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It truly seems like yesterday that we were planning to get married.
November 29th, 2002 was one of the best days of my life.
On that day I married the man that God brought to Tyler, Keely and I. Looking back there could not have been a more perfect man for God to choose to be in our life.
I love Eric so much more than words could ever express.
Happy Anniversary, Babe!
Maggie May and Marlee have an obsession with airplanes now. We are so stinkin' focused on what is in the sky all the time that I was being to loose my patience. Anyway, last night at the dinner table Maggie begins with blessing our food and in that prayer she said:
"And uhhhh and uhhhhh....thank you for all the airplanes in the sky.....AMEN!"
I told Eric that was it I can't wait to see the next airplane in the sky. Now I truly am excited to get to see one today. I had not realized how much she truly loved them and wanted to show me everyone single one she could see.
On another note.....The girlies started Mother's Day Out on Tuesday AKA "school". They are absolutely loving it. Marlee even thinks that she might have some homework at times.:=) They are in the same class as Mason and this next week a sweet friend from church will be in there with them. It is amazing what all you can do when you aren't having to haul two girls in and out of car seats.
Keely and Ty are doing good right now...ready for a long weekend. Ty and Eric are going on a big deer hunt Thursday after we eat. I'm hoping that he gets another deer this year. He is such an awesome kid.
Honestly, Keely is just kinda floating right along. She wanted Gracie to spend the night last night with her and Boppy, so right now that is her highlight. She totally is a living in the moment kinda girl...God bless her for that!
I pray that you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!
If your house was burning or some kind of natural disaster was headed your way what would be your most treasured item that you would run back in the house for? Let me clarify.....all of your family is safe and secured and there is just enough time to run back in the house for that one thing that means absolutely the most to you....what would you get??
Well, mine would be my "Good Bible".
I have had this bible since 1989. My mom gave it to me at that time. It is a NIV bible that if any one of you were to see it you would probably think 'man, we really need to get her a new one', but honestly I have several bibles that are very nice. I have really tried at times to find another bible that would suite me, yet my "good bible" has all of my markings. It has even a page torn out in Ezekiel(I think). My absolute favorite books of the bible are highlighted and marked through and through.
My Grandma Baker had a bible of the same character. That is probably where I got all of my traits of writing all in my bible from. I know that I remind my family of her in so many ways, but this is just one of my many favorites that I thought I would share with you today.
Even though these bibles are worn, torn and weathered we would NEVER let them go. Never want to ever loose them.
I feel like that is how God feels about His precious children. He didn't just accept us because we were given to Him. He chose us. He saw all of the 'torn pages', 'the cover that looked so terrible' and 'the markings that we could never hide'.
He loves us just as if were brand spankin' new with out even one blemish. The idea that my precious King would run back into the house that is on fire is so much more than words could ever express in this little brain of mine.
He loves the fact that even though I am not a morning person I prayed that He would help me with that and with His guidance I am able to meet each day with a smile on my face.
He loves the fact that I am not perfect and STILL(believe it or not) struggle with so many things, and yet He is always there to help me.
This song comes to mind:
Matt Redman - You Never Let Go
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
Your perfect love is casting out fear
And even when I’m caught in the middle of the storms of this life
I won’t turn back
I know You are near
And I will fear no evil
For my God is with me
And if my God is with me
Whom then shall I fear?
Whom then shall I fear?
Chorus:
Oh no, You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no, You never let go
In every high and every low
Oh no, You never let go
Lord, You never let go of me
And I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on
A glorious light beyond all compare
And there will be an end to these troubles
But until that day comes
We’ll live to know You here on the earth
Chorus:
Yes, I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on
And there will be an end to these troubles
But until that day comes
Still I will praise You, still I will praise You
Father,
Thank you for running back in the burning house for me. Thank you for never letting go of me. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to never be afraid to share your wonderful works with all that are around me. Most importantly thank you for accepting me and giving me grace; because with out grace I would be nothing.
We love you and we know that your love for us is so abundant. In Jesus Name...AMEN!
So, Sisters we have many traditions that we do in our home around Christmas time, but I am wanting to spice it up a little this year. I thought I would enlist all of you guys in helping me with some new ideas. Anyone....Anyone????????
When I was probably 10 or so I remember seeing my cousin have this neat little ceramic bowl type thingie that sat by her bed. I was of course intrigued and clearly needed one of my own. It was a gum holder.
Of course you have probably all read the wonderful book when we were kids that spoke of putting your gum on the bed post, but I needed a gum holder. I say all of that you tell you that Marlee(2 1/2yrs old) apparently needed her own gum holder last night. In your wildest of dreams you will sooooo not believe what I found this morning..... let me back up to set the scene.
On the way home from church my husband, the sweet and precious father to our kids decided to give Marlee and Maggie May a piece of gum. It was blue in color, just in case you were wondering. Of course, at 8:30 in the PM that would not have been my first choice, but you have to choose your battles. Anyway, when we got home he got everyone ready for bed and tucked them all in. Seriously, a PRAISE GOD moment. So, I and apparently he forgot that Miss Marlee had the gum still in her mouth last night. Well, as she begins to pull her pants down this morning to go potty I realize that I know that blue.....what in the world.....oh my goodness???? That little stinker had decided that she would put her gum in her panties to "save it". I guess she was thinking that she could just put it in the elastic part of her panties and it would hold it in place. Kinda like a pocket...she's been obsessed with pockets lately, so that is the only thing I can figure. She now has a absolute exquisite blue stripe on the front of her tummy. When asked what happened...she said "ooooh, Mommy I want some gum!" ;-))))
Hello Friends....
I spoke to an old friend yesterday who begin to tell me truly almost my exact feelings. She was literally going through some of the things that I had been battling. As she was talking I begin to do the "yes...I KNOW" and "that is what I'm going through".....then of course the clouds parted and the sun was shining as the Walmart lady said "clean up on aisle 9"(yes, I was one of those talking on her cellphone walking through the store people we all hate) and I had truly understood why our paths had crossed at that particular moment. I told my friend immediately...."that sneak is on attack again!" (as though he ever stops:)
My friends, Satan is on the attack. He doesn't always attack us with the things that we see, so in turn we don't attribute "it" for his schemes. After a wonderful weekend with the girls worshiping our wonderful King you would think that I would be radiating with His glory and yet I'm feeling blah(like so many others.)
I read a passage this morning from Joyce Meyer's book 'Life in the Word' (devotional).....I feel like she was right on in writing this:
When things are right on the inside, outward things don't matter as much. When they don't matter as much to us, God can give us more of them. When we keep our eyes on the true Kingdom of God-on Him. His righteousness, His peace, and His joy-the rest will be added to us in abundance.
Learn to really live the Kingdom of God!
Then I read one of my Proverbs 31 ministries daily devotionals that spoke of the ways for us to stay focused on what was important:
In order to stay passionate about our faith, and live an empowered life free from sin, you and I must participate in our friendship with God by:
1.) Abiding in Christ. (John 15:4, NIV)
2.) Praying daily. (Mark 1:35, NIV)
3.) Meditating on God’s Word. (Joshua 1:8, NIV)
4.) Putting off the old and putting on the new. (Ephesians 4:22-24, NIV)
5.) Being continually filled with the Spirit. (Ephesians 5:18, NIV)
6.) Exercising God-given gifts. (1 Corinthians 12:4-7, NIV)
7.) Actively sharing the gospel with others. (Mark 16:15, NIV)
All of these things make total sense to me. I feel like so many times we fall short of His glory because we are so self absorbed in the yuckness of our own lives and feelings. We forget that God is a friend to us; He listens to us and He loves us no matter what we are going through at the time. I'm soooo guilty of discussing the "whatnot's of life" with others in stead of sitting down with my best friend(God) and finding a solution to what I am going through. It isn't always easy, so in turn I think we put Him at the end of the list. No one wants to deal with the junk that is eating us up inside....it hurts! I am personally dealing with so many emotions right now that honestly I DON'T want to deal with. I know that TODAY it will be completely different. I am claiming that in the name of Jesus that we are and will succeed in the yuckness of our own lives. We will be the ones that conquer (definition of conqueror:defeats an enemy or opponent)all of the junk that we have left out of our daily discussions with God. We will NOT become victim to Satan & his schemes. We will live in God's glory and be able to share with others what He has done for us. He is our King of all Kings who can do anything.....We must let Him!
1 Peter 1:3
Friday morning I headed towards OKC for WOF along with 32 other woman. It was amazing! Mandesia and Nicole C. Mullen were the Christian Entertainers. Of course, all of the regular awesome speakers were there as well. I loved it. We came home around 10:30PM on Saturday; then got up Sunday morning for another awesome day of worship and learning about our wonderful King.
