Laying My Issac Down

Ok, our church had a Christmas breakfast last week, but last month there was the "Fall Extravaganza". It was a dinner. Very lovely, lots of ladies, but the best part was the guest speaker.
Her name is Carol Kent and she wrote a book called "When I lay my Isaac down". It was very inspiring. Without going into great details of her life, she talks about times in your life when you have to 'lay your Isaac down'. When you have to take whatever burden you are carrying: depression, marriage problems, financial stress, wayward children, illnesses.... WHATEVER, and lay them at Jesus' feet. Give it to HIM.
But one of the key things that stayed with me was that you don't just do that once. You start with giving it up for 5 minutes, then maybe next time, you can do it for 15 minutes, then maybe 1 hour... it is a constant thing. And that made me feel better. I have been feeling like I haven't been a 'good' Christian because I have struggled letting go of my problems with Andy, with mom, and with life in general.
But I realized it's ok to struggle, just don't give up.

I checked out her book to read. I have loved it. It is now on my Christmas wish list. There were so many things I wanted to highlight so I would be able to go back to it when needed.
I recommend it to anyone who is going through any kind of struggle in their life. This book gives you hope.

http://www.carolkent.org/

Simply Christmas

Last Saturday, the women's ministry at church put on a breakfast. The theme was "Simply Christmas". Ladies were encouraged to adopt a table and decorate it 'Christmasy'. Since I had never been to one of these events at our church, I figured I would just be a spectator this time. There was a buffet with 3 different kinds of breakfast casseroles, including a french toast one. They were all delicious! And we were given the recipes, so now I know what I will be fixing for Christmas morning!
Here are some of the beautiful tables:

Snowmen seemed to be a popular theme....

This was a 2-table theme... 1st one was 'Unto us a child was born'...

2nd one was 'And died to save us from sin'

I liked this one the best because the book 'A tale of 3 trees' is very special to me...

I almost didn't go.... you know how it is, there are a million other things you can do on a Saturday morning. Laundry, cleaning, shopping.... but my dear friend Debbie Hofrichter kicked me in the butt and told I WAS GOING. She, too, had a busy schedule but decided she (and I) never do something just for ourselves and it is good to be with other sisters in Christ. And she was right. I am very glad I went.

Oh! I forgot to mention, we had a guest speaker. Her name was Sharon Jaynes. She spoke from one of her books, 'Celebrating a Christ-Centered Christmas'. She had some neat ideas, some of which I think I will take up!

PS

Sorry about the blurry pictures. My camera does that when the battery gets a little low....

Multi Tasking

He is sound asleep, his thumb on the phone. I just had to take this picture....

It's either really funny or really sad, haven't figured out which one yet....

Fab Vocab

Our school did a "Fab Vocab" parade. Classes had to pick vocabulary words and dress up like them... Our class was shapes. It was neat to see how creative some parents (and teachers!) got.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The Sweetest Day

I don't know how many people know, but the 3rd Saturday in October is national "Sweetest Day". A co-worker told me that in Ohio, it's the time when women shower men with gifts, since typically on Valentine's Day, the ladies get the gifts. And in her town, they have a dance and the ladies invite the guys. That sounds nice.
Well, that got me thinking about what are some of my sweetest days I've had.

*First and foremost, it has to be Dec. 31st, 1981. Our church was having a 'Midnight Watch' for New Years. They showed a film about the rapture, and it brought me to tears because I knew deep in my heart that if I didn't do something, I was going to be left behind. So that is the night I gave my life to Christ. I can still remember the feeling of this giant boulder being lifted from me.

*Another 'sweetest day' is Oct. 21 1981. That is the day that Fred asked me to be his girlfriend and even gave me his class ring to wear. I think how the story really goes is that I wrote him a note asking him if were 'going out' or what.... He decided to make it official that night, on a Wednesday before church. Still remember it like it was yesterday.

*I don't remember the exact date, but I know it was in July of 1984. We had been married just 3 months and I woke up and realized that there was a good chance that I was pregnant. When I told Fred, he said " I knew it!" ( Though I will refrain from saying HOW he knew) So we went to a clinic and had a test to confirm it. I was really nervous, thought it was too early to get pregnant, but I will always remember how excited Fred was about it.

*The birth of my 3 kids. Every one of them was as different as they are. Interesting things happened at each one, though I will spare you. Those were 3 magical days.

*March 1 2003. The first night we spent at our new house. It was such a blessing and only through God's grace, were we able to have such a lovely home. I still walk around the house sometimes and thank God for every corner.

*April 2009, we went to Pigeon Forge to celebrate our 25th wedding Anniversary. The weather was cool and I prayed that God would allow me to see snow for the 1st time. I remember waking up and looking above through the giant glass windows in the cabin and asking Fred 'is it snowing or is it foggy outside?'. But when I looked out front, it was snowing! I jumped into some clothes and just stood outside looking up. God had granted my request and I felt very blessed!

I know that there are many other 'sweetest days' in my life, but these are the ones that quickly came to mind.
I also know that God has many more in store for me. My life has truly been blessed. Not without pain, but even through that, God is with me, so that is sweet!

Update list

I have quite a few things I have been wanting to blog about, but haven't sat down and actually done it....

So, this is not going to be one of those posts, just a list of the coming posts:



1- Sweetest Day

2- When I lay my Isaac Down

3- Freddy, Christmas plans

4- Work

see ya soon!

Fantasy Football

Fred's cousin Jimmy got him suckered into doing fantasy football. I was surprised Fred did. He makes fun of my 'obsession' with Farmville,FishWorld, and Cafe World. (ok, he may have a point, but that's another blog!)

So, I caught the boys today comisserating over their teams. It was a nice view so I decided to take a picture.... Andy usually is not around much (work and school) and when he is, he is sleeping or watching tv in his room. So any chance we can get to spend time with him, we take it.

Sports has always a good avenue for Fred and Andy. My avenue with him used to be that I was his chauffer. We would have the one on one time to talk about whatever was going on with him.... Now that he drives himself, I am going to find something else..... I wonder if he likes pedicures??? lol