Praise God for His Love

My mother, grandmother and I sat and stared out the window at the trees swaying in the breeze. My mother said she had heard someone say that the trees are singing and praising God with outstretched arms. I knew I had heard this somewhere before and found it:
"You will live in joy and peace. The mountains and hills will burst into song, and the trees of the field will clap their hands!" Isaiah 55:11

In reading this one verse I read the whole chapter: Isaiah 55 "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander of the peoples. Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations that do not know you will hasten to you, because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor." Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the LORD's renown, for an everlasting sign, which will not be destroyed."God's blesses those who seek Him. If we allow God to reign in our lives we will have peace and comfort in troubled times because we know that God is in control. We do not always understand God's plans because they are His plans not ours. We ask for His help when we are weary. Do we spend time with God allowing Him to comfort us or do we get so caught up in our worries that we forget that God is in control? God wants us to live a life of joy and peace, a life free from worry. When we are sad we need to look for God in the situation and He will give us rest. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30

As I finish my thoughts I want to share one more verse, Philippians 4:6-9. "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you."

Right now I know there are many struggling with jobs, money, illness, loss, etc. With all that is wrong in the world and in our own lives if we do not know Christ then life could be very depressing. For my friends who have not found the awesome peace that God has for you, I pray that you seek it. For my friends and family who know of the peace but sometimes forget that God is there for you, I pray that you seek Him in everything you do. For my family dealing with the illness of our loved ones, I pray everyday for God to give comfort.

Family and Friends I love you! May you all find the joy and peace that God has for you. May you rise up and sing like the mountains and clap your hands like the trees, praising God for all that He is and all that He has promised.

1st Tball Games of the Season

Tonight were the boys first t-ball/baseball games of the season. I want to start off by saying THANK YOU to Melydia for helping me out with getting the boys to their games. They were both at the same park at the same time but one was in the east section and one was in the west. So Melydia help me get the boys where they needed to go. I started out at T's game. They are the Blue Claws. He hit off a pitch and got on base. He made it all the way around and when he got back to home he threw his arms out and did a celebration dance. When it was their turn in the field T did his share of running for the ball but when he got bored he danced... Melydia said while she was watching him his hat was on in 20 different directions. He is such a goof off. The I got to go watch Caleb. He plays 3rd base because he is the only one on his team who can throw the ball all the way to 1st. His age group mixes girls and boys and on his team there are more girls than boys... 2 boys! I have to keep reminding myself that it is only for one year and then he is on an all boys team. Anyway, Caleb also hits off a pitch. Melydia said his first hit was right to first base. I think Caleb said he got tagged out. His second hit was straight to 3rd base. So he was safe and actually scored a run... but they don't keep score in these games. He takes his 3rd base position seriously. It's just to bad that all of the balls are usually hit straight to the pitcher in tball. Next year will be fun because it will be more serious but I will miss the silliness of tball :)

Today

This morning started out with waffles, made by Jake (he is our official waffle/pancake/ french toast man. Jake had to go to the school to work on straightening his classroom and preparing a powerpoint presentation for his capstone project. The kids and I took a walk down the street to a neighbors yard sale. Caleb stocked up on Star Wars figures, Taylor got a Transformer gun thingy and I got an art desk!!!! I was so excited when I saw it. I have wanted one of these for years and there it was. It now sits in our kitchen waiting for me to get creative. I put it beside Jake's computer so I can do my hobby while he plays his video game. I have not painted anything in a couple of years so I would love to break out the paints soon. For now I am working on making hair bows and a picture frame for an FCA Raffle.

The rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning the house and running to Lowes to get some heavy duty gloves and a wasp trap. The gloves are to wear while I work on refinishing our new dining chairs. Jake's grandfather and dad passed a dining table and chairs on to us. The dining table is beautiful! The chairs had some minor wear and moisture damage so we will spend the next few weeks/months making them look new again.

