Beware of the demands of many!

We had a guest preacher in our church a couple of Sundays ago for a one day revival. His name is Dr. Claude Thomas. If he was there for no one else, he was there for me. The morning sermon was about putting the Best thing first. Sometimes we let good things get in the way of the Best thing. It’s easy to get wrapped up in raising kids, trying to be a good wife, directing VBS, coordinating the Fall Fest, leading the preschool team at church. All of those are good things but they are not the BEST thing. For someone who can get wrapped up in doing “good” things, it was a great reminder that nothing is more important than spending time with Jesus. The following is the sermon outline…I hope it blesses you as much as it blessed me.

1. Serenity in life comes from intimacy with Jesus.

2. Service for Jesus must flow out of intimacy with Jesus.

I. Beware of putting good things over the First thing:

We pay when we put “good” things over the First thing:

We pay in: a. Attitudes

b. Relationships

c. Frustrations

*Beware of the tyranny of the urgent!

*Beware of the demands of the many!

II. Put the BEST thing as the first thing in life.

~The first thing in life is being close to Jesus.

We get close to Jesus by:

a. Being with Him

b. Becoming like Him

Thinking like Him

Acting like Him

Loving like Him

Giving like Him

Forgiving like Him

Living like Him

c. Giving worship to Him

We all have so much to do, I hope we can stop and remember to keep the best thing first. That would be Jesus.

Conversation with a 3 year old

Around lunchtime one day in the car…

Little Man: “Are we going to eat”

Me: “Yes”

Little Man: “Are we going in or are we gonna ask?”

Me: “Huh?? Ask??”

Little Man: “Yeah are we gonna ask…or are we gonna go in and eat?”

Then light bulb goes on for me…

Me: “OHHH…you mean are we gonna go thru the drive thru or go in.”

Gotta love the way they think.

Confused or Innocent

My husband cringes when I pull this picture out. This is what happens when you are two years old, have a big sister and haven't had the chance yet to acquire many "boy" toys. I bought this little princess dress at a yard sale to go in the dress up box. My son soon claimed it as his. When his sister would dress up and if she had friends over and they would put on the princess dresses, he would grab this one and come running to me. "Mommy, I princess" Then he would top it off with the cowboy hat he is holding in his hand.
My hubby found no humor in it...I on the other hand saw the innocence in it and laughed.

By the way, for little man's birthday, the hubby instructed his side of the family to buy all "boy" dress up stuff for him. But see who wound up wearing it....big sister.

Now go show Kristen some love over at We are THAT family.

Flip Flops and Over the Hill

Last weekend, not only did Becky and I make Emma's birthday cake, but I had orders for two more cakes.

We had this Over the Hill Cake for a gentleman who was turning 40. By the way, the closer I get to 40 the less over the hill it seems.

The gentleman's wife told me the richer the better. So we went with a chocolate chip chocolate cake with chocolate butter cream icing with chocolate covered strawberries on top. (How many times can I say chocolate in one sentence?) With chocolate and caramel drizzled down the sides. I know, you probably have a toothache just reading that...

Then we also had this next cake for a luau party. This was chocolate cake with vanilla butter cream. We had fondant accents and graham crackers crushed to look like sand.

I guess I thought I was superwoman, taking on two cake orders plus my daughter's and setting up for the birthday party. I must have temporarily lost my mind ya'll. If it was not for my partner in crime, my best friend Becky, we wouldn't have made it. But I think they all three turned out well.

Carnival Party

Our princess turned 5 a couple of weeks ago. We had a carnival themed birthday party. Oh the fun we had, not just at the party, but also in planning and preparing. We love to take a theme and run with it.

The invitations were made to look like tickets, which we made on our computer and then cut in the shape of a ticket. We put the following wording on them...

See the amazing Emma as she attempts outrageous stunts such as...
turning a year older, consuming impossible amounts of junk food,
and of course, the fiery, death defying birthday candle blow!!

I have a good friend who is the most resourceful person I know. I give her an idea or show her something in a magazine and she can take it and figure out how to make it with everyday supplies and for a very low price. Take this red and white carnival banner for example (originally seen in the Pottery Barn catalog)…

This is nothing more than some red and white card stock paper and 36 yards of scotch tape. The scotch tape was picked up for a penny a roll at the back to school sale. The card stock I had on hand for scrap booking. Then we took it to the local bookstore and had it laminated. Gotta love it!

I bought some pennants and attached one end to the fence and the other end to a stake in the ground to create the "booths." I borrowed some games from my church that we use for our Fall Festival. The rest of the games we made ourselves.

