Again....

Once again my devotion this morning spoke directly to me.  

It always amazes me how God uses these pre-written words to speak directly to my heart.  Lately, I have been carrying someone else's burden.  My first reaction has been to find a way to fix it.  I purposed this morning to spend time with God specifically about this issue.....

....and here was my devotion:

Problems are part of life.  They are inescapable: woven into the very fabric of this fallen world.  You tend to go into problem solving mode all too readily, acting as if you have the capacity to fix everything.  This is a habitual response, so automatic that it bypasses your conscious thinking.  Not only does this habit frustrate you, it also distances you from me.

Do not let fixing things be your top priority.  You are ever so limited in your capacity to correct all that is wrong in the world around you.  Don't weigh yourself down with responsibilities that are not your own.  Instead, make your relationship with Me your primary concern.  Talk with Me about whatever is on your mind, seeking My perspective on the situation.  Rather than trying to fix everything that comes to your attention, ask Me to show you what is truly important.  Remember that you are in route to heaven, and let your problems fade in the Light of eternity.

He knows me so well.

The gift above all gifts

My devotion today, from Jesus Calling, was so spot on and timely that I just had to share:

Let Me infuse My Peace into your innermost being.  As you sit quietly in the Light of My Presence, you can sense Peace growing within you.  this is not something that you accomplish through self-discipline and willpower; it is opening yourself to receive My blessing.

In the age of independence, people find it hard to acknowledge their neediness.  However, I have taken you along a path that has highlighted your need for Me: placing you in situations where your strengths were irrelevant and your weaknesses were glaringly evident.  Through the aridity of those desert marches, I have drawn you closer and closer to Myself.  You have discovered flowers of Peace blossoming in the most desolate places.  You have learned to thank Me for hard times and difficult journeys, trusting that through them I accomplish My best work   You have realized that needing Me is the key to knowing Me intimately, which is the gift above all gifts.

Project 365 - week 48

 Week 48.

I hope ya'll have had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!  Mine has been full of food, family, food, fun, food, shopping, food, movies, food, games and more food!!!  It's been just about perfect!

Here's my week:

Sunday

today the youth band played for our service.  I can't tell you what it does to my mama's heart to see my son worshiping like that.  For those that don't know Jared, he's playing the piano.

Monday

 Somehow today I hit my mouth and caused this blood blister.  I actually remember thinking "ouch, that hurts" when it happened but can not remember what happened......typical.

Tuesday

 At least once a year, I seem to have to forget that I can't put potato skins down the disposal.  It is usually when I am in a hurry......Steve loves this about me!  :)

Wednesday

Today was baking day....3 pies and a pound cake!

Yum!!!

 Papa is happy to have his 2 best girls with him!!!

 made a big pot of Stew for dinner.

I love, LOVE having a full table!!!

Thursday

 Steve started early frying the turkeys...one for a friend and one for us.

It comes out a perfect golden brown and is so juicy inside!!!

Of course, I have to bake one too because I love the dressing that is stuffed inside the turkey!!

 Me and my brother

 again, I LOVE a full table!!!

Being in the food coma we were, we obviously were not thinking straight and decided to hit Wowmart for the 10 o'clock black Friday sale.....

 ...words can not describe this experience.  ALL the checkout lines had checkers..that is a first at wowmart!!!  But it was seriously a mad house.....I did come out with some great deals though!

Friday

 We continued our craziness and got up at 7:00 for some black Friday shopping.  After 5 hours, I'd say that we made out pretty good!!!

 The grandparents took all the grandkids to the zoo and they had a great time!!

 My wonderful parents!!

We ended the day with pizza and a rousing game of scribs!!!

So fun!!!

Saturday

 My family!!!
I am so grateful and blessed.

Well, I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!  I get to enjoy 2 more days with my family and then it's back to the grind......and I'm already exhausted......here we go!!!

Let the games begin.....

Do any of you remember this guy?

This is the santa that Jason and I hide for each other through out the Christmas season....

Jason has always one upped me on hiding places...

 this time he was behind a plaque above the cabinets in my kitchen..only the little white tassel of his hat stuck out!

 This time he was sitting by the station where I get my hair cut.

.....that was until last year.

I sent the santa with a friend's son who was also at JBU and he snuck it into Jason's dorm room.  It was sitting on his desk when he came back from Thanksgiving break!!!  

