A Great Year

2009 was a wonderful year!

Yes, we started with Lance in the hospital for an appendectomy in January and yes Christian was in the hospital several times and began chemo this year, but overall the year has been great.

My husband is 6 months away from finishing his Master of Divinity and being commissioned in the Methodist Church, my job is developing and offering me more responsibilities and projects, we are serving a church in a new capacity and my children are happy.

I never dreamed we would have moved and serve a church by this time, but God's timing is perfect.

I pray that 2010 offers you and your families many blessings.

Happy New Year!

Today I Am Thankful For:

1. peanut butter on a bagel
2. haircuts
3. cards to address
4. external hard drives
5. new beginnings

I Stopped...

It's so easy for the evenings in our home to go by without much interaction. Last night, my oldest son was wiping out his hard drive and trying to get his netbook to work, my husband was working on clearing papers, bills, etc., I was washing dishes, and my little Christian was watching a Thomas video.

Christian came up to me and said, "Come watch with me"! So, I stopped what I was doing and went and laid on his bed and watched his little DVD player with him. We talked all about the movie and giggled till our tummies hurt!

We get so tied up into what we are doing that sometimes we forget to "be" together.

We've started playing alot of Wii tennis and it's too much fun.

What are you doing as a family everyday?

Today I Am Thankful For:

1. cardstock
2. scrapbooking
3. invites to parties
4. choclate covered pecans
5. enjoying the moment

A Wonderful Holiday

Christmas with a three year old is just too much fun! My thirteen year old is still young enough to also still "be a kid" and not too much of a "tween" and it made for a wonderful Christmas morning.

When your small family of four lives hundreds of miles away from family, it can be a little lonely. I was set to make a nice meal on Christmas Day, watch some movies and that would have made our holiday complete. But we were invited to Christmas lunch at B and T's and Christmas dinner at J and B's! We took everyone up on their offers and we had such a blessed day!

Family is not only "blood" but family is the love you have for others and the relationships you cultivate. This was one of our best Christmas Day's to date.

Today I Am Thankful For:

1. friendship
2. the possibility of snow
3. fleece
4. B's tamales
5. after Christmas shopping

Happy Anniversary!

This past weekend, my husband and I celebrated seventeen years of marriage. It seems like we have been together forever (in a good way).

I was too young at the time to know the kind of love that I experience with him now. We have traveled many paths together, loved our children, and created new lives for ourselves in a new place (a few times).

The way we spent our weekend was perfecft. We drove up to Santa Fe (one of our favorite places) and spent the day in the square shopping, went to the movies with the boys and ended the day on the Storybook Train.

The train took us a few miles out of Santa Fe, stopped under the night sky and a storyteller came out and read The Polar Express to all the children. Then hot chocolate and cookies were served and the evening finished with a visit from Santa! He even passed out jingle bells from his reindeer. My Christian was thrilled!

It's these precious moments in life that make everything worthwhile.

I love you, Joe.

Today I Am Thankful For:

1. hot tea

2. sweatshirts

3. baking yet to come

4. push pins

5. fresh flowers

Friday's

This is what our Friday's have looked like.....







after today we have a month break! Then we start a new infusion drug that is a once a month infusion for five months. Hopefully this protocol will work on Christian's levels and do the trick.

We continue to pray.

We do what we have to for our children.

A friend recently told me "I could never stick my child in the chest with a needle!" Well, I never thought I could either, but you do what you have to do.

I look around the infusion suite and I see children with no hair battling cancer...young teens on dialysis...there is always something greater than you can imagine to deal with.

I'll take what we have and thank God for the blessings in my life.

Today I Am Thankful For:

1. naps
2. my iPhone
3. sunflower seeds
4. Christmas shopping (FINISHED!)
5. trains

No Room

Have you ever had a Christmas season where once it was all over you realized you had left Christ out of the picture?



I have promised to try my best to not let that happen. I am purposely scaling back...not every ornament is on the tree (I only have one tree instead of two), not all the decorations, including the village, came out of their boxes, I've not gone overboard shopping and baking...quite yet.



I want to enjoy the quiet of Christmas...you know, enjoy the sounds around me. Enjoy my children as we watch as Christmas special, prepare for our days off together and plan some quality time. Enjoy just "being".



