McChristmas

Well, our Fab Fam came, stayed, played, ate, loved, laughed, and went! We had a blast. Here are just a couple of pics for now. Maybe I'll do a photoshow. There are soooo many good, cute, fun pics!

I can't even blog about our time...too much to say....

Things we did;

ate, talked, ate, laughed, played, had a BSU game day, had some of our friends over so our fam and friends could meet, ate, slept a little, ate some more, had a jammie day(on Christmas day it turned out, so we ate our turkey dinner in new jammies given by Mrs. Santa), hit Wal-mart here and there, ate, decorated the tree, finished Nate's new bedroom, went to Christmas Eve service (where Nate and Jacob played piano and John helped lead the service), had some time out in the snow, drew in a huge tablet, worked on a Search and Find book, had some Brian Regan time, ("There are many books in the library"), ate, ate, and ATE! One of the last days someone found our bathroom scale, which I am sure was an accident, and we took turns seeing if we had gained the average 15 pounds gained over the holidays, some publicly, and some had a private weigh-in. No one was too distraught, so we must have done all right.

Hope all had a sweet, blessed Christmas. We sure did.

ID Mcs, WE MISS YOU! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR COMING! XOXOXOX

Endless Things...

...so, I have been forming this list in my mind over some time and tonight it turned into a post. As you can see it started out a somewhat negative thing, but tonight I gave it more thought and the positives surfaced.
Endless;
~Chores: dishes, meals, grocery shopping, cleaning, tidying, laundry, etc., etc.
~Obligations, Obligations, Obligations! (this covers more things than I will list)
~Bills
~Things I need to do
~Things I should do
~Things I am not getting to
~Dust
~Projects
~Work
~The next thing
Some of these cross over into each other and here is where the list gets dicey...
Endlessly, my children grow before my eyes, this one is bittersweet. Also, it will end one day, which leads to my next list...
Ending;
~My time with my children and so many others that I love.
~Life, youth, health, strength
~My season as a mother of young children/ babies
~The hold that anxiety and fear have had on me
~My willingness to accept things that aren't as they should be
~Time that I allow to go by without my eyes/ heart/ mind/ my very being focused on Jesus
~Letting moments get by without doing what needs to be done
~My years of being chronically lazy...hooray!
~The darkness in my heart, time without peace or joy
And now the good Endless;
~Strength by the grace of an Almighty God
~Love and Forgiveness in Jesus' name
~Opportunities to reflect Christ and to grow in Him
~God's Goodness
and In light of Eternity, endless time, all fades
and nothing can really follow that! Thank You, Lord!
***********************************************************************
Love you!
To quote my sweet friend Vicki's recent post, "It's a Great Day to be You!"
Merry Christmas!

UPDATE: I JUST FINISHED THIS POST, RE-READ IT A COUPLE OF TIMES AND WAS ABOUT TO MOVE ON WHEN SUDDENLY IT HIT ME! MY CHILDREN GROWING BEFORE MY EYES IS NOT THE ONLY THING ON MY 'ENDLESS' LIST THAT WILL ACTUALLY END! ALL OF THE THINGS ON THAT FIRST LIST WILL END ONE DAY! HALLELUJAH!!!
It IS a great day to be me! :) heehee (not that I didn't think that before, but wohoo! I just had an epiphany moment!)

My baby...

No, he's not my 'baby', he's my oldest, but as we were explaining to our children, a mother always sees her children as her babies. They got a chuckle out of thinking that Gran and Nana think of Daddy and I as their babies, but its true.
My heart is at the moment swelling to the point of pain with l.o.v.e. for my firstborn. Last night, as I watched this young man working on his Facebook page, I thought about how he is as tall as me and has a voice I don't always recognize... did you get that?? A voice I don't always recognize.... my throat begins to close up and things fly through my mind similar to when your life is supposed to flash before your eyes when you die... when we found out we were pregnant with him, I was beside myself with joy and excitement, a baby was all I ever wanted...his baby smiles...he was/is so funny, his sense of humor has always amazed me... how grown he is now, and time seemed to pause for a moment so I could just take him in. What a blessing he has been, all of them have. And at the same time that I LONG to go back and hold him as a baby again, I also look forward with great excitement and joy to what is in store for him. God has good plans for him, good works prepared, plans to prosper and not to harm him. He is loosening himself from his mommy, and as much as it hurts, it is good. He is growing into his own person, we are glimpsing the man he is still becoming and it is a wondrous thing. I can only do it with God as my Rock, knowing that He loves Nathan more than I do, and He is good and He is sovereign.
Walk on, Natey. Love you like crazy! xoxo

I'm doing it again...

here is a pic taken only two years ago, of nate! (speaking of nate: HIS BIRTHDAY IS TOMORROW!!!! 13 years old!)

