Thankful Thursday

*For coaches that care about their players

*For a good conference for the oldest princess to attend

*For special one on one time with the youngest princess

*For the prince and the young prince being able to go to a big game together

*For a fun dinner with great friends for the oldest princess

*For cookie cakes with fudge on top (made by Publics...it was delicious!)

*For a fun evening

*For a wonderful day at church praising my savior

*For getting finishing our work

*For being able to help out a friend

*For a good day for the youngest princess and fun times with her friend

*For dinner being ready when I got home - and the wonderful prince who prepared it

*For books that teach me more of God's Word, and create in me a hunger to dig in and study it even more

*For finally being able to get a few volleyball pictures of the oldest princess

*For a chat with my favorite niece - even if she told me something that is going to drive me crazy for months!

*For snuggle time with the youngest princess

*For conversations with the young prince

*For cooler weather

*For a wonderful husband who was able to take two to the dentist and one to the orthodontist

*For the oldest princess happiness with her birthday present

*For medicine that works

*For sweet little kittens

*For a precious group of ladies that love the Lord, and care about others

*For bargains found and shared in order to bless others

For all if these blessings, and so many, many more, I am thankful to the Lord!

Far Above Rubies

I remember when I found out.  I remember the excitement, the nervousness, the fear, wondering how in the world would this all work out...

I remember the first picture.  The first time we heard her heartbeat.  I remember the first tiny flutter of movement.  I remember that she had hiccoughs often.

I remember the trip to the hospital.  I remember finding out she was a she.  I remember looking into her eyes for the first time.  I remember holding her for rhe first time.  I remember dressing her for the first time.

I remember our first night at home with her.  I remember her first trip to church.  I remember her first time at the beach.  I remember her first steps.

I remember her first birthday party.  I remember her first day of school.  I remember her first soccer game.

All those firsts, and so many more!  And now, she is no longer a baby in my arms, or a little girl in my heels playing dress up.  She is a beautiful, sweet, caring, godly young lady of  fifteen!

If I could have hand picked her, I would not change a single thing.  She is determined.  She works hard.  She is competitive.  She hates to lose.  She takes on responsibility and handles it well.  She desires to please others.

She knows how to laugh and have lighthearted fun.  She enjoys time with her family, and her friends.  She takes it in stride when people pick on her in a loving, playful way.  She can dish it as well as she takes it.

She is creative.  She is athletic.  She has wisdom beyond her years.  She is innocent. She does not shun her childhood, but holds on to the remaining threads realizing that they soon will slip away, and that she has the rest of her life to be an adult.

She is respectful, to her peers and to authority figures.  She has self respect.  She knows who she is in Christ. She is confident.

And all of that wrapped up in one brand new fifteen year old, makes her absolutely beautiful...even if she is mine...even if I do say so myself !

A few years ago, she and I talked about Proverbs 31:10.  How that God says that a virtuous woman is worth far more than a ruby.  And a ruby is the rarest gem in the world.  So that makes them pretty valuable.  But a virtuous woman is even far more valuable than that.  Virtue is worth a lot in God's eyes, therefore, it is worth a lot in our family.

God gave us a rare and precious gift when He gave us the oldest princess.  We love her more than words could ever explain.  We are proud of her, and the priceless young lady she has become.

As the most blessed mother on the face of the earth, I want to wish the oldest princess a very special, blessed fifteenth birthday!!

Happy Birthday my beautiful and priceless oldest daughter.  You are a joy and a blessing to have in our family.  As I fondly look backward, I also look forward to the coming years as our relationship changes and grows along with you.

I love you, T!  And just to prove it, I didn't make ANY straw jokes ;-)!  Nope, not even one.  Okay, well, maybe one ;-).

Thankful to be,

Your Mom

The Youngest Princess Says

After a night full of HUGE storms, in which she came and got in bed with us, "If we have any more storms like that, y'all need to get a bigger bed, so I can stretch out!"  As if she didn't hog most of the bed already!

Watching a squirrel in the church parking lot, "Oh!  Look, Mommy!  It just standed up on two feet!"

The Prince needed to catch the cats so he could give them their flea treatment.  The youngest princess comes running in the house saying, "We need some milk for an extraction!"  I'm pretty sure she meant a distraction.

While explaining to me why she and her brother did not use her brother's Kindle, "We didn't use his Kindle, because his Kindle wouldn't coropowaite...corop...cor...his wouldn't work."  We laughed and worked until she could say cooperate correctly.

"Momma, do ducks have ears?"  Try explaining that one to a 6 year old.

To her Daddy, when he told her he needed to get his watch and ring before they could leave the house, "Your wedding ring?"
Daddy: "No, I already have on my wedding ring."
TYP: "Oh, good!  'Cause if you didn't have on your wedding ring, some other lady might fall in love with you!"
Ah, yes...wisdom!  Some adults need a good dose of that...

