New Years Eve

How does one spend New Years Eve? Well we are spending it at home. We got a lot of snow from yesterday afternoon and over night that we could not even get out to go to church. My husband spent time shoveling the sidewalks and by the garage just so we could get out. But by the time he was finished shoveling it was too late to even to get to church on time. I believe that a lot of church's must have cancelled their services, cause there were a lot of church cancellations we heard on the one station we listen to on a regular basis.
The kids enjoyed the snow. They went outside right after breakfast and stayed outside till lunch time. Oh, how to be a child again, when there is no worries of anything and just enjoying life. I enjoyed the outdoors when I was a child and to see my own children enjoy being outdoors is a true blessing. Most children these days may not enjoy the outdoors much with all the electronics that can keep them busy inside. I believe in having a balance life style.
We rented some movies as a treat for New Years Eve to end off the year. It seems to be a tradition that we rent a movie for the evening and see if we can stay awake till midnight. In some cases we have never made it till midnight cause we tend to fall asleep before then.
Our year has been an eventful year with changes. I am looking to a year that may have a lot of changes again and with a lot of good memories with my huband and children. There is no New Years resolution for me, just some goals I want to work at. Do you have any New Years Resolution? Some of my goals for the new year is to work at losing some weight, and to work at my relationship with the Lord that He may be the strong point in my life to give me the strength to conquer any evilness that satan may want to put in my life. My prayer for those that read this that you may have a blessed New Year and that you will look to the Lord for strength in your life and focus on what God's word tells us/Jesus Followers on how we are to live our lives, not how the World wants us to live. May we show God's love to others in the New Year and have forgiving hearts. Blessed New Year.

How was Christmas?

For most people, you have spent Christmas with family whether just your little family or extended family(parents, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers, and nices and nephews). Well for me and my little family of us 4 we spent it on the couch and bathroom. Three of us were sick with the flu. My husband came home on the 21 feeling achy and with chills. Well by morning the next day he was sick and it was the flu, which caused him to stay at home. By saturday he felt only a little better. The kids and myself were doing fine, and chose to do our final shopping for the day, while Daddy stayed home on the couch. Come Christmas Eve morning when I got out of bed I did not acctually feel like running a marathon, instead a trip to the bathroom. During that time my mother in-law phoned to see what our plans were for Christmas till New Years, well she got her answered that I was sick as well. Then to add to this my daughter came down with the flu in the wee morning hours of Christmas Day. My husband was at the rescue of helping our daughter, cause I was not up to it. By morning or I should say once our son was up he was wanting to open the gifts. So I dragged my body onto the love seat with camera in hand and watched our son enjoy the whole Christmas morning event of opening gifts. While my daughter lay on the couch and opened her gifts with not as much enthusiasm as her brother. As the day went on my daughter and I did not move much off the couches unless it was for the need of the bathroom. I thought of people enjoying Christmas meals of turkey or chicken with all the trimmings during the day while I just drank water, gatorade, and ate soda crackers. What a Christmas. I am thankful we were at home and could just relax in our state of physical being, and not care whether we looked fine. We made the best of this Christmas despite the flu. I plan of having our Christmas Dinner yet once we all can eat the big meal. For now we are still trying some foods so our body's can get use to the intake. Hopefully next year our Christmas can be better without the flu. This has been our first Christmas that we have been sick since being married and with children. I hope all of you did have an enjoyable Christmas.

Gift Wrapping

As I wrapped some gifts this afternoon I thought of the person that the gift was for and hoped that they would enjoy it. Plus I thought of God's gift to us His Son Jesus Christ. Christmas is so special when we remember God's gift to us. I know I have not completely focused on this. I think that when one focuses on the real meaning of Christmas and on Jesus, Christmas can mean so much more. Christmas can be a blessing to us when we focus on God's gift and in showing it to others by helping those in need.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus or Lord. Romans 6:23(NIV)

Save Christmas For Another Day

As I was doing some little things around the house today I was thinking about all the things we do around Christmas in prepartions for Christmas Day. We give gifts to family and friends and to those that are in need with cheerful hearts. We seem to show our joy and friendlyness to others at Christmas, but do we sometimes forget about that joy at other times of the year? I have this little cross stitch picture I did many years ago, since being married and the saying goes like this: LET US STORE A LITTLE WARMTH AND GENTLENESS AWAY, LET US SAVE A BIT OF CHRISTMAS FOR ANOTHER DAY. This is so true. I know I need to work at this and I hope there are others that may ponder on this thought as well. May we always show others that need Christ Jesus in their lives or those in need, the joy of Christmas throughout the whole year. We can celebrate Christ Jesus birth every day when we walk with Him.

