Feeding America

Thankful thought for the day - Today I am thankful for the food God provides for my table. Thankful for the fact that we have plenty to eat and many item to choose from.

One of my favorite charities is Feeding America. They offer many programs that you can participate in to help feed America. Check out their site http://feedingamerica.org/take-action.aspx and thank God for what he has given you by passing blessings on to those less fortunate.

Giveaway

Thankful thought of the day - Today I am thankful for friends.

.... We are common folk. We sit in the bleachers, eat at diners, change diapers and wear our favorite team's ball cap. Fans don't wave when we pass. Servants don't scurry when we come home. Chauffeurs don't drive our cars; butlers don't open our doors or draw our baths. Doormen don't greet us, and security doesn't protect us. We are regular folks. And we wonder: Does God use people like us? -- Max Lucado


Max Lucado believes we are all made to make a difference. This is a wonderful book about the common folk. The hillbillies and simple folks. The net casters and tax collectors. It is a story that is so inspiring. We are given a choice...an opportunity to make a big difference during a difficult time. It is an encouragement for us all to rock the world with hope.


I will be giving this hardback edition away. The drawing will be held one week from today on Friday, November 19th. To enter for the giveaway, simply follow any or all of the steps below. You will get one entry for each of the following you choose. Up to three entries per person.

1. If you are already a follower of my blog, you can simply leave a comment for one entry or if you are not a follower, sign up to become one and leave a comment.

2. If you are already one of my faithful followers and you have your own blog, you can get an additional entry by placing this link http://mamawsplace4.blogspot.com/2010/11/giveaway.html  
for others to see on your blog and leave me a comment that you have.

3. Send me an email to mamawsplace@gmail.com to be entered in the giveaway.

I will post the winner by 8:00 AM EST on Friday, November 19th. Cut off for entries will be at midnight on November 18th.

Send down a miracle

Thankful thought of the day - Today I am thankful that God is still in the miracle business.

In times of deepest troubles, in the midst of our darkest storms, that's when God steps in and a miracle's performed.

 

We have all been there. We've hit rock bottom. We've faced life's challenges head on, not knowing where to turn or what to do. We've been knocked down, stepped on and left to flounder. But just when we have faced our darkest moments, just when we have no idea where to turn, God steps in and performs a miracle. Some are large; some are small. He has healed the sick; comforted the broken hearted and provided for us in our time of need. It could have been something major like a life threatening illness or something as simple as finding a $10.00 bill in your purse when you were in need and thought you were broke. He still provides for us.

 

There is a gentlemen from our community that recently underwent a four organ transplant. Things went well and he's been improving daily. In the past few days, he has developed complications that are leaving the doctors baffled. They are trying to find what is causing the complications and how to fix it. He is in serious need of prayer. But with all he is going through, when he was told of the complications, he simply smiled and said "This is nothing that God and I can't handle."

 

God send down a miracle for this young man.

I believe

Thankful thought of the day - Today I am thankful for the word BELIEVE.

Just a little while ago, I went to my Facebook page to paste my thankful thought of the day. I am thankful for so much that it takes me awhile to decide what one thing to focus on each day. As I was deciding, I started scrolling through the posts that were made last night. And then I saw it. A post that guided me to what I needed to be thankful for today. BELIEVING.

A wonderful, dear friend of mine who I have known for about 50 years, had posted a video she took of two of her granddaughters. I'm not sure of their exact ages but I think they are around 5 and 8. The video is of the youngest child playing a beautiful song on the piano. It is perfection. She doesn't miss a note as her little fingers glide across the ivory keys. Her sister is sitting beside her, clearly in awe. The little one offers to teach the big sister how to play. She takes Sis's fingers and places them on the keys and patiently shows her each note. That in itself is precious, but what made my morning was when the older one made a comment about not being able to do it, this little angel looked at her big sis and smiled and said "Yes you can if you BELIEVE you can."

