Some Things Never Get Old

Some things never get old.   No matter what your age.  

Driving through town and looking at all the Fall Foliage never gets old.

I cannot believe how beautiful this Thursday has been and the Friday is looking good with our highs in the 60's.  If you have  thought of visiting the Smokies, now would be a great time.  We went up there last Sunday with friends from church and the trees were pretty but they had not peaked.  A week later and everything is full of color. Praise the Lord.

Back to my post. ;)  

It never gets old carving pumpkins with the family.  We did just that  a few days ago.   I will share a funny story about that.   We drove out past the  lake to a farm that has a  pretty good business and a pumpkin patch. When we got there they had basically sold out of all their pumpkins.   So, I bought their  homemade pumpkin bread.  It was delicious but I wanted pumpkins not bread.

We were so far out that I decided to try another little town and we couldn't find any pumpkins for sale. When leaving this town we went the wrong way, around some scary turns and up a mountain on a very steep road.  Seriously, think about the movie, Deliverance.  Now you can picture where we were and I decided to turn around and go back the way we came.

After driving for what felt like 2 days, we made it back to our city which isn't that big but a metropolis compared to where we were and wouldn't you just know it,  we bought our  pumpkins at ........Wal Mart!  lol

We had Subway for dinner that night and we had our pumpkin carving contest.  We have been  doing this for so many years and it never gets old.




This movie comes on tonight and never gets old. I think I am a kid at heart. ;)

  

Richly Provides

1 Timothy 6:17 says that God richly provides everything for our enjoyment.   This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible.   God did just that for my friend and I this past weekend.

In our area we all love our football and especially the Vols.  It is so hard to get tickets to the game even when we are having a bad season. As in this season.  It is especially hard to get tickets when we play another SEC team.  Thursday evening my friend called me and told me we had tickets to the game. Friends of hers offered her two of their season tickets to the game.  If that wasn't exciting enough for us, the seats were on the lower half of the stadium. Given the size of the stadium that was a huge blessing.  So, we got to see Bama beat the stuffing out of the Vols.  lol    Even though we lost we had so much fun!

It was the first loss I have seen while watching in the stadium over the last 14 years. :(     This isn't so much about the football as it is that God granted a desire of mine to watch the Vols play Bama in Neyland stadium.  I have had this dream for over 20 years.  Only God could have richly provided this for us!!

I know someone may read this and care nothing about football or you may think I need to get bigger desires or dreams. lol     Trust me, I have bigger things I am praying about but it was such a delight from God and I wanted to give God some praise right on my blog.


Yesterday at church, we had a great discussion in Sunday school class as we ended our study in Jonah. Then during the worship hour, our pastor continued preaching a new sermon series on Praising God.  We  got to praise Him for specific things out loud during his sermon.  I loved listening to other people praising God, one woman in  particular gave praise to God for His provision for her mother.  A year ago  her mom came home from work and found that her house had burned down while her husband was inside and in one day she lost her husband and her home and all their belongings.  They had been married for 47 years!

She went on to share with us all the ways God provided for her mom during this time and how God still provides for her mom today!

I have seen God provide for my two sons and myself over these last 13 years since our divorce in ways that I cannot count.  Bills paid for, groceries provided for, healed of cancer, healed from a broken heart.  Just to name a few.  In between these hard times God also provided so many little things (really big things to me) that I never would have dreamed God would give me and my boys.

He cares about every part of our lives.  Even if we want to go to a football game , God provides.  When we need finances, God provides.  When we need healing, God provides. A friend, a car, a job, a home. God provides!   Protection, a vacation, Christmas for your children, God provides.

I have seen  it so many times in my walk with Him and God has never ever forsaken me and he will not forsake or forget you.  Someone reading this needs to know, God has not forgotten you!   Trust Him.

May God bless you with a wonderful week!

Lazy Saturday

I enjoy weekends so much and especially in the Fall.  It was a cold 46 degrees this morning and the sky is so blue with just a few clouds here and there and the trees are getting close to their peak.  I could seriously just stare at the trees for hours.

Today in the early morning when most of the house was asleep, I got up and messed around on the computer and drank coffee and then had my quiet time.



On Saturdays we have a family breakfast. My brother does most of the cooking but this morning I made homemade biscuits and gravy and we had bacon and sausage and my brother's infamous scrambled eggs. Our breakfasts vary but we all look forward to Saturday breakfasts.  There is nothing I like to cook better in my iron skillet than gravy to go on our homemade biscuits. Well, gravy and cornbread. Yummy. :-)  I am excited that Christmas falls on Saturday this year and we will have to go bigger on our Saturday breakfast on  Christmas morning  but that is another post.   70 days until Christmas! Yikes!

I must confess that I watched Elf Friday.  I love Christmas movies and by the time October rolls around it is time for Christmas movies and music.

After breakfast we did a little birthday shopping for my father and then we came home and I got my jammies on and settled in to watch SEC football.  Which is what I am still doing.

