New

Don't you love new things?

Opening a new can of coffee
A new shirt
A freshly cut lawn
A new car
A new house
A new cabinet full of groceries
A new bottle of lotion
A new haircut
A new highlight
A new shade of make-up
A new recipe your family loves

New is good. It is fun. It is exciting. It is a fresh start. It is, well, new.

I read something last week that was long the lines of, "If your walk with God is tired and old, God is probably as tired of it as you are."

I read something else this morning that said, "You hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation."

God will work in you to will and act according to his good purpose for you.

Yea for the new! Yea for the fact that God leads us along paths of newness!

Come to Jesus Mtg.

This afternoon at 1:49pm we had a Come to Jesus meeting. The boys were SO EXCITED about it. The meeting occurred right before Mommy snapped, yelled, repented and sent everyone to bed with strict instructions not to come out before 4:00pm.

The following is a depiction of what occurred while I was on business calls for about 45 minutes. Tonight we had 30 friends over for dinner and as you can imagine having to clean this up was, well...we'll let the photos speak for themselves.

I just grabbed the camera and snapped 2 quick shots. I kid you not, this is the 3 ring circus we were running around here. 3 half dressed kids bouncing all over the place. One of the reiterations during our meeting was you are only allowed ONE SET of clothing per day and ONE SET of pj's. These gir...boys change more than me. I want Superman underwear. Now I want Spiderman. Hmmm. On second thought I feel like Batman pj's with a cape. And in the end they wind up with nothing on anyway.
I love em' to pieces though. They do the sweetest things like help me in my laundry room decorating. They were so proud of themselves and had me close my eyes and led me to the laundry room before we showed our house a couple days ago. They said, "Mommy, we helped decorate the laundry room!"

F.Y.I.

This morning I went to the store, early and I was the first car to park on the entire row right in front of the store.

I just realized that Kroger is open from 6am-1am. I always thought they were open 24 hours a day. So, if you need a carton of Breyer's Ice Cream that's on sale for $2.29 this week and it is 3am, you need to go to the SuperCenter instead.

There is a new website I just learned about called http://www.zennioptical.com/ and you can get lenses and frames for $8. Shipping is a flat $5 no matter how many pairs you get. Thanks Amanda.

Here is my new invention I'm waiting on my Patent for-use the lid of the shaving cream can to hold your razor in place. I was having trouble with it falling off the shower caddy and with 18 kids that seemed to be posing a potential hazard. The lid has solved my problem and it does not fill up with water or get yucky. Nice.

My parents really recently treated our entire family (16 of us) to a week of vacation at Big Cedar Lodge. We all went grocery shopping when we got there, and ended up with 7 bunches of bananas in the room. The joke for the week was if you came to the door you got offered a banana as a welcome gift and as a parting gift when you exited stage left.

It makes me feel really rebellious to buy white bread vs. wheat. I have white this week. They make the best PBJ's. And the Welch's Squeezable Strawberry spread-don't even get me started-that stuff is delish.

The Decorated Laundry Room

I got some inspiration from some pictures to do a little decorating in my laundry room. Why not? You go in there every once in awhile right? This is what mine usually looks like. See my lime green cleaning caddy? I just purchased that for $1.50 at Wal-Mart near the automotive department and it is wonderful. It has a handle (my Flylady feather duster is hiding it), which makes it convenient to carry from room to room.

Here are my inspiration photos that got me all excited about making some laundry changes. All her cute, green fabric is camouflaging shelving with supplies. The green fabric on bottom is also camo-ing some pipes and stuff.

I know, every time I re-look at these I freak out again too. Sheer Genius. Laundry Room-Drop Your Pants Here-if that doesn't get you excited about doing your 31 loads for the week I don't know what will...

Seriously, how cheerful and fun is that? I'll be prowling around yard sales and such to find some cute things to Cheer Up my laundry room. 'Till then, I rummaged through my garage (a.k.a. sometimes we'll be out playing and a car will slow to do a drive by and I think-folks, this is not the house having the yard sale-it's down the street). Anyhoo, I shopped my garage and found a couple things to play around with.

Cut some fabric and rubber banded it under the lid to hide the Coke part. What a fun idea to put the Tide in a canister.

