12/31/09

My last post for 2009. Hard to believe another year is gone.

I always take this time to reflect on the past year. I always want to look back and see where I may have grown or changed in some way.


I know I continue to grow in my walk with the Lord. That is a desire I have every year. I have learned new things that I always *knew* but am now learning them on a deeper level. I guess the biggest thing is that the Lord is always there and nothing takes Him by surprise. In my "controlling Type A" personality I am learning that HE is in control and I am but a small part of this world. I have learned deeper meanings this year for forgiveness and faith. I am learning that the older I get the more I realize just how much I need Jesus as my Savior. Childlike faith accepts Jesus as your Savior when you begin the journey of knowing Christ. Once you move forward in knowing Him you realize just how much you do NEED Him.... every hour of every day. There have been days of utter joy in the Lord feeling I had a perfect walk with Him. Then there have been days when I have felt at the bottom of the lowest valley and those have been difficult. Even though some have been hard, I am thankful for the lessons learned and the grace of God to help me as I learn.

It has now been 16 years and counting for Steve and me to be married and almost 19 that we've been together! I am constantly amazed at the things I have learned about Steve this past year. To know someone loves me so much, other than Christ, is beyond my comprehension. (Parents are *supposed* to love you... ha! ) He sees me at my best and my worst and yet loves me the same. I have said this so many times before, but I am SO BLESSED with Steve. He completes me in ways I never thought possible.

In parenting I continue to learn that life gets more and more busy which causes Wesley and Mikayla to slip through my fingers even faster. Each day brings different challenges as a parent and how I react to them show Wesley and Mikayla a picture of their Heavenly Father. I have reflected a lot on this in recent months. Oh, that I may be the right example before them to show what a loving Heavenly Father we do have and how He loves us in spite of our mistakes. One thing I have learned to say to the kids this year when they make a mistake is "OK... what did you learn from that?" Again, the older I get the more I realize I am still as a child in the eyes of my Heavenly Father and if He gives me patience and understanding, then I should reflect the same with my own.

I am looking forward to a new year. I don't sit and write down a ton of resolutions that I know will not be kept. Instead, I continue to learn that I need to take each day, hour and second and give them to the Lord to help me through them. I don't know what the Lord has in store for any of us in 2010, but He holds the future in His hands and I will trust in Him.

Here is one of my favorite verses I gleaned from Scripture in 2009:

Deuteronomy 33:27 a
The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms:

Here is what I wish for all of you in 2010:

Numbers 6:24-26
The Lord bless thee, and keep thee:
The Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:
The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.

12/30/09

An antique from my friend's home.

We've been cleaning like mad people today. I am so tired of dust!!!

While I have loved getting my house back in order, I am also finding my vacation is moving along quickly. Maybe I'll get a few things in that I'd like to do before I get back into the rat race of regular life.

I miss our Christmas lights. Everything seems so dark now.

I realize some of you out there don't take down your Christmas as early as I have been. I have to put it up the day after Thanksgiving because of school and then get it down before I go back to school or I'll still be looking at Christmas in June. lol

Wesley was glad the house looked "clean" again. Hmmmm.... what's he sayin????

He also said he thought our den looked so much bigger now. Well, when you take out a large Christmas tree and various other things that deal with Christmas, I can see where you'd think that. :)

I'm babbling and I know it. Off to finish up more cleaning.

My next project awaiting me - IRONING.

YUCK.

12/29/09

Maybe this could be a little "Christmasy" looking? I need to get out and photograph some more things. Some of my "oldies" from this past year will have to do.

Been taking back things that didn't fit and taking down the Christmas tree today . She was quite dry but did really well this year! I hate taking down the tree.... I am dreading the lights most of all which is why I am on here typing instead of in there doing just that!

Here is a thought for today:

Mankind defines peace as that moment when all of earth is without strife or war. If that were true, then peace would never find its defining moment here on earth, and the term most certainly would have disappeared from all human language centuries ago, an archaic dream.

Peace, then, can only be defined by God, given by Him, and bestowed upon the heart as the crowning prize when every trace of our self has been surrendered to the Father's will.
When all desire is lost in His, our life becomes a fertile plain - our heart the happy picking ground with peace the bounteous crop. It is upon this single plain of surrender that we can know true peace. It is the royal mark of our adoption, legally sealed by the blood of God's Son, Jesus Christ.

