Just Bliss...

*Photo courtesy of Flickr law_kevin

Contentment, bliss, harmony, ease, delight, happiness...joy.

What a surprise this afternoon. I have had a terrible pressure headache most of the day and it is grey and raining here but I am feeling complete contentment right now. I picked up my daughter after school and a neighbor friend came home with us. My son and the girls had a snack and then sat at the kitchen table with the girls each painting a masterpiece and my son happily playing with Play-Doh. I put some kid tunes on the iPod and fixed a pot of coffee (with yummy sugar free vanilla caramel creamer) and was able to forget about my headache and tidy up the kitchen while listening to the delightful conversation of the children.

We are so blessed to live in the community that we do and especially in the neighborhood that we do. We have the best neighbors that have become dear friends and it feels like family around here, truly it does.

I just wanted to savor and remember this feeling this afternoon...so happy...so joyful...so grateful.

"The more we express our gratitude to God for our blessings,the more he will bring to our mind other blessings. The more we are aware of to be grateful for, the happier we become."

- Ezra Taft Benson

"The fruit of the spirit is love, joy and peace."

- Galatians 5:22

"I came that you may have and enjoy life and have it in abundance, until it overflows."

- John 10:10

Thankful Thursday...

Thanksgiving
The year has turned its circle,
The seasons come and go.
The harvest all is gathered in
And chilly north winds blow.
Orchards have shared their treasures,
The fields, their yellow grain,
So open wide the doorway
Thanksgiving comes again!
~Old Rhyme

Over at There Is No Place Like Home, Kelli has been hosting a 'Giving Thanks Week.' It is a great idea to prepare our hearts and homes for Thanksgiving. So many wonderful ideas and recipes have been shared there!

I am sharing decorating ideas. Here we have our breakfast nook where our everyday family meals are shared.

The basket on our table holds Autumn linens such as tea towels and napkins...I just LOVE my acorn napkin rings I found on sale at Kohl's last year after Thanksgiving! I think I paid something like 0.45 cents a piece for them!
I tied a fall foliage decorative pick to the back of each chair using a pretty fall wired ribbon.

Here is a close-up of the detail of the chair adornments:

And another one:

I have a chalkboard over on the wall near the table. I write menus or inspirational quotes on this board. I liked the saying I saw on the Warm Pie, Happy Home blog of "The Frost is on the Pumpkin" so that is what is on the chalk board right now. I have two wooden pumpkins hanging from the hooks, one pumpkin reads 'Autumn' and the other pumpkin reads 'Harvest'.

My home makes it easy to decorate for the Autumn months as my decor and colors tend to be very warm and cozy variations of reds, browns, sages, and tans. In my dining room I have this little vignette:
Here is a close up of the sconces. I bought the white pumpkins at Wal-mart and then simply tied a fall rust and cream checked ribbon around the stems and placed a few autumn picks behind them on the sconce:

I keep these toile buckets up all year on a wall in my dining room. I change the greenery in it for the seasons. Here I have it all dressed up for Autumn:

And here is my creation from Wordle. I found this through Heather and LOVE it! I used words here that represent the feelings I have around the Thanksgiving holiday. I will make a different one for Christmas and post that when I have it. I framed it and set it on my antique school desk in my entry. I found the wooden oak leaves and acorns just today on sale to set by the frame:

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of my Autumn/Thanksgiving decor. Go visit Kelli for some more great ideas! Melissa also has her post up and still collecting comments regarding holiday decor! There are some great ideas out there in blogland!!!

Can You Hear the Rustling of Falling Leaves...

"How silently they tumble down

And come to rest upon the ground

To lay a carpet, rich and rare,

Beneath the trees without a care,

Content to sleep, their work well done,

Colors gleaming in the sun.
At other times, they wildly fly

Until they nearly reach the sky.

Twisting, turning through the air

Till all the trees stand stark and bare.

Exhausted, drop to earth below

To wait, like children, for the snow."

- Elsie N. Brady, Leaves

"In the garden, Autumn is, indeed the crowning glory of the year, bringing us the fruition of months of thought and care and toil. And at no season, safe perhaps in Daffodil time, do we get such superb colour effects as from August to November."

