We Wish You a Verrry Merry CHRISTMAS!!!!!

I sit here in the early morning....the house is still quiet. The welcoming lights from the Christmas tree beckons me nearer into this whole Christmas celebration...I am surrounded with faith and family (my sister which is married to my husband's brother are at our house for the holidays with their four precious kids.) Oh the good times! I know it won't be long and this whole house will become alive as the kid's run downstairs to the smell of sausage, eggs and toasted English muffins..Course the savory aroma of coffee might draw the adults to the kitchen too. Both of my parents have finished the race God put them on in this life and are even now experiencing that "Gold Cup:). But I have to think how they left a precious part of themselves here with us. My daddy was an old drunk in his younger years but God changed his life and took resident inside him. My mom followed my dad that same night in her commitment to their Christ. I serve that same Christ now and because of the steps my parents took and the choices they made, spared me a lot of heartache (actually I never would have been born as my mother was preparing to leave my dad 11 years before my birth). But God seeks to save them which are lost! I Praise Him!! Christmas always increases the coziness of what I actually have in Christ. This time of year it's a treasure to see the kids' faces light up over and over again a they experience everything this season has to offer...stories, lights, Christmas cookie bakes, setting up our Christmas village, decorating the tree (even carrying the tree in the house is an awesome thing!! As they take turns heaving the 6 foot Frasier! Mommy even has to pose for the camera as they eagerly draw me into their excitement! The music and Christmas movies, candies~it's all fun!! The secrets too...just yesterday after Church Mike kindly stopped at the local Christian bookstore because our 8 year old Cameron, all on his own, thought of something for mommy...I know I will treasure it forever, whatever it is...I caught him smiling the night before and upon questioning him, he replied something like this, "I'm just thinking about the present I am going to get you." Now that is precious!! Jesus must do that often and if we would see His smile and ask Him about it, He would probably, thinking of the grandness and greatness of Heaven,  reply, "I'm just thinking about the present I have for you." This is something to get excited about!!! What if I met people in Walmart and they asked me about the contagious smile on my face and I reply, "I'm just thinking about the gift God has for you!" That would have to pique their curiosityy!! I love it!!!~Cause I love Jesus!! And I want others to know and love Him too!

"While I'm Waiting"

"Thankfulness"

I am thankful for the inspired Word of God. An unchanging God, who is still our
all in all and our everything we need in this our modern day...for our salvation,
and the promise of heaven someday...

...that my little boys have a daddy in their life story...

...for life in the country..

...family camping trips or other outdoor excursions...

...Christmas stories around the campfire on chilly nights...

...all my handymen in the household...

...that our boys love and dare to be boys...

...country girls...

...raising our boys to be men of courage...

...the smile of kids...

...the awesome sweetness of opportunity to raise our daughter to appreciate true
feminine beauty as God planned...

...big brothers who are protectors of their siblings...

...our kids...

...that God gave us a gift of each other...

...our wrestling boys...

...the laughter of a child...

...the warmth of home, of music...

...a basket of flowers...

...our daily bread...

...crisp mornings in God's outdoor sanctuary...

...nature...

...hot chocolate chip cookies, spiced candles...




...Christmas! Jesus' Birthday celebration and celebrating our love for each
other...

...Thanksgiving~a special day to express our gratefulness...




...kid's sharing a story...

...the gift of "Love"...and to be able to share God's love with you...
...and many, many more blessings!...

A little late for a Thanksgiving blog? I don't think so. After all, as we told our kids, Thanksgiving is a special day to remember all the rest of the year where we experienced thankfulness. And that it wasn't always for experiences that we would have chosen had the choice been ours. But where our will surrendered to God and we allowed Him to teach us how to have a thankful heart. It isn't hard to be thankful and really excited when life is going just as we would have it, but it's the trials that God sometimes ask us to walk thro'. When He says, "Can I trust you to portrait Me in this tough situation"? I want to be glorified says my King! Will you bring Me glory as you walk a path that will bring pain to yourself? Maybe it's rejection and our hearts ache within us...can I bring My King Glory due His awesome Name?! That is Thanksgiving to me~when I find myself thanking my God for the pruning He's done in my life. But when I try to measure the tough times on a scale with  the times of peace that is beyond our understanding and the joy filled laughter, I have to say our joy comes out on top. Thank You Jesus!! But sometimes it's choosing to be grateful when I'd rather sulk about something! When I finally tell myself, "I don't want to be strong. I want to go back to bed and pull the covers over my head". But I can choose in that moment to represent Christ to our kids looking on. I feel an urgency to pass the test. I sense the future of our kids at stake spiritually. Can I walk this path with joy? Can we portray to these lil' human blessings that God is not tuned out but possibly He's chosen us as He did Job, when He asked satan, "Have you considered my servant Job?" Now, before I go further, our life is not what Job experienced but we can still choose to respond in Job's fashion in whatever situation God takes us through. Our desire is to live a poured out life for our King who chose to make us a part of His royal linage. Wow! I thought of the song the other day, "I Can Only Imagine" and part of it says will we dance, bow in awe, etc when we see our Savior for the first time? Well my immediate thought was, I would definitely dance!! But.... at this moment I think I would bow in complete awe of the Saviour who is the very definition of "Love". However it's going to be we want our little family to be a part of the grand Heavenly celebration!!  

