Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Thoughts

I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do.

After my 'brush with mortality' last month I have begun to notice little things that are different. They have come to me in small, quite ways, which I believe is just my Savior gently showing me new insights into my reliance on Him.

As I had wrote in an earlier blog post, I did not have regrets to go over, things I wished I had done or anything left really unsaid. The entire time was one of peace, a divine peace. I didn't have to re-prioritize my life once I was discharged from the hospital. Haven't even made a bucket list.

One thing that came just over the weekend was a softening of my heart toward the organized church. Those of you that know me, know I have been in church all of my life and have served as a lay leader most of my adult life. Ministering has always been apart of who I am until a year ago. After some very difficult incidents and situations, we found ourselves unchurched.

During the year prior to this, I had struggled with the organized church and its committees, controlling members and a lack of God's word being preached clearly and definitively.

I say all this to tell you that God has worked afresh in my heart. He has softened it again and I feel renewed. I don't know what He would have me do, but I am ready. I know this is an answer to prayer for my sweet husband.

As I wrote in the children's journals the other day the verse about how our days are already numbered and ordained came to me.(All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them ever came to pass Ps. 139:16.) It gave me pause to consider what I had gone through in October. I believe that God is sovereign, nothing in my life is by accident. What I experienced was just a physical thing, some may call it a 'brush with death'; I see it as an opportunity to be a witness before men. It wasn't my appointed time to die. It was just a thing; we are human and our flesh fails us.

I know that I will continue to get sweet tidbits from God here and there. I welcome the opportunity to share my story when led to show how incredible the God I serve truly is. We, as a family, still rejoice at how God's hand was on every part of that short journey from October 8 - 16; not just in the outcome, but in the people we met, the dr. I had, the caring Hannah experienced from strangers, the prayers that went up, the joy we experienced in the mist of a potential bad outcome.


So let us seize and hold fast and retain without wavering the hope we cherish and confess and our acknowledgment of it, for He Who promised is reliable (sure) and faithful to His word.
Hebrews 10:23



Sunday, November 21, 2010

“Enjoy life. This is not a dress rehearsal.”


IMG_6573 copy-2

Enjoy life, it isn't a dress rehearsal...


Friday, November 19, 2010

What else do you do on a beautiful November day. Take the dog to the park and watch two of your children fence with sticks!!!

happy fence friday!


And if you haven't been over to Hannah's blog, go NOW! She has a recipe for some very tasty brownies and they are so easy to make.

gooey brownies

Happy Weekend!!

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Amazing Photos

Hannah took some amazing photos of a friends baby this past week and today had her first professional photo shoot in a city 2 hours away. We are so proud of her!

I can't show the photo shoot; but I can show the baby, so here is the precious little bundle.


baby c
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baby c

God has given each of our children amazing gifts and nothing gives us more joy than to see them use those gifts.


Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Mother-Daughter Retreat

The girls and I had a wonderful, long weekend with my best friend and her oldest daughter who is Sarah's best buddy. It was a great time of fun and fellowship.

We rented a cabin outside of Pigeon Forge, TN, bought some groceries and prepared ourselves for a girls only time! And a girl's time is what we had.

We cooked, laughed, watched cooking shows, painted fingernails and did some outlet shopping. Yes, we are wild and crazy. Seriously, if you saw how many people were at the outlet stores, anybody had to be crazy to get in that mass of humanity!

Coming home we ran into a lot of snow on the top of the mountain. It was amazing and beautiful. The girls made a snowman and named him Herman. We all said it looked like Narnia with the snow on the evergreens; just magical.

meet herman

snow is like magic.