Gifts 149-154

I have been filling my facebook statuses (stati??) up this month with things that I am thankful for in honor of the approach of Thanksgiving. You would think that the more you search your brain for things that you have to be thankful for, the more difficult it would become as you exhaust all of the usual topics. In fact, it seems to work just the opposite. The more you open your eyes to blessings all around you, the more you are able to comprehend how truly blessed you are, which causes you to see yet even more blessings. Here are a few more that I have been thankful for this weekend...

149~ a great fellowship with the lovely ladies from my church at a brunch. We exchanged our "favorite things", which leads me to my next blessing...

150~ thank you, thank you thank you Jessica! I am still so very happy and excited to be sporting a new cup that I am thrilled to dump Coke Zero into but am also hoping may help me become a better water-drinker. I LOVE IT so much!

151~ the discovery that there is free music available out there on the web...I have been getting a hold of codes for free downloads of some songs that I would probably not known about otherwise and am really loving. Love new (and free!) music on the Shuffle!

152~ a sudden and temporary boon in cleaning jobs due to the approaching holidays...I am so thankful for the opportunity to earn a little extra Christmas money!

153~ as I hear of more and more people who are becoming unemployed, I am reminded of how the Lord has blessed us with a stable job for Mike. Despite mistakes at work, the worst that he faces is a leave of absence. Thank you Lord for your favor with those who make these decisions!

154~ the sound of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on the pennywhistle as Irene continues to practice

Gifts 136-148

136~ a safe trip to Lookout Mountain, Georgia and back (God provided for all that we needed when I had only $15 in my pocket for the trip up! Thankfully payday came before the trip back home.)

137~ We had such a fun time camping ...the first two days, that is. Rain came the second night and next morning. But most of it was a blast, when I managed to stop gritting my teeth and just enjoy! After hiking all day, I have never tasted anything as good as those hobo packets we made!


138~ Nature walk treasure hunt on a cool fall day



138~Rachel was accepted to Covenant College! Although we have decided after visiting that she will need to wait on the Lord to provide the right opportunities for her and she will not be going to CC right away, we are so excited and proud of her that she worked hard on improving her SAT & ACT scores to the point that they met CC's requirements. This is an accomplishment!

139~ Sound of geese flying overhead as they head south

140~ the scent of cinnamon in the kitchen from the cinnamon broom I smelled in Publix and just couldn't walk past!

141~ A board game from our food co-op that is about Exodus, which we are reading about right now. It makes me so happy that God cares about those details of our life!

142~fun making little "acorns" with Abbie & Irene out of Hershey kisses and Nutter Butter minis. So much fun for them!

143~ this one is old but deserves a belated mention...friends (you know who you are!) who so kindly let me into their homes for a hot shower when I had no hot water!

144~ In the same vein, still more friends (you also know who you are!)who offered their homes for food, showers laundry and you-name-it when our plumbing problem left us temporarily without water...thank you does not say enough.

145~my sister who is so good to me and helped me out of a tight spot...thank you!

146~ This crisp, cool (even cold!) fall weather feels so good!!!!!

147~ 50 cent corndogs at Sonic equals one CHEAP DINNER (it's the little things!)

148~ The Lord answering prayers for a job for Michael (Jr.)...he got the job with CSX. He is very excited, even about the location (Buffalo, NY). As a central N.Y. native, I am not sure he understands what he is in for in Buffalo, but I am so happy for him and know it will be an adventure. Thank you, God, for answering prayers and providing all that we need!

God Taught Me to Spell...

Courtesy of a blog called "Old Guys" & Charles Spurgeon :

"I have known some that, at first conversion, have not been very clear in the gospel, who have been made evangelical by their discoveries of their own need of mercy. They could not spell the word ‘grace.’ They began with a G, but they very soon went on with an F, till it spelt very like ‘freewill’ before they had done with it.

But after they have learned their weakness, after they have fallen into serious fault, and God has restored them, or after they have passed through deep depression of mind, they have sung a new song. In the school of repentance they have learned to spell. They began to write the word ‘free,’ but they went on from free, not to ‘will’ but to ‘grace.’ And there it stood in capitals, ‘FREE GRACE’. . . . They became clearer in their divinity, and truer in their faith than ever they were before."

~Charles Spurgeon~

Gifts 129-135

129~ Abigail Hope turns six (that's a whole 'nuther post!)

130~ coming to the Lord's table for a meal that lasts

131~ the learning of new things about my children all the time...even the hard things, so that I can pray for them and know how to help and guide them.

132~ a drive through a beautiful forest as we went to an afternoon class with a very gifted teacher

133~ bumping into a friend unexpectedly and getting a hug

134~ water, even if it's cold. electricity. indoor plumbing. modern medicine. television, computers, phones, ovens. Lord help me use these things as blessings, but not make them into my idols.

