Gramma's The Name.....Spoiling's The Game

It was fun having the girls spend the night last week-end! Every toy in the house was scattered in the livingroom for the entire time they were here. We played wth the doll house and all its accessories. We read stories. We colored in the middle of the floor. We molded snakes and balls from Play Doh. We sang and danced and giggled while watching Dora and Hannah Montana. So much fun! And I didn't clean any of the mess up until after they left! (I was never this "chilled" with my own kids!)

First thing Saturday morning after giving them a list of available breakfast foods, I asked them what they wanted to eat. Brylea just wanted cereal (sugarcoated, of course!) but Addie didn't even hesitate to say she wanted RAMEN NOODLES! For real? You're kidding, right? But she wasn't. After trying to coax her in a different direction, I thought, "Oh well, she's at Gramma's. It's only one day. Let Mom handle her nutrition when she gets home!" Ramen Noodles it was! My little three year old monkey ate the whole package all by herself.

Surely for lunch, I can convince them both to eat some "real" food but when lunch came along. Brylea asked for pancakes and Addie again insisted that all she wanted was Ramen Noodles!!!This time I didn't even try to convince either of them differently! After all, they are suppose to LOVE coming to Gramma's! I fixed pancakes and ramen noodles! Again, Addie ate every noodle and Brylea ate about 3-4 pancakes with syrup! They were very happy!!

Before any of you start lecturing me on children's nutrition, let me just say that I know, I know! But Gramma's my name and spoiling's my game!! So fun!

And then I sent them home to Momma!!

It's Gonna Be Great - 2008

It's hard to believe we are already 20 days into the new year! I look forward to this year with great expectancy! My hubby has announced this as the "Year of the Supernatural"! The supernatural is something we don't get unless God "shows up"! Already there have been several things that have happened that are just signs of things to come. There is excitement in the air! What will the months ahead hold? We are going to give Him every opportunity to work that we can. We will believe, pray and expect! "God, give us the gift of faith to believe for the supernatural!" Yep, 2008 - It's gonna be great!


Faith in itself is a miracle!
Can I really believe the unbelievable?
Miracle faith- it's a gift that's free
Simply believing what no man can see
He gives the measure that I need
And tho it's only the size of a mustard seed
Mountains must move and demons must flee
As that tiny seed takes root in me.

~Dawn B.

The Voice of God

The most incredible voice to hear is the voice of God. He doesn't always speak as loud as other voices. Sometimes he whispers and we have to be quiet to hear what he says. At other times He speaks with tones of thunder and can be heard above all the clamor.

At any volume, I want to hear His voice! I believe the secret to hearing is listening! I will listen. In the stillnes, I will listen. In the chaos, I will listen. And because I have tuned my ear to listen, I will hear!

I am ready. Speak Lord, for you servant is listening!

Happy Holiday Chaos

Here it is December 6th and I still don't have my tree up yet! I have worked on getting the church decorated and it looks nice with alot of help from a friend! That is such a relief!

Tomorrow! I WILL get it done tomorrow! I am buying all new decorations this year. I saw this really pretty tree at the Christmas store that is decorated in lime (?) green and a deep red color with gold! It was beautiful ...so guess what my new colors are gonna be?? You guessed it! I am so excited. I looked at Hobby Lobby today to try to find some things in those colors but I couldn't find anything so it looks like I am gonna have to buy the stuff at the Christmas Store. Expensive, but I do have a gift certificate that I got for my birthday that will help $100 worth! Hopefully, I can get this all done tomorrow! Yea, for days off!

This month is insanely busy. Parties, parties, parties. Children's workers party, Pastor/Board party, staff party, WM's party...... We even decided to have an all church progressive dinner this year. Whose bright idea was this anyway?? I thought maybe we would have 30-45 people attend but we already have 85 people and still growing! OMG! Finding homes for this many people and arranging groups and food and everything else is out of control. We will need at least 8 homes and go in groups of 20. Wow! I hope I can get this together! Should be loads of fun and we will all end up back at the church for desserts and gift exchange. Fun times ahead!

Oh yeah and on top of everything else we have a wedding tomorrow night. Had rehearsal this evening.

Everything is hectic and happy with a little holiday stress thrown in! I love Christmas!

Hope every one out there is having a great time planning your holiday! Be blessed and ever thankful for His gift! It's the greatest of all!

