It's Snowed!

It snowed about 12 inches and the greatest thing is that they are calling for more. I'm quite sure we will finally get that White Christmas after all these years! Below are a few of our Christmas pictures. The end ones are where Tony got stuck on our road trying to get to the driveway!

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let is Snow!

They are calling for snow tomorrow!

I'm soooo excited!!!

Wouldn't it be just lovely to have a White Christmas!

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

Christmas Parade and Banquet

What a busy week. Tony and I went to the Christmas play all alone! Sky went with her friends and Meadow was at a friend's house and didn't want us to come and get her to take her to the play. Can you believe that? I can't. I'd rather go to the parade any day! LOL

We took our comfy chairs, stopped and got some delicious hot cocoa from Honduras Coffee Shop, (Tony got coffee) and laid back and watched the parade while the people threw tons of candy at us. You just can't beat that at Christmas time. :)

Yesterday we had our Christmas banquet at church. It was a lot of work but we had a great time.

Below are a few pictures from our weekend. (I'm still praying that the Lord send us inches and more inches of snow this winter!)

Me

Page and my hubby Tony

Trinity

Pretty Horses

James- my son in law's dad

Sparky the dog

Goats celebrate Christmas too!

Santa

Our Pastors

Callie a sweet girl from our church and me. She loves me so much and I have no idea why. She just attached herself to me. I love it when little ones do this.

This is me with Callie and her sister Grace.

This is Page's daughter Lilli Ann.

Lilli Ann

Meadow and her good friend Mowpheth.

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas

I love the cold! We have our house all warm, cozy and decorated. Our Christmas shopping is almost finished, just a few odds and ends left to finish things off. AND the baking has begun!!!

Sky is having her sleep over tonight. She just turned 14.

Meadow is sleeping over at a friend's house.

Tony is sleeping right now!

I figured I'd take the opportunity to blog while I had the peace and quiet.

I think one of the main reasons that I am so excited about this holiday season is that the Lord has answered so many prayers for us this year. I can remember in the past dreading the holidays because of family disagreements. Some years Christmas was a complete disaster. This year on both sides of the family God has worked on hearts and changed people and it means so much to know that as we all come together to celebrate the birth of Christ, that Christ has worked miracles and brought us all close together.

I see the joy this brings Tony's mom and my parents too. I love seeing my mom and dad happy and content and I know for most parents one of the greatest gifts that they could receive is their children getting along and being happy. I'm very thankful for this.

I'm very thankful this year. I'm thankful that my family is close and that Tony and I are getting along and continuing to grow in our love. I see so many marriages around us failing. I am thankful that the Lord has called me to be the mother I am, staying at home with my children and homeschooling them. I see so many mothers neglecting their children and the effects of it are heartbreaking. I'm thankful that our schooling is going well and both girls are excelling, I see parents that sit back and do nothing with their children's education and I see them fall through the cracks.

I'm reminded often of what I was and how I done things myself before the Lord so graciously stepped in and changed me. I praise Him for His mercy and grace. Without Him, I am nothing.

Now the one thing I have left to do is to find a day that all of my family can get together so that we can have a family portrait made. I don't want to go to Sears or anything, I have a friend that takes great pictures and I'm hoping I can work something out with her where we can have a picture made that I can use for Christmas cards. Time has really snuck up on me and I'm hoping I'll be able to get them done. Next year I'm going to plan ahead! This year has been really busy. Tony has done a few Santa gigs and we've been remodeling.

Tomorrow is the parade, I've not decided if we are going or not. I guess it all depends on how we all feel tomorrow. Our church's Christmas dinner is Sunday evening and we have three turkeys to bake.

Christmas will be here before you know it.

Remodeling Living Room

I've been talking about remodeling Heaven's old bedroom for a long time. We've truly needed this to be done for a long time. I turned our old living room into a classroom quite a while ago, so when we have visitors they have no real place to gather. We sit at the kitchen table but it's often cluttered and a very busy station in our house. It feels really good to have turned this bedroom into a real living room.

These first two pictures are after the painting is almost complete. I totally forgot to get pictures before painting.

Tony rolling the paint on.

Our Christmas tree, notice the painted walls, ceiling, new blinds, new curtains and new carpet. We also got a new couch but it's way to large for our room. It's 14 1/2 feet long! My mom has a really nice comfortable set and we've agreed to swap. I can't wait! You can see the blue of the couch on the left of the picture-mom's set is brown and beige. A perfect match!

This fireplace wasn't even visable when we started. I removed the boards and cleaned it out. We have plans to put in a gas insert soon. I can't wait to see a fire in this beautiful fireplace. I thought the mantel turned out beautiful!

