A (late) Thanksgiving Recap

Life has been busy with work and a death in the family which has

kept me away from the computer and blogger for over a week. 

Let's back up to Wednesday night, Joe and I went to "Pie and Praise" at church. 

It was beautiful to hear everyone's testimonies and listen to all the various blessings

and trials that people are thankful for this year. 

I felt moved to speak and it was an emotional experience. 

I thanked God for my and my husband's salvation. 

He's changed our lives this year, my husband and I were both saved within 3 months

of each other and now we're a Christian family raising our daughter to know Jesus. 

To me, that's amazing. 

Olivia's life will be radically different than if God hadn’t done work in our lives and hearts. 

So, I thanked Him publicly for our salvation. 

Thanksgiving day we had dinner with my parents, mother-in-law, sister-in-law and nephew. 

Olivia had a blast playing with her cousin and the food was delicious!  Of course Olivia wouldn’t know that the food was good because I couldn’t get her to eat anything besides a roll!  Kids.

Joe and I did a little shopping on black Friday but NOT in the middle of the night!  We enjoyed the rest of our long weekend at dance, a play date with friends and their kids, church, shopping and more church! 

Now, it's time to start decorating for Christmas!

(I didn't take any pictures on Thanksgiving, I'm so bad with remembering to take the camera out!)

So What! Wednesday

Linking up with Shannon at "Life After I Dew" today for her So What! Wednesday series.    This week I'm saying So What! if...   ~ I'm still feeling all warm and fuzzy after gifting two local families in need full Thanksgiving dinners.  Read more about it HERE.  Get inspired and do something for the greater good.   ~ I can't wait for Pie and Praise tonight at church and Thanksgiving tomorrow.   ~ I started cooking for Thanksgiving already to free up some room in the oven on the day of.  I made roasted butternut squash yesterday and oh my! it was delicious.  I wanted to eat it right then and there!   ~ Making a chocolate cream pie with Olivia yesterday took twice as long and was twice as messy but it was also twice as fun!!  This age is awesome.  She's so fun and funny and she gets super excited about little things just like I do and I love it!  This is my girl licking the leftover pudding.  She rocks!  

~ Olivia started saying "shut up!" and I was so, so appalled!  I blamed my husband, my mom and my dad...until I realized that it was me she picked it up from.  I don't normally say it in a mean way but more in the context of "no way!" type of shut up.  It has to stop because it sounds so horrible coming from my 2 year olds mouth.  I have to admit that I also say it to my obnoxiously loud barking dog... ugh.   That's all I have to say So What! to this week.  I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving.  I'll be back after the long holiday weekend!   

 

A Thanksgiving Blessing - x 2

The holiday season always makes me mushy and weepy for many reasons but one of which tugs at my heartstrings like no other.  People.  Just a general love and worry and care for people.  Less fortunate people who have to worry where their next meal is coming from, how they'll support their family, how they’ll provide basic necessities that many, including myself, take for granted.  As I was writing out my shopping list for Thanksgiving dinner yesterday my mind drifted to those people.  People I don’t even know.  People who could be making the same list yet simultaneously crossing things off that they can’t afford.  At this point I prayed for God to give me an idea, something to do for the greater good, to glorify Him.  I picked up my phone and texted my husband saying that I wanted to buy a turkey for someone in need.  We discussed my thoughts and he was excited about the idea too!  He posted the following ad on our local Craigslist's free section...

 

...and within minutes we received two responses.  We only planned on buying one turkey but we just couldn’t ignore that second email.  The first email came from a woman whose husband had passed away earlier this year and her daughter also hit hard times so she was living with her daughter and two grandsons and was barely making ends meet.  The second email was from a disabled father who supports a family of 4 on his disability income and couldn’t afford a turkey. 

We contacted both people, got their addresses and headed to the grocery store. 

What started out as buying one turkey, turned into two turkeys, 10 lbs of potatoes, 4 boxes of stuffing, 4 jars of gravy, 4 cans of cranberry sauce, 2 pans to cook the turkey in, 2 cans of corn, 2 cans of peas, 2 cans of green beans and 2 apple pies!  My husband and I also felt moved to include tracks (or pamphlets from our church to share the Gospel) in the bags. 

We were able to provide two full Thanksgiving meals for families in need and share God's word.  What an awesome feeling it was go deliver these meals and meet these amazing people.  Both families were extremely thankful and surprised that what started out as a turkey ended in much more.  They both said "God bless you and your family" to us and we left each home feeling encouraged that they'd read the tracks we included.  We prayed for both families last night and plan to reach out to them by email on Thanksgiving to wish them a happy holiday. 

"Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God." 
- Hebrews 13:16

We've decided that this is going to be a family tradition.  We want to teach Olivia to have a kind heart to all people.  To help people in need and to do it for the right reasons, to honor God.   

"Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God" - Corinthians 10:31

 We hope that this will inspire more people to reach out in your local community to help someone in need.