- Patricia Hickman

12/28/09

I've been cleaning out and cleaning up today. Still leaving up the Christmas tree for another day or so to enjoy. It has just been good to be at HOME all day.


Here is something a friend sent me through email. I thought it was quite neat and hope you enjoy it, too.

What An Awesome God!

God's accuracy may be observed in the hatching of eggs.

For example :
-the eggs of the potato bug hatch in 7 days;
-those of the canary in 14 days;
-those of the barnyard hen in 21 days ;
-The eggs of ducks and geese hatch in 28 days;
-those of the mallard in 35 days ;
-The eggs of the parrot and the ostrich hatch in 42 days.
(Notice, they are all divisible by seven , the number of days in a
week!)

The lives of each of you may be ordered by the Lord in a beautiful
way for His glory, if you will only entrust Him with your life. If you
try to regulate your own life, it will only be a mess and a failure. Only
the One Who made the brain and the heart can successfully guide them to a
profitable end.

God's wisdom is seen in the making of an elephant.. The four legs
of this great beast all bend forward in the same direction. No other
quadruped is so made. God planned that this animal would have a huge
body, too large to live on two legs. For this reason He gave it four
fulcrums so that it can rise from the ground easily.

The horse rises from the ground on its two front legs first.

A cow rises from the ground with its two hind legs first.

How wise the Lord is in all His works of creation!

God's wisdom is revealed in His arrangement of sections and
segments, as well as in the number of grains.

-Each watermelon has an even number of strips on the rind.
-Each orange has an even number of segments.
-Each ear of corn has an even number of rows.
-Each stalk of wheat has an even number of grains.
-Every bunch of bananas has on its lowest row an even number of
bananas, and each row decreases by one, so that one row has an even
number and the next row an odd number.

-The waves of the sea roll in on shore twenty-six to the minute in
all kinds of weather.

All grains are found in even numbers on the stalks, and the Lord
specified thirty fold, sixty fold, and a hundredfold - all even numbers.

God has caused the flowers to blossom at certain specified times
during the day, so that Linnaeus, the great botanist, once said that if
he had a conservatory containing the right kind of soil, moisture and
temperature, he could tell the time of day or night by the flowers that
were open and those that were closed!

Thus the Lord in His wonderful grace can arrange the life that is
entrusted to His care in such a way that it will carry out His purposes
and plans, and will be fragrant with His presence.

Only the God-planned safe life is successful. Only the life given
over to the care of the Lord is fulfilled.


When God takes something from your grasp, He's merely opening your hands
to receive something better.

12/27/09

There is joy and sadness today....

Joy in the fact that I am beginning the process of getting my house back.

Sadness that Christmas is already over.

We're going to enjoy a few parts of our Christmas a little longer, but overall I am ready to get some clutter gone and my house back to normal. ha! Right now I am going through areas that need purging and getting some stuff organized. I have to do it when I have the energy and am in the mood to throw away things. lol

Enjoy these last few bits of Christmas cheer....

12/26/09

Here is a little ribbon candy for your viewing pleasure. Sorry you can't taste it. :) Off to another Christmas gathering!

12/25/09

Merry Christmas!

I hope your day has been filled with wonderful moments.

I have had precious moments today.

Wesley had told me last weekend that I would know a lot of love on Christmas Day. He said I would know how much he loves me then. Little did he realize that those precious words would be all the present I would need.

Today arrived and presents were all around. There were two presents that had never been in mine and Steve's piles before.... presents from Wesley and Mikayla themselves.

We found out that our two sweeties used their own money and bought us gifts.

Never did I think that they would do something like that.

It isn't that I thought they were selfish, it was just that at their age I just didn't see them doing that. It would be more of a thing where Steve took them for a gift for me and I took them for a gift for Steve, etc....

They were so excited for us to open them. Steve got a Wii game from Wesley that he and Wesley could play together. He got a UNC hooded sweatshirt from Mikayla.

For me, they did something that is precious to my "Mother's Heart".... literally and figuratively. Here are the sweet gifts:

Wesley gave me this heart charm/silver necklace. He kept smiling and saying "See how much I love you??" -- Oh, buddy.... more than you'll ever realize.

