Well, that just says it all!

“Because, I’m a GIRL!” (If only you could here the tone I heard on this one!!)

The other day my sister was looking for her purse and my husband saw one on the table and said is this it.  Our 6 yr old daughter says ‘no, that is mine.’  To which Daddy says “What do you need a purse for you’re 6?”  (then the fun began)  She says, “UH(in all her 6yr old drama queen attitude), Because I’m a GIRL!!!!   DUH!!”   Well, laughter ensued and I looked at Daddy and said, “Well, I guess that just says it all doesn’t it?!!! 

Sorrow turned to Joy

In my Bible reading today these verses made me stop and think.  John 16:20-22

“20. Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.
21. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the woman.
22. And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.”

I have had 4 babies and when I thought about verse 21 I realized how true that was. My oldest is 6 and my youngest is 1 but I couldn’t tell you much about any one of my labors.  Little bits but not a whole lot!  Praise the Lord for that.  My ‘sorrow’ was turned to joy as soon as that precious little baby was placed in my arms!  God uses this amazing moment in a mother’s life to show us what it will be like when we see Him again!  We may have problems now – sickness, money trouble, family problems and others – but my Lord Jesus Christ says my ‘sorrow shall be turned to into joy’.  SHALL BE… not may be, there is no question that some day when I stand before my Lord, He will take my sorrows away forever! Praise the Lord that He sent His son to the cross for ME!!  He rose again with victory over death and to offer me a life forever with him all I had to do was believe on His name (John 3:16) “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that WHOSOEVER believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”  Because of this I KNOW that I will see him one day and He will turn my sorrow into joy!!

Snow!!

This a picture from my back door!  Now if you ask anyone else around me, back in October I was ready to move somewhere warm because it was snowing.  Mind you in October!!!  Well, it warmed up and we had several weeks of nice weather so now I am ready for snow and today I got it!!   It looks BEE-UTIFUL outside today!  We went out to a Christmas party today and I am now full fledged into the Christmas season!!   I really do love Christmas but this year I just was not ready for it, and anymore the ‘Christmas craziness’(as I like to call it) starts earlier and earlier.  We have all our Christmas shopping done thankfully, so I don’t have to venture to any more stores than the grocery store for the next couple weeks!
Are you ready for Christmas?  Do you still have shopping to do or have you finished already?

Christmas Decorations

Ok, now that Thanksgiving is over we can break out the Christmas decorations.  Every year my husband tries so hard to get me to break down and decorate before Thanksgiving and every year there are more and more people who do so, but NOT ME!!!   He usually says, ‘look, they are decorated, and over there is more. Come on, we can at least start, right??’  My answer is that same all the time… No!!  This year my kids were asking and wondering why Mommy wouldn’t let them, grandma did!  I tried to explain to them they Thanksgiving is a very important holiday too, and we can’t just skip over it to get to Christmas. Let’s enjoy Thanksgiving and then when it is over we will decorate and get ready for Christmas!   They didn’t argue just said ok.  I am not sure that they get it, but they didn’t argue and stopped asking.   Friday we went to Grandma’s to help her decorate her tree(the kids and grandkids do it with her every year!).  We had a great time with friends and family for the weekend.

Today we came home and went to a tree farm to pick out and cut down our own tree!!  This will most definitely be a new tradition.  It was so much fun and it was cheaper than other places.  Nice!!! We brought it home, dug out all our Christmas decorations and bought some new garland.  Now the tree is decorated and the house will be full of Christmas things by tomorrow night!!  I LOVE decorating for Christmas, I just want to take one holiday at a time!

What do you do?  Do you care when you start decorating?  Do you insist on waiting or starting early?  Do you decorate at all?

Thanksgiving

Well, it has been several days since I have taken time to right.  I feel like I have been running around like a chicken with  my head cut off this week! We have made a couple crazy trips to the store(boy, am I glad that’s over) and I have been cleaning(or maybe I should say clearing out).  Hubby decided it would be a good idea to make room for the Christmas tree while we were cleaning.  Great idea it just took 2 days longer than I was planning on! 

