It has been wonderful to slow down this month and to really take in Advent and the anticipation of Christmas. Brad’s sister gave us a precious gift of handmade Jesse Tree ornaments last year for Christmas so it has been sweet to read the Bible and share those stories with the kiddos every night. Let me assure you that these family times have been filled with chaos of a 1.5 year old pulling hair and flopping all around and a 3.5 year old screaming because of the pulled hair and chatting about random thoughts that have come to mind but the time has still been sweet. I trust that God is tucking away words in their hearts that they will remember even in the midst of the chaos. It has been good for me to remember the stories of God’s faithfulness and His promises fulfilled. While anticipating Christmas and remembering Christ born as a baby it has brought peace to my heart to remember that the baby grew to be a man and died on the cross to save me from my sins and He rose again from the dead! He is seated in Heaven but He is coming back! I am anticipating His return!

While making breakfast this morning I heard sister in the next room singing. . .You take my morning and turn it into dancing. This is a line from a praise and worship song called Restoration. The line from the song really reads you take my mourning and turn it into dancing but it was so sweet to think on her words as she sang them over and over. It is Christmas Eve! I am giddy with anticipation just as the children are and He really has taken my morning and my mourning and turned it to dancing. I have great reason to dance, worship, sing, praise and rejoice! I have a King who will one day return for me. He loves me so much that He sent His son that I might have life! I have LIFE!

Wishing you LIFE and a Christmas full of dancing, remembering and anticipating!

Adrienne from Some of a Kind passed along this little “sweet” blog award to me and with it comes more fun questions so here we go. . .

7 Things I Plan To Do Before I Die. . .(these are more wants/desires than plans. . .hope that is okay)
1.) I just really want to LIVE!
2.) I want to LIVE life to the fullest giving my Creator GLORY!
3.) I want to be a Joyful Broad Crossing for our children and the generations that will follow.
4.) I want to share more of Christ with my children and others who cross our path.
5.) I want to be a Help Mate to my husband
6.) I want to see an actual real live HUGE whale in the ocean. It would be great if he/she would jump out of the water and do a little spin as well when I see him/her.
7.) Visit many more places

7 Things I Do Now. . .
1.) Laugh
2.) Sew
3.) Read
4.) Play
5.) Worship
6.) Create
7.) Fellowship

7 Things I Can’t Do. . .
1.) Sing well
2.) Crochet
3.) Knit
4.) Fly on my own (it would be so cool)
5.) Be thrifty
6.) Be dirty
7.) Remember (I am so with you Adrienne)

7 Things That Attract Me To The Opposite Sex. . .
My hubby. . .need I say more!

7 Things That I Say Most Often. . .
1.) I love you!
2.) Wow!
3.) No way!
4.) AAAaaaahhhhhhhhh! (Yes, randomly I will just totally say that!)
5.) That’s really neat!
6.) Let’s play clean up!
7.) Let’s go outside!

7 Celebrities That I Most Admire. . .
Yes, well, not so much!

7 Favorite Foods. . .
1.) Mashed Potatoes
2.) Chips and Salsa
3.) Chinese
4.) Chocolate
5.) Brownies
6.) Pot Roast
7.)Spaghetti

7 Bloggers Who Need To Do This. . .
Hmmm, lets see. . .how about. . .
1.) Daisyeyes (she is in the middle of a super cute little house project that you can check out here)
2.) Are We There Yet (she is going to be a household name someday, I tell you this lady is going to go places! ;))
3.) Notes From Em (she sews incredibly and she makes a great banana bread muffin)
4.) Musings From Madison (Check out all their tasty recipes; we are trying a few this week)
5.) Nashvillians Now (she loves her family and keeps them healthy in creative ways)
6.) Lemons and Lemonade (I love how real she is and that she is not afraid to be her! Love that!)
7.) Rockin Smockin (she sometimes stops by here and she is incredibly crafty herself)

