I Forgot...

 

Oh dear

It's my birthday.

 

I forgot.

 

I didn't remember until I got my first birthday phone call today.

 

What does that say about me?

 

Birthday's just aren't what they used to be for me.

 

:(

 

Next year, I'm going to MAKE it more of a party.

I'll try real hard to remember what I'm partying for.

 

 

 

 

Jingle Bells

We walked into a store a few days ago.
Lydia stops, gasps, grabs her heart and squeals. (drama much?)
And then she starts jumping up and down.
"Mommy, they're playing Christmas songs!"

She has already developed a love of all things Christmas.
And since she loves to sing, Christmas songs are right up there on the "things Lydia loves" list.
Her favorite songs are
Joy To The World
Silent Night
and
Jingle Bells

I looked up Jingle Bells (good move?) on youtube and she has two renditions that she now LOVES.
She asks for them multiple times a day. She sings with them. She cracks up at them.
She can't get enough of them.

And then there's me.....

But they are funny and she's pretty entertaining to watch when she's watching them so Jingle Bells it is.

I posted one of the videos on FB and thought I ought not leave this one out so I'm posting this one here. Needed to share the joy I guess.

So, to kick off the Christmas season (Still wondering how it's that time already but oh well)
Let's Jingle Bell it!

That Just About Sums It Up

Okay- I admit it. I don't get Black Friday.
I am all for a good deal. You know this about me.
But to stand in line in the cold. For hours. Maybe it's snowing or raining.
And there are more than likely people around you who will be nice to your face in line but if you want what they are after once you reach the store, they are not below taking it by force. Shoving and grabbing and nasty snarls become the norm for ADULTS! (shake head and tsk)
Doesn't that sound like every one's idea of a good time?????
Oh and then there's the fact that all this takes place IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!!!!
Seriously? Who thinks this is fun?????????????????????????????????????????????
I will pay extra money NOT to do this. I'll gladly fork over the extra $20 I would have saved if I would have endured that horrendous insanity- and I'll fork it over with a smile on my face.

My Black Friday tradition-
Stay in bed, wrapped up all warm and toasty and laugh at the people getting up just to stand out in the cold for a way long time so they can spend money. Probably buying things they don't need with money they don't have.

Ahh, the greed of the American people.
Greed makes you do nasty things, people!

But, I have to be honest. I did do some Black Friday shopping and I got some great deals- including A NEW LAPTOP (thank you, Babe!)
But I did this-
during the day
in the comfort of my home
in my pjs (yes, my pjs in the middle of the day)
sipping coffee
no shoving or grabbing or snarling involved.

Now THAT is how to work Black Friday, ya'll.

Why in the WORLD would you go out and torture yourself when the wonderful people of the world wide web will gladly take your money online?
This I just don't understand.



Although funny, the picture above really does sum up the American mentality doesn't it?
And then, in case you miss Black Friday we now have Cyber Monday.
Greed- it keeps going and going. Growing and growing.

This is what the Holidays have become about.
Makes me sad. And sick. And sorry.

Clean, Cute and Cheesy

 

 

After bath cuddle time

 

Life don't get much sweeter.



In Him I Have Enough

While doing family devotions today, we were talking about being content with what we have.
The focus verse was Hebrews 13:5

Let your conduct be without covetousness, be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you.
 

For some reason it stuck out to me and for my personal devotion time I spent time studying that verse.
I particularly appreciated this thought-

He has promised that He will never withdrawal His presence (I will never leave you) or his help (nor forsake you).
If we have the promise of God's presence and His help, what more on earth could we desire?
Only fleeting things that will never satisfy? Nay!
A heart that loves and trusts in God, desires only Him and what He sees fit to provide- content and abundantly satisfied in that alone. That soul finds joy and peace only in Him.
The things of this world become as pitiful trifles indeed.
They live their life, in all their conduct, in all their dealings, with such eternal focus. Not counting on or aspiring to temporary pleasures, seeing them as rubbish in light of a far better thing.

