Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt - New

It's the last Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt of 2006! Boy I've had fun being a part of the hunt and I look forward to the upcoming year. I hope that you'll consider joining the hunt in 2007. Drop by here to find out how. Come on! It gets your creative juices flowing and it's fun!

The theme this week is appropriately "new."

A month or so ago I wrote this post about my kids' desperate wish for snow. Well, the week before Christmas they finally got their wish and we got a really good snow. The most snow we've gotten in forever. (It doesn't snow here much.) The kids were anxious to get out in and play. I thought, "Madness!" and stayed inside, safe and toasty, coaching and taking pictures from the backdoor. (I am NOT a snow-person.)

For Shorty, who is almost 5, it really was his first real experience with snow. And he LOVED it. They built a snowman and named him Jeff Froze. They had snowball fights, which he REALLY enjoyed. They caught snowflakes on their tongues. He loved.it.all. For him, It was white and cold and wonderful and definitely "new".

So here's my entry for the hunt this week.

S.P.S.H. - New







It snowed again all.day.long today. I can see at least 6-8 inches out the back window. Bet you can guess where Shorty will be tomorrow. Happy S.P.S.H.! See you next year.

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Giving has never been this easy.

Update: She did it! I just stopped by there and the comments passed 506! Too cool!

Here's a fundraiser for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and it won't even cost you a penny!

Kelly over at Pass the Torch is "linking for dollars". Her corporate sponsor has promised $1 for each comment left at this post up to $500.00! How easy is that?! Don't forget that you can leave a comment today AND tomorrow (one comment per day per blogger).

Come on, she just passed comment 300 this morning. You can help her make it to 500.

Love Thursday #17

Love is...

Hanging this on the tree every year (for the past 10 years!)
and remembering that kiss.


Your New Year's Resolutions could include spreading the love on Love Thursday. No doubt 2007 could use some more good old fashioned "G-rated" love. Don't you think? And remember - Love Is All Around..

Come Let Us Adore Him

After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; they fell to the ground and worshipped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

O Come All Ye Faithful
Joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem.
Come and behold Him,
Born the King of Angels;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

O Sing, choirs of angels,
Sing in exultation,
Sing all that hear in heaven God's holy word.
Give to our Father glory in the Highest;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

All Hail! Lord, we greet Thee,
Born this happy morning,
O Jesus! for evermore be Thy name adored.
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

Blessings to you this Christmas
and throughout the New Year.
May His bright Light shine in your life.

Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt - Lines

I'm all ready for Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt this week! I had my post all prepared for this week's theme - LAST week.

The theme this week is "lines."

The first photos I thought of were these.





This paraglider is getting his wing ready to take off. These lines are of the utmost importance. Life or death hangs (literally) on whether they are functioning properly.

But since these photos were taken by a friend, they can't be my selection.

So I decided to go for something different.

Here's my entry for the hunt this week.

S.P.S.H. - Lines

Pastormac was kind enough to pose so I could capture his Laugh & Smile Lines.
If you're going to have lines (wrinkles) on your face, then these are the kind to have.

Hope you don't get stuck in too many lines this weekend finishing up your Christmas shopping. Happy S.P.S.H.!

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Love Thursday #16

Love is...

But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."
Luke 2:10-11

For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but will have eternal life.
John 3:16

Christmas Love to you today and always.


Love Thursday continues! And Love is All Around here.

WFMW - Christmas Edition 5

OK, so here is my last Christmas Edition Works-for-Me Wednesday installment until next year. (I know, you're all breathing a sigh of relief. Me too.)

I discovered this at Thanksgiving this year when we ended up with way more stuffing than we could or even wanted to eat. I turned the excess stuffing into a delicious topping for the turkey soup I made with the rest of the left-overs. And it's so easy to do. I might even just continue to make too much stuffing again (like I do every.single.time I make it) just so I have enough to make this again.

Here's what you do:

While your soup is cooking. Preheat oven to 350F. Chop or crumble up about 2 cups (more or less) of the left-over stuffing. Toss it with 3-4 tablespoons of melted butter. Pour into an oven-safe skillet (I used cast iron) or a cake pan. Cook for about 30 minutes stirring every 10 minutes or so as the stuffing crumbs toasty and get brown. It may take less time or a little more - just make sure they don't burn. Sprinkle on a nice steamy bowl of turkey & veggie soup and enjoy. These would probably be good on homemade mac & cheese or a potato gratin as well.

Even my picky eater enjoyed this on his soup and he doesn't even like stuffing. Works for me!

Now, go over Rocks in My Dryer. You'll probably find all sorts of help for making it through the next week with more joy and your sanity.

