Christmas Part 1: Home Sweet Home

 

 

I love Christmas tree lights, pretty wrapping paper, curly ribbon and sitting on the floor with the whole family. I love reading our Christmas love notes, watching the kids as they open surprises, and Christmas music in the background. We celebrate at home whenever we're all going to be together and this year it fell on a Saturday, December 22. It was lovely outside and a perfect day for the kids to try out their new mopeds. Richard gave me a Brighton "R" charm...He KNOWS I love letters, and my name. Sheridan got a new handheld game (possibly her first game not a hand me down). My favorite gift that I gave (and received) was a personalized binder filled with our love notes, Christmas pictures and Top Ten lists from the last 10 years. We think it's so funny that Sheridan can't believe we had pictures or Christmas before 2003. It's really bothering her...Lauren says, "You weren't born!" It's been a good exercise for us to realize that if/when we adopt, those children won't have the memories we have, their own ziplock full of personal ornaments, love note binders...or even stockings that match ours. We're thinking on all that, and it made us more thankful and more grounded than ever before.  

 

 

 

Made these on Friday night...on Saturday morning, someone was missing!

Bubble Bath Day?

I have to say, I'll be smiling the first time I get to take a bubble bath in this tub. For almost 16 years I've been getting ready and bathing in a very small bathroom. Now, it's not as small as the bathroom was in our first house here in Clarksville. When we moved in there I was pregnant and we had to change the sink out for a pedastal sink because I could HARDLY FIT THROUGH the door the bathroom was so small. That house was 50 years old when we moved into it too.

I am thankful for the things we have, and I try not to get carried away with things or outward appearances too much. I would never say I "deserved" something.  I'm grateful and thankful and excited about this new tub. I plan to use it and share it with my family...and, I'm hoping to find some new bubble bath under the tree for me.

Fall on the Lane

 

I took these with my phone on my walk today...I love fall.

 

 

SWEET Anniversary

I am so blessed. I give God all the credit for the riches of my marriage and family. He has held us together through a miscarriage, moves, 4 children, a failed business, health challenges and the day to day issues we each face. I CANNOT believe that we have been married 20 years...I mean, not only does that make me sound old...I am! Richard and I have now spent more of our life together than apart. It's strange to think that and yet, so comforting to know I am loved by anyone on earth that much...on the good days, on the bad days, on the sad days...happy and the mad days.

Richard arranged every detail of a 20th anniversary trip to our honeymoon spot: Boston and Nantucket. We've just returned from a wonderful, restful, fabulous trip! No schedules (except for flights to and from), no watches, no plans...just fun together. I have A LOT of pictures and will make a special scrapbook for those, but I definitely want to post my favorites. Here are a few:

 

Downtown Boston, walking on crowded streets, going in and out of shops, watching a movie, drinking hot drinks and sitting in outside eating areas, watching people, finding our way around town and self guiding ourselves through the Freedom trail.

 

My first NFL game: Patriots vs. Broncos, Tom Brady vs. Peyton Manning. "A once in a lifetime opportunity," said my husband! Rain and crowds and no tickets...couldn't keep us away!

I've always wanted to go to Rhode Island! Here we toured one of the many summer mansions in Newport, The Elms. So peaceful and absolutely worth the drive!

Our second trip to the island of Nantucket. Our one goal was to see all 3 light houses. This is Sankaty Head. For the record, I touched it first. FYI: They had to move this light house because the shore was eroding. It took 10 days.

Great Point Lighthouse, we rented a jeep with beach permits, drove down a stretch of beach and uninhabited island on the Atlantic Ocean for 30 minutes (a huge adventure), and finally reached the point. The sky was clear the entire time we were there. FYI: The original Great Point Lighthouse burned to the ground, the second GPL was destroyed in a storm, and the current GPL was dedicated by one of the Kennedys.

Brant Point: Smallest lighthouse on the island, within walking distance in town. FYI:  On our first trip to Nantucket we bought a poster of this lighthouse and shipped it home. The framed poster has hung in our homes for 20 years as a reminder of our honeymoon trip.

