I have been tagged!

Hey everyone! I have a lot of fun stuff going on here lately and here is another!
JoAnna from JoAnna's Creative Expressions has tagged me.
I have got to list 7 random things about myself so here it goes!

1. I love to go camping(yes the real kind, in a tent!).
2. I have messy closets most of the time.(even though I am Mrs. Organized!)
3. I LOVE me a good Java Chiller from Sonic(try it if you haven't)
4. I love to color with my kids, it relieves my stress.
5. I have never been to Florida.
6. My favorite place to eat out is Chinese.
7. My favorite thing in the whole world to do is to put on my P.J. pants and a tee-shirt and veg out on the couch with my husband & kids to watch a good movie!

Now I want to tag:
1. Jeni
2. Aprille
3. Misty
4. Tobey & Lem
5. and last Terri

"You Cheer Me Up" Award!

I want to say a HUGE thank you to Terri at Hearts In Service for nominating me for the "You Cheer Me Up" award! I really put my heart into encouraging other women/moms and it was really nice to get this!



Here are the instructions for the award:

"If you are a recipient of the "You Cheer Me Up" Award, please find the blogs that cheer you up, copy the code to post on your sidebar and pass Ethel and Lucy across the blogosphere. You can use what cheers you up in your post, or copy this one, but please send your award receipients back to the original post on "A Nice Place In the Sun" to get a copy of the award code, post the image and read the instructions. I want to try to maintain a page of original and ongoing award recipients, so feel free to let me know if you've received an award when you pick up the image code."

I would like to nominate a few of my bloggy friends!

First is Melissa at I Am Beautiful!
She really has encouraged me to realize that God loves me just the way I am and to know that I am beautiful! Thanks Melissa!

Aprille at Aprille's Weight Loss Journal
You have inspired me to walk my way to health and you are a great friend!

Misty at Perspective from the Pastor's Wife
I am so blessed to have you as my Pastor's Wife and I love reading your insight!

Last is my wonderful friend and neighbor JoAnna at JoAnna's Creative Expressions
You are an amazing inspiration to keep on keepin on no matter what hand you are dealt in life. I think it is so cool that you do more having had a stroke and lost use of one side of your body than most healthy people do because they take life for granted. Thank you for helping me to not take life for granted!

All of you ladies are wonderful to me and have all had a hand in changing my life and I think you all deserve an award for it!!!

Visit this myspace page and.....

***UPDATE!!!! It is August 26th 2008 and I have just found out that this story is a hoax. I am so sad that this man did this BUT that does not mean that the words to this song are not true. They are very true. And we still need to be praying for this man because he must have some problems to do something like this.***



listen to the song Healer. You will be blessed!
Please pray for Mike Guglielmucci. It is his page. He has cancer and is believing for healing! Let's believe with him!!!
Here is the link:

http://www.myspace.com/mikeguglielmucci


Here are the words:

HEALER
Verse1
You hold my every moment
You calm my raging seas
You walk with me through fire
And heal all my disease
I trust in You
I trust in You

Chorus
I believe You're my Healer
I believe You are all I need
I believe You're my Portion
I believe You're more than enough for me
Jesus You're all I need

Bridge
Nothing is impossible for You
Nothing is impossible for You
Nothing is impossible for You
You hold my world in Your hands

Just a thought.......

GUIDANCE

I wanted to share this word, GUIDANCE, and what it now means to me. If you look close the end says "dance". The first letter "G" stands for God and U & I are in the middle.

So the new meaning to this word for me is now- God U and I Dance!

When we allow God to guide us it is like we are dancing with Him! AWESOME revelation!!!

Inside Out...........

Inside out....interesting thought. At the moment I am allowing God to turn me inside out and it is a bit uncomfortable but in a good way. ;^)

First I want to say a big thank you to my friend Aprille for hijacking my blog and giving you all some excitement. I know I can always count on you Aprille! LOL

Now to the serious stuff. At this present time I am going through some things and I am gonna just pour it out here a little and hopefully it will help someone else along the way and maybe make a little more sense to me.

I am at a place in my walk with God that is a major turning point. I either have to let Him turn me completly into what He wants or stay at this spot and never go to the next level He has for me. And quite frankly I have been in this spot WAY too long and have no desire to be here any longer!!!
Have you ever been at a point in your walk with Him where you know that you are gonna go through a time of quietness? I am not really sure what to call this time in my life. Quietness is the closest thing that I can think of to call it.

I am gonna have to quit talking so much and spend some time listening and being quiet. And by that I not only mean in my prayer life but also spending WAY less time on the phone, less time on the computer. I am gonna have to quit trying to find answers from other people and rely more on God to help me through my tests. And more time doing what I know I am called to do. Really giving my all to being a wife, homeschooling my children, praying for the hurting, just doing everything 100% instead of half way. I am at a point that I am getting tired of my own excuses so I am sure God is really tired of them.

