Christmas IS Merry.

Greetings Friends!

It seems like my last post in September was just a month ago.  It is hard to believe that we have celebrated Thanksgiving and in a few short days we will celebrate Christmas and then it's off into the new year.  My, oh my, how time flies!

 

I wanted to share with you a favorite Christmas ornament of mine. Meet my adorable sheep. 

 



 

 

In the front he holds a birthday cake that reads 'Happy Birthday Jesus' and in his back he holds a gift with a tag that reads 'For My Shepherd.'  Each year as I unwrap my sheep from his box, I get a smile and it's a BIG smile. I think the ornament reminds me that I am a sheep in desperate need of a Shepherd.  My little sheep reminds me why we are celebrating Christmas.  It IS Jesus' birthday. 

He came as an infant in the most humble way.  A King in a manger.  His birthday reminds me that He came to set all free and in years to come He would take the wrath of God that was meant for me upon a cross.  My Shepherd leads me in dark times with his Word and reminds me that His Word is the light I need. 

 

As you and your family prepare to Celebrate this birthday I hope you remember this gift of love, peace, and joy in the manger.

 

Merry Christmas!

With a Smile, Sarah

 

If I could see you I would ask...Do you have a favorite ornament? I would love to see or hear about it.  How do you remember the gift of Jesus at Christmas?

Sweetness of Summer

Like the saying goes..."all good things must come to an end" Our summer has ended and I am having a hard time dealing with that.  This summer was usually wonderful.  Don't get me wrong, most summers are like that...wonderful. However, this summer had a special sweetness to it that I wanted to savor longer.  I think much had to do with our stage in life.  My oldest is in Junior High and my youngest is currently being home schooled with an online academy.  See, this summer was a resting place before transitions.   I wanted to have the Lord hedge in our family and keep our times simple and sweet.  Boy! Oh, boy! He did just that! 

Here is my sweet 'summer summary'...

 

My dear Peyton loves the pool.  Always has.  This summer with the Olympics she is dreaming BIG and wants to be in Rio as a swimmer in 2016.  So cool to hear her dreams and see her in the pool.

 

 

My bubbly Maya won her division in softball! She was thrilled as was her dad and coach.  Such a joy to watch her try a new sport and work hard to learn it.

 

 

My best friend and hubby who inspires me each day! He set his mind in February 2012 to do a Sprint and Olympic Triathlon.  And yes he completed each this summer.  An encouragement for me to watch him meet goals.  Next goal Ironman 2013!

 

 

Our family trip to Custer, South Dakota was indeed the highlight of summer.  Basking in the beauty of God's glory...

 

 

swimming in the coolest place 'ever'...

 

 

playing Spot It our new family favorite...

 

 

being ever grateful for the foundation of America and the freedoms we know...

 

 

and loving on these two ladies.  It is a blessing to be called their mom!

 

 

After Custer we got to experience a day in the life of Laura Ingalls.  Maya enjoyed each moment of the school house.  The girls and I adore the Little House on the Prairie series.

 

 

Other moments were spent on the water tubing with friends and family.  Just being silly and having fun!

 

 

And of course my Junior High camp experience.  I even blogged about my panic and God was so good this week.  Not just to me but these precious girls of his.

 

 

 

There you have it...my 'summer summary.'  I miss it already but I hold this summer close to my heart and I thank God for all that he did this summer!

 

What about your summer? I would love to hear what your high were or even your lows.

 

With a Smile, Sarah

 

Linking with the awesome ladies of SDG

 



fifteen. and a dream guy.

I remember being at a slumber party when I was about 14 and the question was asked amongst the group, "Who is your dream guy?"

I recall being embarrassed that I didn't have an answer to this question.
Dream Guy? Really, I am suppose to be thinking about a dream guy at 14?! I was already consumed with correctly wearing Forenza and Outback Red gear that thinking about a 'dream guy' didn't appear on my 14 year old radar!
I knew I wanted someone, eventually, in my life that loved me and cherished me.  Someone who treated me with kindness and maybe purchased me a few diamonds and cute shoes along the way.  In my thinking...what girl wouldn't want that.
I was not thinking what my girlfriends were that night.  "Doctor!" replied one.  "Rich." another.  "Massive muscles." another said dreamily. "Tall, dark and handsome." chimed another.

Little did I know that God placed my 'dream guy' right underneath my nose.

Here is Matt. (photo circa 1989)

He is tall.  He is not dark. (He slathers on more sunscreen than I use in a year :)  With his electric blue eyes and genuine smile I find him irresistibly attractive!