Here is my precious gift from Mikayla. It caused me to have some tears. I have always seen these and thought of Mom, but never thought of these between Mikayla and me. Maybe it is because she has been so little and we hadn't "arrived" at that yet. Anyway, the inscription with the necklaces goes like this:

"A mother teaches her daughter to dream and a daughter teaches her mother to love."
- Author Unknown

One of the necklaces is for me and the other for Mikayla.

It was beyond words for this Mother's heart to bear today. I wish I could wear both of them every day. lol They both are equally precious in my eyes for different reasons. I am so blessed by the Lord with the two children He has given to us. I wanted to show pics of Steve and me with Wesley and Mikayla after we opened the gifts so you can see Steve's gifts as well, but Blogger is being difficult with my pics the last couple of days. Not sure what is up with that.

Off to spend more time with my precious ones.....

12/24/09

We want to wish everyone a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Enjoy your time with family and friends. Here is "Once Upon a Christmas" by Selah. Originally written by Dolly Parton, I love this version by Selah. Dolly is also singing with them.

12/23/09

More pics of the season... Celebrating with friends who are like family tonight. :)

12/22/09

Today has been a day filled with trying to find my house again, watching Christmas movies/videos and wrapping some presents. It was nice to not be in such a hurry this morning to get everything accomplished... even though I still have much to do. No one will be coming to our house this year for a "formal" gathering, so my clutter will be fine where it is until I can sort through it all.

Good news is... the "Mount Everest" of clothing that was clean and had spilled over onto the floor because I had folded NOTHING from last weeks washing has finally been folded. Of course, I washed several loads today so that is really not over, is it? lol

I never showed my poor "Whoville" tree from school. Here she is:


This tree has carried me through fourteen Christmases with my students. Unfortunately, this was its last. She had two areas on her base where it was cracked and it was a miracle she stayed upright the entire month of school. She also had issues with her branches staying where they should. At one point this year she was quite "cockeyed" and I tried to fix her but when I did she fell right over!! Once I got her upright again and in one spot, I told my students we could not go near her or breathe near her anymore for fear of a repeat performance.

I have had many friends over the last couple of years tell me to get rid of her... and this year I had to do it. She just wouldn't hold on any longer. I shall always miss this tree because one of my parents from my first year of teaching gave her to me. The new one should work just fine, but my sweet memories of the kids who have decorated her branches will always be close to my heart.

Am I being a bit too dramatic and sappy over a fake tree? Maybe so, but that is just who I am. Those who know me in person realize this and love me anyway.

We found out today that "Frosty the Snowman Returns" is a horrible follow-up to the sweet "Frosty the Snowman" cartoon movie. YUCK.

I will never get tired of watching "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" as I did today with the kiddos. Everyone sing with me: "Put one foot in front of the other.... and soon you'll be walking out the door...." Those memories of the movies I watched as a child are also the memories for our own two. Love, love, love that special "magical" time of Christmas.

Yesterday we took the kids to see Santa. I had to LAUGH when I saw Mikayla not only brought her typed out list for him, but also two American Girl Doll magazines. He told her he would keep those and take them back with him to the North Pole. LOL That girl is something....

We've never gotten around to taking the kids to see a Christmas movie in the theater this year. It may have to be a "New Year" treat. I'm finding the older they get the busier we get!! I am thankful for this break so we can do some things we haven't had time to do lately.

Off to do more "traditions" and make more memories....

Happy Birthday to my Daddy today! :)

12/21/09

For this to have been my first official day of vacation, it surely was a crazy one! Hopefully tomorrow will be a little less hectic. :)

I took this picture at Tryon Palace in New Bern, NC on our way back home yesterday. Since coming across the song "Rose of Bethlehem" I shared on here a week or so ago, I have begun to "chew" on the rose a bit more. One of the series of books I am reading has dealt with "The Secret of the Rose" and has delved into some spiritual truths along the way of every day thoughts on the growing of roses.


As I have pondered this and thought of what I have learned through those books as well as what I have learned through the Lord revealing things to me through His Word, I am seeing the rose in a whole new light. Please humor me as I go through this metaphor of the rose.

