Happy New Year!!

It's the last day of 2012 and that is unbelievable! I love a new start to a new year. I also love Monday's! Monday is a fresh, new start to a new week. Most people hate Monday's, but I see it as another week to strive toward the mark.

I am looking forward to what God has in store for my family and I this year. He has always been so faithful and good to us. I mean really, some of the things that God has done for us, is unbelievable. He does things for us, so we may testify of His works, and then others will praise Him. We have dreams and goals, but ultimately God has the final call on it all. What are some of your dreams? Sometimes I am afraid to dream, are you? I am afraid those dreams may not come true or that they are not the ones God wants for me. My husband is a big dreamer and I'm more of the realistic type. Funny how God puts two people together and they compliment one another. We have dreams of buying a home, paying off our used SUV, and making many memories with our children. The end of the year really snuck up on me this time. I usually already have some goals written on paper and have been processing that a new year is upon me. Well, not so this year.

I pray you all have a blessed new year! Make it count. Love your husband deeply. Love your children unconditionally. Humble yourself before God and watch Him exalt you. Be a servant to your family and those around you. Having a servant's heart is important to God. I know I get caught up in selfishness all too often. Having children has really been purging some things in me and it's mainly selfishness. So may He continue to purge me, though it hurts badly.

Closing Out the Year

It is so hard to believe 2012 is almost over and in just two days we will have entered another year. It has been a trying year for myself. I've had some feminine issues that have really effected my daily life and family life. It's been a battle. It's one of those years, where you cannot wait for it to be over and begin a fresh, new one. There has also been some wonderful things happen this year to me. One thing for sure, I am blessed even in the hard things.

I always like to write down some goals for the new year and reflect on the past year. I'm a goal/list type gal. I try to keep them realistic, yet set them up a notch. If there isn't any push to do better each year you can become stagnant and lazy. I can't wait until I can sit with my boys as they grow older and talk about things they want to do different the next year. It's something I love to do with my husband also.

I rarely get quiet moments to myself. If I get them it's usually early in the morning like now, at 6:45 a.m. before getting ready for church. So here are some thoughts for my new year. I don't want it to be just another year (Last year, I purposed to live in the moment and not keep wishing for this moment or that moment to occur). I want to grow much more in the Lord. I want to be much more patient with my children and husband. I want to show them the love of Christ, even when they are driving my bonkers. I want to teach my boys more about the Lord. My heart's desire is for them to know God. Not just know who He is, but to know what He loves and wants from them. I want them to seek to please Him even at a very young age (the oldest 2 are 4.5 and 3). I want to really take eating healthy serious. We don't eat horrible, but it could be better. I want to dig into God's Word more and write it over and over on my heart. I really want to see broken relationships in our families mended and for people to forgive one another. I want my Daddy to be healed of Lyme Disease completely and his body restored back to health. I really want a home and a yard to play in with my 3 energetic boys. I want to not just say I love Jesus, but to show it by dying to self when I want nothing more than to be selfish. I want people who have no sense of who Christ is to be wrapped in the presence of God and shown what our Savior did for them. I want those in war torn countries to be safe and know God's peace. I long for my Lord to come back and take us from this filthy, scary, and cruel world more than anything.

What are some of your thoughts for the new year? Share them with me please, I would love to know your heart for the coming year!

Friday's Fave Five

I hope all of you had a blessed Christmas!!! We had such a blessed time this week!! So let me recall some of it for you.

1. Spending Christmas Eve with my boys and my husband. We were lazy and that evening we did our birthday cake (cupcakes) for Jesus. It's so sweet seeing our boys sing to Jesus.
2. Watching our boys open their gifts. We had to actually wake them up, but they loved opening their gifts and watching their little eyes light up was priceless.
3. Spending Christmas Day with my family and my husband's family was so wonderful. We had good food and made more memories.
4. Spending the day after Christmas with dear friends of ours. We had Christmas with them and enjoyed the day. We are blessed with this family that is like our own family.
5. Celebrating the birth of Christ with our family and friends. Our boys know Christmas is not about gifts, though we may get them, it's all about Jesus and celebrating his birth.

It's been a great week for us, I pray it has for you also. Link up with Susanne@ Living to Tell the Story and join us.

