Friends and fun

It seems like many of my posts lately have included the word, fun. Well, Scott has taken most of the last two weeks off, and we have really had a good time as a family and visiting with friends.

Scott has kept a journal from last year where he briefly wrote down happenings of the day and we have spent the last couple of days reviewing this. It has been alot of fun seeing how the Lord blessed so much during 2008. We have also set some family goals for 2009.

On Saturday, we had a great time as a family making a gingerbread house. We also enjoyed eating it Sun. night with some wonderful friends. Melanie Thompson and her family stopped by for a brief visit and it was so good to see all of them.

Last night we visited with the Billingsleys and had a great time sharing how the Lord has worked in our lives.

We are so thankful to have such wonderful friends who encourage us in the Lord.

This is before.......

During...........

............................................

and After!!!

That looks good enough to eat!!

Fun Christmas week

The OLD gang from high school. back Rose Anne
Beverly, Julie, Traci, Nan and front Jennifer and Amy


Ann and Cathy snuggling. We had so much fun giggling and talking to the wee hours of the morning. I highly recommend a trip to Bonne Terre!


This is in the lobby of the inn.



Each room had a fireplace! How cozy.

Granny Rene in our room.

This is at the restaurant.

Cathy, Mom, Anna and I

Aunt Net, Uncle Steve and the kids on Christmas Day.

Christmas morning mess!

Santa's hats on Christmas Eve at Granny and Pa's

Merry Christmas

What a week! Mon. I went to B'ville to visit with my brother Julian and his wife before they left for Illinois. Claire was sick. Then Mon. night I went to a high school friend's house for a Christmas get together with old friends from high school. I do believe there were a few more pounds and wrinkles on all of us!!! :)

Then on Tues. we did cookie and candy making for the neighbors and the nursing home. Tues. night we made 6 pans of CHEX MIX!!

On Christmas Eve we packaged up 15 goodie packages and headed out in the rain to deliver. It was a fun day as we visited with neighbors and some older ladies we have come to love at the nursing home. Poor Scott spent the day in bed!!

On Christmas Eve night we loaded up and headed to Booneville for supper with Scott's mom and desserts with Mom and Dad. I stayed up until the wee hours finishing up stockings and gifts.

Christmas morning the children awoke bright and early to open gifts. Our big gift to the children this year was our Disney trip, but they all got Daddy and Mommy and each other gifts so there was plenty of paper ripping!!

We had Christmas brunch and then Aunt Net and Uncle Steve came down to exchange gifts.

We spent the rest of the day playing some of our new games and we had homemade soup for supper.

On Friday, Anna and I and Mom took off for Mempho (actually Nesbit) to spend the night at Bonne Terre, a beautiful bed and breakfast inn.

We shopped a bit in Horn Lake and had a scrumptous gourmet meal at the Bonne Terre. Anna had filet mignon and the rest of us had pecan crusted grouper. Yum!

We had creme broulee for dessert.

We stayed up almost all night talking and giggling. It was such a special time with Mom. This was her gift from my sister and I. Cathy kept getting lost on the property and we just howled!!!

Christmas at Mom's

Scott and I (before the cookies):)

C

Cathy on the earthmover!!!

Joseph and his girlfriend, Lauren.

Jay got his pirate ship!!

Ben got a Jonathan Park and Scanopedia!

Claire loves Lindsay Lou and Jeremy!

Anna got Prince Caspian and a webcam and jewelry making supplies

Here is a shot from our party

Jerry and Pa EJ enjoying the feast

My dear hubby

Smile Granny Rene!

Julian and Loretta

Christmas at Mom's this year was fantastic!! We had a huge Christmas dinner with dressing, turkey, pork roast, veggies, casseroles, salads and red velvet and coconut cake and sweet potato pies!! DEE-licious. I limited myself to 55 of my sister's Christmas cookies!!!!

