my husband likes to fix dinner), I may set up his favorite video game as I hear him come home or attack him with nerf darts. One time I had a candle lit dinner waiting for him, the house spotless, started throwing nerf darts at him when he came in, and had music playing so we could just dance.

And because I make these efforts, so does he. He'll leave me my favorite candy bar with a note where I can see it, he started getting things that I enjoy, as presents for the bad days, just to cheer me up. I was sad over the death of my grandma and he put in Ugly Betty (her favorite show) and watched it with me for like 4 hours!!

We choose to SHOW love every day and because of that we continue to love with a fierce awesomeness.

Please don't fall for the myth that falling out of love is way out of marriage. Sure it is, but is it a good idea?

Trials happen, trouble is around every corner, but you got married, you CHOSE to love that person, keep choosing it!

I hate hearing about divorce but I'm not going to say it shouldn't ever happen. I have known people that were abused for years, and they stayed with the person but it never got better, it only got worse and then they finally got that divorce. It was the best option at that point.

Even with cheating, that's a LACK OF RESPECT for your spouse.

There needs to be two BIG things in a marriage.

LOVE and RESPECT
With that love and respect there should be other big things.
Love and Respect should have communication, trust, kindness, understanding and PATIENCE. (yes faithfulness falls under the trust thing. To have trust there needs to be faithfulness)

There is a biblical scripture. It's said at many weddings and for the Christians reading this I will post it as a reminder but for the non-Christians. 

The recipe that I just gave you is a great thing for a healthy marriage. That being said... sit down with your spouse and make a list like the one above, of the qualities and values that are important to you in a marriage.


Okay so maybe there WAS a little advice. But I wanted this to be more about what I HOPE to see.

I want to see more marriages last. I want others to realize that love is a choice, that falling out of love is just a bad reason for divorce. It just is. If people keep up at this rate, and divorce every time they fall out of love.... pretty soon we'll ALL know 10-12+ friends and family that have been divorced 5+ times just because they fell out of love.

Give love time to grow, because it WILL.

This is love:

1 Corinthians 13
New American Standard Bible (NASB)

The Excellence of Love

13 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body ^[a]to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, ⁵ does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, ⁶ does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; ^7 [b]bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
⁸ Love never fails; but if there are gifts of ^[c]prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part; ¹⁰ but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. ¹¹ When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I ^[d]became a man, I did away with childish things. ¹² For now we see in a mirror ^[e]dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. ¹³ But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the ^[f]greatest of these is love.
^From BibleGateway

Hopefully my friends and I can join together. They have both been married longer than me so I'd like to get their takes on this all too important subject as well!  

I am Woman, Hear Me Roar

Well, it's my turn to roar... but I'm thinking maybe some women should keep it too a dull whisper.

I know! I'm HORRIBLE. How dare I speak against my own gender that way!

My own gender has taken feminism to a new, ridiculous level and while they think it is a higher one it is low. A VERY low one. And it instead of making voices be heard that have positive things to say all that's going on is hate hate hate. And I'm tired of it.

Am I a feminist? By the definition as is, YES! By the definition it has become absolutely NOT!

Feminism- the advocacy of women's rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes.

Do I believe women should have won the right to vote years ago? YES! I would have fought right along side them for that.

Should women sit at home and be barefoot and pregnant? They have that choice but for myself that's never how I've seen my life and most of my friends aren't like that either.

However I do not believe in abortion, because that choice effects everyone in a persons circle, their families, them, and that baby living inside them.

Do I condemn those that believe differently. No. We agree to disagree and also agree to never discuss again and guess what we're still great friends or still get along. Who knows what goes on behind closed doors. They may not like me because we disagree but I'm not a person who lets that get in the way of a friendship and I hope they are like that as well.

Many years ago my mother and father raised a strong minded girl who said "I will NEVER give up."

I lost my father when I was 15. He died of cancer and for a time I gave up. I stopped singing, I figured there was no point to doing much of anything if all we did was love people and die. But as I got older I decided to live my life and go back to who I was as a child.

I heard things like "you'll never graduate college."
"you'll never make anything of yourself."
"you'll never get married."

At the age of 26 some people who I once thought I was close to called me an OLD MAID!

But here I am, age 31. I graduated college in 2010. Do I have a career? No. Have I tried? Yes! However, I have made something of myself. 
How? 

