Thanksgiving, Vol 1

Our 13th year celebrating my Thanksgiving for my side of the family on the Saturday before. My sister and I love tradition and hold to it (sometimes too) tightly. For the past many years, Amy has hosted it at her house and she does an amazing job.

Work-in-progress and all, I'm so grateful for family!!

The birthday girl.

 2006 Club, looking shockingly old.

As long as thanks is possible, then joy is always possible. ~Ann Voskamp

Sleep!

More than two weeks ago, I sat Aiden down and gave him "the talk".  I told him I loved him very much, that I am beyond blessed to be his momma.  I told him its a privelege to be the one who can meet his needs and its been wonderful to come get him in the middle of the night and snuggle with him while he nurses.  BUT...it was time for him to move on to the next phase of his life and start sleeping through the night.

I fed him and held him until he was sleeping, then I laid him down.

Twice through the night he woke up and twice Shaun went in and whispered to him and rubbed his back until he was asleep again.  The next night he woke up once (at 5:30) and Shaun did the same thing.  Every night after that he's been sleeping through the night.  He goes down about 9 or 9:30 and gets up some time after 7:30.  Its been kinda nice to get some straight sleep, though if I'm honest I'd have to say I miss that time with him.

The only problem is now I cannot justify not getting up at 5:30 to start my day.  I let it slide when I was pregnant and when I was getting up once or twice during the night, but my alarm is once again going off early.  For me, getting up before the sun assures me some alone time.  This is when I workout and have my time with God.  I've found that I need that time...I'm just not a nice person in my own strength.  Everyday, I ask Him for less of ME and much more of HIM.  Its just ugly the other way around.

I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

Psalm 4:8

It is because of the Lord's mercy and loving-kindness that we are not consumed,

because His [tender] compassions fail not.They are new every morning; great

and abundant is Your stability and faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22-23

I Heart Faces ~ Thankfulness

This week at I Heart Faces, the entry was for "My Story In Photos"…with the theme of “Thankfulness.” and the post should be all about what we are most thankful for.  I thought about it for quite a while....I've been so incredibly blessed and am truly thankful everyday for that, but what am I most thankful for?  Yes, my home, my health, my camera.  But when I boiled all of that down, it brought me to my family.  And to focus my thankfulness even closer...is my God.

I'm so thankful that Jesus died on the cross for me so that I could have the gift of salvation and eternal life.  I'm thankful that He lets me see the sunshine of a brand-new day and for the grace and mercy He gives along with each new day.

And of course this precious family I've been given.  For so long I was sure I didn't want children and I'm so glad God wrote my future differently.  Shaun is a gift and I'm so, so thankful for the life we have.

I'm thankful for my godly heritage and our large, extended families.  We truly are....blessed.

(Laurie, thank you for this picture that I treasure)

 

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,

through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Galatians 6:14

The Riches of His Grace

Sorry, no Whirly Twirly pictures today...dance class was cancelled

I received a comment last night from someone I don't know and have no way of getting in touch with:

hello lisa i wish you and your family the best i pray someday i can have my daughter to grow up happy and loved we are going throw tough times i wish i can have a great man and a nice family evey day i pray but sometimes my fear over takes me i feel i dont deserve to be happy because of the wrong choices i made but to see people such as your self gives me hope

Immediately, my heart was filled with compassion for this dear woman and the struggles she is facing. I also wanted to shout from the roof top that this life I have...all I am and all I've been given...is only by God's grace.

There is not a day that goes by that I don't thank God for His grace and His mercy on my life and each time I say my prayer of thanks my eyes fill up with tears because it's too wonderful for me. I don't understand it and I am not deserving of it, but still He chose me.

I am blessed beyond measure, but I have nothing to boast in of myself. It is God's gift of grace on my life. I want to be clear to you, dear readers. All that you see on these blog pages is because of God's great love and His rich mercy.

The gift of His salvation, love, mercy and grace is available to all.

1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.

3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2