Thankful Thursday

*For a win for the football team

*For friends who came to watch the game

*For a fun evening for the young prince

*For one on one time for the prince and the oldest princess

*For one on one time for the youngest princess and I

*For a relaxing Saturday

*For friends who gave the young prince a ride home

*For the freedom to worship

*For the four people who were baptized

*For the challenge to be a better mother

*For  encouragement

*For a great class that makes me laugh

*For hope

*For rain

*For beautiful, cool weather

*For more encouragement

*For a beautiful, healthy new baby cousin

*For medicine and rest that helped a horrible headache

*For good news for several friends

*For help with my bulliten board

*For prayer support

*That truth prevails

*That in all things, God is glorified

*For answers to prayer

*For a husband who seeks God's wisdom, and then follows it

*For children who love the Lord, and walk in His way

Psalms 135:3
Praise the Lord; for the Lord is good: sing praises unto his name; for it is 

Thankful Thursday

* For family who come to visit, and support our kids

*For precious people who love the little princess like their own and step in as adopted grandparents

*For safe travels to and from an away volleyball game

*For getting to eat at one of my favorite restaurants

*That the young princess made a very hard, very mature decision with wisdom and grace - That makes me a proud Mommy (even though it makes me sad that she  had to make the decision in the first place).  One of the things I love most about her is that she is not all hung up on what her peers think, but she has a heart for others, and puts others ahead of herself.

*For another year of life for the man of my dreams

*For fun times and memories with family

*For the young prince catching his first touchdown pass, and on his Daddy's birthday at that

*For safety to and from the football game - and for the opportunity to see more of the beautiful countryside than we had planned - and for getting there in time to see the touchdown pass despite the short...um...detour

*For Rainy Saturday mornings

*For working together on fun crafts

*For games and prizes, fun and laughter

*For the youngest princess who always knows just what to say

*For discussions that make us think

*For special visitors

*For a special Sunday night service

*For a relatively pain free dress-up morning

*For curve balls that send us to our knees

*For crock pot suppers

*For cooking time with the youngest princess

*For very timely answers to prayers and encouragement from unexpected places

*For the youngest princess who cares about others and immediately thinks to pray every time she hears an ambulance go by - 'Mommy, we should pray!"

*For a cool evening, and a little time to enjoy the company of my family on the front porch

*For safety to and from the volleyball game

*For a win for the JV team

*For free potatoes

*For a calm, quiet day at work

*For the oldest princess reading my unglued blog and looking at me and saying, "I don't even remember that."  Thank you, Lord!  The child has selective memory!

*For great fellowship with our church family

*For a new door decoration for my classroom, and the precious lady who made it

*For a son who keeps me humble

*For answers to prayers in unexpected ways

*For the fact that lies may have speed, but truth has endurance, and truth will prevail

*That it may seem like Satan is winning for a season, but God always wins in the end

For all these things, and many more, I am thankful to the Lord!  Romans 11:36  For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

My Unglued Moment

Okay, so maybe the title of this blog is misleading...

Maybe it sounds like I have only had one unglued moment.  Do not be deceived.  I have had my fair share of them.  Definitely more than one.

But for time's sake, I will share only one.  Maybe there will be more blogs on unglued moments in the future.

Okay, so I finished reading Unglued by Lysa TerKeurst recently, and felt like sharing one of my unglued moments with you.

It started like this...I had just gotten home from a pretty crazy day at work.  The holidays were looming closer and closer, and the kids were as ready for Christmas break as the teachers were.  My own children were coming at us from all sides with play practices, performance times, piano recitals, Christmas Parties, and gifts that needed to be purchased for said Christmas parties - As in, "Oh, yeah, I need a gift for a party we are having at school TOMORROW MORNING."

I had a Christmas party of my own that night.  It was our church ladies' secret pal reveal Christmas party.

I was already nervous, because I am terrible at picking out gifts for other people.  I always worry too much, and over analyze everything.  I fret over colors, sizes, styles, prices, etc. I worry the person on the receiving end will hate what I have picked out, and will feel obligated to keep/wear/use it for the rest of their life, because they don't want to hurt my feelings.  I mean it y'all!  I totally stress over gift giving!

So, back to the party.  I am already stressed because of work, heavy schedule demands from my children, and nearly sick with worry about wether or not my secret pal will like her present.  And on top of that, we had to take finger foods.  I will be the first to admit that I am NO Betty Crocker.  And the one thing that sends me into an emotional tailspin outside of buying a gift for someone, is taking food to large, or even small for that matter, gatherings.  But I must add that this was several years ago, and as Lysa would say, it's an area in which I am making imperfect progress.

