Two Tiaras and a Sword

Thursday, November 23, 2017

Thankful Thursday 11/23/17

Certainly not an exhaustive list, because there are millions of things to be thankful for, but these are some of the things that stood out this week.

*A sweet friend who helped us by watching the Youngest Princess

*Two awesome ladies who worked together and subbed for me 

*Safe travels

*An exciting day for the Young Prince

*A chance to see a sweet “frienb” and spend a little time together

*Another great friend who kept the Youngest Princess after school

*Safe travels home

*Time to catch up on laundry

*Steps taken for the future

*A great (long overdue) talk with the Oldest Princess

*A great day in the house of the Lord - worshipping, learning and growing with a great group of people.

*A dinner with good friends

*A fun time for The Youngest Princess

*Time together around the fire pit

*A warm home 

*Quiet time and a lunch date for my Prince and I

*Safe travels for the Oldest Princess

*An answer to prayer

*Chances to work on some of the things God is    speaking to my heart about

*Family time with all of my children 

*Strength, when mine is all gone

*Calls and texts and Facebook posts from family and friends that brighten my day

*Seeing my children practice discernment 

*Acts of service that show love

*A happy, blessed, family filled day

*Playing in the yard with the kids

*S’mores and fire pits 

For all these things, and many many more, I am Thankful to the Lord.

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!



Thursday, November 16, 2017

Thankful Thursday 11/16/17

James 1:17
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

*For safe travels for the Oldest Princess

*For a fun day irking with the Oldest Princess

*For my wonderful Prince who steps in and helps when I need him

*For the Youngest Princess getting to play a little in the first basketball game

*For the joy of watching the Youngest Princess cheer

*For a fun dinner out with my family

*For a quiet evening to work on a project after a loooong busy day

*For rest

*For time together for the whole family

*For little ones full of energy that bless my heart with their childlike faith

*For teamwork 

*For my girls sitting with me in church 

*For a great opportunity for the Young Prince

*For special times sharing and growing with ladies I love

*For people who show they care in big and in small ways

*For a much needed purchase, made possible by a generous donation

*For a fun evening with My Prince and the Youngest Princess

*For the Holy Spirit who guides me and helps me when my flesh is weak

*For the prayers of my Prince when I need backup 

*For being able to see the Youngest Princess cheer again

*For am answer to prayer

*For the privilege to help someone I love

*For a great book that is cutting me to the core and teaching me hard but much needed things

*For conversations that go beyond surface topics and drive me to think deeply

*For medicines that help the symptoms of allergies and allergic reactions 

*For hope

*For grace

*For health

*For laughter

*For unconditional love

*For God’s hand of protection for the Youngest Princess

For all these things, any many, many more, I am thankful to the Lord.

Thursday, November 9, 2017

Thankful Thursday 11/9/17

Some of the things that I am thankful for this week:

*That my works (which are pitiful), do not save me, but that Jesus' work on the cross is my salvation

*A fun evening out with a friend

*Words spoken by the Youngest Princess that my soul needed to hear

*Reconciliation

*A good solid night's rest

*A week that went by really fast

*A relaxed day at home

*A great morning with lots of people I love

*Enough food so that I could have a second plate - after accidentally dumping my first

*People who care enough to let us know they care

*An extravagant gift from special friends

*A chance to celebrate a life long lived

*A great hug from a sweet lady along with words that warmed my heart

*A great lesson taught by a sweet student

*The privilege of watching the Youngest Princess cheer

*A reminder that I am not alone - even though Satan would have me believe that I am

*Heart to heart talks with both my girls

*People and situations that God has put in our lives that cause us to seek Him more, and grow to be more like Him

*Chances to teach my girls about dealing with others/life situations in a godly manner

*The Holy Spirit who leads, guides and helps when I depend on Him

*A job where I get to work with children that I love and help them to grow mentally and spiritually each day

*A chance to sit down with ladies I love and talk about how God worked in our lives through reading and applying His Word throughout our week 

*A hard working husband who is out of this world wonderful

*Encouragement from the Lord in many shapes and forms 

And these are just a few things that stood out this week.  There are innumerable more things that I could add to the list.  God is SO good!  And I am thankful for all of His many, many blessings!







Thursday, November 2, 2017

Thankful Thursday - November 2, 2017

*A very special note from a very special person  

*A sweet surprise left on our porch

*Words spoken that I will treasure in my heart forever.

