To Know and Tell Friday

1.What scares you? I have a lot of anxiety issues they started after I had children. It's funny how as women without children we do things we wouldn't dream of after we have children. Things as simple as speeding or passing in a no passing zone. Staying up all night and then going to work the next day. I don't know about anyone else but I need my sleep. My biggest fear is that my children and hubby would not know how much I love them if anything were to happen to me. I know that is weird, but that is what I'm afraid of.
2. Coke or Pepsi (Diet counts)? Pepsi all the way, I love the new diet Pepsi max, only because it taste like regular Pepsi I think and I have a very hard time drinking diet pop, but it has not calories and some say better for you, not everyone I know so please don't e-mail me and tell me how bad Diet Pepsi is for me. I also know the extra caffeine in the Max is not good for me either.
3. I would love to try...public speaking, as well as learning the two step. I think it's awesome when your somewhere and a couple gets up and starts to dance the two step to some country music, how fun. My brother gets married next September maybe I'll talk my hubby into learning the two step for he wedding.
4. Spiritually speaking, do you have a Quiet Time? If so, where, when, and how long have you had one? If not, what is stopping you from having a Quiet time? (Quiet time is defined as time alone with God. It can consist of praying, reading God's word, and worship among many other things) My Quiet time isn't regular, I've had a regular one at different times but at this time in my life I haven't kept a regular consistent quiet time. It seems that I allow other things to get the best of me in a lot of areas and that is the first thing to be moved or left out for the day. I know there are definite things in my life that if I don't get done first thing in the day I'm less likely to get done, but I still leave them go. Like QT, Exercise, Dinner planning.
To know and Tell there is my answers, good questions.

I've been working on my Closet tackle today, I'm so behind, wow!! As I was clearing shelves I came across "The Box" you know the one that you keep all the Love letters in from when you and your husband were dating and/or the first year of Marriage, I've kept that down to a shoe box size box which I think is great. I have kept more in it then just stuff from my hubby, there is letters from my sister that I got after I was married and move away as well as some cards from her and other, like for our anniversary, and a few other things that were important to me. Like the brochure from "Josephs techni-color Dream Coat staring Donny Osmond that I went to see in College. Shakespeare festival stuff from my sister who went and shared the stuff with me. Anyway I'm sure you would like me to get to the point, you don't need to know everything that was in the box. Well there was one sheet that was given to me by someone it was a quote I'm going to share it with you then tell you who wrote it:

The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them-words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they're brought out. But it's more than that, isn't it? The most important things lie to close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you've said at all, or say you thought it was so important that you almost cried while you were saying it. That's the worst, I think when the secret stays locked within not for want of a teller but for want of an understanding ear.

Isn't that a great quote by Stephen King. I wonder often if I open myself up enough to be the understanding ear that maybe someone else needs.

Just thought I would share that little bit of wisdom with everyone as I'm procrastinating on finishing the closet.
Ha, Ha!!!!!!

In other Words

This week, Sarah is hosting "In 'Other' Words" at her site, To Motherhood and Beyond. Sarah has chosen a quote by Elisabeth Elliott. With the busy holiday season upon us, this quote is timely...

"One reason we are so harried and hurried is that we make yesterday and tomorrow our business, when all that legitimately concerns us is today. If we really have too much to do, there are some items on the agenda which God did not put there. Let us submit the list to Him and ask Him to indicate which items we must delete. There is always time to do the will of God. If we are too busy to do that, we are too busy."

