It's that time again!!!!!

Christmas time is here!!  Well, at my house it had kinda been here.  I really love Christmas and have had my stuff up since the day after Thanksgiving.  This is one of my favorite Christmas Carols and it is a cool version that I just love.  Enjoy!!

Taking Care Of Me...

Since my husband and I have divorced I have had to learn to depend on God to be my husband.  Unlike earthly husbands (none in particular) God never fails me.  Oh, I fail Him but He is 100% dependable all the time.  Each night when I lay down I ask Him to help me never be afraid.  I haven't been.  I have asked Him to please take care of things like my roof, flooding in my basement, my car etc...  He has.  I have had to have a little work done on my car.  No biggie, just brake shoes because the squeal was horrendous.  Well, after a couple of weeks the scrubbing and squeal is still there.  I absolutely hate to talk to people who work on cars because I am at their complete mercy.  But, I just got off the phone with the nicest lady where I had my work done and all she said was, "Sugar, you bring that thing right on back!"  I had prayed very quickly right before I called that the Lord please just take care of this for me.  And He did.  I cannot tell you how many things that He does take care of for me.  Things too numerous to list and many I probably do not even know about.  I have been very healthy.  I am almost never sick but since I am by myself this has been just a Godsend.  When I look back over the past 18 months or so I see so many blessings in my life.  God is just so good.  Being single has its advantages but there are also some disadvantages.  I do get to do what I want, when I want and I can eat cheerios for supper if I choose.  But, on the other hand I do love to cook for people and I will say that my former husband was easy to cook for and ate everything I ever made.  When I start to consider the possibility of maybe having a future husband....I get very nervous inside.  But, I know that the Lord is wise and He will send the right one to me when He sees fit.  Until then, I will just keep looking to the Lord for husbandly advice, protection and love like I have never known. 

So Thankful

When I look at all the many blessings that have been given to me and my family I am so overwhelmed with gratitude.  The Lord is truly good.  We had a wonderful day of family, food, laughter and fun.  My family is very big on lots of different dishes for holidays so every food group is covered...to the max.  We had ham and turkey, mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, green beans and green bean casserole plus everything else under the sun.  Megan made her first homemade pumpkin cheesecake with praline topping.  It was to die for.  Honestly, so good and I don't even like cheesecake.  I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked but I did snag a few.  As my sweet family grows I hope to have more and more to my home each year.  I love having people over and cooking for them and just sitting around talking.  With all the things going on in my own area and the world a day of just family being together is just plain good.  In the last week we had tornadoes in my county that just devastated several families.  Having mine all together under a solid roof is just a blessing I really appreciate.  I love my family...dearly.  Thank you, Lord for everything...from the rain to the sun in my life.

Piper really likes to eat.  she fits right into our food lovin' clan.  Don't you love her little Pilgrim hairbow?!

A teacher friend of mine gave me this sweet little turkey dress.  It is really so cute.  Erica was feeling really good today.  I am so glad for her.  Maybe this little one to be is finally settling down for it's mommy.

Piper is learning to smile when you ask her.  Is she not the sweetest baby???  I think so.

Piper and Thad were in deep, deep conversation.  Piper put on her new owl hat which Thad just loved.

It is really cute.  I got it off an Etsy shop that I found.  Piper likes hats so I couldn't resist.

I am very thankful for these two.  What a cute couple.  Hopefully, I will be planning a wedding next year??!!

I am also thankful for these two young women.  What wonderful daughters they are.  Both love the Lord and want to serve Him and are terrific people.  Love these two so much.

Much Ado About....Nothing

I was always an organized person....or so I thought.  But in my more uh...er... "adult" phase of my life I am suddenly so A.D.D. that I can't even tie my shoes.  So therefore I wear slip-ons.  I am fervently trying to clean my house for Thanksgiving tomorrow.  But here I sit typing away.  I am writing this because I haven't been on here in forever.  Or a week and a half.  Dramatic is a major gene factor in my family.  I really have been super busy.  We had our annual Hospitality Banquet at church.  I am on that committee and it takes up a good chunk of my time in November.  But I truly love that ministry and am so grateful to God for the opportunity to be with women and to offer them hope through Jesus.  What a blessing.  My little grandbaby is napping right now so I do have a few minutes to spare before I tackle my bathrooms and my bedroom.  The kitchen...eeewwww!!  I will save that for later.  Some random things going on in my world:

1.  Bing Crosby is singing "White Christmas" on my radio...
2.  It is 71 degrees outside today...no white Thanksgiving for sure
3.  I am making an apple-carrot basted turkey this year...
4.  We have a new Walmart Express in our community
5.  I went once....it was quite enough
6.  No school for 5 whole days!!!
7.  I love Thanksgiving.  It is my favorite holiday.
8.  I have wasted enough time.  I need to get started cleaning

More exciting things to come...I promise. 

Resting

Over the weekend I went to the beach with my best girlfriends.  We call ourselves "accountability sisters".  We had a wonderful time.  We ate, shopped, laughed, cried, stayed up late... all the fun things girls do when they are together.  Five of us decided to take a new lady with us to help her out and to minister to her during a pretty horrible time in her life.  Her daughter recently passed away.  She was only 16 and was her only child.  She has just been devastated.  Her daughter had a life long lung ailment and had a transplant in February of 2011.  It took wonderfully but the lungs had a virus that was not diagnosed and it destroyed the new lungs in this frail little body.  They turned everything off and watched their baby slip into the arms of Jesus.  How hard.  The parents have done remarkable.  They have talked with other parents who are waiting transplants and have needs that no other parents can help.  I know I can't.  Each time we get together one of us has a devotional for the rest of the group.  This time was my turn.  I decided after much prayer and thought that I would go with rest.  I really poured my heart into looking through the old and new testaments for passages on rest.  We all learned how much God desires for us to rest.  Rest in Him, rest our bodies, our minds and have what Jesus says in Matthew "soul-rest".  This is where we give him our burdens for His yoke.  Not put my yoke on Him but nestle up under His and let Him have all my burdens.  His burden is light.  We learned from Zephaniah that the Lord wants to sing over me and He delights in doing so.  We learned that God wants me to have sleep that is pleasant according to His word in Jeremiah.  I get so busy.  Busy doing this, that, and busy doing nothing.  It is okay to say no to a task or a request.  I am learning that ever so slowly.  God wants me to rest.  So that I can reflect on what He wants from me and for me.  All of us had requests for prayer but most of them centered around being scattered and pressed upon and just so stressed.  My dear friend Sherry said we feel this way because this world is not our home.  It isn't.  And the closer I grow to God the more alien I will feel here on this planet.  

Here are a few pictures from our weekend 

This is the six of us at California Dreaming.  A great restaurant.  Starting on the left in the blue shirt is Sherry, me, Sandra, and across from her is Angie, Kelley and our new sweet sister Tamara in the purple.

The first morning.  How beautiful it was to watch that sun rise over the Atlantic.  God is just amazing.

This is an interesting jellyfish that was washed up.  There were dozens all over the sand.  Eeewwww!!

The beach in the fall is just so clear and blue!  You never, ever see Myrtle Beach this secluded.  Normally it is wall-to-wall with people.

Morning number two.  Unbelievable sunrise.  The sky was just so pretty that I I could not stop watching the colors change.

Our little group on our last day before we left out for home.  We had a wonderful time.  I hope we get to go again really soon.