Flowers For Me...

My sweet sweet man brought me home a beautiful bouquet of tulips tonight.  Are you wondering why?  Me too. 

He says it's just because he loves me.  HE MADE MY DAY!!! 

What a wonderful surprise!!!

A Day to Remember

Today is Sanctity of Life Sunday and is a day to remember the helpless unborn child and the mother and father that are facing one of the biggest decisions they will ever make.

Let us all pray in agreement on this day that life will be chosen and the unborn will not be silenced.

Deuteronomy 30:19...This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.  Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him...

I would also like to take a moment and say to the mom or dad who has lost a baby due to abortion or miscarriage, I am sorry.  I am sorry for your loss.  But, please know that  there is hope in Jesus Christ.  I have a baby in heaven waiting for me that I lost due to a miscarriage, and I have assurance that as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, I WILL see my baby boy again.  I believe he is waiting for me and that when I get to heaven, Jesus will place him in my arms.  Oh what a day that will be.  You too can be reunited with your baby in heaven someday if you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior.  Isn't that exciting?  It is to me and I hope it is for you too.

Watch Out World, She's Driving

I told you that Beth turned fifteen on Monday.  Sadly for her, the DMV was closed that day so we had to wait until Tuesday to go get her driver's permit.

Well, needless to say, she couldn't wait.  And, also needless to say, I took my camera to document the whole thing.  Of course, she was dying that I had my camera, but I CAN'T HELP IT!

I took pictures from start to finish.  Some she didn't even know about.

Yes, she did pass her test and I did let her drive a little after we left.  She did a great job, by the way.

Here we go!!

She just tolerates me sometimes. She loves me and understands that I just can't help it.

Even while she was taking her driver's test, I wanted to be in there with her holding her hand.  I know, I have got to let her grow up, but boy its' hard.

I snapped this picture without her knowing cause I knew she would hide her face.  A mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do, right?

This was her least favorite part.  She hates to get her picture made.  I took one while they were taking one.

Can you see the smile through the window?  For now, she can only drive daddy's truck.  Once she passes his inspection, then she can drive my van.

She's In and She's Hooked

After being with me on my blogging journey thus far, Beth has decided that she wants to do her own blog.  Might I say that I am going to so enjoy what she is writing because I love to hear her thoughts, wishes, and dreams?

If you would like to follow along with her, you can go to The Making of a Missionary, and see what she has to say.  I'm thinking we are going to be in for a good ride with this one.

Happy Birthday, to My Beth

This is a big day in our house.  Beth is 15 today and yep, you can only imagine, what excitement is within her.   She is thrilled that she can now get her permit.  The DMV is closed today, so we will be going tomorrow if all of the paper work comes in that we need from our umbrella school.

Once again I say that I can't believe I have children this age.  Time has flown by.  My son will be 18 in just a couple of months.  OH MY!!  And, remember that my baby turned seven in October.

To Beth I want to say...I love you with all of my heart.  I tell you all the time that I think you are near perfect.  Yes, I know that puts a lot of pressure on you and I don't mean to.  I am just being real with who I think you are.  I see a love for Christ in you that is beyond your years.  I hear your conversations with God and I am amazed at your maturity.  Man, I am proud of who you are in Christ and the constant growth that is there.  You pursue Him and I love that.  You want others to know about Him and His love and are not ashamed to share it.  You have a boldness that most definitely comes from Him and will take you down that road of missions that you feel called to.  Man oh man, Beth, I love you and am so happy that you are my baby.  Yes, still my baby, still my angel, still my sunshine.  That will never ever change.

Now I want to tell you that I think your athletic abilities are crazy good.  No wonder you have the name Smack on the volleyball court.  You are one strong chick.  And that competetive spirit of yours, that certainly comes from your daddy, will take you places.  It's funny, you are very competetive, but will still stop to pick your competition up from the floor if they fall.  That's my girl.  Actually, again, that's your daddy.  You are so much like him and I love that.  If you want to do it, you are determined that it will get done, aren't you?  When you set your mind to something...watch out!

My sweet Izzy B, I hope your day is just wonderful today.  You deserve only the best.  We love you with all our heart and soul.

You are beautiful and you don't even know it.  It's funny that this is dressed up for you.  I love to dress up and be all girly and you love to be in your shorts and t-shirts.  You rock!