After lunch we went up to an old high school friend's construction company and took pics of my petite sister on an earth mover!! It was her gag gift. She says every time she drives by the Toyota plant she wishes she could drive one of the big earth movers!!! So, we did the best we could to make her dream come true.

We played pictionary after that and then had our party foods and punch.

We had our Christmas devotion and I read the Christmas story from Luke 2.

Then we started with the youngest and opened presents.

Thank the Lord for a wonderful family!!

I hope your Christmas is extra special this year.

Merry Christmas!

Finally time to post

Here is a pic of some of the moms.
Lynn, Natalie, Yonea, Roan, Ginger, Melanie and Amy
Here are some of the girls - I never take enough pictures! And I still don't know how to move them where I want them to be in my post.

Just a quick rundown of the week. Monday we did school and cleaned house. Tuesday we did school again and then I tutored a friend of mine's daughter while Anna started her carmel cake baking. She did not have enough eggs, so after tutoring and supper we headed out to shop. I had several places to go and finished up my Kroger shopping for all our Christmas cooking and we did not get home until 10:30! We stayed up until 12 finishing the carmel cakes. They looked fabulous :)
That was only the first of my nights of staying up 'til 12!!
Wed. , I cooked all morning for my dinner party on the 18th, and we enjoyed an ornament swap Wed. afternoon! The pics above are from the swap.

Wed. night was church and on Thurs. I cleaned again and headed out to Lori's for some wreath decorating and to Anita's for some cooking.
Then about 6 our first guests arrived. We had about 20 people total. It was a fun evening of sharing old memories and catching up with each other's present day lives. All of Scott's college roommates and their wives and families were able to attend. I did not have time to take pics :(
Then on Friday, we did some more baking and had the Parks over for dinner. It was good to visit with them also.
Scott and Ben have gone with my brother Julian and Jim to Russell Cave over in North Alabama today to take my sweet Dwa Van (my dad) for his Christmas present. I am praying they have a safe trip and enjoy fellowship with each other. Daddy is almost 80 and I am glad he is well enough to travel.
Mom's BIG Christmas is tomorrow where everyone in my family will be there with the exception of Sarah(27) and Julianne(22) who have to work. (They live in SC)
Mom has been cooking for days and I am supposed to go up there today and help, but Claire is throwing up - I hope she is better by tomorrow. Anyway, we have a huge Christmas dinner around 1 and then spend the afternoon visiting and catching up and then that night we open gifts and have a finger food type party afterward. It is always so much fun. One of the most meaningful things we do each year is gather aroung before we open gifts and read the Christmas story (sometimes we even act it out, all my babies have portrayed the Holy Child at one time or another) and then someone has a devotion or we go around the room sharing what God has done in our lives in the past year. It is really a great time of focusing on Him. I am very thankful to have godly family members who inspire me to walk closer to our Lord.
My sister and I were talking last night, and I told her that I was really enjoying the Christmas season this year, especially our Jesse tree devotions.
God has taught me through the preaching of God's word and through reading His Word what a truly special event it was for Jesus to come down to earth and take on our flesh and live a perfectly spotless life where all the commandments were kept perfectly, and how His righteous life is credited to a vile, low down, filthy sinner such as I. What love! What Mercy and Grace!

I hope you all have a Blessed Christmas and I pray the baby born in an animal stable will be real to you this season!

coop again with pics

Here is Mrs. Rachelle with Margaret, Anna, Martha, Hannah and Laura

Elijah

Cutie pie, Joshua Williams

Smile John and Mitchell


Andrew, Jonah, Joshua P. , Ben and McCain




I hope you will all bear with me as I play with this new blog. I am going to post some more pics of coop.
Rachelle did an activity where the children had to think of major decisions in their lives and how they needed wisdom from God to face those. My station was to make a Christmas ornament for their future spouse and we discussed the great wisdom needed for that decision and they listed character qualities they would look for in a spouse.. Joshua Park is 6 and he was so cute, he said I am not going to get married so I have no character qualities that I am looking for!
Karen's station was to make a chart for qualities that you look for in a friend.
We had a lot of Christmas goodies and sang Christmas carols.

some recent pics

Here are some pics of my tree and dining room. I am also going to try to post some of our last wisdom coop from last Thursday. We have a great time cooping this fall. Thanks ladies for all your hard work!!