Sunday around 5:30PM we received a phone call from a gentleman that Keely and Tyler go riding horses with. I was not ready for what I was going to hear on the other end......Keely had been bucked off of her horse. He was taking her to a near by church to get her cleaned up. We quickly arrived about 15 minutes later and decided that she would need to go to the ER. The metal saddle horn had hit her in the face when Clyde(the horse) bucked. Apparently, they were trotting through a park and the sprinklers came on which spooked the horse. When she fell to the ground she had scraped her right cheek as well as landing on her foot. Anyway, we got to the hospital to hear that there would be a 2 hour wait before seeing a doctor. Luckily the nurses went ahead and ordered a foot x-ray, but they would have to wait for the doctor before ordering any more tests. When the doctor came in he told us great news....her foot was not broken, but he felt like she would need a CT scan of her face. The test showed that she had no broken bones, but a blood pocket that had filled up in her sinus cavity. He put her on antibiotics and some pain meds. We arrived back home around midnight. Keely doesn't want me to post the pictures right now, but if you know me but at all I am itching to show you all what she looks like. She is so incredibly tough....she honestly never really even cried. The whole thing scared her, but she didn't show much emotion. She went to school this afternoon for a couple of hours and is ready now for a full day. I am in awe of how strong she is!
Ladies,
I am leaving in less than 24 hours to go to Oklahoma City for a Women of Faith Conference. We are all so excited to get out of town and be able to experience this AWESOME event! I had my reservation about going, but now I am pumped. Really I should explain....I hated the idea of leaving all of my kiddos and my sweet husband. After much prayer I knew that this is exactly what God wanted for me. My camera(actually Mom's) is already packed and ready for lots of great pictures.
Please pray that we all arrive safely and that Satan doesn't try to weigh anyone down with illness or worries about their family. That sneak will try every opportunity to ruin a wonderful thing that Christian women are needing and wanting.
I am really a simple minded person, so I personally know that is why God puts these analogies in front of me to share with others. If it were too deep He knows that He would completely loose me. So here is a real quick observation that just blessed me so much, which of course led me to share it with all of you.....
Maggie May is my youngest child(2 1/2yrs old), she hasn't always had a lot to say in the past. As she gets older though she is so full of comments about everything. The other day we stepped out side around 7:00PM. She immediately looks up to the sky and says "Mommy look at the light...it's the moon...Look it's LIGHT!!!" She was so excited that the moon was bright enough to light up the sky. Immediately God says to me "that is like the light that shines on you". I took a few days to take that wonderful word in, honestly not knowing what He meant exactly in regards to me. Then this morning it became really clear:
We are all God's children. There is always a light around us. Sometimes we might wear a jacket to cover it or even use an umbrella to hide it, but it(the Holy Spirit) is always shining within us. That is His gift that we at times don't utilize it as we should. Our love for our precious King doesn't always shine like it should but because of His grace we are given opportunity after opportunity to have a "do over". We can all be light in a world of darkness. We all have moments where we are able to show God's love to those who are around us. It takes courage, but the Holy Spirit will guide us through those moments.
I think back to so many times in my life that I could have used as an opportunity to share God's word...I let those moments pass, but now I am praying for God to bless me with more ways to share the glory of Him with others.
And he said, "Please, show me Your glory." Exodus 33:18
As you all know I love music, so of course the following song comes to mind:
'Let Your Glory Shine' by Lincoln Brewster.
Everyday is like a 3 ring circus at our house and this one day was truly no different. Keely (our oldest daughter) was writing out of the bible(her newest obsession) and ignoring what else was going on around her. Clearly, if I could ever ask for anything with my kiddos it would be for them to love God more than anything, but on this particular day I had my hand in just about everything in the house. As I was washing dishes and fixing dinner, Keely was supposed to be playing with the girls in the living room. I had been telling her and telling her Keely stop what your doing and just play with the girls for just a few minutes, so I can get everything done in here. The next thing I knew Marlee & Maggie were running all over the house trying to escape out the back door and whatnot.....so the words that were about to come out of my mouth were words that I would have never thought I would say....(drum roll please)....."Keely, put that bible down and help me for just a minute". It sounded so funny 2 seconds after I said it that all I could do was laugh. Any other time I would be encouraging my kids to read their bible and study God's word, but at that moment I was needing another hand or two to help get the escapees from leaving the asylum.
