Saying good bye to 2011

It's been quite a year. Spending time looking back on it makes me tired! lol. It was a busy year but full of great memories, family and dear friends. Here's to 2012! May it be another blessed year full of blessings from our Lord and Savior. When I think of a New Year I can't help but think about Ecclesiastes 3:1-14

Ecclesiastes 3

A Time for Everything

 ¹ There is a time for everything,
   and a season for every activity under the heavens:  ² a time to be born and a time to die,
   a time to plant and a time to uproot,
 ³ a time to kill and a time to heal,
   a time to tear down and a time to build,
 ⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh,
   a time to mourn and a time to dance,
 ⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
   a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
 ⁶ a time to search and a time to give up,
   a time to keep and a time to throw away,
 ⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend,
   a time to be silent and a time to speak,
 ⁸ a time to love and a time to hate,
   a time for war and a time for peace.
 ⁹ What do workers gain from their toil? ¹⁰ I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. ¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet^[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. ¹² I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. ¹³ That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. ¹⁴ I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.

 I am not a.. make a list of resolutions kinda of gal but thought this was cute..Pinterest!

Resolution posters

Happy New Year to one and all. May we all draw closer to our Lord and Savior in the coming days ahead.

Florida Christmas

Cassie and family spent Christmas with the Roley's down in Florida. Here is a little collage of my sweet grand babies.

CHRISTmas

Trying to get these blog posts that I have written late at night posted before the New Year! lol.

The Christmas season brought with it A Not So Silent Night Christmas Musical. The first our church has ever done and it was crazy busy fun! We had 23 children involved and all new costumes for each of them. Grace played a Scribe and Mary and Jeffrey was Palace Staff. We are still signing the songs.

Christmas day itself was quiet..which was good because after all the hustle and bustle of the last month I came down with a cold. It has knocked me on my hiney this past week but in all honesty I have needed to down time.

Two thousand- six hundred miles!

Well the cat is out of the bag and yes it's sad but true...Cassie and family will be living in Alabama. Happy to say the RW got a great job has a conductor with CSX RR. Yes a conductor. Cassie seems to living her childhood over with the Army and now RR life..wife! lol.

Needless to say I am HAPPY for the job. VERY SAD about where they will be living...Birmingham, Alabama! Cassie and I grumble about it which is good to be able to vent to one another. Broken hearted over not having the boys in our life. Just typing this makes me cry. Tonight David knowing I was on the phone was screaming and crying Gram ma because he wanted to talk to me. Be still my heart. Love those two boogers.

Oh and you know I mapped it out...2600 miles from my babies!! Please keep us all in prayer. We are just sad. Sad that distance has a way of hurting relationships. I know first hand having been an Army wife and living away so far away from family. We came home when Cassie was 8 which still gave her time to connect with family and I am so thankful for that.

I must remember..Isaiah 55:8-9; “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.

In a nut shell...

The last few months have been so very busy. We began home schooling this year and LOVE it! With the start of the school year also brings AWANA on a weekly basis. I am pleased to be the T&T director for a second year. Love the kids! We also started watching Silas three days a week. He belongs to our youth pastor and his wonderful wife. Love them so much. They are Cassie and RW's age and I have adopted them as my own. Silas has been good for us as we miss the boys so having a little one in the house brings my heart pure joy. Chelsea has been good for me as well. It's nice to be needed and me being a server..it's in my nature. Love being there for this dear family.

Back to home school really quick. This was a long time coming for me. And purely the Lord calling me to do this. I have to say I have never looked back. Funny when the Lord calls us to do something and we are obedient how wonderful things can be. Hmmm..Ephesians 6:1-3; Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.  “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise—  “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”. And thus obedience to our Heavenly Father as well. With home schooling through a charter school you are assigned an Education Facilitator (EF) I am happy to say we were Carla's first family and we could not be any happier. She is the niece of our pastor's wife..(small town) and what a blessing she is. We tell everyone "We Love Carla" and we are not kidding. It has been so nice having someone that is a believer, loves kids, loves teaching, funny, kind and all in all so sweet. We are blessed by her. Carla was also Grace's cross country coach. It was Grace's first year and she loves to run!

With home school also brought Grace taking guitar lessons and Jeffrey starting wrestling. I am still shocked about the wrestling ..but have to say a couple weeks off now and I can't wait for him to go back. Raising a boy as a single parent..hard and he needs to be able to expel his energy. I don't have any pictures of wrestling but here is a fun photo shoot we did with Grace and her new guitar.

We have been having fun over the last month getting our home school group together for a craft day. It is much needed and I long for those day as it not only is a great time for the kids to connect with their friends whom they were used to seeing on a daily basis. But, it is a time for me to connect with other Mom's. Not having a hubs around I find I need these day's more often.

26 years

Twenty-six  years ago today I married my best friend. I feel so blessed to have spent nineteen of those married. But, I also mourn the loss of what could have been. On our 18th anniversary Jeff wanted new wedding bands. He chose two beautiful silver bands. I remember just weeks before he went home he handed his ring to me because it no longer fit. But told me he always loved me and he always would. I miss you babe so very much.

I can say this. while the days flow into weeks and weeks in to months..months into years. One thing remains I still have an empty place in my heart. I was chatting with a friend the other day about how not having a spouse enables me to be there for others that I would not normally be able to do. I am thankful for that. My prayer everyday is to live and do for the Lord. But most of the time this ol' heart of mine is hanging by a thread. Loneliness can be crippling. It is by the grace of God that I get up and face each day. I miss the days of knowing just by having Jeff at my side everything would be okay. I miss that.