Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Our Holiday Home 2010





















This is by far the most wonderful time of year!! I love Christmas…for all it represents and this season, gives me renewed HOPE! It’s been a rough year in our house with medical issues (that began last year at this time) and I have been setting my creativeness aside…too many other things to think about, notice I said ‘think’ and not ‘worry’.
As this holiday approached I had a new sense of HOPE, Jesus is the reason we celebrate and for that I am so Thankful!! This brings a smile to my face and my heart, I felt my creative juices stirring and was actually excited to decorate this year!! While the boys were off hunting, I began pulling out bins and boxes !! Not to mention all the blogs that I read that give me such inspirations, this one blog I enjoy reading "The Glamorous Life of a Housewife” is a big inspiration!! I’d love to just visit her house, it’s so warm and cozy and full of southern charm!! Ohh and her mom…she has the most BEAUTIFUL table scapes, I’d love to be invited for dinner…amen.
My first project was the mantle, I really wanted decorative stockings that were cozy and country mix-matched and I have been searching but couldn’t find exactly what I wanted, so I went to Hobby Lobby, picked out material and made my own quirky stockings and hand stitched the words; Love, Hope, Joy & Peace. The tree is always a country Frasier fir tree with white lights and a tin star and of course the kids ornaments thru the years as well as some handmade ornaments from my mam mam….I always hated those plastic canvas ornaments but now that mam mam is no longer with us they are very dear to me…it’s all about perspective!!
I love to snuggle up on the couch with all the Christmas lights on, and the fireplace glowing and for a moment in time there is Peace on earth!!

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Oh Christmas Tree!!



It’s no secret how much I LOVE Christmas! I love birthdays too so having Jesus Birthday to celebrate makes it that much more special…a month long celebration!!! I love the music, I love the smell of a fresh cut tree, I love the twinkling lights and I love decorating the house! This year Hannah and I got to pick the Christmas tree, it was so fun doing that with her. We picked the perfect tree and this year, we got the “marriage saver” tree stand, Ok so that’s not what’s on the package, but it should be! They drill a hole in the trunk and all you do is push this baby on and DONE! NO crawling under the tree to make sure it’s level, no fights saying “more to the left…no more to the right…no more…” We seriously carried the tree in the house and cut the plastic off and DONE! It was up and had the lights on in no time…this photo was taken pre-ornaments.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Farewell to 8th grade...


On May 14th, Dave and I were chaperones for Joshua’s 8th grade farewell dance! He refused to let me take my camera…sigh…so I snapped this while he got ready, not the best picture, I know…sigh…The PTO really did a wonderful job decorating the cafeteria and outdoor area. The Hershey Pantry did a beautiful buffet for the kids complete with mini cheese burgers, pigs in a blanket, chicken tenders and no buffet in or around Hershey would be complete without a chocolate fountain!! The kids LOVED this, dipping marshmallows, strawberries and pretzels into the cascading chocolate…someone stood nearby reminding them to NOT double dip and to NOT use their fingers and I’m sure someone had to tell them NOT to put their mouths anywhere near the chocolate!! The cafeteria had stars hanging from the ceiling and balloons throughout. I was really pleased with the dress code, the kids didn’t wear prom gowns and tuxes, they wore khakis and button down tops, girls were pretty dresses, but they had to cover their shoulders and the dress had to be a certain length. Josh spent the night playing volleyball and basketball, occasionally coming to the dance floor to jump around with his friends…but no slow dances. We did notice there were girls coming to talk to him…I mean he’s so handsome and all!! It’s so hard for me to believe that my baby boy is going to be a freshman in high school next year…it seems like yesterday he was learning to walk….I have always heard parents say time goes so quickly and now I know exactly what they mean. I am proud of the young man that he is becoming and I can’t wait to see what God has in store for his future.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

A different perspective...




Hannah came to me the other day stating that "she couldn’t stand her room being dirty, she had SOOOOO much stuff she didn’t want in there." So I gave her a bag and told her to fill the bag with everything she didn’t want and we could give it away…Days later I found the bag and this is what I found,a few papers about butterflies, a bookmark she got for her birthday and 2 notes asking for volunteers for school!! I am SOOOO glad these things are out of her life…I mean whew they really cluttered up the place…note picture of “uncluttered” room!! Gotta love her!!

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

I WILL go...



When God speaks people listen. Sometimes, as in our case, we don’t ‘hear’ that still small voice. Sometimes it’s like a bad cell phone connection, can you hear me now?? OK, I’ll get their attention....NOW can you hear me? We hear it now, we’ve been hearing it but thought well we have it figured out, we will go....when ___________fill in the blank, (Josh finishes high school, Dave get’s his ordination, Jen goes back to school, Hannah adapts to school) God has been revealing himself to us for years, calling us into the mission field and for a long time we questioned, what does the mission field look like?? Making changes is scary. Really scary, and making changes with kids involved is even more scary! But I keep listening to this song by Rita Springer: IF you say Go
If You say go, we will go
If You say wait, we will wait
If You say step out on the water
And they say it can't be done
We'll fix our eyes on You and we will come

Your ways are higher than our ways
And the plans that You have laid
Are good and true
If You call us to the fire
You will not withdraw Your hand
We'll gaze into the flames and look for You
I think we have been saying “wait” and not God. It’s time to step out on the water, in faith and fix our eyes on HIM.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

This is my beloved, and this is my friend...



When I read this verse, “This is my beloved, and this is my friend” from Song of Songs 5:16, I can relate. I always say I married my best friend, but never fully understood what that meant until the last few years. Difficult times, trying times can either tear apart or make stronger and I can truly say ours has gotten stronger. Right now we feel like we are scaling the side of a mountain because my beloved has been battling a bout of diverticulitis since January 1st of this year, and the antibiotics have only helped to make him feel sicker. We have been in constant prayer and feel God’s loving hands upon us, giving of glimpses of His provision along the way. Let me share a for instance: A few Sundays ago we had a visitor at our church; someone was training at the Gap and decided he’d come and check out our services for the day. During the Sunday school hour we began to pray and lay hands of my husband and this visitor was praying and started to sing a song, it was an old Petra song and I didn’t understand the significance of this until later that day. You see in 1994 my than boyfriend, now husband, was in a terrible vehicle accident, as new believers the ONLY tape I had was Petra and I would listen to those songs over and over again as I drove to the hospital each day. And it was at that moment that I could sense God’s presence reminding me that He is with us, that He got us thru that awful time in our lives and He continues to provide and He will see us thru this as well. I love when God reveals himself that way, he’s so awesome!! Yesterday we met with a surgeon from Hershey Med. Center and they scheduled my beloved for bowel resection surgery, they will go in, laparoscopically, and remove the damaged section of bowel and reattach. And we felt such PEACE with that decision…scary, YES, but an overwhelming sense of peace. Will there be more tears, I’m sure but that Peace that is beyond understanding is with us and I am so thankful for that.
My husband’s coping mechanism has been his guitar, playing and worshipping calms the soul and I’m so thankful I’ve been here to capture some of those moments…

Friday, January 22, 2010

Oh how HE loves us!




In July we will be here five years...and I can say with honesty that not a sunset goes by without taking my breath away. Growing up in the coal region I don't remember watching the sun set...maybe because the coal mountains got in the way, who knows. One thing I do know is that each night I stand in awe of our Creator and marvel at the fact that HE loves us so very much...just look at His handiwork!