And this is you in your absolute comfort zone...

Happy Birthday Beth!!

Faith...Before and After

Faith did a neat thing today for some special person, but we don't know who that person is. 

For a long time now, Faith has been growing out her hair for Locks of Love.  This was something she wanted to do so that she could share her hair with someone who wanted a wig made of real human hair.  To do Locks of Love, you have to have at least a 10 inch pony tail that they can cut off.  Of course you want to make sure that once you cut the pony tail off, you still have plenty of hair left. 

So Faith grew her hair long enough that today she gave almost 13 inches.  HOORAY!!  Good job, Faith.

It really is exciting to know that you can do something as simple as grow your hair long to be able to make a difference in someone's life. 


 This is Faith before...

Let the cutting begin...

Presenting the ponytail that will be sent to Locks of Love...

Faith loves having her hair washed at the hair salon.  Such a treat.

The cutting continues...

TA-DA...After...

Faith and Mrs. Tish.  Can you tell how happy she is?

Faith and I prayed after she got her hair cut that whoever received her hair would be blessed, healed and would feel the love of Jesus.

Remember the Challenge?

Wanted to give a quick update on the challenge I accepted at the beginning of the month.  Remember my plans to eat out of our pantry for the entire month of January and spend no more than $75.00 on groceries for the month?

I am happy to let you know that we are going strong!!  I have only spent $30.00 to this point and that was just for some basic things like dairy, fruit, juice, a big container of oats and, my must have, Diet Dr. Pepper.

This has been a cool challenge because it makes me think out of the box and I love breaking tradition now and then.  I am a pretty routine kind of gal most of the time. 

I will be going to the store in the next few days just to pick up those basics again.  I think we need milk, juice, maybe a bag of chips because I have used up all of my nuts and bolts supplies, Diet Dr. Pepper again and I guess ice-cream because Faith is not happy that we have been out of it for three days now.  I think we can make it on everything else that we have. 

So we continue on this challenge.  I will let you know how we continue to do.  You really ought to try it.

Twas the Night Before Christmas and...

As we begin to settle down on Christmas Eve night, we always put out food for the reindeer, write our letter to Santa, and read Twas the Night Before Christmas from a book I have had since I was a little girl. I always read on Christmas Eve night and Donnie reads from the Bible on Christmas morning. This year, I think Beth almost fell asleep and as you can see, I think Keith may have been checking something on his phone. Faith is still very interested, thank goodness.

Our night ends with the kids falling asleep in our bedroom on our floor. Love it!! Now we are all settled in for the night as we await Santa's arrival.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night...

Check Out My Home Blog

A little push, a little encourgement, and now I have started another blog. This blog will be one that a lot of you will have absolutley no interest in and that is totally understandable. It will be about all things home.

Let me explain just a little. As I have said on my other blog, "All Things Home", I love to decorate, craft, cook, clean, garden, organize, hobby farm and other home related "stuff". I decided that I would like to document some of these things as well but didn't want all of you to have to read it if you didn't want to. Thus, the reason for starting another blog.

So, if you are interested, you can click the button to the left with the cross and go directly to "All Things Home". I am so excited to be doing both of these blogs. If it weren't for Mary and Keith, I wouldn't have a clue what to do, so thank you to both of you.

I'm Joining a Decorate Your Mantel Party

Ok, this is something I have never done before, but decided to just go for it. I do love decorating my home and getting new ideas from great bloggers, but I do not usually show things on my blog that have to do with decorating. I usually reserve my blog for my family and friend adventures.



Tonight I am letting loose and going out on a limb. I will be linking up to a Mantel Party hosted by The Stories of A to Z. I am going to put my mantel out their for all to see. Not sure why, other than it just sounds like fun and I am trying to do more fun things this year. Wild and crazy Christian girl, you know!!

I Must Have Been Good This Year...

I know Christmas is not all about gifts, but I have to tell you that my family gave great gifts this year. They were all so thoughtful, and I wanted to share some of them with you just to give you an idea of what sweet kids and hubby I have.

This is the necklace that Donnie gave me. Can I tell you that I LOVE IT? It has all four of our children's names on it. That includes our son in heaven's name and an angel charm that represents him. I have already had the opportunity to share a little of his story to people who have asked me about the necklace. Love it!!!

