Take a Moment to Remember and Say a Prayer

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” Psalm 33:12

As a teenager, waking up first to get in the shower was important. I had to beat my two sisters because I needed as much time as I could to get that "big 80's hair". Each morning when I would shuffle to the bathroom half asleep, I would see my father sitting at our kitchen table.

In the early morning silence, he would be reading his Bible while finishing his cup of coffee. With my eyes half open, I would kiss him good-bye. Lunch pail in hand, my Dad would walk out the front door, hang his American flag and head off to work. Day in and day out, this was his routine.

Each and every morning, my father flew that flag.

One gloomy winter day, as my father was hanging his flag, our neighbor Sid came over. Marching across the street with purpose, he held a small booklet titled Flag Rules and Regulations firmly in hand. Sid made sure to give my Dad an earful when he saw in this steady drizzle, Dad had not taken down our American flag.

“George.” He said, pointing at his booklet. “According to these rules here, you aren’t supposed to be flying the American flag in the rain.” Without a pause in the conversation, my father politely replied. “Sid, I fought for that flag in the rain, so I am going to fly that flag in the rain.”

Friends, today is Memorial Day. A day to remember those currently serving, and many who have given the ultimate sacrifice. Go up to a Veteran and say, “Thank You.” Better yet, teach your children to walk up to someone in uniform and say , “Thank You.”

Take a moment to offer up a prayer for all of the men and women who have fought in the rain for you.

I love my Grandma!

God blessed me with the best grandma.

Today we are taking a drive down to see her. Paul has court in the Bay Area so we are all tagging along to hang out with Grandma Cuckoo, as we lovingly call her.

She will be eighty-nine in March and is already bragging about her big 90th birthday bash.


How about you? Anyone out there blessed with a Grandma like mine?

I'm Thankful For This...

This song below by the David Crowder band has become one of my favorites. Our church has an amazing worship team and when they play this song I am moved to tears every time.

Listening to the lyrics in this song makes me really stop and think about how miraculous it was that God came down to earth to restore my relationship with Him. I am ashamed to admit that I have great difficulty walking accross a room to make amends with someone who has hurt me. (I am working on this.)

With Thanksgiving right around the corner and Christmas not far behind it, I can't help but be overly grateful for a God who came down to earth...for me.

Oh The Glory Of It All!!!

So Grateful...

My sister Jennifer was released from the hospital late last night. My brother in law Eric and I spent most of the day and much of the evening in the emergency room by her side. She was diagnosed with pneumonia. I have never seen her so sick in all my life. After being hydrated with 2 liters of fluid, a bag of antibiotics, a narcotic for pain (7X stronger than morphine), tylenol and oral antibiotics...she was sent home. She has very little memory of her evening last night. I am so grateful that she is on the mend, so grateful that she can be home to get well, so grateful that her family will be around her today.

"A thankful heart is a grateful heart."

"It is so good to give thanks for the Lord, and to sing praises to your name, O Most High." Psalm 92:1

My Thankful Heart

“Enter His gates with thanksgiving And His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name. For the Lord is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting and His faithfulness to all generations.” Psalm 100:4-5 This scripture is so beautiful. My words fall so very short in expressing how they make me feel. Being a faithful word gal, I looked up ‘thanksgiving’ in my 1828 Webster dictionary,

Thanksgiving, n. The act of rendering thanks for expressing gratitude for favors or mercies. 2. A public celebration of divine goodness; also a day set apart for religious services, especially (I just love this.) to acknowledge the goodness of God, either in any remarkable deliverance from calamities or danger, or in the ordinary dispensation of his bounties.

I have so much to be thankful for I couldn’t begin to list them all here. I just keep thinking about how when our little ones first learn to say thank you, how precious those words are to me. I am not talking about the ‘Thanks mom’ I get when I take care of my family’s needs. I am talking about the heartfelt, ‘Thank you mom’ that I get from children whose words are tender while at the same time their arms are reaching out to hug me.

We will be asked this week what we are thankful for. Before we get caught up in the Macy’s parade, football games, way too much turkey and stuffin, take some alone time for just you and God. Reach out to Him and thank Him with your heart.


**This picture above was taken quite a few Thanksgivings ago. It is one of my favorites of our children. What am I thankful for…for a God who loved me enough to send His son to die for me. For a God who is so good and loving that everything I am and long to be is only possible because of Him. For a God who even in the trials and heartaches of my life has shown me the blossoms and sweet fragrance of His grace. Just look at the picture above and see four of my most precious blooms. How can I not be Thankful?**

Our Thanksgiving Tradition

"Enter into His gates with Thanksgiving..." Psalm 100:4

Six years ago I was reading a magazine and saw what I thought was a wonderful Thanksgiving idea. The next day I ran out and bought a linen tablecloth and some fabric pens from the craft store. When the holiday arrived, after the family finished their turkey dinner, I got out the pens and passed them around. Everyone took their turn at writing down on the tablecloth what they were thankful for.

As the years have passed, this linen tablecloth has become more and more precious to me. Notes of my family's gratitude, for children, spouses, our country and our God, now dance across the pale yellow cloth. All of the grandma’s and grandpa’s in our family have signed it, each small child has outlined his or her hand on it. Now every Thanksgiving you will find guests gathering around the table reading and laughing at the memories. The children who are too young to read, look to find their handprints to see how much they may have grown.

Getting to read messages left by relatives and friends every year is something I am so thankful for. Though they may not be able to share in person each and every turkey dinner with us, their words remain to touch our hearts and to remind me to offer up a prayer of thanksgiving for each and every one of them.

Tea for three...

It is a tie score in our home. We have been blessed with four children, two girls and two boys. With children in and out and all about, it is difficult to get time alone with them individually. We really try to spend most of our time together as a family. With our oldest only home for two more years before college, it is time that we truly guard and try to keep to enjoy together. We know this time is precious. This weekend was a rare occasion for all of us. My husband took the boys on a father/son camping trip with our church while all of us girls got to have a couple days to ourselves. It was so much fun. We enjoyed so many girl-things. This of course included watching chick flicks. My teenage daughter and I watched, ‘Win a date with Tad Hamilton’ today, while my 8yr old and I watched ‘Finding Nemo’ for our special time together on Friday night. We even decided to have ice cream for dinner on Friday. And of course there was LOTS of chocolate. Today all three of us got dressed up and went out to tea. Grace even brought her favorite doll along…‘Shauna’. (She is the one sitting by the teapot in the picture.) This doll is special to me too, as it was the doll that my mother gave Gracie on her 1st birthday. I couldn’t help but feel almost overwhelmed with gratitude and joy sitting at a table with my two beautiful daughters this afternoon. “Thank you God.” has been my continual prayer these days. I have so much to be thankful for. I have said before that I take my job seriously as a mom and I really do. I have the attention span of a gnat and can be distracted so easily. So this post will be a short one…I am off to curl up next to my daughter who has fallen asleep in my bed. Her baby doll Shauna is on her chest. These moments fly by and I don’t want to miss a one of them.