Praise Him Anyway

Looking at these pictures make my heart hurt; literally!  This is my daughter's car.  She was on her way to school today on a very busy highway and had a wreck.  Road construction had the lanes merging from two lanes to one and the car in front of her came to a dead stop to let other cars merge.  She didn't realize that the car was stopped until too late and she rear ended it.  Her car is totaled.  This was her first car.  We bought it used and only had liability insurance on it.  That's okay though.  She can always get another car.  I couldn't bring myself to even imagine what I would have done if she had been hurt.  Other than a few bumps and bruises she is fine.  She is really really sore.  I know God took care of her.  As you can tell from the pictures the driver's side didn't get pushed into the car only the passenger side.  If the driver side had then it would have surely crushed her legs.

There are a lot of things going on in our life right now that don't seem to be good things.  Sometimes I feel as if the weight of the world is on my shoulders but I have to believe that God is with me.  I'm living my life for him and I fully expect a good outcome.  I've been singing a song the last few weeks and it seems that the words are so appropriate today.

A Miracle Today

Lord, you see the puzzle not the piece

You see the forest not the trees

You know what's best for me

Lord, you have bottled up my tears

You see my questions and my fears

And the way it has to be.

I know that there are others more deserving than I

I know that I'm not worthy but you listen when I cry

So if this cross is mine to bear, I'll praise You anyway.

Lord, I could sure use a miracle today.

Lord, You are faithful more than words

You feed the lilies and the birds

You catch the sparrow when it falls.

You know exactly where I am 

So I'm not questioning Your plan

There's a reason for it all.

You turned the water into wine

You healed the leper and the blind

God I know there's nothing you can't do

You calmed the sea with just one word

and when you spoke the deaf man heard

So, I know this is a little job for you.

~Blessings

Krista

Our Easter in Pictures...

This post won't be very wordy but will be full of pictures.  We started our Easter weekend by hosting a community Easter Family Festival.  I was up at 7 making hot dogs.  We were at the church by 9.

Volunteers sorting thousands of Easter Eggs.

By 11:20 over 100 people.  It only gets better

Dyeing Easter Eggs

Getting prizes for the Easter Egg Toss

Receiving a Bible for choosing the correct ducks

Face Painting

The line never slowed for the 22' Slide

 The old

and the young play hopscotch

 S'mores with Peeps

 are messy

So messy that I don't want to touch

By 12:15 the parking lot and the hill behind the church are full!

At 12:30 the first group ages 0-4 head up the hill to hunt eggs.

By 2 everyone was leaving and we were cleaning & setting up for Easter morning service.

The choir singing Easter morning.

My little family + my sweet nephew Isaac.

I hope you all had a great Easter weekend.  We did!  There is nothing like celebrating our risen Saviour with children.  They are so eager to learn the true meaning behind Easter.  It was a great weekend and just what I needed to make me smile!

~Blessings

Krista

Reminiscing

Lunch

I'm sure most of you are reading this thinking "What in the world does a  plate of tuna, pork & beans, and saltine crackers have to do with reminiscing?"  Well I'm going to tell you!

When I was a child I spent my summers with my grandmother.  I called her Mama.  My Mother has and always will be my Mother, but my grandmother was my Mama!  Yes, I was just a little spoiled.  She would just about give me anything I wanted.  I say just about because she wasn't a rich woman and some things that I wanted were always within her budget.  Anyways back to the point, Many summer afternoons Mama would make lunch.  It would just be the two of us and she'd open a can of pork & beans, a can of tuna, and some saltine crackers.  I always loved that simple little lunch with just the two of us.

I was looking in the pantry for something light to eat and I noticed the can of Van Camp's Pork & Beans.  The memories started flowing in.  I decided this was a perfect lunch for me today.

~Blessings
Krista

It's Saturday

I can't believe it's Saturday.  When you don't leave the house much it seems like the calendar and specifically what day of the week it is doesn't really matter that much.  To most families the weekends mean that the family will be together more but my children are both in college.  They work on the weekends so they are not home then either.  They are home on Sundays so that is our day to worship the Lord & spend time together.

However, I have learned to cherish everyday.  Charlie has been helping my Dad this week with a project so he hasn't been at home, and it feels like things are somewhat back to normal.  He'll probably be helping him for the next week or so and I hope that we'll be able to establish some sort of routine.  With both of not working and just being at home all day, every day it has kind of worn on both of our nerves.

In 2008 I had the opportunity to be at home for about 9 months.  During that time Charlie worked from daylight to dark so I didn't see him very much.  We had so many financial obligations that he had to work as much as possible so we could pay our bills.  Fast forward to 2011, we were both working and had very good paying jobs but we decided to downsize.  We got rid of our house, and yes, I say it that way because it was such a burden.  It was a money pit!  We have a smaller vehicle.  Yes, it is a little Ford Ranger and only fits the 2 of us but that is all we need.  The kids both have vehicles so why do we need a gas hog?  Our bills are down to our rent, insurance, and utilities.  We don't have any debt.  God has been good to us.  He saw our future and what we thought last year was horrible turned out to be a huge blessing.

Last October we were on vacation with my Mom & Dad and we were talking about where we saw ourselves in 5 years.  Charlie is 40 now and I'm not far behind.  I remember telling them then that I'd like to be a stay at home wife.   That it might seem old-fashioned but that I'd like to be able to take care of Charlie by keeping the house, his clothes, and making sure a meal was on the table when he got home from work.  We'd like to build a house; something small just enough for the two of us and room for future grandchildren to play.  Maybe have our own business.  Little did I know that less than 30 days later I'd be given my separation notice.  It never crossed our mind that in January Charlie would receive his separation notice too.  What our plans for 5 years were in October haven't really changed much.  God has just given us a different path to get there.  In reality it may not take as long to acquire the things we wanted to.  What we thought would come last, the opportunity of owning our own business, has actually come first.

