Tender Loving Cooking = TLC

Our church, Hidden Valley Community Church (HVCC), has a really cool ministry called TLC, which means Tender Loving Cooking.  What is TLC you ask?  TLC is a wonderful ministry that provides families with meals in their time of need.  The list is endless to those we help; a family with a new baby and exhausted parents, someone who had a surgery and needs easy meals to prepare, a family who is going through a rough time and just needs a nice meal to get them through.

The reason I am so excited about this ministry is I have been blessed with being the new TLC Coordinator.  I am the one the family gets in touch with when they need some TLC.  Then I send out a call to action to our TLC team and they get to work preparing a delicious meal to put in the freezer for the family to enjoy.

If you know anyone who needs some TLC or you would like to join our team please let me know.  You don't need to attend HVCC to be a part of this amazing ministry.

Wrapped in the warmth of love

For as long as I can remember my mom has been crocheting blankets.  The first one she made for me is pink and white strips.  It is the size of a twin bed and was given to me at a very young age.

With each pregnancy my mom has us go out and pick out colors of yarn so she can make each baby their own blanket. The girls love that grandma made them their own special blanket.

 From left to right: Mackenzie's -born in 2005, Kennedy's -born in 2008, and Lexi's - born in 2009. 

 

Then a couple of weeks ago my mom surprised us with our own "couple" blanket.  Scott and I have been married for almost 5 years now.  (Anniversary coming up in May!)  This blanket is huge.  We have a queen size bed and this blanket is bigger than the bed.  I love the colors she picked. And every time I look at it am reminded of all the hard work that went into making it. Right now it fold it in half and drap in over the end of the bed.  It adds just the right touch to our room.

Thank you mom for all the wonderful blankets that are all around our house.

Have a great weekend!

Sunday day of rest

Sab·bath

n.

1. The seventh day of the week, Saturday, observed as the day of rest and worship by the Jews and some Christian sects.

2. The first day of the week, Sunday, observed as the day of rest and worship by most Christians.

(From http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Sabbath)

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Exodus 20:8-11).

Another one of my goals this year is to take a Sabbath day, a day of rest and reflection.  One would think that this would be easy to do.  The first Sunday I did this was sooooo hard.  It was very tempting to go throw a load of laundry in the washer, or do the dishes or have the girls pick up their toys.  But I didn't. I just sat and rested.  Actually forced myself to sit and think about all that God has provided for us.  I admitted in my prayer journal that I had no idea was I was to be doing or not doing.  I am now on my 5 week of taking a day of rest and reflection.  I love it.  I look forward to taking a day off of my usual duties to reconnect with God and my family.  Here is how today is going:

 I set my alarm for 6:15 am this morning.  I wanted to get up before the rest of the house did.  I am so glad I did.  There was a nice gentle snow falling outside that looked so pretty in the streetlight.  I made my coffee and sat down with the crochet blanket my Aunt Jeanette made and gave us for our wedding.   Then I opened up my Bible to where I left off, Exodus 30.  How very fitting that in the next chapter they talk about the Sabbath.

The girls staring waking up one-by-one.  I jumped in the shower, then got everyone ready for church.  Breakfast's eaten, girls dressed, hair combed.  Scott got ready to go and off we went.  After lunch Lexi laid down for a nap and so did I. 

 After Scott woke Lexi and I up from our naps, I decided to work on Lexi's crochet monkey some more.  It's almost finished.  As I added each new stitch I would pray for Lexi.  It is really therapeutic to crochet and pray at the same time.  Now I'm going to get ready to make the girls some dinner.  I hope everyone else I having a great Sunday.

Family jewels

 

Another Friday is here.  It's funny how fast the weeks go by.  This week's Friday Favorites are all about the family jewels. The jewelry by husband has given me over the years.  We are still fairly young in our marriage (5 years in May).  So there isn't to much, but what I do have means more to me than he knows.

This is the first ring Scott gave me.  When we were dating he decided I needed some pretty rings. So he went and bought this for me for my birthday.  I love this ring because it shows just how much Scott knew me.  The blue middle stone is my favorite color. And the surrounding diamonds are the perfect touch.

