Tuesdays top 10

one ~ Jesus L♥VES You....this I know!

two ~ I think I have gone INSANE! I accepted a challenge from my friend KIM over @ Homesteaders Heart. We will begin doing Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred in a few days! If you interested in joining go here I am feeling somewhat better since I was able to get through a complete workout today...Biggest Loser and then I stuck in the Dancing with the Stars video and did a bit more :) PHEW!

three ~ My dog Maggie has begun running off from our backyard just this past week! It is causing quite alot of strife.....My other dog Tyson is always on a leash but she has always been sooo good!! There was NEVER a need to leash her....Hope she learns quickly as we will begin the training ASAP!

four ~ Our air conditioner went out on Saturday and Praise the Lord the weather has been in the 70's but still was warm inside this afternoon when I got home. My Sweet and OH SO HANDY Honey was able to replace the compressor and viola' the air conditioner is fixed!! HE is such a blessing! The man can fix ANYTHING!!

five ~ Have you seen "Date night??" with Steve Carrell and Tina Fey. OMG SOOO FUNNY! definitely PG13 though!

six ~ Jenna and I took Rylee on a walk last night and had the best talk.... then came home and she took a bubble bath. Jenna played with her all night and then rocked her to sleep ♥ It is so precious to see them together!

seven ~ Can't wait to see what my good friend Lori has to say about American Idol tonight!! She nails it every week!

eight~ Thanks for all the sweet comments on my new blog look! The credit
goes to Heather at Leelou blogs! She is amazing and has sooo many free templates or you can also choose some of her custom work for as little as 10$!!! She is sooo wonderful to work with! Go over and check her out ....tell her I sent ya :)

nine ~ going to lunch with my childhood Friend Angel on Wednesday! We haven't seen each other in years and reconnected via Facebook a few months ago and are finally going to get together! I CANNOT WAIT TO SEE HER in person! :) If you haven't found her blog go over and meet her! You will love her!!

ten ~ Looking forward to spending time today with my Rylee girl. It is suppose to be warm....I think we will plant a few flowers, take a walk, swing, read some books..I just Love my Tuesdays with Rylee♥

SPRING HAS SPRUNG

This weekend I guess I could say the "Spring cleaning bug" officially HIT!!! Can I get an "Amen ~Halleluah!!" or maybe I should get a "It's about time girl!!" LOL

Oh man....As I type I am thinking to myself...."Loren, you know better, you are a blogger and you should have taken before and after pics for your blog!" DRATS! I didn't do it :(


I cleaned out my pantry....IT.WAS.DREADFUL

I cleaned out my fridge....IT.WAS.EMBARASSING

I cleaned out my mud room.....IT.WAS.THE.EASIEST :)

I changed out my closet from Winter to Summer along with my dresser drawers.....I.DREADED.IT.MOST!

THANK YOU Lord for my Sweet Husband who came in just when I was about to give up and helped me finish :) I ADORE THAT MAN OF MINE!!!

For today my clothes hang in the closet all color coordinated AND the clothes in the drawers are folded neatly and IT.FEELS.GOOD!!

We had a good ole Redneck Friday night that I am trying to load the video onto my computer for a later post but it was so much fun....My son, his friend and my DH along with Jenna's boyfriend blew up a giant stuffed horse....IT.WAS.HILARIOUS!

What did you all do this weekend?? Do share and know I love you all!



Happy Monday :)

Spiritual Sundays

I received this in the form of an email this week and wanted to share it with you all here @ Spiritual Sundays. Please join in or head over to read other posts here. You will be blessed more than you know!!

P.S. I am so sorry Clif ~ it is longer than you like ;) Have a blessed weekend everyone!!



You will enjoy the new insights that Rick Warren has, with his wife now having cancer and him having 'wealth' from the book sales. This is an absolutely incredible short interview with Rick Warren, 'Purpose Driven Life ' author and pastor of Saddleback Church in California .
In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said:
People ask me, What is the purpose of life?
And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were not made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.
One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-- but not the end of me.
I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity..
We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.
Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one.
The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort; God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.
We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.
This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.
I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore.
Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life..
No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on.
And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.
You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems:
If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, which is my problem, my issues, my pain.' But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.
We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her- It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.
You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.
Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy.
It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease.
So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.
First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit.. We made no major purchases.
Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church.
Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation.
Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.
We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?
Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?
When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do.
That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.
Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD..
If you do not pass it on, nothing will happen. But it will just be nice to pass it on to a friend....just like I have done.
God's Blessings

TGIF

While this might not be FUNNY ~ it is ADORABLE and I am pretty sure you will be saying AWWW

Please join Kim here and Happy Friday Everyone

When the Lord meets you where you are!

Last week I shared with you all some of what the Lord has been showing me. ONE thing I LOVE about our Father is.... HIS Mercies are NEW EVERYDAY!! He never wants us to rest in what HE did last year, last month, last week or even yesterday but to seek HIM and experience HIM new everyday!