A close up shot.

Merry Christmas Meadow!

Merry Christmas blogosphere!

Chantal Kreviazuk-leaving on a jet plane

You ever just have one of those days?

Today is my day.

If I could- this is what I'd do, even if I could only go for just a few days.

Sometimes you just need to be alone, to get away, and today I'd like to leave..... on a jet plane.

I love this song. Sort of helps me feel like I have left, a few moments of peaceful getaway, day dreaming.

Enjoy!

Do a seach for it on You Tube. Not sure why videos aren't allowed on blogger any longer.

Resting

I am so tired after having two glorious days of Thanksgiving with my families. We did do a little black friday shopping. Nothing major, two of the things I had wanted were gone. I did manage to find one of them online and the other we'll get before Christmas but it would have been great had we been able to get them yesterday.

Tony and I are spending the day in bed watching movies. I didn't get to go and see Blindside yet but I'm thinking Sky and I will go to a matinee this week! Can't beat those prices! :)

Praying all of you had a blessed Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving

I am at my mother in laws house baking for tomorrow........cheesecake, pumpkin roll, peanut butter balls, snowballs, cookie dough truffles....mmmmmm

I am spending the night tonight and I feel much like a little girl at grandma's house! I guess in a lot of ways, that is exactly what I am. I'm so thankful that I am close to my mother in law. I enjoy helping her but I don't feel like I'm helping because I LOVE doing the cooking!

Thanksgiving is my favorite time of year.

Tony will be coming up in the morning. He doesn't like to sleep anywhere but his bed! LOL

We will have almost all of the desserts done tonight, the turkey in the oven, and other dishes are prepared just waiting to be baked. I like being prepared!

Friday will be Thanksgiving at my mom's house for my family. My sister is in from the beach and I can't wait to see my brother. I'm ever so thankful for all of my family.

I'm looking forward to the next two days, I'm so excited that I'm giddy!

I'm hoping to find time to go and see Blindside with Sandra Bullock this weekend. If you've seen it let me know if it was as good as they say it will be!

I pray each of you have a blessed Thanksgiving! Praise to be to God that we celebrate such a time as this!

Canning

Yesterday I went to my mother in laws and canned 14 quarts of deer. Meadow loves to help and that amazes me. Sky won't come near the deer meat! Meadow helped cut the deer meat up and pack it into the jars. I love having her help. Meemaw loved having our help too.

My sister in law came over with baby Aiden and spent the night with us last night. We all had such a good time. We watched the biggest loser, cooked dinner, cleaned up, reminisced and laughed most of the night.

It felt good.

Spending time with family and doing work that is enjoyable and rewarding.

Bringing those quarts of deer home and putting them in the cabinets felt so good. Sometimes being a stay at home mom can leave you with feelings that you don't really work or contribute to the family in a financial way. I know I contribute, in many ways that money could never buy, but when I pay the bills and purchase things we need there are those times that I feel some sort of responsibility to bring in money.

I try to find ways, but any ideas that I've had take money to make money. Even homemade items take money to purchase supplies.

The deer we canned was given to us by a friend of Tony's that likes to hunt but doesn't like to eat deer. I'm hoping the Lord blesses us with a few more before winter is over.

I'm truly looking forward to the holiday season. Thanksgiving is just around the corner!

Manic Mondays

Meadow has had a horrid toothache. I called her dentist first thing this morning and thankfully they had an opening for her at 3pm today. We managed to finished school before having to go. Heaven came over and rode with us because they are having hard wood floors put in her home and its so messy and loud that she didn't want to sit over there listening to them work.

I don't know what is going on with Meadow's teeth and neither does our dentist! She just had xrays of her teeth in March and she didn't have this cavity. So in seven months she'd gotten this deep cavity in the center of two teeth. They worked on her for 2 hours and had to reschedule her for another visit.I had no idea we'd be in the office that long.

I had an appointment somewhere special to do something for Tony's Christmas present and was afraid I wouldn't get there on time. Thankfully we did and that was a sheer joy! I'm so excited about this! Then we went and looked at mattress and box springs for Heaven and Matt. I believe we had found a better deal the last time we went shopping. so she held off to go back there.

We are redoing our den (which was previously Heaven's bedroom) so I had to make a trip to Lowe's Home Improvement to pick up paints and blinds.

We finally got home by 8pm tonight! It was a long day but very productive.

We also had a wonderful Sunday yesterday, both the morning and evening services were fabulous. Our morning scripture was:

Isaiah 41:10 Fear thou not, for I am with thee, be not dismayed, for I am your God! I will strengthen thee, yea I will help thee, yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness.

