much to be thankful for...

I have much to be thankful for and it seems when each Thanksgiving comes around I have more and more to add to my thankful list. I am thankful for my salvation and thank God for my salvation everyday. Where would I be without knowing where I will be going in my future? I thank God for His mercy and His grace....I thank Him for showing me the truth...I thank Him for His love and for His Son who suffered and died for me and rose again for me to have new life. I thank God for family...that we have recovered from sickness...

Today was a not so typical thanksgiving for us. We went to a real southern type restaurant tonight to have turkey, steak, potatoes, greens, corn bread rolls, and sweet potato pie. I was too tired and weak to cook a big meal so I am thankful for a restaurant that was open. We had a great time eating some good food and the best part is I didn't have to clean up!!! I really do need to clean up at the house but I have been taking a break from that because of lack of energy....

but I must get these kids to bed. I just wanted to write a little something tonight because it has been a while since I wrote....we are thankful we are doing well. Thank you for your prayers.

Not me Monday

I am really late on these not me's and that should be a not me in itself...

I am not ever late for anything...I am not ever running behind or out the door late because I always schedule and plan for unexpected happenings...like a dirty diaper, or I can't find my car keys, or an unforgotten purse, or a child who does not understand that the car is outside in the driveway and not in her bedroom or in the backyard, and all the previous situation have not happened to me at all this past week...

I did not have my lil toddler take off her diaper and pajamas several times this past week and lay all night long in her convieniently converted toilet crib, and then she did not greet me in the morning completely unclothed with a smile on her face...

I did not hope, wish, and pray for my husband to take the kids all day Saturday so that I could recover from a stomach virus. I did not pack food, snacks, and drinks and make a list of activities for him to do with the kids in order to keep them busy and gone from the house as the bed and toilet were not continually calling for me...

And...

I did not look at all the exercise equipment we have in our house and think about getting back on the bike or lifting weights or doing some of my pilates dvds on Monday, and then get so busy on Monday that I didn't even think about working out....oh well, maybe not tomorrow I will try again...

Hope you all have a blessed not me Monday!!!

Hope

Hello Blog friends and family....

I am so thankful I can eat a salad today because... ,let me just say, yesterday any thought of food would not have been good. I spent all day in either the bathroom or the bed with an upset stomach and nauseousness and I couldn't seem to function very well or walk without feeling dizzy. I am grateful that today I can drink water and keep it down and eat mild things like salad, that I mentioned above, and a big mac, french fries, a chocolate milk shake, a donut, an apple, and some really good friendship bread with cream cheese frosting....(hey, I had to make up for the lack of food in my system yesterday).

So anyway I wanted to thank my friend Kristen for watching the kids on Friday. My man, P, and I were suppose to go to see Fiddler on the Roof but the performance was packed out so we couldn't get in. We went to a Mexican Restaurant and ate lots of chips and cheese dip and almost fell asleep in the booth. Today, I went again to try and see the play but the auditorium was packed and they wouldn't let anyone else in...

So I came home and cleaned the house while the kids and daddy were out. It gave me time to reflect on the message today at church. It was about Hope...

The pastor touched on a subject that is not preached about very often, but as believer's losing hope is common. It was something I needed to hear because in reality, I lose hope in my relationship with God, my family, and friends when things aren't going well for me. He said that hope can be a remedy to depression and I believe that to be true because when I am depressed I feel like there is no hope and I just focus on the situation that caused me to be depressed. He also said that hope is the rope of expectation that connects us to the future. It is the capacity to release the joy needed to carry us through and to keep us building. He focused on Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." There are times in our lives where we go through the same old situations that we are trying to fix and we keep going deeper and deeper into the same old pit and we don't see the light at the end of the tunnel. He said that God is working in you to try to bring up the root of the problem and to release it in order for you to advance to the next step. He said to stop looking at the problem or situation that your in and start looking for God in the mix of the problem, because He is in there working it out somehow.
Another thing that he spoke about was that hope is a multi-generational process. It is something that can be passed down to our young ones as we seek to go after the hope that the Lord is calling us to in our lives.
I hope to post the link to hear it online. It was alot better than what I am posting here.

I hope to post some not me's tomorrow. In the meantime, I will hope and prayer for the best in your lives and please continue to remember me in your prayers too!!

