Weekend Recap

This weekend was fun!

Friday Stephen took the boys to play golf in Pine Bluff. Anna and I went shopping and then went and picked them up. We got there just in time to see all our guys walking down the 18th green. It was a sweet picture. They had a good time, despite the heat. And Stephen makes them walk. I think because he had to walk at their age! Payback!

Saturday Anna, Daniel and I went to Little Rock to see Abby, Randall and Henry. We ate lunch at the Purple Cow and enjoyed time together. I'm trying to get Henry to call me Mama. Abby hates it, so out of respect for her I have now changed it to Mama Juju. One of these days its going to sink it to that cute little head of his. And when he sees me he's going to yell out "Mama Juju!" I just can't wait!

Sunday, we went to church. We had great services with people saved! Who would have thought that could happen on a holiday weekend! HA!

Today, Stephen is at the grill and smoker. He is lovin' every minute of it. The kids are counting down the minutes until the pool opens. But first we are going to the memorial service at the town square. Samuel and the Boy Scouts are leading the flag ceremony and David and Daniel are going to wear their cub scout uniforms (and get a badge for it!)

I hope you all have a great Memorial Day! I thank God for allowing me to be born in the USA and to have the freedoms that I have.

Easter 2010

Easter morning began with a egg hunt in the back yard. Its the only time my kids hunt Easter eggs.

For some reason, we have never made a big deal about Easter egg hunts, so they don't even know to expect them. I know most families hunt eggs all day and even the days before Easter. We are not one of those families. One time and thats it!

My father-in-law went to the store for breakfast while I got lunch ready. I had inadvernatly forgotten to buy anything for Easter breakfast. I made sure I had everything for lunch and supper but nothing for breakfast. Oh well, my kids are used to it.

Everyone got dressed and looked so nice. I took pictures with Samuel's picture. A couple of pictures of the kids all together and then a picture of me with each one. Samuel requested that he get a picture of just the two of us, he said we hadn't done that since 2006. Surely it hadn't been that long!

I would post a couple of the pictures, but I can't find the cord to the camera. My old printer used to have a slot for my memory card, but now I have a new swanky printer and no memory card slot. We also are a one car family for a few days (well, it has actually been over a week) while the truck gets fixed and today I'm homebound while Stephen is making hospital visits. So, there won't be any pictures today.

I know, you're shocked!!

And right before we left for church. I mean, right before we left. Daniel ripped his pants. On Easter. What are the odds of that? So, Daniel got to wear jeans! I was so proud he had a clean pair.

How was your Easter?

Up from the grave He arose!!!

Our Jesus is alive and well and wants nothing more than to have a relationship with us.

Happy Easter!!!

I found this last year and loved it. So, I decided to share it with you.

A quote from Amy Carmichael...

If a sudden jar can cause me to speak an impatient, unloving word, then I know
nothing of Calvary's love. For a cup brimful of sweet water cannot spill even
one drop of bitter water, however suddenly jolted.

I don't know if it speaks to you. But I was reminded of how awful my Jesus was treated and how He didn't speak an unkind word.

And then I was reminded of how I am treated, and how it can't be compared to being beaten, and mistreated the way Jesus was. And how I am so quick to speak an unkind word, or sigh an unpleasant sigh.

May we never gloss over the Crucifixion and may we never lose the excitement of Jesus' glorious resurrection!!!

Happy Easter!!

On to Round 3

Round 1 and Round 2 of Christmas are done!!!

This was our first year to stay at our home for all of Christmas. We had decided some time last Christmas that we should stay home and see if we liked it. Going from my moms to his parents house, fitting in relatives, meals, friends, and last minute shopping was wearing us out. Not to mention Stephen having to load the van with the presents we had to take home. So, the decision was made.

This year Stephen's parents came the week of Christmas and my mom came the day after and stayed the night. We are going to Dad's this weekend.

Sounds relaxing doesn't it? But, oh my goodness. The work!

I cooked pies, cakes, meals, meals and more meals. I was exhausted by Friday.

I haven't decided if I like Christmas at my house any better than Christmas in Ft. Smith. I love the hustle and bustle of the holiday. And seeing my family.

We went to my Mamaws for Thanksgiving this year so that we could see the family we wouldn't get to see at Christmas. I'm so glad we did that. If I hadn't seen my aunts, uncles, and cousins I think I would have had to make a trip to the Fort on Christmas Eve for a family fix!

I wasn't so sad that I cried about being home and away from my family. It was different, and I just haven't decided if different was good or not.

We'll have to have a discussion about it as a couple and a family and see what we do next year. That can wait a while though. Thank heavens!

Since Tuesday I have cooked 4 pies, 1 cake, 6 full meals for 8 people, done 5 loads of laundry (washed, dried, and folded) run the dishwasher 8 times, washed 3 sets of sheets and put them back on the beds, vacuumed, mopped, taken 3 showers, and applied compound w to David's wart 3 times (gag me with a spoon).