Random Thoughts

Here it is nearly 1am. Today was a wild and crazy day and I should be exhausted but instead I am wide awake. The day started by being up and at church for the first service at 8:30 and it didn't stop until just a couple of hours ago. I pulled off a pretty big accomplishment tonight by giving a good friend a surprise (well, sort of) birthday party. Had a group of about 20 people here. It was alot of fun but exhausting.

I really need to go to sleep but I went to bed and laid their for an hour before getting up to blog. Just have too much on my mind. Tomorrow is going to be a stressful day at work and I am dreading it. Alot of "hard" stuff going on that can only be dealt with head on. ugh! hate that!

I wanted to get my Christmas tree up on Friday but instead I spent the afternoon hanging out with my hubby! What a treat!! We went to lunch and then to an early movie. Went to see August Rush! It was awesome and I totally recommend it to everyone!! If you like music at all you will be in awe and it you are sentimental it will bring tears to your eyes! The whole theatre broke out in applause at the end. It's one of the few movies that I think I could watch more than once....even more than twice.

This week I will try to get my tree up and also the tree at the church. Trust me, this is not my favorite thing to do.

Everyone is posting about their favorite memories or traditions of Christmas...Well, I must tell you that you will not want to sign up for OUR yearly tradition! We call it the "Annual Christmas Tree Fight". Mike will have nothing to do with putting the tree up. He leaves it all up to me and I get frustrated and angry from the lack of help or support! It has become the family joke...

One year while having trouble with the lights...I picked up the whole wade of lights that were strung out all over the floor and took them outside and threw them in the dumpster. Then I had to go out and buy all new lights. I always stew around and grumble cause I am not getting any help and it always turns into a big fight. You can mark it down, happens every year!! Maybe this year will be the year that I will accept that it is not my hubby's "cup of tea" and get it done without grumbling! haha! But then again, do I really want to break with tradition???

ABC's of Thanksgiving

It’s Thanksgiving! If I can’t find something to write about at this time of the year there is something surely wrong! So many blessings! My hubby preached a Thanksgiving message and in it he included his ABC’s of Thanksgiving. I was inspired to come home and write my own ABC’s. So here they are….not as funny as his were but, oh well…. You should try it …it’s a little harder than you would think!! I am thankful for all of you and these things too:

My ABC’s of Thanksgiving:

A - Amber, Addie and air conditioning
B - Brylea, my bed, The Bible and the Blood
C - Chad, my church, the call of God, Chik-fil-a and chocolate
D - Dining out, dollars, my dreams and David and DeLana
E - Energy, education and electricity
F - forgiveness, family, friends, freedom, the future and the favor of God
G - God’s grace, generous gifts and good times
H - Home, health, hugs and Hershey’s
I - independence, income, in-laws and ice cream
J - Jesus, justice and Joetta
K - Krista, kindness and kisses
L – love letters, liberty, laughter and Lisa
M - Marriage, Mike, Mom, movies, memories, missionaries, mentors
N – new clothes and non-fat Starbuck’s drinks
O - old friends, old comfy shoes
P - peace of mind, peace with God, pictures, pizza
Q - quietness, quality of life
R - Redemption, retreats, Rosa’s
S - Shawn, sunshine, sleep, Starbucks, shopping
T - time, tenderness and tears
U – understanding, unborn grandbabies!
V - Volunteers, vacation
W - warmth, worship, willing workers, way of escape!
X - all the X-tra blessings that God gives me every day!!
Y - YOU, yesterday and all the years ahead
Z – zillions of others things I can’t think of right now

Today

Today has been great for a couple of reasons!

• The group my daughter sings with has had their CD picked up by Family Bookstores nationwide and was featured in Family’s latest circular that just came out. They are called Frontline Worship and the name of the CD is “The Combination” . I went today and picked up a couple CD’s! It was so cool. I couldn’t help but tell the cashier that the girl on the front with the red belt was my daughter!! Haha! I know she was duly impressed! The CD is awesome and it is so exciting for them. They have worked so hard! They are going to be featured with a full page ad in the January circular. We are praying, praying, praying that their sales will be good and that Family Bookstores will continue in this partnership!! So go out today and buy your copy!! You will be blessed!
  


• Today is my birthday and I have been incredibly blessed by friends and family! I am so spoiled! My hubby did something amazing and bought me the most beautiful ring! I have never like my birth stone much. It is a topaz. But this ring is simply beautiful! It is a topaz with little chocolate diamonds all around it! Simply gorgeous! The church blessed me yesterday with a gift certificate to have a one hour massage therapy every month for the next year! Wow! That is great!
  
  I am blessed, blessed, blessed!