My Thanksgiving

I don't know what I am thinkinging half of the time when my grandkids and nieces and nephews

attatck me! I can't say no to them, so my weekend was spent with 9 kids ages 7 to 15 eating, playing and sleeping at my house! The first few pictures are bedtime which didn't happen Friday night till 1 am Sat. morning and Sat. not till 11pm. The two oldest girls were the lucky ones cause after all, girls need their space! so they got the extra bedroom.

One boy in the recliner, one girl on the couch,

Lets see there is one boy waaaaaaaaay over there on the loveseat, then a lounge chair held another boy, then 2 cots one boy one girl, then the blow up mattress for the oldest boy! You had to step very carefully in my living room.

The next few pictures are the kids bringing wood to the house and raking leaves. I told them they were earning their dinner.!!

This is my adopted granddaughter She is really my daughter's niece but since I am grandma to everyone else so what is one more!! Isn't she precious?

Finally this is my daughter all dressed to ride the motorcycle in UC's parade of lights Friday night. I was a bit jealous as I would love to have been on the back of that bike!!

I also got to spend some time with Glen's sisters and their husbands we celebrated Jo's birthday late and mine early. It was fun catching up with them finding out about their grandkids and them asking about my dating life which is pretty much no existent at this point!! We laughed about that and lots of memories of Thanksgiving and Christmas past.

Sunday morning topped the weekend off getting 9 kids ready for church then my sister and husband came and we all went to my church all 13 of us!! They are all now delivered home and I am catching up on things here. My Michigan daughter got a web cam this week so yesterday and today I was on my laptop watching my grandkids up there, sure helps missing them so much. We still have some bugs to work out but it will come. Oh yes! the older kids set me up with a MySpace page!!! I have absoultely no idea what I am doing but it was fun watching them do things and making fun of me for being so dumb!!!! What a fun time.

I love family and I am so glad that God allowed me to be a daughter, mom, sister,sister-in-law, grandma and aunt. There is just nothing like the blessings of having those you love around you laughing and sharing the bounty and blessings from God. Can you hear anything? Do you hear the silence? There is no one here but me and the animnals but you know what I am not alone. I am okay with that right now, I can hear Jesus when he wants to talk to me now. I will listen for his voice in the quietness and know that all is well, he has it all under controll.

Until later have a great week!

Thanksgiving day

Stop telling God how big your storm is. Instead tell the storm how big your God is! My screen background says;" Christ is not valued at all unless he is valued above all" Augustine
Putting up the Christmas tree tonight I broke 3 glass ornaments. I've been collecting glass ornaments for 12 years and never broke one till now. Why now? Then the tears came and something in my head and heart said" Broken Dreams", perfect life gone~~~~ but is it really?
Did I really have the perfect life? Well of course I believe it was as close to perfect as possible but was it? I listen to Christmas CD's and gaze at the tree with all it's colors. I look around and see the oil lamps we collected together. I see pictures of motorcycle trips, vacations, wedding pictures the last church pictures we had taken,all beautiful memories and then my eyes fall on another wall. This wall represents the future~~~ pictures of my 8 grandchildren. One of the frames says;"GRANDKIDS can FILL a space in your HEART that you never knew was empty" The plaque above it says;"I have learned that being with those I love is enough" Another saying I have in my living room states"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain"
Lord Thank you for reminding me how blessed I am. Jesus please comfort all those who have lost precious family members. This is a tough time of year for us, show us the future and remind us of your promise in Jeremiah 29:11. Amen

Shoes!!!

I wore a pair of shoes today for the first time in 6 weeks! My foot is screaming but I am afraid to take the shoe off until I craw into bed. It is a funny feeling having something so restrictive on my foot again and I have to learn to walk correctly again too. I have been favoring that foot since July 18th and the rest of my body is paying for it now. I wonder if the chiorpractor will ever get me straight again!!

While learning to walk correctly I am reminded of how off balance I am when I don't listen to Jesus. When I put aside my bible, don't pray as much, try to solve my problems on my own; my life is pretty much a mess. Then when I get back to reading the healing words of my Jesus and I start sharing with him about my thoughts and hopes, dissapointments and frustrations, my life begins to take a turn for the better. Only problem is that Satin really gets nervous and starts throwing stones my way, even a slippery banana peal sometimes. I am learning to recognize that these things are not from God BUT he does use them to teach me.

How about you? Do you have some relearning to do too?

The countdown has begun!!!