Well this mouth on my face that people said would get me into trouble of course! 
Why? 
I stand up for people. People with ACC and Autism, Cancer, Diabetes and other things. Beyond that, I've written a book. I also take a stand and spread word about thyroid disease and celiac because they are REAL PROBLEMS and people NEED to learn about them! 

In 2015 I wrote my first book. I'm working on my second one currently and would like to get it out this year. 

Last year, 2016 not only did I get engaged but I married that guy and he's my best friend. 

They were WRONG! They were ALL WRONG! 

...and I? Well I never gave up and I never will. 

One day I hope I will have a career but you know what I have a disorder that cripples me in ways most people don't have to deal with so either way, I will be okay because I now have the best job in the world. I am a wife to one and step-mom to 3 of the greatest people on this planet. So my job? I clean house, I help build things whether it be bunk beds or a place of love for the kids and my husband. It is because of all that I've done that this house is a home and there is so much happiness inside. THATS my job, to help my husband, and the mother of my step-kids, and their step dad to raise these kids well! We're a team and I couldn't be more happy. 

My job doesn't end at a certain time. When we have the kids, I'm up late because I read to them and once they finally go to sleep, during certain times a year I'm working with an elf or a leprechaun to make their mornings a little more fun. I make sure the dishes are washed and to keep my husband happy he cooks because that's what he loves to do. 

I help take out the trash, I do our laundry. I love my life. Is it exhausting? Sure. Am I going to stop because a group of women tell me that's not good enough anymore? No. None of this day without a woman stuff. If you are feeling under appreciated maybe it's time you talk to your family and your professional. I'm brave enough that I remind my family to appreciate me. And you know what? They do anyway they just don't know how to show it sometimes until I say something. I'm not begging for attention but it is in my experience that sometimes a person needs reminding to help them see the bigger picture. Do I stop doing what I do? No! I do more of it, That's how I show my love. 

 As a woman who is not a mother, but a step mom, I deal with a whole new evil. People who constantly remind me "you aren't a real mom. You are JUST a step mother." Well you know what, this JUST A STEP-MOM works JUST AS HARD as a real mom to make sure her kiddos are happy. And I am blessed to be on a team with a great mother who is an example for me. She is also someone I can call friend. She has given me her blessing in her childrens lives, as has my husband in the lives of those same kids. THATS all that matters. So I will keep on being the woman I am.

But the main point of this is to encourage others. Don't get swept up in this new feminism trap. That's what it is. It's a new trap, a new way to get a riled up and fighting what I call "not the enemy."

There is an old show, Dinosaurs.. and the baby calls daddy dino "not the mama!" So maybe we should look at one another, look at the men in this country that "seek to oppress us..." Do they REALLY? And is there really ENOUGH of them to make this matter, or are we, in our roaring ways oppressing ourselves?  Because to me these men are "not the enemy!" WE'RE THE MAMAS! The WOMEN and we ARE strong but fighting against each other and men who are not actually our oppressors... well it's a fight that should simmer. Our roars need to turn to whispers and we need to go back to living our lives being the strong women we are and actually just telling our REAL oppressors to "kiss this and no we don't mean on our rosy red lips...and by the way it's a figure of speech so if you actually try there are laws against that and I'm not afraid to press charges" But ONLY the real oppressors. They are out there but there number is a whole lot smaller than we are giving them credit for.

And you know what, I wasn't a big fan of Trump but I did vote for him. I can tell you right now, he's not the problem. He's said some nasty things but so have many MANY women. And no, I don't think he started it ALL. Women roar, and we're roared ourselves into a corner. It's time to stand up and get out!

New Year, Same me

Hello, Hello!

I intended on posting yesterday but the day got away from me so now is as good a time as any.

I'm working on book two currently.

Beyond that I'm still settling into step-mommyhood and wifehood.

I've been dealing with sinus issues but I'm trying to work that out with the help of a diffuser and rock salt lamp (thanks for the Christmas gifts mom)

Still trying to find my place in this world now that I'm a wife and step-mom. Trying to figure out my new normal.

I want to blog more. Like I did a few years ago so I'll be working harder on that.

I guess this blog post is just me asking for prayer. I've got some personal stuff going on. I'm being very vague in this post so there ya go.