I Won! And I Barely Knew I Was Playing!

Thanks to BooMama and her Christmas Tour of Homes there are hundreds (no kidding!) of homes to visit. As if this time of year isn't busy enough. This weekend I dropped by Pass the Torch to take her Christmas Tour. She was hosting a photo caption contest as well. I commented on her wonderful pictures of her lovely home and beautiful children and I sumitted an entry.

And I won!

My prize is a $10 gift certificate at Amazon.com! How cool is that??!!

What a nice surprise. Thanks Kelly!

My God Shall Supply All Your Needs

It's hard to believe that an entire week has gone by since our Adoption Benefit Concert. The night was amazing! God blessed our socks off. Over 125 people came. The music was fantastic; the decorations, African; the snacks, tasty; the donations, generous. A good time was had by all. When we finished the evening, we had received almost $6000! We were stunned, humbled, beyond grateful for what an awesome church family God has blessed us with and what an awesome God we have.

Here we all are singing "Believe", a song that Pastormac wrote especially for us.



We got another surprise this last week but I'll save that for another post.

What this means is that we are now able to send our dossier into our agency (once we collect just the one or two more things we need to complete it.) We are one HUGE step closer to seeing our babies come home. Things are moving again. What we have left is our travel expenses.

We had so many people who helped us - our fellow band members and sound techs who practiced for hours and hours in the weeks leading up to the concert, our dear friends who handled all our advertising and then managed the evening, our creative decorator, our graphic artistic who created our terrific flyer, and our wonderful family who all came out and gave us moral support, lifted us up in their prayers and donated financially. Thank you to those of your out there in Bloggity Land who prayed for us that the evening would be a success. It far surpassed our wildest dreams. We are grateful to God. He is indeed an awesome God.

And my God shall suppy all your needs
according to riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:19

Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt - Annoying

Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt time again!

The theme this week is theme is "annoying." Actually, it was annoying that I was all set to post a picture and discovered that I had the wrong theme in mind. Can't take a picture of that. I was also annoyed when I finally thought of something, I got goat-head stickers in my socks when I went out to take the photo. I tried but I can't post a picture of that because the one I took was too blurry. How annoying!

So here's my entry for hunt this week.

S.P.S.H. - Annoying

Drat and RATS!

Got the lights out of the box and checked to see if it all lit up. It did indeed. Took it outside and wound it all around the tree. Plugged it in - ONLY HALF THE STRING WORKS! Arg! Changed the fuses? Yes. Checked the bulbs? Yes. I cannot get it to work. It's.driving.me.nuts! So annoying! Think I'm just going to have to take them down and put up a different string. How annoying.


Happy S.P.S.H. anyway.

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O Come All Ye Faithful...

Welcome to the BooMama's Christmas Tour of Homes. I've been excited about this for a month. I've gone a little wild with all the pictures but Christmas is a special time around here. Once you visited here, don't forget to head over to BooMama's. You can spend the weekend touring homes. You didn't anything else to do, right?

Here's the view from the driveway. We haven't decorated outside at this house before but Sweetanlo really wanted to do it this year. Next year we're making her help.


This wreath is the first thing you see when you come into our boot room. It was pretty plain when I pulled it out of a give-away pile someone left us. It dressed up pretty nice, though.


My best friend in the world made me this wreath so many years ago. It's hung on my door every year since. It makes me think of her.


Come in! Take your coat off and stay a while.


"The stockings were hung by the chimney with care in hopes that..." mom and dad would soon fill them up to bursting. These are special because these are the stockings that the kids got from their Nana. They used to hang on her mantle at Christmas now they hang on ours.


I never imagined having an artificial tree. We've always had a fresh tree until last year. Last year in our Ebay Store we had the good fortune to sell a lot of artificial trees. They were really nice trees. Well, this tree was a left-over display model and turned out to be made up of pieces from several different styles of trees and had no base. We couldn't sell it so we decided to keep it. We bought a base and put it up and decided to call "him" affectionately, "FrankenPine" since he's some of this and some of that and he needs electricity to really shine. He still lists a little since his base isn't really the right one. But he looks really nice and the $50 we save by not buying a tree gives us that much extra Christmas cash.


FrankenPine all aglow. There's just something about the light from a Christmas tree; it's magical.


We've been given several Nativity scenes over the years. A good thing for us as we believe that Jesus really is the reason for the season.

This one always gets displayed the longest because I forget I've put it in the window and so don't put it away with the rest until long into the New Year. Pastormac received as a gift from a co-worker many years ago.


These next two are handmade from The Holy Land (Jerusalem).

This one is a little sandpainting of the Three Kings coming to worship Jesus.