Prayer and Praise

Praise- To ascribe value and worth (worth-ship), to exalt

With Thanksgiving just around the corner my thoughts have turned to praise.
Specifically, praise in prayer. (Our Sunday School class is doing a study on prayer)
So often when we come to God in prayer we are so intent on our needs (or wants) that we start in there and by the time we are finished with that, it's time to get up and get on with our day. We may rush through a couple of "thank you, Lord's" but if you were to chart out the ratio of time spent in asking God for things, important as they may be, verses time spent just praising, how would it look?
                          Praise should be the start and end of every prayer time.
Without praise, I have to wonder how focused we are on God instead of ourselves.
When we start our prayers in praise we are forced to take the focus of the prayer off ourselves and concentrate on Him alone. Praise makes sure we see ourselves in light of God, keeping us humble, and placing all glory on Christ, not ourselves. In other words, praise helps us keep the right perspective on things, even on our needs, as we pray.
The very purpose of prayer is to commune with God. To leave ourselves for a while and look to Him. To turn our eyes and hearts toward Him and leave the things of this world behind.
If we pray and the focus of our prayer is, "me, me, me". We miss the point. We miss the greatness of the One we are praying to.
Even in the prayers of trial, pain and sorrow the proper focus is on God. Praise in pain is placing those things at Jesus' feet, praising His ability to take care of them and releasing self and the situation to Him.
Prayer is the humbling of ourselves before Almighty God and the acknowledgment, through the very act of prayer, that we are needy and in total dependence upon Him for all things.
The very fact that we are so needy and dependant should cause us to break out in praise because there is One we can go to, who we so desperately need and He is abundantly willing and able to supply all of our needs-and more.
To pray and not praise is to rob yourself of the joy and blessing that come as a result of praise and it is robbing God of the glory due His name. He loves our praise. It is the most glorious music to His heart. Praise is beautiful.
Praise comes from a heart that believes God. That believes God is full of love and compassion, that He is able to do mighty things. It comes from a heart that is confident that He is all He claims to be. And most of all praise comes from a heart that believes we are unworthy to stand before Him- sinful and unclean (Isa  6:1-8)- but in Christ we, the unworthy, can come boldly before the only One who is worthy of our praise, fall at His feet and cry
          "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty
                   You are worthy to receive glory and honor and power!"
Truly, when we contemplate God, we can do no other thing but praise.
There is much to praise Him for!
Praise for who He is His character, His attributes, His power
Praise for who we are in Him- because of Him Redeemed, forgiven, righteous, holy, loved
Praise for what He has given blessings, grace, mercy, freedom, gifts, protection, care
Praise for what He has done He has done many things, answered many prayers- but the greatest and most praiseworthy is the work of the cross. That alone should produce a lifetime of praise and worship and wonder.
May we always, along with David in so many Psalms, praise.
May it permeate our prayers.
May it accompany our thoughts.
May it resound from our lips, our heart- and our life.


                                   Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised!  Ps. 48:1

A Day of Smiles

 

I can't get enough of that smile!

Secret Revealed

I have a very weird sense of humor.
As clearly revealed in the last few funny pictures I have posted.
This will continue to be revealed. And I will continue to laugh and snort.

If I must laugh alone, I must, but laugh I will!

:)
Enjoy!

Ain't It The Truth

 

 

 

 

 

Admit it, People, you have been there at some point in your life.

Maybe even now, huh? Huh?

I find this stinkin' funny because it is so very true!

 

 

Winter Checklist

Well, it's almost winter.
I know this because my hands are constantly cold now and when I look out the window the sky is gray and the poor trees are bare and looking rather pitiful in their unleafed state. I almost feel sorry for them.
So it is time to do my annual winter preparation.
Squirrels gather nuts, I gather a plethora of other things, all so we can both settle in comfortably for our long winter hibernation.
My hibernation is not complete or nearly as happy unless I have certain comforts to help make the winter ahead more endurable.
Side note-
*Thank you, Lord, for allowing me to have these things. May I not forget that they are extra blessings that many do not have. Ever thankful for all you provide- Me.