I see the rose as something that is beautiful yet so fragile. It has beauty but there are the thorns that can cause a lot of pain.

So is our life in that manner. God has made us in His image... we are beautiful, but we have those "thorns" in life that cause pain and make us fragile. The thorns cause us heartache.... cause our "hearts" to bleed. Yet, the rose continues to bloom and grow.

The petals and "folds" of the rose are able to grow because of those thorns. Those thorns protect the bloom from being taken from the vine too soon and not able to grow to its potential. The thorns can be seen as God's protection and growing times that come to us in life.

Ever thought of the thorns that way? I hadn't until today.

As each petal "awakens" a new depth enters into the beauty of the rose. Each new fold of the rose is one more opening of our hearts to God's will and not our own. Left to our own devices we would probably stay a rose bud and not bloom to our fullest. The stem, with its thorns attached, is connected to the root, the life of the bloom. It causes the bloom to open up in the midst of those thorns and become something that bursts forth in beauty of its Creator.

I can look back and see plenty of those "thorns" in my life. The Lord uses those thorns, not as something to hurt us, but something to protect us and help us to grow into what He wants us to be.... that beautiful rose unfolding with a fragrance that flows along the air and reaches the senses of those around us.

What a way to share with many the loving scent of our Heavenly Father Who cares so much for you and me that He was willing to send His Son so that one day He would wear those thorns for us. Once again, THIS is why He came.

"Born to glorify the Father, born to wear the thorns for me....."
O Come, let us adore Him!

12/20/09

Our getaway was just wonderful. It may have been rainy and quite cold, but we were alone and together and that was what mattered. I am so thankful for the gift of my sweet Steve. God has richly blessed me and for that I am forever grateful. We visited many historic sites and braced the cold together. More pics of that will come later.

Since we just got back home I'm going to share this that my Mother-in-Law sent to me through email. I thought it was so fitting for many reasons. Enjoy! :)

I Corinthians 13

A CHRISTMAS VERSION

By an unknown author

If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows, strands of twinkling lights and shiny balls, but do not show love, I’m just another decorator.

If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas cookies, preparing gourmet meals and arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime, but do not show love, I’m just another cook. If I work at the soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home and give all that I have to charity, but do not show love, it profits me nothing. If I trim the spruce with shimmering angels and crocheted snowflakes, attend a myriad of holiday parties and sing in the choir’s cantata but do not focus on Christ, I have missed the point.

Love stops the cooking to hug the child.

Love sets aside the decorating to kiss the husband.

Love is kind, though harried and tired.

Love doesn’t envy another’s home that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens. Love doesn’t yell at the kids to get out of the way, but is thankful they are there to be in the way. Love doesn’t give only to those who are able to give in return but rejoices in giving to those who can’t. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails.

Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust, but giving the gift of love will endure.

12/18/09

I can't believe it, but it is snowing here today in Raleigh, NC right before Christmas! I honestly can't recall that happening before. I know we have had it right after Christmas, but not so close beforehand. The kids at school were all excited. Our administrator was just glad school was out so we didn't have to cancel any school. lol

School is out for Christmas break.

I am so glad!

My sweet man and I are off for the weekend to spend some time together. We do not get to do this often and last year when he surprised me with our trip to Asheville it made us want to try to do it each year. I am not sure if every year will work out for us to do it around Christmas, but at least we are able to do so again this year!

This year we are off to the other end of the state... near Beaufort, NC. It is going to be cold, WINDY and rainy, but we are going to make the best of it!! I'll "see" you all when we get back on Sunday.

12/17/09

A nutcracker and Mikayla's fairy ornaments today.

My brain is tired. lol I hit my wall today and the past weeks of hurrying and scurrying with the play finally caught up with me. I was not very functional at school for my poor students. I am sure they felt the same....

Here is the ending of our play yesterday. (The "traditional" Christmas ornaments were making fun of and saying the souvenir ornaments weren't important. They soon found out that Christmas wasn't about THEM, it was about Jesus, and why He came.) I love this ending and think it sums up Christmas perfectly.

