31 Day Challenge: Day 31

Well its over!  I am posting my last post of this years 31 Day Challenge.  I am actually Shocked pleasantly surprised that I completed it.  Some days I was WAY late tardy, but I made it all the way to the end.  For my final beautiful moment I would have to say it was arriving home with my hubby and kids safe and sound to a clean house after a 12 hour drive (I scurried around straightening up from the packing storm so I wouldn't have to face it on my return.. whew so glad I did!) .  It was a blessedly uneventful trip (you wouldn't BE.lieve some of the things that have happened on that trek in years past!!).  So now all my family are snuggled into their warm beds, and the sound of my husbands snores drifting down the hallway are like a sirens song calling me to my own bed...wonder if its become more comfortable in the time I was away...hmmmm.  If not I will sack out on the couch or on my old bed as usual I guess. 
Anyway, I have greatly enjoyed this series of posts, and I hope you lovely readers have as well!  Its been interesting and fun!  I'm pretty sure that next year when the challenge is again issued I will take it up once more.  Not sure what I will find to blog about next time.  But hey, I don't have to think about that right now!   I am actually toying with the idea of a once a day (excluding Saturday & Sunday) holiday post for the month of December.  Just a daily post on the week days having to do with how my family and I are embracing the holiday season, and the holiday recipes, crafts, and projects I come up with as well.  Let me know if you think I should tackle it :)  I'm game if your game to humor me by reading my dronings on and on (such as right now....uggghhh...must quit typing already, and just go to bed!). 

I pray that you have been inspired in some way by something I have written during this series.  I also hope that at the end of your day instead of worrying and stressing, you are trying to remember the beautiful moments of your day. 

Oh, on a side note, I wanted to let you know how my friend Alayna's surgery went very well today.  The surgery only took 5 hours.  Afterwards the doctor came out, and let the family know that there was NO nerve damage and no reconstructive surgery necessary.  Also, they were able to get every bit of the tumor out, and the prognosis is very good for a wonderful and speedy recovery.  Thank You God!!  Also thank you everyone who joined with us in prayer today.  I really appreciate it, and am thankful to have this community of friends who, even though I have never met you face to face, I feel support from.  Thank you again!

I hope you have a great day & God Bless!

31 Day Challenge: Day 30

Today was a lovely day filled with wonderful blessings and friends from years gone by (notice I called none of you old!).  I was able to visit both my former home churches for service today. 

First I had a wonderful time of fellowship with the church I started attending at the age of 12 after we moved to Kirbyville.  I was able to hug so many familiar necks and share stories and memories with loved ones.  To see children who are kids no more.  Children I once taught in Sunday-School are now older than me!  They made me feel OLD!

Then tonight I went back to my roots.  To the church of my heritage.  The church I have my first spiritual memories of, and where my Grandfather who was an awesome and mighty man of God pastored.  It is the church where my personal relationship with God began, Where I was baptised in the precious name of Jesus, and received the Holy Ghost.  I have so many memories of that place along with the building itself.  DO you know I dream of it?  Crazy that something that was a part of my life so long ago regularly is part of my night times now.  Anyway I think I have sufficiently expressed the importance of the people and the facilities as well as the Spirit of God that I always feel when I am there in my life.  So it is no wonder that being in service with them tonight was absolutely beautiful.

Nothing is more beautiful to me that worshiping my Savior with beloved family and friends. 
On that note for those of you who are reading and are believers, I am asking you to pray for a childhood friend of mine.  She is my age (32) and is facing surgery on what the doctors call cancer.  We are claiming her healing and she refuses to accept the diagnosis of cancer, but should they find any evidence of it when they take her into surgery tomorrow there will be 5 hours of surgery to completely remove the tumor from her neck and facial nerve, and then another 5 hours of surgery to reconstruct her jaw, teeth, nerves, and side of her face.  A grand total of 10 hours of surgery after which she will be placed immediately into ICU for a few days before going to a private room.  I am asking for you to pray that when they make the first incision it is only to find that there is nothing there and that our healer has already taken care of the problem.  We serve a mighty God and I know He is well able.  Please hold Alayna up tomorrow.  As well as her family (a sweet husband and two beautiful girls), and the physicians performing whatever procedures are necessary.

So many beautiful and nostalgic moments the past few days with today as the icing on the cake in what has truly been a walk down memory lane.

