Black, White, and a Bear

Today was black and white and "bring your favorite bear" to school day. We had to rummage through Jenna's closet to find something black and white but I think we came up with something pretty cute. Her bear won "fluffiest bear". They also went on a bear hunt (remember that song?). I have to say I just love the preschool years (hey, maybe that's why I am a Preschool Director). Everything is so simple. Don't get me wrong, it's challenging and we have our moments, but these years are just so precious.

Medieval Times

Sunday, January 20th we went to Medieval Times for PaPa's birthday (David's Dad). This is a relly cool show with knights, good food, and even a princess. The arena is shaped like a football field and the size of an ice hockey rink. They bring food to your table all during the show. Everyone had such a good time. Don't have any pictures with my camera of everyone because they are very strict on where you use your camera and everyone was excited to get inside to our seat. We did purchase the one they took for $20.00! Besides that, we had a great time.

Happy 67th birthday. PaPa.

Menu Plan Monday

Feels like I am finally getting back to a good schedule after holiday busyness. One of my New Years goals was to try 2 new recipes a month. So far, I have stuck to it. One month-WOW!

Monday-Taco Pie (new)
Tuesday-Chicken casserole, corn, green beans
Wednesday-leftovers
Thursday-salmon, asparagus, baked potato, salad
Friday-chicken Parmesan, broccoli
Saturday-not sure, Daddy's working
Sunday-crock pot barbecue sandwich for lunch (new)

Tip Junkie

I came across the really cute blog called Tip Junkie. Thought you might like the "tip". Ha

I've Been Tagged-14 questions

Jodi tagged me for this meme:

1. Coolest birthday you remember: My 40th (2006). David had a big birthday party for me with a bunch of family and friends. My aunt made a collage of me over the years. How embarrassing!

2. Do you prefer hosting parties or attending as a guest? I enjoy both but probably attending is my favorite.

3. What color is your bedroom? The walls are painted a sage green. Comforter has red, gold, green.

4. Do you and your man have a song? What tune makes you swoon? My husband and I love music. Our song started out as "Soul Provider". It was David's song to me and he played it on the night he proposed. I love "Feel Like A Woman" by Martina McBride as my song to him. But "Let's Make Love" by Tim and Faith makes me swoon-hee hee.

5. What were/will be your wedding colors? Would you change them? Traditional black tuxes. The girls wore peach. I don't believe I would change it.

6. Ever sneak out of the house or host a wild bash while the ‘rents were away? What’s your wild child tale? Never really snuck out of my house but I did a friends and yes, I did have a bash while they were away. Mom knows all about it now! My boyfriend had to mow the lawn to get rid of tire marks in the yard.

7. You just won the lottery! Do you stash your cash or pass the bucks? What are the first 3 things you’d do? First I’d tithe, then pay off debt and buy a new vehicle, then I would definitely help others.

8. You oughta’ be in pictures…which actress stars as you in a movie of your life’s story? This is a hard one! I really don't know. Maybe Brooke Shields? Ha!

9. What’s your go-to meal for quick comfort? First choice would be Steak N' Shake but that's not very quick.

10. Everyone has ups and downs. What’s your hardest learned lesson? That God loves me just the way I am regardless of my past (or present) failures.

11. What advice would you give to 18 year-old you? Enjoy the years when your kids are young! They go by so fast. Watch how you spend your money.

12. Favorite board game: Sorry

13. Dish it! What’s your “me time” guilty pleasure? TV. If I get to go out, it's shopping and Starbucks.

14. What’s one thing you’d like to learn to do in 2008? Get my pictures organized on my computer, power point.

Pray for Nicole

For those of you that pass by my blog, please take a moment to pray for my sister Nicole. She is having surgery on Wednesday to repair 2 disks. Some time back her neck was hurting. She went to a chiropractor and ended up getting two ruptured disks from the treatment. The chiropractor was new and apparently did not do x-rays before treating her. The surgery will be disk replacement and not a fusion which is usually what they do. This surgery will allow her to move her head from side to side. Since she lives in Kentucky I am finding myself getting more and more emotional lately about not being able to be with her. A few more things to pray about:
1) That the "ball" used for the replacement will fit.
2) For her 4 children and husband. The children are ver nervous and worried about their Mom.
3) For my Mom as she helps out during recovery time.

