My All-Time, Favorite Song Ever!

I have said many times that my favorite song is such and such.  But for the record my all time favorite song in the whole wide world is,  

"Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing"

I have told my friends I want this song sung at my funeral (so morbid!!) and if I ever marry again I would like it sung at my wedding ceremony.  It is just so beautiful to me and it truly describes my walk with Christ and describes even better....His walk with me!  This is a version I found on Pinterst and I adore it.  Sit back and just listen.  Let the words wrap you in the Father's love.  Are you wandering?  Have you left the God you love??  He will take your heart and seal it, beloved...seal it to the courts above.  How beautiful this song is.  I just love it.

Eight Months Old Already???

This past weekend Savannah turned eight months old.  She and her sister have had a very busy couple of weeks.  They moved into a new house.  Yay!  They got their new rooms painted so it would match their bedding.  This also made the move easier by keeping their same colors in their rooms.  Now both of them have colds and felt a little yucky this weekend but Mr. Frog was having none of that...it was picture time!

Mr. Frog I just don't feel myself today.  All stuffy and cranky.  

I bet if I chew on your leg I will feel much better.  I heard frog legs taste just like chicken!

Where did you go Mr. Frog??  I just wanted a little nibble!!  Come back, I won't bite hard...I only have two teeth!!

Aw!  You are so sweet!  Hugs from you are the best.  Your ears are tickling mine!  I promise to never chew on your legs again, Mr. Frog.

Wait!!  Come back!  I promise I won't even put your froggie legs in my mouth!  Please come back!!

Jump up here Mr. Frog!  I will save you.  Savannah hasn't figured out how to climb up here...yet!

I promise...no more nibbling.  You are my bestest friend....next to mommy...and daddy...and Piper...and Mimi.

Savannah you are the sweetest thing ever.  You are trying so hard to crawl but you only go backwards and around.  Haven't figured out forwards yet!  You have two teeth and you love, love, LOVE to eat.  You love your sister and still just adore your mommy.  You look for her all the time and just light up with the biggest grin when you see her.  You are such a sweetie to snuggle with and I love that you love to be held.  I know that will pass way too soon.  I love you my little snuggle bug!!

Roly-Poly Baby

Here is a short video of my little (Ha) Savannah.  She has the cutest way of nodding her head!  

Is she not the cutest??  I just love those little fat legs of hers....reminds me of mine!!

What Matters...Really Matters

I was fiddling around on Pinterest a little bit ago.  I am addicted.  No, I am NOT looking for a 12 step program for this addiction either.  I am saying No, No, NO to rehab too!!  While looking around I saw a pin that a veteran teacher asked students for 16 years the same set of questions.  What do you really want your parents to do with you?  This is just priceless to me.  It will make you tear up at the simplicity.

The Top Ten Things Kids Really Want Their Parents To Do With Them

1. Come into my bedroom at night, tuck me in and sing me a song. Also tell me stories about when you were little.
2. Give me hugs and kisses and sit and talk with me privately.
3. Spend quality time just with me, not with my brothers and sisters around.
4. Give me nutritious food so I can grow up healthy.
5. At dinner talk about what we could do together on the weekend.
6. At night talk to me about about anything; love, school, family etc.
7. Let me play outside a lot.
8. Cuddle under a blanket and watch our favorite TV show together.
9. Discipline me. It makes me feel like you care.
10. 10. Leave special messages in my desk or lunch bag.

See, how simple??  These are all doable.  Just giving your time.  Time.  For the little ones in your life that do not stay little long.  A comment that I truly dislike a lot is, "I need some Me-Time."  Whatever.  We are such selfish, selfish people.  Some of the best me-time I ever got was swinging in the hammock in the backyard with my two young girls while telling stories to each other.  What matters most???  Time....time well spent.

