Happy New Year!

~ Martha Stewart~

Happy New Year!!!  New Year's Eve has always been such a special time of celebration for our family!  When the children were little, my husband came up with the neat idea that we would each wear a hat of our own design and it's a tradition that we've carried on almost every single year!  So much fun!  Some of my best memories were when we lived in Birmingham, Alabama and all of my Tennessee relatives would come!  The children danced and partied the night away and rang in the New Year with fireworks and the banging of pots and pans, a tradition that has carried itself over into adulthood on more than one occasion.  In Arkansas, it developed into a larger party inviting our friends and their children!  We truly have had some creative friends over the years to make it such a special time!  I hope that you enjoy the final day of 2010 and I hope that your year has been filled with much joy and many blessings.  We rejoice in the goodness of God!  We were blessed with the wedding of Kara and Phil Board and we were so happy to meet his family and have him join ours.  Our children and grandchildren are happy and healthy.

I have learned a great deal this year.  I have learned that God has a timetable and often, His is not at all like mine. He is Wise and All Knowing!  I am not at all. The first day of the new year will begin, sadly, with our son, Steven, attending the funeral of one of his very dear and special friends.  These young men seem to young to learn this. I know that Steven is learning about the brevity of life in a way that I would have not chosen.  But I know that none of us are promised tomorrow~only today.  So..... I do rejoice in the goodness of God, as I said, and I rejoice in the peace that He gives that is through His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.  I wish you a vital, happy, healthy New Year!  Fill the moment and each day you are given with many graces of love and kindness (it will return to you) and may all be well with you my friend in 2011!  God bless you and keep you and may HIS GLORIOUS face shine upon you!!!

This Gracious Time

Aunt Shay Shay's gifts ~ love for all!

 Santa loves kids~little and big!

 A beautifully wrapped Gift for Isabel from Aunt Shay Shay

Scenes From Around My House......

Everyday says~"bring the children"!!!

As children, we wait all year for this holiday!  Christmas is a part of childhood that remains forever in our hearts. I hope that Santa Claus finds your house and I hope that Christmas is real special for you and your loved ones.  I hope that you can reconnect with those you love, reaffirm your faith, and recognize the power of love and family!

Merry Christmas Blessings to you and your loved ones!!!  This is a GRACIOUS season where time doesn't matter!!!  Enjoy!

The Gift and The Throne Room

"After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven.  And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet." said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this."  At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it.  And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian.  A rainbow resembling an emerald, encircled the throne.  Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders."  They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads."  Revelation 4:1-4

These beautiful verses in Revelation describe the throne room of Heaven and the elders who are worthy to be found there.  God is on the throne in this glorious and beautiful throne room.  I admit.....it is deep and hard to fully comprehend the majesty of Our King of Glory and the awesomeness of His Throne!  We are concerned with everyday events.  We are concerned with wrapping our packages.  We are concerned with making sure we have just the right gift. We are concerned with much that doesn't really matter.  I admit~I fall into that category too many times.  It's not even by choice~it's just being human.  But I want to be someone who lives above The Ordinary during this season and  one who lives to see my Lord, His Throne and all  of His Glory!  In Luke 2:13 beautiful verses say,  "Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rest.'"  The awareness and majesty of Jesus, the King of Glory brought out a heavenly host of angels!  Can you just imagine the brightness of the sky as the Angels proclaimed that the KING had been born!  One day we will be a part of this wonderful gift of seeing the King of Glory in all of HIS GLORY and the twenty four elders dressed in white with crowns of gold on their heads!  There is not a package I could wrap, my friend, that would ever be as beautiful as THE GREATEST GIFT OF JESUS!  How blessed we are this season  to celebrate Him and to declare to the world that a Savior was born in Bethlehem.....destined to be the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords!!!!   We have a wonderful week of celebration!  Christmas Blessings to you!!!

Gifts For the Season!

Mend a quarrel. 

Seek out a forgotten friend. 

Write a long overdue love note. 

Hug someone tightly and whisper, "I love you so." 

Forgive an enemy. 

Be gentle and patient with an angry person. 

Gladden the heart of a child. 

Find the time to keep a promise. 

Make or bake something for someone else. Anonymously. 

Release a grudge. 

Listen. 

Speak kindly to a stranger. 

Enter into another's sorrow. 

Smile. 

Laugh a little. 

Laugh a little more. 

Take a walk with a friend. 

Lessen your demands on others. 

Play some beautiful music during the evening meal. 

Apologize if you were wrong. 

Turn off the television and talk. 

Treat someone to an ice-cream cone (yogurt would be fine). 

Do the dishes for the family. 

Pray for someone who helped you when you hurt. 

Fix breakfast on Saturday morning. 

Give a soft answer even though you feel strongly. 

Encourage an older person. 

Point out one thing you appreciate most about someone you work with or live near. 

Offer to babysit for a weary mother.

                  From:  Chuck Swindoll

RESTORER OF JOY!

Alex Ruskin Antiques in Savannah, Georgia

Four Floors of Antiques ~ Beautiful example of a Preserved Home

The Aiken~Rhett House

Art Gallery in the Aiken-Rhett House

This past week, I was invited to spend a few days in Charleston, South Carolina with my sister.  How gracious of her to share her resources and blessings with me.  Such good company in a place that is truly beautiful!  Nature has been kind to this city, even though hurricane Hugo ravaged some of the homes in the past.  The Historical Charleston Foundation has achieved remarkable results with their historical restoration and their historical preservation of homes, gardens, and government buildings.  If you have not been there, you might consider a vacation in the area.  I can just imagine how the Grand Ladies of these homes would be pleased with the attempts to preserve and restore the homes in which they lived when they were originally built for their families.  Of course, the time in which they lived, even though it was a grand time,  there were also many evils of slavery and  cultural differences that separated people.  Through education of diversity, it seems  much has been accomplished to show the wrongs of those times and today people recognize that each person has a right to equality and human dignity.  The cultural and artistic endeavors of the foundation help instill in each visitor their attempt to share this rich heritage of the low country of South Carolina.

Two words kept me interested~ restoration and preservation.  When something is preserved it is protected from harm or further damage.  When something is restored it is brought back to an earlier or normal condition.  These two words continued in my thoughts as I left Charleston and drove home.  I thought of how God is  THE  RESTORER...."He restoreth my soul; he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake."  Psalm 23:3   We wander from God and from the paths of righteousness~from following Him beside the still water~till we lose the way, lose joy, lose the sound of His voice.  Then the Master "restoreth our soul"; and brings us back into His way, in the paths of righteousness.  Oh, gracious "Restorer" bring back my wandering soul as a straying sheep, and lead me on in the paths of righteousness "for Thy name' sake."  Amen  I hope this next week, though a busy season, will give us time to restore our souls and lead us on the right path!  Blessings to you beloved!