One of Those Days

Have you ever had one of those days where nothing went right? When every decision you make seems to be the wrong one? When you just can't seem to please anyone, let alone anyone? When you crawl into bed at the end of the day and wonder why you got up? It's been one of those days, actually it's been one of those weeks.
And while talking with a girlfriend yesterday ( I love you Courtney Joe!) I remembered a passage that I used to turn to when those days came.
Nehemiah 9. In this passage you will find the story of the Israelites. The crew from the old testament in the Bible that seemed to mess up everytime God tried to hand them something good. In this passage they are gathered together and the Levites begin calling out to God. What follows is my FAVORITE passage in the entire Bible. I'll let you read it yourself, for it's powerful. They basically confess that they disobeyed God, blatantly didn't do what He asked. And hardship followed. And in spite of that he continued to pour down his blessings. He continued to provide for them. "You came...you spoike..you gave...you made...you gave...you told...BUT they, our forefathers, became arrogant and stiff necked and did not obey your commands....But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them...you did not abandon them..." On and on this story goes, it's like hittig copy paste on that section above. They continued to disobey, and He continued to stick by them. He forgave, protect, provide.
The reason I love this passage, the reason I love studying the Israelites is that this is the running theme in their story. The absolute relentless pursuit of us by God.
There isn't a day,or week, no matter how badly we mess up that can make God give up on us. We won't stop loving us, He refuses to. I have those moments when the shame is so bad, making same mistakes over and over where it's almost embarrassing to go to Him AGAIN and ask for forgiveness. Like I'm expecting him to be like "Seriously!? YOu haven't learned this lesson YET?!" But He doesn't. He's always there with open arms, waiting for us.
Hebrews 4:16 says "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." I love this wording. "Receive" mercy. I read that and it makes me think that we receive it, because at the end of one of those weeks, we ask and receive. But "find grace" - it's like who, at the end of all that, would have the audacity to ask for his grace. Isn't mercy enough? We have the audacity to ask for his forgiveness AND blessings?
The forgiveness He gives...it's merciful! The relentless pursuit of our hearts...it's grace. Sweet amazing grace.

Polka Dots

Thank you for all the prayers this month, it's been a crazy one.
Kailyn had another field trip at school...they went to a local art museum where they got to learn about different mediums used. They also learned to recognize these mediums, and about how artists create are diffent ways- paintings, scupltures, etc. She even got to make a clay bowl at school, which got fired in real kiln, then painted. She brought home and it is proudly displayed on our kitchen counter!
Emma is doing great at school and when I asked her what she wanted me to put on blog for everyone to know about what she's learning she replied " I want them to know that I got polka dots. First they were pink; then they turned purple and went away." The polka dots she refering to started out as what dr thought was rash assiciated with virus. By following day her entire body was covered in hives and she was diagnosed as having a allergic reaction to a Sulfa antibiotic she'd been taking. A few doses of Benedryl and a steroid later, she was much better. And the hives faded in color "to purple" then slowly went away. She's very proud of her "dots" for some reason, so I put a picture on here so all can see. She's happy now. LOL
Even L.E., the "wonder dog" had some kind of injurt that had us rushing her to Vet er. She's much better now and is back to her frisky self. And we just thought she was a pampered pooch before! She's much more so now!
For now everyone is happy and healthy...knock on wood.

Happy Birthday Jesus!

This Christmas was a lower key one that we usually enjoy, everyone in our home has had Bronchitis so we were all still on the mend. Since Jason had to work on Christmas, the girls let him open their present to him on Christmas Eve and they opened their stockings. Then off to bed. On Christmas day we visited Station 7 for a little while and the girls enjoyed playing with some of the other firemen's children. After a wonderful meal of fried turkey, smoked ham and all the fixings...some of the guys headed behind the station to play horseshoes...while the batallion chief rode down a nearby hill on a cardboard box! LOL The girls enjoyed playing on the rescue truck for a few minutes and then Jason took Emma on top of the truck and while she loved it,mommy almost had a heart attack. It is nice to see a fun side to these guys and after all the families left the girls and I hung out for a while to visit with the firemen. It's nice to get to know them better, helps me understand Jason's connection to them and puts me more at ease knowing he's got a great group of guys looking after each other when they're out working.
Thanks for the hospitality Station 7, we enjoyed it!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving around our home. The girls were over the moon excited to get to go up to Atlanta and spend time with their father and his family for the holiday weekend. They enjoyed playing with their big brother.
Jason and I spend our first holiday together at his mom's house with his brother Eric and Eric's wife and daughter. Everyone was super sweet and it was nice to start understanding Jason a little more. We laughed, we ate, we cried...well only tears of hysterical laughing as Susan (Jason's mom) told the story of him almost falling our the side door of the car when he was an infant. Tori, Jason's daughter was sick so she only visited with us for a few minutes, but it was cute to see her playing with her cousin Olivia.
I'm thankful for new beginnings.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

October Fun

We had a whirlwind of fun this October that began with daddy coming and continued thrugh Emma's birthday on the 23rd! Emma turned four and celebrated many times. She took cupcakes to school and got "to wear a special birthday hat." She also celebrated with just the immediate family and got so many presents. I've been telling both girls that once Emma turned 4, they could try chewing gum. So when I took Kailyn shopping to buy presents for her sister, gum was at the top of her list. She also bought her a barbie for the bath tub, bubbles, craft papers, a jump rope etc.
Check out the cute pics of Emma's birthday on the Birthday slideshow!
THEN....GRANDMA CAME!!! Grandma came down the weekend of Halloween and we took her to our church for the Fall Festival. They had a wonderful, free program including bounce houses, trunk or treating (which was so cool!) and a comedian entertainer man. Emma wouldn't stop dancing the whole night which was hilarious when the man on 10 foot stilts walked by, cuz he was trying to dance too! And Kailyn just couldn't get enough of her Grandma. She is such a grandma's girl! They both enjoyed face painting too, done my the husband of my best friend Amy from high school...she lives her too now...small world. :)
To complete our month we went to a local wildlife center called Oatland Island where they did a nighttime, slighly lit, creepy trick or treating trail. We could hear the wolves howling, which was only slightly creepy. But the girls loved it and Jason's fire department was out there with the trucks so the girls got to climb all over them again, which they adore.

Daddy's Here!

Daddy came to visit for the weekend and both of the girls were excited to see him. The first day he was here we went to a fall festival at a local church where the girls BOTH rode on a white pony named "Rainbow" (they dyed her mane colorful like a rainbow) and also rode on a hayride with Daddy. Emma didn't like this too much...was "itchy and poky" but sat on Daddy's lap. The girls also got their faces painted...a butterfly on their cheek and got to play games, jump in a Moon Bounce and even got cotton candy!
On Sunday they enjoyed the b-e-a-u-tiful weather we had and played outside with daddy flying their kites, playing ball and coloring with chalk.
Thanks for coming daddy!