Cookies

After the children were brought to school and I got home there was preparations into baking cookies for the day. How many different kinds of cookies are there, you say? Lots. I started my Christmas baking today and I usually make a list of different variety of cookies. This year there are a couple of new ones that I found. What are some of the most favorite cookies at Christmas? Are they the sugar cookies, cookies with jam in them or are they chocolate ones? My children's favorites are unbake cookies(more my son), chocolate chips, sour cream, and sugar cookies. We go through a lot of cookies in our household and that is because my husband really likes cookies and they are easy for him to take to work. I baked four different kinds of cookies today. Started after cleaning up from breakfeast till about half an hour before I had to get the kids from school. That includes cleaning up as well. Plus I also made my daughters favorite muffins, apple.

So what is your favorite cookie at Christmas or anytime?

The character of a Noble Wife from Proverbs says:
She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family...
Proverbs 31:15

Gingerbread House

Well it has been over two weeks since I last bloged, and that is because I have been busy with all those Christmas cards I was making, sending them off to freinds and relatives. Now that I have most of them done and just have immediate family members to do, I know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Plus alot of baking has to be done this week as well. The closer Christmas gets there is less and less things I need to get done.
Today I took time in a very hectic day to go help my son in grade 2 to make some gingerbread houses in the afternoon. My son was looking forward to this all weekend and even choose the candies for the house. Once I was there I discovered that the material that the children were going to use for the house was graham crackers and shreddies. They were to use the graham crackers with icing and put it on a milk carton that was shaped into a house,(not bad idea for grade 2's). The only bad thing about the graham crackers is that they ran out of them that some of the children could not finish their houses with the crackers and instead had to use pretzel sticks. So some of the houses looked partly gingerbread house with a log cabin back. The shreddies were mostly used as singles. Then came the candies which made each house unique. I helped some of the children as well as I could cause these houses were to be their projects not mine. As I watched my son build his gingerbread house I realized how well he was building it, he knew what he was wanting. As a parent I told my son he did a very good job on his house which will come home later this week. I took pictures so watch for a picture after christmas some time when I will be able to get around to developing the film. No digital camera yet,(some day).

Christmas Preparation

A verse that I came across today to meditate on is: For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Philippians 1: 21. How true that we are to give ourselves daily to Christ that to live is for Him. Let's rejoice Jesus Christ died on the Cross for our sins that we can rejoice at Christmas time that He came as a babe for us.

This time of the year I am frantically trying to write a christmas letter and get christmas cards ready so I can mail them to friends and family. Well I can say that the letter is done, but now to do everything else. Do I make more cards or do I just do the lazy thing and use bought cards? I like to use my homemade cards cause they are a homemade touch to those that I do not see and it is just a little thing for them at Christmas to enjoy. Here are some of my homemade cards.
As I make each card I think of who I am going to send it to.




Then there is the baking I need to do. It seems that I make a batch of cookies and the next thing I know they are gone, then I have to bake another batch. To keep up with my husband lately with the cookies I bake I just can't keep up. I think I might need to make a baking day and do as much baking as I can. With some of the Christmas programs that will be coming up I might need to bake anyways for those as well. I am looking forward to seeing my children's Christmas programs in Church and at school. Just to think that there is only two more weeks till those days arrive. Some of the preparations we do at this time of the year to make Christmas special is sometime very stressful and hectic that we forget the really meaning of celebrating Christmas. Lets remember the true reason for Christmas, Jesus and His gift to us.