A Mouse Tale

I have two deep, great fears.  Number One:    Kodiak Bears.  I just know a rabid rogue kodiak bear is going to break loose in Alaska and find its way down to my little podunk town and maul me to pieces.  Hey!  It could happen.  Number Two:  Mice.  I hate them.  Their beady black eyes.  Their leathery, flickery tails.  Their quickness.  They carry all kinds of icky germs and diseases.  They are just icky-yicky-gross.  And they scare me.  Really, really bad.  So to gain victory over this fear since I can do nothing about rogue bears I buy all these flat sticky traps at WalMart.  Since I despise that store you know this is a huge thing for me!!  I place them all over my basement floor.  All along the garage door down there.  Under everything I have down there.  Now I catch all kinds of things.  Spiders (eeewww) Camel Crickets (double eeewww) Blue-tailed Lizards (eewww, eewww, eewww).  I have even caught two snakes.  Waaahhhh!  Now yesterday I went downstairs to the laundry room to get my work clothes and when I came out something caught my eye.  The corner of a sticky trap was poking out from under a chest of drawers I have downstairs.  On it was....you got it!  A mouse.  A giant fat one too.  I bet he weighed 4 or 5 pounds easy!  Have I ever mentioned I kinda exaggerate a little bit some times??  I haven't??  Well, never mind then.  I ran up the stairs to retrieve a WalMart bag to place the flat trap in but "Oh My Land O'Goshen" he was alive!!!  And breathing!!  And wiggling!!  Well I ran back up the steps and double locked the door and then rinsed my eyes out because I am sure he spit poison venom into my eyes and would be blind in about 3 seconds.  Not really but I did run upstairs.  I did not tell Megan about this and I thought I would dispose of the little demon when I got home from work.  When I got home I went straight downstairs and what to my wandering eyes did appear???  That demon mouse had writhed his way to the middle of the floor and was still alive and squeaking on that ding-dang trap!!!!  Now do not get all soft on me people...it is a mouse not a cat or dog or child i left to die.  So I did what any good southern girl would do.  I got my daddy.  First i ran next door to their house and asked Mama, "Where is my daddy?"  she said he was in his workshop and what did i need him for since I was all wild-eyed and out of breath.  I told her about the mouse and all she could say was, "You left the poor thing to suffer all day??!!"  Good grief.  I found daddy and asked him to go get rid of it please, please, PLEASE!!  Now are you ready for this??  My mama asked him to wait because she needed to get him the baby oil.  "For what", he and I asked at the same time.  Well she reasoned out to us that he could rub it on the little mouse so it would come off the sticky trap and be set free.  I looked at my daddy and he looked at me and then he said, "Kate, it's a mouse, I'm gonna stomp it."  Sorry if your tender about flea infested disease ridden varmints.  I just asked daddy not to stomp it on my floor in the basement.  He said he would fold up the sticky trap and squash it like a sandwich.  EEEWWW  Gross!!!  About five minute later I saw Daddy coming.  He came down my driveway and into their kitchen door.  I asked if he had killed it and Mama asked where it was now and then he said, "Here it is".  And he lifted up a white folded up sticky trap with a flat mouse in it!!!  My Mama said, "What are you going to do with it???"  He stated that he was going to throw it in the trash and what did she mean what was he going to do with it.  In which she stated that he had passed at least five trashcans in my house let alone my big one in the garage and why was he putting it in hers so she could worry about the poor little thing suffering all day.  My parents are about six shades of funny I tell ya!  Anyway, I have set out about twenty sticky traps and a couple of snap traps so I can catch any other mice that may have found their unfortunate way into my house.  Now I gotta go find some bear traps too!!

the women i know

i know alot of people in this world.  alot of amazing people.  i know so many amazing women.  many of them i go to church with, am related to, work with or are just friends with.  they have struggles, problems, strongholds.....lots of things that keep them worn down.  tired.  weary.  on the verge of tears.  great big sobbing tears.  the kind that could go on until you are huffing and snubbing with snot running all over your face and your head about to split.  gross.... but true.  right now, today, i have a friend who is in the emergency room with her dementia ridden mother for the second time in three days.  she is so worn and looks at her mother who hardly knows her anymore with deep sadness but still finds humor in it all.  because sometimes, it is funny when they look at you and say to the real stranger, "nurse, who is this woman....i have never seen her before???"  right now i have a friend who is watching her grown daughter make mistake number whatever with man number whatever and her heart is just broken.  the daughter is pushing fifty years old and still breaking her mama's heart.  right now my daughter is so worried about passing her state teaching exam.  she is exhausted from studying, teaching, and studying more while planning a wedding, refurbishing and older home and just life.  my other daughter is a struggling stay-at-home mommy with two little girls who love her and a husband who adores her.  still she worries....how will they make it, is she doing the right thing, is she a good mommy...the doubts they never stop.  i have friends.  close friends that are so close to financial ruin.  i have several close friends (and in this one i am including me) who are just struggling with menopause and all that entails.  no sleep, weight shifting, hot flashes from the inner circle of hell.  not kidding.  job struggles.  no jobs.  hating their jobs.  marriage struggles.  some are barely hanging on.  been there....lost that battle.  divorced women.  widowed women.  lonely women.  some striving forward.  others settling for anyone who will look their way....that breaks my heart because they deserve so much more.  friends who have no self-esteem, no self-respect, desperate.  women who live with fear.  trapped by guilt of things from their past that they cannot change....adultery, divorce, abortion, promiscuity, secret sins to unspeakable  friends who cannot get through the day without a "happy pill".  not to deal with their problems but just something so they won't think about their problems.  sad...when the happy pill wears off the problem is still there.  rearing it's ugly head with a loud vicious roar.  women i know who are addicted to pornography, shopping, drugs (illegal and legal), alcohol, men, food.    but through all these things there is an answer.  most of my friends know it.....Jesus