Mondays are grocery store day at our house. I am not sure why I do that to myself on Monday morning but alas it just works. Sister was singing and dancing her way through the store today as normal. I was not paying a lot of attention to what she was singing just trying to keep her moving and away from stacking things as she loves to do with the yogurt, butter, etc. while also trying to keep brother entertained (poor guy always stuck shopping with the women). We finally finished and payed and I came out of survival mode to listen in to the words that sister was actually singing. She was singing over and over again, “I am constant and I am HOLY!” She has my problem of remembering words to songs and their order in the song but I knew exactly what she was singing. I played a song during my workshop on Sabbath a few weeks ago which embodies a great picture of Sabbath REST to me and while I was away Brad played this song for her in the midst of her asking repetitively where I was that weekend and it stuck. Here are the words. . .

I Am by Jill Phillips

Oh gently lay your head
Upon my chest
And I will comfort you
Like a mother while you rest
The tide can change so fast,
But I will stay
The same through the past,
The same in future, same today

CHORUS:
I am constant; I am near
I am peace that shatters all your secret fears
I am holy; I am wise
I’m the only one who knows your heart’s desires
Your heart’s desires

Oh weary, tired and worn,
Let out your sighs
And drop that heavy load you hold
Cause Mine is light

I know you through and through;
There’s no need to hide
I want to show you love
That is deep and high and wide

CHORUS(2x)

Oh gently lay your head
Upon my chest
And I will comfort you
Like a mother while you rest

I do feel that this is at the heart of Sabbath REST. I feel that God sings this over us! Come rest! Come let out your sighs! He is constant, near, peace, HOLY, wise and He knows our hearts! He knows what we long for even better than we know. When we rest in His presence, when we rest in His word He meets us!

So back to the story. . . Sister is singing this song and it just hits me that I am SO focused on survival (of the grocery store even) that I am missing “ordinary moments of God’s GRACE all around me-moments that He would like to use to replenish and refuel me” (taken from GRACE an invitation to a way of life by Ortberg, Penderson and Pling). I am not being present! I am not hearing the song of praise that my little one is lifting up. I am missing smiles that brother is giving strangers. I am missing the warmth of the sun as I walk into the store. I am missing the smiles of strangers to my children. Why am I missing all these things. . .because I am so intent on getting in and out and moving on. I don’t want to miss God’s grace in the midst of my day. I want to be present and breath it in deeply. There is a HOLY God who is constant in my every moment! I don’t want to miss that!!!

We had to get out of the house Wednesday! Both of the kiddos have colds which brings on the grumps plus it was a rainy day which made the house feel confined so we headed to the mall! We parked in the parking garage which we never do but alas it was raining and not worth being drenched getting the kids in and out. Well, since we parked in the parking garage we walked past the escalator to get to the elevator (we generally take the elevator since brother is usually in the stroller). Sister kept staring at it and we watched some people ride it and she still seemed very confused. I told her that it was kind of like steps that move so that you can go up or down without walking. She looked at me like I was off my rocker and said, “why don’t you just walk up the steps?”. Ahhh, we tend to be a pretty lazy culture as pointed out by a preschooler!

I was reading Sister a Bible story the other day from The Jesus Storybook Bible about David and Goliath. This quote from the story has stuck with me for a few days now and I thought that I would share.

It isn’t how strong you are or how many swords and spears you have that will save you-it is God who saves you! This is God’s battle. And God always wins his battles!

I constantly try to fight battles on my own strength and become quickly tired and worn. It was wonderful to be reminded that it is God who fights battles and saves. He does always win His battles but not always in the way that we think He will.

So, I have declared it Spring! I am done with winter! If we are not going to get a good snow I will just move on (here is hoping that the weather agrees with me because I am switching out all the kiddos winter clothes for their spring clothes). To welcome spring back I have broken out the Ice Tea Maker! Ahhh, this is a dear friend of mine in the spring and summer months almost a necessity here in the south (at least for those of us who grew up here) :). I gave up caffeine a long time ago so just about one of the only ways to get caffeine free tea is to make it your self, but I just cannot make normal tea…it would be too boring! This will be odd to a few of you I know but I really like it and you have to try it before you can knock it…deal!? I love putting a little bit of orange juice in my tea! Odd, I know! Maybe 1/4 OJ and 3/4 Tea in a glass with lots of ice of course! It just says warm weather to me for some reason. It even looks a little odd in the glass but honest it is tasty!!!