Thankful Thursday

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with your family! We had such a great Christmas day! I am so thankful for our families on both sides. We got to spend time with both my family and my husband's family. My husband is a State Trooper and every other year he has to work Christmas. We were blessed for him to have it off last year and this year, so we started planning early. We opened gifts here and then headed to Mississippi. We had a lot of bad weather forecasted, but thankfully it held off until around 5 that evening. We had visited my in-laws and were at my parents when it begin to get bad outside. (Remember to pray for those affected. Many in our city, Mobile, lost their homes last Thursday and yesterday). We also were able to celebrate with a family that are friends, but are so dear to us, we call them family. We spent the night at their home and had Christmas with them today. We are so blessed with great families and friends! I can't thank God enough for what He has done in my life and my family. It is so important to use to create memories our boys will cherish with their families one day. I pray my Grandchildren will look forward to seeing us as much as our children look forward to seeing our parents.

Don't forget to check out Iris @ Grace Alone and link up with her. She's a blessing and precious lady.

Merry Christmas!!!!!

Merry Christmas to all my blogging friends!!! I pray you have a blessed day. Remember, today is about Jesus and giving. We are all here because of Jesus and his sacrifice. God has been so gracious to us.

And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
 And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 
 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
                  Luke 2:7-14


                     Our Precious babies on Christmas Eve 2012.
 

 

 

My guys. Love them so much!!

 

My babies and me. They are my everything!

 

 

 

 

Singing happy birthday to Jesus! They were so excited!

 

 

Merry Christmas!!!!!

What Child Is This?

And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
  Luke 2:6-7

I'm a Mother to 3, so I know how the anticipation builds as you await for your little one to arrive, but I wonder what Mary felt. She had the Messiah in her womb and she would soon raise the Savior of the world. She literally had the Savior living inside her. Wow. That just blows my mind when I sit and think about it. I imagine she was nervous, scared, excited, and a little worried. More than anything, I know she was humbled and willing. May I be that way when He calls me to do His will, whatever it may be. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

Here are some pictures from the boys Children's Church class.

Aaron's footprint as the manger for baby Jesus.

 

My sweet Aaron. He is the middle child, 3 years old.

 

 

Daniel's footprint as the manger for baby Jesus.

 

My handsome Daniel. He is the oldest, 4 1/2 years old.

Preparing For Christmas

It's 3 days till Christmas! This is my favorite time of the year. I love the cold weather (when we get it ha!), celebrating the birth of Christ, and to give. I've been doing an online study with She Reads Truth blog. It's an Advent study and it has been very humbling. I love looking over the Word and seeing all the things that led up to the birth of Christ.

Here in our home I've been trying to make some of our own traditions for Christmas with our boys, along with my husband. My boys are getting old enough to enjoy and participate too, which makes it more fun! Daniel is almost 5 (will be in a month), Aaron just turned 3 in October, and Johnathan, well, he is still small, only 17 months. So here are some of our traditions:

We started our Jesse Tree at the end of November and will do it until Christmas Day. It's really good to do with the boys and they love it.

 

 

We also like to bake cookies. Who doesn't like to bake cookies anytime of the year, but especially when they have delicious seasonal ones. These are Peppermint Sugar Cookies. It's our chubby Gingerbread man.

 

 

I love to do crafts with the boys. I try to do them throughout the year, not just during the holidays. They decorated their own paper Christmas trees and we hung them on their door.

 

 

We also send out Christmas cards, the traditional ones. I love a card! So we stick with the traditional paper cards.

 

 

The boys have gained my love of Christmas. We decorated their door and they love it!

 

 

They helped a lot with decorating the Christmas tree too. I am usually OCD with that thing! I like it just right, but I put that aside and let them put the ornaments on or tell me where to put them. It's pretty!

 

 

They love the star and call it the Star of Bethlehem. We had a bow first because our original star broke, so we had a bow on there until I bought another start.

 

 

Something new I did this year were making ornaments. I found a foam ornament kit at Target and we did 3 a piece. It was fun and they are cute, aren't they?

 

 

Something I have always had at this time of the year, is a candy dish. It is a must! Mine beloved one broke, but I found this cute Christmas tree dish at Ross. Love it!

 

 

 

We also did shoe boxes with our church. They send them to Mexico with a dear Pastor friend of ours. We took the boys to Dollar Tree and let them pick out a lot with our guidance. They loved doing that. It was our second year to do so. We do a birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas Eve and open one gift that night. We want to teach them that Christmas is about giving, not getting, but it is okay to get. I think we are doing a good job. Share some of your traditions or way you prepare your heart for the birth of our Savior.

 

Something to leave you guys with. My oldest came to me earlier and said, Mama, I don't think I deserve any presents. I asked him why not son? He replied, because of all the days I have been bad ( he meant by disobeying us and being mean to his brothers). I was pretty shocked. We have talked to him about all that and how we don't deserve to live, but because of Christ we can. We are very blunt and open with him and the 3 year old, though they are young. I told him he was right, but that I didn't deserve Jesus, but God sent him anyways because He loves us. I told him our love for him is not on his performance and we love him no matter what, but when he does disobey it upsets us. Love isn't based on performance, but love will compel you to perform. By that I mean, when you love the Lord you will obey Him. If Daniel loves us, he will obey us. Pretty deep stuff. I hope you all have a lovely Sunday!