~ Elisabeth Elliott ~

I have to believe that this quote was meant for the bigger things in life like dwelling on regrets, or hurts from yesterday, as well as maybe worring about things we may regret or people we may hurt tomorrow. Matthew 6:34 says "Therefore do not worry about tommorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
The second part of this quote I would take to heart in all areas of life. I think that if we feel like we are burning the candle at both end we have to come to the realization that one end of the candle we are burning for ourselves not for God. If we were working entirly in Gods leading and guidence, our busyness wouldn't be overwhelming to the point where we feel like we are burning the candle at both ends. That doesnt mean we shouldn't do anything for ourselves because Gods will is for us to do for ourselves and our family. But maybe there are things that God hasn't necessarily blessed that your doing for yourselve or your family. I know that in our house we have rules about the number of organized activities our 7yr old can be involved with. We want him to be involved with sports but not at the expense of the family and his mothers sanity Ha,Ha!!! I'm not say that a mother should stop doing laundry for her family because it's causing her undo worry, but I have to say that maybe what God wants is for her to figure out some boundries and schedules to help her not to have undo stress. For one thing if your children are old enough teach them how to do there laundry, or put it away, fold it, we started with our toddlers teaching them how to sort by color groups. We had enough laundry that we would work on learning our colors and help mom sort clothes all the pink went into one pile, blue in another, yellow in another and green in anohter, etc. etc. Then when I washed I could put together blue and green if I wanted or yellow and tan/brown and I saved time not haveing to sort myself. There are ways we can have a full and busy life and not be overwhelmed and I think that is in Gods plan.
I have been at points in my life that I've overextended myselves helping at church, and I do think that some of that was my desire to serve and do something not always Gods desire to use me where he was at. I definitly encourage everyone to pray for God to use them where he is at, sometimes that will be where you are at and sometimes that wont be where your at so you'll have to adjust where you are to meet him. I've fallen into the trap of teaching sunday school or do some little job simple because no one else would do it so I did, that's usually the job that made me feel overwhelmed. I know that if I'm talking with someone, it takes me an extra long time to work up the courage to sometimes share from my heart and if the pause isn't long enough sometimes I never actually share, I think that is sometimes what we do in churches we volunteer to quickly for things we don't necessarily want to do just because we didn't want it not to get done, that we don't pause long enough to let God work up the Courage in someone else to volunteer. So I guess what I'm saying is to be busy isn't bad as long as your not feeling overwhelmed and if you are pray for God to show you where he wants you. Maybe pause a little longer in all areas of your decision making.

Advent Series

I'm so excited to let everyone in on this little holiday celebration we do, Advent is a way for us to Celebrate Jesus Birth with our children, and to teach them about the Christmas story. We started this about 2 or 3 years ago with our family and this year we are sharing it with a group of friends and there children. So I thought why not share it with our blogging family as well. We purchased a book when we started and it is great because we are able to adapt the information to the level that our children can understand for there age groups, as they grow so does the amount of information we give them. We started this with viewing the Movie The Nativity Story. We enjoyed it greatly, so I will post what we study once a week and all you need is my post four candle sticks either 3 purple and one Pink or 4 blue, and one white pillar candle, and some greens. As we go through the series we will be putting together the nativity scene. Advent is meant to start 4 Sundays before Christmas, so I will post my stuff my the 30th of November because December 2 would be our first Sunday and I will post by Friday every week so you have it for Sunday. I will try to put picture on line as well. Have a great Christmas Season!!!!

To Know Him MeMe

My friend what a great gal she is has started a MeMe which consist of some random questions for all of us to get to know each other better. So I'm going to attempt to answer them.
Question 1
1. What makes you crazy? So many things make me crazy, crooked things make me crazy like a striped table cloth and the stripes are crooked, or my dinning room table is on a rug that has a pattern of squares I like the table to be in the middle if it is off I have to move it and symmetrical things make me crazy isn't that funny because the two are the same sometimes I like odd numbers so if I'm going to hang something on the wall it has to be asymmetrical and/or an odd number of item, or it will drive me crazy.

2. Best brand of jeans? I don't have a favorite brand of Jeans I like put I do know that for my shape the low rise jeans are great because I have a short waist to hip and the regular cut are a bit saggy in the bottom.

3. What do you do on rainy days? We my first choice is to scrapbook but since my area isn't organized or cleared I would probably opt for a good 80's Movie.
The answers in bold are mine (I am sure you figured that out already :) PLEASE PARTICIPATE if you would like.

Blessings to you all!!!