We dance a lot at our house so when I stumbled upon this it hit deep! I had to pass it along. There is a music video and then a little clip of him (Steven Curtis Chapman) explaining the story behind the song. Grab a box of Kleenex on your way to the website! Happy Dancing!!!

http://www.stevencurtischapman.com/cinderella.htm

This is a totally random post but I just thought that I would share. I am short and often have a hard time reaching the fan pulls in our house. I look like I am doing some sort of crazy dance when really I just want to turn the fan on or the light off etc. My husband is tall so I often use him for jobs such as this but in sisters room I just decided that I needed a fan pull as we were constantly using the short little stubby pulls that were there. While searching around town I came up really empty handed. Yes, there were some pulls out there but not pulls that were very “fun” so thus began the great internet search for the perfect fan pull. See, here you are thinking that I am crazy but they really are handy and if you are going to have one you might as well have a fun one…right!? I finally came across this little site and knew that I had found my “fun” fan pulls. I decided on a bumble bee and a flower (one for the light pull and one for the fan pull). I no longer have to do a funky little dance to reach the pulls and sister loves seeing the bee and the flower. Just in case any of you were having a great hunt for a fan pull I just thought that I would share.

Yes, this is totally random but I love this album cover. Brad really enjoys Chris Thile (Punch Brothers)and I am trying hard to like him but I just really think that he belongs with Nickel Creek and I miss them but we all have to grow a little, don’t we. Anyways, this is actually the cover that came on the CD case and I instantly fell in love with it. I think that the progression is just for some reason really funny to me from the bare foot to the sock and even the cane that Chris is finally holding at the end. Not sure why I get a kick out of this but hey, I do! Real posts to come soon I promise! I am working on sisters birthday quilt (I know I have started early,impressive isn’t it).

Those are precious words to me right now that truly mean so much more than I can express. For the last few weeks we have really been trying to observe the Sabbath and figure out just what that might look like for our family. It is one of the ten commandments that often gets skipped or over looked pretty often but if you look it is there…the command to rest! Ahhhhh! We are not legalistic about it we are just trying to set it apart and truly rest a little. Two books that have been so helpful in figuring out what this might look like are The Rest of God by Mark Buchanan and Keeping the Sabbath Wholly by Marva Dawn (we by no means do everything that these books say but it is a starting point). I am also looking forward to reading Karen Mains Making Sunday Special. Saturdays have become a little busier as I try to prepare for Sabbath and so far this has just kind of looked like cleaning the house, making sure that everything is ready for church (diaper bags etc) and I am really enjoying preparing a little nicer of a meal that evening. After dinner and after the kiddos have gone to bed I have been spending time reading the Bible and books just resting and preparing my heart for worship the next morning. Sundays are busy with church in the morning but I have really been trying to rest in the afternoon when the kids are down for nap. I am not sure what this looks like exactly but sometimes a nap, sometimes reading and I am learning to incorporate play as well. I see play as maybe the things that I really enjoy doing that I do not get to do all the time or things that just bring me joy, be it sewing or crafting in some way or another. I am really looking forward to getting out in the backyard with the kiddos when it gets a little warmer and just playing as a family which is something that I really enjoy as well. We end our Sabbath at dinner time Sunday. We have been trying to think through a meal that would be fun to have together that is different from the rest of the week. We have heard of people having popcorn and ice cream (crazy I know…what kid would not love that), pizza and other simple things. Tonight we had breakfast for dinner. This was Brad’s suggestion and I think that it is a great one that we will probably stick with. Sister was quite excited to have breakfast for dinner! This is definitely something that is evolving in our home and it is exciting to just rest so I wanted to share. There is a lot more that goes along with the rhythm and rest of the Sabbath that is exciting so if you are interested do check out the books. Happy Sabbath!