I'm so excited. My ultimate dream is to paint the walls Dockside Blue (Sherwin Williams) and paint the cabinets white. Blue and white look so clean and fresh in a laundry room. But for now, this is more fun than the cleaning supplies and Tide box.

I think we should all load up and celebrate this fun with Route 44 Vanilla Dr. Pepper's? Yes?

#3

#3 God bless em. After lunch he gets the good ol' fashioned wipe down.

#1 & #2 Got complete wardrobe changes. As you can see from the pictures, #3 gets the damp rag wipe down and it is mostly a crumb removal from the clothing approach with a 12-18 minute dry time. As you can see he still has pizza sauce on his person and who knows why he has wet spots on his derriere.

This is a photo #2 took. As usual-no head, just an obscene shot that makes me think about working out for about 8 seconds.

Summer Lunch

Yep, Summer's here. Does this scene look familiar. That's right baby-the Party Pizza & Fruit lunch. Today marks the day for millions of Mama's across America who will be facing this classic summer lunch in the upcoming months. As you can see from the fresh strawberries, I just went to the store. As the weeks go on, this scene will be replaced with canned varieties such as Mandarin Oranges, Peaches (gag), or Pears.

Cheers!

Happy Father's Day

Shane,

Happy Father's Day

Enjoy the new fishin' pole from Bass Pro

You are a great Dad

Our boys are super blessed

And so am I

Love,

Anna

SOLD

We got back from our National Lampoon's Big Cedar Vacation yesterday afternoon. I always unpack and get the laundry done right out of the gate. This morning we woke up and I put my favorite dinner in the crock-pot-Roast!

I ran to the store for groceries and we sold our house.

We ate our yummy dinner and.......

What?....

Yes, that's right, we sold our house. It was NUTS. We listed on Adverwise on a free 30 day listing. We decided last week we'd leave the house on the market until this coming Friday, which is when our 30 day free add runs out. In my mind I had decided we'd probably just end up refinancing.

Today I had about a million voice mails. 2 were a couple wanting to schedule a showing. They loved the house and made an offer right then and there.

This kind of feels like that Sunday night about 7 years ago when Shane and I were sitting around and decided we wanted to remodel the kitchen so we got some sledge hammers and went hammering away. No real concrete plan. We don't have another house right now. Kinda fun. Mostly crazy but kinda fun.

The reason we are selling is because when we bought this house we did a 5 year arm-meaning at the end of 5 years you either sell or refinance. Our time us up in about 8 months which is why we decided to stick a sign in the yard. It seemed like a wise decision (if God opened the door) to sell, versus putting more money into our little house (which we love).

So, that's that. We had my favorite dinner tonight which made me smile. We've been reading a book called God Is Closer Than You Think. It has me looking for where God is in each day. It just cracks me up that He had me put a roast in the crock-pot-head out to the grocery store-come back home-sell our house-and eat a celebration dinner.

Week In Pictures

This is the week in review. This morning I got my fridge/freezer cleaned out. The kitchen is cleaned & all the floors are mopped.
Therapeutic I know. Bookmark it if ya want. Do you notice my Bath & Body works body splash in there? We like to spray it on us when we come in from outside to cool off. Cool Citrus Cram. Or cream, whichever.

The kitty likes the cookie. See it on his chest. That's the best part and he's clueless he is wearing a cookie on his person.

My oldest son got to go to VBS this week and loved it. You can see how happy the baby is.

This is my parents with the boys. Nana & Papa

One of the neatest things I have been enjoying is watching my boys make friendships. Their sweet little friends Josiah & Nathaniel are not in this picture, but they also attended VBS.

This sweet red haired boy was lost without his big brother. He got to go pick out a special prize one day and he got a "lunch box" as he calls it.

He was also my big helper this week.

All 3 of the boys before loading the bus to go to the first day of VBS.

Yeah, I have no idea. I just live here.

Slumber Party. Bathed boys with combed hair are the BEST.

So, there you have it. It's been a full week of VBS, the library, movies, Chick-fil-A, Pizza Inn, movies, snuggles and I'm topping it all off with a clean house.

