Let Us Give Thanks

Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to Him and praise his name.
Psalm 100:4

Warm fires

I am a few weeks away from completing the semester. I have been busy with papers, exams, lesson plans and life in general. As fall lingers to a halt here in my neck of the woods, I find my mind wandering to anything and everything that does not involve school. In fact here are the things I would rather be doing...

Sitting in front a nice warm fire,
Knitting a baby sweater,
baking nice hot bread,
reading a sweet novel,
drinking a hot cup of coco,
lingering with friends around the table,
enjoying family and friends, and finally
sitting at the feet of my Lord.

But most of this will have to wait, just a little while. I will force myself to focus on these last few weeks of school and then take a much needed break.
PS~
I thought we could have some fun these next few weeks and see if we can look at ways to enjoy the holidays without adding extra pounds. We can look at ways to have a healthy festive holiday season. Would you like to exchange recipes, and have a little fun? I sure would.

Such Wonder

Your creations never cease to amaze me, I am truly in awe of your wonder!
Blessings

For Unto Us...

But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savoir has been born to you: he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

~Luke 2:10-14

Merry Christmas to all!

This Girl...

Got notified that she is a go for her acting class in January. One happy little girl!! Not so little anymore. But never the less one happy girl.Praise be to Him!

morning view

I love, love, love my views in the morning. I am a early riser so I was so pleased this morning to see God's wonderful gift for me ( well for anyone who took the time to admire his wonder). I am a huge outside person, perhaps because of my mom. She is never in the house, she has a pool and lives in AZ. Lucky, lucky!!

Coffee on the porch is the most amazing time of the day. Sunsets are wonderful~ but there is nothing more breath taking than starting the day like this. I wish my camera was able to be better focused, these picture hold no candle to the beauty that was there.
On a side note~ I attended PWOC today! Wonderful, it is a military bible study group on most bases Protestant women of the chapel. Wonderful worship, message and fellowship. I am so excited to see what the Lord has in store. I am doing the bible study Becoming A Woman of Simplicity by Cynthia Heald. I had a wonderful full and blessed day. I missed last weeks kick off so I was so pleased to see they had one spot open for this study (thank you Lord). I guess that is enough rambling...
Blessings~
xoxo

The work of thy hands...

I never cease to be amazed by the works of our Lord. His beauty is perfect, and I enjoy it immensely.

~blessings to all

Sweet Salvation

For it is you who light my lamp;

the Lord my God lightens my darkness.

~Psalm 18:28 ESV

Sweet Salvation

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,

that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

-Psalm 90:14

DBR Gen 3-4, Psalm2, Matt 3-4

Oh Christmas Tree, how I love thee!

I love Christmas, it is truly my favorite holiday. I love that the best gift we all have ever received came to earth, for us. Our Lord is amazing. I do pray all enjoy this time of year and keep him as the truest gift in your heart. I also have some precious friends that the Lord placed in my life to lead me to Him, and for that I am most grateful. Thank you to all of you, you know who you are..... Kim, Jennifer, Tim, Diane, I can only pray that I too can be a light in the world. Speaking of lights, here are some shots of my tree.... It is small, but I love it. My family laugh at me every year, because I always tell them how lovely the tree is 500,000,000 times every year.

Pretty ornaments all nestled in the branches.

Candy Canes and Thomas the train and Frosty greet me every morning.

Cute Guy putting on the tree topper, a recent thrift find. They all make me smile every day. The book case was a gift from the cute guy for my birthday. Can you believe he built that, he may have a new job, at least here at home as a furniture maker. :)

Merry Christmas to all and have a blessed week.

Pondering....

It is late, I am tired, and yet here I am. I am almost done with my nightly dose of coffee and will wonder off to bed shortly.
I have been thinking today, praying. Mostly for family and friends, yet I have this nagging in my spirit, to pray for our country. I am not sure what for other than the obvious, but it is something bigger. I am waiting for some clarity. While reading my bible today, I know the Lord spoke something for my daughter, but it keeps rerunning in my mind. Be still and know that I am God. I will continue to seek his words and try to be still to hear his words. I pray you all have a wonderful rest of the week.

Health Care Reform???

My husband I often talk about the world and it political bizarreness. I have been following the health care circus being played out, my mind often boggled by the solutions offered up. Awhile back we were talking about health care, almost laughing at the craziness of it all. One thing rang so true to us... the things that need to be done are what most of us don't want to do, particularly our eating habits and physical fitness.
I don't find it strange at all that average person is somewhat overweight (including myself). When sin entered the world, the Lord said man would toil for his food, he would work (and it was hard work) for his food. But in the last few centuries our desire to make life much easier has taken its toll on our lives. Our efforts to make life easier have caused a world of problems, yes we live longer lives, but with the help of medications, artificial supplements, and in many cases a poor quality of life. God did not design us to sit behind a desk, nor did he intend for us to toil for our food by wheeling a cart through a store carefully selecting the ample amounts of processed foods. Our bodies need physical work, so if we don't have jobs that lend to this, we should supplement into this area of our lives. I find it rather ironic that our efforts to make life easier, may very well be what kills us.

