Walking in the Shadows

Ecclesiastes 3:1-3 "To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;" Time seems to be slipping away from me, and here I stand at the end of yet another year. My three young children aren't as young as they were last year, they are each growing up, one year at a time. Before I know it, they will be adults making their own decisions, living their own lives. Am I doing enough? No. I'm surely not. Is HE enough? Yes. He surely is.  There is a time for everything, a season especially for each year, each life event, each milestone. This year, I was disappointed and I no doubt disappointed others. This year, my eldest son became a teenager, just one step closer to a man. This year, the Lord provided food, gas money, air conditioner parts, and a brake job

I'm going to try to post a couple End of Year blogs, today is our year in pictures. Hope you enjoy! We took a vacation in January to Gatlinburg, TN and had -0 tempratures and a good bit of snow. It was a great way to start out 2014. Here is Jason and Ethan on Jason's birthday in February. It actually snowed the day before his birthday and the roads were all icky. We managed to make it to Olive Garden for a birthday dinner. Ah, my little Free Spirit turned 4 in March. What a little firecracker she is, love her. This is our Easter picture, my three kiddos with their Great-Grandfather! Speaking of their Great-Grandfather (my Grandfather of course), he turned 80 years young in June!  August came and I celebrated 15 years of marriage to this handsome man. Where does the time go? I swear it was just yesterday I said "I do."  My Ethan turned 13 on September 7, seriously, a teenager! It was an airsoft war for him, n

  See that mess? It's not very beautiful, but this was my view Wednesday night when I was out of commission due to pain and such. The boys went on to church and I assured them I could handle the little one as I reclined with the heating pad and pain medicine. I looked at the messy room and wanted to jump and fix the mess, I wanted to stop looking at it, the mess was affecting my rest.   And wham! Right in my face, the Lord gives me a very important lesson. You've heard the saying "a beautiful mess" (I think there is a book called that too)? Yes, me too, but until I was looking straight at it, I had never really seen it. I have three wonderful, noisy, happy, homeschooling kids. There is a LOT of beautiful mess in my house, but sometimes I'm just too busy to see it.  But on this night, I saw it, every bit of it, and it was beautiful.   What must my Lord see when he looks at me? A mess? For. Sure. Yet, he sees something he wants, something he desires, me

I can hardly believe it is Thanksgiving week! I love Thanksgiving, I believe it just may be my favorite holiday of the year. It is the one holiday that man has yet to ruin with a lot of stuff and stress (unless you count Black Friday which seems to be Black Thursday this year, boo). It is a special time, set aside, simply to be thankful. Last year we begin a Thankful Tree one week before Thanksgiving Day. Every day, each member of the family wrote on a leaf what they were thankful for that day. So, we continued the tradition this year and what a blessed tradition it has become. Addison has reminded me every night "don't forget the leaves" and so after Family Altar we each write down what we are thankful for that day. The Lord has been so kind to me personally, as well as to our family, this little exercise seems so small, but what a blessing it is to take time to be thankful! It is amazing how easy it is to be thankful even when life is in chaos or turmoil, we h

I've been praying for pain, I know it sounds crazy, but I've been in pain a while now and still haven't been able to walk through the pain with joy. So, I've been praying for it, praying for it to continue while those who love me pray for it to cease. Don't get me wrong, I want to feel relief, I want to be able to run with my kids, clean my house, kneel in prayer, and weed my garden without having to take a pain pill, truly I do. But more than that I want joy! Real, true, joy. I am a happy person, the Lord has given me so much, I have more to be thankful for then I have to lament. I also have joy, true joy, until the pain comes. Then something happens, it's like I can't control the way I am feeling and just lash out and find myself walking around in a pile of self pity. That is NOT joy. I have written in the past about my weakness and HIS strength, but it is a lesson hard learned and I believe joy goes right along with resting in HIS strength. I have

II Chronicles 12:14 "And he did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord." Ah, these days we are living in! We are hearing all sorts of horror stories on the news, and the internet is even worse, if we aren't careful we will be afraid to leave our house without a hazmat suit. Can you picture it? My little family of five leaving the house for church in hazmat suits?? Okay, I know it's not that funny, but seriously some days I'm tempted to at least don a face mask. II Chronicles 12:14 isn't talking about being prepared for the end of the world, but actually has more value for Christians than making sure our pantry is stocked to feed our whole family for at least 30 days (and I'm all for that). The word prepare means - In a general sense, to fit, adapt or qualify for a particular purpose, end, use, service or state, by any means.  Wow, looks like we've got lots of prepping to do! The verse in II Chronicles is talking about K