135~ the smell of coffee brewing in the morning. Most friends & family know I was a bit of a coffee addict. What you may not know is that I have not been able to drink it since my pregnancy. As always when I am pregnant, my stomach turned at the idea of coffee when I was pregnant. Although my baby is no longer with me, what has not gone away is the aversion to coffee. I have tried to like it again, so that I might feel a little more like the "regular me". I can't. I still make it sometimes in the morning, hoping that I will want it, and even though I never end up drinking it, I like that smell...it is the familiar and the comforting. It breaks me down to think of the ways we are changed by the hurts of this life...Lord, I give my brokenness back to You...please use it for Your glory.

a couple more read aloud books...

A couple more books that we read a while ago and loved...

Little Britches, by Ralph Moody



The true recollections of his boyhood, moving out west with his family and beginning a life of ranching, I thought surely this book would be a great fit for Matthew. I read it aloud to everyone and to my surprise, Irene was the one who loved it the most. Despite some dated and politically incorrect names for horses, this book was a great story...full of adventures of childhood in a much more free and simple time. We loved it that the author was not shy about bringing his family's faith into the story. Very good book, and there are more in the series, which we have not read yet.


Heaven, for Kids...by Randy Alcorn



Irene asks regularly if we can read this book again. I think that kids hold an eternal perspective and fascination for thinking on what Heaven will be like that we lose as we get more entrenched in the ways of this world as adults. They are not so attached to all the trappings that we cling to, and they love hearing about what Heaven may be like. I learned SO MUCH from this book about what the Bible has to say about Heaven that I will definitely be looking for the grown-up version, which I have heard great things about from Dan Camp at Veritas Classical Schools. And, as a bonus, we were reading this at the same time we were reading the Narnia books, and Alcorn uses quote after quote from many of the C.S. Lewis books. It made it fun because most of the time it would be a quote that we could place from something we had read recently. This book made me cry in several places, which is admittedly easy to do, but is one I am sure we will read again in a few years.

Gifts 122-128

It is not Monday, but that is just how this week is going...behind on everything! Thank God for new mercies each morning!

122~ a very unexpected card in the mail from my "long-lost" brother. His note brought me to tears and reminded me that we should never, ever, ever give up on people and relationships. There is always hope and we can't give up the fight, ever. Even with the crazy ones.

123~ modern dental hygiene and gum-numbing drugs. I love Anne of Greene Gables, Little House on the Prairie, and Pride & Prejudice, and I tend to daydream that I should have lived in that time, BUT... there's a lot I really like about 2011, too.

124~ our church youth group starting back up for the year...the energy , excitement and enthusiasm is good for my dry, dreary bones!

125~ finally feelings some results from our trips to the track. I have been sore for about two weeks but I can finally (don't laugh!) run a half a lap around the track. I know that is pathetic but it is a huge goal met for me, because previously I couldn't even run to the mailbox. My next goal is a full lap.

126~ the time I get to zone out with just me, God and my iPod shuffle on above mentioned trips to the track. Even if I do have to take one headphone out every fifteen or twenty steps so I can listen to the "cheers" Irene & Abbie made up for me while standing on the bleachers. They are so sweet, they cheer each time I go around and they run up to me with the water bottle!

127~ Mike finally being through with the long, drawn-out & expensive legal issues we were facing...OVER !!!!!! YAY!!!!

128~ So excited to head to discipleship group tomorrow night, oh how I have missed the girls!! Thank you Lord for such amazing Christian women to share my life with.

Gifts 113-121

As always, so much to be thankful for:

113~ beautiful, round, gold harvest moon rising up as we ran around outside, laughing

114~ getting in a water bottle fight at the track with my 3 youngest. With as moody as 13 year old boys can be, it felt so good to cut loose and laugh and be silly, and watch him laugh too...what a great reminder that they love and need our attention so much, no matter how much they act like they don't.

115~listening to squeals (okay, maybe more like screeches) of little girls as they play hide and seek in the dark (in the living room!) at 10:00 at night

116~ safe travels of my daughter-in-law and granddaughter back to the east coast, with Michael soon to follow

117~ finally getting to the dentist after 20 years without a cleaning. I am sure nobody will be getting close to me to chat after that little tidbit of information, but rest easy, they have now been cleaned!

118~ my mom being healthy & happy at 80 years of age

119~ 21 years of marriage...the ups and downs, ins and outs, the good, bad and the ugly...all a blessing and all to God's glory.

120~ cool weather, and the hint that fall is around the bend (even though the weather has turned hot again)

121~ It may sound strange, but I am so thankful that I have become painfully aware of how quickly our family is exiting the "baby years"... it has made me acutely aware of the speed at which the years with my sweet babies are speeding by, and to grab hold of all of the todays I can and store them up in my heart, knowing that all too quickly I will be in a different season and life will move on. Very bittersweet but I am thankful for God making me aware of it.