We took our lemonade stand and turned it into the ticket booth.

Our kitchen windows open up into the backyard, so we turned that window into the concession stand. One of our friends hung in the kitchen and served nachos, hot dogs, and popcorn.

The kids received a small paper gift sack when they arrived and were directed to decorate it, or at least put their name on it. Then they used this as they played games and won prizes to carry their prizes. They took those home as their loot bags.

We also had a photo op. This too was homemade. Here's the birthday girl giving us her best strong man face.

My best friend and I also made the cake for the party...

Daddy was in charge of face painting. But one brave soul, cousin T, allowed the birthday girl to paint her face. That's a rainbow, just in case you were wondering.

And what's a carnival without a clown?? There's one in every family I hear. Or maybe it's just the birthday girl's lil' brother.

All in all it was a wonderful day. A great time was had by all.

Nothing like a trip to the E.R.

Apparently I didn't have enough excitement in my life that I thought a trip to the E.R. was in order. Yesterday my son was on the back porch and broke a glass bottle that was left from the coke bottle ring toss game from my daughters birthday party on Saturday. I went out to clean it up and stepped on a piece of glass and put a 1 and 1/2 inch gash in the bottom of my foot.

Now I don't deal with blood and gashes to well. My sock immediately went red with blood and I tried to look, but it made me nauseous. All I can think is, here I am home alone with my 3 year old son, and I might pass out. So I got to the phone and called my aunt who lives just a couple miles down the road and asked her to come over. Called my husband hysterically and freaked him out.

My little man, is pacing circles around me, saying "momma I'm so sorry I broke your foot." I explained to him that it wasn't his fault. He was trying to be helpful. I asked him to go get me a towel from the laundry room. He comes back with one of my husbands handkerchiefs, which I immediately soak. So I send him back for another and he comes back with one of my white cup towels. I said..buddy I need something BIG....go find me a big towel. Third times the charm, he brings me a large bath towel and it happens to be red.

My aunt comes in and finds me in the floor with a pool of blood and says lets go to the hospital. My husband pulled up as we were getting in the truck to leave. I fully expected to see flashing lights behind him. He jumps in and off we go to the hospital.

Now, when anyone in my family goes to the hospital, it's a family affair ya'll. I go to the hospital and by the time I leave, in my little E.R. room is me, my husband, my aunt and my mother. We're all about moral support.

Oh wait it gets better. My cousin couldn't leave work, but insists on someone taking pics and sending them via her cell phone. So as I am being stitched up my husband is taking pictures with the cell phone and sending them to my cousin. Who then texts back this reply....SWEET! She on the other hand thrives on the blood and gashes.

I would share these lovely pictures with you, but I really don't want to run you off. Plus that means that I would have to look at them. So sorry to disappoint. Here is one picture I will share with you though.

I am the lucky owner of a lovely post op shoe and pair of crutches and 4 stitches, my first ever by the way. Don't be jealous. I said, of course I would hurt my foot when I am in desperate need of a pedicure. And here I thought I was going to blog about the mundane. Silly me.

Sometimes, God suggests to us to slow down. Then when we don't listen...God slows us down Himself.

Fro' Me to You - Scarecrow Pumpkins

This is last fall. We received these craft kits to make a scarecrow out of a pumpkin at a birthday party that was held at our local pumpkin patch. Each child got to pick one pumpkin to take home with them as a gift from the birthday girl. Then before we left they gave us these craft kits. I believe they were purchased from Oriental Trading. I thought they were precious...even the two pumpkins in the middle are kinda cute.

Join the fun at We are THAT family.

Memories

I have a hard time remembering things from my childhood growing up. My mind sees things more in snapshots than in video per say. Some things I just don’t remember at all.

I’m not sure if it is giving birth to two children that sucked my brain cells out or if it was a minor concussion I had as a result of a car wreck. Sometimes it makes me sad that I can’t remember things that others seem to remember so vividly.

For instance I have had the same best friend since 2^nd grade. She clearly remembers the day we became BFF’s and why. It all started with me sharing my bag of cool ranch Doritos at lunch (cause I’m nice like that) with her. I have absolutely no recollection of this ya’ll. Here we are 23 years later and I cannot remember this.

It makes me want to take more pictures of my kids so I don’t get down the road and find it hard to remember times from their childhood. This is one reason I am starting this blog; maybe if I try and make it a point to write about our daily life, from the mundane to the exciting, then it will help me to remember things more vividly. I, like so many of you get busy doing life and forget to stop and take pleasure in the small mundane things of life. I also sometimes forget to keep the best thing first…and that will be a post for another day.