I could not have said it better. How many times do we falter or fail simply because we do not have the faith that we can do it. We believe in others so easily, but have such a hard time believing in ourselves. Believing is to think; to feel sure of; to accept as true; to trust. Why do we let doubts enter in? When we set goals for our lives, we should go after those goals, believing with a trusting heart that God will guide us on our journey to reach our goals. We must have a firm conviction.

The Little Engine that Could taught us "I think I can, I think I can."  Bob the Builder is famous for his "Can we build it? YES WE CAN." Young David was not afraid to fight Goliath. He said "Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God." A young boy with a cocky attitude BELIEVED he could take down a giant. Through our faith in God and our belief in ourselves, we should be able to achieve great things if only we BELIEVE.

Thankful for Twins

Thankful thought of the day - Today I'm thankful for my twins. They have given me more pleasure and joy in their 33 years than words can ever describe. Not to mention the 5 beautiful grandchildren they have brought into the family.

It was a cold December morning 33 years ago, around 5:00 am and I woke up with back pain so bad I could barely roll out of bed. I soon noticed I was spotting a little. I was concerned because my baby was not due for four more weeks. I called the doctor at 8:00 when they opened and told them what was going on and they told me to come on into the office. The doctor checked the heart beat and said the baby was doing fine. He said I may not make it the full four weeks, but he wasn’t going to examine me because he did not want to chance inducing labor. He suggested going home and propping my feet up and relaxing and made me an appointment for a week later. That was in the early beginnings of ultrasounds and they didn’t do them unless they thought something was terribly wrong, so they did not do one on me.


That evening I was feeling a lot better and we had friends come by to check on me. We decided to play cards to pass the time. At 8:00, I felt the first of a series of sharp stabbing pains in my right side. Twenty minutes later, the process repeated itself. We stopped the card game and started clock watching. The pains would come and go sporadically until 2:00 a.m. on Saturday. By this time, I knew it was time to make the call. Off to the hospital we went. Upon arrival, they determined I was dilated to 2 and was definitely in labor. I was whisked off to labor and delivery. I had been up since 5:00 on Friday so by the time they got me settled, I was slightly delirious. I would drift in and out of a semi-sleeping state until the next pain would hit. I remember at one point, they were adjusting the heart monitor and the nurse said, “By the sound of that good strong heartbeat, I would say it is a boy.” At this point, I was just happy my baby was about to arrive. I never did have a preference as to the sex of the child at any point. After 7 hours of laborious pain, I had dilated to 5 and could receive the much anticipated epidural.

The baby monitors were unhooked as I was raised up to receive my dose of heaven. As they adjusted the fetal monitors, it was a new nurse and I heard her say “You can tell by the tiny little heartbeat that it is probably going to be a girl”. Keep in mind, not having slept for, at this point, 32 hours I was only vaguely aware of everything as the epidural seeped into my system, relaxing me. It may me start to doze and my last thought was, “Somebody check my baby. The heartbeat was a lot stronger earlier.” But I was slipping into oblivion and could not force the words out.

Three hours later, they had to wake me up to tell me to push. I was feeling nothing by this time. When it finally became time, they wheeled me into the delivery room. I remember laying there laconically looking around and thinking, “So, this is what a delivery room looks like.” As the doctor settled himself at the end of the table I turned my eyes toward him right as he said “Nurse, get another warmer ready. I think we might have twins here.” Shock. Dismay. Speechless. These are words that all described how I felt. I raised up and said “Who?” Well, duh, I was the only pregnant woman in the room so they all had a good laugh. I just kept laying there laughing and saying, “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe this!” When all was said and done, I was the proud mother of two beautiful, healthy children who were four weeks early. Weighing in at 4 pounds and 12 ounces and 5 pounds and 8 ounces, they were each a little over 17” long.