A saying has been dropped in my spirit lately. It is that we need to get revelation from God and then allow Him to transform us.
~Revelation & Transformation~
It seems so simple but it is so not simple. The revelation is the easy part, the transformation hurts. Think about it, when you transform something you have to twist it and squeeze it until it no longer resembles what it once was and it is a new creation. This, my friends, is why I feel I am being turned inside out! I am finally going with what He has for me and allowing Him to transform me into what He wants me to be.

We will always be in growing stages and should always be learning something from God but I am having some MAJOR ah-ha moments lately that are changing my whole way of thinking.

I am finally at the point where I am sure that I am called to do something great and I now know what that is! I have prayed for so long to God that I just want to know my place. I want to be great at something and allow You to use me in it. And I now know that I am to work in women's ministry. Last Friday night I was at a service and as the lady walked up and began to speak God just softly spoke to my heart and said," This is what you were created to do." Now I have to say that of course my husband and children are my first ministry and will always be. But lately I have been seeking God on what my purpose is in helping others. And He gently placed a longing in me to minister to, teach, help, encourage other women. I have such an excitement to do this!

And so now I feel that I am at the beginning of this amazing long road and before I can get to the point that I am allowed to really jump into this ministry, I have got to get this quiet time with God. I am now in the training time to get ready for the great things He wants to do through me. And to do those things He will have to remold me and I will have to conform to what He wants for my life and allow my attitude to be changed into what He wants it to be.

I almost feel raw right now in my own skin. And again, in a good way. I feel like God has begun to exfoliate my soul and all of the dead, useless ideas are flaking off and the new "skin" is now going to be allowed to grow and be where it is intended to be.

I have to say here that if it were not for my pastors wife, Misty, I would not be where I am today. She has gently helped me scoot along this path and I have learned SO MUCH from her about how to be a mom and a wife and a friend. A few short years ago I was a very selfish person and was very ashamed of it. I can truly say that I am no longer selfish and any greatness that comes out of me is because of God. I am nothing without Him! So I want to say thank you to Misty my friend and my sister in Christ who has helped me see the greatness that God has placed inside of me, and that I AM WORTH IT!!! No matter my past God will use me if I am a willing vessel. The same with you. No matter what you have done, God will turn you inside out if you will let Him and He will use you if you will be a willing vessel.

So my words of wisdom for today are:
Be quiet with God and allow Him to begin to turn you inside out!

Is Anybody Working This Window???

Hi everybody! This is April hijacking Michelle's blog! WOOHOO! What fun! Michelle, just checking to see if you were going to post anything on here again any time soon? We miss hearing your wisdom and insight! Love you!

Amber's 4th birthday party

Hey everyone!

First I want to say that I found out today that my dad and step mom read my blog! They have never commented so I didn't know that they had been reading. So I want to say a big HI to them!!! Thanks for reading!

Now to my sweet Amber and her 4th birthday party. It was a great day and she got lots of toys and clothes. Do you all remember back in February I had posted that she wanted a horse? Well, we had seen a pony at Wal-Mart that she fell in love with and begged us for so I wanted to share a picture for you all with Amber and her new favorite toy.......her horse!

Of course she is fast asleep in her bed with her new friend and very happy for the moment with a stuffed one. Maybe it will do at least until she is big enough to pay for her own horse!!!


She is so beautiful!!!!!

This is Amber and her cake.

Then of course I had to add a picture of Amber and her little friend Noelle.

Homeschool Trip #4 (last one!)

OK, once again if you are just now looking at this scroll down to the post titled Homeschool Trip and read your way up!



These are just a few random pictures.


This is my beautiful friend Aprille and her two kids Jordan & Noelle. Thanks Aprille for this GREAT idea of a trip. You really are like my sister and I love ya! I love your smile. ;^)





This is my pastor's wife Misty and her kids Destinee, Christian and the little one is Libbey. Misty you really are my family, thanks for all you do for me. I love ya!





This is me and my 3 wonderful kids! You already know us.





Nathan & Libbey, maybe a future here?!?!





And last but not least this is all of us. What a great end to an AWESOME day! Thanks Aprille & Misty for such a great field trip!!!! You both ROCK!!!!

Homeschool Trip #3

Here are pictures from the train station.

Once again if you are just looking at this, begin at the post titled Homeschool Trip and read your way up!

Lunch on the train car.




All the big kids on the train car.




Everyone at the train crossing pole.




They really did learn A LOT this day among all the fun!




Just me and Nate, being silly in the old time office.

Homeschool Trip #2

This is post #2 of our homeschool trip, start with the one titled Homeschool Trip and read your way up.