P.S. Z asked me tonight, "What is God's favorite verse?" And I said probably all of them and then she said it is probably John 3:16....I'd say that might just be on the top of His list!!!

monkey see, monkey do

Anaya loves doing whatever big sister does:

After this chair lifting escapade, the girls decided to go outside and play in our "swimming pool" turned to mud pit...complete with shovels, boots, and buckets. It kept 'em busy, so I was happy about that. I was not so happy about Anaya's white stockings and clothes getting all muddy....thank God for clorox...

Much is happenin here in our neck of the woods. Today we did school work and went to lots of stores. I am in a Jesse Tree ornament exchange and have to make 25 of the same ornament, a camel and a tent. Here is a link to a website on the Jesse Tree if you don't know what it is: http://www.crivoice.org/jesse.html So I was trying to find wooden camels to make the ornament but after going to three craft stores I couldn't find any. So...looks like I will have to go a different route on this ornament project...do I dare go to the Martha Stewart website? I am still feelin' the disappointment from those wings I made (see Oct. post for the pic) so Ms. Martha may not be able to help me out...

While the girls were in AWANA, I did something I haven't done since we moved here...I mopped the floors!!! Mama would have been so proud...the floors are sparklin' and I know by tomorrow they will be dirty again but hey, I can stare at them all night tonight remembering what they can look like with some Mr. Clean and a mop...

And another thing I did was unpack a box. I am trying to unpack one box a day. I kinda slowed down since we moved here in June til...well, until now...so I hope to have the garage cleared out enough for one car to fit in there by December.

I am also reading a really good book for the second time, called A Journey to Hell and Back by Charlotte Russell Johnson. Click here to review the book. I hope to talk about it on another post.

The lil' one is making a lot of noises from her bedroom and I must go check on her as she likes to take off her clothes and diaper and use her crib as a toilet...bye!

A birthday, climbing, and a to do list....

Today is my mother-in-laws birthday!!! Happy birthday Mary...we wish we were there to celebrate but we will see you for Christmas, Lord willing...
When I think about my mother-in-law I think about how blessed I am to have her in my life. She has been a second mother to me...she is helpful, encouraging, hard-working, and full of life, full of joy. She has been there after each baby, helping me to take care of myself and the older kid(s), and she was there when I had my surgery back in Oct. of 07. I miss you Mary and can't wait to see you again...

Well, we went rock climbing today...it was fun!! The girls (older 2) had a great time. I will try to post pics...I forgot my camera and so I used my camera phone. I am going to figure out how to put my camera phone pics on the computer and hopefully it won't take my half-way computer illiterate self too long to figure out.

P has tomorrow and Tuesday off for Veteran's Day so I will have to go and add to my long list of things for him to do....no, really he just likes to look at all he has to do and then somehow the list gets lost because it has been laying around without anything being scratched off!!! But I am going to make multiple copies of it and put one in each room of the house, on his bed pillow, taped on the bathroom mirror and on the refridgerator, in the refridgerator, etc....we'll see how that works!!!

Love ya!!

waiting

I know most people are watching the election results closely. I am as well....been praying, watching, waiting anxiously...I know God is in control though and He is still on His throne through it all. I know that whoever wins I will continue to pray...

Much love to you all....

P.S. Some motherhood quotes:

The joy of motherhood: What a woman experiences when all the children are finally in bed.
-Barbara Johnson

When your work is about love, every day is payday.

Motherhood: If was going to be easy, it never would have started with something called labor.
-Barbara Johnson

Before becoming a mother I had a hundred theories on how to bring up children. Now I have seven children and only one theory: Love them, especially when they least deserve to be loved. -Kate Samperi

Naps, lack of naps, and ready for bed!!!

Hello blogger friends out there.

This will be a quick post and I hope to write more soon...

This weekend flew by and it is already November...and the election is drawing near. I am not huge into politics and I still am trying to understand how this voting process works (I took naps in my History & Government class in middle school since it was right after lunch, so I missed out!!). But I know how important it is to vote and so I am filling out my absentee ballot as we speak...

I did not get to take advantage of that additional one hour of sleep time because the girls woke up early this morning...

So I must get to bed, but I hope that you all are doing well. Keep praying about this election, I know that God is in control and He knows who it will be....

Much love and prayers to you.

"For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do." Eph. 2:10