Tackle Tuesday

Today I'm tackling Poncho's I've decided last spring to crochet eight poncho's one for each of my eight nieces for christmas. I have five totally completed and three more started but not finished. To be honest I may redo one of them becasue I used yellows and blues and I think I may redo that one with pinks so if time allows I will actually be crocheting nine poncho's well today I would like to at least two out of my three started but not finished poncho's then I will be almost done with the poncho's.

Update

I have to say that the closet isn't as easy as I had hoped it would be. I'm going to push along. My problems started when I was cleaning the closet I needed to get to the cider chest that I kept my sheets and blankets in, but it had gotten buried in the bedroom so I had to clean the bedroom to rediscover the ceder chest, I wish I would have taken before pictures of that then I would be able to add it as part of the challenge. Not to mention in the middle of this challenge my hubby and I decided it would be a good Idea to move the kids play room into the basement and make the play room my daughters bedroom again so that my son and daughter wouldn't be sharing a room. She just turned 5 and they needed there own space. So we spend an entire day moving rooms around and separating closet space as well as moving all the toys to the basement and cleaned the carpets on that side of the house. I also wish I would have taken before pictures of that so I could enter it as well. It is unbelievable we have almost an entire room of toys we are getting rid of. O.K. lets recap
To Do List: clean and organize walk in closet
Accomplishments: organized 2 full bedrooms and purged a 3rd bedroom
cleaned the carpet in 2 bedrooms and the hall way (none of which is the room we started with.
Purged a room full of toys, took little to no pictures of any of it.

Now to work on the closet. I will finish it if I'm up to midnight on the 29th. I do have to say that my dear hubby contributed to the closet purge a little he went through all his cloth in the closet and took all the ones he doesn't wear or can't wear or that have holes and been wore to long already off the hangers and made another pile in the closet. What a good helper. Ha! Ha!

WOW!!!!

One of my very first post I talked about my friend who did the WOW thing check it out if you haven't read it. I like to every once in a while share my own WOW moments. It's always a WOW moment for me but also can be I can't believe I didn't pick up on that before. Well this experience is a little of both. As far back as I can remember of my church going days I've been taught lesson on Running the Race!!!!Once again I was doing my bible study this week what a wonderful bible study I must say which was about Running the Race. What exactly does that me? Oddly enough I had to sit down and ponder how I've always defined that statement and if my thoughts were accurate or not. To begin with I had to dig way back to when I've heard the term used in biblical teaching. Iguess I've always thought if I was working hard to be a Christian or a Christ follower then I was running the race to win. Win what I had to ask myself, the title of A Good Christian. What is that? Is it someone who goes to church every Sunday Christmas and Easter, someone who volunteers, Someone who does what is right, doesn't lie steal (except maybe the occasional pen at the doctors office accidentally Ha, Ha!!) Seriously what is the definition of a Good Christian who is Running the Race to Win? I believe that in the past Running the Race meant working for my Salvation and what God revealed to me this week was that Running the Race has very little if anything to do with Salvation I already have that as soon as I excepted Christ free gift of salvation I didn't have to earn it through my works or better I couldn't earn it through works. So what am I Running the Race for? For the one thing that God wants from all of us and it should be the one thing we want to give to God A RELATIONSHIP, A RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM!!! Our pastor did a great sermon about when we get to heaven who would we want at our table. God wants us all to be at his table but that means we have to Run the Race!!!!!!!! The Race, The Relationship Race! Where are you in the Race, are you winning or losing?? Why don't you ask yourself and God that Question? I have a great friend who has a wonderful post on her Blog about the sermon our pastor did if you want to check it out. You may have to Scroll down to November 12 I think. toknowhimjesus.blogspot.com Have a great day!!!

13 Photos of Halloween Past and Present for Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Pictures of Halloween Past and Present
1. thur 3. Elexis, Jacob, and a friend of Jacobs decorating a pumpkin! (2007)








4.thur 7. Halloween 2007 A Pink Lady and A T Bird took over the neighborhood.

We used just tape and letter stickers on the back of there jackets/sweaters
Elexis decided that her pink sparkley shoes worked much better then saddle shoe which is o.k with me becasue she would wear them more then saddle shoes.