He couldn't quite top that.....and it made me so happy!!!

He brought it home and tried to hide it well, but I found it and hid it here...

This is in the corner of his room and he never found it!!!!

and therefore had to concede....

That I WON!!!!!

So this year, I knew I had to get an early start to catch him off guard...

This is the santa sitting on the hearth at Jason's girlfriend's parent's house!!! 

I mailed them the santa last week and they had it just sitting out when he came over last weekend.  

His girlfriend kept texting me:

**dad turned it on, it's playing music. he hasn't noticed yet

**it's softly playing in the background 

**He started singing to it...maybe he'll catch on eventually

then finally, he saw it and commented that our family had a santa just like it......and suddenly the wheels started turning and I got the following text...

**Did you happen to hide the santa at the Perry's?

Gotcha!!

....and let the games begin!!!!

Project 365 - week 47

 Week 47.

Everyone in my house was still sick this week.  Steve FINALLY went to the doctor on Monday and what do you know, he had a major sinus infection......hmmmmm.  Jared ended up at the doctor this week too, also with a sinus infection.  So, they are all on the mend!!!  whoop!!!

My whole family from Arizona will be here next week!!  We have never all been together over Thanksgiving before and I am very excited!  So I doubt I will get much blogging done, but you never know!!!

Here's my week:

Sunday

 The ladies in my life group decided to go to Spirited Art together!  I am getting good at this now! ha! Tonight we painted this manger scene.  This is the whole class when we were done!

Monday

She caught me!

When Lily needs to go out side, she sits and stares at you till you notice her.  I wish I could have gotten a picture of her staring Steve down, but she kept seeing me out of the corner of her eye.  Most likely she was thinking "quit taking the stinkin pictures and let me outside!"

Tuesday

 What do you do on a rainy, dreary day?

Make cookies!!

One of my favorite books was made into a movie and went straight to DVD.  I was so excited and got some of my friends that had read it together to watch it.  We were SO disappointed.  It was nothing like the book.....very sad.  Although we all agreed it redeemed itself when Hugh Jackman surprisingly appeared in it!!!

Wednesday

Today was our last Bible Study lesson and we ended with a luncheon!  These ladies add so much to my life and I am very thankful for them!!

Thursday

This guy in front of me is in the LEFT turn lane..

His blinker says he is turning RIGHT.

Nice.

Friday

My friend, Holly, turned 50 this week.
Her husband had a fantastic surprise party for her tonight.  

Saturday

 I spent most of my day recovering from the 15 boys from youth group that spent the night at our house last night and cleaning.  But I did make time to meet a friend for an iced latte!!

So, how was your week?

It's here!

This weekend will kick off my favorite family tradition!!!

Those that have been around my blog for a while know that about 3 years ago we started a new tradition with our grown kids...

After looking around us and seeing all the blessings God had poured out on our family over the year, we decided to take the money we would spend on the kid's large gift for Christmas and give it to them over Thanksgiving. They each then have till Christmas to give it away. Any way they want. It could be all to one place or they could spread it out. They could give it to a charity or to a person they know is having a hard time. The options are limitless and are their own. It is up to them, alone, to give their gift to someone else. 

Then on Christmas morning, instead of opening the gift, we each tell how we spent the money and the blessing that came with it.......and there is always a blessing!!!  Each year, the 5 of us have given to 5 completely different places....it has been so fun to see where God directs each one.

 

But it is extremely hard to keep it a secret till Christmas!!

It is so exciting to be part of God blessing someone else and that excitement is hard to contain....at least for me!

You can go here, here and here to see where God used our gifts in previous years. 

The cool thing for me is that they have all been so uniquely different each year.

So, this weekend we all get our money.

 

God has already laid on my heart where mine will go....

 

....I now have to work on keeping it a secret till Dec 25th!!!

panic mode....

I think I am officially in panic mode.

I made the mistake this week of laying my calendar out for the next 6 weeks....oh my.

What have I done to myself?

You know that vacation I planned 6 months ago for the first week of December sounded so good then.  Don't get me wrong...I am really, really looking forward to seeing my friends and spending time with them, but I am a pastor's wife......and December is our busiest (and craziest) time of year....International Christmas party, ladies tea, staff party, children's church, Christmas service, new years day open house to name a few.

