A wonderful night

I just have to say that last night was an amazing night for me! It started with "messy night" family dinner!! OK, let me explain that one. Our family LOVES snow crab...I mean it borders on obsession for all of us. When we go to Destin and arrive at our favorite crab shack, Dewies, I think they know they are about to strike it rich! We can buy and eat our way through a LOT of crab. Don't let theses skinny girls fool you when it comes to crab...just get out of the way!

Well, yesterday as I was taking the girls grocery shopping we walked by the seafood counter. We have begun to make sure we eat some kind of fish or seafood every week...so I am spending more and more time talking with my fish monger about recipes and fresh ideas for fresh seafood.

**I have to add a little side note here: I am not a chef or even a very good cook! I can follow a recipe like crazy...but I am NOT one of those creative wives who are exploring the world of cooking. But, I HAVE found a great way to organize my menu and have used it for a while. I organize my daily menus by category. For example, here is my menu for the month:

Mondays: Soups, salads, and sandwiches (because the girls rock climb and need a light dinner)

Tuesday: Seafood

Wednesday: Church meal

Thursday: Beef

Friday or Saturday: Chicken or Pork

Sunday: Slow - cooker recipe

It makes my life so easy...and I just make a huge list of all the things I make and the sides that go with them according to the category. That way I don't sit around wondering what to have for dinner every night...I just pick one of my recipes...and that means we only have a dish once a month which thrills my food loving husband! It has really been a lifesaver, because having dinner at home with family is a HUGE way I can show love to my husband!

Dad is the best "cracker. So he spends most of his time getting the crab meat out for his three crazy girls!

ANYWAY, back to the seafood counter! I happened to see that Canadian snow crab was on sale for $4.99 lb. For those of you who don't know...that is CRAZY cheap!!!! So, I happily bought 2 WHOLE pounds all the while dancing the happy crab dance.

So, last night we had messy dinner night together. We ate corn on the cobb and crab legs! It was super messy, but amazingly fun and YUMMY!!!


Then, I headed to our Foundation Bible Series group. It was our first night to hear from the women about how their week went in the study. It was such a blessing and encouragement to Ginger and I to hear how God had spoken through His Word! It was awesome for us to see it actually in action and hear the feedback. I was thrilled with how it went and the feedback was great and very helpful. It has been a long journey (2 years to be exact) and to see it actually in process was an amazing thing for me!


As I got in my car to head home, I called Jay to debrief with him like I always do. So, we spent the 10 or so minutes on my way home just talking about all that happened. I know it's crazy, but I talk to him all the way home and then even as I get to the door. I hung up...opened the door and was greeted by the most amazing sight I could have imagined! Jay had all my wonderful fall candles lit, the fire blazing (DVD fire of course), a cozy cup of hot tea steaming, and a plate full of brownies...and my favorite Windom Hill Thanksgiving instrumental music playing.

We had our very own date night right then! We had time to continue talking about the night and just hanging out together. I can't even explain with words how much that touched my heart. I LOVE to have wonderful smelling candles going, fabulous music playing and a cup of my favorite hot tea in my hand...and my man by my side...talking!!! WOW...what a night!

I share all of this for myself and my girls to read years from now. This blog is for my family. It is our daily journey through life...those things I would never put in my scrapbook...but are more precious to me than big events or isolated holidays and vacations. This is my journal to my children and grandchildren of what our daily walking out of life looked like.

I want them to know that their daddy brought their mommy flowers every week (don't you love these candy corn daisies?). That he took me to musicals and took them climbing alone every week just to spend time with "his girls." I want them to see what life looked like. I want them to know that they loved crab from the time they were little. I want them to see how important our family nights were to us. I want them to see the devotion they were going through when they were 7. I want them to know that I wasn't a good cook...but I tried. I want them to know that I struggled and failed every day...but was wildly in love with God, their father, and them! I want them to hear from my heart, read those things that touched us, and have a written record of their lives in this season. It's become the journal I never could keep...but now couldn't live without them having!

