Rain, rain, rain!

Suppose to rain all day today. Not sure if I will go to dinner to celebrate Anita's birthday tonight. I don't drive well at night.....and it is even worse in the rain! Lanny & I both slept good last night. What a miracle! I only woke up once at 1:30 but went back to sleep.
Yesterday Karla brought Dylan & Maddie over to help me take down my decorations. That helped so much!!! Once I made them understand not to hop all over the place starting new projects we did really well! I got them to focus .... except when the cat came in and we lost Maddie's focus. She loves that cat. We got almost all the decorations down! Tara called and asked if I wanted to see "Enchanted" with them. That was incentive for us to hurry! We grabbed McNuggets at the drive-thru, got candy at Red Apple, and made it in time for the movie! Tara and the girls were waiting in the lobby. I loved the movie. I love those kind of movies though! Sweet. Thanks Tara! Today I am just going to finish cleaning up and getting organized. My house is not looking good right now. Have to take boxes to the garage from the back porch and get things looking normal again. Hope you have a wonderful day today! May God's love and peace reign in your heart!

Happy Birthday Amy & Anita!

Today is Amy's birthday!!! She is my cousin's daughter so i call her cousin Amy. She is a sweetheart. A very encouraging and kind person and I love her! Happy birthday Amy! May God bless you with many more happy & healthy ones to come! Also happy birthday to my Bible Study pal, Anita! We are celebrating her birthday tomorrow night! Last night was rough. Fell asleep on the couch at sevenish, but after I went to bed I watched Biggest Loser and then couldn't get into full sleep until after 1:00! I hate that! And I was so tired, too. Today my plan is to take down some decorations. I hate to... things seem so dark after I do. I know alot of people are anxious to take theirs down. I don't understand that....but I know most of you reading this are like that. hmmmm. Yesterday was a great way to bring in the first day of 2008! Joel & Karla and the kids, Brad & Tara and the kids, and Lanny & I had a bbq! We ate alot and played games! First me, Karla and Tara played Apples to Apples with Dylan & Jordan. That was fun....then we drug Brad, Joel and Papa into the game. Last game we played Taboo. Joel & Karla vs. me and Dylan vs. Jordan & Tara. Dylan & I won! He reminds me of Kevon. Cocky and conceited. Too funny! Well....I should really get busy. Hope you all have a good day getting back to normal...whatever that is. Stick with the changes you want to accomplish! You can do it!!!!! Please pray for Lois and her family. They all caught terrible colds!!! Also don't forget to look at my calendar if you want to know who else we are praying for and are thankful for today!!!

It's a new year....yippeeeee!

I feel good about this year to come! I am praying it is a wonderful year for all of you that read this site, too! We had a wonderful party! There was tons of food and fun and games and laughing as you can see on my slideshow! First game was Jake and Brian both challenging me to cribbage. I won... not only won but skunked Jake!!! Oh, that felt good. We played at the end of the night too...I lost bad but don't want to think about that. Some people played Rage, some played Apples to Apples. Lindsey and Brian brought their kids who sure loved the toy room. They were good kids. I put the singing tree in the bathroom and that caused a lot of laughs each time someone went to the bathroom. Most people left just before midnight...but some of us held in there.....us, Jake and Patty, Brian and Lindsey, and Francie and Andy. It was so icy last night. I hope everyone got home safe.

Today Karla and family, Tara and family, and Kevon & Meghan are coming to bbq burgers and play games today. We used to always bbq on New Years day when dad was alive but kind of gave it up. But it just sounded like a good thing to start up again. It is time. Well....hope you are all ready with your resolutions! Take care and I'll be praying you can stick with it! Have a great day and great year! One final thought.....

So what is it you have resolved to do differently in the new year? We all have something we hope to do different or better or not at all. Even if we don't make official "resolutions" we still find our mind contemplating that fresh page of a new year.

Whatever area of life you hope to see change in, whether it is dropping a few pounds or more, improving the exercise component in your schedule, taking more time for loved ones, doing better with your finances, being kinder, being more patient, or any other self-improvement, it will primarily involve one thing: self-control!

Self-control is not easy to muster up. Some have more of it than others, but we all need a good dose of it when we take the challenge to change something in our lives.

There is a place you can get self-control. It is listed as one of the fruit of the Spirit that God can cultivate in your heart when you seek Him to provide it.

Whatever change you are hoping to accomplish in this New Year, ask God to give you His Spirit to help you. As you take the challenge of that area of your life to Him, He will empower you, by His Spirit, to have self-control.

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control" (Galatians 5:22).

Right now tell God what area of your life you need His help in changing. Ask Him to give you the strength to be disciplined as you make this choice to change. Ask Him to nudge your heart when you are tempted to slip back into old patterns. Ask Him to fill you fresh, every day, with His Holy Spirit so that your life will show the fruit that comes from Him...fruit that includes self-control.