going all out!

Even the bathroom got in on the act this year!

Decorating for Christmas

My mother made me this wonderful center piece

I don't usually get that into decorating for Christmas I would rather spend my money on presents. But for some reason this year I decided to have some fun. I bought a new 10' tree

(artifishal ) . Live trees just seem like such a waste to me even though I do understand why so many people have to have a real one. The girls really enjoy decorating for each season so I have been trying to be a little more festive. Here are some picture of the decorations around my house.

The Nutcracker

Wayne and Jana gave us all a wonderful Christmas gift. "Tickets to Ballet West's THE NUTCRACKER"

What a wonderful day/evening we all had. We went to church and Portia sang with the other kids of Mountain Life in front of the whole church, they did a really nice job and Dewayne and Rustin came to see her sing. :o) It was nice to have everyone in church together. After church we met up with Wayne and Jana and there kids and went to The Nutcracker ballet. Jana's sister Laura and her kids came and so did Sonja and Fred, Jana's mother and her husband. After the ballet we all went to dinner at The Olive Garden. Our food was fantastic and our servers were wonderful. It was a great way to top off a wonderful day. Paris is sure she wants to be a ballarina now! :o)

However, the day didn't start off so wonderful. It was snowing and very cold. The roads were bad and church is a 30 min. drive.

On the way to church this morning there was a truck slid off the road and rolled over right in front of us. We pulled over and the guys helped another guy pull out a woman, her teenage daughter and the teenage daughters 8month old baby. They were not hurt but I tell ya it didn't look good at all. In fact it looked like the top of the truck had caved in and I was pretty sure that the people inside were going to be in bad shape. I started praying out loud over the situation while the guys hopped out of our truck to go open the doors to the rolled truck. To my surprise the first one they pulled out was the baby girl. She wasn't even crying! Then the mother and her daughter got out. They were upside down for cryin out loud! They were shook up a little, stunned more than anything (like whoa! what just happened?) but they were fine. The woman had just passed us a few seconds before and was driving to fast for the road conditions. The girl and her baby got in our truck to stay warm until they had their rides figured out. We were a little late for church not much though. I'm just thankful those people were OK.

Thank You Jesus!

And thank you for a much needed and prayed for day with my family. God is so faithful!!! He sees and he does answer our prayers!

Facing My Giants

I have to say that Iv had a hard time lateley coming up with something to blog about.
I am in a very reflective place and the battles are raging all around me. (strange huh!)

In the "No Other Gods" bible study I just went through the chapter that talked about the giants in our lives. I have been so guilty of focusing on my giants that I have not been able to live in the joy and victory that I know the Lord wants for me. However I have become increasingly aware that the Lord IS the glue that holds it all together, not me.

Lord, you love my loved ones more than I am even able to, you created them! I ask that you increase my faith Lord that I may keep my focus on you knowing that you are working in their lives. Help me Lord to see only you and not the giants in my life and in the lives of those that I love so dearly.

God is so good! Thank you Lord that you know my heart and my thoughts, you see every tear. As your word tells us, you are that friend that sticks closer than a brother.

Susan

Chicken & Bow Tie Pasta

I love to cook but even more I love to bless my family.
My husband however is a picky eater and does not like a lot of ingredients that most people like. It makes it hard to be creative and I love being creative too. So when this recipe for Chicken & Bow Tie Pasta came up in my bible study I knew he wouldn't go for the feta cheese. My father had a birthday coming up so I decided to stop at the store and get all the ingredients for the dish and make it for him on his birthday. My mother got right into the act, she too loves to be creative and try new things. I even took my No Other Gods book with me to the store and opened it up on my cart to use it as a shopping list. I had to laugh and thought of Beth Moores story about her doing that and the people at the store looking at her like she was crazy.

The dish was great I had fun and best of all, my father was blessed!
I will post the recipe for those of you who are not doing the No Other Gods study but might like to try the dish

BECKER'S PASTA

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 lb. bowtie pasta
2pkg. sun-dried tomatoes, softened and cut into strips
1 whole head of garlic (minced)
1 can pitted black olives (chopped)
16 oz feta cheese, crumbled
1/2 cup pine nuts toasted

Slice chicken into bite sized pieces and saute with sun-dried tomatoes and minced garlic until chicken is cooked through. Cook pasta according to package directions. In large bowl, mix crumbled feta, pine nuts, and chopped olives. After the chicken mixture is done add it to the dry ingredients and toss. When pasta is cooked, add it to the rest of the ingedients and toss again

I found that this serves 4 generously! for a large family you could just double the recipe

Ready to serve! Serve with your favorite bread and dipping oil
Enjoy!

Happy 4th of July!!!

WOW! This past week just flew by. Dance camp is over and the girls had fun.
Paris says she is big now because she goes to dance. We have had a lot of fun this week, we went to the Rodeo on Thursday night and then all the kids were in the Oakley parade Friday morning. Portia,Jayda and Paris were in with their dance company they are on the trailers and Jaren went in the parade with his 4-H group on his horse "Buddy". We were so impressed with what a good job Jaren and Buddy did for their first parade. Buddy is an older horse and doesn't seem to be bothered much by anything.