The little boys had so much fun with Mrs. Yonea making Christmas cookies!!

Finally, A New Blogspot!!

Ever since my entry into the blogging world, I have wished to be on this blog site, but my internet filter would not allow me to go here. Anyway, I finally had time to figure out how to go here, so, HERE I AM!!! I am excited to be able to get cuter backgrounds ~ isn't that silly :)

We have had a busy but fun weekend, mixed in with a couple of sick children. Friday Scott took off and we cleaned out closets and played games and had a really good day. Then on Saturday, Scott took the kids and Danielle to the goat sale in Pontotoc. I stayed home and a friend of mine, Rose Anne, came over and did some decorating in my dining room. I will try to post pics.
Then on Saturday night, we went to my cousin Brad and his wife Angie's home for a Christmas celebration with my mom's side of the family. Brad shared a little of what the Lord has shown them in the past few weeks, and it really warmed my heart. Our Lord is so good to reveal Himself to us in all kinds of ways.
Last night we had our Christmas fellowship at Christ Community and Sarah Fox gave her testimony. It really touched my heart as well. She told of the Lord's goodness in pursuing her and being patient with her. She shared how as a young person she had said the 'sinner's prayer" and walked the aisle and had really tried to live a good life, but she was not converted or saved as many call it. She still relied on her goodness and lived for herself and made life decisions based on her wants and desires and not relying on God. After a book study with the church and through talking with the pastor and others and pouring over God's Word, she felt a difference. Her desires were for different things, the scriptures came alive to her and she felt the Lord had converted her. It was Him, not anything she had done. I am sure my paraphrase of her testimony is not completely accurate, but I hope this is the gist of it.
The Lord has really been teaching me SO much these past couple of years and many things in her testimony, I could identify with. I want to bless His holy name for stooping down to touch my life and His wonderful patience as I wander all over the place. He has shown me such kindness and love. This Christmas season is full of hope!

I tried to bring my posts from my old blog over so I would have my blog journal all in one place. The text transferred but the pics did not. Oh well!

Dec. 10, 2008 - A great message
Scott asked me to listen to this message and what I have listened to so far, is VERY good. It will take me several days to watch it, but I am determined to listen to it. I encourage you to take some time and listen to it , even if it takes you several days. I plan to use it as a discussion with my family over Christmas.
http://www.tenindictments.com/

I hope you all have a good rest of the week!