I would just like to say some things I am thankful for.  I am so thankful for my parents and the way they raised me and the times they have been there for me when I needed them.  For my hubby who works so hard to take care of us and loves me no matter what!  For my kids – who love to drive me totally insane – they brighten every day that I have with them!  I am thankful for those hugs and kisses I get from each of them, they unconditional love they show to me(Lord, help me be the mother that they need, the way that you would have me be).  For a great church and church family(2 of them actually!!) that has helped me grow and learn and has prayed with and for me when I needed it!  For my puppy no matter how annoying she may be at times!  For my computer and phone that keep me in close contact with friends that aren’t so close to me.  And today I am so thankful for my first chance to make Thanksgiving dinner for my family!  Praise the Lord we have been with family every year and granted, that is not a bad thing but I have never had the privilege of cooking it on my own.  This year I do and I am loving it!  A big thank you to my mom who is also helping!!

Most of all I am thankful for my salvation.  Thankful to my Lord Jesus Christ who died on the cross for my sins and rose from the grave to give me eternal life!   Thank you Lord for loving me so many years ago and giving me privilege of asking you into my heart to save my wretched soul!!!  Praise the Lord I KNOW that someday when I am gone, I will be in Heaven with Him!!

Have a blessed Thanksgiving and remember to ‘Count your blessing, name them one by one.’

♥GOD IS SO GOOD!!!!!♥

Holiday Insanity

I spent the morning out with 3 boys!  We did our couple quick errands, then we headed to the grocery store!!  Wow, talk about craziness!  I think the entire town was at that grocery store today and they were all over by the frozen stuff.  When we first went in, of course, we had to find a potty.  Never fails when I go out we have to visit the potty.  And yes, there just had to be a line to wait in.  Once we got that out of our way we started with our list, not too many people in the cracker, drink, and chip aisles.  I can’t say as much for the freezer, potato and turkey sections!!  It seemed like Black Friday shopping around those turkeys.  Trouble was with all those people here I am trying to maneuver one of the truck carts with 2 boys who just didn’t want to stay in  it and a baby who wanted to turn around and stand up even though he was buckled!  When we finally finished our list in the freezer section, I found out that one thing I was looking for was back on the other side so off we went to find it only to find it was all gone, yep you got none left!  Oh well, I am so ready to get out of here.  Now to find a line to wait in….  ok now unload the cart while watching the older boys don’t get into the candy that is not at hand level.  Cart is unloaded and the cashier is scanning things, now I have to watch the baby cause he is infront of the candy and grabbing everything!  Whew! All scanned now I can pay and get out of here!   Get the kids in the van quick cause its cold outside then get all the groceries in.  Finally time to get home and put everyone down for a nap!!  WHEW!  I am glad I already have my turkey! 

Thankful for our Soldiers

I am privileged to personally know 3 men in the Army who have spent time overseas fighting for our country in the last 6 years!!  I just want to take this opportunity to say thank you to our soldiers!  There is a lot of craziness in our world today and much of it is unexplainable, but one thing that is a constant is those men and women serving to keep us safe.  If not for them we may very possible have had another 9/11 on our shores.   I want to let those men and women know that I spend time praying for them everyday and will continue to do so till they come home!!  I am SO thankful for their sacrifice and their familys  sacrifice.   So many times we think of the soldiers but forget about their loved ones here in the states!   Please think about our military and remember to say thank you when you see them.  It doesn’t take long, just a second to stop and say ‘Thank you, for your service’ or something similar!

I think we need to teach our kids to be patriotic.  When I was growing up it was something we learned everywhere we went, but anymore it is not the norm but rather the exception.  I would like to change that and I can start with my family.   We had the marvelous privilege to welcome home a soldier from our church.  I was so proud to be there to give those men a grand welcome home and thank you!!   My kids were having a great time waving their flags and cheering, it will most definitely be something they will always remember and for that I am very thankful!    What do you think about the military?  Have you known someone who served in this war?  Are you trying to teach your kids to be patriotic?

“You Can’t Read!”

Oh, the joys of having a child that is learning to read and 2 that can’t read!!  Most days it is wonderful because they will sit and listen to her read just about anything!    There are those days though, that is seems she just wants to rub it in that they can’t read.  We encountered on of those days a couple days ago and we got a great laugh at the response it created!!  Here is the dialogue from the day….