Jansen was the only one that wasn't going to get to be in the parade so his uncle Rustin said he would enter his new "Hot Rod" and Jansen could ride along with him and throw candy. They had a blast and everyone in the parade got a big kick out of Rustin's hat and of course all the guys thought Rustin's car was cool.

Lara's kids (Jana's sister)were in the parade also. Jordan was on a big rig with his football team and Jackson got to ride in the car with Rustin and Jansen. Me? hehe I'm always the one behind the camera :o) Papa even went to the rodeo and the parade!!! The kids love their Papa and love it when he comes along to have fun with them.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

THE POWER OF A GODLY MOTHER

As I was contemplating the scripture in the "Being Transformed" post I kept being drawn back in my memory to a poem that I wrote for my mother for Mothers day some 20 years ago. I found it interesting the comparison that I had drawn between that scripture and the poem I wrote about watching my mother (a very godly woman) and how us girls watch our mothers lives and then as we grow up our lives take on a likeness to theirs, we hope! How very blessed I am to have such a godly mother. What an honor it would be for me if when they are grown my grand daughters can say the same thing about me!

She is Watching You

She is watching you

and all that you do.

From very early on in life

she was watching you be a wife.

She sees the love and care that you give.

It's teaching her how to live.

She watches you when you are happy.

She watches you when you are sad.

She was even watching when you were mad.

She is there each and every day

watching you while you pray.

She is your loving daughter

and her life is an image of all you have taught her.

When she has grown your blessing will be,

that the image of Christ is what you see.

by Susan Gough

I love you mom, and even though I'll be 49 years old in August I am still watching you!



As I was digging in my file for this poem I came across a card that my mother gave to me for my birthday years ago.

Daughter,

today and always,

please know that I see you.

I see the path you've made

that's all your own.

I see the many unique

talents and gifts you have to share.

I see your brilliance, your enthusiasm,

and how deeply you care

and hurt sometimes.

I see your hard-earned wisdom,

your soft pure innocence,

your unconditional goodness.

I see what a difference you make in this world,

and I hope you know

how very much I love you,

and how proud I'll always be

to have a daughter

as wonderful as you.

Love, Mom

How blessed I am! The Lord may not have given me a sister but I am so blessed to call my mother my best friend and to have had two Christian parents to teach and guide me throughout my life.

No Other Gods

Last week in the No Other Gods bible study we looked into the definitions of idols. One of the definitions that stood out for me was that an idol can come in the form of an overattachment to something. This week we looked at fear and I noticed that anything in my life that I had developed an overattachment to I also developed a fear of loosing or a fear of something going wrong. Kelly says on page 49 that if we can separate our fear from our idols that we will be able to think more clearly about what is actually ruling us and how fear is the agent hired by our idols to keep us attached. wow light bulb! Thank you Lord for bringing everything into the light.

Crazy but fun week, all three of my grandaughters Portia, Jayda and Paris started dance camp this week and will go everyday for two weeks. A bit crazy since each one is in a different age group and goes at a different time slot. Jaren also had his first horse show this week. He did such a good job and we are so proud of him! I also happen to love cooking and this Beth Moore bible study that Im doing has recipes for each week and then more every other week on Beths blog. So, I made the chicken enchiladas and the black beans (DeWayne loved the beans and rice dish)and the butterfinger cake. yummmy! I took half of the butterfinger cake over to Wayne and Jana for them and the kids to eat. I had fun and my family was blessed. Can't wait to try the next recipe for the chicken and bowtie pasta. I am not sure who I will make it for because DeWayne does not like feta cheese. Hmm maybe he will just have to learn to like it :o)

Being Transformed

Looking back over many years I can see how different and yes even perfectly good things had become functional gods in my life. Sometimes I think out of pure loneliness these things can begin to fill the place in our hearts that belong to God.
I think for me that is the case. Father forgive me, you have every right to be a jealous God. You are my creator, my redeemer, my provider. You deserve my total devotion. May everything I do today bring glory to you.

2 Corinthians 3:18
But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

Getting Started

Wow, where to start? This is my first time blogging and I am not sure where to start.
Summer! Yeah! We are so grateful for the warm weather here. It was a hard and very long winter. We have tons of fun planned this summer and I will post picture as we go. As soon as I figure out how to do it. LOL My grand daughters Portia (8) and Paris (3) live with me full time I am the Grammy/Mommy and they keep me very busy. It was easier I think when I was younger raising my two sons, girls are a who different ballgame. Fun though. I have a blast doing their hair and nails (I used to do hair and nails in the salon years ago). I hope I am not teaching them to be to worldly I have started Portia on her first bible study this summer and she is enjoying it. The girls go to stay at their other Grandmothers every other week end and this is my weekend off :o) So I thought it would be a good time to get my blog set up and get caught up on the new bible study that the Siestas are doing with Beth Moore, No Other Gods. I am excited to do this stud and get to know some of the other ladies that blog there. I ordered my book twice online but haven't got it yet, I will probably get doubles! LOL I live in an area where I do not have much christian fellowship so I am starving! I might even go to San Antonio if I had someone to go with but I think I would feel stupid going by myself. I will post some picture of our trip to Yellowstone last summer just so everyone can have faces to put to the blogging. I will take new picture this week, the girls have dance camp all week and Paris is just starting dance so they should be cute. Jaren has his first 4-H horse show on Friday the 27th this should be fun. I will post some picture of my beautiful horses too.