Choice

One last quote on 'Choice':

"Life is the sum of all your choices." ~Albert Camus

OM[old stuff] Giveaway!

Okay - so I [still] have bunch of stuff that needs to GO -

and I'm really tired of seeing the OMG abbreviation everywhere

[I try hard to make my mind read 'oh my goodness!]

So am hoping that we might also come to think of it as

'Once a Month [old stuff] Giveaway!

I plan to randomly draw a name from the comments on this post and send that person a little bag of goodies that hopefully they can use

[new to them and all, you know...]
It's been a full and happy month for us - with lots of posts - just browse through the blog and leave a comment about your favorite post from DECEMBER.

Comments will close on Thursday night January 7th

at midnight [central.]

And the Winner for November is:

Patty said...
I also hate seeing OMG everywhere. I do the same thing you do and think of it as oh, my goodness. Thanks for the chance to win!
November 30, 2009 7:02 PM

Patty - send your mailing address to me

Judy@faithbasedpages.com

and I'll get a little box of goodies out to you soon!

Merry Christmas from Alabama

It's been another very busy week around here [so - so very happy that I didn't have to go to Montgomery two days this week -] We seemed to have let Christmas preparations slid to the back burner... so we've been shopping, and planning, and cooking, and shopping, and cooking, along with working all day each day - and we had a night out with friends as well... whew!

These next few days should be filled to the brim with family goodness. Hope you enjoy your Christmas holiday and make the effort to set aside time to worship our King...

Scroll down to get the link if you want to watch --

Today's the day! But, it's a rainy one...

There are changes going on in our lives right now -

Our oldest graduates from college IN JUST A FEW DAYS - and that’s hitting me with a whole slew of ‘life moves on’ kind of feelings…and if you add in my old companion, Anxiety, I can be off on a roller coaster ride of up and down emotions in about the same amount of time it takes for a fire cracker to *POP!*

Oh, how I want the best for him as enters a new phase in his life, how I want him to hear God’s voice and follow the guidance that the Great I AM can give, and how, once again, I know that I’m not the one to make these decisions for him. So I have to turn to my Lord and [as always] turn all my concerns over to Him. I am so thankful that He sees [AND KNOWS] the big picture of our lives – and I trust Him. I know He holds my babies in the palm of His hand...

Graduation is Friday - you can go here http://www.auburn.edu/communications_marketing/graduationlive/ to watch it live. It will boot up at 1:45 and graduation starts at 2. Drew is in the School of Engineering and they will NOT be called in alphabetical order - it'll be a hodgepodge of names - if you watch, you'll probably have a better seat than me...

Taking a Moment

Many of you know that we have a very busy week - Craig is cooking BBQ for his office party [an all night feat, or maybe two, depending on what all he cooks-] and I'm working out of town three days before we head to Auburn to see our oldest baby graduate [more on that later] And it's the Christmas season and not only have we not started shopping, we're not even sure what we might be looking for when it comes to gifts! So things have been rushed and hurried as we've made our plans... getting ready for the week - But we took a little time this weekend and enjoyed friends and fellowship and time to worship - Saturday night we met our camping buddies for dinner and a movie [the Blind Side - oh so good!] and then Sunday night we enjoyed 'Carols for Christmas' at Trinity Methodist - a community effort of worship.A celebration of our reason for celebration - the birth of our Savior. Let's make an effort to slow down for a moment each day as we go through this season and reflect on the Greatest Gift of All.

And, if you're a scrapbooker - here's the challenge for the month
[I can't wait to see your pages!]:

Theme: What Christmas Means to Me

[Scrap lift from Scrapbooks Etc. Nov / Dec 2009, p.20]

Highlight your beliefs surrounding the Christmas season -

Must include: two-toned title, hand cut and decorated tree, lined paper, sewing on the page, and journaling about your Christmas beliefs

Scripture: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

Creative Fun!

I've been playing whenever I can find the time - things have been busy around here, so those times have been few and far between. But I wanted to share -- and remind-- that the Thanksgiving card challenge will come to an end TOMORROW -
here are the ones I made.
I'll admit that I'm not much of a card maker - but I really do want to do more with the leftovers from my scrapbooking...
I've also been playing around with my altered art - or trash art - all made from leftovers from around my craft space - I do really love these -all prayers are from a little book I picked up at a thrift store -
Oh and one more that I love - it's been sent to a friend and
I hope she likes it too -
I actually went back and did a purple 'wash' over the words to finish it off -

On the 9th day of Christmas

I was relaxing at home watching my very favorite tv show on dvr [Modern Family] when we heard a commotion outside and what did we find?

okay, so I doctored it up a bit with picnik [remember, free, on-line.]
Here's the original:
Had a very productive two days in Montgomery - there's still busy days ahead...

Happy st. nick's Day!

