Just Another Day

This morning I was greeted by my 10 year old singing her own version of Happy Birthday. She was so excited it was my birthday except she was trying to make me older than I really am. :) I felt so loved when I went to my Facebook page and saw all the birthday wishes, too. Sean is in Springfield for Army training and this is the first time since I turned 22 that he isn't here to celebrate with me. It just postpones our family eat out to celebrate, but he did treat me to Red Lobster a few nights ago. YAY!

Even though I'm another year older I can't say I feel older (or wiser) yet. It really doesn't seem any different from yesterday or the day before. However, I do appreciate all the people that took time out to tell me "happy birthday".

My Day!

So I thoroughly enjoyed my day at the spa, and I have to say it was much needed. The highlight of my day wasn't necessarily the spa. I think that just made it even better!

I think I enjoyed church today more than I have in a very long time. First the worship was incredible! The songs just really hit hard and even though I was sitting at the piano I found myself really paying as much attention to the words as my chords. Pastor Bob had a great message this morning, too. I am usually a person that thrives on digging into the Word and trying to understand more about God by understanding the history, original language, accuracy of the translation, doctrine...you get the point. I'm not a "feel good" person by any means. I like application, but so often I feel our society is looking for a "pick me up". Today it really hit me when Pastor made us think about the following...

Even despite all the hardships I am or will be going through, even if I were to lose everything, could I honestly be able to tell God it's okay! Whatever You allow in my life I will receive because You don't owe me a thing!

How often do we see sadness in the world and we immediately ask, "Why God?" They didn't deserve to go through this. We are the last ones that should ever use the word deserve. What about what Christ deserved?

I love quotes. If you have any good ones, pass them on. I fill those blank white pages in the back of my Bible with quotes, hymns, and other things I feel important. This morning I was reading over one I wrote years ago. I don't remember where it was from, but it says,
"Lord, I am willing to receive what you send, to lack what you withhold, to relinquish what you take, to suffer what you inflict, to do what you command, and to be what you require." Do I really mean this? I can't say I'm positive. Right now it's easy because life hasn't been too difficult as of late, at least nothing I wasn't able to find a way through.

Someone at church gave me a book called Face to Face. It's a book that daily leads you through praying Scriptures for worship. I just started it. In today's renewal section the first verse is Deut. 10:12..."O Lord my God, may I fear You, walk in all Your ways, love You, and serve You with all my heart and with all my soul." May this be true of me today and every day!

The above average weekend!

Music practice was fun this morning. I've never thought of myself as a very good pianist. I wish I could read music as beautifully as others I know, but my talents on the ivories consist of hearing first then playing it with chords. However I will say that God has found ways over the years to use me in this way. I'm thankful that someone gives me the chance to play from time to time. It helps challenge me, too. I think also it helps keep me humble. :)

So we just had a grand lunch complete with fishsticks! Supper will be great though as I have a crock pot going with my mom's spaghetti in it. Yummy!

The girls don't know yet, but later I'm planning to take the 2 older ones to the Putnam. They're about to begin studying the animal kingdom, beginning with mammals. So we'll check out the mammals exhibit and take pics for the notebooks they'll be keeping and then make way to the IMAX to see Madagascar 2. Hopefully it won't be sold out. The museum has buy one get one free tickets this weekend with a coupon. :)

Looking forward to tomorrow the most!! I get my Christmas/birthday present!! Sean got me a day at the spa. I'll be enjoying a full hour massage as well as a manicure and pedicure. I don't even have to cook supper. We have a gift card for the fam to go to Cracker Barrel so that just completes my day of luxury!!

Staying Home

It is soooo unbelievably cold! I think our temps are suppose to be -23 or something like that tonight. For three days now I have not left the house. It's been rather nice staying put. :)

Today we got our Wii Mario Kart set up so the girls and I could play our friends here in town. That was nice since it was too cold for us to get together in person for a play date. I enjoyed it!

Yesterday (and today...and tomorrow) Sean has had no school, like many, because of the weather. The girls wanted to know if they had a snow day and were disappointed that I said, "You don't get snow days!" They worked hard though and got their work done. It was nice that Sean let me sleep in this morning.

Tomorrow I hope we go to the Putnam Museum and IMAX. It's a buy one/get one ticket combo this weekend. I know the girls want to see Madagascar 2. We're about to begin our study on animals in science, beginning with mammals. I thought we could check out the exhibit on mammals while we're there.

Otherwise all is well. Sean's uncle in New York died a few days ago. His mom and step-dad got there today. The funeral is tomorrow.

Hope everyone out there is staying warm!

Catch up!

Okay, so I'm not doing too well at blogging! ;) What a day! It began this morning by getting up and to the airport to tell our dear friend, Amanda, goodbye for the next 2 years. HEM tried so hard not to "lose it". She did a good job. I think she may miss Amanda more than I will.

We made a quick trip to Wal-Mart before we got snow. It didn't snow as much as I thought. A few inches is all. We're expecting more tomorrow night into Wednesday. Sean came home too. He usually stays at his mom's in Clinton to save gas because he has to stay late to tutor after school. Tutoring was cancelled so he got to spend time with HEM and GEM while I took EMM to dance. Then EMM and I went to Chick-fil-A. She thought that was the greatest treat to go out with mom and NO sisters!

Sean also found out he's going to S. Korea in March for about 3 weeks. He's excited for the opportunity and I'm excited for him. He'll miss EMM's birthday, but says she'll get a cool birthday present. :)

We had a wonderful Christmas with more than we deserved as always. New Year's Eve was a ton of fun as we had a bunch of people over as usual and stayed up way too late playing Rock Band and Wii games. It's great to have so many wonderful friends though!

Our next adventure that's planned is getting 4 of HEM's teeth pulled and getting her braces on. I'll let everyone know how that goes in the coming month or two.