So, that's why there are TONS of pictures, lots of little moments, and things like my menu ideas and family dinner fun. It's our life. It's our daily journey. It's precious to me...and that's why it's here. I want my kids to have my journal and know what our daily life was like...big and small. I pray that this journey blesses you in some way, but mostly...it's just the little stuff that I thank God for every day!

What a weekend!

This weekend has been so much fun...with lots of fall fun had by all! We started out on Thursday night (which is like our Friday night since Jay doesn't have to go to work on Friday) with a fun family night starting with a new Italian meatloaf (thanks Katherine!) recipe for dinner and topped off with a fun fall dessert! I found this recipe in my Family Fun magazine (which I am addicted to and have been a subscriber for 6 years!). They looked so precious and were filled with melted chocolate and had raw sugar all over the top...yummy!

Then, last night was WICKED! It was amazing and absolutely hysterical. Jay and I both laughed until we cried all during the musical. Jay felt that it was the best overall musical we have seen. It was a tie between Phantom and Wicked. They are just so different...and I LOVE both. I can't pick a favorite! But, if you EVER have the chance to see Wicked...SEE IT!!! The music is wonderful and it is so cool to have the other side of the story. Also, all the questions you never thought to ask get answered like:

1. Why is the Wicked Witch green?

2. Why were the red slippers so important to her?

3. Who were the scarecrow, cowardly lion, and tin man?

4. What is Glinda's story?

5. Where did those crazy flying monkeys come from?

6. Why were she and her sister wicked?

7. And some I can't tell you since there are some really big secrets revealed...and I'm not telling:)

We had a fantastic time...but couldn't take any photos while it was going on. So, all I have is the opening set. You'll just have to go and see it yourself!

Then, today we went to our second annual trip to the Life is Good Pumpkin Festival! Our family loves Life is Good gear and have for years. Last year we went to the festival and had a blast! And we truly loved the fact that all proceeds from this event go directly to children in need.

So, we loaded up and headed to Flowery Branch and had the best time!

The girls enjoyed running the the hay maze about 10 times today! The weather was beautiful and just cool enough to need a light jacket...my kind of fall day!!!
We ALL had on our Life is Good gear! I actually found a long sleeved tee that had a tea cup that says..."Take your sweet time." I loved it!
Tug of war was a big hit! It was girls against girls...and...

Anli's team is the winner! It was a really good match up that lasted several minutes!
We got some...interesting...prizes!
The girls couldn't wait to get their faces painted. Virginia is a kitty...and Anli wanted to be a dog to match the teeth she won! I'm not sure what kind of dog she is...but I think it's so cute that she never even thought about those teeth being Dracula! She immediately thought they were dog teeth...you're right on Anli!
Then, it was over the the pumpkin patch where they each picked out a pumpkin to decorate. They loved spending lots of time dressing their pumpkins! They are sooo cute!
My puppy and her pumpkin!
Then, tonight we got home and had our "Christmas list night." We made yummy homemade hot chocolate which is SO much better than the package stuff! We don't have a fireplace, so we bought this DVD of a crackling fire (or with wonderful Christmas music). We love this because it doesn't put out heat so you can have a cosy fire even in the middle of summer, it doesn't use any energy or gas so no cost on the power bill, and there's no clean up! We love it!!!
Then, we settle down to look through catalogues for Christmas list ideas...for themselves and for family. I DO NOT do malls for Christmas! I am purely a catalogue girl...if at all possible. So, we start early making our catalogue lists because I like to get it done early and have to account for shipping times.

We crank up the Christmas music, light our Holiday Sage candles, wear Christmas pajamas, and sip hot chocolate...for one night! Then, all of those things are put away until the day after Thanksgiving. It's our one little preview of Christmas...in the middle of October! They love it!!

After we had looked through lots of fun catalogues and made a list of wishes...we sat as a family and opened the most important catalogue we get. It is the Operation Christmas Child Christmas catalogue. It gives gift ideas for children around the world who have absolutely nothing...including their health. We look over this and choose those items that touch our hearts. There are things like blankets, books, Bibles, dairy goats, airline tickets for a child who needs surgery, a new home, feeding a baby for a week, a little lamb stuffed animal, sports gear, and much more. It is truly an amazing oppotunity to join God in caring for families around the world.