Our day was finished off with some relaxing with friends by a campfire! We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows... we made Smores... yum!! It was so much fun. I can't wait until this summer when we can do stuff like this any day of the week.

On a different note. My grandmother Barber needs prayers. Her health is not good. Also please pray for the whole family... especially my mom, her sister and brothers.

Praters Mill Walk

Today was Jake's day off. He is not teaching, he is not here doing daddy/husband stuff. It is his day to relax. He is with a friend. They started the day off by going to a PGA Golf store somewhere near Atlanta. After Jake has had his swing analyzed and has done his window shopping they will be heading to the golf course. The last time Jake played a round of golf was in the summer of 2007, I think. So he should be having a lot of fun right now :) hahaha. The kids and I started our day by going for a nice walk around the loop at Praters Mill. It is a nature walk that goes along the river. It was a bit chilly but we were prepared and we really enjoyed our time together. When we began our walk Caleb stopped by the water and said mommy can we pray here? Of course we stopped and prayed, thanking God for the weather, the beautiful nature we were surrounded by, and then Caleb added to the end, "Please be with daddy today and do not let him get hit with a golf club." I wish I could record his prayers because he can come up with some fun stuff :)

We are home now and the boys are finishing up their game time before they head outside to play with the neighbor kid. I think I will go out and rescue some hostas and lilies. I planted them last fall in a place that I thought would make a great flower bed. I did not realize that the neighbor kids would be tramping through that area and pulling up plants and breaking the trees we planted. So today I will begin rescure efforts to save my plants. I will begin the yard work so that Jake can mow the grass when he gets home... he promised he would! I usually mow the grass, I enjoy the quite time in the sun but Jake has told me he wants to do it today so I will step aside and let him :) I guess I need to go make sure the oil filter is clean and that there is enough gas for him to mow the whole yard!

A visit with our cousins

This past weekend we traveled up to Nashville to spent some time with our cousins. We had a great time visiting, watching the kids play, going to the zoo, and making Easter cookies. Tracey shared an Easter tradition with us called Resurrection eggs. There were 12 eggs, each egg contained a small item that represented a part of the Easter story. As we opened them one by one the kids were read the story and asked to tell what the items meant. It was such a neat way to teach the children about the love that Jesus has for us.

Im Back

As you can see it has been a while since my last post. I think that is about the time I found Facebook. But as I look back over my blog post I realized how different it is from just posting photos on facebook. With a blog you get the full story behind the photos. So here I am attempting to catch up. This is the shortened version of our lives from September 2008 until March 2009.

September
The weather was nice, Caleb turned 6, T had his first dentist appointment, we went to a festival in Cleveland GA with grandma and papa Burt, and we went to a Civil War Reenactment at Tunnel Hill.October
The kids and I went with Melydia and Lisa S to a Pumpkin Farm, we went to Fort Mountain and hiked to the overlook, the kids and I went with grandma and papa Burt to the Cowboy festival in Cartersville GA, we took the kids trick or treating around the neighborhood and then went to Sonic for icecream (we go out for icecream every Halloween).
November
We went to visit great grandpa and grandma Barber.
December
We went to Jake B's birthday party at the bowling alley, I went with Caleb's class to a Christmas tree farm, I took T and Taryn to Caleb's class Christmas party, We got our new tv, we did Christmas at home, the kids and I went to Montgomery to visit the great grandpa and grandma Burt and aunt Olivia. While we were in Montgomery the kids raked leaves and used the leaf blower. Aunt Olivia took us to see the lights at the zoo. Caleb, T and aunt Olivia rode a camel. The next day we took the kids to the kids museum at Shakesphere park.

January
We went to my parents house. Sam and Rose were there and brought the game RISK. We stayed up late playing. Dad ultimately won with world domination!
February
We went to the Chattanooga Aquarium and I took T and Taryn to Caleb's valentines party.
March
Caleb had his first school performance (he was a white duck). We went to visit grandma and papa Burt and went bowling. Taryn had her 2nd birthday!