Dec. 7, 2008 -
We had a very busy week last week. Early Wed. morning we took Ben to Chip's house and dropped off Anna at the Johnson's and Claire and John off at Mom's and Scott and I headed to Nashville for a short trip. Scott had a meeting there on Wed. and Thurs. morn.
We arrived in Nashville about 12:00 and after lunch , I finally got into our room around 2:30. I just rested and watched TV for a couple of hours. It was so quiet, I didn't know what to do! Then around 6 we went down for a delicious meal and then rode a bus to the Grand Ole Opry to see the Rockettes. It was a good show.
I had planned to do some shopping on Thurs. morning, but after Scott left for his meeting, I went back to sleep and did not awaken until 9:30!! At 11 Scott called and I met him for lunch and then we went to Micheals and Target for some Christmas shopping.
I am almost finished with my shopping, just a couple more gifts to go. I usually am shopping until the last minute and wrapping gifts until the wee hours on Christmas Eve. I have even wrapped about 10 of my gifts. (Thanks Roan for your Christmas tips)Thank you Vanita, Roan and Yonea for all your help with the children.
I am very thankful for friends and family who kept our children for us so that we could spend a little time alone. It was so nice to be able to talk without interruption. I am not complaining though, I am so blessed to be the mom of 4 precious children. They are truly a blessing from God, which brings me to a prayer request for my blog readers(all 3 of them :) Ha Ha! Scott and I feel a real burden for unwanted children and we are currently praying about possibly becoming foster parents or adopting from a crisis pregnancy center.
Please pray for us as we seek the Lord's will in this. I feel completely inadequate for such a task, but I know the Lord is faithful and able to give me what I need to do His will if this is indeed what He has for our family.
On Friday, Scott attended a men's retreat with the men from our church. He said the retreat was very helpful. I am thankful for our church and all the wonderful friends we have made there over the past two years. I look so forward to church each Sunday. It is such a blessing to worship God with such a church family. God has gifted our pastor with a great ability to preach the Word, and I feel so filled after each sermon.
Anna went home with a friend after church and I am about to try to get my house in order so that we can start our week with a semi straightened up house.
I am planning to do school each day this week except for Thursday, when we have our final Wisdom coop. My station this time is where we will discuss the qualities to look for in a spouse and then we will make a Christmas ornament for each child to give to their spouse one day with a Bible verse on it. I have really enjoyed our coop this semester with the Chunns, the Brocks, the Williams , the Corbins, the Parks and the Ards, and I am looking forward to next semester as well with several more families!!
I hope all of you have a blessed week.

Dec. 1, 2008 - Christmas decorating
Last night, Mom and Dad came down and we had a great time decorating our tree. We have a tradition that on tree decorating night, we invite the grandparents, have party foods and end the evening with Santa's hats(cherry ice cream topped with whipped cream, ginger ale and red sprinkles, with a cherry candy cane). The children really enjoy this special time with grandparents.
We started last year doing a Jesse tree and the devotions that go along with it are wonderful. After we decorated the tree, we had the Day 1 devotion and talked about what a wonderful gift we have in our Savior, Jesus Christ. Even today in our Jesse tree devotion, we learned about how in THE FALL, sin entered the world and God killed an animal and covered Adam and Eve. Even way back then, he gave clues to the coming of His precious son and the shedding of His blood for the atonement of sins. It is an exciting season to contemplate the redemptive love of Jesus and God's promises in the Old Testament even during dark and terrible times of sin, and how God is faithful to those promises.
This reminds me of the sermon our pastor preached yesterday from Isaiah. I praise the Lord for His teaching and guiding through studying His Word.
In Isaiah 1-11, God describes His faithful mercy. The nations of Israel and Judah are living in horrible idol worship and Chapters 1,2 3, 5, 6, 8 and 10 are long passages describing unfaithful Israel BUT God gives wonderful, refreshing glimpses of light throughout these dark times. Chapters 4, 7, 9 and 11 give dawnings of hope.
In Chapter 4, God tells of a beautiful, glorious, effective Branch of God that will come. The effects of His labor will be to judge and purify. They(WE) had so much filth, they were filled with it and spewed it from their lives daily. He would come to wash away that filth. He would change them(US) from the inside out and there would be real change on the outside as well. He promises re-form- ation of His people. New creatures -a radical idea. Chapter 4 also says that the Lord will create over all of His people a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of fire by night, indicating His prescence would be with them continually and that there would be a covering over them to be a shelter where all their needs (internal/external struggles) would be met. God's glory will dwell with each rescued soul and that soul will be covered.
Pastor John also told of the other glimpses of light from ch. 7 where it is foretold that HE would be born of a virgin, and in Chap. 9 that He will be from the line of David and the government will be on His shoulders and from Ch. 11, He will come from the stump of Jesse and the Spirit of the Lord will rest of Him.
Because of God's faithfulness, all these promises did take place. WE live on the other side of them. Joy to the World - He has come!!! We have the record of where they were gloriously performed in the birth, life and death of Jesus.
The Lord has shown me lately how priviledged we are to live in the light of the gospel story - how the OT saints only caught a glimpse of what was to come and how we can walk in the promise that Has come.
How do we walk daily in the light of these truths?
How do we live on these truths?
We must respond to His word that we hear and read. We must come to the Bible and Bible study seriously, not just checking it off as done for the day or whatever we think.
Do we believe that He is faithful, do we expect Him to be faithful to us as a believer? I know my life falls short of the wonderful promises of Isaiah ch 4,where God promised that Jesus, the glorious branch, would make us holy, set apart, cleansed on the inside so that it shows on the outside in what I say and do. And another question to ask ourselves,do I experience the joy that comes from abiding in His glorious cloud and fire presence?
Help us to pray to experience these promises for His glory.
Do we know the difference in waking up and living the day for ourselves as compared to living for Him in His prescence?
Do we believe God lives in us as He said in John 14:23?
Does Isaiah Chap. 4 guide our expectations of a Christians life?
What must be altered in my life so that I can walk in these promises?
This should effect the way that we pray and we should be sure not to lay our expectations on our own performance but on the faithfulness of God. Our good intentions are not a good foundation.
He is faithful, He said His branch would be effective. Let us live in submission to this truth so that others can see that He is the true God.
These are just some of my notes from the sermon yesterday. Please do not take these as direct quotes from Pastor John. I hope I have gotten at least some of his message across. His sermons are available on the internet at http://christchurchnewalbany.org/
I hope you all have a blessed week of thinking on Him and His faithfulness to all His promises.