Then there is that colonoscopy that I can not put off any longer....ugh.

And then another trip to see family.

I think I must have temporarily lost my mind when I planned all those.

 

I am going to need all the time management and planning I can muster.

And if you know me at all....that is a streeeeetch for me.

Lists are going to become my new best friend.....mom, I so get that now!  :)

So, if you don't see me around this blog much or commenting on yours, please know that I will be back.....some time....... when I regain my sanity.

Project 365 - week 46

 Week 46.

I was sad to see my friends leave at the beginning of this week.  It was so much fun to have them here, to wake up each morning and get to have coffee with them and it went way too fast!!!  I am so blessed to have such wonderful friends!!!

I am sad to say that I have a bunch of sickies AGAIN!!!  And if you saw my "letter of intent" yesterday then you know I am just a bit tired of it!!!  I spent Friday and Saturday disinfecting the whole house!!!  Ugh.  I am hoping for a healthy start to the next week and praying that I don't get any of it!!!!

Here's my week:

Sunday

Today was another great day.

I love when a sermon at church speaks directly to me..that's what happened today!  We then came home, had lunch and proceeded to all nap the afternoon away!!  perfect!

We went to Conway for dinner (30 minutes from here) with Wendi and Jerry and then Steve and Nathan enjoyed some guy time out on the deck.

Monday

  for our last night together, the girls went to Spirited Art.  It's a Girls-Nite-Out art class in town and was so much fun.  We painted this Tree of Life.  You can go here to learn more about it!

Tuesday

It's always a sad day when your friends leave and vacation is over!

I spent the day at home....laundry, cleaning, catching up on my bible study...nothing really picture worthy.  So, this picture came from the other day.  The leaves around Little Rock have suddenly burst with color!!  I think this is the most color I have seen since we moved here!

Wednesday 

No picture today.

I left the house at 8:30 and didn't make it home tell after 4:00.

Wednesdays can be so crazy for me this time of year!

Thursday

 Today I was tired and I didn't have any where to be.  So I stayed in my robe and slippers for most of the morning.  I took advantage of the quiet to spend some much needed time with God.  It was a pretty great morning!

Friday

11-11-11 today!

Steve and I started the day at Bside for breakfast.  

This breakfast sandwich was A.ma.zing!!!

 

The rest of the day I spent SCOURING my house with bleach and lysol.

You see everyone is sick and Steve is sick AGAIN with a cold..ugh.

Saturday

 Tonight was the Arkansas Symphony Youth Orchestra concert.

You can see Jared's head peeking up above his music stand.

 The title was Beethoven in Blue Jeans, so all the kids wore jeans. They did a great job!  Then after the ASYO, we stayed for the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra concert which was awesome!

It was the maestro's birthday so they had these hats for all the audience to wear when he came out...he has crazy hair!! It was pretty funny.  My niece came up from OBU to join us....I think it actually looks like an extension of her hair! ha!

So how was your week?

Letters of Intent

 

I'm joining Foursons today for letters of intent. Here's what she say's:

 

Are the holidays sneaking up on you and you’re starting to panic?  Are your kids making their lists and checking them twice a million times to make sure they’re just right?  Is someone demanding money from you every time you  turn around and you’re not sure how you will manage to put presents under the tree?  Did you buy presents in Game Stop while your kids were browsing the games and tell the guy at the register to hurry up so you could stuff them in your purse before one of your boys walked up and saw what you were buying?  Or maybe you just won the lottery and Christmas is going to be the.best.one.ever. this year!  Write the who, what, when, where, and why of the happenings of the week (in letter form of course) grab the button from my sidebar, and link up at the bottom. I look forward to your Letters of Intent!

Dear cold virus,

I need you to know that I am on the war path and I am tracking you down.

You have caused enough havoc in my house and have hung around for far too long.  It was bad enough when you made a home in my husband's head for 2 weeks and then decided to jump to mine.  But when we thought we had gotten rid of you........somehow you managed to hide in my house and jump back into my husbands head for round two......so not cool.

However, the final straw was when you attacked my kids....both of who can not afford to be sick right now.   You stepped over the line.......and mama bear has now come out!!! 

So beware......I have bleach and lysol in hand.  You may have found a nice home somewhere in my house, but you are going to be found out and kicked out....today.

Sincerely,

Your worst nightmare, mister cold virus.

Randomness.....