8. Jacob and Elexis dresses up as Snowwhite and Inspecter Gadget 2005

9. The same year Jacobs Kindergarten class went to a pumpkin patch

10. Last but not least that brings up to Halloween of 2006 we spent time picking out pumpkins at a great apple orchid close to where we live.

11. thur 13. Our family carving pumpkins in 2006
First picture is My mom, Mark my hubby, and the kids Jacob and Elexis

This Picture is of Jacob and I after we finished drawing our pumpkin face.


The last Picture for today is of teh kids with there finished art work.

THE ANT AND THE CONTACT LENS

A true story by Josh and Karen Zarandona
Brenda was a young woman who was invited to go
rock climbing. Although she was very scared, she
went with her group to a tremendous granite
cliff. In spite of her fear, she put on the
gear, took hold of the rope, and started up
the face of that rock.
Well, she got to a ledge where she could take a
breather. As she was hanging on there, the
safety rope snapped against Brenda's eye and
knocked out her contact lens.
Well, here she is, on a rock ledge, with
hundreds of feet below her and hundreds of feet
above her. Of course, she looked and looked
and looked, hoping it had landed on the ledge,
but it just wasn't there.
Here she was, far from home, her sight now
blurry. She was desperate and began to get
upset, so she prayed to the Lord to help her to
find it.
When she got to the top, a friend examined her
eye and her clothing for the lens, but there was
no contact lens to be found. She sat down,
despondent, with the rest of the party, waiting
for the rest of them to make it up the face of
the cliff.
She looked out across range after range of
mountains, thinking of that verse that says, 'The
eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the
whole earth.' She thought, 'Lord, You can see
all these mountains. You know every stone and
leaf, and You know exactly where my contact lens
is. Please help me.'
Finally, they walked down the trail to the
bottom. At the bottom there was a new party of
climbers just starting up the face of the cliff.
One of them shouted out, 'Hey, you guys! Anybody
lose a contact lens?'
Well, that would be startling enough, but you
know why the climber saw it? An ant was moving
slowly across the face of the rock, carrying it
on it's back.
Brenda told me that her father is a cartoonist.
When she told him the incredible story of the
ant, the prayer, and the contact lens, he drew
a picture of an ant lugging that contact lens
with the words, 'Lord, I don't know why You want
me to carry this thing. I can't eat it, and
it's awfully heavy. But if this is what You
want me to do, I'll carry it for You.'
I think it would probably do some of us good to
occasionally say, 'God, I don't know why you
want me to carry this load. I can see no good
in it and it's awfully heavy. But, if you want
me to carry it, I will.'
God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the
called. Yes, I do love GOD. He is my source of
existence and my Savior. He keeps me functioning
each and every day. Without Him, I am nothing,
but with Him...I can do all things through
Christ which strengthens me. (Phil. 4:13)



I'm sure you've heard this story before I have but I received it as an e-mail today and thought wow how easy is it for us to forget who is in control of our lives and how we wouldn't want it any other way. I know that in area of my life I need to surrender to God, and there will be plenty more area in the future will I learn to let God have control and do what he asks me to do or will I make the same mistake over and over again. What will you do?
I think it would probably do some of us good to
occasionally say, 'God, I don't know why you
want me to carry this load. I can see no good
in it and it's awfully heavy. But, if you want
me to carry it, I will.'

30 Day Organizing Challenge

It pains me to post these pictures but here it goes. When we moved into our new house about 2.5 years ago we did really well with the unpacking we only had a handful of boxes that didn't get fully unpacked and guess were they ended up. Yes the master bedroom closet and when ever we run across something we aren't sure where to put over the last 2.5 years it also went in the closet so my tackle for Novembers Challenge is that Closet. Maybe if I'm lucky a few more rooms with get tackled in order to make room for the belonging in that area.




When we first moved in I thought that closet was way to big and I told my hubby that I was going to put a cushy chair and lamp in there to make it my private reading room(hiding place) as well as a closet. Now I've wished it was bigger. Not any more It will be my roomy closet again.