The Battle for the Toy Box Contest!
I entered the Battle for the Toy Box Contest
on the HSB Company Porch.  I hope to win
over $100 worth of, Tales of Glory, Bible-based toys
from one2believe!!

I have been quite convicted lately that I need to stop on a regular basis and spend time just being grateful....time that I thank God for His amazing blessings, without any other distractions.  It's 1:18 a.m. at the moment, and I am sitting here *waiting* for a new internet security program to download so I can shut down and go to bed...and I realized perhaps this would be a good time to just *be grateful*.  :-)  I plan to make this a regular part of my blog...but hopefully *not* regularly at 1:30 a.m.! 

A bit of housekeeping, first.  My plan is for this to be a place for *random* thoughts of thankfulness....thankfulness for those things in my day or week that make me smile, or give me a sudden jolt of realization of God's goodness and love....things that make me excited to get up in the morning (or keep me from running away to Alaska on the rough days. :))   So...let's get the *big stuff* out first...because these are things I am *always* thankful for, and they won't necessarily be repeated in later random thankfulness posts:

               1. The gift of a Christian husband who spoils me rotten, wholeheartedly believes in homeschooling (and works hard so that I can stay home to accomplish that), and is the most incredible husband and daddy ever (and he even does dishes! :-))

               2.  Four beautiful, healthy, crazy, bright, amazing (but sometimes cranky) children. 

               3.  The blessing of being raised in a Christian home by Godly parents who sacrificed much and prayed often for us.   I realize more every day what a very rare gift that is.

               4.  Friends who make me laugh until my face hurts, endure my tears (and shed their own with me), listen to me unendingly, and sharpen me as iron sharpens iron. 

               5.  The most wonderful gift of all...a Savior whose love, grace, and faithfulness are more awesome to me every day. 

Now...for today's random thoughts of thankfulness...

1. Missing doors!   My brilliant hubby suggested years ago that we take the doors off of either end of our large dining/school room.  It took me several years to catch up with his thinking....but I decided a few weeks ago that part of the dining/school room makeover *desperately* needed to be losing the doors.  So...Billy took the doors off after work tonight, and it has *already* made  a world of difference in this room!  Much more usable/wall space and a much less *cluttered* look.  (He and the kids pulled wallpaper off half the room tonight, too...the kids had a ball, and I am a few steps closer to having this room painted and transformed. :))

2.  The promise of high-speed internet.  Wow!  I am excited about this.  I have needed to make some changes in our phone service for a while now...our long distance usage has changed and I knew we could get a better deal than we had but I just hadn't gotten around to it.  Today I ended up on the phone with a customer service guy from our phone company...and ended up getting our phone service and high-speed internet bundled for $55.00 *less* a month than we were paying for our phone and slow dial-up!   It will take a week or so to get it all going, but it is definitely something to look forward to. :)

3. Choir Practice.  I often think I should take a break from choir for a while...due to time and health issues...but I just can't ever quite make myself.  Choir has always been one of the most enjoyable times of the week for me...I enjoy all of it, even just going over things over and over and *over* again until Lyndel is happy with them (or until he gives up, whichever the case may be :-D).  I'm always amazed at the way God uses the music we are working on in very specific ways in my life.   Somehow in the past few years, with all that we have gone through (Ammah Grace, losing Daddy, and the difficult events of the past year), many of the hymns and choir anthems I've sung for years have come alive in totally new ways.  And Lyndel has managed to introduce us to new pieces that have impacted me immensely.    I actually started a blog post this morning (hopefully I will finish and post it someday :)) about the music of Stuart Townend and what a blessing it has been lately.   I'm really thankful that Billy has supported my staying in choir and that Lyndel puts up with me. :)

4.  School!   We have finally found our *niche* as far as schooling goes, and that is *such* a good feeling.   It is so good to have a plan (one that actually *works*, after the first one *didn't* :))  and books and know where we are headed.  We have had so much *fun* with school recently.  Some of the fun hasn't been surprising (making clay *creations* as a project to go along with our Mystery of History lesson...I'll post pics soon...), but some of it has caught me off guard.   One of the things the kids have enjoyed the most this week has been their *handwriting*, of all things.  I printed copywork pages from the DonnaYoung site of George Washington's Rules of Civility...and the kids have *begged* to do them first every day!  More on that and lots of other school thoughts coming soon...:)

5. When I started this, I had five thoughts, but somehow when the clock struck 2 a.m., I lost the fifth one.  Since this download is *finally* almost finished, I'm not going to attempt to remember it...maybe it will come back to me in the morning.  For now, I will replace it with the fact that I am thankful that I should be in bed in the next 10 minutes and only seconds after that be asleep.  A very thankful thought for 2 a.m. for a tired mommy...:)

Last night while Billy was repairing a chair in the dining room, his drill was getting quite a work-out.   Ammah Grace was trying to *help* him, but every time he turned on the drill, she would scream, grab her ears, and say, "Ohhhh...Daddy scare me ears!!"   Then she would climb down from her perch on the table and run to the living room, saying, "Me come to the linen-oom, Daddy 'care me ears!"  

I just sat and marvelled at the awesome-ness of God once again...even as I was sitting there laughing, I remembered looking at her in the incubator in NICU, wondering if she would ever smile, much less talk.  God is good...all the time.

I have had this blog for...well, I have no idea how long...and have never posted a single entry.  I have no idea what I am doing...I know nothing about HTML, RSS, pings, or any one of a number of other blog-related terms.  But I am determined to learn!  So...here goes. :-D   This is my *test* entry...just to see what happens and if I can make it actually show up. :)  If I can...I'll be back later to start posting *the real stuff*.   Family stuff, school stuff, home stuff, book stuff, recipes, pictures...and random thoughts (lots of them, probably :)).