Then, each girl gets to choose the items that they will give these children from their allowance and extra earned money. We then choose items to give in honor of each family member. Everyone will not only receive a handmade gift from the girls this Christmas...they will be honored by us giving to those who have nothing at all. If you are interested in this catalogue...go to www.samaritanspurse.org for more information. It is an awesome way to really connect with God's heart this Christmas...it is our small gift to Him for the eternal life and blessings He gives us!

What a great weekend! God is so good and I am among the most blessed!!!

203 minutes and counting...

Yep...I'm just that crazy! It was this way with Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, The Lion King, Cats...it really is a sickness how much I LOVE going to musicals. I am so excited to be on the arm of my freshly haircut hubby and enjoying a night seeing such an amazing story. It's going to be awesome! I'll let you know...ok now it's only 195...

I CAN'T WAIT!!!!

In just a few mere hours (23 to be exact!)Jay and I will be watching Wicked at the Fabulous Fox Theatre! We have been listening to the soundtrack and I am literally seen dancing and jumping around my apartment belting out tunes like "One short day in the Emerald City..." and "Popular." The girls are "green" with envy that they can't go to the musical with us...especially my Anli girl who, like her mom, never needs an excuse to sing Broadway hits while doing the dishes.
I am literally counting the minutes until we go. I highly suggest you at least get the soundtrack because it is awesome!!! So, I am going to share a tour trailor that I found with you in case you haven't heard of Wicked. I CAN'T WAIT...

Glad to be home!

I so love the ministry that God has blessed me with...but I LOVE the family God has given me even more! It's good to be home...Our family night last night was a family dinner and a night of tennis together!
We were so proud of the girls last night. They hit the ball EVERY time it was served to them. It might not always have been in bounds or over the net, but it was amazing to have them connect with the ball every time.

Jay and I were the designated servers. It was a fun fall night! It was getting dark and there was lots of action going on...so I'm sorry that some are out of focus.

Today we went to the Fernbank with friends and had a WONDERFUL day! I'll share about that tomorrow...did I say it was good to be home?

A few of my NEW favorite things!

I have found a few wonderful things that I LOVE and wanted to take a moment to share them:

1. My rebounder (mini trampoline) - I went to New Mexico this weekend and Katherine introduced me to rebounding. It is basically jumping and exercising on a mini trampoline, but it is now called rebounding my NASA. NASA requires that all it's astronauts rebound 20 minutes a day because it not only is a HUGE cardio exercise (remember jumping on trampolines as a kid...excellent exercise!) but it works on the cellular level. When you jump and defy gravity with your entire body weight, it uses G force and works cell by cell.



Check out this website...and yes I did go on NASA's web page and look at some of the info...and yes their astronauts do use rebounding for training. I also checked out what I could of the original article in the Journal of Applied Physiology.
http://www.reboundforfitness.com/

I only bought the mini trampoline from Wal-Mart for $30 instead of the ones that cost $100 at some of these sites for now. I think that is a better way to start and see for myself. But, I will tell you that I was winded afterwards, and my trampoline came with resistance bands, so I was able to incorporate my strength training I get at the workout room. I was glad that I not only got a cardio workout like CRAZY, but all over circuit training too.

I am also keeping my walking too...because I love it and also because for bone density we need pounding exercises too! Check it out for yourself...and thanks Katherine for introducing me to something I can do right in my own living room, even though I am on the 3rd floor! It's silent!

2. igoogle - OK this has changed the way I do Internet! Google allows you to make your own homepage that includes everything I would want to do in one place! On my igoogle page, I have my google reader to be able to see all the blogs I read when they are new, my email is right there letting me know when new mail has arrived, I have My Utmost for His Highest devotion that I read daily to go along with our family devotion each night, John Piper's weekly articles, calculator, a new slow-cooker recipe site that let's me get new slow cooker recipes every day, and most importantly...my google calendar! It ROCKS...thanks Ginger!

