Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

                               I love Summer!!! I love warm weather! The only thing that makes this dreary, cold, monotonous weather bearable is the fact that the holidays are just around the corner. Family time, eating time, conversing time, time to just relax and focus on loved ones. The kids having breaks from school. Time to hang out and chill with them. Just today, I decided to have my dad's extended family to my humble abode for turkey day. I like to entertain, however I must admit I'm not very good at the decorating part. I'd like to think that people will still have enjoyed being here, despite what my house looks like.
                              But, Christmas is my all-time most favorite season of the year!!! I love it even more than my birthday! My A.D.D kicks in and I go berserk for the shiny paper, ornaments, candles, glitter, and it doesn't help that red is my favorite color!! (I would have made a great elf!) In all honesty, I love giving gifts. I start my planning in August/September for the gift giving season. (You never know when that perfect gift will be on sale!)  On Christmas Eve, my family comes over, we eat appetizers and open gifts. The kids are all watching to see when us adults have the last bite swallowed so they can open presents! Who am I kidding, I can't wait to dive head first into the tree! I just realized that would be a sight to behold! Ha.
                              The other evening Marv and I sat down with the boys to discuss what they wanted for Christmas. All 3 boys were yelling so loudly over each others voices, that I couldn't hear a blessed word. They did calm down enough to say what each one wanted, even Marv, who dreads this time of year, mentioned a few helpful gift ideas for himself! I can't wait to get started!!!
                               With all the hustle and bustle that this time of year brings, please don't forget to be thankful for the many blessings you have, family & friends that are still here, your health and most of all the real reason we celebrate Christmas. Jesus.

Joy

      Joy, such small lettters but what a great impact these 3 have on our lives. We, as Americans are stressed out, overworked, stretched to the max, among lots of other things. There's so much 'stuff' vying for our time, trying to grab our attention that we don't know which end is up sometimes.  It's easy to put quiet time on the shelf or say a quick prayer in the car on your way somewhere.
      This past Sunday at Grace, we started a new series called 'Get Back'. I am so excited for the revival this is going to bring to Grace!! We were challenged to fast from something, anything, to get our minds focused on Christ once again. We all struggle with spiritual drift from time to time and this is the time to recommit to scripture reading, face on the floor prayer time, & truly confessing all the dirt within us. I encourage you, whether you attend Grace or not, to look into your own life and see where you have drifted, (scripture reading, memorization, prayer time). I have decided for my fast to eat only salads and healthy foods, no junk or packaged garbage. As a family, we are skipping fast food, including my ever-so-handy Monday, Friday & Saturday night pizza. This means I will have to cook more but it's going to be so worth it!
      Our worship master, Rocky, wrote a song called Revive Us. The lyrics 'restore our joy' struck a  chord with me. I'm usually a positive, happy person but earlier this summer I felt a little down. My prayer is that God would restore the joy back into your lives.
    Good luck in your fast and 'Getting Back' to God!

                                                    Revive Us

                                                                                                                        Amy

Tidbits of Busyness

     Can I just say that I hate that Satan loves to keep me busy. It's the number one thing that gets me every time! I don't see it coming! So busy with work that my kids get neglected. So busy that my spouse feel unloved & disrespected. (OUCH) So busy that family & friends feel rejected. So busy I don't have time to open God's Word. It is one of Satan's plans to busy me with other 'things'. To distract me from what is really important. Perhaps, I am the only one struggling with this?
     I can tell when I don't spend enough time in the word & praying. I get anxious and start to worry. I can tell when I am busying myself with other 'things'. I can so tell when I'm not spending enough QUALITY time with the men of the house. They get irritated, closed up, and simply don't want to listen. Which in turn makes me grumpy and it ends up in a vicious cycle. Yes, I can get grumpy on occasion, I am only human.
     However, on the flip side, I try to weed out my schedule and focus on only the things that are of most importance. I try to spend my days off with my boys and feed my hungry hubby a nice dinner from scratch on my days off. (One of his love language's is acts of kindness.) If that means having his clean underwear in his drawer and not on the laundry room counter, I will gladly have them put away. :)
     The boys and I were watching home videos the other evening. I remember thinking we are never getting out of diapers and bottles with the twins and now here they are going into second grade! I am wondering if I will ever teach them everything I want them to learn/know before they leave our home. How am I focusing today to spend time with each one? How can I teach them biblical principles and scripture? I have a couple of attack plans! I will take time out to smell the roses, put away clean underwear and make mashed potatoes from scratch!
      I hope you find yourself not to busy to smell the roses.