I would like to take this opportunity to say THANK YOU to all the adults in my life that never complained about doing all those things every Christmas for the past 39 years. You are my heros!!!

I still have to sort presents and put them in piles for the kids (Abby hates this but it makes me happy), make sure Santa has stockings filled, presents out, and has eaten his cookies and delivered the apples to the reindeer. Calgon take me away!!! It will be more like Tylenol pm take me away. I can't wait!!

Merry Christmas to everyone!!
Luke 2:18 And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

Merry Christmas Eve Eve to you!!!

We put our Christmas tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving and decorated the week after. I think I have whined enough about how I dislike decorating for Christmas. That's why this is going to seem strange.

Today my in-laws come for Christmas. They will stay until the day after Christmas and then my mom will come and spend a few days.

I've decided that I would much rather decorate for Christmas closer to the actual day. Today I was cooking (please no laughing!) pies, cake, fudge, almond bark stuff, and breads. I was thinking that it would be so much more festive if we were decorating the tree and the house for Christmas now. Today.

It seems like now the Christmas decorations are just part of our home decor. Nothing special. We've gotten use to the tree in the room, the village lit up, and the nativity on the side table. We don't even turn on the tree lights every morning like we did just a couple of weeks ago.

I'm afraid it has gotten old, just when I'm ready to rev it up.

Anyone else? Am I the only one?

So, I've made it pretty clear that I don't enjoy decorating for Christmas. And I've probably not said anything about Christmas cooking, but I don't enjoy that either.

But I do enjoy me some Christmas movies.

Do you just love this or what??

It started with the countdown to the 25 Days of Christmas and then the actual 25 Days of Christmas. And add in Hallmark, Lifetime, Lifetime Movie Network, and all the other channels. It is a Christmas movie bonanza!

They are safe to watch. You can pretty much bet they are going to have happy endings. Well, except for The Christmas Shoes. The song, the book, the movie, they make me cry. And it is the ugly cry. You know where the kids are looking at me like someone in the room has died. I didn't even know there was a trilogy of The Christmas Shoes. Who knew. But the other two aren't as sad as the first one. Thank heavens for that.

I made a list of my favorite Christmas movies so far this year. And of course I can't find it. It wasn't that good of a list anyway.

I wanted to watch Santa Baby 2 tonight. But after subjecting the family to The Christmas Shoes Trilogy I decided to let Stephen choose what to watch after that. I'll catch Santa Baby 2 some other time. Because thats the other thing about Christmas movies, they replay them all the time!

Do you have any favorites??

This is how I Christmas!

This week in This is how we Christmas, it is the decorations edition!
For great Christmas decorating ideas visit Lisa and the other bloggers that actually decorate for Christmas.

I have two problems with this edition .
1. I am not a decorator. Not at all. I love decorations, I just can't seem to use them very well.
2. I don't have a camera that works!

But, I will write about my decorations. Maybe in my writing of them you will see something more beautiful than if I had a camera. Maybe.

Nativity
Jesus is the reason for the season. I know that and everyone in my family knows that. Because our house is the parsonage, and my kids are at church every time the doors are open, I tend to take for granted that my children know all there is to know about Christmas. I figure they know all about Christ's birth and the joy that surrounds it. Isn't that awful? I'm taking a different approach this year. This year they will be hearing all the stories of Christ's birth from the gospels and they will be memorizing scripture to recite on Christmas Eve. I'm pretty sure I'm more excited than they are.
Anyway! The nativity. This is the first year for the one we have on our side table in the living room. Last year we didn't have one at all, because the year before some hyper-active teenage boys were playing guitar hero, got excited, slammed into the couch, which in turn, knocked over the sofa table that held the nativity scene. Breaking everyone and decapitating the animals and a wise guy. This nativity is on a table by itself. It isn't so special that the kids can't move the characters around. There is a special nativity set that is in my family that my Great-Grandmother made. I don't know who will get that when it comes to handing it down to my generation. But I WANT IT!

Tree
We are a "real Christmas tree" family. We used to have an artificial tree but the fluffing every year made me ugly, so I decided that the cost of a real tree every year was worth it if I didn't have to fluff a fake tree.
This year after the kids had decorated the tree (I'm not much help, I pretty much let them decorate it by themselves) it fell. over. I was not happy! We lost a couple of ornaments. And since the branches are so weak ornaments keep falling off the tree. By Christmas day we will probably only have lights on it! But not as many as Lisa!!

Snowmen and Santas
I love them both. I have all my Santas in my kitchen and my snowmen in my foyer. Doesn't that sound lofty? A foyer.
There aren't any that are real special, but I like they way they look and so I put them out.

