JOY ♥

I am so excited about this weeks JOY post! If you ever want to jump in and spread your own JOY please do! Just visit Angel here



I am overflowing with JOY because:

This past weekend my Niece Bailey was baptized! She accepted Christ this past summer while attending church camp and was just beside herself so excited to be baptized!


Joanne has had some wonderful and encouraging test results and is starting the process of waking up! God is sooo good isn't HE!


My honey came home from round 1 of the Business trips he has to take. The next one will take him away for a week but we are just so thankful for his job.

The new series we are doing @ Church has been soooo good! It's called QUIT....Quit complaining was this weeks lesson and WOW it is so amazing when you really set your mind to speaking positively. Allowing the Holy Spirit to awaken you to this has been really good! There truly is Life and Death in your tongue!

I am LOVING my IPAD. My most recent love comes from using the Kindle app. I can read any E-books on my IPAD and it is sooo awesome. In Color and they are arranged in Alphabetical order. Soooo Awesome for sure!


My grandbabies will be coming over in the next couple of days and I cannot wait to see them! Since Krista had a C-section she has been staying home and recovering but is doing much better and is ready to get out and about! Sooo.... to Noni and Papa's house they go ♥ PURE JOY :)

Today I will be going to the dentist to get a filling done. While this isn't a joyful thing I guess I can say I AM thankful they found it before it went any further and could have been a root canal right ;) LOL

Yesterday I shared about all the new Fonts we have to choose from....it is too much fun! I just might change it everyday :)

What about you? What is bringing you JOY this week??

Blogger Buzz: The Quick Brown Fox

Good Morning my Friends! I just HAD to share this cool new thing that Blogger has done for us! Do you like to have fun and change up your blog "font" or "colors" sometimes???? I do!! I read this article on how we can change our Font ANY TIME WE WANT TO! Isn't that awesome!

Below is the link to how you can do this! It is so super easy and there are tons of choices. Have Fun choosing and play around with it as much as you want. It won't change anything at all UNTIL you select "Apply to BLog" in the upper right hand corner.

Blogger Buzz: The Quick Brown Fox: "A couple of months back we introduced Web Fonts to Blogger in Draft. Today we’re excited to not only launch Web Fonts to ALL Blogger users,..."

Praying for Joanne

Typically I would share about my weekend here but you know, alot of my time was spent praying for Joanne, a fellow blogger.

Joanne from The Simple Wife

woke up, spent time doing what mothers do, shared a post on her blog and jumped on her treadmill. Then she suffered a major stroke and was found by her daughter. Joanne has been in the hospital ever since. Her husband Toben has been keeping everyone up to date on her progress, on their faith, their needs, their emotions and so much more.

I know when my Dad was sick I found this bloggy world to be an amazing place filled with believers and amazing prayer warriors. I found a whole new family that I praise God for everyday! The love and support was such a gift so I pray you can do the same for this family!

Please join in praying for Joanne and visit her blog and let them know you are praying for their family!

Take this most seriously: A yes on earth is yes in heaven; a no on earth is no in heaven. What you say to one another is eternal. I mean this. When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action. And when two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I'll be there. Matthew 18:20

Have a blessed Monday

Are we looking to God?

Oswald Chambers book "My Utmost for His Highest" is just so amazing and anointed!! Todays reading spoke to me. As I spent time visiting my daughter in the hospital while she gave birth to our new grandson, I experienced so many emotions. Joy and Thankfulness at the sight of my precious grandson, praising the Lord that he was healthy, and yet, just down the way were rooms full of children who are so sick. Waiting areas were full of those sitting and waiting while their loved ones are in surgery and worse, there are those who have received devastating news that their loved one is gone and they are faced with saying good-bye. At one point my son and I walked down to get something cold to drink and we passed a young woman who was praying and hurriedly walking to the chapel to have one on one time with the Lord. It was clear her heart was heavy and she needed a miracle.

Sadly, we do reach out to God more when in the midst of a trial than when life is smooth sailing. But, doesn't the Word tell us to count our trials pure Joy?