Charlie is trying to start a new business.  It's a slow process because we didn't have money in savings.  We do have a couple of loans (money we loaned out when we had it) coming due and we hope to use that to help start his business.  Right now Charlie is getting the necessary licensing and insurance.  Once we receive the paybacks we hope to buy him a work van.  He already has a couple of companies lined up that will supply him work once he is licensed and insured.  Like I said, it's just a slow process.

People laugh when he tells them I am a stay at home wife, but I don't care.  My house is clean, our laundry is done, I'm able to help others when asked, and I'm here when my kids need me.  Even though they are adults themselves they still need their Mother!  You'd be surprised the talks we've had on Tuesday mornings or Thursday afternoons that otherwise we wouldn't have had if I'd been at work.  I'm thankful that God has given us everything that we need.  Our bills are paid, and we have food in the pantry.

I find happiness and peace from the beauty that God creates like the flowers above.  If God can take care of them and bring them back every year then why can't he take care of me?  What more could we ask for?

~Blessings
Krista

Anticipation

You know that feeling you get right before something big is about to happen?  Maybe your first date, or a big event that you have been looking forward to?  You know the feeling...you are excited, but you also feel a little bit of dread because what if something goes wrong.  What if all your plans are thwarted?  

I woke up this morning with that feeling but as far as I know I don't have any big plans.  I feel like something is about to change in our lives, but I don't have a clear feeling on whether it will be a good change or a bad change.  The one thing I do know is that God is in control of everything.  I've been talking to him this morning and I know that whatever happens that I'll make it through with the the Lord guiding me.  

Maybe this is just so I will be prepared when the time comes...

~Blessings

Krista

Showers bring Flowers...

I think last week or maybe the week before last I posted these...

which I assumed were a type of daffodil, right?

Well then yesterday out of the same plant have bloomed these...

Okay, so what are they?  and how did they come out of the same plant?  The daffodils are gone and in their place these other white flowers have appeared.

I am the first house on a long driveway and the driveway is lined with these beautiful purple trees.  Can anybody tell me what they are?

Then out of no-where my neighbor has these beautiful tulips that have sprung up... I just love spring!  I know what these were, hahaha..

Isn't amazing how the Lord works?  We have had many torrential downpours over the last few weeks but then we've also had beautiful, warm sunny days.  God was giving his plants the needed food and water to not only survive but thrive!  He does us that way too.  I've been going through a rainstorm but I know God is going to bring us out into the sunshine and we are going to THRIVE!!!

~Blessings
Krista

Embroidery

When I was in elementary school I learned how to embroider in school.  I'll never forget coming home from school and the excitement of knowing how to do something crafty.  I guess that was my first endeavor into any type of sewing.  My grandmother lived with us at the time and she could crochet so we came up with a little Christmas project that we could do together.  She bought men's handkerchiefs and I would embroider the person's initials on them and she would crochet a scallop around the edges.  I wish I could find just one of those handkerchiefs that we made together.

The instruction booklet for the Quilted Butterfly

Many years later and my daughter was staying with her grandmother, my mother-in-law, for the summer.  Lethia was an awesome woman.  I don't think there was anything she couldn't do.  When my daughter came home that summer she brought with her several embroidery kits.  My mother-in-law had these kits left over from many many days gone by.  She said they used to have hostess parties back when she was young and they'd sit around and embroider these little squares.  My daughter and I embroidered a few of these together and then like projects do they were pushed to the back burner.  My daughter became a teenager and embroidery wasn't any fun anymore.

A package of one of the Hostess Programs that has never been opened.

Now fast forward to today, or should I say about 3 weeks ago.  I was going through my craft stash trying to sort things out and I come across these embroidery kits.  Immediately my mind went back to Lethia and I began to cry.  I couldn't look at them without crying.  However the more I thought on it I decided that I would embroider these little squares by hand (all in red thread my new found passion) and then I would somehow make a quilt out of them.  One that we could have and cherish forever.

The package that hasn't been opened is for a Daisy pattern.
It has the thread, needles, instruction, and printed muslin.

Tonight it's seems that I was having trouble getting settled.  My nerves were really bothering me and my mind was going a hundred miles an hour.  I didn't feel like pulling out the sewing machine, or cutting out anything, but then I remembered those little squares.  For the last few hours I've sit here trying to remember how to do a basic chain stitch.  I could hear my grandmother's voice in my mind as she would say "Now hold the thread in a U and put it around your needle" She would tell me to hold it tight so I wouldn't lose the thread.  Memories....

The hearts my daughter embroidered many years ago

The heart I embroidered tonight.  

A few minutes ago my daughter walked into the room and she remembered the little project that she'd started many years ago.  She asked me if I still had the squares that she'd embroidered with her grandmother, of course, I said Yes.  She pulled them out and began to look at them.  I could tell by her face that she was hearing her grandmother's voice just like I did.  You never know what kind of impact you will have on someones life.  I was thinking tonight as my nerves have settled down how my mother-in-law would tell me "To just stay steady with the boat." and "Don't give up" she'd say, "God is just about to move".  I've needed to hear those words again but she's so far away.  I wouldn't bring her back if I could but tonight God let me hear those words in my mind by looking at a few pieces of embroidery....

~Blessings
Krista