We were walking to the spring just talking and enjoying the nice day.  We passed a bed and mattress in a yard with a sign on it.  So I hear, ‘FFF, fr e, FREE!!  Mommy that sign says free!!’   ‘Yes it does kiddo, good job’,  I say.  Then my 3-year-old looks at it and says, ‘Yep it does say free!’  Like he really read it!  Well, that just set my 6-year-old off…. “You don’t know how to read”, she says, “you’re not big enough!”  Without missing a beat my 3-year-old looks at her and say, “YES, I CAN!!!!  See 1-2-FREE!!!!!”   Well, Mimi and I just lost it, I laughed so hard!!   He says the crazy things all the time but he just does NOT like to be out done or told he can’t do something.     This will be one thing that I store in the banks of my memory and precious memories! 

My Baby’s 1st Birthday!

I just can’t believe that my baby is a year old!  Praise the Lord for his wondrous miracles!!  Last year at this time my baby boy was getting his first helicopter ride at less than a day old, because his lungs were not working properly and his body wasn’t getting enough oxygen!  I still remember so vividly the way he looked laying there…. he was screaming so loudly but the nurses faces told it all…  he was staying purple and they didn’t know exactly why!   How terrible to be laying there and not be able to do anything for him.  I know, I couldn’t have fixed the problem myself but it was miserable feeling so helpless!!   They took him right away and put him on oxygen, the original plan was to go by ambulance an hour away to Johnstown, but the doctor checked him again and decided it would be better off to fly him and get him there faster!! Scary?  Yes, but PRAISE THE LORD I could trust and rest in Him.

We spent the next 2 weeks driving an hour everyday to visit with him!!  I felt so torn because I wanted to spend as much time with him as possible but it was so far and I had 3 other wonderful kiddos at home to take care of.  The Lord was most definitely my Rock and my refuge in this time!  When I saw him for the first time in the hospital we weren’t even allowed to touch him because it got him so worked up!  It was amazing to watch him getting better and sit there praying for him and knowing the Lord was answering our prayers before our very eyes!!  He gradually got better, went backwards a couple times, until finally they told us tomorrow is the day!!    Boy, did we have A LOT to be thankful that Thanksgiving!!  Just 2 days before Thanksgiving he was able to come home!!  Now as we celebrated his first birthday and thanksgiving is coming I can only think how blessed I am to have this wonderful boy!!  He is so healthy now and you wouldn’t even know looking at him that he was sick!!!  Only our wonderful Lord and Savior can give a miracle like this!!!
I AM BLESSED INDEED!!!!

The 23rd Psalm

Can you quote the 23rd Psalm?

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh  me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff the comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

I heard something today that made me think.  It was a poem that was recited…..

“The banquet hall was filled and to speak for the occasion the nations best known orator had been flown in. After speaking and thrilling the audience and in closing he said, “If there would be a request, and I can, I would be glad to fill it.”  In the far corner of the banquet hall stood up an elderly, silver-haired, retired minister. He said, “Sir, would you quote for me the 23rd Psalm?”  the orator being somewhat surprised at this request said “Yes sir, if when I’m thru then you too, quote the 23rd Psalm.” The old minister nodded his head yes and was seated and the orator began. “The lord is my shepherd and I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures he leadeth me beside still waters, he restoreth my soul…” When he had finished a thunderous applause, cheers and a standing ovation and he said to the old minister, “Now sir, you quote the 23rd Psalm the old minister feebly arouse his voice broken by years in the ministry began(with GREAT passion), “The Lord..is MY shepherd; I SHALL NOT want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside the STILL waters and he restoreth MY soul…” When he had finished there wasn’t a dry eye in the banquet hall.  The orator stood up and said, “Ladies and Gentlemen, I have reached your ears, he has reached your hearts and the difference is… I know the 23rd Ps but he, he knows the Shepherd.” “

Wow, do you know the Shepherd, I mean really know him?  Or do you just know the Psalm?

I Praise the Lord that we can know the Shepherd, Jesus Christ, because of Christ’s death on the cross for all mans sins, for MY sins. ‘The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord’ (Romans 6:23)  I am so thankful that I can personally say that I KNOW the Shepherd, and that I have a home in eternity with Him. ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ (John 3:16)
I know I shall not want and that he will comfort me; and I know that He will always be there for me.  But, there is still so much more for me to know and learn about my Shepherd!! A lifetime of studying and we will still have things to learn about Him!