3. My google calendar - This has been a life-saver! It shows up on my computer and allows me to have 3 different calendars on one page. I have one for me, the girls, and Jay updates his himself from work so that I always know when something changes or he has a new meeting. It automatically updates to mine...but all in different colors so I know whose activities are whose. And it shows up on my daily homepage all day...and it even takes things away as the time ticks by...so it is always telling me what should be happening right now...and what is coming up! I love it!!!!

4. The slow cooker recipe site - I have this on my homepage and it is giving me the BEST recipes every day! You gotta go to this site and check it out! www.CDkitchen.com. I don't know exactly where to find all the slow cooker recipes, because I simply added that gadget to my homepage for only slow cooker recipes and they given me new ones all the time! It's awesome...I never leave my homepage all day!!!

5. ESV Study Bible - Jay and I got ours in the mail last week! We pre-ordered it months ago and we were thrilled to get it. We both have been using it daily and love the fact that it has people we trust writing the notes. I still can't trust myself to do it in my personal time with the Lord...because I would just read what others have to say...but I love it for study at night and for my Sunday School lesson each week.

6. My notebook - OK, my friend Ginger comes to my rescue again! She came to my house last week and pulled out this notebook that housed everything from her calendar to weekly menus to family worship ideas. I poured over it for several minutes and promptly went out the next day and bought some tab dividers for my already lovely Vera Bradley binder that matches my purse. It has been wonderful and fits in my purse so it is always with me!

I love having sisters in Christ! We all have different gifts and I just love getting great ideas from ladies I love! Thanks Ginger for sharing with us on your blog...go check it out for yourself: www.gingerdebusk.blogspot.com and read about how hers looks. Mine is a little different, but it's the same concept!

7. The girls devotion time - In the evenings, we all meet together at the table and do our family devotion time. It consists of that little book I blogged about a couple of weeks ago. It is neat because it goes along with Jay and I's reading in My Utmost for His Highest. We read the verses and discuss it as a family. But, the girls go through a section of Scripture each day and then write their thoughts in a binder. It goes along directly with the sections that I read each morning on my own. We are all in the book of Mark and we read a few verses each morning and then they have a page that I have written on the computer with lines after the daily reading where they respond on their own. It is a very sweet time each morning as each of them finds a cozy spot and reads their verses out loud to me (some of the words are hard to understand) and then are alone to respond to God. I love that we are studying the same verses and can keep each other accountable all day!

I also love hearing about what they got from them too...it's always different than mine...and even each other! It's been a neat thing!

Well, those are a few of my new favorite things! I wanted to document them and share them with my friends. We gotta pass those great things along! I'm grateful others shared with me.

Here is my daily reading from Oswald Chambers...it knocked me out:

There was nothing of the nature of impulsive or thoughtless action about our Lord, but only a calm strength that never got into a panic. Most of us develop our Christianity along the lines of our own nature, not along the lines of God’s nature. Impulsiveness is a trait of the natural life, and our Lord always ignores it, because it hinders the development of the life of a disciple.

Watch how the Spirit of God gives a sense of restraint to impulsiveness, suddenly bringing us a feeling of self-conscious foolishness, which makes us instantly want to vindicate ourselves. Impulsiveness is all right in a child, but is disastrous in a man or woman—an impulsive adult is always a spoiled person.

Impulsiveness needs to be trained into intuition through discipline. Discipleship is built entirely on the supernatural grace of God. Walking on water is easy to someone with impulsive boldness, but walking on dry land as a disciple of Jesus Christ is something altogether different. Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus, but he "followed Him at a distance" on dry land ( Mark 14:54 ).

We do not need the grace of God to withstand crises—human nature and pride are sufficient for us to face the stress and strain magnificently. But it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours of every day as a saint, going through drudgery, and living an ordinary, unnoticed, and ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is ingrained in us that we have to do exceptional things for God—but we do not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things of life, and holy on the ordinary streets, among ordinary people—and this is not learned in five minutes.

WOW...for this impulsive girl that was a much needed reminder! It also was awesome to hear him convey the passion of my life...to thrive each day instead of surviving through the daily power of God's Word in their lives! Amen.