*A time of fellowship with good friends

*An unexpected blessing

*A quiet night at home with my Prince and the Youngest Princess

We have so very much to be thankful for!  Blessing abound everywhere in many different ways.  Take time to count some of your blessings this week, and she how quickly they add up.

*A surprise pulled off without a hitch

*For an exciting evening for family members

*For a win for two hometown teams

*A restful day at home 

*For safe travels for the Oldest Princess

*For the chance for us all to be together even if for a short time

*Fun times with a good friend and some awesome kindergarten students learning about God's Word

*A friend who kept her word, got out of her comfort zone, and warmed my heart with her gesture of kindness

*A good service with two baptisms

*Lunch with my two favorite guys - My Prince and the Young Prince

*Good friends who are gracious and kind to offer help

*For rest for the Youngest Princess

*For a thoughtful gift that made my day

*For friends who pray when I call on them

*For God's hand at work

*For a service opportunity, and fun times with friends old and new

*For a long talk with the Oldest Princess

*For laughter with my family

*For meeting new friends and learning their life story 

*For a Championship for my hometown team

*For a couple of chances to encourage the Youngest Princess

*For the encouragement of friends

*For communication

*For an answer to prayer

*For a hope for the future

I am so thankful to the Lord for these things and of course many more.  His goodness is overwhelming!  Praising Him today for all He is, all He has done, and all He is going to do.  





Thursday, October 26, 2017

Thankful Thursday 10/26/17

* For a long awaited day finally come

* For time with my favorite man

* For great food and warm fellowship

* For rest

* For a chance to share the Gospel with those hungry to learn it

* For the chance to hold a precious little one

* For the opportunity to serve and love on some sweet little ones in the church nursery

* For a new family joining our church

* For family and time together

* For lightbulb learning moments for my students

* For character growing moments for my students

* For people, places, things, and circumstances - both "comfortable" and "uncomfortable", that God used to grow and stretch me this week.

* For the Holy Spirit who leads and guides and helps and comforts

* For a physical reminder that I'm not completely self sufficient

* For the privilege of prayer and the blessing of praying friends

* For answered prayers

* For thoughtful things that made me smile

* For a reminder to keep my focus on what matters in the light of eternity

* For simple words spoken from a loving heart that were balm to a deep hurt

* For a renewed love for what I do

* For laughter

* For beautiful sunsets

* For one on one time with my girl

* For early morning quiet time

* For a yummy free dessert

* For confirmation on something my heart really needed confirmation on

* For safe travels for several people we know and love

 * For cooler, fire pit weather, and the conversations that come with such

* For roasted marshmallows, and hot chocolate

*For fun rivalries

* For another year of life for a good friend

* For people with a sense of humor

* For a husband who loves me way more than I deserve

For all these things and many, many more, I am thankful to the Lord!  It has been a week of lessons from the Lord straight to my heart.  How thankful I am that He does not give up on me, even when I am stubborn.

Friday, September 15, 2017

Thankful Thursday 9/14

Thankful Thursday - On Friday.  Yesterday was packed, with us running from one activity to another, and I woke up this morning realizing that I had let yesterday slurp away without posting my Thankful Thursday.  So, without any more delay, here are a few of the things that stood out this week that I am thankful for...

*Great news from a far country

*An evening and a movie at home with the Youngest Princess 

*A beautiful day 

*Not one, but two buckets of Sunflower seeds

*A Facebook post that opened up a ministry opportunity 

*An awesome FaceTime chat with the Young Prince

*Another ministry opportunity due to Irma

*Awesome church members who jump in an pitch in to help 

*New friends

*A sweet gift of appreciation 

*Getting everything done

*A good report from the dentist

*A good day for a friend I've been praying for

*A chance to help the Oldest Princess (and the fact that she asked for my help)

*Sunshine

*A friend who is willing to help 

*One week closer to seeing the Oldest Princess and the Young Prince

*An amazing husband who spoils me way too much

Thursday, September 7, 2017

Thankful Thursday 9/7

I am thankful for many, many things, but these are a few that stood out this week.  But of course today, and the safety of the Young Prince, and our family is a MAJOR PRAISE, and my biggest thing to be thankful for this week.  And now for the rest...