I hope your Sunday was wonderful, beautiful, and blessed.

Have a great day & God Bless!

31 Day Challenge: Day 29

Please forgive the lateness of these postings.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, the internet coverage has been sparse on this trip!

So for day 29 my beautiful moment was watching my kids have a ball at Chuck E Cheese and my dad and brother have maybe even more fun play all the video games.  It was so funny and the kids loved it when at the end of the night my brother gave me a handful of tickets he had won.  This meant a much bigger prize could be had from the treasure area. 

Afterward we went to a fall festival in my home town for about 45 min.  Which was plenty long enough with the temperatures being in the 40's (Fahrenheit).  It was long enough for the kids to get candy from all the communities emergency response vehicles, have their faces painted, play some games, get prizes, and even for Madeline and the hubby to ride the mule drawn wagon.  It was a lovely (and blessedly short) 45 min of fun.

Then we went back to my dads house and had a great time just sitting around visiting.  I LOVE my family and enjoyed every minute I was able to spend and have fun with them!  Too bad my bonus mom (she HATES the connotation the word "step" brings so its always been bonus for her) was too sick to make it, but we enjoyed a visit at the house.

So many beautiful moments filled with family and fun.  I just wish I could have the family part WAY more often!  Once or twice a year is just too little!!

I hope you had a beautiful Saturday!

Have a great day & God Bless!!

31 Day Challenge: Day 28

I had two beautiful moments today.  The first was being able to attend my little brothers senior game (last home football game) at my Alma Mater.  He is a band geek extraordinaire.  He totally rock the trumpet, and this year the mellophone (like a trumpet with a bigger bell that gives it, yup you guessed it, a more mellow tone).  It was so great to get to see him strut his stuff on the field during halftime as the band did their marching maneuvers.  Its a great time! 
My next beautiful moment was when I surprised one of my very best friends by dropping by after I left the game.  I figured I'd get to talk for about 30 min and see her family before they went to bed for the night.  Instead I find out that her hubby and boys are gone to North Texas for the night so this morning they can hunt for kids hunting opening weekend.  Which means she was all alone and we could talk as much as we wanted to. So we pretty much re-created one of our old slumber parties from high school by staying up talking about everything going on in our lives until 3am.  That's when I finally left to go get my Hubby from my dads house where he was sleeping patiently.  So it ended up being a 5.5 hour gab fest! i love it when you have those kind of friends you haven't seen in a year, but you can sit down and it seems like it was just last wee you were together and you can talk talk talk and have a great time together.  I love my Bestie!!!

So those were the beautiful moments of my day yesterday.  I hope you had some as well!

Have a great day and God Bless!

31 Day Challenge: Day 27

My beautiful Moment (yes posted late because where I am staying for vacation doesn't have the most reliable Internet or cell signals) was arriving at my Mom's house in Texas safe and sound after a looooong 12 hour car ride with three kiddos 6 and under. So finally we are having a great time with my family and friends Beautiful times!

Hope you are having beautiful memories!

Have a great day & God Bless!

31 Day Challenge: Day 26

Today's Beautiful moment was laying down with my son to put him to bed.  Playing, giggling, and finally praying with him as he started to fall asleep.  He comes up with some of the funniest things!  His most recent phase is to say "I CAN'T" or "No it aint" (drives me CRAZY! I cant stand the word aint! and we cant figure out where he picked it up).  If you ask him to go somewhere (ie. get in the car or take something to his room) his immediate response is "I Can't!".  My usual reply is "yes you can!" to which he responds "I can't walk".  Meaning: I dont want to do it or I want you to carry me, depending on what he is being asked or told to do.  Puh-leeeese!!!  Lord, this has to end soon! is often my prayer.  Of course, this child has been unlike the other two in every way, and its not just because of his gender either!  So I love my sweet, adorable, lovable, exasperating little boy, and he, along with his sisters, gives me so many beautiful moments.

I hope your day was filled with beautiful moments, and I love to hear about them so drop me a comments!

Have a great day and God Bless!

31 Day Challenge: Day 25

My Beautiful Moment today was a phone call telling me that my external hard drive (it was totally crashed during the aftermath of the tornadoes that hit our city hard on April 27, 2011) was completely restored.  It was done pro-bono due to the circumstances surrounding the crash.   I intend to write a post later going into deep detail about exactly how big of a deal this is, and how it all came about. But for now know that for me, this is an absolute miracle.  Also there are several close friends who are very excited that I will be able to give them some pictures that I took for them just before that fateful day.

