Tuesday, November 23, 2010

A Week of Thanks

So, this week is Thanksgiving! 2 days until Thanksgiving to be exact! 2 days until we stuff ourselves full-overfull! 2 days until we hopefully take 5 minutes to think of the many things we have to be thankful for! Well, this year I'm doing it ahead of time and I'm taking a lot longer then 5 minutes to write out several things I'm thankful for...in no particular order

  1. Family-both near and far
  2. God and His word
  3. Friends
  4. Food
  5. Husband who's also a GREAT father
  6. House- roof over my head
  7. 2 little girls that make me smile
  8. Clothes to cover myself with
  9. Washing Machine and dryer to keep said clothes clean
  10. Other appliances that make my job easier
  11. Couches to sit on
  12. Beds to sleep on instead of hard floors
  13. Heaters and Air Conditioners
  14. Cars and Trucks to travel to and from places
  15. Horses to ride on with family
  16. Indoor plumbing
  17. Grandparents that love my daughters as much as I do
  18. Sisters
  19. Tv shows that make me smile
  20. Internet- even Facebook as my link to the outside world
  21. Books to encourage
  22. Answers to prayer even when it's no
  23. Toys and Puzzles
  24. Eating picnic lunches in November
  25. Wearing wings at lunchtime with my youngest
  26. Crayons and kid size scissors
  27. Parents that have become friends
  28. Great neighbors
  29. Stable jobs
  30. Good health
  31. Even pet cats
  32. Cameras and pictures to remember things I may soon forget
  33. Little girl who loves combing my hair- wayy more then I like it
  34. Fall
  35. Christmas Decorations
  36. Christmas Music
  37. Knowing that my children know the true meaning of Christmas
  38. The hope of Spring
  39. Shopping for down on their luck families
  40. Black Friday ads- and friends that will do the shopping for you
  41. Late night conversations with my best friend
  42. Scrapbooking
  43. Days of giving thanks
  44. A merciful God
  45. A Forgiving God- over and over again
  46. Someone else in control
  47. Candles
  48. Homecooking
  49. Warm days to snuggle with my favorite people
  50. I love you's said in so many different ways

Oh I could keep going but one of my favorite little people is wanting to snuggle right now and no matter how much I sometimes need reminded to give thanks and to remember what a big God I serve I know that we can actually be worshiping Him in the everyday little things like snuggling with the loves of my life too! God is Good! Have a Happy Thanksgiving

Monday, November 15, 2010

It's that Time Again!

Merry Christmas Cards!
That's right! The Holiday season is upon us! Which means hopefully a good family picture to put in our Christmas Cards and then there is the actual card! What a process! Well, we've ordered from soo many places for cards and this year we'll be ordering through Shutterfly! Why? Because they have great cards! Their prices are pretty right on with everyone else out there and they are soo easy to use! http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards I love that you can narrow down the various chioices of cards by number of photos, color, size etc. It's so easy! They even have a new holiday collection this year! Yeah! I'm soo excited about them! In fact here are a couple of favorites of mine for this year. They are in the running for our Christmas cards!
Of course, we've once again gone with a theme for our Christmas card this year... you are going to LOVE It! You'll have to wait though to see it! Though I'll admit we picked a challenging theme this year with colors that aren't your typical Christmas colors so I LOVE that you can narrow your choices down on Shutterfly just by picking the color and they have soo many colors to choose from!! It's been soo helpful! I love that they even have a plain black one that is just amazingly classy too! Here are more that I can't decide between... what do you think? Beware though that if you go check these links out you'll be spending at least 30 minutes on there looking for that perfect card for your Christmas message this year! Let me know which one you pick! I can't wait to see!!
choice # 123 for our Cards this year... decisions decisions decisions
Bloggers- do you want to see if you can qualify for 50 free cards from Shutterfly just by blogging about their amazing cards, go here






Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Convictions

I'm reading a book called Crazy Love by Francis Chan. It's Crazy Good!


I will admit that a lot in the book was convicting but nothing more so then this paragraph...

To fill you in a little before I dive in to this it's talking about how when the author became a father. He talked about his little girl running to greet him with a big hug before he was hardly even out of the car and how this experience and just becoming a father truly showed him how much God loves and desires him! This in and of itself should be convicting... the Creator of the universe loves and desires me! Wow!! Not only that but He desires a relationship with me! He doesn't need me but still desires me! I digress, anyways, back to the paragraph...
"My own love and desire for my kids' love is so strong that it opened my eyes to how much God desires and loves us. My daughter's expression of love for me and her desire to be with me is the most amazing thing. Nothing compares to being truly, exuberantly wanted by your children.

Through this experience, I came to understand that my desire for my children is only a faint echo of God's great love for me and for every person He made. I am just an earthly, sinful father, and I love my kids so much it hurts. How could I not trust a heavenly, perfect Father who loves me infinitely more then I will ever love my kids?"

If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in Heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! Matthew 7:11

"The best things in life are gifts from the One who steadfastly loves us. But an important question to ask ourselves is this: Are we in love with God or just His stuff?

Imagine how awful it would feel to have your child say to you, "I don't really love you or want your love, but I would like my allowance, please". Conversely, waht a beautiful gift it is to have the one you love look you in the eye and say, "I love you. Not your beauty, your money, your family or your car. Just you."

Can you say that to God?

Our love for Him always comes out of His love for us. Do you love this God who is everything, or do you just love everything He gives you?