* That not ALL of my water spilled, and I still had some left to drink

* Funny texts from friends

* A night out with my daughter and my husband

* Getting to go to bed earlier than usual

* Washing machines and dryers

* A day to decompress and get a few things done

* Texts from a concerned friends

 * Beautiful weather 

* Fun times playing volleyball in the front yard with My Prince and the Youngest Princess

* A day off 

* A short week

* A prayer answered for the Youngest Princess

* Friends who pray for us

* The privilege to hold a precious new baby

* The beautiful natural silver highlights the past two weeks have added to my hair - and a great hairdresser who can cover them back up for me 😉

* That God kept our family safe through Irma

* For a smile I haven't seen in a while on a sweet little face

* For hugs and hellos from some of our church kids at school - they totally make my day!

*For another year of life for the man of my dreams - Happy Birthday My Prince!  I love you!!








Thursday, August 31, 2017

Thankful Thursday 8/31

Because bad news seems to be way too plentiful these last few days, and because I think we could all use a lot more Thankfulness in our lives, I think it's time to bring back Thankful Thursdays.

*that my family members are all safe after hurricane Harvey and the resulting floods

*for friends that I can laugh and cry with - sometimes both at the same time

*for technology that lets me connect with my children with just a few taps on my screen

*for a home that we did not have to build from scratch (the Youngest Princess and I are reading Little    House on the Prairie, and just finished reading about how Pa built their house)

*for students that follow directions the first time, and with a good attitude

*for a husband who is able to come and eat lunch with me most days

*for safety as we traveled to and from volleyball games this week

*for a precious lady who is willing to step in and be an adopted grandma for the Youngest Princess on  Grandparent's day

*for good health

*for a text from a concerned co-worker

*that my husband safely pulled over and got out of the car before the wasp on his shoulder stung either him or me

*for a text from a concerned family member

*for a comfortable bed at the end of a long day

Monday, January 2, 2017

In 2017 I Want to LOB, I Hope You do, too

Well, I did it.  I didn't always do it well.  But I did it.  I managed to blog a whole year of our lives.  There were days when I really enjoyed it, and days when I was really mad at myself for setting that goal.  There were days when I wanted to share, and there were days when I did not want to share.  But through it all, I am glad that I did it, and hopefully in some small way (those of you who stuck with me through it all) I hope you were encouraged by our ups and downs.  If so, it was worth it.  And we have a whole year's worth of memories forever in print.  Thank you to those of you who took the journey with us.  I hope to blog a lot in the new year, but I don't think that I will try to blog every day.  Maybe not even every week.  But I will try to blog the blog-worthy stuff.

The last week or so, with 2016 ending, and the coming of a new year, I spent a lot of time thinking and praying.  Last year, I chose the word glorify as my word of the year.  I wanted to spend every day with the word glorify in my heart and mind.  I wanted my life and the life of our family to glorify the Lord in some way, big or small, each and every day.  There were days that I feel I/we did well.  There were days that I feel I/we failed miserably.  But I do hope that by keeping that word in my heart that it helped me do a better job of glorifying Him than ever before.  I want to continue to claim that word as one of my words for 2017, because I fully believe that our primary purpose is to glorify God.  So, I can not walk into a new year and leave it behind.  This year, I will strive to glorify Him even more than last year.

With all of that said, I have been thinking and praying for a new word for 2017.  But every time I thought that I had settled on a word, something would happen, that would make me not so sure.  There was not one word that I could choose.

Yesterday morning, as I was getting ready for church, I was thinking about the uncertainties of a coming year.  How that life can change in the blink of an eye and how every new year brings both good and bad.  Happy and sad.  Easy and hard.  Life and death.  Beginnings and endings.

The verse, "That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust." - Matthew 5:45, came to my mind.

Then we went to church, and My Prince preached about The Difference that Makes all the Difference.  He used the parable of the wise man and the foolish man.  There were two houses.  There were two builders.  There were two foundations.  There were two different outcomes.  The rain fell on both houses.  Just like God had brought to my mind earlier that the rain falls on "the just and the unjust."  We all face good and bad.  So, what is the Difference that Makes all the Difference?  Obedience.  Obedience to God and His Word.  Obedience is the foundation that we can build a strong life/home on.  Obedience - "And the rain descended and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon the house: and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock." Matthew 7:25 (emphases mine)  That rock, it's the solid rock of God's Word.  Obey it, and when the rains fall, and the floods come, and the winds blow - WHEN - not IF, your house will stand firm.