A Tale Of Facebook & A Strawberry Pie Recipe

Are you on Facebook? It is an interesting little phenomena. Here's the rundown of how it goes with me. It starts at night after the kids are in bed. Tonight, well and last night too, I've had a bag of Peanut M&M's by my side, protein ya know, and it is so fun.

You scroll down and check out everybody's status of what they're doin', what they're not doin', what they wish they were doin', etc... Then you feel kinda nosey like you just looked in their underwear drawer, but you go on having a good old time finding out all kinds of stuff about folks.

People on FB say and do funny things so you leave comments. You wake up the next day and check your Email and you think, and I do mean every time, WOW, Aren't I just little Miss Popularity today...I have 36 new emails. You click on Check Mail and then you're like, aw man, that's right, I commented on 15 people's comments last night because everyone was being so funny. Now I'm linked for life to this comment and every time someone else comments FB proudly makes sure I'm gonna know about it.

And if you sneeze on FB people know because It'll show up on the homepage.

People write the darndest things on there too. Sometimes I'm like, Hello, have you forgotten who you're friends with and whose reading the trash you've gotten yourself into? Good conversation starters at dinner though.

And if you are wandering, I don't really know what's with the multi-colored, centered, Bold & Italics posts lately. They just seem cheerful and make me happy. Kinda like the bag of Peanut M&M's I just polished off.

So, there you have it, my thoughts about Facebook. Riveting reading material I know. Now that your day is complete I hope you have a good en'.

Check out this Strawberry Pie Recipe!!!

Hearing His Voice

A big thing I've been praying for lately is asking God to help me hear His Voice clearly. We've made some big decisions lately-such as schooling for our oldest son. But even in the smallest daily decisions, such as do we have time to run to Targe' or will doing so stress us all out, I want to be in tune with his plans for our day so that it will run more orderly.

I shared about how God spoke clearly to me regarding my Dallas trip and I have a few more examples to share. It is so exciting because I have asked for this, and with the help of the Holy Spirit giving me eyes to see answers and ears to hear them, God is showing up in truly unexpected places. It is not anything I have done-except for ask God a lot to grant this request to me...and he is.

The biggest way God confirms his will and speaks to us is directly through His Word. Another big way is through other people. The biggest decision we've been praying through is whether to send our oldest to Kindergarten this year or wait another year. We decided last week that we both feel it will be best for him to wait one more year. In the meantime, I am going to homeschool him this upcoming year and he gets to join an organized sport of his choice.

God used His Word to confirm this by leading me to some verses. The message of I Cor. 2:1-5 told me that God enables those he calls to proclaim His Name. Ex 4:12 says I will help you speak and will teach you what to say. There are more but the main theme is that God equips those he calls.

Even today at the doctor's office as I was waiting I struck up a conversation with a lady sitting there. Guess what. She is a Kindergarten teacher and she confirmed our decision to wait another year 100%. She encouraged us to do school with him this year and that it would give him a good footing and lead him to success. I was blown away that even waiting for an appointment, God brought a teacher along my way to confirm His Plans once again for our life this year.

"Listen to his voice and hold fast to him, for the LORD is your life." Deut 30:20

"LORD please give me a mind that understands, please give me eyes that see and ears that hear." Deut 29:4

Our book club just started reading God Is Closer Than You Think, by John Ortburg and it is exciting because I think the book is going to be about learning to see and hear God right now, today, in the midst of life, wherever you are and whatever your occupation.

I Love Summer!

We have been having a blast running through the sprinkler this year. We haven't even fooled with the pool. Just turn on the sprinkler and usually start a game of baseball.

Tonight is spaghetti night.

I need to straighten the house because the toys have exploded.

It is exotically hot outside

That's all for now.

The Kneeling Christian

About 10 years ago I picked up the greatest book by an unknown author called, The Kneeling Christian. It is very thought provoking so I wanted to share some things I've been thinking about from the book.

We all say we believe in prayer but how many of us believe in the power of prayer? Does my prayer life reflect my true belief about how I feel about prayer? Prayer is the key that opens the storehouse of God's treasures into our lives.

Do we spend even 10 minutes a day in prayer? 10 minutes a day when the Kingdom of God can be had for the asking. One of the greatest things Christians will regret when they stand before the throne is the vast amount of blessings they left unturned because they did not pray or ask.

