Snafu

In a gross oversight on my part, I failed to mention how thankful I am for my friends!! (and it didn't take long before one certain friend brought it to my attention!) My friends are the best friends ever...they love me despite all my quirky weirdness. So...I am SO VERY VERY THANKFUL for the friends that add so much fun and laughter to my life...you guys are truly all the BEST!!! And I mean that!

Look what I've got...

I HAVE A MANTLE!!! YAY!! Yes, I know I've lived here for almost four years, but we just added the mantle last week! My first Christmas with a mantle...so excited! (It's the little things, people...let me have my moment!)

O Happy Day!

Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone, and it was fantastic. Although about half my family couldn't make it, we really had a great day! For the first time ever, I was in charge of pretty much the entire meal. My Mom made the dressing because, let's face it, nobody makes dressing like Momma! My part of the meal included sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, ham, cream cheese corn, and pumpkin pie cake! Almost every recipe called for at least one stick of butter...some called for more! My Dad's wisdom..."I diet all year for this meal!" So, we downed a years worth of fat grams but, man was it good!

As for the snow, you have never seen Leigh more excited! (She's from the Beaumont area where we rarely to never see snow!) That was a perfect touch added to an already lovely day.

Mom and Dad and less than half of their grandkids!!


Leigh owes me twenty bucks!

This Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for so many, many things. My family full of healthy, happy children. Wes who generously gives of himself and often puts my needs above his own...he's an awesome dad and loving husband. I'm thankful that my brother Joe began his relationship with Christ just a few months ago. I'm thankful for parents who taught me the importance of family. And, I have to say...I'm so, so grateful that God moved James and Leigh to Fort Worth...having family so close and getting to be a part of Glory's life is just so overwhelmingly awesome. I feel undeservingly blessed. Because of God's grace and goodness, my life is full of joy!

Good Talk!

This morning over breakfast...

Emma (while eating her cereal and apparently pondering some deep thoughts):
Mom, do pilgrims hibernate until like November or something? Cause I've never seen one!

Mom (while spewing her coffee all over the kitchen):
Yes, they do. They've been "hibernating" for several hundred years now. Pilgrims are just what the people who traveled to America from Europe were called. They lived a long time ago...which is why you've never seen one.

Emma (with wide inquisitive eyes):
You mean they're dead?

Mom (wondering how many years it will take to get Emma through high school):
exactly!

Blogger's Block

Ok. In an effort to keep Jenny from going off the deep end, I'm forcing myself out of Blogger's block and sharing my only thoughts....

First, it's Abbee's birthday! YAY Abbee! She's officially 9 years old and we're celebrating with dinner from her restaurant of choice: CiCi's (ICK...but don't tell Abbee!) I have to admit, Abbee almost always gets the shaft on her birthday party. Since we're going to Disney in a couple of weeks, I need a low budget-high fun birthday party idea!! So, Jenny, that's your assignment!

Second, we are freeing Terd the Turtle today. We are finally unanimous that Terd would be happier in a real pond with his friends and family...and perhaps a few predators! So, after dinner, we will walk down to the pond across the street and set Terd free.

Finally, with a total weight loss of 7 pounds, I've moved back into third place in the Biggest Loser (although I had a terrible week for the second week in a row...apparently, everyone did!). The bad news is, skinny boy has regained the lead and widened the gap between Shell Shell and first place. So, I've got to FOCUS. I'm a little off my goal to be down ten pounds by Thanksgiving. I'm going to have to put in a hard core week this week to get back on track. So, if you like, please call and tell me to put the chocolate down, back away slowly, get off my lazy bum, and get moving! Use force if necessary! I MUST STAY ON TRACK...IT'S MY STRATEGY!

Faith to be Strong

These are the lyrics to an Andrew Peterson song I've liked for a long time now, but they have taken on new meaning in this season of my walk with God. For the moment, it is my heart's prayer...

Give us faith to be strong
Father, we are so weak
Our bodies are fragile and weary
As we stagger and stumble to walk where you lead
Give us faith to be strong

Give us faith to be strong
Give us strength to be faithful
This life is not long, but it's hard
Give us grace to go on
Make us willing and able
Lord, give us faith to be strong

Give us peace when we're torn
Mend us up when we break
This flesh can be wounded and shaking
When there's much too much trouble for one heart to take
Give us peace when we're torn

Give us faith to be strong
Give us strength to be faithful
This life is not long, but it's hard
Give us grace to go on
Make us willing and able
Lord, give us faith to be strong

Give us hearts to find hope
Father, we cannot see
How the sorrow we feel can bring freedom
And as hard as we try, Lord, it's hard to believe
So, give us hearts to find hope

Give us faith to be strong
Give us strength to be faithful
This life is not long, but it's hard
Give us grace to go on
Make us willing and able
Lord, give us faith to be strong
Give us peace when we're torn
Give us faith, faith to be strong

Amazing Grace

There is a reason people aren't authentic...nobody wants to know you. not really. Not if you are messy. They don't want to hear what keeps you awake at night or makes you sob uncontrollably. We're uncomfortable with being uncomfortable and quite frankly, frankness is uncomfortable. Openess about our ugliness is a little too offensive, abrasive, and harsh. So, people are much more comfortable with who I pretend to be.

But, i must ask: if I am not as horrible as I think I am, why the cross? Seems a little harsh to punish one's own Son in such a brutal, barbaric way if the people He was supposedly "saving" were pretty decent to start with. And, if Jesus only did that so I could go to heaven, there could have been an easier way. Like a punch card. Do so many good deeds and earn your way to heaven.

I am so grateful that God is comfortable with me. Not the me left to myself, but the me He is redeeming. He wants me to see myself for who I really am, because, only in seeing my utter depravity does the cross begin to effect real change in my life. For a God who would reconcile Himself to me...the me I know...is a God of AMAZING GRACE. He's a God I want to serve and please and know.

We all shout: sinners saved by grace, but we don't shout about the sinners part too loudly. But I would suggest that, unless people see where we were...before God intervened...and where we are...still struggling to be who He called us to be...they can't connect with what God is doing in and through us. See, the grace in my life isn't nearly as amazing if you don't know the whole story...if you haven't heard about the me I was before that grace began to change me...about the me I still struggle to crucify so that I might live a life worthy of the call. That grace, the grace that stepped into my existance and had an impact beyond my wildest imagination, THAT GRACE is amazing.

So, I'm sorry that I have to admit I'm rebellious. That I stink at pleasing God. That when I compare the words of Jesus with the actions in my life, there is a vast disconnect. But, the grace that loves me despite that...that is some serious amazing grace.

Harvest Fest Hangover

My entire family awoke this morning with a Harvest Festival Hangover! Emma literally almost fell asleep sitting straight up while getting dressed! Between the sugar, the adrenaline, the late night, and the crash from the sugar high, we were dragging ourselves to school this morning!

I must say, this was the BEST HARVEST FEST EVER! It was so fun to see the excitement from the kids as well as the enthusiasm of the volunteers. Everyone working together...it's a beautiful thing! If we could take this same concept and apply it in all service ideas: working together the help the needy, the broken, and the outcast. That is what Christ called his "body" to do.

Here are some of my favorite pics from the night: