Everyday Blessings...

It's beginning to look a little bit like Christmas. There is just something about Christmas tree lights shining cheerily on in a dark room. I have always loved that. One thing that change brings that I don't love so much is the fact that your kids grow up and that fun night each Dec. when you used to trim the tree together listening to Christmas music and drinking hot chocolate doesn't happen anymore. (Deep breath.) I really miss that. Life moves on and still the memories are precious. Even as I hung ornaments on the tree alone I loved thinking about each one and even laughing out loud at a few of them. Footprints of our lives together. I am thankful. May we all make more lovely Christmas memories this year. They might be a little different from years past- and that is ok. Give thanks to our great God in all circumstances. Find the good and praise Him for the good and the not so good. Appreciate the precious memories. Oh, and enjoy the twinkle lights. Lovely. ...

This is how the gorgeous leaves looked a few weeks ago here where we live. I have been out of commission for the past two weeks because of what seemed to me to be a deadly cold virus. Either I am just getting older and don't handle sickness as well as I used to, but bouncing back from something this nasty was a big challenge this time. It was not the flu but just about as bad. I pray you will be spared. :) My husband's family gathered together for Thanksgiving and for DaddyBob's annual Christmas picture taken on the Texas A&M campus. This is one of the new statues in front of the student side of the stadium. Pretty cool.  Love all of these guys. I got up to spend a few hours with them on Thanksgiving and then take this picture and went back to bed. I am smiling here but running about 101 degrees of body temp. Yuck. Precious, precious hearts. We were so sad to not have Will and Candace here with us this year. Next year though!! Done deal! We miss you guy...

It's the weekend!!  Here is a fun recipe to make even if you are using an oven and are not able to cook this special meal over a campfire. Oh, that we could fix them that way all of the time...but, reality is we have to use the oven most of the time. :) Hobo Burgers .  (We added bacon to ours. Bacon does make everything better!)   Easy Hobo Tin Foil Dinner Recipe: (Makes 4 dinners) Ingredients: 1 pound ground beef 4 potatoes, peeled and cubed 2 cups carrots, thinly sliced 1 onion, diced Salt and pepper, to taste Worcestershire sauce BBQ sauce Shredded cheddar cheese Directions: Use a large square piece of aluminum foil for each tin foil dinner.  Spray foil with nonstick cooking spray.  Separate ground beef into 4 equal patties and place in the center of each piece of foil.  Divide potatoes, carrots, and onion evenly between all 4 dinners and place on top of meat.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper, to taste.  Pour a few dashes of W...

Need a spiritual pick me up and shot of encouragement? Enjoy and be filled with hope to move our feet and mouths and hearts to spread the love of Jesus and this great news. We have the hope. We bear Your name!! (Pause the blog music to hear this video.  Located in the right column under the picture that says life is short- enjoy your coffee. Thanks.)

I wanted to share a guest blog post with you. This blogger is super special to us. He happens to be our oldest gentle giant. The phrase that caught me in his post was this: "My memories have become blessings." Beautiful. Enjoy. http://yngwilliam.blogspot.com/

We had a whirlwind weekend a week ago that was too fun to put into words. It started with these two wonderful people flying in to spend a few days in Dallas with us.  We all attended an incredible workshop on Sat. (Old School is the name of it. Remember that name because when this workshop comes close to your town you will want to go. It was incredible.)  We then played and ate and visited and shopped.   Wow. Every moment spent with our newlyweds and Wes is precious.  We are so blessed. This is the tranquil backyard of our friends that we stayed with. Lovely.  THIS is their cat. Fluffy and gorgeous. I realize that these are random silly pictures that really don't seem to have a link to each other. I guess I just wanted to show you the little things that made me smile.  God places incredible beautiful things everywhere around us to delight and awe.  There are so many more little happenings than big happenings in life. I like the say...

We escaped to our secret hideaway a few weekends ago. This lovely place also happens to be where this sweetie pie lives. Her and her brother were in a school play and we were blessed to be able to cheer them on and enjoy an evening of fun. The cousins enjoy some laughs... A pumpkin you say? Yes- a pumpkin. We wanted to get him something and flowers for boys who do splendid acting just don't work. I say a pumpkin was genius. Funny too. Our secret hideaway is also the place our new married son and wife spent the first month or two of their marriage. There are still sweet notes on mirrors around the place from her to him. Warms my heart.  Moo...  It won't be long until the lovely colors of plants and flowers will be no more. Enjoy. One of the fun outings at the secret hideaway is arrow head hunting. We seem to find one every time we go looking. Is that cool or what?! Hope you enjoyed this little peek of our hideaway. I also hope you have a secret place tha...