I hope you had a beautiful day today.  That it was as miraculous for you as mine was for me.

Have a great day and God Bless!!

31 Day Challenge: Day 24

I had a beautiful time today chatting with a friend.  Isn't it amazing what a chat with a good friend can do for you and for them as well?

Hope you had a beautiful day today!

Have a great day & God Bless!

31 Day Challenge: Day 23

Today's Beautiful Moment came tonight as we were on our way home from our evening service.  My eldest daughter was quoting her Sunday School verses to me, and as she finished saying them perfectly I said "Madeline that was perfect!  You are so Awesome!  Did you know that you are completely Awesome?!?!".  Her reply cracked me up "Yes I did.  I have always been Awesome!".  Yes, she has, and I am so glad that she knows it.  It wasn't said in a stuck up way, just matter of factly by someone who knows she is loved and understands that I value her and think she rocks.  It makes me feel as if, maybe I am doing something right as a parent whenever my children display a  positive self esteem and self worth.  There are so many children out there who aren't sure of their value, and even more adults.  I wonder if that parental pride that I feel isn't a little like what God feels when we completely place our trust in Him and say I know its all going to be OK because I am a child of the King.  What a beautiful moment as both a parent and a Child of God.

I hope your Sunday was wonderful and I would love to hear about your beautiful moments!

Have a great day and God Bless!

31 Day Challenge: Day 22

OMW halfway through service today I realized that I completely forgot to post my beautiful moments post last night...so this is it a day late.  A beautiful Moment yesterday was about 11:30pm when some of the teen-aged boys from our church who were having a sleepover decide going toilet papering houses was a fun idea.  They got the Pastors home then decided to hit the Assistant Pastors house (mine).  We were forewarned though and decided to have a surprise of our own waiting for them when they made it here.  My husband and our good friend who is our neighbor (and coincidentally one of the boys daddy's) decided they would wait until the boys started throwing TP rolls then set off fireworks and scare them good.  Our friend even took it a step further and actually climbed up into the big tree in our yard that seems to always be the target for our TPers.  It was hilarious to watch those boys take off as if running for their lives when those firecrackers came raining down on them.  We laughed so hard!! After they had caught their breath and realized they had been had I called them in for hot chocolate and popcorn.  they had a fun time hanging out and rehashing it all. Laughing at the memory of so and so's face as he was scared, and on and on.  It was so much fun to watch boys be boys and be a part of their revelry.  What a beautiful moment!

I hope your Saturday had many beautiful moments and I would love to hear about them!

have a great day and God Bless!

31 Day Challenge: Day 21

Whew, I got so busy crafting yesterday, and writing up the patch post, that I completely forgot my Beautiful moment...well I didn't forget it completely as I actually mentioned part of it in the patch post.  Basically it was my baby boy's expressions as he saw all the cool things I made for him.  I barely got him out of one outfit after his bath.  He decided he wanted to sleep in it rather than his jammies.    We had a lot of fun creating together.  Most of the creating I had to do on my own though since it was one of the few days lately that was warm enough for the kids to play outside all day.  I loved listening to them run, play, giggle, fuss, and just have a wonderful time being kids in God's creation and the best playground in the world: nature.

So much fun and beauty can be found in our very own families.  I hope you found beauty in your day yesterday and I would love to hear about it!

Have a great day and God Bless!

31 Day Challenge: Day 20

It was a Beautiful day spent with my family.  we hung out, laughed, went to a fall festival, and just had a great time.  Basically there was no specific beautiful moment because it was all beautiful.

Hope you have days like that as well!

Have a great day & God bless!

31 Day Challenge: Day 19

Today's Beautiful Moment...Watching my hubby build the first fire of the season.  I LOVE FALL!!  We are having our first cold snap of the year, and my hubby was absolutely giddy about getting to build a fire today.  Its toasty warmness is awesome and helps out with the bills too.  Gotta love that!  So Happy Fall Y'all (recently my favorite saying)

How are you enjoying this time of year?

Have a great day and God bless you!