Mantel
We have a mantel. You would think that we would have a fireplace too, but we don't. Well, we have the hole for the fireplace but no chimney and no gas logs. Oh the stories I could tell. Anyway! Then mantel is decorated quite nicely I must say. I got the idea from my sister who in her pregnancy decided to not decorate very much for Christmas. Please go here and see how she "didn't" decorate very much! I have greenery laying on the mantel with red and silver balls all over it. Beautiful, simply gorgeous!

How do you decorate for Christmas?
Did I mention that I won last weeks edition? I'll show you what I got when I get it!!!

This is how we Christmas!

My friend Lisa (I have met her in real breathing life, so I am calling her friend) here is hosting This is how we Christmas! She has a cute blog button that I could put on here if I knew how. But as you probably know, I can only type on the computer and nothing else! Someone help me!

So, onto Christmas!

Christmas Calendars!
Our Christmas traditions are few. The one that is the longest tradition we have is the chocolate advent calendar. It really isn't even an advent calendar as much as it is a chocolate countdown to Christmas calendar. It is a cardboard calendar with windows that are numbered 1-24. When you open a window there is a piece of chocolate behind it and it is your prize for the day! We had a calendar one year that had little (and when I say little, think Polly Pockets shoe little!) trinket toys inside. That was awful and we will never do that again!!
We buy each child a calendar and sometimes I even get one. We have bought these calendars at several different places. Cracker Barrel, Dollar General, and this year Michael's had them. Usually we try to buy them after Christmas and freeze them (and then the chocolate has all that white on it-yuck!) but we didn't do that this year. And it was a scramble to get them by Dec 1! In fact Mom picked them up for us this year on the 1st and delivered them to us in the hospital before Henry was born. We barely made it!

Breakfast!
My mother always fixes a brunch on Christmas morning. Eggs, biscuits, sausage, bacon, gravy, and garlic cheese grits. Oh my goodness. I love garlic cheese grits! We only have them on Christmas morning I don't know why we don't sample the goodness any other time. We really should! This year Christmas will be at my house and I will be making the garlic cheese grits. Any prayers you would like to offer up on my behalf are welcome and encouraged! HA!

Christmas Eve Gift!
This is what we say when we answer the phone on Christmas Eve. It began on my moms side of the family as a fun game between the adults. Whoever said it first got a prize of some sort. Something little but fun. Then the cousins got older and it became bigger. Now we all say it and no matter who said it first everyone gets a little gift. This keeps me from having to let the kids open a gift on Christmas Eve. I just tell them they already had their Christmas Eve Gift, even if it was just socks or a slinky!

I'm sure there are many others but these three are my favorite traditions and it just wouldn't be Christmas without them. I think I will ask the kids what their favorite traditions are and see if they name any of these. I'll get back with you on that!

Its December!!!!!

Happy December to you!!

Happy Birthday to you Claire! Today our cousin turns nine years old. It is hard to believe.

I was pregnant when Claire was born. Abby and I took a trip to Memphis to visit Hollye and Claire in the hospital. We stopped at Danvers to eat lunch and I got soo sick. Which was normal for me during that time. I didn't know at that time that I was carrying twins, I thought I was having a girl.

I was so excited that Claire and my little girl were going to be so close in age. But instead, I had two boys that couldn't love Claire more! Seriously, she could move in with us and the boys would love every minute of it!

This is the day that the girls and kids in our family open up our chocolate advent calendars and begin opening the little windows and eating a piece of chocolate everyday. It is a tradition in our family that goes back too far for me to remember.

This year we can't find any. None. At all. Abby and I were stressing about it last night. What were we going to do this morning when we didn't have a window to open on our calendars. Would my kids runaway from home, because I didn't provide this tradition for them again this year? Oh, the angst!!

And then I got an email from my mother today. She said Walgreens had them in their ad and she would go get them for us!

Thank you Mom!
Oh! the relief!!! December can begin!!!

Julie

Beyond Tired

We left Arkansas on Wednesday morning headed for Texas.

We went through a little bit of Louisiana and made it to Texas in just under 5 hours. It was the best trip we have ever had. I don't know why the kids were so good. I won't question it. I'll just say they were really good!!

We had such a great time at Mamaw and Uncle David's house. There were 30 of us that came from out of town to eat be together! Most of us came in on Wednesday. And just about the time we got there we started eating.

We ate appetizers of fried cheese, cheddar peppers, eggrolls, chip and dip and little quiches. And then about 45 minutes later ate brisket, rolls, beans and dessert. WOW! We were so full.

Everyone stayed at a hotel in town. Our kids got to swim, and we ate the hotel's free breakfast. That gave Mamaw a break! Then we headed to the house and ate again! And again!! Oh my goodness, how much can a stomach hold?

Friday, we headed to Fort Smith to visit with Stephen's parents for a bit. Traveling through Oklahoma to get there. It was a pretty drive, one we had not taken in many years.