Raising Children

As a christian I believe in raising mine and my husbands children for the Lord. The Heavenly Father gave us the two children we have so they too can know Him and live for Him.
Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. Proverbs 22:6
We as in Christian parents are responsible on how we raise our children, so therefore we need to be concerned about what our children are involved in since they can be so easily influenced. Our children need to be taught the truth in whatever cirrcumstances they may be in. The truth in God's Word. I have come to realize this since my children have started school and are in a public school. It is so important to teach ones children that we don't accept everything that is put in front of us. I also have been learning a lot from my children in many aspects of life recently. If there are things I want to teach my children not to do and yet my attitude is not like that they may pick up on it, so therefore if you want your children to not have that same attitude one learns very quickly what one has to work on. Like this morning when I was doing a short devotion with my children at breakfeast I came to realize that the devotion was also for me. It was about God's love is a gift. He gives it for free. The verse was: ...being justified freely by His grace... Romans 3:24. This made me realize that I don't always deserve God's love and that I have to ask God for forgivens daily, cause His love is for free when we ask Him for grace. One of my favorite songs is Amazing Grace. May you experience God's Grace.

Parent Teacher and Dentist Week

Well this week has been a busy one and short of a short one. With parent teacher meetings on thursday and a dentist apointment for my son today I found this week was short on some things that needed to get done. I got a good report about both of my children from the teachers which is good. Don't most parents want to get good reports? My daughter I believe will do good academicaly and will find school easy. If she has a hard time I will be amazed. With my son he may always have to work at school work. How different ones children can be. But that is the way God has made them, each special in their own way.
With the visit to the dentist today, my son was very brave. He went to the room with the nurse by himself and no wanting me to come along. He got a filling done and was a good patient. I guess I can say that my son is growing up and I feel some relife and sadness together. Sadness that he won't always need me. God is good.

Laundry and Sewing

When one can do laundry and sew inbetween each load; and folding the laundry all day one can get alot done. I feel I have accomplished something with my sewing pile. Sewing pj's for my son has been a zig zag event. First I cut out just the pants and sewed them. Then today I cut out the top that I was not really wanting to do cause I figured I would just make him pajama pants and be done with it, but no he did say he wanted the top as well. Hopefully I can finishe it all by tommorrow, but then the heming may take me the rest of the week if I choose to do it by hand.

Doing laundry can be exhausting. Some mondays, which is my laundry day can be quite a busy one and today I feel that I had lots and there is more laundry to do which will get done on Wednesday my other laundry day. Seeing my husband went hunting I now have extra clothes to wash because of that which is no big deal. I am just happy my husband had a successful hunting day on saturday and got his buck ( a three pointer). Know we have deer meat again for the year. Thank you Lord Jesus for how You provide.

Update Friday

To those that read my first post. Yes my daughter had a good birthday. To our surpirse when we got to the restaurant that not just grandma and grandpa where there, but also two aunties and a cousin. My children enjoyed the meal and time spent with their cousin who is only one.

Not much today, just a cleaning day and getting things ready for my daughters birthday party with her friends tomorrow. What some mothers do for their daughters when it comes to birthday parties. All the fuss. Thank the Lord today.

What A Day/Shopping

My day was full of shopping. Seeing my husband will be gone for the weekend I needed to do some shopping before the weekend. Plus my daughter is having her birthday party on saturday, so I had to get the food for the party. Which tells me that I still need to make the cupcakes before saturday morning. Right now I wished I had a small foot stool for my feet while I am on the computer, cause my feet sure are sore with being on my feet all day. My one shopping spree was to get some fabric and notions which I needed badly so I can actually do some of my sewing that has been seating for a while. After supper I took my daughter to her gymnastics with very icy streets, which I do not like to drive on. Once she was done then it was snowing, so our drive home was very slow. To top off my whole day my daughter went and barfed in the car when we were on our street and about to turn into our backlane. So, yes as a loving mother I had to clean it up. Good part it was all on a blanket that can be washed. Plus I thanked my Heavenly Father for bringing us home safely. Bless those that read.

Daughters Birthday

Well my morning started off fine, just very tired. Yet I want to make this day a good day for my daughter who has her birthday today. As I did things this morning I was amazed on how quick I got things done in such a short time. Started icing my daughters cake and hoping she will like it. Lots of plans today for her birthday. It will be a special day cause she gets to see her Grandparents for supper.