On to story number 2:
Marlee loves to wake up early to hang out with her daddy, so by the time he leaves in the morning(6:30 AM) all 4 kiddos are up and raring to go. Last week I was getting ready in my bedroom when I hear Keely say Momma, you might wanna come in here? (mind you I had not even been in my room 5 minutes) I immediately come running in the living room to find the twins standing there with wet heads. I was horrified to ask what on earth happened, but those were exactly my next words. Keely says immediately "I tried to stop them Momma, but they both put their heads in the toilet and flushed it." I took the girls clothes off and put them in the bath. Once again in the mind of me there was not enough bleach in the free world to disinfect these girls. I bathed them saying a prayer over both of them as I got them dressed again. Honestly, praying that hopefully big brother had remembered to at least flush the toilet after he used it.;-)))
Everyone needs a laugh or two on a Monday morning....I hope you all have an absolute fabulous week. Stay tuned to many more funnies I'm sure.
I blog often about my wonderful immediate family, but don't really ever take the time to talk about my love for my sweet and precious parents, sister and brother-in-law. They are absolutely such a vital part to our lives. I can't imagine what it would be like to not have them to talk to or see daily.
This is just a glimpse of my addoration for each of them....
My Sweet Daddy....
He is the rock. Even though I am 33 yrs old(shhhh don't tell anyone!) I still love to climb up in his lap and have him rock me when I am sad. Daddy can do anything...at least that is what I have always thought. He is a true jack of all trades. I love the fact that his love for God is so deep and that he is still learning daily more about Him. I see Marlee and her love for Eric & it reminds me of my love for sweet Boppy!
My Terrific Momma....
She is the one person(here on earth) who always seems to know the answers. She is the true "Momma Bear" who is going to parent us to the day she dies. We look to our Momma for so many things, but honestly she has taught me mostly that there is no dream that you can not achieve. She is a hard working woman that pours love into everything she does. She is the foundation for my walk with Christ. She never gave up on me and what God had/has in store for me. She is a terrific wife, mother & Nana.
My Loving Sis.....
We did everything together growing up. She was/is my best friend. She is so different from me, but that is why I love her so. She is a caring person who has done so many countless things for me that I never deserved. She is my person. She knows that sometimes all I need is to cry and I know that my quirks probably drive her crazy, but that is ok because I am her sister and she loves me. Sis' devotion to serving and loving God is much more than words could ever express...she is an awesome person.
My Wonderful Cam.....
Cam has been such a wonderful blessing to our family. Even though we are only a few months apart in age he is like a big brother to me.....truly the brother that I never had. His love for my sister, nieces and nephews is something that blesses me every time I am around him. He would do absolutely anything in the world for anyone. Above everything he has an undying love for God that shines through in all that he does. I can't imagine our lives with out this man in it.
I thank God for my great family and the part that each of them play in my life.
Please pray for our family this morning. We are struggling right now and need every one's prayers. Satan is trying to attack us from every angle. We speak it in unity with you all that he doesn't have a place in our lives and that we do not care for the foolishness that he tries throwing at our sweet family.
Well, the verdict is in...even if I don't agree with what happened this evening. I know with out a shadow of doubt that God is in complete control of our Country. He will take care of each us. His Word is the truth and we can stand strong in knowing that.
Father,
I ask that you be with all of our nation as we accept this decision and I pray that you guide us in the right direction. We know that you have control over everything and know what is in store for each of us. You are great and bigger than all of these things. We love you and we know that you love us.
In Jesus Name...AMEN!
I hold on to all the "old socks" that come out of the wash and have lost their match in the washer/dryer. For some reason I never think that we can just throw away that lonely sock that has no match. I'll hold on to some of them for up to a year. They all have their special place in the sock basket.
It is funny because really and truly it is one of my things that I do like to do in laundry...matching socks that is. There is such a feeling of accomplishment, almost a high, that comes from every sock having it's own match and a place in the drawer.
I say all of this because I feel like we all hang on to so many things from our past that God has already forgiven us for and doesn't even remember, but we hold on to it. We may visit it daily, weekly, monthly or even yearly, but we haven't released this junk that is holding us in bondage. God wants nothing more than to pour out His blessings upon us. He wants us to be happy and fulfilled knowing that He doesn't hold on to the junk. It is Satan that wants to keep us from being and serving as an awesome Christian Soldier for our wonderful King.
Daily I pray for God's blessings to be poured out upon me and that I will allow the past to stay in the past and not invade my day to day life as well as my future.
Father,
You are so awesome to love us unconditionally. Forgive us when we don't "deserve it" and be here to guide us every step of the way to your much awaited Kingdom. We love you and we know that you love us. Thank you for everything you do for each of us.
In Jesus precious and holy name...AMEN!
