my blessed life

Here's wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving today!   I'm looking forward to a lovely day with my family.   We'll be busy eating too much, talking too loud, and  just enjoying being together.   Here's what's on our menu for the day:

So it's already November!  I absolutely cannot believe how quickly this year has gone by.   And it's not just an adult thing--my kiddos keep saying the same thing.  It makes me a little sad that they feel the years speeding up already.  I think it took me a little longer as a child for that to sink in.   No doubt it's a sign of the busy lives we lead.  I sometimes long for quiet days with no appointments or obligations.  Days where our time is truly our own and we can take our time doing whatever we want.  Reading books, baking cookies, taking walks.... As homeschoolers, we do have much more control over our time.  But it's almost impossible to not be caught up somehow in the busyness of life in 2016.  It's a fast-paced world we live in here in the United States. Which is perhaps why I feel a deep longing to savor this Thanksgiving season a little bit more this year.  It just seems that focusing on the ...

This past weekend we were in Fort Smith, Arkansas --the city where I was born and where our children were born.  Even though we no longer live there we have lots and lots of extended family and friends in the area and were in town for a couple of family reunions.   While there we just had to check out the latest project that Fort Smith is doing as part of the revitalization of the downtown riverfront area: The Unexpected Project .  This project is a celebration of street art and they have placed it beautifully all over the downtown area.   My sister , my daughter, and I had fun on our scavenger hunt of sorts looking for all of these amazing murals!  They are just so beautiful and creative!   The Fort is such an interesting area anyway.  It was the border to Indian Territory before Oklahoma became a state in 1907--so not that long ago really.  And it was one wild west town back then!  If you've seen any version o...

Is your summer flying by as quickly as ours is?!  I am kind of sad that it's already almost the end of July.  It has been such a busy summer for us that there hasn't been much relaxing getting done. However, this week has slowed down for us quite a bit {thank goodness!!} and the schedule doesn't look too terribly bad through the end of August.  I think that we even have a real vacation in there somewhere! Anyway, I thought I'd post a little update on what we've been up to this summer so far. Reading: My personal reading list for this summer is clicking right along.  So far I've read: Just RISE UP! by Sarah Francis Martin  {motivating and inspiring} Life of Pi by Yann Martel  {captivating story, twist in end really got me} Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie  {loved ...as I love all of her books} Crooked House by Agatha Christie Ordeal by Innocence by Agatha Christie Miss Marple, the Complete Short Stories by Agatha Christ...

From the archives. This was originally published on June 27, 2013. (just yesterday here in Kentucky) Family picnics : these words may bring various visions to our minds depending on our families.  For my family these words bring visions of fried chicken, potato salad, baked beans , mac & cheese, pickles, olives, deviled eggs....mmmmmm  Yes, as long as I can remember this has been my mom's standard picnic fare. We ate A LOT of picnics when I was growing up.  My family owned a camper and traveled quite extensively when I was very young.  We hit every state park and national park that we could find for picnics.  And my mom would even whip up the a fore mentioned menu in our camper--amazing! I've been hungry for one of those picnics recently and just yesterday my mom was gracious enough to make it happen (see top photo!) .  She fried up the chicken and made her world's-best-potato-salad, I baked some beans and made the deviled eggs and we a...

This week has been full and fun!!  We began Mr. B's 10th birthday celebration on Sunday (a day early) with our special meal out with my parents and sister (my parents are so awesome to take us all out on each birthday!).  Mr. B picked Chili's this year.     On his actual birthday, Monday, he opened his gifts here at home.  Then we went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch (his total fave!) where we also enjoyed a birthday cookie cake.  Yes, celebrations around here involve LOTS of good food! :) Then Monday evening we drove to Union City, TN to spend the night and visit the Discovery Park of America on Tuesday.  The whole family went and we had SO much fun!!   If you have never heard of the Discovery Park of America it could be because it's practically brand new!  It's been open only about a year and a half.  It's located in a small town about 3 hours west of Nashville but it is well worth the drive!  And the ticket prices...

So a few weeks ago we were able to take our family to a Lego Kids Fest in Nashville.  These are happening in various cities around the country and if you're able to go to one I highly recommend doing that!  It was SO MUCH FUN !!  The tickets were for a four hour time slot and I have to say that I really didn't think we'd need to stay that long ...but we could have stayed longer !  There was an incredible amount of things to do and see.  I took, like, a thousand pictures ...which I have so graciously pared down to some faves here for you ;) This event included activities like: the brick battle zone, a Lego pizza relay race, Lego car racing, Creation Nation, thebiggestLegobrickpileyou'veeverseen, the art gallery, and tons more.  There were special build areas for everybody's favorite lines: Star Wars, Bionicle, Lego Friends, Lego Disney, Mixels ....and a special family build area with a monochromatic theme (ours was purple).   ...

I love Easter!  Not only is it in the lovely season of spring, it represents all that makes life worthwhile--HE LIVES and because of that I can live in fullness of life, too.  Not just in Heaven, but even here on earth.  I'm so thankful for that! As long as I can remember Easter has always been a "busy" day for me.  I grew up in a minister's home so my dad was always preaching somewhere on Easter--whether as a guest minister or in the church he pastored for several years.  Then I married and my husband and I have also been in ministry full-time for 14 of the 18 years we've been married--the past 4 years as senior pastors. And the Easter weekend just gets busier.  But it's a good kind of busy.  Like today, we were at our church nearly all day for a fun event we like to call Easter Eggstravaganza.  It's a fun day for our church to simply bless our community with free food, games, petting zoo, some fun giveaways, and an egg hunt for the kidd...

Happy 12th Birthday to our Princess!! (isn't this an awesome hat/card that my sister got her?!) Yesterday our oldest turned 12.   It's hard to believe how quickly time flies by. It seems like just yesterday I was getting her nursery ready  and buying all of those tiny clothes. She has grown into a lovely young woman and we are SO proud of her!! She is a joy to have for a daughter. We had a great day together.   First, we had some lunch and played games  ...and acted silly at Chuck E. Cheese.   Then we went to see the new Cinderella movie (wonderful!). We squeezed in a bit of shopping (birthday $$, you know!)  and finally, we met up with my family for a birthday dinner at Olive Garden. And posed for a few funny shots after dinner :) Happy Birthday, sweet girl!!