New Year's Resolutions...

My DH asked the question during the Sunday School class this past Sunday. What do you have for a New Year's Resolution?

The rest of the class didn't hesitate and I was left with nothing to say...

I guess I have been too busy with all of the things that needed to get done for the holidays to think about the end of the year.

I typically do not do too much for New Year's never have. The kids always seem to get into the spirit of the event, but it is too taxing for me to even think about staying up that late...

I like to have written out long and short term goals and find that I can accomplish quite abit if I have the goals written down or even spend some time thinking about what is a priority for me.

I do know that a priority for me is to get my haircut. I have not cut my hair since before my littlest DS was born. I have a mass of hair and never like to do anything with it, so it typically is pulled back and up. I was hoping to get a haircut squeezed in before the holidays, but just couldn't find the time...

So I resolve to get my hair cut!

There, I have one goal at least verbalized, now I will have to contemplate additional goals and get them written down.

I know of one major goal that I should have and have family members begging me to do...but haven't been able to commit to placing that as a priority for me...I guess I know how hard it will be...so please pray for me and having the resolve to finally establish a much needed personal priority, yet unnamed and written down....

Happy Holidays 2008

Wow, we are having a wonderful Christmas and Holiday season for 2008! I hope you are also.

The best thing about the season is being able to see and spend some really nice time with your family and loved ones. I and my family have been fortunate to have been able to drive/visit/host several family members over the Thanksgiving/Christmas time.

Next we are on to some New Year festivities in the Dallas area with my brother-in-law and their family, plus squeezing in some more visiting time in with our oldest daughter and her husband and our two older children in the Dallas area.

Talk about a whirlwind.

Our teenage son has been squeezing in some quality time with saxophone practice here and there, plus enjoying so much quality time with his older siblings, who we get to see too little of during the year.

Our littlest is getting into the swing of things with the gifts. He had no interest in actually opening the presents, just set them out for him to play with and explore. I don't think that there was one gift that he didn't actually love. He really got into playing with his new Learning Bus, firetruck and his learning pad.

One of our traditions at our house is to decorate Christmas cookies, my teenage son has loved this activity over the years and we were really looking forward to starting the tradition with my littlest. He participated by standing on the stepstool and eating cookies, couldn't get him to sprinkle cookies or even decorate cookies, but he did stand there quietly eating away. My two younger sons are so....different in their interests.

My littlest did have a meltdown during the experience, he got some frosting on his finger and got very upset until we could get it cleaned off.

Now, I am talking about the kid who on Christmas Day jumped into the dog's water dish with his best clothes on then proceeded to play and roll around in the dirt and eat mud and dirt pies!!! He only had a meltdown when he got cookie frosting on his finger!!! Gotta love it...

Here are a few photos, click on this link to be able to view some more Christmas 2008.

Angel Food Ministry

My family and I are blessed to be able to participate in the Angel Food Ministries through our local church. We as a family have participated by purchasing some of the meals to help with our food budget and needs over the past year and now we get to have a local site and also serve other people who participate.

It is a really good program. Our church had over 47 families served last month with over 100 boxes being distributed. This month we will be handing out some more items on this coming Saturday!

The day starts awful early for my DH who willingly gets up at 4:30am and bundles up with longjohns etc. to make an over 1 1/2 hour drive to the nearest large city to pick up the churches order, load the items and also help load up the over 12 churches who are also picking up and then heading back to our church and unloading everything for us to sort and deliver.

The ministry takes alot of effort by several people and we had an abundant showing up of willing servers. It is anticipated that our ministry even in our town of only 2500 will grow to be about 1000 boxes ordered each month!!! Wow...

Check out the national link for Angel Food Ministry and see if you and your family could participate as well.

Crawford Designs

I have to take a moment to brag about mia familia. I am blessed to have the good fortune of having a sister-in-law who has a wonderful design site and tremendous products! She is a gifted artist, talented instructor and the list just goes on and on...

She is amazing and it is fun to have watched her skills and talents develop over all of these years.

Here are just a few of her new items on her site, but there is so much more. Check out her site and see for yourself...CrawfordDesigns.

Busy, Busy, busy....

My family and I have had a very jam packed filled couple of weeks. We had several events that we celebrated over the weekend, a very nice fellowship at our home with our Sunday School class members, Lions Club member dinner and prep for their Santa Claus activity at the local Primary and Elementary school, and finally our church Christmas Cantata and our special candlelight service where we have our Lottie Moon offerings presented, followed by our Birthday Party for Jesus celebration. Whew, are we tired!!!