31 Day Challenge: Day 18

I have so many Beautiful memories of all the funny things my kids come up with.  Like today: How many mothers have the privileged of having their two year old son tell them "Duh, Mom!  I LOVE Mac-E-Oni N Cheeez" when asked if would like some for lunch.  Only after having being told "No, I HATE that" after every other option you have given him (3 others to be exact).  My goodness, where does he come up with this stuff?  My girls aren't even allowed to say "Duh" or "Hate"!  and its so hard to be upset with/discipline him when that kind of stuff comes out of his mouth. It will have to stop soon, but in the meantime its so hard to keep a straight face.   I try to ignore it so he isn't encouraged to keep it up, but awill have to start taking more drastic steps to cut it off if it doesn't stop soon.  Anyway,y sweet little man has kept me rolling today with his comments and funny personality.  We have had so much fun playing together.  Beautiful moments all, even the words I'm not too happy about hearing come out of his mouth made me smile.

Hope you had a beautiful day full of sweet moments. I love hearing about them!

have a great day and God bless!

31 Day Challenge: Day 17

It was a BEAUTIFUL day today!  Inside and outside of my house.  The kids had so much fun playing inside with my hubby and myself.  We had a major family tickle wrestle fest on our king sized bed today (the location of choice if you are planning a wrestle tickle fest including three hyper young-uns and two parents who are preparing to be jumped and bounced on while giving tickles for retribution).  After that we sent the wired up hyper giggling kiddos outside to run and play off all that energy.  They played and had so much fun in our gorgeous weather.  The sun setting was the cue for life to return to normal schedule of bath-time, dinner, homework, and finally bedtime.  Those few hours out of the normal work schedule were absolutely beautiful!

Hope you had a great day and are enjoying your own beautiful moments.  I would love to hear about them.

Have a great day and God bless!

31 Day Challenge: Day 16

Today's Beautiful Moment was sleeping off a fever (how sad is that!!)...seriously I was sick all morning.  I came straight home from church and went to bed (took my shoes off and fell into bed fully clothed)!  I slept for 3 1/2 hours woke up, grabbed a grilled chicken pita and double shot espresso iced coffee drink , and headed back to church for pre-service music practice.  That 3 1/2 hours was absolutely beautiful!! I hope these last few days of  beautiful moments haven't been absolutely depressing for you to read.  It was a rough week to say the least.  I almost didn't even do a beautiful moment post for today.  Not, because there weren't any, but because when your sick, while they are beautiful, they all seem to be in a fuzz.  So I'm going with clearly the best part of my day which was a great nap.

On that note, due to a very stressful week last week, and now poor health.  I will only be posting one creative post this week, and doing my daily beautiful moment posts.  Otherwise I will be off the computer completely for a week.  I hope everyone understands, and I will have to catch up with everything next week.  I'll let you know what I came up with this week during my hiatus.  I am going to take this week to spend more time with my family, and for myself (which usually means crafting so there will probably be a WHOLE lot to share!).

I hope everyone had a beautiful day and has a great week!!
God bless!

31 Day Challenge: Day 15

Today's Beautiful Moment has been happening all day and is just about over with.  I have completely cleaned out my sons closet and chest of drawers!  His closet is practically empty (compared to how it looked before), and I think at least one of his drawers is completely empty!  I am taking a rest in the process of bagging everything up to take to my SIL house for my nephew to wear this winter and next spring.  So the first Beautiful moment is the feeling of accomplishment I have right now!

Second is my sweet sweet SWEET hubby stopped by the house on the way to his Nanny and Pawpaws, to watch Alabama (Roll Tide!) beat whoever it is they are playing today, to pick up my son.  His sisters are already gone to our aunts house.  Which means I am completely 100% alone!!!  you hear that?  its nothing...NOTHING!!! so silent I can hear the sound of my key's as I push them on the keyboard!!

So it is now time to bring this appreciation of today's beautiful moments to a close. I still have a lot more work to do yet, and a few places I have to run to.  So I hope you had a few beautiful moments today!!  God bless!!!

31 Day Challenge: Day 14

Today's Beautiful Moment was going out to dinner ALONE with my husband, and then talking him into taking me to shop at Hobby Lobby where I bought FABRIC!!!  I cant wait to get to work on three of the  3 million projects on my to do list...of which about one million are in the half way state of being completed. Dear Lord, Please  help me start a project, and stick to it until its completed before moving on to another one!!!  Okay I think that might just be every crafting person and bloggers prayer!!!  am I right?? Oh, I think I am!!!