When I was doing hair I had this older gentleman that I loved dearly! He shared alot of the same stories over and over at times but the one story that broke my heart was the one about when he was in a car wreck some 40 yrs. back and how the Lord met HIM in the hospital and saved his life....Now, while I know that was a very pivotal moment in his life I also know the Lord desires to do things EVERYDAY in our lives!

Well, today out of the blue I got a phone call from my LifeCoach. She said I had been on her mind and heart and she just wanted to see how we were. (just so you know this is NOT NORMAL for her to do!!) I caught her up on the past year ~ yep, it has been awhile since we have seen her. We began seeing her about 7 years ago and she did some amazing work in us and then we would just see her for what she called "tune ups :)" She truly is a gift from the Lord and honestly I can't even describe what this phone call meant to me. You see, for her to take time out of her busy schedule and also be obedient to the Lord for "calling me" when the Lord put me on her heart was such a sweet kiss from her but also from the LORD. She knows our struggle with finding a church and gave me such love, amazing encouragement and WOW her prayer ~ OH MY! I just cried as she was praying over me because It was as if the Lord was speaking STRAIGHT TO MY HEART and HE truly did meet me right where I was ~ all because of someones obedience to make that phone call ♥

Sometimes as believers we experience those HIGHS with the Lord ~ it may be at a conference, or during a revival. But other times we feel as if we don't even know where God is. We feel soo far away but the truth is God isn't far away at all! HIS Word tells us HE never leaves us. Something my Life Coach told me today was this. "Loren, I have been right where you are and it is yucky ~ some days you feel like God is the farthest away HE has ever been but the very next day you experience HIM in a whole new way and ask How could I have thought HE wasn't here with me?" I agreed with her and she shared with me she calls this a "marinating season." When something is marinating it is absorbing all that it needs and while marinating it isn't ever fully cooked. Wow ~ what a thought! I have to say this spoke to me and it helped to have that "understanding" and to allow myself yet again to rest in HIM, knowing that HE truly does see me and is with me!

Thank You Lord for blessing me with YOUR Love, Your Hope, and again showing me that YOU KNOW RIGHT WHERE I AM and YOU have EVERYTHING all ready planned for me....

I also wanted to share a thank you to Sandy! I received a package today from winning her blogaversary!



She also had the most adorable necklace that says BELIEVE included but I loved it soooo much I immediately put it on and failed to include it in the picture! Thank you Sandy! I love the Apron and ADORE this necklace and I know I will get soo much out of the books you included! Thank you for your sweet friendship!

I also have to say thanks to Glenda for giving me this award! She is my new bloggy friend I met through the blog party! I felt I had a sweet friend instantly....You are such a sweetheart and I am sooo happy the Lord led me to your blog ~ You bless me with your sweet comments, each and everyone of them :)





Love and blessings

Tuesdays top 10

ONE ~ Love and Appreciate my wonderful Husband who is such a good Daddy and such a sweet Papa ♥

TWO~ Love and Appreciate my Mom who helped me sooo much with the Prom Stuff!

THREE ~ So thankful my brother took such beautiful pictures of all these prom kids despite some very devastating news just minutes before he arrived to take pics!

FOUR ~ Soooo thankful my Physical Therapist was understanding that I didn't do my exercises over the weekend....unless you can count coloring Jens hair, cleaning like a mad woman, planting flowers, cooking and serving to these precious kids therapy :) because.... I sure did LOL

FIVE ~ I have soooo many books to read...I need to carry a book with me at all times to get them reviewed in time! :)

SIX~ It was cold here and rainy today and sure makes you appreciate the warm weather we have been having! Thank you Lord....can the sunshine come back now ;)

SEVEN ~ Have just loved the Gentleness of the Lord lately...I feel HIS Presence and the atmosphere is just soo Gentle...

EIGHT ~ Only 4 more Mondays of school left !! Praise the LORD!

NINE ~ Got my Rylee girl today ♥ Got her a new swing and she loves it ;) When I was little my nana used to sit on the porch swing with me and LALA so while I push Rylee in her swing this is what I sing to her.....she loves it! and well.....SO DO I!

TEN ~Pray everyone has a blessed Tuesday ~ love on your kids today, do something sweet for your loved ones, listen to the Holy Spirit ~ He may have a Divine Appt. just waiting ~ remember we could be someones answer to prayer ~ a call, a hug, a note, offer forgiveness Who KNows but you and the LORD??


Love you all!

Prom

What a WONDERFUL and Full Day everyone had! I am just going to show you all the pics and tell the story along the way :)

Took Jen to get a pedi and nails on...She HATES pedicures because she doesn't like people to touch her feet so she exactly enjoy this part....


Kenny MY Favorite Nail guy in the whole world!


Before hair updo


Isn't it GORGEOUS!!! RACHEL did an AMAZING AND BEAUTIFUL JOB!!