What to cook?  What if someone else brings what I bring?  Will anyone eat it if I bring it on a paper plate, because I don't entertain, therefore I don't have stacks of cute serving dishes to choose from.  What DO. YOU. MEAN. WE. ARE. OUT. OF. CLING. WRAP. AND. FOIL?!?  Seriously.  My stomach hurts just thinking about it.  Then there's always the I only have so much time to get this done, and if I ruin it, I don't have time to make more pressure.  So I wrap some cocktail sausages in biscuits, and throw them in the oven, along with some heat and serve tacquitos from the frozen food section of the grocery store.  Gourmet, I know.  Then I run upstairs to get ready.

I change clothes, into festive Christmas attire.  My black pants and solid red sweater will do, because I don't buy clothes that I can only wear one month out of the year, throw on some Christmas costume jewelry, and head back downstairs to check the "delicacies" baking in the oven.  They were coming along nicely.

Now the only thing left was to wrap the present.  I gather the materials I will need, except for the tape.  Where IS the tape?  I always keep it in the same drawer.  I haven't used it in the past few days.  I know it was there not too long ago.  Now where IS IT?  My prince, oldest princess, and young prince all stand there looking at me like I've asked them where is the Ark of the Covenant.  No one has ANY IDEA where the tape is. But I have very little time to get the package wrapped and make it
to the Christmas party on time.  I NEED THE TAPE!!

No one else seemed to sense the urgency of the moment.  And since misery loves company, I didn't want them all to feel left out, and I came UNGLUED.  I ranted, I yelled, I cried, I panicked, I listened to ALL of the toxic voices in my head telling me what a total looser I was.  And my actions toward my family were proving the voices were right.

Did I mention that my mother was loosing her battle with cancer, and I wasn't exactly feeling the spirit of joy and peace to begin with?  Because I am sure that that fact played a big role in this little coming unglued act.

I remember sitting on the stairs, one big crying mess, with the oldest princess sitting beside me with her precious little arm around me saying, "Please don't cry, Mommy!  I'm sorry we lost the tape!"

It is NOT a moment that I was proud of.

I did manage to pull myself together enough to take my unwrapped present, and paper, along with my slightly burnt food lovingly displayed on paper plates, to the church.  Two precious ladies who saw I was in despair ushered me to the office where they wrapped my present with tape there, and loved on me.

I was still a mess, so I had them take my present and food on in to the party, and I came back home.
All that stress and mess, over a missing roll of tape!  If Lysa had just written Unglued about 5 years earlier, and I had read it way back then, then I am sure that my evening would have gone much differently.

But even without Lysa's book, I did learn from my unglued experience.  I've had smaller ones, and okay, maybe ONE that compares in size since then, but overall, I resolved with God's help, not to come unglued on my family like that again.  I did not like myself AT ALL that night, and I don't want my children to remember me as the Momma that went crazy over a missing roll of tape - although they now have this blog to prove it!

I would much rather them remember the gentle, quiet times.  The times we talked and laughed.  The times we listened and prayed.  The times we loved until it hurt.  So.  That is my unglued moment.  I share it not because I am proud of it in any way, but because I hate it in every way.  Every way except one.  The one that flipped the light switch in my brain that connects to my heart.  The one that throbs with "this is not the way you want to live."  The one that made me seek God's face and beg His help to control my reactions to things both big and small going on around me, so that I don't explode
on those who mean the most.  Those who matter the most.  Those who love me the most.  Well, on anyone for that matter!

Imperfect progress.  I'm making it.  Are you?

Thankful Thursday

  Psalm 107:31-32  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!  Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.

*People who encourage others

*Laughter with friends

*A special dinner with my family

*Safety for the oldest princess

*A student who made my day

*A fun time with friends at a football game

*A gracious friend who brought the oldest princess home from her volleyball tournament

*Another gracious friend who took the youngest princess to a birthday party and picked her up afterwards

*A precious service, for a very special lady.  I didn't know her long, but she won my heart.

*A Saturday afternoon at home

*A fun evening for the kids

*Great times in Sunday School

*The excitement of commissioning a new class

*Answered prayer

*A good time studying God's Word with a great group of ladies

*Food, fun, and fellowship

*The chance to minister to a friend

*A day off

*A peaceful, quiet morning while the kids sleep in

*A gentle steady rain that replenishes the earth

*Great news for a friend from some medical tests

*Medicine that helped the oldest princess feel better

*A busy day, and with God's help the ability to get it all done

*Time to be able to help the oldest princess study for a test

*An unexpected knock on the door that brought good news, and reason for rejoicing

*Family coming to visit

*Safe travels for loved ones

*Family laughter

*Something that was not as it first appeared

*Lol!  As I am typing, a late night message with the best news I've heard in a long time -praising God for great, and very timely news!

For all these things, and many, many more, I am thankful to the Lord!