Meet Koda.......

Colt gave himself (and Amber) an early Christmas present, compliments of one of his customers from work.

Since he is living in town in an apartment now with his friend and coworker, Tony, Colt drove out here and he and Amber were waiting on us next door at Grandmama and Pop’s house Saturday night when we came home from grocery shopping. We didn’t even notice his little surprise for a few minutes because she is SO tiny that she was hiding under Colt’s baseball cap. It was a few minutes before I noticed the cap moving on his lap. At first I thought he had mama’s little dog, Stinker, under there. Colt and Amber were trying hard to hold back the grins and snickers. He removed the cap and introduced us to Koda. She is a chihuahua and is supposed to be 6 weeks old, but we are doubting she is really that old. She is the cutest little thing. She actually reminds me more of a little wolf in the face.

Boy has she been fussed over. Her feet haven’t touched the floor too much because somebody is always holding her!

Colt told us Sunday at church that she woke him up every hour. Guess he’s getting practice for little ones one day (and pay back for all those nights he kept me awake).  :)   She is eating fairly well, but he's been giving her water and a little milk with a dropper. She’s already doing well with potty training for him too. He did look a little tired on Sunday though. :)

Colt and Amber came out for dinner Sunday night and brought Koda along. Of course, she was passed around again. She is just darling. Despite Colt insiting that she would NOT wear a sweater (after suggestions from Amber, Grandmama, and me), Koda arrived in a (very fashionable) sweater, compliments of Amber. She created it from the sleeve of fuzzy footy baby pajamas! Guess Colt was out voted!

Koda is quite the puppy super model too, except when she was just too cozy and sleepy to cooperate.

Just watching her is enough to make you sleepy!

He’s calling himself daddy to Koda, so does this mean we have a grand-dog? :)

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I just couldn’t wait any longer…….my next post will be a Christmas giveaway! I'm finishing up some crafting tonight and getting it ready to go! I'm hoping for tomorrow evening, but for sure by Thursday! Be sure and stop by! :)

Faithful Friday - "Jesus is the Reason for the Season"

I am very relieved to see many of the stores where I shopped on Black Friday and where I love to shop sticking with the greeting of “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays”. After all, the holiday is Christmas and Christmas is the holiday we celebrate Christ Jesus’ birth.

We all know how commercialized Christmas has become. We have always made the point of making sure our kids knew why we were celebrating and why we give gifts and we’ve try not to put the emphasis otherwise. But every year still we get caught up in the commercialization of Christmas as well. This year we are trying especially hard to make it all centered around the real reason for Christmas. We are starting an advent called What God wants for Christmas. It was given to me by someone at the end of the season last year, and for the life of me, I can’t remember who. Isn’t that terrible? Anyway, I had tucked it away since it was at the end of the season last year and just found it this year.

 It is an interactive kid friendly nativity with things to read and activities to do and they are all centered around Christ’s birth. In the past we have made birthday cakes and sang happy birthday to Jesus as well. This year we are committed to especially making an effort to put the emphasis on the birth of Christ and not everything else. We are even checking into our family helping to serve dinner on Christmas Eve at a homeless shelter, random acts of kindness throughout the week, and anything else that involves the real reason we celebrate Christmas – the ultimate gift of love given to us in Jesus.

When I go to a store, no more Happy Holidays for me, I make a point to say Merry Christmas. By the way, that reminds me……have you seen Christmas with a Capital C? It’s a movie revolving around an attorney who returns to his small home town in Alaska and quickly rocks the boat by getting an injunction against the nativity display tradition and attacking Christmas. It can viewed instantly on Netflix.

Also I wanted to share a naughty or nice list concerning stores that still use “Merry Christmas”, those that are borderline, and those that do not use Merry Christmas, but instead Happy Holidays. Choosing not to shop at those that don’t support Merry Christmas and shopping at those that do, is just one small thing I can do and have done and intend to continue doing. You can view that list by clicking here. 

I would like to challenge you to make a point of taking the Reason for the Season, Jesus, and do something He would want us to do. First of all, make sure He is foremost the center of our celebrating. Just a pleasant “Merry Christmas” (instead of Happy Holidays) to the clerk who checks us out; picking up someone’s tab at a restaurant, random acts of kindness, helping out the needy……….those things. Those are the things I want my family to be all about this Christmas season, and we’re going to try really hard this year to make that the center of our celebrating. Just thought I’d share………wouldn’t it be nice if we could all do that?

