Date night

Good morning. Thanks for taking a moment to stop by the grill. If you want to leave a comment for me I would be THRILLED with a capital "T". Can I share a love story with you this morning? Jim and I had a date last night! I know what your probably thinking, "We're married, why do we need to go out on a date? We are together everyday." You know what I have discovered? When your married a great amount of your time and energy is geared toward other people and things besides your relationship with your spouse. Let's be honest us moms tend to be in the room but NOT in the conversation alot of time. I mean even when we are with our husbands talking we tend to be thinking about 100 other things. Like dirty laundry, what needs to be taken out of the freezer for dinner, have the kids finished homework, going thru backpacks for the next day, did anyone feed the dog & cat yet, I can't forget to right out lunch money checks, etc. The list of thoughts that run through my head in a day of things I need to take care of could go on and on. Before we know it we are off to bed to get up the next day and start all over. Nothing at all wrong with all of that wonderful mom stuff, but before I realize it sometimes that wonderful man that God has joined me with to be his help mate through life gets the very back burner. Actually somedays he doesn't even fit on the stove at all with all the other priorities on my list. And then... something wonderful happens. A few nights ago Jim and I mentioned having a date night. Here's the catch.. Jim asked that I be with him on this date not only in body but also my mind! My mind? Did he know what he was asking? He was asking me to stop thinking about everything else for 1 night and concentrate on him. What a request. What a sincere, real, need to have some spouse one on one time alone with my wife request. That was an awakening request for me. My man was saying please give me some attention. My wheels got to turning like crazy. "DATE NIGHT !" I made a commitment to myself that last night was going to be all about my handsome husband. No talk about anything or anyone except us. Jim had already made arrangements with Meme to watch the boys all night. "You have to love Memes or you might have a Gran or Grammy or Grandma. They come with different names but they are GREAT!" I dressed up just for my guy. We went out to eat. Let me say it doesn't matter rather the food was good or bad the night was all about us. The conversation was all about us, the mood was all about us, and can I mention here that my mind was completely focused on how gorgeous my husband is. And what a wonderful man I have beside me. I LOVE date night. I encourage any woman reading this to try it. It's well worth the time invested and you might just learn a little more about your husband in process. Happy dating!
With love in Christ,
Angela

Fun Ladies Night

Thank you for stopping in at The Grill. I'm excited at the possibility that today might just be the day that someone leaves me my very first blog comment. OK, let me admit I once left myself a comment on here. You know, just to make sure it was working! Last night was the first annual ladies dinner at a new Christian School near our home. My children go to public school but I have a dear friend who's son attends this new Christian school. I was blessed to be invited to attend this school fundraiser event. It was such a fun time as you can imagine with a room full of ladies, a secret auction, arts & craft vendors, and some cute little waiters. OH did I mention the really good food and INCREDIBLE desserts!!
Our waiter just happened to be in my opinion the best waiter ever and did I mention he's 11 yrs old and he's my son's best friend.
We had such a fun time. I don't often leave my guys at home for a ladies only night out. I have to say the idea of going out with the girls makes me feel guilty. But last night as I left my men with a crock pot of beef stew I was excited to be going off to have a night full of wives and moms with lots of laughter and talking. I love being home with my family and I miss them when I'm not there, but I must admit once in a while to be in a room full of just women who love our heavenly Father and our Lord Jesus Christ and hearing a good word about being an ornament for Christ it's an event that I will definitely say yes to again. Have a wonderful weekend friends. And don't forget if you have a second leave me a comment.... I would be thrilled!!!
With love in Christ,
Angela

Family Game Night

Thank you for stopping by "The Grill" today. I'm excited to have you check out our family blog site. Speaking of family I just happen to have one of my very own. And I love talking about them. So here we go: Our 2 youngest children decided that our family needs a "Family EXTREME game night". My husband and our oldest son, and I had know idea what this was going to consist of. So last night we stayed home from our regular Wed night at church night and had "EXTREME GAME NIGHT. Keep in mind our 2 youngest children are 10 and 5 years old. So they went to one of their bedrooms worked for quite a while getting this event all set up complete with a score card. Finally the BIG event began. Our 15 year old son, Jim, and myself followed the boys into the EXTREME ROOM and the games began!! We played extreme magnetic darts, bonus round, and my favorite extreme advanced round which was twirling balloons on a string and tryingo to lasso the bed for 50 points each. They had really put alot of thought into this extreme game night and it was so cute watching the 2 boys explain the rules for each game that they had made up. At the end of the event we were all given a special participation prize.... our very own piece of Halloween candy. When the score card was added up they announced that all 5 of us were winners!!! Isn't that a wonderful way to look at our life in Christ Jesus, We are ALL winners !! May your Thursday be terrific and your coming up weekend be wonderful. And may you feel like the winner you are in our savior Christ Jesus. I would love to hear from you. Do you and your family have special family events, game nights, or a special weekly meal that everyone anticipates for? I would love to hear about them.
Wishing you sweet blessings,
Angela