And this one is made of Olivewood.


This one Pastormac received as a child. One year his Sunday school class painted the pieces and he won it by being the student who memorized the most verses.


During the Christmas season we clear off our school table (Yup, my kids are all broken up about that.) We have to make room for these things.

Our Advent Wreath.


Santa's Marching Band. It's a little bell choir that's really cute and it plays all sorts of Christmas Carols. My kids love it.


My Little Native American Nativity Scene. We got our first Christmas from Pastormac's dad. I'm amazed it's still in one piece now 16 years later.


For a person who isn't big on snow, I have a growing collection of snowmen. My favorite kind - the kind that don't require snow.


This Snowman with the North Pole sign has the cutest little reindeer slippers.


I got this little Christmas tree from a long-time friend. She knew that I like to cook and so decorated it with all sorts of tiny kitchen utensils and gadgets.






These three are my favorites. They belonged to my mom.


I have so many other things to show you, but I should stop here. So, that's the tour. Thanks so much for dropping by! I know you have LOTS of other places to visit. But before you go, please come into the kitchen for a mug of cocoa and a slice of the best Pecan Pie evah. And if you're not in a rush, sit down and relax. We're about to pull these out and read out loud a while.

Deck the Halls...

Tomorrow is the day! Tomorrow's the day!

Can you tell I'm excited?!

So come back then and check out how we dress our house up for Christmas. I hope you'll play along too!

Love Thursday #15

Love is...

Joe Cool, who is just seven, found a crumpled dollar bill in his recently-found piggy bank. But he didn't ask to rush to the Dollar Store to get something for himself. He didn't ask to drive to Dairy Queen so he could have an ice cream. He could have done these things. Instead he brought the dollar to Pastormac and told him that this dollar should go toward bringing our babies home from Ethiopia. It is the most precious donation to our adoption we have recieved. If that's not love, I don't know what is.

One of the creators of Love Thursday has decided not to blog any longer and limit herself to just photo journaling. We're all still reeling. We will miss her poignant and thoughtful words so much. So Love Thursday is changing a bit, but there's still a lot of love here and here. Love goes on and on and on.

WFMW - Christmas Edition 4

Wow, now that I've done Christmas WFMW for the last three weeks, I feel personally compelled to keep doing Christmas themed Works-for-Me Wednesdays until Christmas arrives.

Here's a cute little ornament that you can make which is inexpensive and looks brilliant on the tree. They're great as gifts (think: kid's friends, cousins, Grandparents, teachers, etc.) and it's a fun project to do with your kids. We did this last year when all my kids wanted to make presents for their friends. We made a bunch in just one afternoon and it didn't cost a fortune.


We bought wooden letters at Michaels (I'm sure you can find them at Hobby Lobby too!) They have smaller chunky ones that are about 3 inches tall or taller thinner ones (about 4 inches). My kids picked out the letters that started their friends first names. (They're only $0.99 each.) While we were at Michaels we also picked out some micro-fine glitter in various colors. You can use regular glitter too, but the micro-fine is more sparkly. It cost $2-$3 a container but it goes a long long way. And we bought small (2-4mm) eye hooks. We had white school glue, old art paint brushes, and thin ribbon, at home so we didn't need to buy those.

We covered the work area with newspapers and set to work. The kids painted one side of a letter with a thin coat of glue and then covered it with the glitter. When that was dry, they painted the other side and repeated the sprinkling of glitter. During the glitter part we were careful to do the colors separately and on a piece of clean typing paper so we could pour the excess glitter back in the container to use again. Some letters needed another coat to cover spots that might have been missed the first go-round. When everything was thoroughly dry, I screwed in the eye hooks and the kids threaded through a ribbons hanger.

Viola! A dazzling ornament to give as gift that was both inexpensive and fun to make. Works for me!




Don't forget there are a lot of other great hints and tips at Rocks in My Dryer.

Keep Us in Your Prayers Today Friends

This is what we're doing tonight. We've been practicing and preparing and praying for this for weeks.

Tonight's the Big Night!



The church is truly our family. We're asking our family to help if they can.

If you're so inclined, please keep us in your prayers.

Click on the picture to get a bigger view.

Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt - Red

Saturday again. You know what that means. Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt time.

This week's theme is "red." I can hardly wait to see what everyone comes up with this week. Last week's pictures were amazing!

Here's my go at the hunt this week.

S.P.S.H. - Red
Pastormac went in for his post surgery follow-up.


He said if he had to have a cast, he wanted it to be "festive."

One more for giggles. I was looking around the kitchen for something red and I came across this Life Saver. The placement seemed fitting and a little funky.


Did you know it's hard to hold your tongue still?

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