We were family friends because of our parents. We did life together long before we knew what doing life really meant.  And, somewhere in between family camping, water skiing, and college Matt became my 'dream guy.' (See? Right under my nose)  We dated for almost 7 years before he popped the question and we were married on August 9, 1997.

This year marks our 15 year wedding anniversary!  There is only one reason why I am so crazy about my dream guy...

For this reason this bride and bridegroom give thanks

to the LORD Almighty for the LORD is good;

 his love endures forever.

Jeremiah 33:11 

Being married has called me to confront my selfishness.  Marriage is no longer 'what I want' because there is another person to consider.  I can't blame or get angry with Matt because of my own ugly attitude or disappointments in life because they are not Matt's to deal with.  Admitting my selfishness, disappointments and ugliness is a humbling and hard job.  Being married has taught me a self-less love.

Self-less love is what Christ shows us in the Gospels.  I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10)  My study bible notes, "Life in Christ is lived on a higher plane because of his overflowing forgiveness, love, and guidance." (NIV study bible)  Good advice for any relationship, especially marriage!

I believe it is this LOVE that has held and is holding our marriage together! I am more in love with Matt today only because I am more in love with a gracious, merciful, and faithful King who shows me what LOVE is.

Getting here has not been easy.  Marriage is work.  I know we are not done working at our marriage. What I do know is that because of the self-less love that Christ models we can do marriage because he works within us. 

I have my dream guy.  He is not rich, nor a doctor.  He is not dark or ripped with muscles.  Matt loves and cherishes me because of Christ.  That's all this girl wants and the diamonds or shoes are just the cherry on top ;)

The girls and I made a video to celebrate our anniversary.  Click  Anniversary Video 

If married, how long have you been married?  What has your marriage taught you?

With a Smile,

Sarah

Linking with SDG













Camp Re-cap

6 days have come and gone.  I read my last post and I have to laugh.  I mean really.  Who is the junior higher? Me or them?
Camp was wonderful! God is good all the time and all the time God is good! Allow me to share... 

Despite the lack of sleep. (Although, I am all for someone to invent a new mattress for camps to use.  One that is comfy, sterile, and doesn't sink to the wood plank.)  God gave me at least 5 hours of sleep to help get me through the 16 hour days.  2 AM walks to the bathroom.  Err, not so bad.  Sharing a shower with teen girls?  Well, as long as you can remind them of some basic 'rules' like pick up your own hair from the floor; it's all good after that.  While the coffee may not have been freshly brewed it was available often and early!  Thankfully camp offered a salad bar option at lunch and dinner so plenty of fruits and veggies!  Quiet time? Actually, yes!

Camp was a really sweet time to get to know these young ladies better.  I am glad I went.  The LORD did protect and keep me.  All for his glory!

 To give you a glimpse of my 6 days, I came up with my 5 Favorite Sayings while at camp.  ENJOY!

5.  While horseback riding my horse was bit by a horse fly.  To which one of my campers said to me, "Isn't it ironic that they are called horse flies"  Hmmm?
4.  "You mean if I am not going to eat it I shouldn't take it?"  While going through the line at dinner time.
3.  "Who took my ____________?" And after a few minutes, "Oh, never mind I found it." Buried in the suitcase...
2.  "What smells?"  Umm...it might be the stinky pond shoes, the wet musty towel, or your arm pits. 
1.  There is always that one camp song that gets into the head of campers.  This week was no exception.  "Whoo, Whoo, Whoo, you're everlasting love is reaching, reaching, reaching out to me..."

With a Smile,
Sarah

Reflections and Blessings

In an earlier post I had shared a verse that my family is trying to use as a source of encouragement when life hands it's ups and downs.  It was our way of trying something new. Instead committing to a New Year's Resolution we are committing a verse to memory.  Here is the verse from Psalm 29:10-11...

The Lord sits over our home.

The Lord is enthroned

as King forever.

The Lord gives strength to our family.

The Lord blesses Matt, Sarah, Peyton and Maya with peace.

I recently had the chance to reflect on this verse and how it has helped in our lives.  Since it is 6 months into 2012 I went back to remember when we've see God's hand or cried for his help.

January

All is new when you start out the year.  Through birthday celebrations and a family Greek wedding, January certainly brought us God's peace and joy.

