What I've Learned

My friend Amy wrote about the things she has learned in the past year on today's post. I love what she wrote and have been inspired to share my own lessons from the previous year.

I've learned:
*As a follower of Christ, we are not exempt from trials and troubles in this life.

*This life is full of brokenness.

*I am so blessed to be a mom. This is not something I just learned, but it's something I am constantly grateful for and wanted to share.

*I have been blessed with a wonderful marriage. Tim and I have always known we were made for each other. Like two puzzle pieces that just fit. I, too, have seen my husband become a different man this year. Through some of the toughest trials we have ever faced, I've seen Tim grow closer to God and become such a strong spiritual leader. I had no idea our marriage could get any better but somehow it has.

*God cares about our dreams. And He will not say "no" to one unless it is absolutely essential to His plan. How I wish I could see the reason for His answers sometimes.

*I'm not entitled to anything. I always cringe when I hear someone say' "I deserve..." this or that. Thank GOD for his mercy that does not give me what I deserve. And thank HIM for his grace that gives me what I don't deserve.

*Home schooling for preschool has been worth ever single minute that I've spent with Emma. I'm clinging to these last few months that I have her at home. On the first day of kindergarten, one of us will be in absolute tears, and I can tell you it won't be Emma.

*New friends are just as wonderful as old friends. Over the past year, a few of my closest friends have moved away. I am blessed to still be in contact with them, and I am grateful for the new friendships that God has planted in my life.

*"Kill 'em with kindness" really does work. Showing self control and holding my tongue has proven to be very beneficial this past year.

*We have God's favor the moment we surrender our lives to Him. I've spent a lot of time in the last year praying for the favor of God, confusing with it with what He does or does not do for me. The biggest lesson of 2007 for me has been that I've been living in God's favor all along. If He answers my prayers, I will praise Him. And if He doesn't answer my prayers (the way I want), I will still praise Him.

WOW ~ I could go on and on. There have been many big spiritual lessons in my life this past year. But this blog is getting long and I want you to come back again tomorrow.

I will leave you with the anticipation of the evening we have ahead. Every year since Emma was born, we have gone out to dinner on New Years Eve at the Sunbird (or as Emma calls it, "The restaurant on the hill"). This is a family tradition I hope to carry on until Emma leaves home when she is 35. :) I'll post pictures tomorrow. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy Birthday Tim!

Today is Tim's 34th birthday, so we got up early to open presents. Emma ran to the table and excalaimed, "I love birthdays!" And you can tell from the pictures that Emma thought it was her birthday!



My latest project, which has been top secret, was a waterski calendar for Tim. I had so much fun making it, and he truly loved it! Here is a glimpse.


I know it's hard to see very well in this small version, but if you click on each picture you can see the detail that I added to each page.

On Tim's birthday I just want to tell him how much I love him. My life is so much better with you in it. I feel so blessed to call you my husband. You make me laugh. You're an awesome man of God. You're an incredible father. And you have the biggest most generous heart I've ever seen. The world is blessed to have a man like you in it who lives each day to make it a better place. I love your passion for God and your passion for making people well. You're a true gift and I treasure you and the love you show me and Emma. Happy Birthday, honey!

Baking Frenzy

Yesterday Emma and I made two dozen chocolate dipped pretzels ~ one of Emma's favorite holiday treats.




Today we set our sites even higher and made 17 dozen cookies! Yep ~ I don't know how we did it, but it was lots of fun! We sang sang along to the Christmas music and made a big mess of the kitchen. Here's what we made:

Nutter Butter Santa Cookies



Sugar Cookies (The secret ingredients are sour cream that makes them so soft and a hint of nutmeg. It's my mother-in-law's recipe and its the best I have ever had.)


Spritz cookies dipped in white chocolate ~ some with sprinkles (A hint of almond extract makes these yummy!)


Spritz cookies dipped in milk chocolate & drizzled with white chocolate


Spice Crackle cookies (My husband loves these cookies made with molasses, ground ginger and crystallized ginger.)


And there were several dozen regular spritz cookies ~ some plain, some with sprinkles. I just realized I didn't get a picture of those.

Here are some pictures from the fun day we had! It looks like Emma did all the work, huh?! She definitely got to do all the fun parts!







I have several more cookies on my to-do list, but after today I need a serious break!

Snow Fun

We got lots of snow yesterday! And Emma got her own snow shovel this year. So guess what her favorite thing to do is?




We did some sledding too but that was a three person job so I don't have any pictures. Then we had hot chocolate and made a gingerbread house. Our goal was to use all the candy we had on the house. Impressive, huh?!

Date Day & Night

This past Friday Emma spent the day and the night with her Grandma and Grandpa. So Tim and I got to go on a date! We had a great lunch together, did some shopping and Tim took me to see a wonderful movie called August Rush. I would highly recommend this movie. It's one of those rare movies with a great story and it's actually clean. I loved the music so much that I asked for the soundtrack for Christmas. Going into it, we knew it would be somewhat of a chick-flick but Tim really liked it too. And that's saying something. That evening we also had dinner with some friends and enjoyed a late night at the ice cream shop. It was wonderful fun, but I did miss Emma. Tim and I have decided that we need to make date night more of a regular occurrence. Any movie suggestions?!