 

My wedding rings.  These rings brought us together, officially, as a family.  (I was a single mom at the time.) The engagement ring he gave me on Memorial Day of 2006.  After work that day Scott drove us to a nearby park.  He parked the truck, we got out and walked down a little path to a bench facing the lake.  I had been badgering him for days to propose. As we sat down I noticed how choppy the water was that day. I was shaking so bad when Scott proposed, mix of nerves and excitement. After a few stumblings and distractions on my part,  Scott finally asked me if I would be his wife.

My wedding band.....we picked this out together.  Scott wanted his to be gold and mine needed to go with the engagement ring.  I have very fond memories of the day we went to pick out our wedding bands.....such a fun day.  These two rings together are a symbol of our love and commitment to each other.  Life isn't easy, we both know that.  We have always said that we are a team and God is our coach.  We can get through anything as long as we let God guide us.

Scott gave me this necklace for our 3rd anniversary.  One of the reasons it's so special to me is the reasoning behind it. Our anniversary is in May and the October before, his mom past away from a long fight with breast cancer.  A portion of the proceeds went to breast cancer research. 

There you have it.  Our family jewels. 
Anita

I'm not perfect but God thinks I'm great!

This past Tuesday our middle daughter, Kennedy, turned 4.  That morning I was assembling and finishing up decorating her birthday cake.  Well, as these things go, the cake was not coming together like I had envisioned.  I was almost in tears when I came to the realization that the vision I had was not to be.  I stepped away from the cake and went to take a shower to try and get a grip on my tears. *sniff, sniff*

When Scott came home from the store he calmed me down and helped me to come up with a new plan.  As I was piping on the new princess castle I couldn't help but think that God thinks I'm great even if what I'm doing is far from perfect.  Then Kennedy came into the kitchen to see what I was doing, I turned and asked her if she liked her cake.  The big grin on her face was the only answer I needed.  She didn't care that the cake wasn't perfect in my eyes.  She was just tickled pink that her mommy was making her birthday cake.  In her eyes it was perfect.

God is the same way.  What I'm doing may not be perfect in my eyes, but it might just be perfect in His.  Whether it's how I pray, how I praise Him or even how I read the Bible.

A New Year = New Goals

Hi everyone.  I know that it's been 4+ months since my last post and I apologize for that.  One of my goals for 2012 is to post on here at least once a week.  This week I'm participating in Sandra's Friday Favorites over at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.

About a month before Christmas I picked up a used desk for our room that became my craft desk.  It quickly filled up with homemade presents for my friends and family. 

For Christmas this year Scott gave me a brand new sewing machine.  It wasn't on my Christmas list but my wonderful husband sure does know me.  This little machine quickly became my favorite gift.  I placed it proudly on my craft desk but didn't get to it right away because I had no idea how to use it.  

On January 1st I packed up my sewing machine and headed over to my friend Andee's house.  She graciously showed me how to thread my machine and even taught me a thing or two.

I then brought my machine home and got right to work.  Being at my craft desk with my sewing machine is one of my favorite places to be.  Scott knows that if he can't find me in the house to just look in our bedroom.  He even set up a bird feeder right outside the window for me.  I love being able to look at the beautiful birds while crafting away.  God sure knew what He was doing when He brought Scott and I together.

Have a blessed day!

Anita

You never know what you're going to get.

If you were to ask me a year ago if I thought I would be where I am now or have had the experiences I’ve had I would of thought you were crazy.   It was this time last year that I decided to join a Life Group at Hidden Valley.  My Life Group has been one of the best experiences of my life.  These ladies are awesome.  I have grown so close to them and to God.  I have made some extraordinary friends who helped us out during a difficult time by showing us God’s love.  But let us fast forward to life now.

In the time since I joined my Life Group, I have read several books; one in particular really stretched me.  I read the book Radical by David Platt.  This book is truly amazing.  Radical challenges you to let God take over and have Him use you for His good.  As a result I have a new venture starting this weekend.  This Sunday is the debut of the 3-2-1 Movement at Hidden Valley Community.  Click here to see more information on this.

Have you asked God to stretch you today?  Go ahead, do it.  You never know what you are going to get.

Until next time~