This in addition to my husband still working on our kitchen remodeling.

I have added some pictures from some of our activities at our church. FBC Friona click on the link and select the Photos for some more pictures from all of the activities.

Littlest DS with cheetos fingers and my teenage son, along with mom!



Choir Singing at the local Nursing Home

Clementines

I am on the lookout for a new holiday favorite of my families. Have you seen them in your local store yet?

Sweet clementines! We got hooked a few years back when we were able to travel to Italy for a really special Christmas celebration with my DH aunt and cousins.

Italy is quite unique in their breakfast fare, they will eat cookies with Nutella and capuccino and not much else. I think our dear relatives were feeling sorry for us when we were still hungry and offered up some clementines.

We had never had any before and fell in love, small, sweet and so good to eat!!!

Italy was a joy to experience during the holidays for fresh citrus fruits. The lemons were huge and we couldn't get enough of the clementines. So now we are always on the lookout in our local store for a box or good stash to grab during the Christmas season.

Do you have anything that you eat during the holidays that brings special memories?

Family Christmas Traditions

My dear youngest daughter and I had a discussion recently about family Christmas traditions. Maybe you are like me and you have never really thought much about them, or what you might say that they are...

I found this great posting offering up some wonderful new traditions that someone might consider adopting to their family traditions from Faithful Provisions.

I think I need to review and pray about some of these...

I asked my DH this question, "what are our family Christmas traditions and he didn't hesitate to say that we try to put a priority on seeing our extended families during the holidays". That can make for some very hectic holiday travel and times, in fact that is the predominant memory for some of our family...

It was more than a little telling to us when we didn't travel over the holidays a few years back and our then youngest son who was about 10 said it was the best Christmas he could ever remember, just laid back and quiet and not hectic!

So we have decided to pray about this topic and see what we might need to do to adjust our Christmas celebrations to make them more significant and memorable for our entire family.

We did establish the following as our family priorities for the Christmas season last year and it helps keep some of the decisions that you are faced with making during this time in perspective:

1) Our Faith in Jesus Christ
2) Sharing Fellowship with Family and Friends
3) Good Food and Fun

Check it out.

Okay the first one to comment and let me know if scarey is spelled correctly gets a big internet hug!!!

No, really, it is kinda' scarey around my house. I have over 16 packages wrapped and stashed. I was reviewing my stocking stuffer stash and it is pretty well complete. I have only probably three more gifts to purchase and then one more major grocery run before the holidays...

If you are family or friends and know me, you are probably getting chills up and down your spine, it is pretty scarey isn't it. I have never in my life been this far along and organized for the holidays.

I am typically the person in the back bedroom the night before the big day, doing a mad scramble for wrapping. Can I hear an AMEN!!!

So join with me in realizing the historical significance of this moment!!!

My DH says it is so nice around here and he loves it...Who does he think he is kidding, does he think in a million years that this will ever happen again.

Dream on dearest darling!!!

How Did You Do On Black Friday?!?

Thanks to my wonderful family, I had a really good day of shopping. First my family watched over my littlest son (thanks mom and dad!) and let me take my time. I had a detailed list and did not defer at all from my master list. That in itself was a major accomplishment for me.

I hit over 7 different stores, starting at 4AM and finished up about 10AM. I then headed back out that early evening and headed back about 3 1/2 hours later after shopping at WalMart and reviewing and picking up dry product item I could with my coupons. It takes so much time to read, review and decide on buying something. It was a really good shopping trip and I was able to fit it all in the car without having to leave a family member behind.

Then I hit up the local WalMart before we arrived back home for my frozen and dairy products.

My new pantry was stocked to the core!!! Awesome!!!

Then the greatest thing of all. We went to church the next day and heard about a family with three kids in town, whose father has brain cancer, he can't work, the mom is doing everything she can to bring in some income and keep them afloat and they can't even afford any meds for the father. My DH says that their pantry was absolutely empty and there was hardly anything in the fridge. You know you don't even stop to ask if they are in this country legally or illegally, they are in need and we have so much. God must have put that family in Friona for some reason and we hope to have more opportunities to bless that family as we can. Puts it in perspective doesn't it...