Life Group Trip

               This past weekend, our Life Group took a short, eventful and very hilarious work trip to Gary, West Virginia. Gary is located at the bottom of the steepest mountain (or so it seems) in one of the poorest counties in the United States. We had several work projects lined up through an organization called School for Life. A few of our projects included, re-schingling a porch roof, gutting a bathroom, tearing off 2 porches, power washing the exterior of a house and repainting it. Now I'm a list maker, get'er done kind of person and get great satisfaction to cross things off the list when completed. Let me just say, God had other plans.
                Marv and I tore into a bathroom on Friday, tearing out a pedestal sink, a toilet that sat on bricks and a couple severed 2x4's, and a full tub/shower combo. Now let me paint you a picture, minus the putrid smell (which is forever etched in my senses). Marv, is by no means, a plumber by trade. He knows that hot is on the left, cold is on the right, and that everything else flows downhill. Water gushing out of a pipe means there's a problem. The floor in the bathroom gave the Alps a run of their money, hence the reason the commode sat on bricks. I should also say that we had to move these people's 'things' out of the bathroom before we could do our work. I am very funny about hair and products that are not mine or my family's. So I could have almost started gagging moving hair pieces, sanitary napkins, and everything else under the rainbow. (I still shudder)
                After removing the tub, sink and toilet, mostly in pieces, there were 4 layers of crusted on vinyl flooring we had tear out. Marv had given the last layer of vinyl a good yank and popped off the sink pipe at floor level. Insert Old Faithful here! We had to leave to grab a few more supplies. When we returned, I immediately smelled something when we climbed the stairs to get to the house. The grandma was home babysitting and decided to dump turpentine all over the floor and down the open pipes. (Who has turpentine laying around their house?!!!) My eyes burned and I had a cough already and this was just the icing on the cake. Moving on, as Marv was trying to cut apart the shower his foot went through part of the floor. The rest of our group joined us Saturday morning to help finish what we could. Our supposedly 1 day bathroom took us 2. Saturday it was raining and so the outside projects that didn't get accomplished, will wait until someone else arrives to get finished.
                It didn't matter that we didn't get the 5+ projects done. We gave a mom a safe floor so she can give her 4 year old son a bath without having to worry about falling through the floor. Also a  toilet that won't fall over spilling it's contents. My take away: Be happy with what you have. The Jones, Smiths, Millers, Yoders, Troyers, whoever will always seem to have bigger and better. The truth is, who cares!!! If you have a roof over your head that doesnt leak, food on the table that isn't moldy and clothes on your back that aren't dirty, then you, my friend, are BLESSED! What more does one want except happiness and contentment. I find myself very happy with everything the Lord has blessed Marv and I with. I hope you are too!

Mowing Faster

I found this song- Big Daddy Weave on my ipod through my shuffle feature. I found that I drove faster on my mower when this song played! I bet I could run a lot faster too, if I played it when I ran! I can relate to the line, 'to be held so tight I've never felt so free'. Love that my Jesus holds me tightly and I have freedom through him!

                                                        

Amazed

                        Once again, I am in awe and stand amazed at how God answers prayer! During these past 40+ days, I was just blown away by little things that came to light through fasting, prayer and reading the Word! I have seen, firsthand, that God sees the bigger picture and that He cares about the little things. I'm so glad He does!!! My gator has been out of commission the past 2 1/2 weeks. Talk about frustrating! It stresses me out and makes me grumpy when I have no wheels. It's fixable, but with a hefty price tag. Marv and I were discussing about how to pay for these repairs. This past Friday, we found out of  some monies that were due us that we had forgotten about and they exceeded the amount of the repairs! Needless to say, we were dancing for joy! I'm hoping you find the joy & amazement in the little things as well.

New Song

This is a new song to me that I like. Just thought I'd share.

                   Addison Road- This little light of mine.