It seems we all get like these ornaments sometimes. We get caught up in who is the “best” or who does the most for the Lord when all He wants is for us to know Him, love Him and worship Him. Without Jesus there would be no Christmas. Without His birth at Christmas there would be no cross where He died for our sins. Without the cross there would be no way for eternal life in Heaven. He is our fairest Lord Jesus! Let us adore Him!

12/16/09

I went to my friends Morgan and Sal's today and took some pictures of their nutcrackers. Oh, the joy of photographing something creatively..... Here are some of Morgan's sparkly ones. I just love things that sparkle!! You'll be seeing more pics of the nutcrackers in the next few posts... I took a few. lol

Whew....
The play is OVER. The Lord be praised because it went off SO well today and even when the kids messed up they moved right along as if nothing happened. I was so proud of all of them.

Here are a a few pics of the scenery I took so I would remember the next time we did this play. It is an attic scene and the kids were ornaments coming out of boxes. The play is called "Christmas Hang-ups" and it was adorable. I was quite tickled with the scenery. Parents lent us things out of their actual attics and one of my parents in my class took my "vision" of the large boxes the kids had to come out of and made the large ones! I painted the words on the side and then we "scuffed" them up to make them look older. We even added a touch of cobwebs and spiders! ha!!! I wish I had had time to take pics during the play, but I was busy enough directing.... LOL!



Wesley gave me a few chuckle and thoughtful moments today that I thought I would share.

This morning we were on our way to school and Wesley says what I THOUGHT was "I want to play in the band." I began thinking to myself, "Well, OK, he'll be able to do that next year and I am sure he would do fine.... wonder what instrument he wants to play...." I then said something about what I was thinking and he said "Mom. I said "WE NEED TO CLEAN OUT THE VAN!" Apparently his mother needs to clean out her ears. HAHA!!! (and they did clean out that van this afternoon...)

I took the kids out to lunch today and as we were eating Wesley out of the blue says "If we were to look inside ourselves, is it dark?" Now, I realize I know the answer to that, but do you think I have ever PONDERED that question? That would be "NO."

After we ate and were just sitting there being together before we had to leave, Wesley came to sit next to me. He turns to me and says "Those people over there prayed before they ate! I don't see that often!" (That is quite sad....)

Then, he begins to do strange faces in the mirror that was right next to us in the restaurant. I told him the people in the restaurant could see him in that mirror even though his back was turned to them. He said "OH! I was just trying to flare my nose...."

Mikayla didn't have as much to say today... she is fighting off a cold. BUT, when we were sitting in the restaurant a couple came in with their arms around each other. Mikayla rolls her eyes and says "Well, two love birds just came in!" She cracks me up....

12/15/09

A couple of Wesley's new ornaments. I forgot to take a picture of his Corvette or either it didn't turn out. Oh well.... lol

This is the tractor ornament for the year. So fitting for him since he's now helping Steve mow our grass.

This is a Ford Thunderbird Classic Car.... I think. LOL I'm not very "up" on my cars, you know.

What a day...

I was extremely crazy at school with teaching, then preparing for the play by getting the staging ready, running back to get the students ready and dressed and then performing. This play is long this year... a good 40 minutes.... It was good and we just have tomorrow to perform and it is done for the year!

We had to come back home this afternoon for Mikayla's piano books today. She has never forgotten them so I knew it was because we had a lot to remember this morning. Well, it was a good thing we got to run by home and do a couple of things because when I took her to piano, my battery died in the "Golden Chariot" so we had to sit there another hour waiting for help. Steve is working late tonight so Mom and Daddy came and "saved the day." No matter how old you get it surely is a wonderful feeling to see your parents come help. There were a lot of things I needed to get done tonight and I wanted to do a bit of "normalcy" with the kids, but that wasn't what the Lord had planned. I honestly tried not to stress over it too much and just be thankful help was on the way and it was just the battery.

Now off to "fling" some supper together, wash some clothes, etc.... :)

12/14/09

More from my lighted village.... these are the John Deere collectibles that Kevin has given to us the last couple of years.


Tomorrow is our Dress Rehearsal for the play! For once, I am not entirely stressed..... got a lot on my mind, but not as stressed so I thank the Lord for that. I know it will all work out.

Off to eat a bit more of my coconut cashew brittle I made this weekend and help the kids with their homework. :)