Joy Dare

Brady and I began the Joy Dare at the beginning of June.  Each day there are 3 certain joys to look for in our lives and to make note of.  By next June we will have 1000 joys that we have recorded in our lives.  We both have had a great time doing this and it is opening our eyes even more to the joys that the Lord has placed in our lives. Here are a few:

Day 2:  Joys that are funny
               a) Bree looking at me after her bedtime prayer and saying " Is that right?
               b) Bree telling me to not go poop on the porch !

Day 5: Joys of Peace, Love, & Hope
              a) Quite time with the Father before Bree is awake
              b) When Bree crawls in my lap, hugs me and says "I love you Momma"
              c) Lifetime ahead of me with my soul mate

Day 10:  Joys at 8, at 12, at 2
              a)  Waking up to the alarm beginning our day together to
                    celebrate our anniversary
              b) Conversation in the car as we head to do a little shopping
                   after a yummy breakfast
              c) Being in the presence of my sweetheart

Day 13: Joys smelled
              a) Dinner cooking
              b)  Shampoo as I wash my hair
              c) Morning rain

Day 16: Joys from my Heavenly Father
             a) Direct conversation with Him
             b) Everlasting eternity with Him
             c) an amazing mom and dad who shaped me into who I am today

Anyone interested in doing this Joy Dare with us, let me know and I will show you were to find all you need!!! I am going to be more diligent and up date the blog with each week's joys that I find!!  ( Hopefully!!!)

Want to Improve Your Marriage?

Love, Sex and Happily Ever After by Craig Groeschel is a wonderful book for people in all walks of life: still single, newlyweds, or married for 20 years. The main focus on the book seems to target those who are single, engaged, or newly married, but even those who are married can still gain knowledge of how to improve their marriage in areas in which they struggle. Even after being married for 8 years, there were issues in this book we have been dealing! This book is a great easy read and full of useful information!

The author tackles very difficult topics within a relationship: sex, money, roles within the relationship, and steps to deal with those topics. The reader is presented with with actual experiences within Groeschel's life and ways that he overcame them.  He does an amazing job of backing up his advice and suggestions with God's Word.  Myths are exposed about sex along with the factual Truth. 

I wish this book would have been available for my husband and I to have read before we were married, but even now we shared info from the book and how we were going to apply it to our marriage.  This book would be great for a small group singles study!

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing group for this review.

Easter Time!

Bree and I spend Easter 2012 with Mom.  She had only had her gall bladder surgery on the previous Tuesday and Dad had to work Easter weekend.  We did not want her to be alone so Bree and I went on a road trip on Thursday night to stay with her.  We stayed through Easter Sunday with her.  Bree attended the Easter Egg hunt at the First Baptist Church and just loved it.  She found lots of eggs filled with candy which she was super excited about since she doesn't get to have much candy.  She was utterly disappointed when she didn't win the door prize but she got over it! She had a lot of candy and eggs to dye to get her mind off of it.  She had a great time coloring eggs.  She was able to help a lot more than last year so she enjoyed it, letting us know the purple and pink were her favorite eggs!  Of course, all weekend we had to hid the eggs for her in the house so she could find them.  It was really hard to leave when we had to go back home after being with Mom and Dad for 4 days and also knowing that Bree helped Mom feel better while recovering from her surgery. 

A Great Book for Women!

                                                                  

Cooking dinner. Taking care of the screaming children. We go through the exhaustion of life.  We don't know how to get out of this rut so we just give up and don't try. We women all have issues, as much as we want to try to hide them.  Whether we are controlling, angry, insecure or fearful, we have some issue that we are fighting with almost every single day.  For us to be able to live the life that our Creator designed us to live, we have to bring these issues to light and come to dealing with each of them.  She's Got Issues by Nicole Unice confronts this issues and brings them out into the open.  She describes these issue in detail with a way we can transform ourselves and bring ourselves closer to Christ.

As I read through the issues in this book, I could relate so well to each.  This book has made a great difference in my life and how I have even been dealing with these issues since beginning to read the book.  I love the prayer, journaling exercise, discussion questions at the end of each chapter.  The discussion questions allow us to dig deep inside ourselves and draw out those issues we have. I also love how Nicole uses scripture throughout each chapter reflecting upon each issue and it is also scripture that we can memorize and ponder upon when we are struggling daily.  This would be a wonderful book for a women's study, discussing and supporting each other through our issues. 

Tyndale House publishers has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book. 

A Wonderful Book for Little Ones!!

As a Christian, coming upon a book focusing on God and his creation is exciting! Finding one to read for my 2 year old is even greater.  This is a book that I thoroughly enjoyed reading to her as much as she liked to hear it!

This book is beautifully depicted with drawings on every other page reflecting the words on the page before. My daughter excitedly looked over each page at the pictures as I read to her. We have read it every night for the past three nights because she likes it so much!

I love the way the baby bear is talking to his mom about where he came from and the mama bear goes through the process of her and papa bear being lonely, to God giving them baby bear in her tummy, to baby bear being born. Even though this book seems to be geared towards toddler aged children, the underlying theme of the book is great for even older children and beautifully depicted! What a joy to read!

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for the purpose of this review. Any opinions expressed here are my own.

What a Precious Blessing Our Babies Are!

Frustration, exhaustion, stress...... These things seems to overbear me at times! But boy, this is such a reminder of how God chose to bless us with a sweet little angel that is growing up way to fast.

Lord, Help me remember, when I feel it's a chore
the time will come when I'll hold her no more
asleep on my chest, the crib refused
the blanket, the pacifier, gone unused.
What better place is there to lay her head
than against my heart, my arms her bed?
For infants grow up and leave us behindwith only memories left to remind
us of midnight walking and predawn rocking,
of soft, helpless babies unable to sleep.


So, Lord, make me patient and keep me awakewhile I cradle this child, and don't let me take
for granted the moments I spend in the night
with this ~ Your gift, my joy, my delight.


~Jan Dunlap

Daily Reminders

Sometimes we need a little reminder concerning what life is all about. Its not about my career, what movie to see next, what new car I would like to have..... Its living for the Lord.  No matter how hard I try to make that my first priority, something always seems to take over that position.

A wonderful company, Dayspring, has given me the opportunity to receive a few of their products in return for a review.  All opinions state are my own!

The first is an amazingly constructed vase with the word  BEAUTIFUL" down one back and Ecclesiastes 3:11 "He has made everything beautiful in its time." down the front.  What a reminder each day of what beautiful is through God's eyes.

My favorite product I received was a set of six coasters. Each coaster reminds of of how blessed we each truly are and how much He loves us. "Beloved God chose you from the beginning." 2 Thessalonians 2:13. " In all things God works for the good of those who love him and all are called according to their purpose. " Romans 8:28

What a reassurance I receive when I sit my drink down!

These both come from the Redeemed collection found at Dayspring.  I love this collection so much I would like to giveway a product!  The retail value of the mirror is$ 23.99.  The winner will only be responsible for shipping ($6) To enter, please become a follower of my blog and a winner will be chosen by random.org.  The giveaway begins April 16 and ends April 20! The winner will be contacted with certificate to redeem for the mirror.  Good luck and thanks for reading!