Please leave a comment so I can send them on to her. Thanks!

Love you, Sis. You know I'll be there as soon as I can!

January 22nd update-insurance did not approve the surgery. Please pray for God's perfect plan and wisdom for Nicole and doctors as they decide what the next step will be.

Deboshun

Last week I attended a prayer conference by Henry Blackaby, author of "Experiencing God". (That is for a later post.) It was truly life changing. I'm sure we have all struggled with our quiet time. We try to get up early-the kids get up early. A child wakes up sick. The new baby doesn't sleep all night. And if we do get up early we only have about 15 minutes to squeeze in our time with the Lord. Doesn't He deserve more than that? Mr. Blackaby spoke about praying without ceasing and living in the spirit of prayer 24/7. My friend Jodi and I were talking about how in the world do we do that with so much noise in our house? You can feel like it's not even worth trying, can't you? Well, I think I got my answer the other morning. I got one child to the bus stop, one child on the bus at home (my kids are at three different schools this year. By the time I deliver everyone 4 hours has gone by. From the time I get up to the time the last one is settled) and sat down at the table to do my devotion. Jenna was home that day and Pooh was blaring in the background. Here is the conversation that followed:

Jenna: "What cha' doing?"

Mom: "I'm doing my devotion."

Jenna: "What's a deboshun?"

Mom: "Well, a devotion is where you read your bible, pray, and write in your journal."

Jenna: "Oh"
The next thing I know, Jenna is pulling out her Bible and all her supplies. "I need to have my deboshun", she said.

Wow. I knew right away the Lord was telling me to just do my best. If something happened that day and I couldn't get up (that has to be 5:15a.m. for me), it's OK. Just give Him my best all day long. 24/7. That is a teachable moment I will never forget and cherish forever. If our kids never see us in the word how will they know it is a priority for us?

A few days later Jenna had her "diary" out writing stuff down. She said, "How do you spell I wish I could go to Hawaii?"

How's that for a prayer request?

Winter Wonderland

Well, Wednesday night we finally had snow in Georgia. My kids had an absolute fit. (I'm not sure why but my pictures are not very good.) We were on our way to church when it started. We arrived at church to find out everything had been cancelled. The kids still had fun playing outside there and making a snowman. Just a little snow here goes a long way, you know. We had just enough to cover the grass but that's all we needed to make everyone happy. Unfortunately, not enough to cancel school!

The weather report is calling for more snow Saturday-I sure hope so!

Student of the Month

January 2nd was Jared's first day at the new school (bottom picture). It is SO nice, new, and clean! What a blessing to have such a nice school right down the road from us. (By the way, the blue helmet in his hand is his transformers mask that he got for Christmas. He took it for show-n-tell)

Today we had a breakfast at Jared's school for student of the month. His teacher wrote: "Jared was chosen for student of the month for his continuous smile. He is such a joy to teach." That was so nice to say. It was sweet watching him today saying hello to his friends, talking and joking with them. When you read this later, Jared just remember how proud we are of you and your sweet spirit. You might be quiet at home, but it looks like you are very well adjusted with your friends at church and school.

We Have Everything We Need

Today I was fixing Jenna's lunch and she all of a sudden said, "We have everything we need at this house. We have a T.V., fruit, kitchen stuff, and popcorn." I paused for a minute and thought, "Yes, Lord. We have everything we need-even popcorn. Thank you so very much." Then I said, "We sure do, Jenna. Isn't God good to us?"

Thank you, Lord for reminders through our children.