 

Tagging the tree

Every year for as long as I can remember my family and I have gone to a local Christmas Tree farm to tag our tree.  Buying one from a parking lot just doesn't have the same appeal as walking through the "forest" and choose the perfect one for our home.  This year was no different.  After church we piled into the car, stopped at Dunkin Donuts for obligatory hot chocolate or coffee and munchkins and were on our way.    Since Olivia is older now, this year was fun.  She was able to walk through the tree farm with us and help choose our tree... all while picking up sticks and rocks and pinecones along the way.    She fell in love with this little Charlie Brown tree that was just her size.... we may get her one for her bedroom this year.  I think she'll love it!     We finally found our tree.    My Dad and Husband were so funny trying to convince each other that this tree was "the one".     Their conversation went like this...    Dad - "it's perfect" Husband - "no bare spots" Dad - "just the right height" Husband - "not to big" Dad - "not too small" Husband - "not too wide" Dad - "not too narrow"   When they were done discussing the physical attributes of our future Christmas tree we tied on our tag and signature tree tagging penguin (see pics) and took some pictures to mark the occasion.       

I adore this picture of Olivia and her Papa (my dad).  She loves him SO SO much!

   Our tree tagging adventure was a success.  Now, let's just hope that we can find our tree when it's time to pick it up!      

Friday Randoms

TGIF - this week has been good.  I'm just glad it's Friday which means tomorrow is the weekend and weekends are fun around here!  Saturday is dance for Olivia and Sunday is church and my BFF's 30th birthday!  Although she'll be busy studying for her nursing exam I'll be texting her Happy Birthday lyrics throughout the day.  30 is a big deal!   Today after work I have discipleship - my last class.  I'm sort of sad that I won't have weekly one on one meetings but that just means that now I'm further along in my faith and I need to pray more and rely on myself and my husband to strengthen our walk ourselves.    I can't wait to deliver my friend's birthday present.  I made her a survival kit for her 30th year to help her stay young at heart.  The idea was inspired by a pinterest pin but mine didn't come out nearly as pinterest worthy.  I know she'll love it.  I included fun things to give herself a makeover, take a relaxing bath and get cozy and watch a movie.  Not to mention a sappy letter and an awesome card.    Tonight I'm meeting my cousin for dinner.  We haven't spent time together in a long, long time, just us.  Truth be told, I miss it.  When we were younger she lived down the street from me and being 5 years older she drove and had an awesome mustang convertible and 90% of the time you could find us crusing the streets of our town with the top down and the music up.  I miss those days.  I'm so excited to see her because she just found out she's expecting and I couldn't be more excited for her!  This is her first baby and she's going to be an awesome and fun Mama!   Happy Weekend!  

So What! Wednesday.

Linking up with Shannon again for So What! Wednesday!    This week I'm saying So What! if...   ~ Olivia pretty much started potty training herself.  We have had a potty in the bathroom for her to get used to it but at church this past Sunday she was all "let's do this!" (see yesterday's post for details!)    ~ It's almost Thanksgiving and we don't have any plans yet.   ~ I'm probably more excited about our "Pie and Praise" night at church than I am about Thanksgiving.  Members of the church are going to bring pie and share their personal testimonies of how they came to know the Lord and their experience this far.  What's better than eating yummy pie and hearing true life stories of how Jesus changed lives?   ~ I finally got started on my Christmas shopping for Olivia.  I bought her 4 things online yesterday and I'm super excited about all of them.   ~  I need a haircut like yesterday.  I really want to do something drastic (my hair is pretty long) ...but I don't have the guts, the time or the extra cash right now.   ~ the women that work at Dunkin Donuts know me and my order by heart.  I start to order my coffee in the drive thru speaker and they interrupt me half way and say "Good morning!  Drive up!"  ...and sure enough, every time they have exactly what I always order waiting for me.  Awesome!     That's all I'm saying So What! to this week.  Check out Shannon's blog and be sure to link up.  

Time-outs and Potty Training.

This is what I saw when I walked into the church nursery after service on Sunday.     ...this is Olivia in the time-out chair.    Apparently she refused to keep her clothes on.  Highly inappropriate for church.  See, in the nursery there is a toddler bathroom with a half door that has a toddler size toilet and Olivia is obsessed with it.  She likes to "help" all the kids who are potty training and I guess she figured that if she kept taking her clothes off the Mom's working in the nursery would get the hint that she wanted to use the potty.    She did successfully go potty while at church so I figured I'd take advantage of her eagerness and interest and go with it.    After church we went straight to Target and bought her big girl Minnie Mouse panties!  She was so excited.  On the ride home we talked about going potty and wearing her big girl undies.   I put her new undies on her and she was so excited to show them off to Daddy, Gram and Papa.     She spent the rest of the day in her big girl panties, slippers....     ...and sometimes a tutu!   I'm so proud of Olivia.  This is a pretty big transition and she's doing an awesome job with it.  After each successful potty-ing she gets a ton of claps, praise and high-fives!  She soaks it in...which could explain why she went potty about 3 times in the first 10 minutes of wearing her new undies.    My girl is a rockstar - I'm so, so proud of her!   Now, if you'll excuse me, we have some reading to do.