I have potatoes baking in the oven and I love that smell and it is time to grill.  So, I hope your Saturday has been fun and relaxing .  We are starting a new sermon series tomorrow at church, 40 Days of Praise.  I am looking forward to it.   Have a blessed Sunday!

Things That Make You Smile

There are just things in life that make you smile.  This will be part 1 of I am not sure how many parts but I am going to be posting things that just make me smile. :)


The first few things I will mention today are these:

Hot Caramel Apple Cider drink from Starbucks

Eating hot wings and watching the VOLS play football on a Saturday afternoon. (even though we stink right now)

Snoopy.  I love this dog.  :)

Watching the Golden Girls. :)

More to come.  

I hope you are having a great week. It's almost the weekend.  

Celebrating Today!

Today is my oldest son's 22nd birthday!  



My day started with something like this:

I got up to eat breakfast and watch Regis and Kathie Lee at 9:00.   At  9:30  I started feeling like I had to go to the bathroom.  The pain got worse and I tried calling my husband at work. He was working his 2nd job as an EMT and he answered my call.  He lost my call in the chaos and tried to get me back but after he couldn't get my call he drove home.    Insert:  I had no idea that for a few months my water had been leaking and I was full blown into labor.   I had been bed ridden for months as a high risk pregnancy.

Anyway, we got to the hospital in 2 seconds give or take and by the time they got me into a room,  I was ready to push. It caught the nurses and my doctor off guard. No time for an epidural or anything, the doctor made it in the room in time for me to push.  I had my first son and he weighed a whopping 5 lbs.  He was 3 weeks early.   We were proud parents.  We lived in upstate New York and no family was able to be there but it was a special time.   This is the best part:  Between the labor and the delivery was only 20 minutes!!!  Praise the Lord!!!   :))

It is hard to believe I have a son who is 22 years old.  Tonight we are celebrating by going out to eat and he asked me to make his cake.  Speaking of which,  I need to go and make my icing and decorate the cake.

He is not big on his picture being taken but I am taking my camera tonight and hopefully I will have pictures to share tomorrow.

I hope you are having a great day!

Thankful

This will be a short post but I wanted to thank God for a gorgeous week! We are having a sunny and warm day in October.  The leaves are beginning to show more reds and orange and against a clear blue sky, you just can't get any prettier than that!

It has been a busy week but I am thankful for the weekend

Thankful ....

That my   house is clean and laundry is almost finished


 For daily provisions from God


 For my family


New beginnings


Pumpkins


Orange sunrises


Sunsets


Cooler temps

Friends


My church family


Quiet time in God's Word


Early morning time before the rest of the family wakes up


coffee and coffee creamer 


Football 


Friday night dinner with the family


My swing/hammock(where I plan on being soon)  :) 


I am thankful for you.  Thankful for your visits and comments.


Have a fun weekend and many many blessings to you and your family!

I Heart October

It's October and the weather has been so cool over the last few days and it was down right cold this morning.  Love. It.

This past weekend started out so nice.  A sunny and gorgeous Saturday. Family breakfast.  We worked in the yard.  We made tacos for lunch.  Then it got ugly.  If you are not a football fan just please check out for a second because I need to write this so I can come back in a year and reread this and remember it's just football. :)   The Vols lost to LSU in the very last second of the game on 2 controversial calls.  Later to find out that 4 of the 7 refs were suspended a year ago in the Florida/Arkansas game.  The ending was confusing and my heart  hurt for our young team but they will learn in life that many worse things can happen and you deal with adversity and move on.  The end. :)

Sunday we had a great service and small groups on Sunday night. I love small groups.  It is a great way to meet and learn more about other members that you normally wouldn't sit with etc...and God is blessing our groups.

October is a fun month for us. My oldest son will be 22 in a few weeks.  I cannot believe that and it seems like yesterday that he was born.  I am not sure how we will celebrate but I am sure it may involve Olive Garden.

My brother and son's Sunday school class is going to an apple orchard/pumpkin patch/restaurant in a few weeks and  I am tagging along.  It is in the Smokies and it should be peak time for the leaves!  I plan on taking many pictures to share with you all.  I am probably going  to go up there before then to get a few early shots of Fall.  Hopefully when it is less crowded.

This is also the time where I am going to buy a few mums and pumpkins and finish decorating my front porch. I enjoy driving around and looking at how other people have decorated their front porches for this season.

As I was running errands, I noticed the leaves at the top of the trees are beginning to change a beautiful red and orange and yellow.  So pretty.  I am thankful that I live where we do because it is one of the best places to be during Fall.

Also in October our church has our Homecoming service.   It is this Sunday and I am trying to decide what to cook and take and I can't wait to have my friend's chicken and dumplins' (as we say in the South) . ;)

Okay, time to hop off of here as I have ordered pizza for dinner and it should be here soon.

I hope your October has started off great~~