Hike with Friends

We had to take advantage of this beautiful day...

 

so we went on a hike with some friends!



Wyatt, Caleb and Alex

 

 

Reagan, Grace, Layla, and Anna Lea

 

All the kids, pre-hike:)

 

Anna Lea and the boyz

 

The prize at the end!

The kids had a blast together.  They weren't too excited about hiking all the way back, but we made it, and were rewarded with a yummy picnic lunch. 

Hope

During college my best friend and I kept a calendar taped to the back of our dorm room door.  The purpose for this calendar was to help us make it through our last year of college, a few days at a time.  We would count down to every weekend, or break from classes by crossing out each day once it was past.  We made it through by looking foward to, or anticipating events that were coming up in our near future. 

Ten years later...

I am still a girl who likes to have something to look foward to, something that gives me that feeling of excitement or anticipation.  In this moment, I am most looking foward to the first day of Spring!  One week from today it will be here!!  We have almost made it through the gray, winter months, and are about to soak in the warmth and beauty that will surround our home here in East Tennessee.  Shorts, swim suits, water guns, flowers, gardens, picnics, and around here, bare feet, are all things we do!  Mmmm!   I absolutley crave it! 

There is just something about having something to look foward to that fills us with hope.  Hope in something to come that is better than what we have right now.  Something more exciting or fun, something more relaxing or fulfilling. 

As a believer who is learning all the benefits of a close relationship with God my Father, I am able to not only be filled with a hope of things to come in this world, but also filled with the Hope of eternity.  I can look foward to eternity with the One who made it possible to hope -  Jesus!
For He is Hope! 

He is hope for a better life right now, this second, this hour, this week, this season of life.  He is hope for a better future.  He is the only Hope that satisfies. 

Happy Easter!

 

 

He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.

Matthew 28:6

12 Days of Christmas

We really didn't celebrate Christmas for 12 days, but it might as well have been.  We did celebrate for a whole week!  It was crazy and chaotic, but blessed and joyful at the same time.  Rob and I both come from rather large families.  He is the second of five siblings, and I am the oldest of six.  We were able to spend time with every single one of our brothers and sisters and their children over the Christmas holiday.  It started at our home the Saturday before Christmas when we had our own little families' "Christmas morning" .  The kids had asked Santa for one thing each; Layla asked for a bike, Anna Lea a pretend snake, and wyatt a tractor.  They must have been good, because those gifts were waiting for them when they woke up that morning, along with several others from Mom and Dad. 

 

Later that day four of their cousins arrived who would be staying with us for the next five days.  (along with their parents, thankfully:)  They were more excited about seeing their cousins then they were about presents!  They all played together so well!! 

 

Caleb and Wyatt

 

 

Gram and Anna Lea

 

We were also lucky enough to get a suprise visit from Santa himself!  The kids did not know what to think!

 

Uncle Will's new Christmas present was a big hit also - Millie, a Black Lab

 



 

Cousin Beau

 

Beau and Eveley

 



 

Opening MORE gifts from the great grandparents

 

 

On Wednesday of the next week, we packed up and headed to my parents to continue in the festivities.  Wyatt with his cousin Daniel

 

Here we also recieved gifts from Grandparents, Great Grands, Aunts and Uncles and Great Aunts and Uncles!!! We we overwhelmed!!  and thankful!!

 

We were especially glad to get to see Leah, Matt, Madi, and meet Lindsey for the first time!! 

 

Maybe my rendition of the 12 Days of Christmas song below will give you a little insight to our jolly  little holiday...

 

On the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me, 12 talkers talking, 11 others laughing, 10 mores a tweeting, 9 kiddies screaming, 8 moms a nursing, 7 kids at our house, 6 men a laying, 5 coffee spills on carpet! 4 falling down, 3 big suprises, 2 shopping days, and enough food to feed a small country!



Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa's

I took my camera on our trip to Clarksville, to spend time with all my family for Thanksgiving, but of course, I didn't take any pictures, except for right before we left.  We had a great time spending time with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins! 

 

 Grandpa, Grandma, Layla, Wyatt, and Anna Lea

 

 

We finished up the Thanksgiving holiday, by getting our yard straightened up and the leaves all raked up. 

 

Everyone pitched in to "help"

 





 

 

Healthy Hot Chocolate

I recently experimented, trying to make some hot chocolate without using sugar.  I used equal parts cocoa and local raw honey.  I just dumped it all in a pan and let it all warm together.   I really didn't expect it to taste as good as hot cocoa made with sugar, but I was pleasantly surprised! 

 

 

3 ingredients: cocoa, honey, and milk (we use raw milk from a local dairy)

 

mix together while warming, adjust to your taste

Wyatt tested

 



Wyatt approved!

 



I also made some more to let the girls try it when they were home from school, and they gobbled it up!  No more buying Nestle Hot Cocoa mix, with artificial ingredients and sugar for us!  Another REAL food success!

thankful



"I have stored up your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you."  Psalm 119:11

Like so many Americans today I have much for wich to be thankful.  At the top of my long list of things, is Family!  I was born to two, loving parents who, from before I was born, began instilling in me God's powerful words from the Bible. 

Like most, I take a lot of things for granted.  The wealth of Scripture that I have in my heart and mind, being one of them.  I have come to realize even more so recently what a HUGE blessing this knowledge is.  When I am in the middle of a circumstance that I am unfamiliar with, I can search my wealth of Scripture to navigate my way through it.  I am not forced to figure things out by myself, instead I have God's wisdom to guide me. 

With all of the changes our country is going through these days, I am even more aware of the desperate need that I and those around me have for a knowledge of what God's word says.  If my children, who are amoung those around me, growing up in this ever-changing world, do not know God's words to them, what choices will they make when faced with unfamiliar circumstances?  Will they choose based on what they think, or what is acceptable in society, or will they choose based on what they know God's word says?  Do they have something they can filter their decisions through?

I am filled with a renewed sense of urgency and responsibility in this area.  It is not my children's school, church, or any other person's responsibility to instill God's word into their tender hearts.  It is mine. 

To go along with the month of November and talking about being thankful, we have decided to take on memorizing Psalms 100.  As I write this, we have the first two verses down very well, and are working on the third verse. 



Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
² Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
 

³ Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;^[a]
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!

⁵ For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.

I recently finished a bible study on simplifying your life.  It helped you to get your priorities in the right order.  I have a strong desire to live my life simply and purposefully - especially in the area of teaching my children what is truly important in life.  I don't want to look back one day wishing I had done more once my season of opportunity has past. 

(When the kids can quote this whole chapter from memory to their daddy, is going to take each one of them on a special date:) 

"...and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

John 8:32



Fall Project 1

I named this post in the hope that we will not stop with the completion of one project this fall:)  I have had pictures for over two years now, that I wanted to do something with, and I finally got all my ducks in a row.  I "hired" a certain handyman that I know, and we finished a little "photo gallery" of our kids in the foyer.  I couldn't be more pleased with how it turned out! It looks fabulous!!  

 

 

Before

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After!