Now this is what the LORD says - the One who created you, Jacob, and the One who formed you, Israel - "  Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;  I have called you by your name;  you are Mine - Isaiah 43:1 (HCSB)

But I will rescue you on that day - this is the LORD's declaration - "and you will not be handed over to the men you fear."  Jeremiah 39:17  (HCSB)

So don't be afraid therefore; you are worth more than many sparrows. - Matthew 10:31 (HCSB)

God Loves You....so much

Time...It's gettin away!!

This year is already flying by.  It is already January the 9th!  So far this year I have taken my Christmas trees down.  And that's it.  Wow!  I am either lazy or in a coma.  Can't decide.  I have been busy though.  Erica and Blake and the girls are moving.  They are switching houses with Blake's grandparents.  they bought one down here (they live in Alexandria, VA) and decided it did not suit their needs so until Blake and Erica's sells they are just switching.  They will not officially move here until March or so.  It is really working for them and I am so glad.  It is a much bigger house and it will be much better for schools, Blake's job, church and it is even closer to me!!!  Major plus!  I am really proud of them and the choices they make in their lives and for their girls lives.  Megan and Thad are working on their house and it is coming along great.  Both of them are working hard and are making great plans for their life together.  such a sweet couple and a truly funny one too.  There will never be a dull moment in that house!  Megan has selected a wedding gown and I have one word.  STELLAR.  She is so beautiful in it that I was just speechless.  I can't wait to post her wedding photos.  Her wedding will be here before I know it.  We have been busy with all that and do have all the big things hammered down.  But the details, details, details are everywhere.  That time thing again!  It is getting away from me...

Goals....ahem!

I try not to make resolutions.  Do you?  Because when I do....I. Never. Ever. Keep. Them.  Never.  I always vow to lose weight.  Amazingly I never vow to gain weight but each year I seem to accomplish that.  Wonders never cease!  So this year I am setting some goals.  Goals are different than resolutions.  More attainable.  There!  Now that sounds promising!!

Goal Number One:

lose weight

Goal Number Two:

give my Megan a nice wedding

Goal Number Three:

make sounder choices in every area of my life

Goal Number Four:

read my Bible through

Goal Number Five:

keep an organized hand on the paperwork in my house (this one is really funny!)

Goal Number Six:

keep my house clean most of the time (another hoot!!....ohmystars!  I kill me!!)

Goal Number Seven:

lose weight

Notice how these are all doable things for the average human???  Well, I am not average my friend....I am either under average or over average.  So that tells me I will either meet these goals or....I won't.  And people said I wasn't the brightest crayon in the box.  Fooled them!!  I also want to do more fun things with my family.  More meaningful things.  I will make that Goal Number Eight.   At Christmas we had a great time.  Each year I try to give my only sister something she will truly treasure.  As we get older I realize that we should really do things for each other that truly mean something to the other.  One day it may just be she and I living together in some home and I want all the other residents to know how much we really do like and care about each other.  So for Christmas this year I gave her some really special gifts.  Ones you just don't buy in Walmart or Target....


The first gift she opened was a lovely tabletop Christmas tree.  Complete with ornaments all over it.  Photos of me.

She loved it!!  I got these gorgeous photos from school for free....FREE people!!  How cool is that for a truly treasured family gift??

I also got two 3 1/2 x 5's that I proceeded to mount with modpodge and glue on heavy cardboard and made her (with my own two hands) some puzzles to help her while away the hours.  They were only 10 piece puzzles so they were not super hard to put together!  See the joy on her face!

I also gave her a beautifully framed 5 x 7 to place on her desk and I gave her the devotional "Jesus Calling" by Sara Young with a lovely bookmark with....you guessed it.. My Picture On It!!  Then I attached several fridge magnets to a nice scarf so she can see my face when she drinks milk out of the carton in the middle of the night.  If I get any better at this meaningful gift-giving Hallmark will be calling and offering me a job!  Last year I gave her "bluejean jeggings"  For a side note she has not worn those yet...at least not around me.  She probably wears those for really special occasions.  I am already at work on her birthday present and her Christmas gifts for 2013.  See....I am meeting goal already!!!