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. James 1:1-3

May we keep our eyes on Christ no matter what. blessings. trials. or just in a normal day. But I think Oswald Chambers explains it far better than I in the devotional below:



Do we expect God to come to us with His blessings and save us? He says, “Look to Me, and be saved . . . .” The greatest difficulty spiritually is to concentrate on God, and His blessings are what make it so difficult. Troubles almost always make us look to God, but His blessings tend to divert our attention elsewhere. The basic lesson of the Sermon on the Mount is to narrow all your interests until your mind, heart, and body are focused on Jesus Christ. “Look to Me . . . .”
Many of us have a mental picture of what a Christian should be, and looking at this image in other Christians’ lives becomes a hindrance to our focusing on God. This is not salvation— it is not simple enough. He says, in effect, “Look to Me and you are saved,” not “You will be saved someday.” We will find what we are looking for if we will concentrate on Him. We get distracted from God and irritable with Him while He continues to say to us, “Look to Me, and be saved . . . .” Our difficulties, our trials, and our worries about tomorrow all vanish when we look to God.
Wake yourself up and look to God. Build your hope on Him. No matter how many things seem to be pressing in on you, be determined to push them aside and look to Him. “Look to Me . . . .” Salvation is yours the moment you look.

To join in with Spiritual Sundays go here
Also, There are many who are facing trials, those who are a part of the Spiritual Sunday family. To offer up prayers for them and see who needs prayer go here

TGIF ♥

We have had quite the week! While Krista is staying in the hospital, Rylee came to stay with us! We had our first real snow of the season. They closed schools yesterday and today! WOOHOO for SNOW DAYS :)

I could literally fill this page with Rylee-isms. She keeps us in stitches for sure! But THIS was just tooo good to let it go by without a picture!





She came into the living room with this coffee cup asking for coffee....(hot chocolate) and handed me the cup. When I asked her what in the world she had on????? She very clearly and oh so innocently looked right at me and said .......

"My jacket!!"


Oh dear heavens ~ what a kid! ♥

Happy Friday ~ Love to you all

For more Friday Funnies please go visit Kim @ Homesteaders Heart

Joy, Thankfulness you name it I got it ♥

Our Sweet Grandson made his debut around 10 a.m. on Wednesday morning, weighing in @ 7lbs. 8 oz. We all anxiously awaited to see if he would be a blonde headed boy or red headed. Red it is! :) Krista delivered him by c-section and we were able to wait in her room which was NEXT DOOR to where they took Bentley during the first few minutes he was born. Oh MY .... He was not a happy boy! LOL You know, hearing your grandbaby for the very first time is just the most precious sound ever!! Here are the pics from this Blessed Day in which the Lord gave us this sweet baby boy to love and teach in the way he should go.


Bentley Daniel


soo precious


How I love this sweet boy already!




My DH.... aka PAPA ♥


Me...aka NONI ♥ holding back the tears! So amazed @ Gods blessings


Uncle Jantzen ♥


Aunt Jenna ♥



Rylee seeing her brother for the first time :) We asked her if she wanted to take him to her house? She said "no" LOLOL


The Happy Family ♥


My precious grandchildren....Rylee & Bentley



Thank you Lord for blessing us with this Healthy Baby Boy! Thank you for the plans you have for Bentley!

Thank all of you for your Love and Prayers!

Gettin Your Groove On

Yesterday the kids were out of school which is always a happy event around our house! My daughter and I went to have lunch with my Mom at one of our favorite restaurants and then shopped a little bit before we picked our my granddaughter Rylee for the night. I splurged and got an IC Mocha @ Panera .... this isn't exactly on my menu plan nor is it LOW in calories! Having missed my morning work out I told my daughter that I HAD to do something when we got home so that all those calories didn't pack on more weight!

One of the gifts I got for Christmas was a new WII game called Just Dance 2. Let me tell you guys...this game is SO.MUCH.FUN!
Jenna had some friends over and they joined in and of course Rylee had to dance too :) Not only did we have a blast but wow, did I get a work out!! I was sweating something awful LOL and we did it for a full hour before we even knew it! Time just flies by!

This is a game that you just mind find me doing on my own :)~

Do you have a WII, or a PS3 Move, or an Xbox Kinnect? What is your favorite game? Have you ever danced to this Game?? What were your thoughts ??

Have a blessed Tuesday my friends! Love you all!!

Mondays Musings

I have looked forward to this weekend for quite some time and we all know I am thrilled about the week ahead!! This past weekend was jam packed full of activity....

My Son had his cooking class. On the Menu:
Homemade pasta with Pesto Sauce
Polenta which was really good!