These are my favorites. But there are MANY more to come. :)

VBS- EVERYTHING is possible with God

There has never been a more true statement we could see in the life of our church than this one as applies to Vacation Bible School. For the first time in the last 15 years we did not have Becky to lead and guide us. We are so blessed that she trained us well and VBS was filled with workers and record numbers of children. Everyone stepped up and took care of things we needed to have done. Students rolled out and were responsible, adults volunteered for lots of things that were out of their comfort zones, and many various folks in our church came out and did whatever needed to be done before, during and after the week. God was there. The songs were sung and scriptures learned. The vans and busses were full of children. The weather was extremely hot and yet there was a breeze most days and shade for the kids. 18 children made decisions about their relationships with Christ. 349 children came through our doors this week, 147 workers helped pull it all together.

Everything is possible with God.

Trust Him.

To God be the glory, great things He has done.

Easter Celebration

One of our favorite things to do is to set the table for Sunday lunch and have no idea who we're going to have over. On Easter Richard invited three college guys from the Praise Band, and one of the college girls that Erin knows from helping in the youth group. I've got to tell you, God certainly cares about the details as he certainly had these friends picked out for us long before we ever set our table.

Sarah is from Conway and grew up in a small Christian school in a family a lot like ours. Abraham is from Mexico and was hanging out with the two Fernandos playing violin for our praise service. Fernando V is from Panama, and is so funny! He made fun of all of us for having pretty southern accents on our Spanish attempts. Fernando S confided in Richard during the day how much he was missing his family and thanked us all several times for having him over. These guys stayed at the house all afternoon and my family loved it!

 The weather was beautiful and we played kickball and fat bat out in the yard. Richard's sisters and their families as well as his parents all pulled in around 5pm for an evening dinner and playtime for the kids. It was an awesome day full of new friends and family and a celebration of our LIFE IN CHRIST.

Books I read in 2012

The Breath of Dawn*****by Kristen Heitzmann
Savannah comes Undone***** by Denise Hildreth
Savannah from Savannah***** by Denise Hildreth
Promise me Always***byChristine Lynxwiler (re-read)
Heiress (Daughters of Fortune)**by Susan May Warren
Jenna's Cowboy***by Sharon Gillenwater
Taming Rafe (Noble Legacy #2)*****by Susan May Warren
Reclaiming Nick (Noble Legacy #1)*****by Susan May Warren
The Convenient Groom (A Nantucket Love Story)*****by Denise Hunter
Full Disclosure*****by Dee Henderson
The Prince of Nantucket*by Jan Goldstein
Letters from the Enemy***by Susan May Warren
My Foolish Heart******by Susan May Warren
Hook, Line and Sinker****by Susan May Warren
The Accidental Bride (A Big Sky Romance)*****by Denise Hunter
Wings of the Morning*****by Lori Wick (re-read)
Who Brings Forth the Wind*****by Lori Wick (re-read)
The Hawk and the Dove*****by Lori Wick (re-read)
Coming Home (Baxter Family Finale)****by Karen Kingsbury
Deadly Pursuit (Guardians of Justice #2) by Irene Hannon
Perfecting Kate***by Tamara Leigh
Fatal Judgement (Guardians of Justice #3)*****by Irene Hannon
Hello, Hollywood! (Backstage Pass #2)****by Janice Thompson
Stars Collide: A Novel (Backstage Pass #1)****by Janice Thompson
Stealing Adda  by Tamara Leigh
White Pearls***by Shannon Vannatter
Licensed for Trouble (PJ Sugar #3) *****by Susan May Warren
Double Trouble (PJ Sugar #2) *****by Susan May Warren
Nothing but Trouble (PJ Sugar #1) *****by Susan May Warren
Alaska Twilight***by Coleen Coble
First Date**by Krista McGee
Faking Grace*****by Tamara Leigh
Nowhere Carolina (Southern Comfort #2) ****by Tamara Leigh
Leaving Carolina (Southern Comfort #1) ****by Tamara Leigh
The Sweet By And By**Sara Evans
perfectly invisible (#2) **Kristin Billerbeck
perfectly dateless (#1) **Kristin Billerbeck
Allegheny Hopes***Janice A Thompson
Halos****Kristin Heitzeman (re-read)
A Billion Reasons Why****Kristin Billerbeck
Through My Eyes*****Tim Tebow and Nathan Whitiker
Kisses from Katie*****Katie Davis
A  Case for Love (#3)***** Kaye Dacus
Cool Beans****** Erynn Mangum (re-read)

Inspired

I found the cutest website today called bakeitinacake.com. The concept is simple yet clever, one of those things that makes me say, "Why didn't I think of that?" I'm thinking I'm going to pursue this with my next batch of cupcakes.