"Contemplation n Hot Chocolate"

• 
  Recently God blessed us thro' the preaching of His Word on how to live the impossible Christian life. It was explained that there are 6 arenas to a man's life (the message was geared to men, but as women we can apply it very easy to our lives as well.) 1. His God. 2. His wife. 3. His family. 4. His job(the bread winning arena). 5.His friends. 6. His ministry. Well it was explained that we cannot humanly live successfully in all 6 arenas, but with Christ we can. And since it's only possible to  live 2.5 of these areas successfully on our own, I am desiring to focus even more deeply in my relationship with God so, as the Pastor brought out, God can extend His fingers to all the other arenas in my life. So this morning as I prepared to get that "extra" prayer time in, I fixed a cup of hot chocolate and snuggled myself in a comfy blanket with Mike's Bible and my journal within reach and as I sat "relaxing " in the warm cozy atmosphere of our home I....well...really felt myself relaxing to my surroundings. And since having a deep relationship to God means more to me than anything else (Spiritually at least) I knew I had to make a phy. effort to do something about this "falling asleep feeling". So...I began to journal for awhile and then yes, I braved the early morning cold and sat on the back porch! Now fully awake I had some precious time communing with my King Jesus!!  Praise God! I sadly thought of all the comfortable and relaxing situations in my life ( could be Church, private life or the friends we surround ourselves with) and how instead of forcing me to live a spent out life for Christ they cater toward relaxation. Well God's work isn't meant to be relaxing. The Bible bids us to train up our kids in the way they should go so that when they are old they will not depart from it. Well to me that can be anything but relaxing!! Although I enjoy verrry much my role as mommy, it takes a lot of "living outside self" to raise spiritually healthy kids. And I was saddened to contemplate how this life is sometimes nothing more that an over sized playground or self pampering spa. God's teaching Mike and I more and more that we are called to His service in this earthly life and living outside of our self so that we may fulfill all He's called us to. And number 1 on that list, aside from growing in the Lord, is the call to invest much into the lives of our children. Now isn't our time to relax. Now is our time to work. Now is our time to train. Now is our time to build relationship in the hearts of our precious kids. It's so easy to justify turning on a movie and just chillin, but now is our time to live outside of our own comfort and to give our kids 100% of what they need. I write, not as having it figured out. I write this because its truth and I badly want it and hope you do too.  

)))):)Forgot the Eyes:))))

There is probably nothing more invigorating to me then waking up to a crisp quiet morning, sipping a cup of coffee and having my Bible and prayer journal nearby. The saying from our kids is, "Mommy, when it gets dark (meaning early morning when they wake up) when you have your quiet time...." I've told them how important it is to me and that it helps me be a better mommy. They seem to like that:) and it's all the explanation they need.:) Right now there is a 3yr old lil' miss snuggled beside me as I type...she notices and comments on the smiley faces and when she sees a parenthesis she notices the missing eyes. Gotta luv their innocent eyesight into things and their honest perspective! I was sorta thinking that's how it is in my relationship with God...I am on eye level with problematic circumstances that crop up in my life and I notice the i's God forgot to dot, the t's He forgot to cross , or the smiley faces without the eyes. But what I  fail to realize in that moment is that God is actually sooo big and He can literally grasp my difficult problem in His hand. He has the power to squash it or the power to let it do a purifying work in my life. My heart says "Yes!" God has absolutely, without a doubt, been the best thing that has ever happened in Mike and my life. He turned our marriage into a blissful earthly haven and it sure makes a happy place to raise kids! Sometime I'd like to share with you our before and  after picture of our love story and the life changing power of Jesus Christ that promises us a happily ever after....:)

"Celebrating Life"



A kind ole gent from a nearby table graciously took this picture of our family
 celebrating Bartholomew's new birth in Jesus Christ.
(You can barely make out lil Branson's baby carrier between daddy and me,
 but he's there with us:).



Bud wanted to try crab legs so Red Lobster was the choice
restaurant.  What a celebration! February 24,2012
 is the awesome date!

Our two "Royal Red" Plates. The first one,
 the one daddy brought home a few years ago, is the one on the left.



Cameron chose Bob Evans as his place to celebrate!



Cameron's awesome date celebrating his new life in Christ is
May 22,2012!



Daddy took the picture of all of us at Bob Evans:).

