New Year's Blessings to all

Just a short post to wish that we all would remember the blessings of 2008 and commit this next year to living every day with God's will as our guide. That every moment would be worship to Him.

Blessings to you all!

Christmas Survey

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping Paper and wire-edged ribbon
2. Real tree or Artificial? I love real trees, such a yummy smell.
3. When do you put up the tree? Alas, we don't have a tree. (Moving and setting up trees don't mix.)
4. When do you take the tree down? see #3
5. Do you like eggnog? I love to have one glass a year.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Probably my Anne of Green Gables set.
8. Easiest person to buy for? My daughter. ;D
9. Do You have a nativity scene? Yes. A family we know moved last year and gave us theirs.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Do people email Christmas cards?
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I don't remember an especially bad gifts.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? It's a Wonderful Life
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? December 26
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Not that I remember, but I would if it was new and I was sure that the other person would enjoy it more than me.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? the Mexican fiesta we have every year...and fudge.
16. Lights on the tree? Lots of white one. ;D
17. Favorite Christmas song? Ukrainian Bell Carol
18. Travel for Christmas or stay home? I would love to stay home and have everyone come to me, but as long as we live within driving distance of both our parents, we will be traveling to the Grandparents' homes.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? I'm not sure.
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? All day Christmas...see #18
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Impatient people!!!
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Blue and snowflakes.
24. Favorite Christmas dinner? Mexican fiesta!!!!! Taquitos, tamales, Spanish rice...yum-yum!
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Plants and stuff for my new house.

An award that is all me

Back at the end of November I was nominated for an award by one of my favorite blogs, Stop and Smell the Chocolates. It is called the Booklover's Award. (For those of you who know me, this makes no sense at all...*wink, wink*)

The instructions for this award are to find the book closest to you, turn to page 56, and type in the fifth sentence plus a couple more after that.

Since I have been reading through the Anne of Green Gable's series, the closest book to me is, Rilla of Ingleside. So here goes...

None of the Reeses were in khaki. Rilla waned to cry, too--but she would not. What was that horrid old Mrs. Drew saying to mother, in that melancholy whine of hers? "I don't know how you can stand this, Mrs. Blythe. I couldn't if it was my pore boy." And mother--oh, mother could always be depended on! How her grey eyes flashed in her pale face.

If you haven't read this book, it's worth it if you liked Anne of Green Gables, the books or the movies.

As for the 5 people I will pass it on to...

How about anyone who wants to be a part! I just ask that you let me know if you do post on it so I can come and read it. :D

Thanks again, Lisa! (If anyone wants to read her original post, you can do that here.)

My Great Hubby

As part of my campaign to show him just how wonderful I think he is for taking the last 3 days to paint our new home in the perfect collection of colors, I am dedicating this blog entry to my dear Hubby, who is at this very moment, putting the finishing touches on the paint in our new home.

Thank you so much for all the hard work, long hours and heartache (not to mention back aches, shoulder pain, knee pain and any other pain I have missed). It will make my days of standing in the kitchen, making breakfasts, lunches and dinners in the years to come, times to remember why I'm there and who it is all for.

And if that is not enough, just think of how much nicer it will be to eat in a kitchen that is painted daisy yellow instead of blue! I've heard that blue hinders food digestion...

Time to Move Again...

For the fourth time during our year and a half marriage, my husband and I are moving. The difference this time is that we are moving to a home, our first real home; the reason being that this week we bought our first home.

As I am writing this, my husband is painting my new kitchen. This will be the first time since we got married that we have been able to choose our own colors. We will finally have enough room to store things, somewhere for the kids to play in when they get older. It is a blessing we have been waiting forever for.

And yet, even as I am packing for this move, I can't help but think that someday soon, I will be called to a home that I have been waiting for even longer. A home that will all that I have ever wanted or ever could want. One that is more beautiful than my little dream house. One where Someone is waiting for me who is even more wonderful than my husband and daughter, which is saying something.

For someday soon, I will wake up in Heaven with my Jesus. And finally, truly, I will be home for good. And the best part is once I am there, I will never have to move again.