Talk about a humbling awakening. Nothing else to do, but load up the Explorer once again with about 100 pounds of our abundant overflow and bless another family with what I was able to be blessed with in my major shopping trips. Sometimes it is hard to let go of something that you take pride in, my husband and I have desired to fill our pantry and cabinets to overflowing, but you know we have so much more ability to restock our pantry easily than the next family. It also lets me remember that my ability to score such incredible deals and purchases is not because of my efforts, but only because of and through the blessings I have received from the Lord.

Please pray for the Zanugio family.

Did You Survive The Holiday?

Jade Fusion – Green and gold offset with dark neutral undertones.

Good afternoon!!! Doesn't that description sound nice!!!

This is a picture of our newly ordered laminate for our kitchen counters. Check out the rest of my posting for more details.

Well we had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. The best thing about going to see someone for Thanksgiving is that you typically don't have leftover turkey concoctions for the next few weeks. I did end up with some leftovers, courtesy of mom. Thanks Mom!!! I do love her dressing and sweet potato casserole. I haven't even told my husband about the sweet potato leftovers, he loves them and I am not so sure I want to share.

My youngest daughter has posted some wonderful family photos, thank you for taking the time to photograph the festivities and post them for all to see.

My oldest son posted some good photos as well. We had a wonderful extended visit with our son for most of the holiday week. He helped us out immensely in our kitchen remodeling by scrapping up the old lineoleum flooring. It was a lifesaver.

We custom ordered our laminate on our anniversary. You can tell when you have been married for awhile, when you are excited to order laminate for your anniversary gift!!! It has already arrived to the store, so my exhausted DH will be going to pick it up after work and also some wood for building some new cabinet doors and also the wood for the counters.

This is an overwhelming project, but he is an excellent builder, so we are excited.

He is under a time crunch since we are going to be hosting several family members for Christmas so he was up to over 11pm knocking out cabinets and wall sections. We have hit our first major remodeling glitch. He has discovered a plumbing vent in the wall behind our sink. We were aiming to open up this entire area to the greatroom. I don't know if he will build a faux column around it or will be moving the venting. I am voting for a faux column to cover it up, but he is thinking about it. He is typically a perfectionist so he might try moving it, we'll wait to see what he thinks.

I'll try to get some photos posted in the next few days.

Kitchen Remodeling

It's amazing what one can accomplish under extreme pressure!!!

My DH is thoroughly remodeling our home. We purchased a ranch style tract home circa 1960's which needed alot of work done to it. As we said, it has good bones and the original owner really put quality products in the home, so we have a pretty good foundation to work with. Unfortunately, there was an owner in the late 1990's who probably watched one too many home remodeling shows and had no skills, so there is alot of painting projects that were done in a very poor manner. The saddest part is that they spent quite abit of money on a kitchen remodel project that was done at a very poor quality level and was incomplete. Whoever did the project for them didn't finish with the wallpapering, finishing out the wood trim around the baseboards, etc. The greatest frustration is that they put in new tile counters that didn't hold up to any intense use, the mortar was a very cheap and poor quality and would just powder up, so there are loose, broken, dislodged tiles all over the place. So a little frustrating for us.

What can I say, we got the house at a really good price. The house couldn't sell in a town where houses were being snatched up right and left at the time. So that says a little about the condition of the property. My DH is a remodeling expert, or is becoming one over all of the years of my and his mother's honey do's. We were planning to complete the kitchen remodel as the last room on our list, since it would be the most expensive, but he started tackling the project last week. This is going to be a pretty major remodel when it is all said and done, at least for us. He is tearing out my oversize pantry that was too awkward. The cabinets were over 2 1/2 feet deep, I called it the great abyss, things would get lost for years in there. He is building me a larger but not as deep pantry off to the side wall, I am thrilled, it will be so much more functional. That will allow us to then tear out the current pantry, a cabinet and shelves around the sink area thereby opening up the kitchen to look out over our greatroom, therefore making it a more traditional great room. We then will have a long counter by our sink and he will have about a six foot bar area looking out to the greatroom, which will be excellent for so many things!!!

Can you tell that I am thrilled?

The timecrunch is that the holidays are upon us and we hope to be hosting several family members during the Xmas season. So a little bit of pressure to my husband's remodeling!!!

It is exciting and I am thrilled that my DH has the skills, he really does do excellent work when it is all said and done. We will have new texturing, new repaint of the cabinets, new trim on top of the cabinets, new light fixture, new laminate counters, new lineoleum floors, etc.

