New Year

Well, it's the last day of 2008. Can't believe it's going to be 2009 tomorrow! I like New Year's. It's a good place to start over. It's a good way to begin again. All the old habits and attitudes can be put aside and we can start fresh. Everyone has new thoughts and plans on the agenda. We can start fresh with our exercise plans, eating healthy plans, reading the Bible daily plans, being nice to my kids & husband plans. After all, Jesus is all about new beginnings! 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" and my favorite verse for the new year: Rev 21:4 "There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Luke 2:16 And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. 17 Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. 18 And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. 19 But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.

May this Christmas and all throughout the coming year we do as the shepherds did and Make Him widely known!

3 Teens! :0

My kids are so much fun now. They are almost all teens and I love it! When they were little they took so much of my energy--getting them dressed, feeding them, getting them down for naps...etc. Those days are gone. It's still hard though in some respects. Letting go of some of the control is a big one. Here's just a few ways that my kids are so much fun and a blessing to me nowadays:

• Playing Clue/Backgammon/Monopoply with me


• vacuuming my entire house


• taking me to Chick-Fil-A (and paying for it!)


• watching old movies with me


• making gingerbread men


• sitting out under the tree eating grapes on a warm day in December


• playing sock game at the park at 10:00 at night


• having a meaningful conversation


• reading Reader's Digest jokes and laughing about them


• making me laugh till my sides and cheeks hurt


• cleaning up my attic (and I didn't even ask!)


• listening to them play the trombone and guitar


• watching home makeover shows and getting inspired


• taking walks/riding bikes


• singing out loud and dancing around the house (ok..they did this when they were little too!)


• going to walmart..handing them my grocery list and coming back to a full cart of groceries


• hearing spongebob lines quoted for the umpteenth time

Just to name a few....So don't dread the teenage years! It just gets better and better. :)

We went to Sam's christmas band concert last night. It sounded wonderful! It's amazing to me how the band directors take a bunch of kids that have never played an instrument before, don't know anything about reading music and teach them to all sound so good together! Sam probably will only play trombone this year (football is calling his name next year!) but I'm glad for him to have the experience of learning to play music and playing in a band. I played in an orchestra for 4 years and you really learn so much about life in general. You learn that you don't always have the melody but your notes are important for the complete sound of the band. You learn to always follow the director and keep with the beat. You learn to listen to the other players around you and not just toot your own horn. And you learn that squeaks and squaks a few weeks ago can be foot-tapping, sing-song-along music with just a little practice.

christmas time already

I can't believe it's only a few weeks till Christmas! It seems like it sneaks up on you and then all of a sudden BAM! It's Christmas...and then it's gone for a year. This Christmas is going to be really hard and sad. We are going to miss Skylar so much and it's going to be hard not to buy presents for her. We are going to miss her enjoying and opening up all her presents and playing with them. Thankfully we have Addison. She would have loved playing with her sister this Christmas. Addison is a great smiley girl and she is a blessing to us all.

beginnings

well...this is the first entry of my new blog! I'm just beginning so there won't be too much interesting stuff right now. it's a lazy saturday..the boys are at Sea Cadets and we are just hanging around today.