What a beautiful scripture! It was very comforting and well needed. I'm so thankful to have a home church with a pastor that truly hears from and obeys the Lord. I praise God that He is there for me and that He hears and will answer me!

Looking forward to a great week ahead. We have a lot on our plates. I may try to post before and after pictures of our den. What do you think?

Prayer Request for friend's of mine's daughter Katie

Katie was in a bad car accident on November 10th. Her cars side nor front airbags deployed. She has major facial damage including breaking both cheeks, detaching her palate and they've had to wire her jaw together. She also broke both of her femurs. She has undergone a 7 hour surgery with a plastic surgeon for her face and a 5 hour surgery on her legs. Tory is just 18/19, she is beautiful and has her whole life ahead of her. Her parents are so precious! I went to school with both her mom and her dad. I would so appreciate it if the blogging community would come together and pray hard for them!

I Love Fridays

Even Friday the 13th! Tony has always loved the number 13 so the whole luck thing has never bothered us, not that we believe in superstitions either but you know what I mean.

So...........today has been the best day ever.

I went with Heaven to the doctor today and we got to see the baby and her heartbeat! (We are rooting for a girl!) She will be 7 weeks tomorrow.

I'm ecstatic! I truly am.

After this we went to lunch at the Long Horn.

What a great way to spend the day.

I also love how close Heaven and I have grown since her new found adulthood. Moving out really changed things between us. It's not that they were bad before either its just that they are different now.

I'm so happy. I had to share.

I'm going to be a Gammy and Tony is going to be a Pappy!

I just want to give God all the glory. There are many all over that have been lifting Heaven in prayer over the last few weeks. God heard and He answered!

Hallelujah!

New Look

I tire so easily of blog designs. I also tire of having to fork out over a $100 everytime I want a new look. Tony had gotten me Photoshop Elements for Christmas last year and I've tried a few times to work with it but I find it very complicated. Things usually are when you first get started with something new.

I've been hunting around and discovering new and free blog templates and headers so I decided to drop my old look and I installed this one myself. I love the look and will be able to play with my design and change it with the seasons if I wish. I think this will be a lot of fun. The only drawback is that at the moment, I can't personalize my headers.

I plan to continue to work with Photoshop and figure out how to add photos and captions in my headers. If I can accomplish this I'll be much happier with my freebie looks.

So bear with me as I work my way through my new hobby.

I love the Fall

It's my favorite time of year. Actually this fall has moved so quickly that if you blinked you'd miss it. Last weekend we traveled up on the Mountain and visited family. I love going up there. Seeing the beauty of the mountains, the colors of the leaves, and breathing the fresh air-you feel so close to God. Looking around at all of His beautiful creations you wonder how anyone could doubt Him. Our God is an Awesome God.

Tony is still hurting. The vitamins I ordered him came in and I also got him an herbal rub for his knees and hands and lower back. I know it'll take some time but I'm hoping after a few months of being on this vitamin he will begin to see a difference in his pain. We have been a little lazy lately and have greatly enjoyed being together. We've been piling up in bed and watching movies together. :)

I also have other news. I have waited to share because I know I have viewers that are friends, family and church family so if you are one of these hold your breath. For my readers out there in blogosphere it's easy to share these things with you because well, you don't know us.

I've waited a week since learning this and since almost all of our family has been told I think it's safe to say.


How many of you would like to take a chance on guessing what I'm about to share?

Anyone?

At all?

Or is the suspense just killing you?

I have to laugh!

At this point it could be anything!

I suppose I should just go ahead and say it.

So I will.

I'm going to be a grandmother!

Did you catch that?

Heaven and Matt just found out that they are expecting their first blessing!

Heaven and I did go to the doctor to confirm the pregnancy test but so far that is it. No sonograms or anything yet. Right now the guestimated delivery date will be June 17th 2010.

I am especially excited too that my brother is also expecting his first child, a son in March 2010. I'm pretty sure I'll be the appointed babysitter and I just have to laugh that last year at this time I was mourning not being able to conceive myself. God knew then just what He had in store for me this next year! Not one, but two babies!

God is so good to me.

Please continue to lift Tony up in prayer. Constant pain can pull ones spirit down. We will see victory in this in Jesus' name!

(be sure to visit our homeschool blog where I'm updating at least weekly, more often most of the time, on our comings and goings, field trips and our homeschooling journey!)

Pray for Tony

He's in a lot of pain and the doctors have diagnosed him with arthritis. We aren't receiving those reports and we are praying for his complete healing, please stand with us.

