Update on the Pregnancy Prayer List And More About Isaiah 26:3-4

I would like to congratulate Hannah on the birth of her new son, Brennan McCartney. Brennan was Born February 1, 2010, weighing 9 pounds and measuring 22 inches long. The report is that mother and baby are doing well!

Hannah is the sister to my new daughter-in-law, Naomi. She traveled by car, from Wisconsin to Kentucky with her husband and young son to the wedding at 36 weeks pregnant! She was the matron of honor. There was also another pregnant lady in the wedding . Bethany, a good friend of Naomi, is just a few weeks behind Hannah. It was quite sweet seeing them walk down the aisle!

Congratulations Hannah, Tyler, and big brother Will!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I would like to thank those of you who responded to my last post. I enjoyed reading each of your thoughts on Isaiah 26:3-4.  I also had a few responses from friends on facebook.

What I believe God is saying to me is I need to keep my mind stayed on Him in everything! Even in the mundane things in life. You know when we surrender our lives over to God we are to surrender every part of our lives. That means Everything!

When we watch TV, read a book, visit with friends, shop,care for our families, etc, we are to keep our focus on the Lord. Is that TV show something God would have you watch? Is that book something that is honoring to Him? Do you keep your talk wholesome when you are talking with friends? When you shop are you spending your money wisely, and being a good steward of what God has given you? When caring for your family, are you doing it with the Love of God in your heart and and doing it with a loving attitude and a servant's heart.

Let me be the first to say, No I do not always do these things this way. It is a constant battle of my will versus God's will . I get tired. I lose my focus. I get busy in the things of life that I forget to add God into the equation. That is when I start to find my home becoming chaotic and I am fretting about something. This is when I get completely discouraged and fall flat on my face. I need Him in my everyday life! I am nothing without Him and I need to feel His Peace in my Life!

As we learn to keep our minds on Him we will find Peace. As we strive to be in His will, we will find Peace. As we trust in Him, we will find Peace.

Through a conversation on Facebook ,the one thing that stood out to me was something someone said. It was finding Peace through Trust. Think about it, we will find Peace as we Trust in Him!

I do not know about you, but I certainly want to have His my Peace in my life!

Verse 4 goes on to say To trust in the Lord Forever, for He is our Everlasting Strength. So that means trusting Him = Strength! I very much want and need His Everlasting Strength.  How about you?

 

Happy New Year ( Just A Little Late! )

Yes, I am still around! Life has been crazy busy and blogging has just not been a priority!

Christmas and New Years have come and gone and then our son Tim married Naomi on January 2nd.

I must admit that I was a bundle of nerves for a few weeks leading up to the Wedding. I am not really sure why, I wasn't even the Mother of the Bride! Naomi planned and did most of the work herself.

Everything was just beautiful and I am so proud of Tim and Naomi! Here is a sneak peak from their Wedding. I borrowed these from my friend Sharon who had posted some pics on facebook.

Naomi before the Wedding

Tim before the Wedding

Naomi walking down the aisle with her Dad

Tim and Naomi newly married!

It was a wonderful day, but boy, I must admit, it feels wonderful for it all to be over!

The day started out on a crazy note. Naomi and her six bridesmaids had a hair appointment at 6 am! Naomi picked Rebekah up at 5:45! I was sure gratetful that Naomi came to get Rebekah so that I did not have to get her there!

Naomi's Mom, Victoria, Anna, and I had hair appointments at 8 am at a different hair salon. Well, let's just say that was an adventure!

I am pretty conservative with my hair and let's just say these ladies like to do poofy! Most women that were in that shop must have been over 60. The ladies that came in were all over 60 also and they were coming in for their weekly wash, set and style!

The lady doing my hair redid it 3 times! When I got home,I had to try to tame it down!

Hubby was at home trying to help get the 4 youngest boys ready. I had failed to set their stuff out so that he could find it all, so he had to wait for me to get home to help him.

Did I mention the Wedding was at 11:00 am?

Between me trying to fix my hair and helping to get the boys ready we were running just a tad late! We did not walk into the church until 10:53!

Fortunately all of our older children we already at the church and Jeremy had taken Sammy and Anna( The ring bearer and flower girl).

We walked in and put our flowers on and it was just about time to start!

I was a complete mess!

The night before when I walked into the church for rehearsal and saw the pew bows, the tears started coming! The past few years weddings have made me cry. Now it was my son getting married and the tears surfaced often.