We'd love to have you join us in Faithful Friday too. If you have something you'd like to share from your Christian walk, just let us know in a comment either here or on Joy's blog, so we can come visit you too! (Joy's Faithful Friday post is coming....later tonight...she's babysitting today.) :)

Have a great weekend! Be Blessed!

A Cozy Snowy Evening.....

We had the prettiest snow last night! It made for a snug and cozy evening inside.

It wasn’t supposed to be but a few flakes, but it really started coming down in huge gorgeous flakes for a few hours leaving us with a dusting, possibly an inch of snow.

Jason went outside and turned on the porch lights of The Cedar Loft so we could enjoy the snow fall under the lights from the kitchen.

After supper dishes were cleaned up, we all snuggled on the couch in the living room with bowls of popcorn.

And enjoyed yet another Christmas movie, An Avonlea Christmas, with the window blinds open in the living room so we could enjoy the snow fall through the front porch lights.

It was just one of those perfectly cozy evenings with my family that I want to etch in my memory forever with the Christmas lights twinkling inside and the beautiful snowflakes falling outside.

I know you folks up north get a good laugh at us folks (here in the south). But then again, we can get excited I suppose because we never have to worry about shoveling it every day. By morning, the snow was gone for the most part, and the rest of it melted quickly since the ground was still warm from previous days of rain.

It was good while it lasted. And I’m beginning to think that our persimmon seed weather forecast just might be right on. With snow here already in November, we just might see a lot of snow this winter.

And I'm just fine with that.  :)

A Shopping Tradition......

This is the result of four women shopping for fifteen hours on Black Friday. :)

You should have seen all of this and us crammed into my little Mazda 3.  But we did it.  :)

My mom, sister-in-law, niece-in-law, and I left the house at 3:10 a.m. and came dragging back in at 6:00 p.m. (with pizza for supper). :)

Joy stayed home with the men and helped out with the little ones all day. The guys were very thankful for her help….and she was happy to be surrounded by babies. (Thanks for your prayers….she is much better).

We had a great time, found some great deals, laughed a lot, and came home exhausted. Next year we will plan to do it all over again. :)

What about you? Did you shop on Black Friday?

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week!

Faithful Friday - "The Way"

No matter what your circumstances, what you’re going through, where you’ve been, or how alone you feel – Jesus is The Way.

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6 (NIV)

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)

 I can’t imagine a day without the Lord and I wouldn’t want to face a day without Him. You don’t have to either, just call on Jesus.  He is Way.

Fresh From the Workshop (to The Cedar Loft)

If you heard squealing Monday evening, that was probably me! I knew my carpenter was working on a carpentry project that I requested of him (a TV cabinet for the loft), but without my knowledge, Jason finished it and snuck it up to The Cedar Loft. He summoned me up to the loft, and there it sat…..in all its glory! And it looks so perfect there. It was one of those pieces that was just meant to be, so in character for that space. You know how you envision a piece of furniture in a spot? Well this went far beyond my expectations! Can you tell I love it? :)

I had shown Jason a few cabinet ideas that I found online and in Country Sampler magazines, and told him I would like a “sort of mix” of those. I “turned him loose” on it. I so trust his judgement, because he knows me now. I say now when it comes to building furniture for me because it did take awhile to get the distressed idea through to him, but once he got it, he really got it! He even added some of his own creative touches that I didn’t show him!

The panels on the front of the door were his idea! I love that!

Instead of using antique glazing on the green (it's actually called Brown Moss), we had agreed upon sanding and rubbing on stain. We decided on red oak stain.

The ends being "paneled" was his little addition and I love it!

Monday night, after calling us up to the loft, after a while the kids fell asleep on the couch. Jason and I just sat there staring at it. Is that silly or what? Do you do that? I do that with my Christmas lights and décor. I like to turn off the lights and just sit back and enjoy it. And that’s exactly what we did with that cabinet. We didn’t even have the TV on. We just snuggled up on the couch and admired his handiwork. :) And it’s all his handiwork. I didn’t have one hand in the building of it. I just told him what I wanted, and he built it. I’m so grateful that he enjoys building what I dream up!

I just love that little indention of the wood near the left knob!