Our holiday schedules get so busy that we have no room for solitude with the Lord, no room for Jesus to work wonders in your life, no room in our schedules to breathe, no room for Jesus.



I challenge you this holiday season to leave room for the One who is most important.



Today I Am Thankful For:



1. Walmart pizza

2. pictures with Santa

3. holiday music

4. porch lights

5. tea lights

Advent

At lunch after church I heard an interesting conversation. A woman, who is close friends to our lunch buddies, had never heard of Advent. She is a church going woman, but their church does not celebrate Advent.

She was trying very hard to understand what this time in our church year meant. I find it odd that not everyone knows about Advent. Growing up Catholic and becoming Methodist, it is part of our tradition, so it is all I know at this time of year.

Advent is a time of preparation. A season to prepare for the birth of Christ. Some people use Advent calendars to mark off the days until Christmas, others use candles, but regardless of how you mark the season of Advent it reminds us that the coming of Christ into the world is not something that just happened in the past -- the season of Advent tells us that Christ continues to come into our world in the present through the lives of people who choose to follow Him.

Just as we prepare our homes for guests at the holidays, we need to prepare our hearts for the most special guest of all.

Today I Am Thankful For:

1. lots of work to keep me busy "at work"
2. furniture polish
3. snowmen
4. childhood Christmas decorations
5. fingerpaints

Presents

"It is better to give than to receive."



I do love to give presents. I love to pick out just the right paper with a pretty bow, but let's be honest, it's nice to get a present too and that's okay.



When you start to look around, there are presents everywhere. Not just wrapped in pretty boxes and bags but around you in your daily living.



Your child doing well in school, a warm house in the winter, food to eat, a computer to surf and blog, a sleeping dog under the tree...you just have to open your eyes to the blessings around you. If they were wrapped in a pretty box, you would love to open them and cherish them.






The reality is, we have received the ultimate gift of all. Jesus. He died for us. For each of us. I mean think about it...God sent his only son to die on the cross for us. That is huge! Watch The Passion of the Christ sometime to get a visual of what that really meant. We say it so often and take it for granted, but what did it look like? Do we know what it means? We are given the gift of His love everyday. The gift of forgiveness of our sins, everyday.



Think about presents today. How would you wrap up the love of Christ?

Today I Am Thankful For:

1. papers to shred

2. a decorated tree

3. "Jingle Bell Rock"

4. newly hung pictures

5. the clinking sound in the dryer

Another week

I always enjoy Monday mornings. I know, it sounds crazy, but I like to gather my thoughts and plans for the week and know that a new week has come with many opportunities.

Holiday decorations to display, meals to cook, cookies to bake, music to prepare...the list goes on, but it is a list of things that will bless our family. New traditions mixed with the old to make some wonderful memories.

I have finally gotten to the point in my life where I do not let holiday's "rule" me. I used to get very stressed out about buying presents (did I get enough) decorating just right (what was Martha Stewart doing lately) and did the food I cook and bake come out good enough?

There is not a"right" way to celebrate, as long as you are with your family and friends.

Enjoy the beginning of your week! Fill it with memory making!

Today I Am Thankful For:

1. new bulletin boards
2. iPod chargers
3. portable DVD players (keeps Christian busy in the hospital :)
4. turtleneck sweaters
5. firewood

Slow but steady...

Slow but steady wins the race, or in our case today, slow but steady will get you to Albuquerque safely!

We had snow and ice in our small town last night and getting to the hospital (2 hours away) to an 8:30 am appointment did not quite happen. We arrived at 9:30 but all in one piece.

Christian's chemo did not even start running in his IV until 2 pm! Doctor's orders were not written out completely, and one thing after another seemed to happen. His treatment will hopefully be finished around 8 pm. It is something that cannot be rushed. Slow and steady.

I think it's like our relationship with Christ. In the beginning we get so excited and want everything to happen quickly. We want to be close to God desperately, but it takes time to develop our relationship. We cannot make it happen through being on every committee at church and attending every Bible Study available. It takes time. Personal, quiet time. Slow and steady.

Being consistent in my time with the Lord on a daily basis is what has kept me connected. That relationship has strengthened over the past several years.

When I make the drive that I have come to be very familiar with to Albuquerque, I feel the Lord with me. It's a great time to talk.

When do you talk to Him?