I have a few posts planned for the future. I've got some friends that are going to join me in a post about love and marriage.

I also wanted to give a slight insight into being a step-mom. So many people have told me "you aren't a real mom" and I want to touch on that in a post. Beyond that, I have a post planned for my book release. Might also do some book reviews and movie reviews through the year. I do enjoy those.

We'll see what else I'm inspired by to add to this list soon. ttyl
-Lynnea

I'm MARRIED

So It's been a while, again. And I'm slacking, AGAIN.

I'm working on book 2 as well by the way... haven't been able to focus on it much with the wedding planning but as the holidays approach life calms down, for now so once I house wife it up and get our home in working order I'll have a few moments to just focus on my next book.

But yes, I'm married now. that's pretty much all there is to tell you about that.

Now that the wedding planning is over I hope to be back more. I have a few blogs planned, just gotta get some assistance. I'm also going to talk to a friend about linking some of the stories in her blog because I believe her story needs to be told. So yes, a lot of plans and hopefully I'll be able to put them in motion VERY soon! Thanks for reading!

God Bless.

Been A While and More Movie Talk

Hey! It's been a while.

So since May my life has been through at least one big change.

I'M ENGAGED!

I posted the news on facebook, but I'll post the story below as well

My fiancé Daniel and I have been together for going on A year and 4 months. When he proposed we'd been together for a year and two months.

 

Here is the facebook announcement:

On June 14th 2016, My boyfriend of 14 months, and best friend of 3 years, asked me to marry him, and I said yes. We had a great week with his kids. Just before he asked, the two of us and his kids were doing some tie-dye shirts. Our hands were stained blue, and he asked me to go for a short walk. During this walk we talked and laughed. After the walk, Just outside he stopped me and said "Do you still want to spend your life with me?" and I said "Yes! Of Course!!" He smiled and said "Lynnea Squires..." He got down on 1 knee and asked "Will you marry me?" Surprised I smiled and said "YES!"

The Blue Hand

What's he hiding?

There it is!

Thanks to a friend of mines hubby this is how he holds my hand in the car sometimes

So now you know!!

Also, yes I changed the name to my page, to better fit where it's going now. Tea Time with Lynnea is the theme that fits me the most and it leaves my blog conversation open for anything from God (my favorite to talk about), life issues, movies, music, books. Whatever is on my heart at the moment of posting. So hopefully you'll still enjoy it! :)

 

The real reason I wanted to post today was to talk to you about something. So a while back I posted some inspiring movie recommendations. The link for that post is: Inspiring Movies

 

I've watched some great ones since that I wanted to mention. Faith Like Potatoes, Risen, and I'd like to re-mention War Room.

 

With my life changes, from being a self proclaimed future cat lady, convinced I would never find a man, to finding one and falling in love with not only him but his children and whole family... These movies have helped keep me inspired by the one true inspiration, have helped me keep my mind on Him praising and thanking Him through it all. The movies mentioned in the other list are among others that have helped as well.

 

I believe in drawing inspiration from prayer and the word above anything else, but God can anoint movies, and other books as inspiration. If you are looking for that, please check out these movies.

 

 

I'm Postive That I Used To Be Positive

I've said it before, I will say it again, experience shapes us. It's one of those "broken record" statements.

Experiences shape us.

What's going on in the world, SHAPES US.

I've had conversations surrounding those facts at least 20 times in the last month, with different people.

I used to be an extremely positive person. "I will never give up" was a phrase that I used on a daily basis when I was a child.

But through the years, my story shaped, and it hardened me, as life does.

A few years ago a child taught me a lesson of holding onto the joys of a child. Spinning in circles, playing in snow, playing in the leaves in the fall. Those are small joys of a child that I've held onto since that little girl handed me a dandelion and asked me to spin in circles with her.

Hold on to the faith of a child, you'll find the positivity you need.

That being said there is a series of books that have been turned into movies, The Ultimate Gift, The Ultimate Life, and The Ultimate Legacy.

I recommend this to anyone feeling lost, wanting to gain a new outlook. Anyone wanting inspiration and encouragement to watch all three movies and read all three books.


Each movie tackles a different challenge in life, each one shows how the main character overcomes their experiences.

They have inspired me to continue on in this journey called life, to spread those ultimate gifts and help others discover them as well. This is me passing that along now it's up to you to take the time to help yourself.