Here are pictures of the birds at the nature park.

Look at that beauty!




These birds were HUGE!!




Jordan looking at the bird.




They have such attitude! LOL

Homeschool Trip

Hey everyone! I wanted to share with you all our homeschool trip that we took on Thursday the 13th. My friends Aprille & Misty came along with all of their kids. So in all it was 3 adults and 8 kids! We went to Cypress Grove Nature Park and the Railroad Museum.

It was such a blast!! At the nature park we got to see several kinds of birds and walked a lot. At the muesum we got to eat our lunch on a train car and learn all about trains. The kids really enjoyed it.

Here are a few pictures from our day at the nature park.

The 3 moms.



Me and Misty pushing Nathan and Libbey.



All the big kids being so cool!



The big boys, forever friends!



The big girls, beauty queens!

New Blog!!!!

Hey everyone, I have a new blog that will be for my weight loss updates.
Here is the link
http://walkingmywaytohealth.blogspot.com/

Visit and comment often!

Homeschooling Stuff

Good Wednesday morning everyone!

The other day I was thinking about by blog and wondering if I had ever posted anything at all about homeschooling. You know this is a blog about the real life of a home school mom. And I realized that there isn't much on here about actually homeschooling!
So I thought I would share a little about that today.

Jacob is in the 3rd grade and we use ACE-School of Tomorrow. We LOVE this curriculum! I need something that is laid out for me and I have no guess work with it. I know that if Jacob is learning the material and passing his tests that he is learning what he needs to. That is better for me so that I am not continually second guessing myself. And it is christian based so I like the behaviour stuff he is learning also. It touches on how to treat others and he has to learn scripture.

Amber will be turning 4 next week so we will not be doing any "real" school for her until the 2009-2010 school year. And when I say "real" I mean curriculum. Because we are teaching our children everyday. We could be teaching them to count to 10 or to love each other or we could be teaching them to talk bad about other people! We are watched each and every day by our children. When we are responding right to things or when we are not responding right to things. (that is a hard one for me!) So take advantage of those teachable moments. We don't have to have a pencil and paper in hand to be teaching our children. It could be on a nature walk to teach Science. Or a fishing trip or a trip to the zoo. We are required to do 180 days of "school" in Tennessee, when in reality we school all year round. Our children should learn something new each and every day!

I like the fact that I have an older child now because I think it will be easier to teach Amber and Nathan. It was a real struggle teaching Jacob in the beginning. I was new to it and he didn't have an older sibling to help teach him things. But with the 2 younger ones it is different. Jacob reads to Amber and teaches her stuff all the time just in playing! I guess with him being closer to her level he has more of an understanding of how to explain things to where she will get it. And I will be more laid back when "real" school time comes around for Amber and Nate so I am sure it will flow easier.

There is a run down of our home school life. Hope you enjoyed!

So my words of wisdom for today are:
If there is a moment that you know you have done something wrong and your children have seen or heard it, tell them that you were wrong. Apologize to them and let it be a moment that you teach them that it is OK to admit you were wrong. There will be moments in their lives that they will have to admit that and if we teach them this now it won't be so hard to do when they are adults.

SNOW DAY!!!!!

Hey everyone!

I have tried twice to post a blog with all of our snow day pictures and it will not go through, so I decided to put them on my page!

Look to the right and you will see a few of our fun snow day pictures.



Hope you all have a great day!!!

Recipe for Lysa.......

Hey everyone I am joining a recipe challenge from Lysa Terkeurst. Here is the link to her blog http://lysaterkeurst.blogspot.com/ . Go and check out her blog and all of the GREAT recipes linked there.
I am going to share a favorite breakfast muffin that my kids request often. Do you have some bananas that have gotten too ripe and your kids won't eat them? Make these muffins, I bet you the kids will eat them!

Homemade Banana Nut Muffins

2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon(or more to taste)
1 cup milk
1 egg
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup mashed ripe banana
1/2 cup chopped walnuts(optional)

Heat oven to 375*. I use soft butter for my muffin cups. Butter the bottom and half way up the side(this will help them form to a cute little point). Mix dry ingredients and form a bowl in the middle, set aside. Mix wet ingredients well and pour into dry ingredients. Mix together well. Spoon evenly into 12 muffin cups. Bake for 15 minutes.

My kids love these for breakfast or for a snack. We sometimes put butter on them and sprinkle extra sugar & cinnamon on them and heat in microwave for a few seconds. YUM!

Thanks for visiting here and don't forget to visit Lysa's blog and find out more about this!

OK Aprille & Terri, you asked for it........

I have started getting requests for new posts, I must be pretty interesting! LOL Just kidding. I know that all of you probably get a kick out of my "real" life.