Thank-you.

Ponderings

I love rainy days. I also love my girls. Heaven came by during our history read aloud and sat in for me to finish reading about missionary William Carey. After I finished reading, she took Sky and Meadow to the pound to see if there was a kitten available. They came back home discussing when Heaven would be able to come and get them again.

They miss her.

She misses them too.

Mommy loves seeing that.

Monday night Heaven called me at 11:35 pm when she got home from work and we were on the phone until 3:00 am.

Mommy loved that too.

It's so different with Heaven not living here anymore. I enjoy seeing this new bonding, or should I say re-bonding take place. It makes a mommy's heart happy.

I'm so blessed. I look around at my husband, my children, my home and our life and I praise God for it. I'm so blessed.

Reading about William Carey has brought other thoughts to my mind too. I've been thinking about it a lot lately. William has to deal with a missionary friend that doesn't know how to live modestly. His friend keeps not only running out of money but borrowing money to keep him and his family in the lavish lifestyle that they are accustomed to. William's friend has made many enemies because he leaves owing them money. It hurts the reputation of the missionary society also.

The other day I watched a video by John Piper on The Prosperity Gospel. It didn't set well with me. To me it sounded as though he was saying, that the only time God is glorified is through our sufferings. He mentioned something about Christian's driving a BMW.

We are considered, I suppose, somewhat of Word of Faith believers, although I do not like tagging us with a name. I do believe in calling things that are not as though they are, speaking life and not death, and calling forth healing in the name of Jesus! Do I really believe it's right with God to live richly? Do I not?

I'm torn between these two things. Is one really wrong? Or are they just the extreme. I think I fall somewhere in the middle of both, I like to think that I have balance. Lately, it just seems to keep popping up over and over.

What is right? What is wrong?

What does God want me to do, how does He want me to live. Am I filling the call He has placed on my life.

What do you believe?

I'd love to have some peaceful input on the above if you have anything to share.

I know in reading about William Carey, he lives very modestly, on the bare minimum. Then the remainder he uses to translate the Bible into other languages. I truly see how far it is I have to go when I'm reading of other missionaries and or evangelists. It's sad, I suppose, that in life, when I look around, I feel like I'm doing good with the Lord. But, when I begin our studies, I am reminded of how little of myself I'm really giving to the Lord.

Lead me God.

Lead me that I may follow.

Word for the Day

The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies. The cords of death entangled me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears. ~Psalm 18:2-6

My grandmother passed away yesterday. Her funeral was today. It's been hard. Please pray favor for my mom and her sister in their current situation. Thanks so much prayer warriors!

Wordless Wednesday

Bunny Adventures-Part 2

Bunny Adventures-Part 1

38 Today

I am so thankful for another year. I've had a great day...today my bird cage and playground arrived and Tony is putting them together. We are having a fabulous homeschool year so far. Sky had her tonsils out Wednesday last week so we've taken a week off. During this time we are studying our birds, spending time with our Cavies and learning about bunnies...yes, you heard right...bunnies! Tomorrow we are going on a field trip to a Rabbitry and the girls are going to get new bunnies. All of these adventures including pictures of the new bird cage will be up at Kingdom Academy. Come on over and see what we've been up to.....

God Bless You!!

Realization or Should I say Revelation?

I've been battling the last few weeks. If I were to dare to be completely honest with myself and you I could admit it has been longer than that. I seem to have fallen into some sort of pit, something that caused me to see things bunched up together, something that made everyday life appear as this huge heavy burden.....this overwhelming obstacle that I could see no way over and it completely stole my joy.

I would wake up in the morning completely refreshed from the Word I read the night before. I would awaken completely determined that today would be different, I was going to beat this thing, I was going to overcome and I was going to find a way to be more like Jesus and add His perfection into my life and I had this vision that I would be able to transform the everyday struggles into what *I* felt they should be. I wanted a perfect home...clean, neat and uncluttered, running smoothly with no glitches. I wanted to rise early, greeting my Father and beginning hymns and bible study with my children and watch them rejoice that their mother was taking the time to feed them spiritually each day. I wanted everything to f-l-o-w ever so s-m-o-o-t-h-l-y allowing Jesus to shine through me, spreading and sharing Him with all that I met. (I still want this.)

In reality what would happen is this. I would awaken early and some days I didn't want to get out of bed. Some days I really wished I could stay in bed longer, maybe until the next day came. I would drag out of bed, sometimes moody sometimes happy but either way as I would go to wake the girls I would face a battle. They weren't the happy little girls like you see in books and in the movies that are so glad to rise, no they resisted me. Often times in order to get them to rise I resulted to threats and loud yelling. By the time they would drag to the kitchen table and get breakfast a couple of hours have passed. As I coax them into the living room to try and begin school I again face more battles. The resistance of their will. Ah mom, not again. Do we have to do school today?