Back from New Mexico!

I am back from New Mexico and enjoyed a wonderful weekend with the ladies of Central Baptist Church! It was a fabulous retreat and the women we so generous, loving, and precious. It was an honor to serve this group of ladies and be blessed by their giving and loving hearts.

They gave me some very beautiful gifts...I'll have to include photos tomorrow of the gorgeous pitcher and "quillow" that was made by a lady of the church after the retreat for me. I was in shock! The retreat ended at 4pm and she was bringing it to me at around 8pm! She had left directly from the retreat and went to buy the material and made it that quickly. I loved it and hung on to it during my long day of travel home on Sunday.

I am grateful that God allowed me to meet this group of ladies this weekend. They were a blessing to me and I pray that God's Word will revolutionize their lives!!!

I will post a recap of recent retreats on the DFM site as I can get them together. Oh...the days are short when you juggle 3 blogs:)

Thank you for your sweet prayers and emails! I know that without your support in prayer this ministry would not be fruitful. Thanks for taking the journey together!

Please Pray...

Tomorrow I will be leaving to go New Mexico for the weekend for a ladies' retreat. Please pray for myself and the ladies that will attend. Please pray that we will all encounter God in a powerful way through His Word. Thanks...and I can't wait to share when I return on Sunday night.

Happy Birthday Honey!

We had a great weekend celebrating my grandmother's birthday! It was great to see my family from New York, Chicago, and Connecticut. We don't get to hang out with them very often, so it was a real treat.

We went to my parent's house on Friday after we finished school. We enjoyed playing with Julian, running in the yard, riding bikes, playing with the horses, and just relaxing with my family.

Then, after dinner and baths we settled down to a craft project the great-grand kids were going to give my grandmother for her birthday. Everything I get in the way of decorating, crafting, and overall ambiance of a home comes straight from my mother. She is wonderful and always came up with terrific crafts for us to do. By the way...the kids tied her hair up like this with scraps from the blanket!

We made a fleece blanket for my grandmother (that is what she wanted) and we gave it a little flair! We had so much fun together!!!

Here the great-grand kids snuggle in the precious blanket! It is so cute...I want one too!

The next morning, we headed into Birmingham to my grandmother's house. But, not until we had a full breakfast complete with pancakes, bacon, and wonderful strawberries. I did not however, get my mom's amazing cooking ability. Jay laments that fact every time we go to my parent's house and eat. I am working on it...but it comes so naturally to my mom.

We then loaded up and headed to the party! We were so excited to see my cousins and aunt from New York, Connecticut, and Chicago! It was also great to see the rest of my family from the Birmingham area too:)

The girls enjoyed playing with the horses and dolls that my mom and her sisters used to play with!

The boys on the other hand...just like hitting and fighting with each other. I am so glad I have a nephew to enjoy the boy things I don't get to do with my girls...but boys sure are different!

But, they sure are cute!!

My aunt Martha bought these awesome cupcakes from this bakery that makes them fresh every day. YUMMY...and this is just a few of them...

she spelled out "Happy Birthday Honey." It was amazing!

Virginia enjoyed a toy we all used to play with and it's amazing that with all the high-tech gadgets we have out now...these oldies but goodies still amazing kids.

We had a huge spread of food including pulled pork barbecue sandwiches, coleslaw, fruit, deviled eggs, and fresh tomatoes from my mom's garden (yes, she does everything!). And the flowers on the table...from my mom's garden! My grandmother was so thrilled with the party...and it was a complete surprise to her too! Having the whole family there was truly the best gift of all.

The kids enjoy playing in the yard and eating the yummy food!

My cousin Steward and I are very close in age and have enjoyed growing up together. It was wonderful to see her (she and her husband live in NY). We caught up and had a great time looking at her wedding and honeymoon photos. Freer (at the bottom left) is her younger sister and she is a teacher. She is so awesome with the kids! She was a big help when we were trying to get the kids to smile for the group shot!

We love Honey so very much! Happy birthday!