(*Edited to note that the house pictured is alas not mine. I don't have any pictures of our home but that was such a nice one I thought it captured the spirit of our new home.*)

Thanksgiving Wrap Up

So, yesterday was family day. My husband and I, along with our daughter, made our rounds to both sets of grandparents for Thanksgiving dinners. Yes you heard me right; we have Thanksgiving dinner twice in the same day. It is a small price to pay to live close to our parents. It means more than plenty of turkey, stuffing, rolls, mashed potatoes and of course my personal favorite...lots of pie, chocolate and pumpkin with the all important mountain of whip cream. After eating two such large meals, I realized that there are both good and bad things about having two Thanksgiving meals while pregnant. (This is not a hasty conclusion, as this is my second year in a row of being pregnant on Thanksgiving.) On the good side, you can eat as much as you like. After all, you only eat part of that sum at each house. This has an added benefit if you are pregnant. (Because then, no one can tell how much you ate, even if they weren't too busy feeling the effects of seconds themselves.) The bad part is that you can't eat very much at one sitting, which is so sad on a day like Thanksgiving.

Apparently, yesterday's running around wasn't enough such youthful people as ourselves, so we spend this morning out shopping Black Friday. I used my time to buy yards and yards of flannel, which was on sale for $1.49 a yard. I will try to post pictures of my shopping trip soon. When all was said and done, I left the store with tons of fabric and 4 1/2 hours of standing in line to my credit. I even made some new friends and met some old ones while doing it. Not bad for a Black Friday!

A Call for Help

My husband posted this last night on his blog. It is a call for help from one of our family's favorite bands, the Apologetix. A friend of theirs, named Arron Daniels, because of his diabetes, is facing kidney and liver failure. There is a surgery that his doctor feels could cure him but his insurance won't cover it and the procedure carries a price tag of $17,000.

His church has established a fund to help him and his family pay for the surgery. For all the details and his email in case you would like to write him a note of encouragement, please visit the original post on the Apologetix website.

My youngest brother has diabetes, although it is a different type, so this is an issue close to my heart. Please be in prayer for this man and his family as they are traveling through this time of trial. Thanks!

Reasons to Celebrate in the Face of Disappointment

So, as you may have guessed by the kind of posts on this blog, I was not one of those who voted for our new President-elect. And while I believe that our nation is in for a time of trouble, I was trying to find things or reasons to celebrate. Here is what I have so far. (Please feel free to leave a comment with your suggestions and/or a link to your own list!)

1) There will be no more political ads for at least 2 years, 4 if we are talking to the scale that they have been on for the last few weeks. The ads here have been so mean and so great a number that I had to keep the remote by me at all times so that I could mute them and save my sanity. I was so tired of people imitating candidates, accusing them of every sin in and out of the book and using what they think of as clever quips that I couldn't take listening to even one more. The scariest part is that I think I talked to my TV more in the last two weeks than I talked to my husband. And that was just to the ads!

2) Soon there will be less litter on the sides of the roads. No more signs begging for our votes, promising things no one care or even intends to deliver on. There is one sad note however; some poor souls will have to drive around for the next few years with a defeated candidate's name of the bumper of their car. But hey, at least they have some reason for cheer; there is proof that they didn't vote for the winner.

3) And my favorite reason of all; it doesn't matter who is President of our country or leader of any other nation in the world. Jesus is still on the throne where I'm headed. Granted, it doesn't make living here any easier but then again maybe that's the point. After these next four years, maybe heaven will be a more welcomed sight to us than ever before. And maybe, just maybe, we will be more excited about getting there soon. :D

An Excellent Post

(No, I'm not bragging on myself.)

One of my favorite blogs is Domestic Felicity, written by a very dear Jewish woman, whom I admire greatly. Today's post was especially timely for me; for although the examples are talking about men, I think all of us need to be reminded of the great blessing of our calling as wives and mothers. I have been discouraged lately and this post was so encouraging to me. Please stop by and read her post here.

Blessings to you all!

You know someone is a homeschooler when...

Last night we went to my parents house for dinner and to avoid the tricker-treater thing. I was telling a story to my family about something and used the word "rent". My 7 year old brother looks at me in all seriousness and says, "Do you mean "rent" or "rent"? Because there are two meanings. It can mean "to borrow" or "to tear"?" We all just laughed and I wondered how many 7 year olds actually know that there are two meanings for the word "rent". For that matter, how many adults today with our limited, albeit four letter word vocabularies, know that. But that is another post, for another time. No soapboxing today...