Christmas Shopping

We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving with our family and had lots of turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie, and also much laughter. It seems to have become a tradition with my side of the family to watch the Home Alone Christmas movies each year to officially begin Christmas! What a great time we had. No matter how many times we watch this movie we always laugh just as hard as we did the first time, which is till we cry!

Then the next morning my sister, mom, daughter, nephew and I were among the crazy early bird shoppers! Yes, I was at JC Penny at 4 a.m.!
As usual, around 10 a.m. I begin to wonder why in the world I have lost my mind as I'm standing among the other shoppers......mad crazy women. Silliness begins to set in as we wonder from department to department and store to store. We had such a great time and we really did get a lot of shopping under way!!

Later in the evening, after my little nap, we also trimmed the tree and decorated the house. Wow, all this in one day! Needless to say, I was draggin by the time we finished. Hurray.........Christmas is here!

Happy Thanksgiving
The past few weeks have been very busy for us, just as I'm sure they have for you too. We have already begun to enjoy the holidays with fun activities with friends and family. Ice skating, birthdays with family, shopping, decorating, and much more have been packed into the last few weeks.
We are so thankful for this wonderful time of Thanksgiving!
As we celebrate with family and friends we have so much to be thankful for. Love and peace within our family, good health, our comfy and warm home, so very much! Most of all I thank my Lord and Savior for sending His son to die on the cross so that I may have a home in heaven one day soon!! PRAISE GOD!!
Wishing all my friends who visit my blog a very BLESSED THANKSGIVING!!
See you soon!

As we take our morning walk we are greeted by friends along the way.

The view of the mountains is gorgeous!

































This is the picture of another "Frenchy Bag" from the Amy Butler pattern I made for a birthday gift!
How do you like the colors? This will make a nice winter bag.
The four pockets are deep and have plenty of room inside.

Revive Our Hearts

As I was riding in the car this evening I turned on my favorite Christian radio station to find Nancy Leigh DeMoss speaking. Nancy has been leading a series of lessons entitled, "God's Beautiful Design for Women: Living Out Titus 2:1-5." My heart was so blessed and encouraged as I listened to her speak. God is so good and knows exactly what I need, and when I need it.
Today's lesson is titled, "The True Value of Your Home".
I would like to share a small portion of this lesson with you.

Through the ministry of Revive Our Hearts, we’re always trying to train women to reflect the beauty and the wonder of God’s ways and His great redemptive plan.

So as we think about homemaking, how do we reflect the beauty and wonder of God’s ways and His great redemptive plan when we live out this mandate to be home worker, keepers at home, guardians of the home, managers of the home, workers at home? How does that reflect the gospel and the heart of God?

Being home keepers, homemakers, reflects God’s heart for the home. God is somebody who loves home. Psalm 68:5-6 tells us, “A Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. God settles the solitary in a home.”

God is a homemaker, and we reflect His heart for home when we cultivate homes where people can grow and be nurtured and nourished.

When you bring order out of chaos in your home or you make a drab space to be light and attractive, you are reflecting to the people in that home the One who created the world when the earth was formless and void and dark. You’re incarnating the Creator God in a sense, giving people a glimpse of Him.

When you cook nutritious, tasty meals for your family, you are pointing them to the One who feeds the hungry and who satisfies thirsty souls with Himself. You’re giving them an appetite for Him.

When you go to the time and effort to be sure that your husband and your kids have adequate clothing that fits, you are pointing them toward the One who clothes us with His righteousness.

See, every aspect of homemaking is meant to reflect some spiritual, eternal truth that we’re trying to picture to our world. This is what takes the mundane and the tedious and can make it an act of worship, can make it a work of art, can make it something profoundly spiritual.

When you learn how to decorate your home tastefully, you’re giving your family and guests in your home a glimpse of the One whose handiwork and artistry are reflected in creation. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork. I was thinking about God as doing handiwork.

When you do handiwork, hand work, when you do creative work, when you do tasteful decorating, you’re just giving people a hunger for God who is the supreme, consummate decorator.

When you maintain a clean home, an orderly home, you’re creating an atmosphere where your family can appreciate the value of being spiritually clean, cleansed from sin, and of having lives that are spiritually ordered. You’re teaching; you’re training not just to be clean and orderly because that is not a supreme, ultimate eternal virtue. It’s pointing them to virtues that are supreme and eternal. As you are homemaking what you are doing is creating a taste for our ultimate home in heaven.

Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms . . . I am going there to prepare a place for you” (John 14:1-2, NIV). So Jesus is a homemaker. His purpose is not Himself. “I’m going there to prepare a place for you.”

The thought of what Jesus is doing in preparing a place for us in heaven is supposed to keep our hearts from being troubled. It’s supposed to bring us peace as we wait and anticipate that home.

God has truly given Nancy a gift of encouragement! As you will see when you visit her website, you can listen by podcast or read previous posts.
Please take a moment to visit Nancy's website, Revive Our Hearts, and listen to her message today, I know you will be glad you did!

Around Our Town

My sewing machine has been quite busy!

I love making bags, and this one is probably my favorite, The Frenchy Bag, pattern by Amy Butler. I plan to make more of these soon.

Curtains for my daughters room........

and here is the apron I made from the instructions at The Noble Wife.

Last week as we were coming home it was such a beautiful day that I stopped along the way to take some pictures of our town. We are thankful to live in a small town with such rich history. I won't bore you with the history part, but I'd love to share the photos.
If you have pictures you'd like to share of your town, please leave me a comment, we would love to see them.
The first picture is the "Carter Mansion", the oldest frame house in Tennessee, as you can read on the sign bellow the picture of the cemetery.

Courthouse

Veteran's Memorial in front of the courthouse

Probably the most well know historical landmark is the Covered Bridge, which has a very interesting history behind the building of this bridge.