We just got the 40" flat screen LCD TV a couple of weeks ago. Jason started on the TV cabinet right about then, but has only been able to work here and there after work and a little on the weekends.

 I’m really thrilled because now we can enjoy our Christmas movies in The Cedar Loft if we want! I’m still working on adding some Christmas decorations up there. Hopefully in a week or so, I will have it to the point of sharing more pictures of the loft decorated for Christmas.

He made sure I had a shelf to display rustic/prim decor....even though it's on a very low wall!

This is absolutely one of my very favorite pieces Jason had made for me. I really love my red stepback cupboard in the kitchen and the navy blue sideboard/buffet in the dining, room, but this definitely rates right there with those.

Now for the next projects……….pegboards and a cupboard for the kitchen in The Cedar Loft. That would make a great Christmas gift, don’t you think?  :)

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**Dianne (a reader of my blog) left a comment asking if I could recommend more movies, possibly from instant streaming Netflix that were family friendly. I didn't have a way to contact you, Dianne, so I decided to post it here. I would love to do that. I will try to put together some sort of list and post that as soon as I can get it all together. I am not sure if you were speaking of movies in general, or just Christmas ones. I am assuming movies in general. If you would let me know for sure, that would be helpful! Thank you for your comment! I love hearing from you! **

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Thank you for stopping by today! I don't know if I can hold out to 500 followers for a giveaway.....I want to do a Christmas one, so I might just have to do that real soon! :)

Since I Missed Faithful Friday......

First of all, I apologize for missing our Faithful Friday post! It’s been a different kind of week for us. And then Friday was filled with appointments, and well, my post just didn’t happen. I had many thoughts flooding my head for a post, but it just didn’t make it to the computer.


Thank you so much for your comments and concern about the spider bite. I am so thankful that I went to the doctor when I did. I am almost finished with my treatment and it is looking so much better. It’s going to be fine. There is a tiny dark spot in the middle, and that’s it. I just feel so bad for Jason because he endured what he did with his brown recluse spider bite and no one knew exactly what it was at the time, and as you can see, he paid dearly. Because of his ordeal, we recognized the possibility and it changed my outcome. I am so thankful. Again, please be careful when you reach in boxes, put on pants, socks, gloves, shoes, etc….. We are trying to make sure we turn gloves and socks inside out before putting them on, shake out pants and shoes, and we always check our beds when we pull the sheets back. But since this is the time of year when we all pull boxes out from storage, I wanted everyone to beware and just be careful. It’s hard to believe that something so small can do such damage!

Since I missed my Faithful Friday post, I thought I’d share something with you this Sunday that my dad sent me by email concerning the Nature of God. I thought this was a great explanation on the Nature of God.


Does God Exist?

A man went to a barber shop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed. As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation. They talked about so many things and various subjects. When they eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said: “I don’t believe that God exists.”

“Why do you say that?” asked the customer.

“Well you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn’t exist. Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people? Would there be so many abandoned children? If God existed there would be neither suffering nor pain. I can’t imagine a loving God that would allow all of these things.”

The customer thought for a moment, but didn’t respond because he didn’t want to start an argument.

The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop.

Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair, and an untrimmed beard. He looked dirty and unkempt.

The customer turned back and entered the barbershop again, and said to the barber, “You know what, barbers don’t exist.”

“How can you say that?” asked the surprised barber. “I am here, and I am a barber. I just worked on you!”

“No!” the customer exclaimed. “Barbers don’t exist because if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man outside.”

“Ah, but barbers do exist! That’s what happens when people do not come to me.”

“Exactly!” affirmed the customer. “That’s the point! God, too, DOES exist! That’s what happens when people do not go to Him and don’t look to Him for help. That’s why there’s so much pain and suffering in the world.”

You know, God never promised we wouldn’t have pain and suffering, but he promised he would be with us, if we will come to Him. Pain, suffering, and death entered the world because of sin (thanks to Adam and Eve in the Garden), but God promises if we come to Him, He will not only be with us but carry us through! That’s a promise I wouldn’t want to live without! I’m so thankful today for that promise!

I hope you all have a wonderful week and remember this week to count all your blessings! (If you think about it, please say a prayer for Joy....she's having stomach issues now, bless her heart, and she really wants to feel well for Thanksgiving since we're going to see "her girls" in Alabama). :)