Wouldn't you know....I forgot my camera! :( I hate that! **sigh**


Saturday evening we had a game night with our friends. 16 years ago when Jenna was 2 she went to a Mothers Day out class. There were 6 little girls and all of us Moms got to know one another. As the years passed we were all in the same "care group" at our church. While some of us have changed churches and no longer attend with one another our friendship has remained. Why?
Because the Lord is at the heart of our friendships. There truly is a bond there that only God has given. I know that no matter what I could count on any of these friends ~ That is such a gift!!




We laughed and laughed while we played the game Loaded Questions:

LOADED QUESTIONS:


The object: Ask a question. Listen to all the answers and see if you can determine who gave which answer. Not as easy as it sounds! Some people might not be honest in their answering ....just to throw you off ;) Here is Kris hiding his answer from everyone! He was our Chef for the evening....He made Ribs and Pulled Pork that was absolutely TO.DIE.FOR!



STACEY


We all got together to celebrate Janet's birthday :) Happy Birthday Janet


Joe and Janet, Tammy & Stacey, and Brian and I....Not pictured: Connie & Kris ~ Our hosts for the evening


My Ornery Man....Love Him so much! Keeps us all in stitches for sure ♥



Sunday was Awesome @ Church.... Pastor Craig Groeschel started a new series: "I Quit!" Don't you just love it when the Lord weaves the same message no matter what it is you are doing? Remember I told you about the Winter Health Challenge? What is one of the KEY things Danny Cahill (Season 8 Biggest Loser Winner) spoke on? LOSE YOUR QUIT and Find your Why! Craig shared that we have to Quit making excuses when the Lord calls us to do something and to connect the Why spiritually to what God is calling you to do!!!

Today the kids are out of school and we get to have lunch with my Mom and then Pick up Rylee to spend the night. Only TWO MORE DAYS til my 2nd Grandbaby is here!! Can you hear me squealing ???? LOL I am sooo excited!

What about you? Did you have a good weekend? I pray you did! Love you all and may you have a Blessed Monday ♥

Spiritual Sundays

I just LOVE my Billy Graham Devotional and thought todays reading was Perfect for Spiritual Sundays. To join in or read other Spiritual Sunday posts go here Charlotte and Ginger host this and they are two of the most wonderful godly women! I love them and know you will too!



JOY
For the joy of the Lord is your strength. Nehemiah 8:10


What is joy?
Some of us think that joy is a state of perpetual happiness, a bubbling personality, a person who is always smiling and laughing. These can be expressions of joy, but true joy is something far deeper than that.
Joy is produced in our hearts when we know that God loves us, when we have a close relationship with HIM through reading HIS Word, praying, and desiring to honor HIM in all that we do, and by serving others.
Joy does not mean that we are never sad, that we never cry. Instead, joy is a quiet confidence, a state of peace in the heart of the believer. Sometimes it manifests itself in an impromptu song while riding alone in a car. Sometimes one is so overwhelmed by the love of God that tears of gratitude form in the eyes. At other times, it is a wonderful feeling of peace in the midst of war and turmoil.
Paul said, "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed, we are perplexed, but not is despair, persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed" (2 Corinthians 4:8-9) Paul had joy. So did Jesus, even under the shadow of the cross.
Life happiness, joy cannot be pursued. It comes from within. It is a state of being. It does not depend on circumstances, but triumphs over circumstances. It produces a gentleness of spirit and a magnetic personality.
It is easy to tell who the joyful people are.
They are the ones whom others like to be around.

Our Father and our God, thank YOU for the Holy Spirit who lives in us. Thank YOU for the peace and joy HE brings us. YOU are the laughter of our Heart, O God. YOU are the joy and celebration of every day. You are the One who deserves to be praise. Thank YOU for the gift of Your Son, who makes our joy everlasting. Amen

TGIF ♥

I am an UGG Freak...gotta have em and I wear them pretty much every single day in the winter! It has been extremely cold this week. Down in the single digits!! BRRRR. I seriously don't know what I would do without them! I saw this on FB this past week and just had to laugh.(and share it with you all) This is definitely NOT a vaccine for me ;) nor is it one I would recommend for anyone! Just ask Lori Sabin....she knows that UGGS are the only way to go...right Lori!!

Hope you have a day filled with laughter and joy! Join Kim for more laughs.....Enjoy




Love you all