I put on the praise and worship, the beautiful hymns that I love studying and I love singing but somehow that refreshing joy I experience on Sunday morning at church is no where to be found. I find myself fussing at the girls to sing praise to the Father with me. Some days I must tell them that they HAVE to sing or else they'd be grounded. So then they would sing forcefully. Have you ever heard that? Forced singing. You simply can't force praise. It's not pretty at all.

So then the anger sets in and I ask the girls, "How do you think God feels right now? Do you think this type of singing makes Him happy?" They don't seem to care, the eyes roll and its made known to me that they really wish this was over and that I would just be quiet.

The day follows in the same spirit, chores, dishes, clothes, picking up after themselves, cleaning their rooms. Everything a battle.

At the end of the day I'm exhausted, I'm deep in a pit, my emotions are so mixed I question my own sanity. I'm full of guilt and shame because I don't know how to control my own kids. I have read book after book, 'Parenting with Love and Logic', 'Raising Godly Tomatoes', and numerous other things and I find that none of it works in my home.

Can you imagine what this does to a marriage? When my husband calls I'm in a tizzie, I'm ranting and raving and venting to him like there is anything he can do about it from the road. To be perfectly honest there is really nothing he can do when he gets home because its too late. If things aren't handled as they happen all is lost. The kids are angry with me for telling him on them, he is angry that he has to come home and handle the discipline because he feels like the bad guy and I feel like a failure as a wife and mother.

It's a vicious cycle.

I end up giving in and stopping my schedule. I stop trying to force them to sing and do bible study. I give up to an extent without really throwing in the towel. Things get worse and one day I come to the place that I feel like starting over is the only answer. And the cycle begins all over again.

This leads to the girls calling me crazy. Mom is in a bad mood again, Mom is on another one of her kicks. I fight until defeated and again I give up.

Its sad isn't it?

My thoughts turn from doing what God has called me to do and they begin to think of ways out. How can I stop the madness? How can I stop the cycle? Do I stop homeschooling? Wouldn't it be easier if I just put them back in school and go to work? Shouldn't I have a life outside of my family? I'm unappreciated and I feel abused. I feel like I never get a day off. My job runs 24-7, 365 days a year and yet I can't rid myself of the truth that it'll end one day soon. One day soon, I'll be alone, they'll be grown and gone. Have I taught them what they need to know to survive in this world? Have they learned enough that their souls will go to heaven and not to hell?

What is the problem? What is the true root here? Where is the solution?

Loving Life

I just wanted to take a moment to share how great things are for us. Homeschooling has picked up again with Sky being in 8th grade and Meadow being in 3rd. We continue to move along with My Father's World. We are acquiring a collection of pets, which is a great learning experience for the girls. Today Tony built us a Guinea Pig cage and yesterday I picked up a pair of lovebirds that had just laid two eggs, cage and all. I'll be blogging these adventures on our homeschool blog so pop over to Kingdom Academy to catch up with us.


God Bless You!!

Those Eyes

This would be a perfect picture for Wordless Wednesday. I wanted to give it a name, it says so much, but I couldn't think of anything. The lost look in her eyes. She looks like one of those starving homeless children, you know like a picture you'd see on World Vision.

She isn't though, she is a highly blessed little girl. Her name is Olivia and she is my best friends daughter. Melanie has five children ages ranging from 13 to 7 months. She has 2 sons and 3 daughters. Highly blessed and favored! I had the honor of spending the night at their house on Friday night and baby sitting them all. We had such a good time.

I didn't sleep good, all those mothering instincts picked right up with the little baby in bed with me. She woke around 4 am with the biggest smile on her face. She just cooed and talked to me, rolled around and wallered me, finally laying her head on my tummy and falling back to sleep. Precious.

The little one, that you see above, was an absolute mess. You can see that attitude in her face. She was mad at me and didn't want her picture taken. I love it though, I think it captured so much.

Melanie fixed us all a baked spaghetti for dinner and it was delicious. I helped her older kids set up blogs and we listened to lots of praise and worship music. I came home wore out.

This morning at 4 am I woke with a terrible stomach virus, it finally let up around 11. I'm still nursing myself in bed and thought I'd share this sweet little girl.

Worship with Me

This is an awesome live version of this song. I'll be posting the history of this song was written soon. I thank God for His love!

Stop the Abortion Mandate

Pictures of the Missions Trip