Each time I read this book I realize my great need for deeper faith and belief in God. In regards to ministry, Satan does not care if people are out doing ministry if they are not praying. Also, any minister who is fruitful either prays earnestly over what he is doing- or his fruit is a direct result of someone praying on his behalf.

It is exciting that we can talk to God about things we see in our personal life, family, husband, home atmosphere, ministry, children, etc and we can know mighty, prevailing prayer.

DALLAS

I wanted to share about my trip last week to Dallas and how God spoke clearly to me about it. Shane and I were supposed to go to Dallas together for a 4 day business trip. At the last minute childcare was not working out so Shane looked at me and said, "Anna, you just need to fly down and go by yourself." That sounds all fine and dandy. I used to travel by myself all the time but not in the last 9 years. The thought of flying by myself, to a place where I was not going to know one single person made my stomach churn with fear.

The instant he said I needed to go by myself I felt very clearly in my spirit that I was to go get the daily verse out of my devotional book because God had a word to tell me. I ran to get my verse and it said, "Do not fear, do not be dismayed. I am your God. I will strengthen you and uphold you with my righteous right hand." Is 41:10

Wow. I sat there with my feet hanging off the side of the bed and a mouth dropped open in wide disbelief. My husband had just told me to go and God confirmed His Will through His Word by telling me not to be afraid, that he would give me strength and uphold me with his very own hand. That is when the tempter came into my thoughts whispering the lie that God could not have possibly meant that clear verse for me. I rebuked that thought and went to book my ticket.

30 minutes later my trip was set and we sat at the dinner table as a family. I am not a cryer, but I burst into tears, scared to death of what I had committed myself to, and am pretty sure I was freaking out all the boys I live with with my emotional display of freaking out. Now for the fun part-telling you about the trip God sent me on. The travel by myself was perfectly fine. The minute I stepped onto the shuttle I sat right next to a preacher's wife. I had the privilege of staying in a room all by myself. My bed was so soft and I slept more sound that I have in years. They would not allow us to lift a finger to help clean up our dishes or anything. The food was amazing. I got top notch training and God used the words spoken to clarify my vision for my business. I met some of the neatest, godliest, encouraging ladies. Instant friends kind of fun girls. The kind that became lifelong friends a matter of minutes.

It was the most restful, recharging 4 days. And, to top it off, I got to have dinner at the founder of Premier's mansion and it was fun, fun, fun. This is a picture of me with Andy & Joan Horner. They founded Premier 24 years ago on my 9th birthday!

This is one of their bedrooms. So pink and girly and pretty. After dinner at the Horner's, we always sit around Andy in the living room and he talks to us. Do you know he has never talked to us about money or a bottom line? His message is always the same. He tells us we are special and that God does not take the time to make a nobody. He tells us that our life has a purpose. He talks about how the world is hurting and we are Premier to everyone we meet. And our job is to offer hope to every lady we come into contact with. There is a large picture hanging in Andy's office and it is a picture of Jesus washing Peter's feet. I am always blown away that a huge part of my ministry in life is my job.

I better wrap this up for anyone who may have hung around till the end. The next few days I'm going to be sharing about some faith things I've been working through.

(p.s. if you scroll down 2 posts I took a picture of my high maintenance tag)

Star Fall

My friend Leslie told me about the greatest website.

www.starfall.com

It teaches your child how to read and is SUPER FUN!

It will make you giddy.

Enjoy!

High Maintenance

Wednesday night I was packing to leave for a 4 day trip. In true "me" nature, I had Shane bring me the carry-on because naturally I think of myself as low maintenance. I know, I hear you laughing about that and I'm laughing too.

The carry-on would not even serve as a sufficient HBA bag for me (health and beauty aid ;) , much less carry other necessities like oh I don't know-clothes, Bible, pj's, etc.

So-ho-oh...51 pounds later, my big red bag was filled to the brim with everything I needed to combat Texas humidity & any change in mood I might encounter regarding my clothing situation. The problem is, you never know if you are going to feel like wearing your hair naturally curly or straight, so you really have to come armed with all hair weapons.

When suitcase came out of the luggage shoot at the airport with a big red tag around that handle reading, "HEAVY, Bag may require assistance to carry".

I've never been prouder.