 I sit here with the wafting aroma of a pie pumpkin cooking in the oven....maybe we will actually get the pumpkin pie made and the pumpkin pie spices and homemade pie crust will send it's savory smell throughout our house also.:) We woke up to a crisp morning and the first of window opening season for us! The kids have and still are absolutely enjoying this verrrry fall day.:) They have been busy in between school studies, converting a playhouse to a mini workshop:). Life with rough and tumble boys have added such dimensions to my outlook and have definitely stretched me beyond my comfort zone at times. The boys are quick to remind me to let them be boys and that is definitely my hearts desire to cater to that masculine restless stirring toward ambitious leadership that is hinted at in their risky boy mentality.:) In my journal last week I recorded as follows: ".....I've enjoyed immensely the joy of being mama to so many rambunctious boys, future leaders.:) I've been blessed to experience the joy of gracing this family with a gentle beautiful bundle of future lovely femininity-our Alaythia." So...we get to enjoy the best of both worlds~that of little boys and little girls!:) That of, "Snakes and snails (literally) and puppy dog tails! Sugar and spice and all that's nice!"  Except that miniature bundle of femininity likes many of the same things as her brothers such as trucks and camo stuff except she wants hers pink!!  Lol! Such a joy our kids are! But I am always very humbled at the real reason we experience this deep joy and peace that passeth all understanding and it is the Lord Jesus Christ. He has been our all in all. The very Solid Rock we stand on and rely upon, as sometimes life's circumstances causes us to walk a life on the edge. We accept by faith that God is already in every tomorrow and already knows and has conquered that path for us. This past year holds some verrry precious milestones. Our two oldest sons have both asked Jesus to personally live within their hearts. They are as Jesus describes in  John chapter 3 as being born again. There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus. He was confused by that statement and questioned Jesus about it...Jesus answered him in verse 5, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God....." So we are really excited to have witnessed their physical birth as our babies and now their Spiritual birth in Jesus Christ.:) A special family tradition we began is their Spiritual birthday party!! So each boy was given the honor of choosing a restaurant of their choice. :) That went over very well with them! So Bartholomew chose "Red Lobster" and Cameron on his turn tho't he might like "Crab Lobster" too! But later chose "Bob Evans".:) So life has been interesting:).... A couple years back Daddy dear came home one day with a " Uniquely special red plate". He explained to our lil family that we will honor each other by having each one eat off this awesome plate on milestone occasions. Well needless to say, that is one popular plate! They have never tired whenever their turn has come around. We've had it for birthday's, achievement testing days, Father's day, Mother's day, baby shower dinners, just because we love you, and now for Spiritual birthday dinners etc.....Well, now we have two plates.....because we sadly forgot our special plate when we arrived at Bob Evans for Cameron. It wasn't till he came over as we were waiting for a table and whispered in my ear that we didn't bring the "Red plate". Can you imagine the heart brokenness we experienced as our minds scrambled for what to do?  We live way too far to have went back home sooo.....? I mentioned the Belles in the same plaza and wondered if they might have a "red plate"....I checked in the store...praying nearly the whole time  for a special red plate! I wasn't having any success till~there on the clearance shelf was a stack of handsome "red plates" that would do perfectly:). So Jesus not only provided us with a red plate but at an awesome price!:) :) So now we have two red plates and Cameron is tickled cause his and mommy's birthdays are on the exact same day and we always had to share by turns "The red plate":).  

" A Toddler on an Outdoor Excursion"

October already! My, how time flies! The other day we bought our first lil" pumpkin with pumpkin pie in mind. Our sweet lil guy Cameron gave us this intriguing mouthwatering idea!! So for our first autumn treat, we owe a big "Thank you " to Cameron!!:) We notice fall in a few subtle changes...the slant of the sun and sometimes it's like you can even just "smell" fall :). Another treat is, some days carry a bit of coolness even tho' it's still hot. Guess you gotta be a southerner to notice it!!:) Our lil Branson is really taking off on his toddling. So sweet....:) Today I took him out to the porches and we walked back and forth...back and forth... As I matched my steps to his and just slowed my whole pace down it gave me Spiritual eye opening contemplation. So like my Heavenly Papa. He gently holds my hand, not too tight. Just lightly enough to give me a sense of freedom that I'm on my own. But His great Hand holding mine doesn't let me stray. After our excursion of walking back and forth I decided it would be nice to let the lil' guy experience the tickling feel of walking barefoot on the grass...Now our porch is up 3 steps. I could have lifted him up and place him safely on the ground, but the tho't occurred to me that since he will be walking more and more on his own, he needs to learn how to get off the porch safely on his own...So I led him to the steps and helped him back around and crawl down the proper way ( for a baby that is.:) We really enjoyed our mini stroll...after a bit I gave him the lead with his hand still safely tucked in mind... I was surprised to noticed we only walked in small circles...Wow~ I do that in my Spiritual walk sometimes...Just stay within the realm of what I comfortingly know. Never choosing to stretch myself to involve more. I gently encouraged lil Branson to walk outside his little 3x3 comfort zone..So like the Father, as He takes me further on my Spiritual journey. The same way I was on the lookout for ants or anything poky that might hurt my lil one; I know God has me covered too. Yes, sometimes the terrain is uneven and I stumble, but God's comforting Hand is always in reach of mine..And He already sees what's ahead. .It's only if "I" stubbornly push Him away that I really hurt myself. Even then I believe He's still there..watching ...and ready to warmly grasp my small hand in His.