Oh Savannah, what a beautiful, historical place! Before this weekend, we had never been to Savannah as a family (me and the kids had never been). I fell in love! It is such a beautiful city. I could have sat in front of the river for hours (or days) and just taken it all in.  We traveled to Savannah on Thursday and on Saturday traveled on to Pembroke, GA for a preaching engagement on Sunday. So, without further ado, here is our trip in pictures.  All excitement after a four hour drive in the car! First time we have stayed in one hotel room with all five of us in a very long time, it was quite an adventure!! Big brother carrying little sister along the river front downtown Savannah. The large ships on the river were absolutely ginormous, it was quite a sight to see. Gorgeous sunset with the bridge and ships as a backdrop. It really was spectacular! Addison and Chandler posing in front of one of the many monuments downtown. The entire city o

"Thou shalt not kill." This was the first thing my eyes went to as I sat down this morning to look at my lesson plans for the day. I chuckled out loud, why on earth would this verse be on the top of a Homeschool planner?  Crazy as it sounds, there it is, right on my plan for the day. I suppose killing my kiddos is not an option for today! Although it doesn't say anything about sending them to their room until further notice.   I really wondered why on earth this verse would be on a homeschool planner then I thought the Momma who wrote it probably new some homeschool Momma out there would need a little comic relief. Cause there are just some days you need to laugh. On any given day, a homeschool Momma will try to explain to one child why they can't play guitar and listen to their Bible class at the same time, they just don't understand when they can "concentrate better with music." Or you will throw your hands up in frustration when one ch

Psalm 34:8 "O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him." Can you taste it? Can you see it? Can you really taste and see that the Lord is good? Can you look through all the yuck in life and see that the Lord really is good? This verse has been playing in my heart for a couple of weeks now. I am so very thankful that I can taste and see that the Lord is good. No matter what! He isn't just good when the checking account is full, when no one is sick and we all have new clothes. He is good when the checking account is empty, we are in pain and the kids pants are too short. He is ALWAYS good. His goodness isn't limited to temporal things. As a matter of fact, his goodness reigns in the spiritual blessings more than the temporal. Just last week, our family had a very specific need, a need that we could in no way meet ourselves. I can honestly say the Lord was so good to me in spiritual blessings that I did not fret or worry over t

“No man can be called friendless who has God and the companionship of good books.”   Elizabeth Barrett Browning I have always loved to read, some people love it others hate it. Me, I have always enjoyed a good book. When I was younger I mostly read novels, you know those kinds of books you can just escape life in? Those are the good ones, the ones you stay up way to late reading because you just can't put them down. Yeah, books like that are great. However, as I have grown (older I suppose) I began broadening my reading horizons. I have learned how life changing a good biography can be, how spiritually I can grow when reading after a missionary or preacher. So, with that in mind, I want to include in the blog every couple of months what I'm reading. This biography we are reading together as a family. We started several years ago reading at night together. I highly recommend this practice, as it has been such a blessing to our family. Reading is a great way to unw

II Corinthians 12:9 "And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." Some verses are so familiar, we have read them, heard them preached and even memorized them. Then one day they come to life afresh and anew. The Lord has done that for me with this verse recently. There are things in this life that I simply cannot do. I can't make sure my children grow up and serve the Lord, I can't make the financial ends meet when they simply refuse to. There are many things I can't do, there are many times when I am simply too weak. If I were honest, most of the time I am too weak. If there is anything that can be done for HIM, it is He that is working and doing not me. How wonderful it is to think that my weakness is when his grace really shines. When I am at my weakest, he is at his strongest! Many deal with physi

It has been 7 months since I last posted!!! I can't believe that much time has past, I'm not going to even try to make excuses. So, without further ado, here is a little of what we've been up to this summer. Got free Greenville Drive tickets for my little ones from the library for completing the Summer Reading Program. I learned to sew a little. Mommy and Me scarves (or dolly and me)   My hubby surprised me with a trip to Biltmore for our 15th wedding anniversary! Can't believe we have been married 15 years! A "selfie" in front of Biltmore   My sweet Addison wearing a dress my Mom made for me! How cool is that? First day of School!! We have a new student this year, Miss Addison started K4. Whew, ya'll need to pray for this Momma, she is NOT a fan of school! Chandler is in 4th grade this year.   Ethan is in 7th grade! Can you believe that?? I have a middle schooler???   We took a weekend trip to Cherokee with