Just so you know, I have started a program couch to 3k. Love the name! I will check in weekly to let you know how I am doing. If you don't mind will you ask me about it to help keep me accountable for my choice. I needed to add this, because I know there is more that I can do for my health. We changed our eating about 9 months ago, and we both lost over 20 lbs. My cholesterol is normal now ( although I do have a inherited problem) that does require medical treatment, but lower doses are always better.

New Beginnings

Being a military family means we always have new beginnings. Tuesday night was no different, my kiddos went to youth group. This is the part that always seems hard, attending church is one thing, much easier. But getting involved with others, making friends, planting roots, that is always much harder to do. So I will now follow in their steps and start stepping out of my shell.
I prayed about it, and for them, not knowing how it would go. But they both came home and said they were glad they went, and wanted to go again. I can only say no matter how much we move or how many new beginnings we have to endure, we have one constant in our lives that is unchanging. Our Lord, Our Rock. Thank you for being the God that you are.


Enjoy life

A promise from the Lord

Oak Trees From Home

I love that the Lord is always so faithful, and perfect in his timing. Our home school name is Valley Oak Academy. I chose the name because it reminded me of my home, and the lovely huge Valley Oaks we have all over. Over the years, I wanted and used verses that were comforting to me, but always wanted something that was truly ours from the Lord. I wondered why some home schooler's, seemed to have it all together but not me. LOL Well last year I was studying Isaiah and ran across a verse that I knew the Lord had provided for us. (Well all of us)!!! But it was beautiful and a promise from Him. He is perfect and wonderful, and his timing is always just when we need it.
Here is the verse: Isaiah 61:3

They will be called oaks of righteousness,

a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.

It can't get any more perfect than that. It is a part of a larger verse, but the whole verse was something the lord was showing me. I am truly thankful for a God, who is real, and hears our prayers and answers back in truth.


Blessings

Gone to the birds!

How sweet are God's creations. I notice a few weeks ago that a little humming bird was hanging around the tree by my bedroom window. After observing him for a few weeks I noticed he/she had built a sweet little home. I love to watch him flying around, I guess I should say her. I can't wait to see the little ones. I hope you enjoy the pictures. I don't have a fancy camera, but it works really well, I just can't zoom in as far as I would like to. Thanks again cute guy for the wonderful camera.

Her nest is built around the tiny limb. She is snug in her nest, as it sways in the breeze.
have a blessed day!

Portions for her servant girls

photo by Sara Nicole (my daughter)

Proverbs 31
14 She is like the merchant ships,
bringing her food from afar.
15 She gets up while it is still dark;
she provides food for her family
and portions for her servant girls.

I don't know about you, but at this house if the bell rings, I answer it. If the floor is dirty, I clean it. If the laundry is piled up, I hide it. Not really, but you get the picture. I don't need to travel far to bring food home. I also don't have servant girls to care for, or do I? Sometimes it seems hard to relate to the past, our lives seem so different. Yet there is wisdom that can be applied to your present day life. Do you have a washing machine, a dryer, a refrigerator... then you do have servant girls or maid servants. Even though we do not need to provide food for them, we should provide maintenance for them. I am sure that we have all experienced a time when one of these just quit working. Panic set in, dollar signs filled your eyelids, life was forever doomed. Atleast until the repair man fixed the problem. So remember to treat your servants well, and they inturn will keep you happy. So go find one of your maid servants, appoligize for negleting her and clean her. Remember to clean your dryer lint tray, every load, not only will it help her last and prevent fires, but it will help cut down on your fuel cost.

Today: Fridge cleaning, check the temp gauge on fridge. Pull out and remove dust from back, make sure you have pleanty of space behind for ventilation, clean the dust collector at the bottom of fridge. Enjoy your day

Thankful for His faithfulness

I am so amazed at the blogs I read. I see so many women encouraging each other in the Lord, homeschooling, and homemaking. They have built such a strong community, a network of friends that are there for each other. Lord you never cease to amaze me. I have always loved being a stay at home mom, I have been doing exactly what I was called to do. But this is what I also wanted to do. They always say do what you love doing, and you will love what you do. I do. Lord you are always faithful in your word, and it brings such great joy in my heart to watch you work.