Here's my winter checklist-
*Lots of fuzzy socks- check
*Hoodies- check
*Space heaters- check
*Blankets strategically placed around the house- check (including the bathroom, for Lydia not me- sometimes in the mornings she doesn't like to go or won't go unless she has a blanket around her because she's cold and I'm just crazy enough to let her do that because at least she's going in the potty and not her diaper so, blanket it is.)
*Speaking of blankets, enough blankets on our bed to keep an Eskimo warm and toasty- check
*Gloves to wear to bed- check
*Cute gloves to wear out and about- check
*Cute boots- check  well, really this is a collection in progress but yeah, check
*A stock pile of Hershey's cocoa for the moments when my insides need some hot chocolate-y goodness to warm my bones.- check
*Nice, wintery smelling candles that make the house smell, well, wintery- check
*The ingredients for warm molasses cookies- check (drool)
*Cute scarves- check  also a collection in progress
*Big heavy coat- check   but I do so not like its bulkiness
*Coffee- check
*Winter coffee cup with the cute snowmen on it- check
*A good book- check
*A spot by the fire to curl up and read aforementioned good book- check
*Candy canes- will need to get those soon, a total must have and very tasty dunked in coffee, hot tea or cocoa.
*Speaking of hot tea, Candy Cane Lane tea- check
and last but not least (certainly not!)
*Warm and cozy pajamas for comfy cozy bedtime or for the many pj days ahead- I LOVE pj days!- check

Seems like I'm all set. Winter can come now.
The only thing left is something that I wish I had very much.
A nose warmer.
Does such a thing exist?
My poor nose gets so cold at night.
I've tried warming it on V's bare back but he doesn't seem to like that very much (baffled shrug). I really have no idea why. (Innocent smile)


Okay, then- Let the hibernation begin!
Happy almost winter, everyone

Nearer

Nearer, still nearer, close to Thy heart,
Draw me, my Savior—so precious Thou art!
Fold me, oh, fold me close to Thy breast.
Shelter me safe in that "Haven of Rest";
Shelter me safe in that “Haven of Rest.”

Nearer, still nearer, nothing I bring,
Naught as an offering to Jesus, my King;
Only my sinful, now contrite heart.
Grant me the cleansing Thy blood doth impart.
Grant me the cleansing Thy blood doth impart.

Nearer, still nearer, Lord, to be Thine!
Sin, with its follies, I gladly resign,
All of its pleasures, pomp and its pride,
Give me but Jesus, my Lord, crucified.
Give me but Jesus, my Lord, crucified.

Nearer, still nearer, while life shall last.
Till safe in glory my anchor is cast;
Through endless ages ever to be
Nearer, my Savior, still nearer to Thee;
Nearer, my Savior, still nearer to Thee!

 

 

I LOVE these words!

They've been on my mind lately.

Is this your prayer?

I Can't Help Myself

Sadly, this makes me laugh.

The Best Part Of Waking Up

Some mornings are greeted by the warmth of the sun and a peaceful feeling in your gut that says, “Today I am blessed because God loves me!”

Some mornings…um, not so much.

 

Some mornings, even though God does indeed still love me, it seems life starts slapping me around the moment I have my first conscience thought.
Admit it, you’ve been there.

Some of these mornings are of our own making. We allow our thought life to go where it shouldn’t (anger, bitterness, fear, worry, etc.). We allow the pressing issues of life to keep us from focusing on God’s love and grace. We allow life to take ground it shouldn’t.

But then there are mornings when, for no apparent reason, we just wake up on the wrong side of the bed. Grouchy, stressed, stinky and overwhelmed.
On those days, as the day progresses it doesn’t seem to get any better and probably worse.
When the morning sun brings with it a nasty attitude in your gut and you feel for all the world like diving back under the covers and staying there until Christmas- even if it’s 325 days away- just don’t do it.
Get up and get moving.
But how?
In the grace and power of Jesus Christ and in that power alone.
The really cool part of this though is that when we allow the power and peace of God to wash over us from the moment we plant our feet on the ground in the morning He continues to pour it out over us throughout our day and by the end of that day we are movin’ and groovin’ to the tune of a heart filled with a joyful sense of the power God has given us that day. Grace, strength and the ability to do what we never thought we could when our eyes first popped open that morning.
In Lamentations it says that every morning we all get a fresh dose of mercy and compassion.

Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I hope in Him!”    Lam. 3:22-24

Some mornings we need that mercy so much that if we didn’t have it, I’m not sure we’d make it to the coffee pot, much less anything past that.

God knew that.
So He gave us a promise that on those days, He’d give us something infinitely better than a good strong cup of coffee….good strong mercy and love right from the throne of God!
And unlike the coffee cup, it never goes empty and we can keep drinking down that mercy all day long.
Do you get how wonderful that is?
New. Every single morning.
Never gone.
Always enough.

