A Tale of Two Lives

The weather yesterday was amazing! The sun was shining and there was not one cloud anywhere in view. I like days like that! I know that God has placed me in the south for that very purpose. I couldn't live where weather like that was not the norm. At least at this point in my life, I couldn't. So it was a perfect day for our air conditioner to go kaput and make it so that we had to

open up the house! It was beautiful!

As the afternoon wore on, I noticed a pattern in my home that made me laugh. The kids were all in the backyard and

scattered throughout the living room just hanging out enjoying the great day. There were smiles and laughs, running races, and how-high-can-you-swing contests.

There was reading by older kids to the youngers and everyone savoring the moment.

Then I realized that one was missing...Ben! He was out in the front yard, having just mowed, weed-eated (is that a word?), and fertilized. He was sweating and thirsty and cleaning up the mess in the yard by washing it away. He didn't seem to have the same living-for-the-moment mentality as the rest of us.

I was glad to be on the back side of the house and not on the front side! :)

Great Fall Craft

You need a medium sized pumpkin or gourd and a tealight. This one is from Bath & Body Works pumpkin scent. (On sale right now for $4.50 for 12) The gourds came three in a bag at WalMart for $2.98 for all three. That makes each of these about $1.38! Not bad.






Trace around the tealight tilting the pen a little inside the circle the tealight makes. Trust me...I really made three, but one of them I held the pen straight up and made the circle and the tealight falls in right to the bottom beautifully! Take a knife and cut out around the line. It's easy to pry up the piece. Then clean up the inside.

Place the tealight in the hole!

Light 'em up!

In my never ending quest to find all things spiritual in my life...I cleaned up the insides of the pumpkins and placed it all on this paper towel. How disgusting! Slimy, wet, not so great smelling, seemingly rotten, not good for much. So, is my heart like that? The Bible says my heart is deceptively wicked and also that all that I think of as good works are like filthy rags. Gross! I do think that most of us are like this. Cute as can be on the outside, clean, pretty, etc...but really needing a good clean-out on the inside. Praise God that Jesus is in my life, continually cleaning me heart, working on me to be more like Him everyday.

God is Good...All the Time!

I have been involved in a Bible study called Lies Women Believe and we met last night. We get to meet every two weeks and though it seems like forever until we get to meet again, I love the amount of time so that I can actually get my lesson completed to my satisfaction and have time to meditate upon the lesson and what God is teaching me.

We met last night.

The subject was on the lie that God isn't always good. You know how the world thinks about it...and sadly many Christ followers...if God is so good, then why does ______happen? Fill in the blank with whatever disaster, hard time, catastrophe you want.

The truth is the God is good all the time! I do mean ALL THE TIME!!!

We have been the recipients of so many blessings in our lifetime, but our family has experienced an abnormally large amount of blessings within the last two months. Why? I don't know. But I do know that God is good all the time. So you say..."easy for you to say that when you have been getting so many blessings. What about me? Everything is going wrong in my life!"

I still say that God is good all the time. And so should you. Are you able to look around and find others worse off than you are? Do you live in America? Do you have freedoms that other countries don't have? Do you have enough food in your pantry to cover not only today's meals, but tomorrow's as well? When you flip a switch does a light come on?

If you feel like you are a modern day Job, try this trick. Take a poster board and write Blessings on the top of it. Every day write down EVERY blessing you can think of for that day. Every meal, every Sonic drink purchased, every bill that got paid, every laugh you heard your child utter...you get the point. You will so quickly fill up that board and you won't be able to not smile when you see how your Heavenly Father loves you and takes care of your every need. Pretty soon you, too, will be saying God is Good All the Time!

Our New Pumper!

Here is Darby with her diabetes educator, Chandra! Darby is such a trooper and Chandra is amazing with the info she gives and the manner in which she is able to pass it along.

Here it is! A small sticky patch attached to a really small tube and then the other end attached to her pump. (look at next pic)

So...here she is totally attached! She is now what they call a "pumper". We are thrilled that God enabled her to have this amazing technology so quickly after her diagnosis. We go back in one month to get her sensor! Wait until you hear what that does.....!

12 Weeks Til Christmas!

12 weeks until Christmas and so far I have stuck by my plan to be prepared! OK, so it's only been one week, but hey, it's a start!!!

Last week I made cookie dough and put them in the freezer...chocolate chip, sugar, white chocolate macadamia nut, and biscotti. I did not make all I wanted to make, so I am finishing up this week...more chocolate chip, ginger snap, and maybe one more. The real task for this week is to decide upon the gifts for all the extraordinary people in our lives...AWANA leaders, SS teachers, homeschool teachers, etc...you get the idea. So I have decided upon a couple of things, I think.

I like making the jar gifts where you have all the dry ingredients for something like brownies, soup, cookies, etc. I also want to make chocolate covered pretzel sticks. You know, the big, thick sticks. You cover most of the stick in chocolate and then roll them in nuts, sprinkles, etc.

I have purchased most of the things needed for these gifts! I really feel like I am going to be better prepared for Christmas than I ever have! Tell me what you are doing...what are your ideas? I could use all the help I can get.

The San Francisco Treat