I am having a very quiet and slow morning.....

...in fact, it is 9am and I am still in my robe!!!

I love that!

I don't have a lot to offer today, but I am trying to be better at blogging.  My poor little blog has been very neglected lately.  And can I just tell you that when your kids grow up and leave, your fodder for blogging diminishes greatly!!!

So today you get randomness.....

I think the colors in AR are the most vibrant I have ever seen them since moving here.  After moving here from the north, I have been pretty unimpressed by the color in the south...but not this year!!!

We have had someone sick in my family for over a MONTH...ugh.  My son now has the bad cold my husband was suffering with.  Not.fun.

I miss my friends.

It is always hard after spending time with your friends to get back in the swing of things..don't you think.  I so enjoyed waking up to them in my house and spending the day with them.  I could so live on a commune....just sayin'. 

However, I think I gained 5lbs while they were here!!

My son is heading up a mission at school called Samaritans Feet.  Tomorrow on 11/11/11, they will have one person in each class at school take their shoe off and collect $11 from the kids for shoes for needy children.  If you are my friend on FB, you saw that the marching band performed last friday at the game barefoot in support of this project!!  I am so proud of my son for the passion he has for this!! And praying the students will respond in a great way tomorrow!

God has so been working on my heart lately.  It seems every scripture I study, sermon I hear, devotion I read is going straight to my heart.  I love it when He does that....makes it so clear He has a message for me.  Now the hard part....applying what I am learning and making the appropriate changes.

Feeling very guilty today after I found out yesterday that I scheduled a vacation for my husband and me during the week of my son's Christmas band concert.....that would be his LAST Christmas band concert....aargh!!!!!

Do you watch Survivor?

I never miss it. It makes me laugh.

I am always amused that after so many years on air, after person after person has betrayed and lied to someone, knowing it is a GAME..and GAME you want to WIN, that people get SO MAD when someone blindsides them!!!

you know, I think I could go on and on today........

.....I won't.

You're welcome.

Spirited Art

Recently, I found a place called Spirited Art

This is what they say about themselves:

Spirited Art® is an optimistic, creative class for folks who want to learn the basics of acrylic painting in the company of great friends and good wine. In each class we will show you step-by-step how to create your own masterpiece that you can be proud of and take home at the end of the night. Don’t worry if you can’t even draw a stick person. We believe it’s easier to learn when you’re having fun; and if you know your letters, shapes and colors then you are prepared to learn how to paint!

They hadn't met me and my friends yet! :)

So, I thought it would be a fun evening for us as a girls-nite-out and we left the guys at home, grabbed our bottle of wine and dessert and headed out.

This was our project for the evening.

The Tree of Life

(it's very small, but I took it off their website)

There were probably 20-30 women there.....even some roller derby girls! That was a fun conversation to over hear!!!  :)

Here are April and Wendi all happy and excited to try their hand at painting...

 Each person gets their own canvas, easel and paint.

The teacher stands and the front to demonstrate and then there are a couple of other teachers roaming around to help....and boy did we need them!

 They start you off easy with some basic shapes.  Although you are wondering what it has to do with a tree for a while! ha!

 ....and if your shape is too far over...just paint another one..hmmmm.

 after a few shapes and Vs, you are supposed to have the start to your tree.

This is where the laughing really begins!!!

One woman txt a picture of hers to a friend and she txt back "oh, you are painting an owl!"  We all got a laugh out of that one!

 Then she tells you to paint OVER your trees with black and gold...don't worry you will be able to see where your tree was.....riiiiiight!

 At this point and step, the teacher came up behind the lady across from me and said (very nicely I might add) "stop painting".  We all burst into laughter.  What she really meant was that she already had too much paint on her canvas and just needed to stop that step.  However, it came out STOP PAINTING.  Oh, it was down hill with the jokes from there!

 Oh look, the tree is coming back.

However, it's looking a bit ghoulish!!  Not sure that's what I want for the tree of life!

 Ok, now we are adding some color.....

 and birds and flowers....

 Pretty proud of that bird!!!

Finally, my finished project........tada!!!!

 Not bad at all for a person who has trouble drawing stick people!!!!

And here are all of our paintings!

Oh my word, this was so much fun!!!

And a really great idea for a girls night out!

Just make sure you are OK with laughing at yourself!!!

I did a lot of that!  :)