Then on top of dinner we had a crisis that resulted in an AWESOMELY majorly relieved beautiful moment.  I ummmm, kinda lost my Paypal credit card tonight...yeeeaaahhh.  NOT GOOD!!!  See, after I paid for dinner I thought I stuck it in my purse.  Well, somehow it got on my lap, and when I got out at Hobby Lobby it hit the ground.  I didn't realize it was missing until we got across town to the Krispy Kreme (don't judge me my diet starts Nov. 1st sharp...hey who knows I may do a daily/semi-daily on the progress of that next).  Anyway, long story short we went back to the restaurant looked around the parking lot and inside.  Then drove back to Hobby Lobby, and as we pull through the empty parking lot (we closed the joint down...yeah we be baaaddd like that...lol) I see a little square glinting in the light of our headlights where we had parked earlier.  So prayers of thanksgiving went up!!!  After all the prayers of supplication that had went up earlier I hope the thanksgiving ones were sufficient!!!  Thank You JESUS!!  I have my card back and all is well with me!

Hope you had a wonderful day/night full of beautiful moments!  Oh wait I forgot one...

Tonight my sweet little buddy was sitting in my lap facing me watching a Sesame Street YouTube video on my phone, and I leaned forward and kissed his sweet forehead a couple of times.  He looked up at me so seriously and said "Mommy STOP, you mess my hair up!"    I about fell off my chair, I laughed so hard!!  first of all the child has SUPER short hair that I keep cut regularly, and secondly it was 1am!!!  Why is he worried about his hair when I'm trying to talk him into going to bed???? Okay, and third he is TWO...when did he start worrying about his hair?!?!?!?  Kids are SO much fun!!  and they come up with the funniest, cutest things!

Okay, I really am done now...I think....hmmmmm.. hang on...yep, that's it!

Tell me about your beautiful moments from today!  You know I love to hear about them!!

Have a great day and God bless!!!

31 Day Challenge: Day 13

AArrrggghhhh a day late AGAIN! I crashed again last night!! Night before last it was deliberate, but last night it was a two year old that had to have mommy, and instead of getting back up after he was asleep like planned... well lets just say I got a FULL nights sleep last night lol.
I had my whole post planned out ans was ready to sit down and share, but life happened. Oh well that's life...lol

So my beautiful Moment yesterday came about when visiting with my neighbor and friend. She is an older lady who was married to an even older gentleman. She lost her Husband early Wednesday morning in the most beautiful way possible. I know! I can hear you thinking a beautiful death? It was though! She was so in love with this man and they had a truly beautiful love story. As his his health had failed and he was placed on hospice her prayer had been that her voice was the last he would hear and her face the last he would see. Her prayers were answered and as he entered the arms of our savior she was telling him how much she loved him. The nurse told her after his passing that every time she said "I love You" and kissed his forehead his heartbeat would go up and as she would sit back it would slowness go down. Three times this happened as she loved on him until the final time when she sat back and he breathed his last peaceful breath. What beautiful love. To be so connected to another soul, to be so completely one in marriage that your very life is maintained and continued with love.
It is beautiful to listen to her stories about how they met, how their relationship was a wonder to even her. To listen as she tells you how happy she was with this man who she will plainly tell you was her soul mate. Marriages like that are something special, and was beautiful to watch and now to remember. I pray that when my Hubby and I reach our final breaths we have had the same joy and love in ours as they have in theirs. I know I could easily echo her sentiments now for mine. I am blessed in my marriage and with my husband. A Godly love and marriage is such a beautiful blessing.

I hope you had a beautiful day and are blessed with a Godly love in your life.

I would love to hear about your day!

Have a great day today and God bless!

31 Day Challenge: Day 12

Okay we are just going to pretend that this is actually last night I am making this post and not the nexts morning...Mkaaayyy? K!
So my Beautiful Moment for the 12th day is the fact that I got to go to bed earlier than normal.  I was TIRED. With not just a capitol "T" but the whole stinking word capitolized!  We have a sinus/allergy/cold thing going around our family right now, and it looks like no one is excempt.  So to say I needed rest was an understatement!  So I closed down my computer and crashed early. Completely forgetting my 31 Days post, but hey thats what made the moment beautiful. Completely putting everything aside to embrace sweet sleep! Beautiful