 

 

 



 

 

 

Giving To the Undeserving

I'm so glad that God has not given up on me yet. I am a work in progress, but He sees fit to continue showing me grace. So why don't I show it to others? Oh, but I do, I show it to my family, most of the time. What about those people who I do not think deserve it? Ouch. That's what He spoke to me earlier today. Why don't you show her grace? My reply, because she doesn't deserve it. It's my heart, not hers. He's asking her to do other things, but He's asking me to do this one.

Does anyone feel me? There are those who have hurt you or your family members and you just do not think they deserve anything good. They may not be cold, hard killers, but they do not show love like they should and you know it. They aren't really mean, but it's laziness or pure oblivion. Haven't I been there though? I can recall times where I was lazy instead of doing what I knew God wanted me to do. I can also recall times where I was totally oblivious to what God wanted me to do. You know what? I can remember someone coming along side and serving me. In essence, that is what I would be doing for this person and to be honest, it urks me. It grates on my nerves, because I know she does not serve how she is called too. There goes my heart again.

I have to let go and give grace. I have to let go and pray for her. It is so hard though. I pray I can let go a day at a time and began to see her through my Savior's eyes. A soul in need of refining, just like mine.

Here are a few scriptures to minister to you all. Blessings!

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
    John 13:34

For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
Galatians 5:13

Friday's Fave Five

It feels great to be back to blogging!! It's been sometime, but I am back. So here are my favorites from the week.

1. Baking Chocolate Chip Peppermint cookies with my boys. Yummy!
2. Taking the boys shopping some for their family.
3. Going out to shop with my hubby and out to eat!
4. The cold weather has finally come back to us Deep Southerners!
5. Spending time with my Mother as she helped us out the past 2 days.

Short and sweet! It's been a wonderful week. We are anticipating Christmas and celebrating Jesus' birth.

Link up with Suzanne@ Living to Tell the Story and share your favorites of the week.

Thankful Thursday- Christmas

It feels so good to be back in the blogging world. I have missed Thankful Thursday with my fellow sisters in Christ!

Iris shares her love of the Christmas story with us today and her thankfulness for Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. I am also thankful for that. I love this time of the year. I always have said if not for his birth, there would be no resurrection. I am also thankful for child-like faith and wonder. We took our 3 boys to a light show last night called Bellingrath Gardens. It was beautiful! You walked through the gardens and thousands of lights surrounded you in the bushes, trees, and even on the ground. Angels, Christmas trees, snowflakes, an under water sea, the North Pole, a Nativity scene, and much more took my children's breath. They were in wonder so innocently at the beauty displayed. I loved it! As a Mother we want our children to have happy memories and seeing their faces lite up was priceless. If only that child-like wonder and faith would remain with us as we grow older. I wonder if we would this Christmas, celebrate like it was our first time hearing of the Savior's birth and be in awe of his majestic arrival? I desire that more than anything. I never want to grow stale in my faith and wonder for my Savior. He is the only reason for the season, and not just at Christmas either! Have a blessed day friends!

Check out Iris@Grace Alone to link up with us.

Early Christmas for me!

I am writing from my new laptop, yes, new! It is my early Christmas present from my husband. I'm so excited to be able to blog again. Writing is such a passion of mine. It's been awhile since I have been blogging consistently so I will touch base with who I am and a little about myself.

I'm 29 years old, a Mother to 3 little boys, and a wife to an amazing man. I am living a life I really never dreamed I would be living. I have been married to my husband, Mike, for 6 years. We moved from our small hometown of Mississippi to a big city in Alabama. My husband works for Alabama Department of Public Safety, he's a State Trooper. I stay at home with our 3 boys. Daniel is 4 1/2 (he's got a birthday coming up), Aaron is 3,and Johnathan 17 months. I stay very busy with them here at home. I am also doing some schooling with the 2 oldest. I love my God who has been so gracious to me. I love my Savior who has saved me from myself and from hell. I desire to know them more and more. I desire to live a life that reflects the Word of God. We attend a non-denomination church in our hometown with a great Pastor and body of believers. God has richly blessed us. I love to take photos, make jewelry, read, and write. I rarely get to do any, but take photos, mainly of my boys. They are my world, along with my husband.

So I will participate in memes and just write what God is teaching me. I pray it encourages someone along the way.