- Rose G. Kingsley, The Autumn Garden

"When the trees their summer splendor

Change to raiment red and gold,

When the summer moon turns mellow,

And the nights are getting cold;

When the squirrels hide their acorns,

And the woodchucks disappear;

Then we know that it is autumn,

Loveliest season of the year."

- Carol L. Riser, Autumn

"November's sky is chill and drear, November's leaf is red and sear."- Sir Walter Scott

"The morns are meeker than they were,

The nuts are getting brown;

The berry's cheek is plumper,

The rose is out of town.

The maple wears a gayer scarf,

The field a scarlet gown.

Lest I should be old-fashioned,

I'll put a trinket on."

- Emily Dickinson

"How wonderful it would be if we could help our children and grandchildren to learn thanksgiving at an early age. Thanksgiving opens the doors. It changes a child's personality. A child is resentful, negative—or thankful.Thankful children want to give, they radiate happiness, they draw people."- Sir John Templeton

Light your favorite Fall candle, fix yourself some hot spiced tea, and go visit the Just A Girl blog for some great ideas and links on sharing gratitude with your children this month! Kelli at There is No Place Like Home also has great ideas for counting our blessings with your children.

I plan on making the Gratitude Leaf Garland and daily my children will help me write on a leaf something we are thankful for leading up to Thanksgiving, then I plan on reading these before our big meal!

Thankful Thursday...

Today, Iris at Grace Alone is writing about why she is thankful for her five senses. It is a lovely post. Be sure to visit and read it.

In counting my blessings this week, I am thankful for:

• The privilege to serve our community and children via our preschool/Kinder/Pre-K program at church
• My house (I am praying very hard on this one...we LOVE our house, location, neighbors, proximity to great schools...however, we are a growing family plus I work from home and do find we are in need of more space. We currently live in a beautiful home. It keeps us sheltered. It offers separate rooms for my children. It has a sepaate office, dining, and play room. It sounds silly and petty to want more. I find that we have enough rooms but need a little extra space in each room for storage and such, especially with the kids getting bigger and my business [prayerfully] expanding.) So, I am thankful for the home I have. It is our family's haven in a busy world. However, I am praying on what decision we need to make for the future.
• My business. I am able to work out of my house running my own small business. It keeps me available to my children and husband and allows me to feel at peace with my domesticity working together with my professional life. I am in prayer over this as well right now as I am considering expanding in some different directions and hope and pray that the path laid before me will be positive for me and my family.
• As always, what I am most thankful for is my God who knows my heart, my husband who cherishes me, and my children who inspire me to be the best mother/teacher/role model I can be.

"Blessed are those that can give without remembering and receive without forgetting."~ Author Unknown ~

Thankful Thursday...

Here is another moment to reflect on my many thanks...

Yesterday a cool front made its way across Texas and it brought welcomed Fall weather - blustery wind, grey skies, and a bit of rain. But before all that, I took a walk with my toddler son, as he rode around on his little scooter. The sky was the bluest blue as we walked, before the weather changed. We were delighting in pointing out all the pumpkins and festive fall decor adorning all the homes in our neighborhood. We live in a very family-oriented neighborhood (one of the things I am thankful for) and it is so calming to share the same values and ideals with our neighbors and friends that surround us. During the walk I was just overcome with what the Lord has placed before us - the beauty in nature, even little things if we just take the time to breathe and see. Breathe and see, sometimes that is the best answer. Don't fret and panic, breathe and see...

Me and the little guy came home and prepared for the cooler weather and made ready for our afternoon snack we would share with my daughter after we picked her up from school...homemade hot cocoa in special festive cups, the children helping me sprinkle pretzels after I dipped them in chocolate bark, and the fellowship of being together in the kitchen, our hands making our snack and enjoying conversation and the company of each other. Breathe and see... To breathe-in is also called inspiration....hmm...think about that one: If we take time to really breathe we can also experience inspiration in the other sense of the word too, to be inspired and to really see...Breathe in and let the wonder of the Lord inspire you.

Here are the pictures of my thankful afternoon spent with my children...



"Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me; O LORD, be my help. You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever."
-Psalm 30:10-12

For more Thankful Thursday posts, go visit Iris at Grace Alone.

Thankful Thursday

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."~ Melody Beattie ~

This week I am thankful for:

• My husband and children that make my house a home.
• A day spent in the company of my aunt and lunch with my sister and nephew.
• Being humbled in a moment of 'green eyed-ness' and remembering this quote: "Happiness is in the heart, not in the circumstances..."
• Neighbors that truly do care.
• A soft, warm bed to fall into at the end of the day.
• A mom that gives up her Saturday afternoon to play with my toddler so my husband and I can spend the time with my daughter for a special outing just about her.
• Soft new yarn found in the perfect colors for a new project.
• The cool front that has arrived and brought with it some rain and fall weather!
• My little boy's healing knee.
• The upcoming holidays and family and friends that I look forward to sharing them with.
• The weekend in sight and plans to spend it with family.

"It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord,and to sing praises unto thy name, O most high:To shew forth thy loving kindness in the morning,and thy faithfulness every night"— Psalms 92.1-2

To read more Thankful posts, visit Iris at Grace Alone.

Thankful Thursday

The last few weeks have brought many financial demands on our family...I won't go into it all, but let's just say, everything needed maintenance or replacement all at once! Instead of dwelling on the mere pennies left in the home/car maintenance account, I will instead be thankful that we had the means to fix and replace!

Other things I am thankful for today:

• Two safe vehicles
• A cool air-conditioned home (temps have been over 100 for quite a few days now)
• Clean clothes all put away in their place
• A strong, able body
• A clear mind amidst all the chaos of the past few weeks due to much prayer and faith
• The man in my life that is a best friend, loving husband, and so caring and compassionate a father
• Two little people that are so full of energy it just takes my breath away
• My family
• A few days break to relax with my husband and children and reflect on our many blessings

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."-- Melody Beattie

What are you thankful for my friends?

My Children Inspire Me...

"Children of the same family, the same blood, with the same first associations and habits, have some means of enjoyment in their power, which no subsequent connections can supply..." ~Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, 1814

"We cannot destroy kindred: our chains stretch a little sometimes, but they never break. ~Marquise de Sévigné "

“Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.” -Charles R. Swindoll

Autumn Dancin'

Last weekend, in order to more officially welcome in Autumn and October, we pulled out the yard art for Fall. I was placing a little girl scarecrow and a little boy scarecrow I had found at the nursery in the flower bed along with a few pumpkins. The little girl scarecrow is just a bit bigger than the little boy so it is a perfect "big sister/little brother" look to match our family right now.

My little girl was helping me place them. I tied the two scarecrow's hands together so they would be holding hands and the little girl scarecrow kept turning in the wind some. I told my daughter, "Well, I can't keep her from spinning," to which she replied, "Oh no mommy, it is okay, see, she is dancing!"

My little girl is always looking on the bright side. She really seems to have a great outlook on life, even at such a young age. I pray she will retain that and that her father and I can nurture that in her. She is such a joy and a happy little girl. What a blessing she is to us.

Thankful Thursday

It's THURSDAY...one more day to go until the weekend! Today is a good day to be thankful...

I am thankful for...

-Sugar-free, fat-free, vanilla iced latte on a warm day

-Air conditioning

-A peaceful shower while baby-man napped

-MOST of the things to be done/picked up/bought/packed before our trip to Florida checked off the list!

-Play dates for the Princess, a nap for the baby-man, and a good book and lounge chair in the sun for me! (That was yesterday, but I am still thankful for it today;-)

-NO RAIN here in my part of Texas for the past week!

-Leftover roast to be made into Bar-b-Que sandwiches tonight for dinner!

-Snuggling with the Princess for an afternoon read and smelling her freshly shampooed hair

-A book I have been waiting for finally on hold for me at the library

-The opportunity for our first "family of four" vacation upcoming

-The sound of the baby-man playing in his crib and "talking" to his stuffed buddies after just waking from his nap

-My children and husband, safe and healthy

-Most of all for Him, our God, holding us in the palm of His hand...