It is no secret that I love the holidays especially Thanksgiving and
Christmas. I love them because it is a time when I can show others, especially my family how much I love them. I don't care about gifts but I do care that they know that no matter how disapointed I may be for one reason or another my love never changes. I love them unconditionally because they are my family. I woke up this morning thinking about God's unconditional love for me. My devotions this morning centered around God's love for me, Pastor Kris's message Sunday talked about God's love, I got some emails today that talked about God's love--- do you think that God is trying to tell me something?!?! Sunday we were asked to give over the areas in out lives that we have been keeping from God I thought I didn't have any till we started praying--- yep I got some of those areas. I asked him today to help me to hold up my end of the deal in trying to let him handle things---- this is hard. I have tried to handle things on my own for such a long time, but my father in heaven showed me that he loves me and he will help me. So in my excitement of the upcoming holiday season ( did I tell you I LOVE the holidays?) I am learning to let God take over my hidden rooms in my heart and let him control and lead, can't wait to see what comes next!!

Help Me!!

As you can see my background is a bit messed up! Mindy and I tried to change it to a holiday design but something happened and only part of it worked. Can anyone tell me how to fix it or a place to find a new one that is easy to do? I am not good at all these techinal things.
I was reading Mila's blog and deceided to take up her tagg first the book thing.
1) I love reading books written by Thomas Kinkade he has a series going and also writes a Christmas edition I have everyone so far.
2) My mom and sister in law read all my new books befor I get a chance to.
3) Beverly Lewis, Jan Karon and Janette Oke are close seconds.
4) I love my Life Application bible I can read it and apply the lessons easily especially with the explinations at the bottom.
5) I also have several versions 6 different ones I think
6) I have given away to my son in law one of my bibles, and each one of my grandchildren have their own bible geared to their age.
7) In the suspense catagory Robin Cook tops them all!!

Now for some facts about me:
1) I am only 4'10" and I hate being short but have learned to joke about it.
2) I had my first broken bone this summer at 55 yrs. old
3) I learned to ride a motorcycle at age 52 what in the world was I thinking?!?!
4) My Monday morning fix is a diet vanilla colke from Haines drug store soda fountain! There's nothing like it!!
5) When I was younger I swore I would NEVER let animnals in the house much less let them sleep with me----- guess what!!
6) In 1971 when I first got married we could bring home 4 sacks of groceries for $25 and ate for 2 weeks like we were rich!!

Good morning all it is 6:25am on Sat. morning and I am headed off in this cold like several others (who are already there unloading the truck) to distrubute Angel Food. You either have to be crazy or really in love with Jesus to do this! I started with Angel food when it started a few years now when we went to another church to pick up our order, it was cold then and the truck was late and we had no idea what we were doing,we have come a long way. If you have never been involved come try it out it is an easy way to serve our LORD and the fellowship is great too.!
M first devotional of the day left me with some things to think about as I continue my journey back to N.O. L.A. and I want to post it for you to think about too.

Yielding to His Lordship
Day 218

God is not a therapist; He is not just someone you approach to make it through a difficult time. He is Lord and Savior. Your greatest joy will come when you yield your whole life to Him.

"Know that you have to leave it up to Him, and you have no control over life or death—that's what sustained me through it all," says Gretchen, whose husband died.

When you honor Him as God, you are better able to accept the circumstances of life.

"Woe is me for my hurt! My wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it" (Jeremiah 10:19 kjv).

Father, yielding to Your Lordship is difficult for me, but I want to give my every thought and effort to You, not just to get me through the rough times, but as an act of worship to You. Amen.

I have a hundred things running around in my mind tonight and it all started with this prayer: Mighty God, I am not content to continue in my own simple ways. I want to know You as I have never known You before. I read this in a devotional and now I can't stop thinking! I have started asking God about New Orleans- I wasn't going to go this year to allow someone else to go BUT my niece said she really wants to go back-yes I told God if he wanted me there then have Lacey choose N.O. and not N.Y.answer #1 now I pray "God start preparing my heart now for what you have for me then" I must admit that I am both excited and scared because each year God has taken me a little farther out of my comfort zone, and I wonder what he will ask of me this time. I wonder where he is leading me and I asked him but he only reminds me of the verse he gave me almost 20 months ago;Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope" then I read the following verses; 12 "In those days when you pray, I will listen. 13 If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.14 I will be found by you," says the LORD.
I am reading the book The Shack and although I am having trouble with some of it today something popped up that makes me think. When someone is drowning it is pretty hard to save them if they don't trust you. Jesus says that all he asks is when I start to sink, let him rescue me.In otherwords stop fighting and let me do my job!! How often do I fight against the waters of life when all I have to do is relax and trust Jesus? Then something else was mentioned;It is not my job to change people, it is my job to LOVE them and let God do the changing. How often do I find myself wanting to change someone to fit what I think is the right mold? I'm afraid that I have done that far too often so I am going to try to throw away the molds I think people should fit into and let God do the changing and I will pray for a more loving heart. I also was reminded that I need to use the SFGTD file much more often;incase you don't know what that means it is Something For God To Do.
If you think of me sometimes pray that I will be willing to step further out of my comfort zone and do what he asks of me. I am sure that life is about to get exciting!!!!