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Nov. 25, 2008 - Thanksgiving baking
Anna Beth had a friend over last night and they baked some delicious desserts for Thanksgiving. We have carmel cakes and chocolate chess pies waiting to be devoured in a couple of days!
If any of you need a carmel cake for your holiday get togethers, let me know. Anna makes the icing from scratch and it is superb!
She made several last year for Scott's coworkers as well as for our family gatherings.
I plan to do my last minute cooking on Thursday morning before Anna and I go to serve Thanksgiving dinner at the Saltillo Community Center. This is the first year we have done this and I am looking forward to it.
My family will start arriving around 1 pm and we will snack on and off on appetizers until my brother, his wife and his two sons and their girlfriends arrive from Jackson about 5:30 or 6 when we will have our Thanksgiving meal.
I am very blessed to have been born in such a wonderful family. My parents are so loving and I feel so special when I am around them.
My siblings are role models and each of them truly seek God. We have a great relationship, especially my sister and I.
I hope each of you have a fantastic Thanksgiving with your families!
"Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. O Lord, you preserve both man and beast. How priceless is your unfailing love!
Ps. 36:5-7

Nov. 21, 2008 - Thanksgiving Coop Fun!!
Margaret and Anna Beth
Today we had a great time at coop. We have been studying wisdom all semester, and we are wrapping up with a look at general wisdom in the Bible as well as the wisdom of people in history. So this week we looked at the wisdom of the Pilgrims. At coop we dressed as Pilgrims and Indians and had various activites that we did in small groups.
We had a Thanksgiving feast and sang songs of praise and thanks to our Great God.
Here are some pics:
Martha, Anna and John
The Blassingame Indians and Pilgrim

Andrew, Ben and Macain
Rebekah, Ben, Macain, Claire and Martha
As it is plain to see, I have not figured out how to post pics very well!
Our day was truly blessed with fun, friends and even some learning!?!?

Nov. 20, 2008 - Lori, the photographer!!!!


