Been A While

So it has been a while since I have posted here.  Christmas and New Year's Day have come and gone.  It is now almost the end of January.  It is hard to believe this month has come and gone so quickly.

We are working towards getting back into a routine with homeschooling.  Organizing and decluttering are two words that are heard frequently about our home.  Dennis is in the process of getting his re-enlistment paperwork filled out.  Life just seems to be moving very quickly and so slowly all at the same time.  

I am working on getting a Masters degree this year.  I have also become involved in something new, Bible Journaling.  So I am accumulating all kinds of information to assist me in the effort.  As I complete some things, I will be posting them here. One thing I have been doing with this is using PicMonkey to create Scripture Art. 

Here are two of my personal creations:

So what is going on in your world?  I would love to hear from you.

#NaBloPoMo December 2014 Day 1

*********This post is a duplicate of one I posted on my new Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy Blog found on Wordpress***********************

This is the first day of the December NaBloPoMo challenge and I am still on a roll.  I blogged for every day of October and November and now I am trying to see if I can do the same thing for December.  The theme for December’s NaBloPoMo challenge is “Joy” and everyone needs joy in their life.

Our prompt for the day is to discuss when we are down what we do to bring ourselves up.  My favorite things to do when I am down is to spend time with my children – all 4 of them to be precise, three boys and one girl – they have a way of making me laugh and find joy in the world.

Another thing I like to do is spend time with my Bible.  I love to pick a word such as joy and find various Bible references for that word.  So for example, when I used my Bible Gateway app to search for the word Joy, I found quite a few references.

Here are a few of the ones I really like:

Psalm 32:11 – “Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.”

Psalm 35:9 – “And my soul shall be joyful in the Lord: it shall rejoice in his salvation.”

Psalm 66:1 – “Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands.”

Psalm 95:2 – “O come, let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.”

Luke 1:14 – “And thous shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth.

John 15;11 – “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.”

Romans 5:11 – “And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.”

Galatians 5:22-23:  – “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law.”

Philippians 1:4 – “Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy.                                             “

James 1:2-8:  “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.”

and finally:

Psalm 30:5 – “For his anger endureth but for a moment’ in his favour is life, weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.”

So what brings you joy?

This is a cross post because I am thinking about moving my blog from blogger to Wordpress.  So while I am trying to decide which one I like better, I will be posting in both places.

So here is the post:

Well I officially did it.  I successfully completed the NaNoWriMo challenge, meaning I have officially written at least 50,000 words in an original novel by me.  I had just heard about these two challenges in November, but decided to attempt to complete them both.  After all I had everything to gain by trying and nothing to lose.  So I stepped out on faith and was amazed this evening to be able to write this post saying I completed both challenges.  I am amazed that I did them both.

I know that some people knew what I was trying to do, but I did not really broadcast it to everyone.  Now I want all my friends to know what I have done with God's help.  I know it had to be Him on provided the inspiration and that helped the words flow freely.  I truly am amazed at His goodness and mercy.  I still need to finish the novel, because for some crazy reason, fifty thousand words was not enough to complete what I wanted to say.  But there is not much left.  Plus I can already see this book is going to need at least one sequel to complete the story.  I am not willing to commit beyond that.  

Today is also the first day of Advent.  Unfortunately my advent wreath is up in the attic still, so I am praying I can convince my children to bring down our Christmas tree tomorrow.  At least my Christmas tree is up even if we don't have any lights or decorations on it yet.

So what is up in your world today?

Sacred Sunday - November 30, 2014

So today it is time to say good bye to the November challenge for NaBloPoMo and the writing challenge for NaNoWriMo.  I can't believe I have done all this writing for the past two months.  Moreover, I can't believe I am actually looking forward to the NaBloPoMo Challenge for December.

Today our family will be attending church and then we will probably spend a quiet afternoon and evening together.  Maybe we will play some board games or have a family movie night.  It is hard to say right now.  But what is certain, is that I plan on enjoying the day to the fullest.  It will be 3 weeks before we have another quiet Sunday together.

Next weekend, Dennis will be flying home from Fort McCoy (he leaves on Thursday).  Then  the following weekend we will be having our Army Family Christmas party on Sunday - so that will be a day of fun, family and soldiers with their families.

