New Year's Eve Adventures

A lot has been said lately about this decade ending and a new one beginning.  I have seen many of my friends say what a bad decade it's been.  Discussions are going on around all the tragedies and dismay that resulted over the last 10 years.  It can be pretty depressing if you get caught up in all of it.

Personally, I don't see it this way at all.

I recall a country that went from being complacent and self centered to standing together as we mourned the loss of so many on 9/11.  Remember how the fireman and policeman were brought back up to the level of respect they deserved?  Or how strangers began to speak and we were reminded to stop and spend time with family and friends?  As tragic as that time was for our country, there were a lot of good things that came from that time as well.

I saw more monetary wealth than I imagined in my life at the beginning of the decade and by 2005, it was all gone.  For many reasons, but the result is I've found I am richer now in my life than I've ever been.    I've lost many "things" over the lasts 10 years, and I've seen heartache in that time.  But for me, I'm thankful for the experience of the decade and looking forward to a blessed new year.

Speaking of...  I read a blog recently that questioned Bishop TD Jakes motives for making the statement that 2010 will be a prosperous year.  The comments on that blog were attacking to say the least.  This blog was listed on a "christian" blog site.  I have to say here, because I can, that I was completely disappointed in the response to the article.  The article itself was only stating facts and questioning other's thoughts on it.  But the responses were not only judgemental and condeming, but made based on perceptions and none of them had any valid points.  I'm sad that those "christians" were so quick to judge and condemn.  In fact, I'm curious as to who determined that prosperous was only monetary?  And by the way, do we live in the world's economy or God's?  There was also discussion that the economy wasn't that bad anyway.  There was one person who stated that it only meant we had to cancel movie channels and boo hoo if we did.  I'm glad that person is blessed enough that they didn't have to give up more than their movie channels, but it's very naive to think that's all that others had to give up.  I've seen families that became homeless, people who lost homes, cars, jobs, and businesses because of this world's economy.  I don't know a lot about Bishop Jakes personally - but I do know that it's not my place to question his heart.  And I'm thankful for the expectation that this next year will be prosperous and for the blessings my Father has promised me as His child! 

OK...  I feel MUCH better now! 

What are your plans for tonight?  Please be safe!  We are hanging out with 3 grandbabies and two sons tonight.  :-)  Looks like we'll be going to an early movie and then dinner, and home for fun and games.  It's a great way to bring in a New Year and the new decade!  We really have no plans for tomorrow, which is funny becaue we usually have some kind of meal planned with the family.  This holiday we have spent a lot of time just hanging out with the grandbabies.  We play games, the Wii, watch movies, or just play with them.  It's been a nice and relaxing week.  Life is good.

Living the Blessed Life....

Jessica

Quilting, baking and other domestic things....

I seem to be very domestic right now. I'm super motivated to make quilts. I have made baby ones, but not "real" quilts. Just patchwork put together and backed with fabric. Today, I made a baby quilt for Addi Kate. I had started the 6" blocks a long time ago. So I picked that up and finished the quilt top. Then, I had a friend share with me about fusible interfacing or spray adhesive to use to "set" the top and back to the batting. That stuff is amazing! I adhered the quilt top and back to the batting and then machine quilted it. I am sewing the binding on the edges now by hand and it will be done. The last thing I'm going to do is hand embroider "YNana" on a corner square. I thought it would be nice for her when she is older to know I made it for her. :-)

I also made a cherry pie and ginger bread cookies for my hubby today. I found a great recipe for the ginger bread cookies on http://www.allrecipes.com/. It's my favorite recipe website. These cookies come out perfect every time. I also made a beef vegetable soup for dinner and it came out yummy. It's so easy, and I use just whatever is in my cabinet at the time. Throw it all together and cook until the flavors are all melded. Mmmmm... it's been a good cooking day too.

It has not, however, been a good work day. UGH! I have so much to do, I've put in so few hours lately and I absolutely have to get caught up!! So, we'll see how tomorrow goes. Hopefully I'll spend the day on work related things so I can get back to the business of sewing on my quilts.

Oh and I forgot the best part! In the midst of setting up my new craft area, I found two quilt tops my grandmother made. They are both hand pieced and appear to be pretty fragile. You have to understand, my grandmother was born in the late 1800's so these are very very old. I'm SO excited I found them!! I am going to find something to use for the backing and put them together. I found that my machine has some nice quilting stitches, and it will be fun to use them on the quilts. Yep, time to focus on work so I can get back to the fun!

And.... this coming weekend our church is having a conference that will last 5 days! We will get to hear TD Jakes and James Robison among others! It's going to be so good, and such a blessing! I have never heard either of them in person, we are super excited about that too. What a great way to start the year.

Still love living the Blessed Life!

~ Jessica

Christmas Thoughts

As we are coming upon the end of the year, I have had many thoughts about the past year. I think about the fact that I started this year unsure of who I really was supposed to be and with many worries and doubts and fears beyond measure.

I'm ending this year comforted by my Father, with no fear, no doubts and complete confidence in who He created me to be! It has been a fantastic year, full of many unexpected blessings!

And for now, I am excited to be preparing for the holidays. The shopping is almost done, with just a few things left. Most of those things are gift cards so they will be easy to get. I've ordered a smoked turkey, so the hard part of the meal is all taken care of for us. We'll be meeting at my daughter's house for gifts and a meal on Christmas day. It will be the first time in several years that we all, including the twin neices I raised, will be together. I can't wait! I am so very excited to celebrate with my children!

This will be a busy week for me. I'm going to work in the office the next 3 days since I don't have my little Addi until school starts back up in January. Tomorrow night I have a birthday party for a friend of mine, a girl's night out! I can't wait, I've been wanting one of those for a while now. :-) Then Wed morning we are having the carpets downstairs cleaned. Then finally the official start of our celebrations!

Christmas Eve we will meet family and friends at Campo Verde, a great mexican restaurant that has a train that goes around the whole restaurant. It's a family tradition, so we look forward to that meal every year. Then that evening we will go to the candlelight service at First Baptist Hurst. We don't go to church there anymore, but that service is also a tradition that we greatly enjoy.

Christmas Day we will get Jake from his mom at noon, then the babies at 2pm. We'll be home for Santa presents with the babies, and then off to Carrie's that evening for our family Christmas. Then on the 26th we'll go to Kiowa to share time with my hubby's family. On the 31st we have a New Year's eve service we'll attend and then maybe take the kids to Dave & Buster's or Main Event. We've done that in the past and it was a lot of fun. We are looking forward to every day we have with the babies!

We're also thinking about taking them to ICE! in Grapevine. This time of year we spend so much of it with family and cherishing our blessings... seems like we could be doing this much more often over the year instead of waiting until the end, don't you think?

So I've got my to do list written, chores are done, house is mostly clean, and I'm drinking my sleepy time tea before bed. Good night my friends... blessings to all of you....

"Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe as if you have recieved it, and it will be yours." Mark 11:24