But now we are home. And I am so glad! I want to go lay on my bed so badly, but I know if I do the day will be over for me.

This Thanksgiving was just perfect. It was so wonderful to be with family that I love so much. I am thankful to my Lord and Savior for allowing me to be born into such a loving family.

Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day.

I wanted to tell you the story of a pretty great mother.

Kathy was in a strange new city, and a big university and knew only the 4 family members that she lived with. After a couple of months she was set up on a blind date with a man who had just served a tour of duty in Vietnam as a Green Beret.

They went to a college football game on their first date. And she fell in love with him.

And he with her.

They dated. She met his family and was immediately accepted as a family member. They took her in and loved on her while her own parents were so many miles away.

Eventually he proposed and they married. It was a beautiful ceremony filled with love and emotion.

He decided to go back to Vietnam and do a second tour of duty as a Green Beret. As he was going back, she was pregnant.

She moved home to be with her parents to await the delivery of their child, while missing him terribly.

She went into labor on her due date. It was the hottest day ever-108 degrees-and the ac didn't work in her hospital room. Luckily she had connections and it got fixed before the day ended!

She gave birth to a little girl. Not beautiful at first but she finally grew into those eyebrows (thank heavens for waxing!!). She loved that little girl as did the rest of the family.

Soon Kathy's husband returned from the war. They once again set up house in a home far away from her family. He had returned not the same as he had left. Physically intact, but he had seen things and experienced things that would leave him emotionally scared for life.

He did love his little girl though. Loved her fiercely.

As time went on, Kathy saw that this was not going to be a home that she could raise her daughter in. She knew the importance of being raised in a God-fearing, church going home. And she knew that is what her daughter deserved.

So, she made the toughest decision of her life.

And she left.

She went home to raise her daughter in a home where God would be praised, taught, worshipped, and spoken about. She went back home to her family. To safety, and security. Things that weren't always present before.

Kathy then became reacquainted with a man she had known before she left for college. After dating for a while, they married. He the son of a preacher, she the daughter of a deacon and the organist.

He loved her daughter and wanted to call her his own. So her adopted her, gave her his name and loved her with a love that couldn't be matched. She called him, and only him, Daddy.

Kathy loved and supported her daughter through many arguments between friends. Through many fights with boyfriends, through love and disappoinment. She was always there for her daughter. To dry her eyes, or cheer her on in her successes. She could always be counted on for being wherever her daughter needed her to be. She gave up much of her own desires to be the mother of her daughter. She loved her.

She showed her how to be a mother.

And now her daughter is a mother. A mother of four children. She is still called on often, when the daughter is overwhelmed with motherhood. She offers advice and encouragment.

She became a mother 38 years ago.

And is still as active in her daughters life now as she was then.

Thanks, mom for being a shining example of what a mother should be.

Proverbs 31:28 Her children rise up and call her blessed.

I love this quote by Amy Carmichael
...if a sudden jar can cause me to speak an impatient, unloving word, then I know
nothing of Calvary's love. For a cup brimful of sweet water cannot spill even one
drop of bitter water, however suddenly jolted.

It reminds me of Christs great love for us.
My daddy loves to sing traditional hymns at church. He sings them with all the fervor and gusto he can manage. Sometimes to the dismay of those sitting around him! This morning when we sing...Up from the grave He arose... I will be wishing I could hear him singing beside me. I wish my mom and sister were beside me too. But as our family grows, we seem to live away from each other and don't spend Easter together as a family.

Happy Easter everyone!!!

Easter

First let me say I am so sorry for yesterdays post. That was just terrible!

Easter is always a picture holiday. For the last 7 Easters my children have had matching or coordinated clothing.

Not so this year.

This year Samuel says he is boycotting Easter clothes. I have refused to call him a preteen or a tween, but sadly, he is definitely acting like one.

Anna is wearing a beautiful white dress. It's a Strausburg dress and we got it on sale in January. I can still feel the excitement of that purchase.

The kids and I went shopping Tuesday and David and Daniel picked out their Easter clothes. David picked out a white shirt, plaid blazer and green and white striped tie. (It really looks good, I promise.) Daniel picked out a pale pink and white striped linen shirt. They are wearing their khaki pants. That will be all that matches with those two.
Samuel is wearing, hopefully, a white polo with blue around the collar. I got it on sale a couple of weeks ago. A new Polo for $6, can't beat that! He is threatening not to wear it, and wear his shirt from last year instead.

I had intended for them to all wear some version of white and navy. But because I am old and tired I gave in. They can wear these clothes for Easter. The picture won't be as good as the ones where they all matched. But maybe, just maybe, there will be no fussing, or complaining Easter morning.

How about you? Are your kids matching for Easter? Are you wearing something new for Easter? Please tell me!