Now on the morning of the Wedding as my son Josh was ushering me down the aisle, I wanted so bad just to smile, but the tears were coming instead! It was a bit embarrassing but I could not stop!

Naomi's Mom and I lit the 2 candles for the unity candles so I focused on that and that helped the tears to stop for a little while.

It was a beautiful service and I saw a few others shed some tears also. Of course my tears started flowing again when I look up and see tears in Tim's eyes! It was so sweet!

The reception was held at a hotel and everything was wonderful. The decorations were beautiful, the cake was beautiful, and the food was really delicious!

When we got home we were exhausted!

My Mom and my nieces Corrie and Krista arrived on Thursday and we really enjoyed having them here. Corrie is such a huge help to so many and she helped me get my things organized for the rehearsal dinner. This girl deserves sainthood!

Friday night we had the rehearsal dinner at our church. I ordered Lasagna, Salad, and breadsticks from Fazoli's. I bought cheesecakes and a couple of other desserts from Sam's Club. I made punch and we also had ale 8 and IBC Root beer for Tim and Naomi. Everything turned our really nice and we had a great time.

My sister Debbie and her daughter Katie, along with her Son Jonathan (a groomsman) and his wife Rachel arrived Friday afternoon.

The Wedding itself was held at a different church because the Sanctuary of our church is a Gymnasium. Tim and Naomi decided they would probably save money having it at a different church because it would cost them a bit of money to decorate our church the way they wanteed it.

We had to drive 40 minutes from the Wedding Rehearsal to the Rehearsal Dinner. I could not set up before hand because the space was being occupied by somone else, so we had to get everything ready while everyone was arriving.

I was so blessed when my family all pitched in to help. Mike and I and our children were all getting things ready, but then we had Corrie, Krista, Debbie, Katie, Jonathan, Rachel, and Jeremy's fiance Leigh helping as well!

It really meant a great deal to me having such wonderful help!

Jeremy and his fiance, Leigh

Anna

Luke, Josh, and Micah

My niece Krista and Rebekah

Sammy

Matthew

My niece-in-law, Rachel, her husband Jonathan(my nephew), and my wonderful niece, Corrie

Victoria and my niece Katie

My sister Debbie and my Mom

Disclaimer: These bottles are Ale 8 and IBC Root beer

If you do not know what ale 8 is you can check it out here..

The Crazy Happy Newlyweds are honeymooning in Alaska! They both love cold weather and snow! Me, well, not so much!

Tim reported a couple of days ago that it was 34 degrees there! Here in Kentucky it has been in the teens and  twenties! It is warmer in Alaska then it is here, go figure! Needless to say, they are a little disappointed!

We look forward to seeing them when they return. We are so proud of you Tim and Naomi and We Love You!

Happy New Year Everyone,

May you have a Blessed 2010!

 

Busy, Oh So Busy!

First of all, let me say I am still here. I haven't felt much like blogging, but more than that I just haven't had the time.

Christmas is only 13 days away. I have done some of the shopping and have some more to do. For some of the children I haven't figured out what to buy them.

Each year we say that we are going to cut back on how much we spend for each of the children. This year we are finally following through with it. Finances are not great and truth be told, we do not need anymore toys at our house! The older children always want some expensive gadget, so we give money towards it and they have to put up the rest. Hubby is really good at finding some great deals on things so that helps a whole bunch!

Tim and Naomi's Wedding is in 3 weeks! I have been working on making sure everyone has something to wear. All of the kids are in the Wedding in some capacity.

Jeremy and Josh have to have Tuxes because they are a groomsman and usher. Rebekah is a Bridesmaid, so she has her dress. Victoria and Matthew are lighting the candles. I bought Victoria a pretty silver dress that was on clearance for a wonderful price. Matthew is wearing a suit. Samuel is the ring bearer, so he has to rent a tux. Anna is the flower girl, so her dress is bought and ready. Luke and Micah are like mini ushers. They both have a nice suit to wear.  Now I need to make sure they all have shoes to wear and the boys have a shirt and tie to wear with their suits.

An agonizing experience for me has been trying to find a dress to wear. I do not care for most of the styles out there. I also prefer for the dress to be tea length. I also like dark colors. It has been impossible to find a dress with these specifications. I found a teal colored dress that I do like, but not thrilled with the color.  I have an image of a dress etched in my mind and wonder if it exists somewhere.