That means it will be the weekend before Christmas before we can do our main Christmas shopping as well as buy groceries for the rest of the month.  So how is your month of December shaping up?  I look forward to hearing from you.

Supposed to be Saturday Shopping Day

Today is day 29 of the NaBloPoMo challenge for November.  It is hard to believe the month is almost over.  Unfortunately, I don't have a "Saturday Saying" for today.  I know earlier in the week, I heard my children say several things that I wanted to record for this, but I have forgotten what they are.  I guess I need to start using the notes feature on my Ipad or the Dragon program on my Iphone to record these thoughts when I have them.  That way I won't forget.

Today was supposed to be  a shopping Saturday.  This meant we should be loading up the entire family to go out for a day of shopping in our "School bus" - meaning our 12 passenger Chevrolet Express van - big enough to hold the food to feed 7 people plus anything else we might decide to buy (or should I say that Dad and I allow anyone to buy) - meaning it has to pass the "Will it fit with everything else we already have planned to buy or have already bought?"  If it does not pass this test, then no purchasing it until another trip.  Oh yes, "and if it is not on my list, don't ask if you can have it - unless it is something you know that 'I' will declare to be a necessity of life.

However, life has a funny way of changing our plans thanks to God.  Yesterday we spent the morning in the ER with our oldest son.  So by the time we got home, we knew he would not probably feel like going anywhere with us today.  Plus my mom was not feeling her best.  Add in to that our youngest son not feeling his best and it results in plans changing.  Because we did not get a lot of sleep yesterday, when we came home from the hospital, Dennis slept away most of the afternoon.  When he got up, he announced that there was a "frago" - meaning a change in plans.  He felt like we should go shopping then instead of waiting until today.  So he, me and our middle son loaded into our Chevrolet venture instead to go shopping.  We went to a grocery store called "Giant".  Then we went in "Sam's Club" and we finished off our shopping "Walmart".

I have to remind those of you here in the USA, that yesterday was BLACK FRIDAY.  If we were still back in North Carolina, the stores would have been packed with no room to move probably.  Instead we found the stores remarkably empty.   I have never been out on Black Friday where Walmart was not insane.  But this Walmart was almost empty.  I have never gone to check out on Black Friday where there were multiple cashiers standing at the end of their checkout lanes waiting for people to come check out.  Yet that is exactly what we found.  I asked about the lack of customers and she responded that all their sales had been that morning, so evidently no one was really shopping.  I think it also may have had something to do with the fact that this store is located miles away from Penn State University and all the college kids were probably still at their own hometowns.  But I have to say it was a wonderful time to shop.

So how are you spending your Saturday.  I would love to hear from you.

If I could be any TV character who would I be #NaBloPoMo Day 28

Today is day 28 of the NaBloPoMo challenge for November.  Our prompt for today is what TV character would we like to be?  If I could be any character on TV, I would want to be Annie Camden from "Seventh Heaven".  This lady is an amazing mother with an amazing husband and family.   She has the ability to fix anything in the home - including plumbing.  How awesome is that?  She was truly a multifaceted and multitalented lady.  She wasn't afraid to show her emotions.  She was able to be tough when necessary.  She faced her husband having heart problems and being shot with grace and composure.

Nothing her children did caused her to lose her temper or her cool (well at least not in front of them).  Plus she has the most important trait that would be important to me.  She had an unshakeable faith in Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior.  And she got to ride off into the sunset in a fabulous motor home to see the country with her husband and family.

If you could be any character on TV, who would you choose?  I welcome your comments.

NaBloPoMo Day 27 - Where do I See My Blog in a Year or more

Today is day 27 of the NaBloPoMo November challenge and it is also Thanksgiving Day here in the United States.  Much of my day will be spent in the kitchen preparing our Thanksgiving Feast.

Today I am thankful for:

1) My husband who is willing to help in the kitchen
2) All of the good food we are going to eat.
3)  All of the wonderful new friends and ideas I have found on the web and on Facebook.

I also want to pause a moment to talk about where I would like to see my blog in a year.  In one year, I would like to see my blog have a greater following as well as having printables and other useful tools being offered to my readers.  I would also like to see it generating some income for our family.

In five years, I would like to see my blog being a way of promoting my writing and being a way of offering special items to my readers.

What would you like to see happen in your life or with your blog/website in the next year or five years.  I welcome your comments.