Where to begin.....

Life has been wonderfully busy for the past several months. To tell you the truth, I kind of forgot about blogging really.

We just got home from a wonderful trip back to John's childhood home, Stewartville Minnesota. I grew up in California and we moved a lot! I don't have any real roots and I have no place that I refer to as "home", so going back to Stewartville is always a special treat for me. I refer to it as "My Mayberry".

I love it there! I love that no matter how long it has been since our last visit, when we all get together, the time and distance melts away and it is as if we were never gone.

I wrote a short story about the place several years ago, as a gift to my mother and father in-law. Maybe I will share it here someday.

Random thought.......... there are only 51 shopping days left until Christmas!
I think I will leave you with that. HA!

Where have I been?

Time keeps on slippin' slippin' slippin' into the future..............

I can hardly believe that winter is nearly behind us. It is the time of year that I dislike the most. I dont dislike all of the elements of winter. I mean, I love to celebrate Christmas and Our Lord's Birth. I love to storm watch. I love to spend lazy rainy Saturday afternoons cuddled up with a good book, but as a whole, I dislike how long winter seems to hang around and I dislike the lack of sunshine and warmth.

Im excited that we get to change the clocks this weekend because it marks the beginning of the end of WINTER! yeah!!

May God Bless you and keep you. Happy almost SPRING!

NO Resolutions

I wont bore you with my rant on New Year's Resolution here again this year. I think I covered it fully last year at this time. I dont make resolutions, I find it pointless.

I was listening to KLOVE yesterday, however, and they had a great alternative to making New Year's Resolutions and I'm gonna give it a go. They encouraged everyone to pick one single word. It can be anything. The goal is to start each day with the word on your mind and find a way to make it relevant throughout the day. "A word to live by" sorta speak. After pondering that concept for a while, I came up with my word. It will be "HOLY". In all that I do, all that I speak and all of my thoughts I will strive to be more Holy.

Im not saying that until now I havent tried to be holy, but lets face it, life happens and with all the distractions its very easy to put God on the back burner some days. Im gonna strive NOT to do that.

Anyone want to join me? What would you choose for your word?
Have Blessed New Year.

Remembering.......

It's that time of year again when we take a few moments to let the people in our lives know just how much they mean to us by adding a hand written note to all our Christmas cards. As John and I sat down to work on them this evening, it was a subtle reminder that his mom will be celebrating her first Christmas in Heaven this year. As happy as I am for her, I am equally saddened for all of us.

We miss her so very much. Then I started looking through old photos and found this one of Gramma J and Autie. It's one of my favorites. It made me smile so Im posting it here. Im going to do my very best to carry that smile with me in the coming weeks. I can smile because I know there is a hope and a future in Christ.

Im so anxious for the Lord's return. I long for the day when we see Jesus face to face and can be reunited with all the people we love who made it home before us.

New York

Of all the photos that I took in New York last month, this one makes me laugh the most. We were thawing out in the restroom of all places at the Waldorf Astoria. We had checked out of our room and taken a 3 hour city tour on the top of a double decker bus. It was COLD! We met back at the hotel and had a little time to kill before our shuttle picked us up to take us to the airport. We found ourselves in the restroom. It had a lovely sitting area, it was warm and the chairs were so comfy. This is Belen and Autumn making faces in the mirror and I just happened to catch them off guard from the upper level behind their chairs. Definitely a kodak moment. ha ha

Genesis 1:1

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

What an awesome weekend!

This weekend I went to the Women of Faith Conference in Portland. It always suprises me how much I get out of those gatherings, and this year was no exception.

I was especially thankful for the presentation given by Marcus Buckingham. He wrote a book called "Find Your Strongest Life". In a nutshell, he has catagorized our God given strengths to help us learn what role we were born to play and how we can honor what is true about ourselves. He went on to tell us to stop striving for BALANCE but rather to strive for FULLNESS. That was the "lightbulb" moment for me.

It was so liberating to hear this guy tell us that we arent all wired the same, that we were all created to fullfill a different purpose and that was God's plan all along so that we would like.....need each other. I know that some of you are thinking, well DUH!!! I know, I know... we've heard this theory more than once, but I've never heard this message in a more tangible way and given tools to examine myself to find out what my strengths really are.

It's so easy for me to spend a little time with someone and realize exactly what their strengths are, but it's been near impossible for me to realize my own. SO here is a little truth about me. Loving people comes easily for me (most of the time). I mean really caring for them, right where they are, all the bad with the good. I believe that God brings people into my life one at a time and allows me to make a difference by showing them a glimpse of God's love. There have been times when I have had to defend myself for not being the kind of person who can engage in conversation with a large group of people. Im NOT a mingler, I can actually feel my palms get sweaty when fellowship time comes around and I am expected to get up and chit chat with people and I have felt really bad about that.

How can I stand in front of hundreds of people and sing, yet I can not walk up to a stranger or even an acquaintance and think of one single thing to strike up a conversation with. How come my husband can walk up to someone and ease into a conversation about absolutely nothing that last for 30 minutes?? This is not a gender thing, this is a God thing!

I yam what I yam and Im really looking forward to reading Marcus' book and finding out how I can use my strengths to further God's kingdom.