February

This month we were busy with Maya's ANNIE play, beating the doldrums of school, the winter blahs, and joyously welcomed our niece/cousin Catherine Faye into the world on leap day!  God sat in our home with wisdom and provisions that would have gone unnoticed if it weren't for this verse.

March

SPRING BREAK is on our mind!  Our annual trek to Florida with some dear friends proved to be well needed family time and enjoyment.  The Lord gave us strength and precious measures of blessings.

April

During this month Matt and I needed to be reminded of who sat over our home.  We went through some medical concerns with our daughter and needed to remember that God indeed has her best interest.  The end of the month brought the girls' dance recital where it is wonderful to watch the blessings that God has given them.

May

A difficult month.  A month filled with emotion and frustration.  In amidst of all that God was here.  He sat over our home for protection.  He was enthroned during difficult conversations and in the end gave us peace.

We are still working in June :)  but how awesome to see his work and to feel his love in our life.  No, it hasn't been easy and we certainly have had tears.  However, reflecting these last few month and using Psalm 29 to help shape our thoughts has brought joy and hope.

Take a moment and reflect on what God has done or is doing in your lives over the last few months.  I bet, like me, you will see how richly he blesses you and gives you peace.

With a Smile,

Sarah

Linking with Jen and the great women of SDG

Remembering When

Remember When...

Do you remember when we went to the American Girl Store when I was seven?

And going to the "Dora" show and getting the back pack?

Do you remember when we went to the Country Club for the

American Girl tea party? And when Maya was born I sat with you

to hold her?

Do you remember when we were at my conference in 3rd grade and Mrs. Rubel farted?

Making my sea turtle in 4th grade?

When you and the family came to my pre-school circus?

Do you remember when we went exploring together?

You came to my share day in Kindergarten?

The time we went to Madison to have 'the talk?'

These are the special memories I have of you.

Happy Mother's Day!

This is the poem I received from my 12 year old daughter, Peyton, on Mother's Day.

I cried when I read it.  I do remember all these times.(And many more!) 

It does my heart good to know that she does too and she holds them special. 

As a parent, I often find myself remembering the moments where I lost my temper and yelled or slammed a door.  Or the time I left a grocery cart, full of groceries, in the middle of the aisle because of a screaming toddler.  And, yes, the proverbial saying that every mother says through her clenched teeth, "JUST-WAIT-UNTIL-YOUR-FATHER-COMES-HOME!"  As if that ever helped my dear daughters stop the undesired behavior! Can you relate?

And then one day, out of the blue, you get a poem like this; that let's you know YOU HAVE made a difference despite the sinful nature in us.  That your child DOES remember and despite the fact that she rolls her eyes each time we tell her "NO" to a cell phone she still holds special memories of her and I.  That just makes me smile. BIG smile.

How was your Mother's Day? Any thoughts shared by your loved ones to make you feel like you've done the job right?

PS: Peyton peeked at this posted and said that I need to let her know how many 'likes' it got.  I had to remind her that this was a blog and not Facebook.  (LOL)



Writing MoJo

I have been journaling for years.  I have at least a dozen journals going back to 1996!  (Perhaps you can call me a closet blogger) I write feelings, notes, prayers, things I am grateful for, questions, and answers to questions.  You can mostly find me writing in the morning but really if the moment begs a thought...I will write it.

I'll let you in on a secret.  I hated writing. I used to find writing painful.  During my freshman year of college I had an English professor by the name of Anders.  Anders sat me down in her office about mid way into the semester and told me I was a horrible writer.  She told me I had no voice, no fluency, no ingenunity and I wrote way too many sentence fragments.

Nice...huh?  Anders words scarred me and it bothered me that she never taught me what good writing was.

It wasn't until Leaver came into my life that I thought differently about writing.  Not Leaver the soap but Mr. Leaver.  Leaver taught English 102.  I decided to meet with Leaver right away so I could tell him about my struggles with writing.  On the way to his office I remember telling myself not to get worked up...  "You did pass English 101 and you can only do better."  I had brought him some older English papers to read so he could see my terrible writing.  Sitting there in his office brought back painful memories and I am pretty sure my palms were sweaty.  After reading the papers, he removed his glasses and looked at me and replied, "These papers are not terrible."

What? Can you repeat?

He continued with, "You have interesting ideas and voice. If anything needs some work it may be punctuation and we will go over that in class."  I sat stunned in silence.  Oh, what sweet music to my ears and my heart!  My writing mojo was back.  Take that Anders!

Have you ever gotten discouraging advice? What did you do? How have you overcome 'bad' words that someone may have said to you?