Thankful Thursday

Happy July!  I hope you had a nice Independence Day weekend.

This week I am thankful for...
~ going on a date with my husband last weekend.  We went out to eat and went to a couple stores.

~ having my boy back at home! He had fun when he stayed with my Mom but I sure missed him....It reminded me how much I miss him when he goes to school.

~ seeing the love my baby boy has for his brother.  It was just precious to see how excited he was to see his brother when we picked him up.  He kept hugging and patting him.  Caleb was equally excited to see him.

~ watching fireworks at the home of a friend from church on Sunday evening.  It was a beautiful night.  Titus ended up taking a late nap that day and enjoyed the fireworks too.  He liked playing with the other kids too before they started.

~ cousin day!  Caleb and Titus had a fun day with their cousins, and I enjoyed visiting with my sister in law. We went to the park for library story time, lunch, and then home to play.

~ purple tulips my husband brought me.

Have a day of blessings!
   Bethany

Press Pause

You are more than likely getting ready for a Thanksgiving celebration for tomorrow with pies in the oven and plans for turkey, dressing, and sweet potatoes. It seems like everyone is in a frenzy to get through Thanksgiving so they can start the Christmas decorating. (And I know many who have already started.) Everyone is rushing around trying to have the perfect meal, best decorations, perfect gifts, or most wonderful holiday parties and putting so much into these things that the enjoyment is lost along the way.

Join me over at Laced with Grace to read the rest of Press Pause.

Have a day of blessings!

Thankful Thursday

God bless America!  I hope you are having a nice holiday and remembering all the things we have for which to give thankful in this country. 

This week I am thankful for...

~  enjoying a couple days with my husband while our boy went camping.  We watched a couple movies which we normally don't do and ate some Mexican food! 

~ my boy having a GREAT experience at his new dentist.  I am very thankful it was a positive experience for him this week, plus he got a good report on his teeth. 

~ enjoying fireworks last night with friends from church.  It was a nice evening and the fireworks were pretty.  My husband got us home quickly too around the traffic.

~ having clean car windows.  Wednesday evening after church we had a note under our wipers.  The youth had cleaned windows during service as a service project.  The note said "Your windows have been washed by the youth.  Your sins have been washed away by the blood of Jesus."

~ cooler temperatures this week.  It was nice to feel the breeze this week and not be 100 degrees for a few days.

Thankful Thursday is meeting at Women Taking a Stand this month.

Have a day of blessings!

Flashback Friday: Halloween

This week Linda has asked us to share our childhood Halloween memories. This will be a fun one!

My flashback:
I don't remember Halloween being as big of a deal then as it seems to be now. I don't like all the scary decorations they sale in stores. I SO do not understand buying costumes for pets. Lots of houses put up all these yard decorations too which I don't get either.

Our school had Halloween carnivals. There were booths set up all around the football field--bingo, cake walk, lollipop tree, duck pond, etc. Each class or grade level was responsible for a booth. We quit having them though after blonde haired kids started getting kidnapped by people in white vans (that's what I remember at least!)



I dressed up in friendly costumes that we (meaning my Mom) usually made. One childhood costume I remember was when I was a little old lady. I looked just like my piano teacher. We have a picture of this (of course it is at my Mom's house or I'd scan it to put on here!). One year I was a clown with rainbow hair and a red nose.



In middle school we could dress up at school. My Mom made me a Hershey Kiss suit. It was my most favorite Halloween costume ever! She made my little cousin Chelcie a matching one. Another year she made me a bumble bee suit. We have a picture of Peepaw wearing the hat part with the antennae.

I don't remember ever going trick or treating up and down the street. I went to a couple houses of friends or family members to show them my costume and they'd give me candy, but I didn't just go out trick or treating random houses. Plus we lived in the country so we didn't have a lot of houses within a close walking distance.

We always had a jack o lantern. We like to carve one each year with Caleb too and take his picture with some pumpkins.

We usually take Caleb to some sort of fall festival. For his Halloweens he has been a pumpkin, puppy dog, football player, a big green truck, fireman, and clown. This year he has a police officer costume.

Have a day of blessings!

Veteran's Day

I'm late in posting today but I did want to say I'm thankful for our soldiers and their families. They do so much for us and make so many sacrifices. I'm thankful for those serving now and those who've served in the past. I'm glad we have this day to remember and pay tribute to these heroes.

Have a day of blessings!

My dream come true :)

Last night I told my hubby I was so excited for today because it is Caleb's pumpkin party at school. I told him it is like a dream come true for me. It might sound silly, but this is what I always dreamed of being able to do. This is the first party they have had, and I'm so thankful and happy I can be the room mother and be there and be part of it.

We had a fun time this morning. I loved walking down the hall and hearing the buzz of happy kids in their classrooms. It was fun to see Caleb in the school setting, sitting at his table doing what the teacher said, with his classmates.

We played "pin the nose on the pumpkin." My Mom reminded me we played this in my kindergarten party! There is a picture of me somewhere, I hope to find it to show Caleb. Then we passed out treats. One Mom made cupcakes. Caleb asked Gramma to make pumpkin cookies so he passed those out. Plus some others brought juice and candy. Then after eating the kids made little jack o' lanterns on little foam pumpkin shapes. They seemed to enjoy that. We took a class picture at the end.

I'm looking forward to a fun weekend with my boys! We're going to a football game tonight and tomorrow will be some fun activities with Caleb the clown. He makes the cutest little clown! (See my FB for pictures!) Hope you have a great weekend too and be safe!

Have a day of blessings!