[an edited repeat from past years...]

How do you feel about Santa Claus?

Pere Noel, Christkindle, Father Christmas, Kriss Kringle, Sinterklas,

St. Nicholas

I was first introduced to St. Nicholas as a freshman in college when my dear friend Grace [whose grandparents on both sides of her family came to the US from the Netherlands] put a wooden shoe, filled with candy, outside my door on December 6^th. [Still have that shoe, btw.]

I’ve loved the idea of St. Nicholas ever since!

There’s a lot of fact and folklore about him today, but most believe he was a real person and that the idea of Santa Claus came from the acts of goodwill that he did.

Here’s a link that tells his story briefly.
I’ve always wanted to have “Santa Claus” visit our boys on December 6^th and keep Christmas sacred [or, practically --at least spread out the gift-receiving a little for them], but differed to C’s wishes. So instead, for the last 22 years, our boys have always received a chocolate Santa on December 6^th. [Granted there were some years when I was out at 5 a.m. to get these Santas because of our crazy schedule! – but it was done!] This year we mailed two giant one pound versions off to college to hopefully sustain their energy through exams

So, again, Happy St. Nicholas Day to you!

At our house Santa has always been pretend.

Our boys were never taught he was real, but more just a character of the secular celebration of Christmas [kind of like Mickey Mouse – celebration of magical place] who left gifts for them on Christmas morning. They’ve always known that Mom and Day were “Santa.” We’ve had a few Santa photos through the years [we have those Mickey ones too!] and we’ve had fun with it, but have always, always tried to help our boys see that
Jesus truly is the reason we have anything at all to celebrate in this life.
We hope that in the midst of all the hustle and bustle of the Christmas Season you can take the time to see a tiny baby lying in a manger who died so we might live eternally.
What a hope we have because of Him!

"I Believe" Support Group

[Just watched the cute DDP commercial]


But I guess we do believe in snow today!
Since I went to bed as non-believer
[as usual when our weather men predict snow]
it was a very nice surprise
to wake up to a light snow covering our yard.

Encyclopedia of Your Ordinary Life - A

EDIT: WOW and DOUBLE WOW! The last letter of my EOYOL album
- and kind of neat that the year ends with "A" and AUburn.
Keep in mind this album was completed in 2007
- and here we are in 2009 looking forward to Drew graduating from AU in two weeks!
We're so very proud of him!
A few years ago I had the opportunity to complete this extraordinary scrapbook album designed by CathyZ and based on the book, Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life by Amy Rosenthal. While I still haven't read the book, I love the concept of this album - a random sampling of those ordinary facts about your life [my life.] The homework involves keeping a list, A to Z, of random memories for several weeks and then gathering photos [or not] to support these memories. Love it. The album is really very simple [a la Cathy Z] and easy to put together with only two square photos per page and two to four 'definitions.' Have I said I love this album? And I want to share some of my life with you so I've committed to do just that in 2009 [keep in mind this was completed during the summer of 2007.] I'm going backwards and today I present: A

ARTIST

Could I be? I love paper products, paint, photography, and all things crafty. And I enjoy pulling it all together to create a little joy in life. I took art lessons very briefly as a child [so glad to give up piano lessons] and I really enjoyed it. I’m not sure why I didn’t continue. Then I took a basic art class in college and ended up dropping it because I was so confused by the lingo the teacher used. There are times I wish I’d stayed with it and learned some basic design concepts, so I’ve enjoyed learning about and applying these techniques to my scrapbook layouts. I think I might be artsy, but an ARTIST, I’m not so sure…

AUBURN

The University that both our boys plan to attend [Drew as a transfer student in the Fall of ’07, and Matt as a freshman in the Fall of ’08.] Auburn is located in South Alabama and is about 3 ½ hours from our home. They have a wonderful engineering school that both boys and their friends are interested in attending. So happy we secured an apartment directly across the street! This is where my money, but more importantly, MY HEART , will be for the next five or six years. …War Eagle!

AESOP’S FABLES

Stories told by Aesop, a cleaver Greek slave who made animals talk and act like human beings, “to point a moral without hurting anybody’s feelings.” This was one of our favorite books when we were young. On hot summer days we would take it to the side porch and Lorna would ‘direct’ us as we acted out the different stories. Favorites were: “Country Mouse – City Mouse” [Crusts eaten in peace are better than cake eaten in fear,] and “The Eagle and the Crow” [Know yourself! Do not undertake more than you are able.]

We got the Christmas

decorations out last night - just a couple of photos to share:

Choice

Peace of mind & happiness go hand in hand.
"Peaceful" does not mean 'passive;'
it involves highly conscious choices that help you
grow in self-confidence & maturity.
Make three choices that will support a more peaceful way of living.
Write them down.
Talk about them.
Live them.