I think I posted this last year, but I love having Christmas cards out during the season. Everyone was a little later getting theirs out this year and for a little bit I thought possibly we wouldn't get any. I love to display them in the picture holders and spread out the picture cards and the cards. I attach them all to a huge corkboard in our laundry room for the rest of the year. It's fun to see faces of friends all year long. I think Christmas cards are awesome.

Quote of the Day

Holy words long perserved

For our walk in this world
They resound with God's own heart
Let the ancient words impart

Words of life

Words of hope

Give us strength
Help us cope
In this world, where'er we roam
Ancient words will guide us home

Ancient words ever true
Changing me, changing you
We have come with open hearts
The faithful words of Christ

words by Lynn DeShazo

Christmas with family - part 1

We did something this Christmas we've never done...we planned a Christmas trip, leaving the state on the 26th. We planned to meet our dear friends, also with 4 children, at their family's home in Wolf Creek, CO, and let our kids experience the slopes for the first time. SO, our private family tree time was different as there weren't any presents....until the last 12 hours. We couldn't resist the anticipation, and the excitement of putting presents under the tree right before bed on Wednesday.

We opened our stockings...filled with love notes from each member of the family, and then we opened the surprise gifts. Ryan also gave me a gift that made us all chuckle.

I can't wait to compose the collections of the love notes from the past 10 years. Notes that used to say things like "i love you mom. you are cool." Now say the most poignant things from my teenagers. Where the coloring used to be the highlight of the note, now the words are so precious to both Richard and I. Love notes erase all bad feelings, regrets from arguments over the year and personality conflicts.Words are free and yet we seldom take the time to tell those closest to us how we feel about them. To hear the brother and sisters letters to one another...it's something I hope they don't ever forget. DEFINITELY: my favorite thing we do all year.

I love this season

I'm pretty sure I've posted on this topic for the 3 years I've had a blog...but I can't help myself.

I LOVE FALL.

I love fall colors.
I love wearing a sweatshirt and long sleeve t-shirts.
I love it when trees change colors.

I love sunny, windy days.
I love football season.
I love leaving the windows open at night.
I love cool mornings, snuggling under quilts.
I love the rich color of pumpkins.

I love soup weather.
I love the sounds of leaves blowing across the yard.
I love Thanksgiving.
I love the way my neighborhood looks when I drive down the lane to our house.
I love the fresh air of fall.

Favorites

Our family has a new favorite snack. Really. Good.

Edy's Fruit bars!

Our store has about 5 flavors. My favorite is Pomegranate (I've never bought a real one, but I love this!). My kids love strawberry and grape. There is also coconut and lime...
About 70-80 calories per bar and they're made from real juice. LOVE IT!

One of our stores in town has the box of 6 for $2.49, and another store had them for $4.69. Duh. The company offers a free box to anyone who has a tonsillectomy!

Let me know what you think when you try them!

Favorites

This is BY FAR the favorite thing I made in 2009:

This book is one of my most favorite possessions! It's one full year of my blog! I love that I wrote these entries and now have them in a hard covered book for us to look at and remember our year.

I started my blog two years ago because one of my sister-in-laws had started one. She did it because one of her friends had a blog and had published it at the end of the year in a nice book. Sounded good to me! I wasn't sure how I was going to accomplish this until I learned that there was a web site that could SLURP my blog into a book format and I checked them out!

The company's name is BLURB, INC and they specialize in downloading (slurping, I love that word!) blogs and such into books! You can lay it out or they can do it for you. You can choose what size and cover you want. You can choose all the colors you want, borders for the pictures, ornaments on the pages...it's actually fun if you like that kind of thing!




I published a 168 page book for $60 and that included shipping! Seriously, I'm psyched! This was my Christmas present last year...but it took me awhile to lay it out because I wanted to do it myself. I re-read every entry, made some adjustments and placed all my pictures like I wanted to. After I ordered it took only 7 days to get to me!


I chose this dust jacket hard cover book and got to choose which pictures would be on the front, back and inside flaps.

This year I downloaded entries throughout the year so I wouldn't have to do it all at one time. As soon as I catch up my Christmas entries I'll be done and can order the actual book.

For other projects by bloggers check out TipJunkie!