Autumn

Today was one of those blessed days. The weather was completely perfect and the memories are great. We kicked off the morning in the pumpkin patch, after arriving in said patch via a hay ride.

After finding THE PERFECT PUMPKIN, we measured ourselves against the apple tree and experienced a fierce pony ride (Macy insisted she almost fell off, but this is not true. Haha).

We celebrated our fall festival fun with a trip to McDonald's - a rare treat for Macy. And she got to sip her Mommy's sweet tea - bonus!!! This child is SOUTHERN! 

I left them for a work adventure that was a total bust. :(   That was kinda sad. I hate spending my weekends with work that is just wasted time. Oh well. It happens. 

But after work a friend from Colatown came up and we had a great time!!! She caught me up on South Dakota, Alaska, Charleston, her awesome business at www.leenmachine.com and how The Lord is working in her business. As she said, "I'm glad time slowed down for us today!"  I am, too. We spent over an hour in the local park, swinging on a porch swing and just catching up. Even spotted a turtle and hot air balloon! It was just a soothing and energizing visit. 

And now it's time to wind down and go to bed. Lovely memories - things to add to my scrapbook! And blessing to thank God for tonight. 

Fridays Letters

Y'all my job is keeping me crazy busy and I'm worn out. So of course the immune system is getting slack and I'm struggling with a sniffy nose. But life is good, I have so much to be thankful for and I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving this year (not usually my fav holiday).

So it's Friday again, and it's time for letters. 

Dear elementary school, the election today was great. Mainly bc the teacher in charge runs a tight ship and has such passion for her students. I adore her and enjoyed my time with you today. 

Sweet nieces, you make me happy. Sweet Niece #1, I'm proud of your martial arts and volley ball. Your great grades, artistic talents and sense of fun. Sweet Niece #2, I'm proud of all you have learned, your love of Jesus so young, sensitive nature, silliness and girliness. The two of you are my heart. 

Dear Big Brother, you ended. Derrick won. Donnie is America's Favorite Player. No more reading feeds in the morning. No more discussions at work. Maybe I can get a life now. Maybe. 

Dear Pen Pal and friend, you rock. Loved my surprise bday package, immediately put some goodies to use. My classes enjoyed cool pencils last night! :) 

Dear Lord, You know I'm not perfect and you see all of me. You know my heart and I pray You continue to work in my life, shaping me to be the woman You want me to be. Take my talents, my skills, my personality and put them to use in the ways You want me to go. Please forgive my sins, and change my heart so I won't repeat them. 

One last photo of Minnie Mouse. Lol. 

Ok y'all I'm going to bed. Hugs people. Hugs. Go hug the people you love :)

Musings

I have had so much on my mind I wanted to share.  Then so much more happened and the random thoughts were dramatically pushed aside to process major concerns and "front burner" things. 

One of the things that I've been processing, one of those WOW moments, was this verse of scripture:

Romans 8:26
"Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words."

I can think of times where I'm just at a loss as to what to pray for or what I should ask or tell to God. Know what I mean? I just don't know where to start.  And the Holy Spirit will intercede for me and speak to God  on my behalf - He has me covered.  When I thought about that, it's proof that when we become Christians and accept Jesus Christ into our lives, the Holy Spirit does indeed come and dwell within us.  The Spirit is part of us and understands what it is we should ask the Lord our Father for and the Spirit will step in on our behalf when it's needed.

1 Corinthians 3:16
"Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?"

WHOA.  Can you full grasp that concept? I know I can't.  That's way far out of my league.  But the power in that, the love that God the Father has given to us, to give us the Spirit to convey what we need for us when we aren't able to see for ourselves. I just... I don't know what to say about that. It's powerful.

As we had a major crisis this weekend, where I thought it was predetermined that I was going to lose a cousin.  A mom to two boys (one 3 year old and one a few days old).  A sister to two brothers.  A daughter to my aunt and uncle.  Cousin to all million of us - we have a huge family.  I thought she was gone.  Oh my gosh, it shook me.  Just in that instant, I had prepared myself for the absolute worst. I asked so many people to please pray - please pray.  But I  myself, I just couldn't pray.  It was almost like if I asked God for it, I was admitting she would probably die. I just feel like in that moment the Spirit felt my breaking heart and spoke in groanings beyond my understanding, telling God my fears and needs.  Stepped in on my behalf.  Because the Spirit dwells within me, He knew what I wanted to ask for and what I needed and spoke for me.

What do you think, am I way off base here? Or am I understanding things right? 

To wrap up my weekend, so far my cousin is on the mend.  They got her back, are continuing to work with her to build up her strength so she can go home.  I'm very grateful to one doctor in particular, who did emergency surgery on my sister this summer and now on my cousin, both times with success. God heard the cries and prayers, and kept her here for another day. So thankful. So so thankful.

