March 2011

March is always a time of great excitement and anticipation at our house. First, comes Sarah Ryann's birthday- literally, her birthday is March 1.

This year, I had the pleasure of hosting the 2nd annual sleepover party comprised of 10 9-10 year old little girls. Dan took the boys to my parents for the night (Thanks for the help Grandad!), and my mom, Mimi, came over to spend the night and "help" me. In reality, she did most of the work while I took tons and tons of pictures, refilled drinks, and made popcorn.  She got to deal with the mess made by the cupcake decorating adventure.

A BIG "Thank you" to Mimi for making both chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, and the buttercream icing, and providing the sprinkles, the dragees, and all the other great stuff! 

The girls had a ball. They danced until they couldn't stand, they played games, sang songs, and had a GREAT time together. It was a great party, we are so blessed that Sarah Ryann has such great friends.

 

And then there was Spring Break! We stayed at home this year and caught up on some much needed "house time". We did take a break one day for a trip to the Buffalo Park. We had a blast!

 

Thankfulness

The mercy and grace of our God amazes me on a very regular basis. More so now than at any other time in my life, and even more in recent years, months, weeks and days as I see His work in my life and the lives of those around me, and more so as I examine His works with a consciousness previously missing. I am constantly reminded that my life, my being, my existence, is for His Glory, only, and my highest calling is to serve  and exalt Him in everything that I do, and to do so not only because He commands it, but because He is worthy and I am not. That's a hard, hard concept for someone like me. Yet, here I am, put here by Him, for His Grace, for His Glory and by His Mercy, to do that one, tiny thing. And I fail, and fail, and fail. And by His Grace I am forgiven- over and over and over. My unfaithfulness is forgiven, my impatience is forgiven, my mistaken and illogical attempts to control my circumstances are forgiven, and I am gently reminded by Him, through others, that His plan is perfect, and mine is destined to fail. Thank you Lord for the gentle reminders, for the gentle pushes in the right direction, for the decisions that you made so long ago, and for the Mercy that you continue to show me. Thank you for the wonderful leaders that you place in my life, thank you for the wonderful examples of men and women who place their unwavering trust in You. "Thankful" is such a small word to express such an enormity of feeling.

Welcome 2011!

I can't believe so much has happened. We have celebrated Christmas, my Mom's birthday, Finn's birthday, Nemi's birthday, and the SNOW- more snow than I have ever seen in Mississippi. We built snowmen and had snowball fights. Precious memories.

Our holidays this year were wonderful, and different. We awoke to a white Christmas! The first in my memory.  It was a wonderful surprise.

Matt, Leigh and Cameron came to Tupelo on Christmas day, and we had a great time seeing them and learning of the newest addition to the family-

baby Morgan

due in August!

Unfortunately our time with them was short as Cameron woke up with a stomach bug the next day and Mom woke up with terrible bronchitis. Needless to say Matt, Leigh and Cameron packed up and moved on back to GA pretty early on Sunday, but our time was fun while it lasted.

We celebrated with Tim and Anna the day after Christmas, their trip to Tupelo Christmas morning having been cancelled due to the SNOW.  After that came January and yet more SNOW!

January also brought basketball season. Sarah Ryann is playing on the 3rd-6th grade girls team for TCPS, and is having a BALL, quite literally.

I knew that this was going to be a great experience when I heard the Coach ask the girls as they came off the court during half-time of the first game,
"Are you having fun?"

A resounding "YES" was the answer, and is still the answer for each of them.

GO EAGLES!

Then came the January birthdays- Finn on the 12th, Jacq Fortner on the 30th and Norman on the 31st.  We didn't get to celebrate, yet, with Jacq, but we sure did celebrate with Finn and Nemi!

BRING IT ON 2011- IT'S GOING TO BE A GREAT YEAR!