Sad Day

Today my Mom left to go back to Kentucky. She arrived on December 27th. She officially retired not long ago so this was her first trip here where she could stay and not worry about getting home (except Disney). I have to admit that at first I was worried about getting the tree down, getting my house in order, getting 2 kids back to school, etc... I got over that quickly because I have been waiting for this visit for years! (Isn't it amazing how almost all that got done anyway?) We had such a great time visiting, sitting around drinking tea and coffee, shopping, eating, and did I say eating? We ate at our favorite place The Olive Garden. Grandma had special time with each Grandchild and David and I had 2 date nights-WOW! I was doing OK until I walked in the basement and her room was empty. It was then the sadness set in but also thankfulness for a great time. Also, thanks Mom for all the special things you did for us while you were here but especially the date nights! Oh, and The Nutcracker was awesome!

Now, I can officially get started on the new year stuff and getting myself organized.

My Utmost For His Highest-2008

For years I have used the devotional, "My Utmost For His Highest" by Oswald Chambers. I had the privilege of working with Jim Reimann, who wrote the edited version. He is such a Godly man and I learned so much from working with him. Recently, I decided to use other devotionals so this year I am excited to get back to My Utmost. It always speaks to me regardless of how many times I read it.

December 31-"You shall not go out with haste...for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard" (Isaiah 52:12)

God requires an account of what is past (Ecc 3:15). At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise when we remember our yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God's grace tends to be lessened by the memory of yesterdays sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth for our future. God reminds us of the past to protect us from a very shallow security in the present.


January 1-"...my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death" (Philippians 1:20)

My determined purpose is to be my utmost for His highest-my best for His glory....But before we choose to follow God's will, a crisis must develop in our lives. This happens because we tend to be unresponsive to God's gentle nudges. He brings us to the place where He asks us to be our utmost for Him and we begin to debate. He then providentially produces a crisis where we have to decide-for or against.

This is a short version of both days. Just too much to write. My desire this year is to be my utmost for Him in every area-health, family, devotion time, work-everywhere!

Happy New Year

New Year's Eve we had a little party at my sister-in-laws house. We had several adults and 7 children. Boy, was it loud. We played Wii, guitar hero, set off fireworks, played games, and watched New Year's Rockin Eve. I missed my sweet husband but I thank him for working so hard and having a good attitude about it. We all stayed up until 12:00, even Jenna. At least my sister in law lives right down the street so we didn't have far to drive home! Happy New Year everyone.

2008 IS GONNA BE GREAT!

Book Meme

I was tagged by Jodi for this Meme. I have never done one so I guess I am doing this right.


1. One book that changed your life ~ The devotional, "My Utmost For His Highest" by Oswald Chambers. Also, "The Blessing" by Gary Smalley

2. One book that you have read more than once ~ "Scream Free Parenting"

3. One book you would want on a deserted Island ~ The Bible

4. One book that made you laugh ~ "Don't Let the Jerks Get You Down" You need this if you work with church people, you know! Ha

5. One book that made you cry ~ “Feathers from my Nest” by Beth Moore. Fantastic book! (ditto, Jodi)

6. One book that you wish had been written ~ The Perfect School Choice for YOUR Child

7. One book that you wish had never been written ~ I don’t know of one. Probably anything that rejects Christ.

8. One book you are currently reading ~ haven't started one yet.

9. One book you have been meaning to read ~ "Get Out of That Pit" by Beth Moore

Happy Belated Birthday Jodi

Several months ago I sarted posting birthdays. I can't promise I will keep this up but I wanted to say Happy Birthday to my dear friend Jodi. Her birthday is Christmas Eve so we had a little surprise party for her Saturday night. She was very surprised and we all had a great time. Jodi is my "new friend" who introduced me to blogging. She is very encouraging and I know I can always count her her for good advice. Love ya, sister and I look forward to many more years of friendship.