On a side note, it puts life in perspective for a few moments, at least.  I've had a little more patience than I normally would today.  When I felt myself getting frustrated with people, I just remembered - you don't know what they are struggling with today.  Their heart may be crushed and they need a smile.  One more negative thing may be their breaking point.  So be patient and, as my friend Paulene says, Do All Things With Love.

Thanks for listening, folks.  My randomness for the day ... :)

Friday's Letters

Oh me oh my. It's already Friday! The week has lasted forever, but at the same time, it zoomed by. You know when it's so busy you don't have time to breathe and time he's wonky on ya? Yeah...

So marching on to my letters: 

Dear Mom, Dad, and Me, Happy Birthday to me! Thanks for wanting me, keeping me, loving me, raising me up "right," continuing to show me how much you love me every day. I'm so glad God placed me in THIS family. Thanks to everyone who sent cards, thoughts, messages, and spirit fingers from afar! :)

Dear Macy, you are so excited about your big girl bed!! You tell us every day how you are going to sleep in your big girl bed! I love seeing you so excited and happy!! 

Dear weekend, somewhere I must find the time on start this. Ohhhh Yeaahhh - this makes me very happy! 

Dear Santa on Twitter, I am so excited for Christmas!! But your tweets about blah blah Fridays left before Christmas! is stressing me out! Aahhhh! (As a side note, I'm not usually excited about Thanksgiving, but I am this year!)

Ok peeps. I'm typing this on a phone and I've already killed my data plan. :)  have a great weekend! 

Happy Friday, Friends!

Cause the players gonna play, play, play
And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate
Baby I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake
Shake it off
Heartbreakers gonna break, break, break
And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake
Baby I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake
Shake it off, Shake it off

source

Oh yes, this has been stuck in my head all day.  It's the last song I heard getting out of the car.  So to entertain everyone here in the my office, I change the lyrics to include one of their names.  They love me for it. (yeah right). 

Today is Friday, my friends! I'm so thankful, I'm ready for a Saturday. 

Dear Pop, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! 68-years-young... especially when you are trying to keep up with the grandkids! Or playing with tractors. I'm very thankful for you, and I'm ready to celebrate with you tonight!  I love you!

Dear week, you've kept me busy and slightly stressed me out.  But it's all good, I'm working on the stress part. The pieces came together when I needed them to, letting me breathe.  I totally thank God for that, because it's all in His hands. 

   









  













Dear Katy @ Tired Teacher Monogramming,  I have a feeling these will be on my front porch when I get home! I can't wait for cooler weather when Macy can wear these. Thanks for the super fast turn around and I wish you all the best with your surgery.  Just say NO to strep throat after this!

Dear AH (Sweet Niece #1), GO GIRL! I'm so excited to see you as part of the volleyball team. I so hate I missed your first game this week, and I'm crossing my fingers I can catch one later in the season. I was so happy to see you played in the first game! Way to go! :)  Keep hustling!

Dear praying friends, I know, I'm always calling on you.  But I'm asking you to keep my cousin, Andy, in your prayers.  Here is a link to his Go Fund Me page (no, I'm not asking you to donate, though that would be nice), but it's full of updates.  Something is going on causing serious swelling in his brain.  He has three girls and is a Sheriff's Deputy.  Please keep him in your prayers. Also keep my mom's family in your prayers as they lost the first sibling this past week.  Thanks ya'll.

Dear Macy, I sincerely hope we get the spare twin bed moved from my house into your bedroom, because you are so wanting to have a big girl bed.  Can't wait to see how excited you get! Please let this happen tomorrow!!!

Dear Sept. 11, I didn't forget you, or not acknowledge you.  I would never forget you, that specific day of terror and the days, weeks and months afterwards.  Lord, please help us as a nation heal, and comfort the individuals who were so tragically touched that day.  Please protect our servicepersons as we continue the battle.

Ok ya'll, I'm off to get ready to party with the family. :)  Ya'll have a great weekend.

I want to laugh, too!

I thought I'd share my week so far with you. Especially the Macy part because she is hilarious!  She has learned to jump with both feet barely leaving the ground. It's so fun to see how excited she is about this. It required much clapping.

She also wants to be in on the laughter. We were all in the family room laughing when she runs in. "Hey! I want to laugh, too!" Then she throws her head back and laughs like a mad woman. The funniest thing I have seen in a while! She's so passionate about it! It's great! 

Work is kicking into high gear and my to do list is stressing me out. I'm dependent on others doing their part for me to do mine. And surprises also don't make me happy. Stress stress stress. I already feel it messing up my tummy and making me sick. :(

So I read tonight no where in the Bible does it say to stress or worry. But it does  say over and over to trust God. I'm going to have to learn how to do this or I will not survive the upcoming months. Faith. 