Oh my but that’s good news! When I don’t have it in me, God does.
And I don’t have to rely on yesterday's mercy and love because I probably used most of that up then. But I get it all new for this day. The “mercy cup” is all filled up and giving off an oh so fresh and sweet smelling aroma with just the right portion for today’s need.
I like the way the NLT says it-

Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.

Fresh. New. And abundant.

That’s worth poking your nose out from under the blankets for, throwing them back and maybe even jumping heartily out of bed. Yeah, really!
Might I say, it’s even more motivating than the smell of freshly brewed coffee???!!!!

We can greet the world with a smile and song (even when it doesn’t smile back) because there’s mercy and love coming our way, no matter what else does.

 

 

 

So, I Fell Off The Saddle...But I'm Getting Back On

Okay, I said I was gonna do this before but I didn't.
I'm going to this time!
Why? Because I feel God is leading me to.
I don't know why really but here are two reasons I think it might be.
1. Because I personally get something out of writing.
Not only is it a creative outlet but actually sitting down and writing out things that God is showing me or things that I have thought about helps me really THINK about them and put them in a way that is more manageable and rememberable (is that a word?) than just random swimming thoughts in my head.
2. Because in the back of my mind I feel that someday, somewhere I may say something that will help someone. If it's only one person, one time it is worth it and it has been my prayer of late that God will do just that through my simple words. Oh God use me. Use this blog.


So please help me and keep me accountable to do it.
There are long chunks of time where I just don't have much time or motivation for it but I really think it's a good thing for me.
How can you hold me accountable? Ask me about it and pray with me (even if this is a tiny thing.) that God will help me as He wants to.
Leave comments to encourage me because honestly, the biggest reason I stopped is because I felt no one read it.
Even though I now believe it's for me as much for you I still really want people to read it. It's more fun that way!
I really want to share what God is doing in my life with people. If He is showing me things maybe He wants to share them with me so that I can share them with others, too!

So, I am going to post random pictures, and other such stuff that I have been hiding away for this here blog. I had previously written quite a few posts that never made it on that I will be posting soon.
So, good things are ahead. Stay tuned.

WARNING-
I really am going to be changing things around and redecorating (you know how much I love to do that!) so if you stop by and things look messy, just come back a little later.
I'll having it looking spiffy again shortly.

Back In The Saddle

First off- Read this.
I just happened to run across this tonight via another blogging buddy and I sure was blessed by the "reminders".
I can't think of a better way to re-start things.

PS
I have a half written post waiting to be posted but my brain is fizzling so it's gonna have to wait until tomorrow.

I also plan to do some re-arranging and re-organizing of the layout so if you happen to come here and things look a little funny, just be patient with it, I'm not done with it yet.

What Do You Say?

It has been a long time since I've even looked at this blog.
Considering how attached I was to it, it surprises me that I've been able to stay away.
It's just that, well, life got complicated. Life got hard. Life became more imporant.
But in the midst of all that's gone on this last year...and there's been A LOT!....I have missed this.
I have missed writing. I have missed the creative outlet. I have missed everything about my little corner of the bloggy world.
So many times I thought, "I should blog about this" or "Wouldn't that make a cool blog subject?"
But then something would happen and the moment would be gone.
The last few months, the whole past year really, has been full of more than I care to write about but there have been a lot of really special stuff that never got recorded. That's sad.

Lydia has been my constant source of joy and every day I am blown away by the happiness she brings our home. In all the crazy, she's been my precious sweetness, and always brings a special moment and smile to my day.

But, I am thinking I kinda want this blog thing back. Maybe.
It takes time to do this. Time I don't want to take away from the valuable moments of Lydia's childhood. Time I could be devoting to other, more important things all around. Like laundry. Like sleep.
But then, is this important too? For me? I don't know.
I'm in debate here, people.
So help me.
Should I come back to this? Should I start this baby up again?
Would you read it?

Leave a comment here or FB me.
Tell me if this is a worthy hobby and why.
Or tell me if you'd read it.
Or tell me what you'd like to see on here.
Or just say hi. :)

While you are here, look around. Check out some of the side links.
Look at the archives...all three years worth if you like. I recorded so much of myself. I think this was almost a diary for me. My life for all to see. :)

I will look forward to your comments or emails....HINT HINT!