A newly refurbished kitchen is my Xmas present, Birthday present, Anniversary present, etc!!! I couldn't have asked for anything better!!!

Check out some more pictures. Kitchen Remodeling 2008

What Is It All About?

It's getting near to that time of year, when we all need to be reminded about what Christmas is all about.

Family Holiday Priorities
Sharing Our Faith
Fellowship with Family and Friends
Good Food, and
Making Memories

Our family reviewed and discussed what our priorities are and we work to affirm them during the holiday season. It just helps to keep all of the demands you face on your time, talents and resources in the right priority and perspective.

I hope you enjoy this reminder about....

True Meaning of Christmas

Just a week before Christmas I had a visitor. This is how it happened. I just finished the household chores for the night and was preparing to go to bed, when I heard a noise in the front of the house. I opened the door to the front room and to my surprise, Santa himself stepped out next to the fireplace.

"What are you doing?" I started to ask. The words choked up in my throat and I saw he had tears in his eyes. His usual jolly manner was gone. Gone was the eager, boisterous soul we all know. He then answered me with a simple statement . . .

"TEACH THE CHILDREN!" I was puzzled. What did he mean? He anticipated my question and with one quick movement brought forth a miniature toy bag from behind the tree. As I stood bewildered, Santa said, "Teach the children!

Teach them the old meaning of Christmas. The meaning that now-a-days Christmas has forgotten. "Santa then reached in his bag and pulled out a FIR TREE and placed it before the mantle. "Teach the children that the pure green color of the stately fir tree remains green all year round, depicting the everlasting hope of mankind, all the needles point heavenward, making it a symbol of man's thoughts turning toward heaven."

He again reached into his bag and pulled out a brilliant STAR. "Teach the children that the star was the heavenly sign of promises long ago. God promised a Savior for the world, and the star was the sign of fulfillment of His promise."

He then reached into his bag and pulled out a CANDLE. "Teach the children that the candle symbolizes that Christ is the light of the world, and when we see this great light we are reminded of He who displaces the darkness."

Once again he reached into his bag and removed a WREATH and placed it on the tree. "Teach the children that the wreath symbolizes the real nature of love. Real love never ceases. Love is one continuous round of affection."

He then pulled from his bag an ORNAMENT of himself. "Teach the children that I, Santa Claus, symbolize the generosity and good will we feel during the month of December."

He then brought out a HOLLY LEAF. "Teach the children that the holly plant represents immortality. It represents the crown of thorns worn by our Savior. The red holly berries represent the blood shed by Him.

Next he pulled from his bag a GIFT and said, "Teach the children that God so loved the world that he gave his begotten son." Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift.

Santa then reached in his bag and pulled out a CANDY CANE and hung it on the tree. "Teach the children that the candy cane represents the shepherds' crook. The crook on the staff helps to bring back strayed sheep to the flock. The candy cane is the symbol that we are our brother's keeper."

He reached in again and pulled out an ANGEL. "Teach the children that it was the angels that heralded in the glorious news of the Savior's birth. The angels sang Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace and good will toward men."

Suddenly I heard a soft twinkling sound, and from his bag he pulled out a BELL,. "Teach the children that as the lost sheep are found by the sound of the bell, it should ring mankind to the fold. The bell symbolizes guidance and return.

Santa looked back and was pleased. He looked back at me and I saw that the twinkle was back in his eyes. He said, "Remember, teach the children the true meaning of Christmas and do not put me in the center, for I am but a humble servant of the One that is, and I bow down to worship him, our LORD, our GOD."

Thanks for a reminder about the 'True Meaning Of Christmas'.

Archived Family Photos

It's amazing the ancient treasures that can be stored away in the vaults only to be discovered in the future. No really, I didn't realize that our digital camera had a built in memory, I thought all of it's memory was on the picture chips, so when I accidentally dislodged the memory chip without realizing and went to scan my recent picture loads, I was shocked to find some family photos from 2004. These are some photos of mine and my husband's family and a few of our kids, makes for some nice memories. Also, I think these might be some of our only noted pictures of our remodeled front room, drastic remodel changes took place.

As we approach this Thanksgiving season, it is nice to be reminded of your family. I am privileged to have a few photos from a rare merging of our two families in the same room. For that I am thankful for the memories.

My how we have all changed over the years...

Click on this link for more archived family photos at PhotoBucket.