On the 4th day of Christmas....GPS

I know we survived once upon a time with maps and compass to get from point a to point b, however after our trip to Dallas this weekend, I am very thankful that God gave someone (or a team of someone's) the idea to create a GPS item such as a Garmin. This thing got us through traffic, helped us find a local restaurant and quickly, to find a short cut around road construction and so much more! It even got us to Canton, 45 minutes than we expected by giving us a new great route!

On the 3rd Day of Christmas...Road Trips

I am grateful for Road Trips!!! Since I have been married (2yrs 4months) I haven't had the time or opportunity to spend girl time with my mom and my sister like we use to. So when God opened up all THREE of our schedules on a weekend of Canton, TX, Trade Show was.....we knew we had to go!

I have been to Canton twice before but for mama and little Sis', this was a first. They had a great time but most of all we had fun being together, talking the whole way down and great laughs the whole time.

Where I found God and my joy was first how HE made the time available for all of us (that is just un-heard of these days). Also that God provided for something I would consider a want, yet my God provided that as a time off and restoration. Also for God to help me have that good ole fun I have with my amazing mama and my spectacular Little Sis!

I am grateful for family today!

On the 2nd Day of Christmas...Cheese

Today I had lunch with a great friend at Atlanta Bread Company in Rogers and she told me about a great salad they had as a special. The selling point for me was it had Brie Cheese in it. I LOVE CHEESE! I love Dairy but the thing about cheese is that there is so many different types and so many different flavors that you can do so many different things with them. There is Brie, Goat, swiss, mozzeralla, chedder, pepper jack, blue cheese, cream cheese, gouda...and the list goes on!

Where I found the JOY in Cheese and where I saw Jesus was how I started to think how creative He must be! He took the time in all of creation to think up dozens and dozens of cheeses with different smells, flavors, textures, each with it's own process to be created and ablility to be used so diversely from the next, all to be created all over the world! If our God took that much time and forethought in something as small and trival as CHEESE.....then what does that mean about us!?

Just think that if God put that much effort into CHEESE, just think of the precious time and energy that He spent on you!? He thought of exactly how you were going to look (what color hair, eyes, hieght, shoe size, etc). Our God also covered every detail of your one of a kind personality, how your brain would work, what you would be talented at, what your laugh would sound like, and so much more than I could ever type out.

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

Jeremiah 1:5

Our heavenly Father, loved you that much! He loves you as you are NOW! That includes everything you are not proud of and aren't fond of about yourself. You are God MasterPiece and all He wants in return is our Love and Faith! I am more than glad to my Lord and Savior just that!

1st Day of Christmas...Heavy Laden

It's that time of year....FINALS! Alex is studying hard and keeping long hours at the Library. I COULDN'T BE MORE PROUD of him working this hard and being so dedicated! Where I saw God today and found my joy.....

is that my parents had basketball tickets to the Arkansas vs Oklahoma game tonight. They couldn't go and nor could my sister. I had something but it got cancelled so I picked up Alex from School at 7PM to go to the game and we GOT A WHOLE 2 HOURS TOGETHER!

This is a big deal for us these days and God knew we needed the time together so He provided our schedules to open up and for an opportunity to arise that we could do something together!

God says in Matthew 11:28-29,

"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for you souls."

Something as material as Basketball tickets might be a want and how they were provided might be seen as luck. But what I see is my God gave Alex rest from study and gave our marriage rest. I take JOY in my God taking my heavy laden and Give Thanks to my LORD!

31 Days of Christmas!!!

I've been thinking about Holidays and what they mean to us. We have Birthday's once a year to mark our age and to celebrate another year of life. However we can celebrate Life everyday. We have Thanksgiving once a year to give thanks for our ForeFathers, freedom and all more. But again, that shouldn't stop us from giving thanks every day.

Staying on that same thought line and today is the first day of December, I am thinking about Christmas! A day to remember Jesus birthday and to Rejoice in our LORD! But my thought is "I don't want to wait until Christmas day to do this! Lets START NOW!"

So for the Whole Month of December I AM..... going to find Jesus in every day and then give Thanks to Him while finding Joy in Him!

Day 1 Post is next....

I encourage you to do the same!

If I could, I would...Christmas!!! {Part 2}

I'm still stuck on how I would decorate for Christmas. What theme, what colors, how much or less is more? What kind of tree or garland......It's almost like planning a wedding! And I love Planning Weddings!!!!

So first I think decided on what Tree is the beginning of it all....

Upside Down -vs- Right side Up

For me this is a no-brainer...I'm just not that into the Upside Down tree.

Next is REAL -vs- ARTIFICIAL TREES

I see the joy in going to pick out a Real Tree and how it feels the house with Christmas Scents. However I grew up with Artificial trees and I am too much of a practical girl. So I invest once in a "on-sale" tree that is PRE-LITE! I remember every year putting those crazy lights on, taking them off and then trying to untangle the next year. The PRE-LIT os so worth the MONEY!

TO FLOCK or NOT TO FLOCK?

I have grown fond of this look. I know its fake snow but I gave this ago this year on my $15 4ft tree from BIG LOTS and I love it. I have nothing on my tree but the Flocking from a can and I really enjoy it.

COLORED LIGHTS -vs- WHITE LIGHTS

Again I grew up with White Lights but I am torn on this one. I love the fun playfulness of the colored but I lOVE the glow a room gets from the white lights.

THEME

This is endless so I just picked out a couple that I thought were neat/pretty! Take a look below!

{Family Tree with Pictures of multiple Generations on it}

{Turquoise & Silver}

This makes me think of my Sister and my Mom! We all love Turquoise!

{White & Gold}

So clean looking and elegant at the same time

{Just Flocking & Lights}

This is what I have right now but only a 4ft tree. it's still pretty!

{White & Rustic}

{Traditional}

{Gold & Red}

{CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS TREE}

My family loves Charlie Brown Christmas so I had to include this tree you can get at Target!

So what is your Taste......

Real or Artificial?

Flocking or Not?

Colored lights or White?

Themes?

HomeMade Apple Pie - Pretty & Delicious!

I decided to bake an Apple Pie for Thanksgiving this year and since I get my free Subcription to Better Homes and Garden due to MyCokeRewards.com......I saw a Recipe for Cranberry-Apple Pie. Now I didn't include the Cranberries but the rest was wonderful!

CRUST

I use a Recipe from the November Magazine that was easy enough, however took a little bit of time. (about 30-40 minutes) but I would dare to say FOOL-PROOF! Why would I say that? Well I did exactly as the recipe said but my crust didn't turn out anything like the picture (plus I didn't have a PASTRY BLENDER). Nevertheless, the crusts were wonderful after all was said and done!!!

I will use it again! To see the Recipe go HERE. It's also on Page 178 of the November 2010 BHG Magazine.

Then for the Apple Pie Recipe I also got this from The November 2o10 BHG Magazine (page 182). Or you can go HERE for the Recipe. Because I don't have any special tools, I did all of the peeling, de-coring, etc myself for the apples. This too me a good hour to do. After this everything else went fairly quickly. (about 30 minutes).

Since the Pastry Recipe makes 3 Servings (two were for the crust and one serving was for the topping of one of the pies), I needed another topping. So I made a strudel Topping which was just as delicious, just slightly different!