The mood in the delivery room was one of celebration and jubilation. They broke hospital protocol and instead of whisking them straight to the nursery, they placed one in each arm and wheeled me out the doors where my family was waiting. Can you imagine the commotion it caused when I shouted, “Hey everybody, I got one of each!” That’s right. I had my daughter and my son. The two things I most wanted in the world, in one grand gesture and one problem free pregnancy, I had my family. I get asked all the time what it was like to have twins with no notice and I always reply, if I had ever had more children, I would have wanted to do it again.

Chris & Diana

Chris

Diana

Diana with her husband Michael and her children, Caleb & Shelby. She is my oldest by about 4 mintues.

Chris with his wife Jamie and his children, Garret & Alexis. He's my baby. He has a new son, Colby, but he's so new we don't have a family photo yet.

Me and my twins. That my oldest niece, Christy, beside us.



Miscellany Monday

Thankful thought of the day - Today, I am thankful for music. Whether it be Southern Gospel, Country, 50's music or the old fashioned rock and roll, I love music.

..... Tried a little experiment yesterday. I was making a few pigs in a blanket and had four croissants dough left over.  I was going to just bake them and use them for bacon croissant sandwiches, but I wondered what else I could do with them. So I unrolled them, sprinkled the liberally with sugar and then sprinkled them with cinnamon. I rolled them up and put them on the cookie sheet with the piggies. Baked them the normal time on the package. When they came out, I mixed confectioner sugar, a splash of vanilla and a little milk to make a thin glaze and used a spoon to drizzle it on the hot rolls. The result: The most delicious cinnamon roll I ever had. Just made four of them and hubby loved them. He ate them all before the day was out. Which is impressive because he is not a big sweet eater.

..... Went shopping on Saturday. The stores are starting to load up with some great gift items for Christmas. They are having a lot of store specials. I saved over 75% on some really great deals at Kohl's. Can't believe how fast the holidays are approaching.

..... Black Friday ads are starting to be posted. The best site to see them is http://bfads.net/. You can register and actually build a shopping list right on their site. Then just print it off on Thanksgiving and head out Friday for the bargains.

..... Made our Thanksgiving dinner list. I crack myself up. It never changes from year to year, but I sit down every year and make the list so we don't forget to fix something. Everybody has their faves. Mine is the ham (the rest of the family likes turkey). Another fave is the baked beans and of course I love the mashed potatoes and gravy. And I can't forget the graham cracker pie.

..... Lots of exciting things going on at church in December. We'll have our float in 2 different Christmas Parades. The choir and drama team will be doing The Star Still Shines on December 11th & 12th. Our children's Christmas program will be on December 19th.

..... Baking season is upon us. I'll be doing my normal holiday baking. Cookies, cakes, candies. I leave the pies for my hubby as that is his specialty. Lots of new recipes to try this year.

Thankful thought of the day - Today I am thankful for the 1st Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; ......

I'm so thankful that I live in the land of the free. That We the People means each and everyone of us. It means that I have the right to worship the way I want. To attend the church of my choice. To believe in my God. I cannot imagine living in a war torn country that does not provide these freedoms. Freedom of religion is not about a building we go to a few times a week. It is our God given right to believe. To practice our faith and know that we have the liberty to do so. Many wars have been fought to protect our freedom and many lives have been lost. Many veterans live with memories too horrific for us to ever comprehend. Many come home with shattered lives, wounded bodies, broken dreams and mental anguish. The price they pay is extremely high. And they would do it over and over again just to protect our rights, our freedoms, our lives.

Young men gladly sign up and leave family and friends behind. Some come back with celebrations and jubilation. Some come back brokenhearted and some don't come back at all. I thank God for the men and women who give of themselves daily, who lay their lives on the line in ways I can never imagine, just so I can sleep in peace at night.

Today as I practice my God given right to the freedom of religion, I will thank Him for those proud men and women. I thank Him for our veterans who have fought on foreign soil or in our own country to insure we are free. I thank Him for the men and women that still fight today to protect those same freedoms and I thank Him for those that will proudly serve in the future to insure our rights to be one Nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.