Last Monday we loaded up and headed for Longview to get some pictures done of the children. Lori Corbin has been doing some fabulous pictures for some homeschool families in our group.
Well, we were not disappointed. They were fantastic!!!
I will post some of them as advertisement for her. Her prices are VERY reasonable, and we are using several of these as Christmas gifts and for our Christmas cards this year.
She is also doing a DVD of all our pictures put to music for gifts for the grandparents.
By the way, I am grateful to my wonderful Lord for allowing me to celebrate another birthday. It has been a rather hectic day with a lot going on, but my family has made me feel loved and special by their thoughtful gifts and acts of service.
Our blessings do overflow!
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Nov. 20, 2008 - need recipes
My wonderful Mom and I have been planning this year's Thanksgiving feast and we feel like we are stuck in a rut. She makes chicken and dressing, garden peas and beans and pecan pies. I am planning on doing hash brown casserole,corn casserole, 7 layer salad,and Anna's caramel cake. My sister is down for a congealed salad, sweet potato casserole, honey baked turkey breast and ham.
This is basically the same foods we have every year. Do any of you have a new recipe that is extra yummy for us to try this year??
Thanks!

Nov. 17, 2008 - A new book
I have just finished reading an awesome book loaned to me by a friend called Overcoming Fear, Anxiety and Worry. I struggle with each of these issues and have really cried out to the Lord lately for His help. HE is So Faithful!!! He has used so many things to help me. It was as if this book was a summary of some of the many things He has taught me in the past months. The book is FULL of Scripture and I found it to be very, very helpful. In the beginning she states that it is not her intention to give the answers but to point to the one who is the Answer. God truly uses our afflictions and infirmities to draw us to Himself for our good and His Glory.
I want to give Him the praise and glory for His help during this difficult time in my life.
Bless the LORD, Oh my soul !

Nov. 9, 2008 - I was tagged by Anna Beth
What is your favorite Bible verse? I like the Psalms, the Lord is really speaking to me through them lately
What is your favorite place in the world? any where with a friend or family member!
What is one thing you want to do before you die? I would love to feel like I was living by walking in the Spirit instead of living in the flesh so much
What is you favorite color splled backward? evilo
What is your full name? I am not telling
What is your favorite website? Foxnews of course
Who are you going to tag? No one , I do not like tags very much
Nov. 8, 2008 - Coupon Crazy!!
It sure feels good to get FREE stuff!!! The coupon queen, Penny, gave out some very helpful info on her blog today. So, with coupons in hand, I headed to Kroger. Well, the cash register rang it all up and then, when it took off my coupons and Kroger card savings, my total bill came down a whopping $100 dollars!!
I was able to get several items for nothing - cha ching!!
It was great fun, but it did take a little time to clip the coupons.
I stapled all my coupons together and made a list of couponed items.
Check out Penny's blog for a wealth of coupon and bargain hunting tips. http://tupelodeals.blogspot.com
I have also been enjoying my freezer meals that a group of us got together and cooked a few weeks ago. It is so nice just to pull something out of the freezer and pop it in the oven, and in an hour or so, have a hot meal!
I give God all the glory for the happenings of today - a relaxing day at home(for the most part) with my wonderful hubby and children.
His blessings overflow!!

Nov. 7, 2008 - new blog
Well, I have decided to try blogging. I enjoy reading other people's ideas and thoughts and thought it would be neat to record some happenings around our house, if for nothing more than to have as a record.
The most exciting thing that has happened today was that John came running into the schoolroom screaming that a big spider was in the den. We pretty much ignored him until it was time for Anna to watch her MUS Algebra I video. Then SHE came running in screaming that there was a huge spider under the chair. So, when we went in to investigate, there was this ugly looking creature under one of John's shoes. It was not even a spider - we called in Ben the expert and he said, "Oh that is an assassin bug." Anna started screaming that it was a blood sucker - she was hysterical!!
So, we went in to research the assassin bug. We found out that our particular bug is a wheel bug. Wheel bugs can indeed crawl on you in the night and stick his mouthparts in you and suck out blood!!
Gross and horrors!!!!! They prefer soft, fleshy parts of the body, such as the lips and eyelids - EWWWWW!
We have emailed my entomologist brother to get some more details.
The kids are bringing in different types of bugs to see if our assassin will eat them. This is my kind of school!!
I feel so blessed to be able to be at home with my children as we learn together.