Ok so we were to meet all the kids and parents @5 at the specified location for pictures.....At exactly 4:45 as we were heading out the door it began to POUR!!! We had prayed alll day asking for the Lord to keep the rain away...but it came down HARD!
We texted everyone and just had them meet here at our house and my brother took some beautiful pictures. It did stop and then start again but we worked with it...came up and took pics on both our front and back porch...No one really got wet at all! Thank you Lord!

Jen and TY





Silliness


Taylor and her Best Friend Drake


Kristen and Austin


Halie and Logan


All their pretty flowers


The Beautiful girls


The whole group



Here is the Dinner table ....It turned out so pretty! The Prom Theme was A Night Under The Stars and these were the colors.
My Mom and Jenna's friend Devon were here to help serve and my Uncle surprised us and came to town to pick up his girlfriend at the airport and her plane was delayed so we got to see Him and he helped us as well! It was such a treat and Brian and I were soooo very appreciative for their help! The kids enjoyed their dinner and had the sweetest compliments :) about everything! We were sooo honored to be able to have them here in our home!












Now Finally ~ they all had a wonderful time @ Prom dancing the night away and headed out for the Progressive After Prom Party. They played games at one house, went swimming at the 2nd house which woke them up :) but then they got in the hot tub and got really tired so by the time they arrived here at our house @ around 5a.m. they were exhausted!!! We asked them if they still wanted have breakfast and they said yes. So we put in the Comedy Video of Tim Hawkins and began cooking. I didn't hear much laughter and had an inkling that they may be asleep :) YEP, they were out!!!

Taylor and Drake


Devon stayed here with us so we woke her up when the kids were on their way back here!


Logan and Halie


We eventually woke them up and they ate breakfast and went home around 7am. It was a wonderful evening for all!


Happy Monday everyone ~ Pray you have a blessed week!

Spiritual Sundays

Though the Mountains be shaken and the Hills be removed, Yet MY unfailing Love for you will Not be shaken nor My Covenant of Peace be removed, says the Lord who has compassion on you. Isaiah 54:10

Nothing on earth seems as enduring or immovable as HUGE, MAJESTIC Mountains. When you stand on their heights ~ breathing in the rarified air ~ you can almost smell eternity. Yet, MY Love and Peace are even more enduring that the greatest mountains on Earth!


Think deeply about MY UNFAILING LOVE. One of the meanings of "unfailing" is: inexhaustible. No matter how needy you are or how many times you fail ME, MY supply of Love for you will never run low. Another meaning of "unfailing" is: Constant
I do not love you more on days when you perform well, or do I love you less when you fail miserably. My LOVE is more perisistent, invariable, and steadfast than you can comprehend. Open your heart to receive this amazing gift in FULL MEASURE!

MY COVENANT OF PEACE is a sovereign gift of grace, and it is utterly secure. I can no more withdraw this blessing from you than I can stop being God. Moreover, I MYSELF am your Peace. So the more intimately you know ME, the more you can experience MY unfathomable Peace. Take time, take time to draw near ME; seek Me in the moments of your life. Come freely into MY PRESENCE even when you are feeling bad about yourself. Remember who I AM ~ THE LORD who has compassion on you.

Taken from Jesus Lives by Sarah Young

Please join in on Spiritual Sundays here!

Have a blessed weekend my dear friends! If you would please pray for all these kids attending prom tonight in our town! Thankyou each and everyone! I love you all!!!

TGIF

Happy Friday Everyone!

Sometimes throughout the day Krista our oldest daughter will send us pictures of Rylee ~ I cherish each and everyone... This week I have to say are some of my favorites but also the ones that have made me laugh the MOST :)



Isn't she just the most precious baby doll !! I love this picture!!!



I can just hear her laughing in this one :)

Join Kim for more Friday Funnies here


Have a blessed Friday everyone!

Love notes from Jesus

Today Lynn is asking us to share our Sweet Moments in which we have seen Jesus this week....

Actually I have seen Him in his beautiful flowers blooming ~ all the amazing colors. The flowers that I would have thought died in my front flower bed, yet they bloom out again in their beauty and splendor ~ it just amazes me!

But as I pondered on what spoke to me most this week it was in the book I was reading. I took a little break from reading books for review and read a book of my choice ~ Karen Kingsbury's book "Take Three" As usual it was soooooo good! I laughed, I cried, and of course I couldn't put it down but there was ONE LINE in this book that I will remember for a long time to come and found it fitting for this post:

"Our job as believers is to be an answer to someone's prayer ....every day....as long as we live"

Years ago when the Prayer of Jabez became a phenomenon people purposefully looked to bless others and actually sought the Lord each day for those "Divine Appointments." But like most things, people get excited and then as time goes on we lose enthusiasm and each day those request are fewer and far between. Do you know what I mean?

But guess what!!! The Lord NEVER loses HIS enthusiasm for YOU or for ME! We are HIS body and each and everyday HE has a plan for us to be HIS spokesperson....May we be reminded to seek how we can be a blessing to others in HIS HOLY Precious Name!!

How have you seen Jesus this week?