A New Year's Daybook:: January 4, 2013

Today is not Monday it is  Friday January 4, 2013...

Outside my window... 
we finally have snow!! I was not sure if we would have a white Christmas but we did! This is what my husband gets to see while working, lucky man. It is a nice and warm 2 degrees out and I feel a little sad for my husband. I love looking a the snow from inside my home, not a big fan of working or walking in it.   


I am thinking...
how different life will be with my husband home more now. He will be finishing college and going to Seminary in a couple of years!


I am thankful...
for my family in 2013, and so glad we are all together! 2012 gave us some hard times but with God on your side you can make it through any storm! I am also very thankful for our church family, I know I have said this many times now but I can't help it.


In the kitchen...
a lot of leftovers from New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. We have been making so much great food from my Practical Paleo Cook book. Some of the dishes are really different from what were used to eating. Since going gluten free in our home so many tummy aches and Autoimmune symptoms have left our home.  Check back starting next Tuesday for healthy meals for a large family, raw, gluten free, and organic!

I am wearing...
a black nightgown that was once a sundress, my husband's Star Wars blanket, and pink cupcake slippers.

I am creating...
a really large area to put all our garage sale items in. We are emptying our storage unit which I think is a 10X20, and full! We will save $60.00 a month and make some really good money selling everything! Since our plan is to move in 2 years for Seminary we need to sell a lot, I don't want to move everything!! We will be renting our home in Wisconsin while we are gone since it's paid for and we don't want to sell it. Or we may just leave it so we have a place to come home to in the summer while were not in school. I have such a busy month ahead labeling everything, it will most likely take the next few months since we have so much stuff.

I am going...
to make out a really good budget for the next couple of years as we begin to save!

I am reading...
Practical Paleo which has a wealth of information in it.

I am hoping...
that 2013 will be kind to all of us!

I am looking forward...
to 5 years of school with my husband, I am really so excited about his new path in life.

I am learning...
how to use my Cricut Expression Electronic Cutting Machine
My daughter is making homemade birthday cards for all the kids in our church. We are also sending them cards from our Church, this has been good for her so far.

I am hearing...
My daughters playing with new Christmas toys what a joy to hear them all get along. Lets be real with 7 daughters we have our share of fights, and fun times.

Around the house...
I am looking at all the new things my children got this year, we kept it small and relaxing which was really nice.  I think the favorite item for the little ones was the  LEGO DUPLO Disney Princess Cinderella's Carriage andLEGO DUPLO Disney Princess Cinderella's Castle along with lots of dress up clothes.
We also had a Christmas this year of things that were needed, Bed sets, and blankets with every ones favorite characters on them. Since 4 of my girls share one room we have Marvel, Star Wars, Cinderella, and Angry Birds all in one room. Each girl gets to decorate their own bed with what they like, it looks so colorful and cheerful now!

I am praying for...
my Pastor and his family, as the fight this really bad flu! Please keep them in your prayers, the youngest is still running a fever of close to 103. My pastor and his wife are the real thing, true and honest people that love to serve others. They have 5 kid's that are just the sweetest kids I have ever meet. We would love to see them Sunday but they are all still not well. I think we should keep everyone in our country in prayers, this has turned out to be the worst flu in many years.

I am pondering...
these words from today's Daily Devotions - January 4th 2013, from our church website.

Morning

“Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 3:18)

“Grow in grace”-not in one grace only, but in all grace. Grow in that root-grace, faith. Believe the promises more firmly than you have done. Let faith increase in fulness, constancy, simplicity. Grow also in love. Ask that your love may become extended, more intense, more practical, influencing every thought, word, and deed. Grow likewise in humility. Seek to lie very low, and know more of your own nothingness. As you grow downward in humility, seek also to grow upward -having nearer approaches to God in prayer and more intimate fellowship with Jesus. May God the Holy Spirit enable you to “grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour.” He who grows not in the knowledge of Jesus, refuses to be blessed. To know him is “life eternal,” and to advance in the knowledge of him is to increase in happiness. He who does not long to know more of Christ, knows nothing of him yet. Whoever hath sipped this wine will thirst for more, for although Christ doth satisfy, yet it is such a satisfaction, that the appetite is not cloyed, but whetted. If you know the love of Jesus-as the hart panteth for the water-brooks, so will you pant after deeper draughts of his love. If you do not desire to know him better, then you love him not, for love always cries, “Nearer, nearer.” Absence from Christ is hell; but the presence of Jesus is heaven. Rest not then content without an increasing acquaintance with Jesus. Seek to know more of him in his divine nature, in his human relationship, in his finished work, in his death, in his resurrection, in his present glorious intercession, and in his future royal advent. Abide hard by the Cross, and search the mystery of his wounds. An increase of love to Jesus, and a more perfect apprehension of his love to us is one of the best tests of growth in grace.

Evening
“And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him.” (Genesis 42:8)
This morning our desires went forth for growth in our acquaintance with the Lord Jesus; it may be well to-night to consider a kindred topic, namely, our heavenly Joseph’s knowledge of us. This was most blessedly perfect long before we had the slightest knowledge of him. “His eyes beheld our substance, yet being imperfect, and in his book all our members were written, when as yet there was none of them.” Before we had a being in the world we had a being in his heart. When we were enemies to him, he knew us, our misery, our madness, and our wickedness. When we wept bitterly in despairing repentance, and viewed him only as a judge and a ruler, he viewed us as his brethren well beloved, and his bowels yearned towards us. He never mistook his chosen, but always beheld them as objects of his infinite affection. “The Lord knoweth them that are his,” is as true of the prodigals who are feeding swine as of the children who sit at the table.But, alas! we knew not our royal Brother, and out of this ignorance grew a host of sins. We withheld our hearts from him, and allowed him no entrance to our love. We mistrusted him, and gave no credit to his words. We rebelled against him, and paid him no loving homage. The Sun of Righteousness shone forth, and we could not see him. Heaven came down to earth, and earth perceived it not. Let God be praised, those days are over with us; yet even now it is but little that we know of Jesus compared with what he knows of us. We have but begun to study him, but he knoweth us altogether. It is a blessed circumstance that the ignorance is not on his side, for then it would be a hopeless case for us. He will not say to us, “I never knew you,” but he will confess our names in the day of his appearing, and meanwhile will manifest himself to us as he doth not unto the world.

From “Morning and Evening” by Charles H Spurgeond

 

 

 

One of my favorite things... Meri Meri Nutcracker Cupcake Kit  these are the cutest!! I have so many of these on my Amazon wish list!! I happen to love cupcakes, I love to eat them and make them, and of course cupcakes must have lots of frosting! I picked out a few other kits by Meri Meri since they are just all so cute. Here are just a few  ballet kit, Flower Fairies , Peter Rabbit , Stars and Stripes Patriotic Cupcake, and several Thanksgiving cupcake kits like Turkeys with Hats

 

Plans for the rest of the week...

since it is the end of the week not much of anything, except resting to fight off my cough.

• Finish my family binder
• Finish going through the basement
• Buy the rest of our food for Christmas with grandma
• Worship on Sunday

A little peak at my day...



Baby Claudia and Madelyn
I can't get my pictures to up load so I thought I would share a picture I found
on my website.
This was when Madelyn was 2, now Claudia is 2 and they
still play all day together!
With babies!
 
 
A simple womens daybook link up
 



Blessings,

Pamela