The opposite is also true. "And every one that hearth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And when the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it." - Matthew 7: 26-27  If we do not obey God's word, when the rains fall, and the floods come, and the winds blow - WHEN - not IF, your house will fall, and not just fall, but "great will be the fall of it."

So, thinking about all of that, I don't want my house to fall.  I want my house to stand firm.  I want to obey God's Word.  And although I have been a student of God's Word my whole life, I feel as though I have not even scratched the surface of everything it holds.  And how can I obey what I don't know.  There is still so much of God's Word that I need to learn, so that I can obey it.  How blessed we are that we have God's Word to study.  How blessed we are that we don't have to "guess" what God wants.  He tells us straight up.  It is our responsibility to learn and obey.

I got a new CD from my niece for Christmas.  There is a song on that CD that really speaks to my heart.  I have listened to it over and over again in the last few days.  The message of the song is that sometimes we get worried or anxious, but God has got it all taken care of.  Often we want to take matters into our own hands, and try to make things work out, but God just wants us to trust Him and be still.  Be still.  BE. STILL. That phrase simultaneously strikes fear - and brings peace to my heart.  It calls to me.  It calls me to let God be God in ALL areas of my life, not just the comfortable parts.

So, I share all of that to say that I did not pick just one word for 2017.  I have picked several words, and I will use the acronym LOB to keep them fresh in my mind over the year.  I know.  It's not cute or necessarily "catchy" but it is what God has put on my heart, so I am going with it.

L - Learn - Learn, learn, learn all I can from God's Word. Soak it in.

O - Obey - Obey what I learn from God's Word.  One of my favorite authors uses the phrase "imperfect progress".  I know that this is what this will be.  There will be no perfection here.  So if you are looking for perfection, don't look in my direction.  Progress is my goal.  To learn and obey as much as I can.  And sometimes, our best lessons are learned through mistakes.  I am sure I will make mistakes, but when I do, my prayer is that I learn from them.  Progress is the goal.  To obey God more this year than ever before.

B - Be Still - I really feel like God is telling me to do what I know he wants me to do, and then just Be Still and let Him be God.  To trust Him.  To rest in Him.  To know that He has it all under control and does not need my help at all.  Psalm 46:10.  I want to Be Still and watch God work it all out in His way and in His time.

So, until I blog again...glorify, and LOB


Sunday, January 1, 2017

December 31, 2016

I woke up and watched my First 5 video and did my Bible reading.  I checked in on the eagles and saw that one of the eggs had hatched overnight.  I knew that the Youngest Princess would be thrilled to wake up and find that one of them had hatched.  Pretty soon I heard the pitter patter of little feet flying down the stairs.  It was the Youngest Princess.  She had come down to tell me that one of the babies had hatched.  We talked about it for a minute, and then she was back upstairs.

I got some cleaning and laundry done, while the girls played.  They wanted to play outside so badly, but it was cold and drizzling, so they didn't get to play out much.  It was pretty much an inside sort of day.

My Prince ran the roads getting some things we needed and getting ready for Sunday morning.  Then he did a little studying and watched a little football with the Young Prince.

I made some chocolate covered pretzels to take with us to the get together that we were going to go to that night.

The Young Prince and the Oldest Princess went with My Prince to the church to help him move some bricks and things to the platform, so that he could decorate for our new Foundations series.

I talked to my sister for a few minutes on the telephone.  It was good to catch up with her, and I am glad to hear that she is doing well.

Pretty soon it was time to meet the Youngest Princess's friend's dad, and then go to our friends' house for our New Year's Eve get together.

We stopped and got some pizzas for the kids, and then we went to our friends' house.  We ate some great pork loin, and fixings to go with it.  We enjoyed some good fellowship.  We played cards, and we laughed the New Year in.

There were no fireworks this time.  After one truck fire and one lost dog in past years, we decided that there would be no fireworks to ring in 2017.

After midnight, we headed home.  We got home and My Prince still had a little studying to do, so the Youngest Princess snuggled with me.  She was not sleepy, and wanted to talk.  I was sleepy and did not want to talk.  Plus I knew that it would be hard to get up and get moving in the morning for church.  The Youngest Princess went to her bed, and I fell promptly to sleep.  Such an exciting end to a year full of changes.

Until I blog again...