And as a wrap, I'm deleting a few people from social media that stress me out. I read about six mistakes Christians make on social media tonight. One of them is being someone you are not. I can't handle the perfect life people. I'm not in a place where I can see the perfection and know it's not truth - and not feel bad about myself. We all tend to show only the good. The smiles and happy days. But no one is really that happy and perfect. And it makes me feel bad. So, enough is enough. :) 

Thanks for the download of emotions. I hope the rest of your week is great and I'll see you back on Friday!!

Joyous Monday

Ok not really, it was a Monday! But now I'm in my bed snuggled under the covers and about to go to sleep. Monday is looking better :)

This weekend my parents celebrated their 44th wedding anniversary by going to the mountains. They are so cute together :)  Katie and I cleaned their house and the girls made Fru Fru pumpkins for them while they were gone. 

AH's was really nice - loves the buttons! And she's only 12 so I thought it was very creative and cute. 

Little niece is two and hers was more of an abstract look plus glitter. :) but you know grandparents love this stuff. Little niece was so excited to be decorating a pumpkin for MawMaw and PawPaw! She sang Happy Birthday over and over. Kinda like anniversary ...

The two Sweet Nieces on the way to buy pumpkins. ❤️❤️❤️

AH made volleyball so I'm going to have to hit up a game or two. I know nothing about the sport but I can cheer loudly! Her first game is this week. 

It is past my bedtime and it crazy busy at work. So let's roll over and snooze. Y'all have a great week!!! 

Nite!

Friday's Letters.

Ya'll I am so very blessed. God placed me into an immediate family that is beyond wonderful - words can't describe my parents, siblings, their spouses and families. So thankful for being in this family.  But I also have an outstanding extended family on both sides - mom's and dad's.

A little background about my family:  My mom is one of 12 (yes, you read that right!). 12. She's number 8 in the line up so she was towards the end.  Actually, her oldest sister had children about my mom's age, so she was an aunt to people her age. ha ha! That's how it works out when you have so many kids. There were 9 girls and 3 boys in the family, (only one set of twins), from 1933-1956 (ish...I'm not too sure about the baby's birth year). All were living until this week, when my mom lost her oldest sister - the first born of the family.  It was a difficult weekend with hospice calling it down to a matter of hours.  Then she was gone.

My dad is one of 8, another rural Southern family with a ton of kids.  They had 6 boys and 2 girls - Dad is 5 in the line up and the first to be born in a hospital! Funny story - his birth certificate said, "Baby Boy" on it until he got married and had to legally change his name! Two of my dad's brothers have passed, one last year.  That one was tough because it was sudden and he had such a large personality - it didn't seem like it should have happened that way, with no chance of a goodbye.  This is why we should tell people what they mean to us today, right?

With my aunt, it was easier thanks to a wonderful service, delivered by her granddaughter.  She got choked up a few times, which were about the only times I really got choked up.  But she did a great job of presenting my aunt's personality without embellishing it or making her sound like someone she wasn't.  Because she was tough, straight-shooting, tell-it-like-it-is-whether-you-like-it-or-not, a community leader and a community MOVER.  She got things done.  Her granddaughter did her right.

So there, that's my week.  Getting back into work has been tough and overwhelming.  Not in a bad way - I'm definitely not complaining. It's forcing me to get organized and I like being organized. :)

OK, on to some letters:

Dear Mom and Dad, Happy Anniversary!  44 years is so beautiful and I'm SO GLAD ya'll went away for the weekend.  Go have a wonderful time without kids or grandkids and we'll see you when you get home.  We all love you very much!

Dear Project Life, I have spent hours working on you, trying to catch up the past several years of scrapbooking, only to realize I've left out many events that I wanted included. And it's not easy to go back and add... so I guess I'll be doing that this weekend somehow.  Let's not discuss the 100s and 100s of photos I've purchased thinking I would need them only to have them piled in a shoebox. Hmm...

Dear Big Brother, you aren't that exciting, but I'm still totally addicted. I read your feeds on Twitter every morning and every evening to make sure I'm up to date with your drama. Not that there is a lot of drama... but whatever.  Derrick, you deserve to win but Victoria, it would be hilarious if you took it all!

Dear Work, you are killing me.  It's Friday.  8:00 p.m. I'm still here.  Granted, I'm now blogging, but up until about 15 minutes ago, I was working.  2.5 more months of insanity and hopefully it will slow down.  By the way, work space, I'm loving my new desk and the new partitions that block out some of the noise!! LOVE IT.

Dear McDonalds, no more mocha frappes - I swear it was like my heart was going crazy.  No more.

Dear Neon Colored Paper Clips, you make me very happy.

Dear Far-off Friends, Ok, so I mailed out postcards from the beach today.  Work with me, ok? Don't think I'm psycho, just smile and nod.  Thanks.

Ok people, I'm heading to my HOUSE.  My couch, my twitter updates, my Project Life scrapbook... you get the picture.  Wish I have more excitement to post here, but I'm tired and don't have the energy to chase down pictures. Next week, I promise!  Adios my friends - have a great weekend and hug someone you love today!  :) :)