John's youngest brother, Jakey, his mom, his grandma, and our little jakey in the background...

p.s. as I was downloading clipart of sea billows rolling, I remembered, hey, we have family vacation pics at the ocean! So here you go.... as you can see, there are sea billows behind us and we are peaceful and joyful! :)You may say to yourself, well, its not the same, because you know the sea billows are no threat when you are standing so far inland, and i thought the same thing but then i realized, have security in that knowledge is actually a perfect demonstration of The Point, having security in the knowledge that God is in complete control and nothing is outside of His sovereignty.~~ This pic has Phoebe in the green shirt, Ellie in pink, and my sister in law, Amber's sister, Shiloh. We had this vacation in 2006, right before we moved to MT.

Here is my sister in law, Amber, and I

hi, MTMACS blog readers!Again, I have read something that struck me and I am posting it here so I can read it again and so you can read it! It is an emailed devo that I subscribe to, let me know what you think....

"... so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life" (Deut 6:1-2).The title of the article, Find Purpose, Live Longer, caught my eye. It was a report on numerous studies all of which have verified that finding something more in your life can mean a big health boost. You can add years to your life by adding life to your years. Insurance company studies show that if someone retires to something rather than from something, they live on the average three times longer.The article pointed out many ways in which people can add zest to their lives, but the most intriguing to me was the aspect of religion. More than 2,200 studies have been done in this area and the conclusion is that believing in a higher power can boost more than just the spirit. While scientists still don't have a dependable method for measuring faith, research shows that people who attend church, at least four times a month are less likely to engage in risky behavior, be depressed, or feel chronic stress. The faithful live longer, too..... an average for seven to fourteen years longer and the most regular attendees have the longest life expectancy.A Duke University study of 2391 people who were at least 65 years old found that regular churchgoers who also prayed daily or studied the Bible daily were 40 per cent less likely to have high blood pressure than those who did not. Elderly churchgoers had better mental health and were less likely to have high degrees of a protein associated with age-related illness.The reasons for this are not hard to understand. It's not from just being in church. Churchgoers generally are much more restrained when it comes to many problem-causing areas of modern society. Born-again Christians also have God's Holy Spirit dwelling in them to help them avoid the problem areas of life. And because they know they can always turn to God in prayer during times of crisis, this may be the reason there is a lower incidence of stress-related problems in their lives

.So, if you want to be healthier and live longer, attend church, read the Bible, listen to God in prayer and as you go about your daily routine hum that great hymn written by H. G. Spafford..... "When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say, It is well, it is well, with my soul." � � ( a thought on life from John Grant )

Father God,Draw me into Your presence daily and help me hunger and thirst for the things that will bring me closer to You. Thank you for not only the physical benefits this can bring to my body, but also for the spiritual joy it will bring to my soul. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

Questions: Do you have purpose in your life? How are you finding peace for your soul?

*******************************************************************************

I love you! Have a great day! xoxo~Adrian

Thanking God...

Yesterday, Phoebe and I slid off of the road on the ice after doing a 180. We slid into a ditch and felt sure God saved us from tipping over. It was slippery yesterday and I had been driving in it all day, so I was not being careless. I felt the tires lose grip and we began to slide, it was very scary. But God's will was for protection and there wasn't another car on the road for us to hit, because we would have. And on the left side of the road was a rock wall, but we went off the right. John said if we had been going faster we would have tipped when we went into he ditch, it was very steep. Thank God we are diligent about seatbelts. All is well. Phoebe and I were quite shook up, but we took to telling our upset stomachs to settle down because God took care of us and we are fine. Could have been much worse. The suburban is fine, John and a friend got it out and just had to change a tire. John said when they got it to come up out of the ditch the front wheel was about four feet straight up in the air. Whew... counting our blessings.

Listen to my voice in the morning, LORD. Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly. Psalm 5:3 NLT