On top of this agonizing experience, I have put on 10 pounds this year. I have battled with weight most of my life. I need to lose a lot of weight and now I have added 10 more pounds! I guess comfort foods have been too comforting!  I pray that this new year I can get my act together and lose this weight!

During all this hustle and bustle I would like to remember to keep my focus on the reason we are celebrating, Jesus!  Our children have been taught what Christmas is about. We are celebrating the birth of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ! Yes, they do receive presents, but I  would like the emphasis to be on giving instead of receiving. Jesus came to give His life for us and Oh how important it is for us to accept Him as our Savior. It really is a life or death decision.

So if you find yourself all caught up in the busyness of the season, I challenge you to stop and remember why we are celebrating . Let's remember what is really important. If you do not have all the decorations up that you wanted or didn't bake enough or didn't find just the most perfect present, just stop and think about the one who gave his life for you and give Him Thanks!

And if you think about it, pray for me to find the right dress for a great price and that I will not be totally stressed out. I really do want to enjoy this Season along with the first Wedding in our family!

 

My Trip Back Home

I have been home for over 2 weeks now, but I wanted to share a little about my trip.

I had a nephew who got married on July 10th. My 2 oldest sons were groomsmen, my 7 year old daughter was the flower girl, and my 17 year old son was in charge of the music.

Congratulations Jon and Rachel

The Beautiful Flower Girl

This is what my youngest thought of the Wedding!

Hubby was not able to go due to work, and my 16 year old daughter was going to the TBQ National Competition in St Louis Missouri.The rest of us loaded up into 3 separate vehicles and made our way to Virginia. My son Jeremy brought his girlfriend and my son Tim brought his Fiance. So we still had 12 people to lodge at my Mom's house.

We arrived there on a Wednesday and the Wedding was on Friday.The older boys and their "girls" and my 17 year old son stayed until Sunday and then made their way home. That left me with my 6 youngest children. I ended up staying for two and a half weeks. We usually only get to visit there once, sometimes twice a year, so I wanted to be able to stay for a while.

My Family lives in Virginia, just out of Washington DC. I really wanted to take the children into DC to see some sights, but I came up with too many excuses. For one, it was very hot while we were there and it can be plain miserable walking for hours in the extreme heat and humidity. During the week I didn't have another adult to help me out, so I was a little overwhelmed taking 6 kids sightseeing by myself. Of course during the weekend it would be way too crowded to enjoy anything!

I will definitely have to make it a priority to take them next time we go and I have Mike with me. We have taken some of the kids before, but it had been quite a long time. I am not sure who has been, and who has not at this point.

We did go to a few places of interest in the area. One was Great Falls on the Virginia side. I used to go there as a kid quite a bit. It is a really pretty place, but it even more so when it rains a lot more and the water is higher. They haven't had a lot of rain this year.



We went to National Harbor which is actually in Maryland. The kids enjoyed walking around and seeing the sights. They have a little park there that has this statue thing that is a huge man that is "under" the sand. It is called the awakening. It is like he is buried in the sand and trying to get out. The kids had fun climbing on it.

Most of our gang

One of the legs

A foot

A hand

My beautiful daughter inside the mouth

My mom and my sister with her 2 kids joined us on these trips. My mom and my sister both have to use wheelchairs, so we have to have helpers with getting the wheelchairs in and out of the cars and someone to push both of them. I have a niece who lives with my Mom and she is the sight seeing expert. She is the one who gets us to where we need to go. Too bad she works a full time job! Her younger sister also came along on many of our trips to be a "helper."

I got to meet my new great niece while I was there. She was born in April. She is beautiful and sweet. I enjoyed holding her. I was afraid it would be hard, but it was quite the opposite. It really felt good. I believe that there was some healing that came along with holding her. Her mom (my niece) was born just a couple of weeks before I got married. Wow, time flies!

We also had a shower for my other niece who is expecting in September. She is having a girl also. It was fun to see all the cute stuff that she got for the baby.It was nice to visit with relatives that I rarely get to see.

My children played with my cousin's kids almost every night. They played cops and robbers until about 11pm each night. That was probably the highlight of the trip for my kids. That had a blast and got to stay up really late.

I really didn't want to do much. I was content just sitting and talking with my Mom. Family means a lot to me, and I wish I could live closer and spend more time with them. They will have the opportunity to come visit us in January for my son's Wedding.

Blessings,