Well, while doing my new workout today, (3 mile Leslie Sansone-GREAT workout!) I had my prayer time and then God put a nugget in my spirit for this post. It is based on this verse, James 1:19
19 My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.

Lately it seems that my Jacob is speaking before he thinks. I wonder where he gets that?! And it has made me evaluate what I do in relation to this verse. I do find myself mixing it up a little. I usually am slow to listen and quick to speak. So to anyone I have ever done that to, I am sorry!

Lately Jacob has been quick to just put any answer down in his school work without working the problem out or thinking about it before he writes it down. Then when the answer is wrong he is quick to get angry at himself. And he gets that bad trait from me. That is a hard thing to admit but I know that for me to go to the next level in God and do the ministry He has for me I have to learn this lesson and change it! And now I have to retrain my children to slow down a little and be more patient.

The funny thing about this is that my wonderful husband is this verse in James. He will ALWAYS think for a LONG time before he speaks. That makes arguments a little more frustrating for me. ;^) You put someone who likes to talk with someone who has to think it all out before they speak and you have a recipe for disaster! LOL

I tend to rush through everything. Even at breakfast this morning my husband had only eaten 1/2 of his food and I was finished with mine. So the topic came up of me needing to slow down. And the reason I eat like that is because I am usually in a hurry so that I can finish something else that is on my list of things to do or dealing with the kids and their food. But I now realize that there are just some things that will have to wait. I have got to start taking time to chew my food at least before I swallow it! And please tell me that I am not alone on this one. There has to be another mom out there that rushes through her meals and couldn't tell you what it tasted like! PLEASE someone!?

I really feel that God is trying to get me to slow down and smell the roses. Notice I said slow down and not stop, remember I am a homeschool mom of 3 and add on all of the other hats that I wear in a day and I can't stop! I will commit to slowing down though.

If we are rushing through life it is really hard to hear that still small voice of God. You know usually he doesn't yell at us, He will speak to us in a way that we may need to be still to even realize that He is trying to get our attention.

Sorry this post is a little scattered with my thoughts, I just wanted to share these few things that have been on my heart.

So my words of wisdom for today are:
Slow down and take that extra few minutes to hug your children or enjoy a walk around the block, just because. And be still for a few minutes and listen to see what God has to say to you today. He may suprise you!

Times like this I wish I only had one child!

WARNING!!!!!!!!
Some nasty bodily fluid language used in this post!

Before I begin I have to say that I love each one of my 3 children with all of my heart and would NEVER get rid of any of them! But I think that I now realize why some people choose to only have one child. Here is why.............

On Wednesday I had a stomach virus and really hoped that my little ones wouldn't get it. Well, on Saturday morning Nathan woke up with TERRIBLE diarrhea diapers. And he wasn't really interested in eating. But he was playing really well. So I was still hopeful that it was only teething and not the virus.

Well then we took the kids to the park to play since Nathan's diaper problem had cleared up. Amber walks up to me at the park and says," I need to throw up." And then she did. So we load up and go home. Amber continues to throw up all evening and at bed time Jacob says that his belly doesn't feel well. I told him to just go to sleep and if he needs me to call me. So we put Amber in our floor in case she gets sick in the night. Nathan and Jacob are in Amber's bed. Around 10:30 Jacob comes running in my room," I gotta throw up." And he does. And he continues to do so almost every half hour. Around 4:30 he got sick and then I got him laid back down and went back to bed. A few minutes later I hear Nathan throwing up. If you will notice all of his curly hair at the right of my page, it was EVERYWHERE! All over the bed, him and his hair! So we get him and his mess cleaned up and around 5:30 we were all up and Amber felt lots better and decided it was snack time. So I gave her and Jacob crackers and Sprite. Of course Jacob eventually lost his but Amber kept hers down and I do believe she is back to her normal self. Nathan on the other hand still has diarrhea and a really bad rash. And Jacob is sleeping in the recliner. He has not gotten sick since about 6 this morning.

So it is my thinking that people only have one child because they thought about this concept before they made the decision to have more children. If one person in the house gets a stomach virus more than likely everyone will. Well it happens that way at my house anyway! And just let me say that it is NOT a pretty sight to have 2 or more people throwing up at one time! And for those of you that know me know how I get with throwing up. For those of you that don't know me, I don't handle it well AT ALL! But last night was different. I took it all in stride and told myself that this too will pass and we will laugh about it later. And we have already made up new nicknames today. I will not share those as they may embarrass those of my family and I may have to pay greatly someday!

I will say that I am grateful for Lysol and Gatorade and saltine crackers and chicken noodle soup and antibacterial wipes. They are making my life MUCH easier right now!!!

So my words of wisdom for today are:
When you go to Wal-Mart or the grocery store, PLEASE wipe down those carts before you use them! You never know, me and my kids may have used them before you!!! LOL