Columbus Day holiday

Today we've been at home, and it's been so very nice! It's wonderful to have both my boys home from work and school. I've been doing laundry and picking up while they've worked on the camper and in the garage. I can tell Caleb has enjoyed a "do nothing day" and having time to lay on the floor and play with his toys. While I was folding a load of clothes I enjoyed listening to him play and talk, a sound I've missed lately with him in school. After that I caught him putting up the towels for me, which made me smile. He's had fun helping Daddy clean out the camper too. The day has passed quickly.

What did you do on Columbus Day?

Have a day of blessings!

.....Land that I love....

Hot Glitters

Thankful Thursday: Freedom

It is a blessing to live in America. This is a blessing we often take for granted. I'm thankful for the freedoms we have here in our country, like being able to worship the Lord. I'm thankful for days like Independence Day to remember and celebrate. I'm thankful for the men and women who have served and those who continue to serve our country with such courage and bravery, as well as their families who are back home waiting for their safe return. We need to be thankful for the freedoms we have and not forget all the Lord has blessed us with, even in the midst of hard times we've faced recently.

Also, we have freedom through Christ for which I'm thankful. We are no longer held captive because He makes us free!

Other things I've been thankful for this week have been:

~ my sweet husband. He always helps clean up the table after supper while I do the dishes. I love this and am thankful he is helpful.

~ the cute things I hear my son say. We were driving into town. I told him it looked like those clouds had some rain and we should pray and ask God to send us some more rain. A little bit later it started raining. He said I guess He heard our voices. :)
~ rain. It was such a blessing to wake up to the dark morning and hear the sound of rain outside.

~ getting to eat Chinese food. Since my hubby doesn't care for it, I was excited to be able to go out to eat Chinese with my sweet friend. It was delicious and I'm thankful for her friendship too.

~ being able to go to the library.

God bless America! Have a safe, happy holiday weekend!

~~~~~~~~~~~

"I will always obey your law,
for ever and ever.

I will walk about in freedom,
for I have sought out your precepts." Psalm 119:44, 45

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope all of you have a lovely Thanksgiving with your families. Our plan is to go to my Mom's house tonight actually. My husband is able to take off Wednesday and Friday. We'll probably do some shopping Wednesday. Thursday after our meal my husband will go to the deer lease. He plans to come back and get me Saturday and we'll go watch a football game. More on that later!

Things will be busy in the coming days but I wanted to tell all of my bloggy friends Happy Thanksgiving! I'm thankful to have "met" you and be able to share a little bit of my life with you. I look forward to reading about your lives as well. God bless you all! You are special to me!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I will praise God's name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving." Psalm 69:30

Happy Veteran's Day! SCC song

I read that SCC (Steven Curtis Chapman) wrote a song in honor of our veteran's. You can read about it here and also find a link to listen to the song if you sign up for his newsletter. SCC also has a new video up speaking about the song and the visit that inspired it here. It is an amazing song! Just wanted to share.

Easter treats

Caleb has an Easter party with the church group this weekend. They've asked each child to bring a dozen filled plastic eggs for an egg hunt. No big deal! I saw in the Walgreens ad last Sunday they had eggs for 59 cents. The coupon said 6 to 26 eggs. When I got there they were packs of 6 large eggs or 24 teeny tiny eggs. I decided to look at Walmart for the medium sized eggs since we were going there today anyway. They had a bag of 48 medium sized ones. The smaller packs were all character eggs...camo, Cars, Princesses, rainbow, sparkly, etc. And of course they cost more! Then on another aisle were several rows of filled eggs. I saw these last year but didn't realize they were so popular. There were $4.88 for a dozen I think. They have so many variety of these! It was rather ridiculous to me. Is it that hard to fill eggs? I really can't see how it can be a money saver either at that price. So what is the point of the pre-filled eggs? Are people too lazy to fill their own eggs anymore? I thought it was fun to choose candy and fill them ourselves!

We'll look again tomorrow for a dozen plain, solid colored medium sized eggs!

Jack O' Lantern

Last night we carved a pumpkin. I guess I did more picture taking than carving though! Caleb got out a butter knife first and was hitting it on the pumpkin as Daddy was cutting off the top. He told him to reach in to get some seeds. He did reach in but didn't like it and made a face! As Daddy was cutting the eyes Caleb went and found his chainsaw to help out. Silly boy!

We'd read a book this week called Pumpkin Jack. It tells the story of a boy who made a pumpkin and then had to put it in the compost pile. Caleb said that is what we'll do with ours too.
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Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. ~Albert Camus

Labor Day holiday

It was nice to have JMP home an extra day this weekend. We've enjoyed being together.


We went to a football game Friday night. Saturday we were tired mostly! I worked at a book sale in the evening which was great fun for me. I loved being surrounded by so many books. Sunday we went to church. Today we went back to the book sale for the bag for $5 and all picked out a few. Filling up a brown sack didn't take long!


On our way inside the mall to the book sale we saw the firefighters collecting money in their boots. Caleb put some money in the boot. Then on the way out he got a sticker and a tour of a fire engine with some other children. This afternoon he's been showing us his fire engine and dressing up like a fire fighter. I told him the sticker he got says "I helped Jerry's kids." He said "Who's Jerry?"


We received some rain yesterday. It lasted quite a while. I think I just heard thunder and it's really cloudy. Maybe we'll have more rain coming soon!

Tomorrow will be back to work for JMP and the beginning of a regular week for Mommy and Caleb.
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"Always be in a state of expectancy and see that you leave room for God to come in as He likes." Oswald Chambers