The bracelet was my wonderful gift from Beth. She ordered it and had my name engraved on it. ("Amy Beth") Is this not an awesome bracelet? Again...love!!




Beth also gave me a 6-pack of my FAVORITE soda. She came up with a scavenger hunt with the drinks to lead me to my bracelet. Very creative daughter I have.

Keith made me this book. He knows that I love everything about the Amish people. This amazing book had stories, recipes, and just general information about the Amish. He spent a lot of time putting this together and I LOVE IT!!

Keith also got me the tool box and Donnie got me the cordless drill. The tool box Keith got me is to hold of my new goodies for which I am so excited to use.

These are the tools Donnie got me. They are mine...mine...mine. Do I sound selfish? I don't mean to, but I don't want anybody using them without permission. I want them to always be where I put them and I don't want to have to go looking for them when I need them. These make me excited at the the prospect of using them on upcoming projects.

Aren't these a great fashion statement? These are my new chicken coop boots and I am so happy to have them. They don't have to be pretty, just practical.

And these beauties are my new knives. These are from Faith. I wanted a multi-purpose tool for my purse, and she got me a whole set of knives so that I could have different ones to choose from. Great, huh? I think I am set now.

I didn't take a picture of it, but Donnie also got me a great Fossil Messenger Bag that I had picked out. Great bag!!

Sorry, if I have gone on too much, but I just really wanted to share what neat things my family did for me. These people that I call mine are wonderful at making me happy. Don't misunderstand, they don't need to buy me gifts to make me happy, but it sure is sweet what they do for me. Thanks so much my sweet babies.

I Have Accepted a Challenge

I have accepted a challenge by some of my blogging friends to Eat Out of My Pantry for a month. To put it simply, we will be eating from all of the extra food that we have stored up in our freezers, frig and pantry. My goal is to only go to the grocery store for milk, eggs (since I am only getting a couple a day from my hens right now), fruit and veggies. The challenge is to spend no more than $75.00 for the whole month of January.

What do you think? Do you think you could do it? I am excited about the challenge. I can't wait to see how creative we can be with our food preparation just using what we have.

I will be sure to let you know how well we do.

Go to moneysavingmom.com if you want some more information.

Wish me luck...

Twice the Goodness

My husband is one of the greatest guys around. He is a man of great integrity. He is kind, unselfish, layed back, handsome and just all around a super guy. He is an outstanding husband, daddy and son. He loves the Lord with all of his heart. He is one of a kind...

Well, actually, there is another almost just like him.

Donnie (my hubby in the red hat and beard) has an amazing twin brother, Ronnie. These two men are so much alike it is crazy.

Not sure why I wanted to share this today other than the fact that I am very thankful to have an amazing brother-in-law like Ronnie and I love the closeness that these two brothers share. Twins really do have a neat relationship.

And Then Santa Called

Remember I told you that Mrs. Claus surprised Faith with a phone call on Christmas Eve Eve and how excited she was. I think she thought that would be her only phone call this year, but no worries, Santa did not let her down. Jolly Old Faithful Saint Nick called Faith on Christmas Eve day. He actually called earlier in the day than usual and Faith summed that up to her being on the "very nice" list that Mrs. Claus said she was on and that Santa must call the "very nice" kids first.

Remember the list of questions that Faith wanted to ask Santa? Bless her heart, she got so excited and so nervous that she couldn't even think of one thing to ask him except if Mommy, Daddy, Keith and Beth were on the nice list. He told her that we were on "the list". Now, I was a little afraid what that meant, but thankfully "the list" must have been the nice list because Santa was very good to all of us this year. He was actually beyond good.

Faith did give Santa her small lists of wants this year. She wanted a real drum set and a puppy dog that could live outside and would not hurt our chickens. She got the drums. As for the puppy, well, you know Santa sometimes says no to the gifts we ask for for one reason or another. Maybe next year...

Faith and Beth were decorating cookies for Santa when he called. How cool, huh?

I was so excited that I couldn't even get a good clear picture. And, because Faith's hands had icing all over them, Beth had to hold the phone for her.

Still fuzzy picture, but at least we have it. See the excitement in that sweet face!!