Time changes fall back

I like the saying fall back spring foward regarding time change. This coming weekend time changes. We gain an hour to get ready for church Sunday morning. I can always use extra time. As we are well into the autumn season with Halloween behind us and Thanksgiving fastly approaching my mind is already calculating when will be a good time for our family to put up our Christmas tree. As a matter of fact as of yesterday I have already ordered this year's Christmas ornaments for my kids. Speaking of that if anyone reading this would care to leave me a comment to let me know if you are like me and think it's really cool to get your kids a new ornament to go on your tree each year. I'm curious how many other moms have this family tradition. For our family the ornaments represent something that relates to each of my sons for that specific year. Enough about Christmas for now it's barely November.


I was thinking about the fact that time falls back an hour, this morning, and it occurred to me how very much I need to also fall back. I need to fall back deeper into the comfort, peace, joy and unconditional love that God offers to me everyday. Not only me but to you too.

Interestingly, after I typed the above I had to stop and get back to work. In the course of today I had the opportunity to pray over email to a very desparate lady who felt hopeless in life. And the above statement came back around to me. God's comfort, peace, joy and unconditional love for each one of us. How wonderful it was for me to be able to share this truth about God with this lady I will probably never meet. And isn't that's how it's suppose to be.... God wants us to share about Him to everyone we come in contact with even if we don't know who they are.

Phil 4:19 And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Kookies and Kids

Yes, yes ,I know I mis-spelled cookies. Cute don't ya think. So if you happened to see yesterday's post you know that Jim and I are kids-less this week. All three of the boys are spending the week with their grandparents.
I had the most interesting thoughts come to me today. Along with missing my children, I've been thinking cookies lots and lots of cookies. Probably because I have recently said NO to sugar. Since I mentioned cookies you might want to know that white chocolate macadameon nut is my very most favorite. So anyway back to my point.
I started thinking how children and cookies are alot alike. Stay with me here for a minute and I'll explain. No, I haven't gone crazy from missing my boys or insane from the lack of sugar in my body. Although if I had cookies in front of me right now I'm sure I would cave under pressure and eat one!!!!! What !? I said one not a dozen.
Like cookies, children are also filled with all kinds of special ingredients to make them unique, different and extra special.
How 'bout we take a few minutes and just for fun this wonderful Wednesday afternoon compare kids to kookies... shall we?
Cookies all start with a common ingredient flour. Then we throw in sugar, a pinch of salt, white chocolate chunks, chopped nuts and stir it all together and bake. They all come off the pan different but also they all come out delicious and wonderful and just the way that cookies are suppose to be. (Of course for this comparison I'm not mentioning the burnt cookies.)
Children are alot like that we start with a common ingredient God's grace and mercy to allow them to be born to us. Then we throw in tenderness, a pinch of stubborn and rowdy, personality, dependency and stir it all together with love, compassion, approval, encouragement, guidance, discipline and top it all off with the Word of God and teaching them about Jesus Christ. They come out wonderful and exactly the way each one is suppose to be.
Psalm 127:3
Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward.

Wishing you a wonderful Wednesday.
On fire for God's desire,
Angela

Week with no kids...

So here is the scoop of what's going on this week: My parents went back to East Tennessee this weekend after being back home all last week. When they left Sunday morning they took some very precious cargo. Three pieces of precious cargo as a matter of fact. Three very rare, very original, very unique, very priceless incredible pieces of precious cargo also known as our children. Now don't get me wrong at the first thought of a week alone just the 2 of us. Jim and I were unbelievable excited. Not because we don't adore and love our children incredibly, but because as every parent knows once your children show up in your lives your alone time with your husband or wife is well somewhere in the leftovers of the day. So this anticipated whole week with my husband I must tell you ladies I was almost gitty, like a first date, or a first kiss.
Then it happened Sunday morning came around and the boys loaded up in my parents car and down the drive they went. Jim and I realized then that we missed them already.
Isn't it funny how you can say that you would love to have a vacation with just your spouse and if it was for a night or weekend I think we would all say YES !! But when you start talking about a whole week ... Do you realize a WHOLE week is 7 days. My stars how is a mom suppose to go 7 days without dirty hands to hug and chocolatey faces to kiss. So here we are my gorgeous husband and I we've made it to Tuesday. So what's the rest of the week hold? We don't know but we do know that it's nice to have alone time and it is extremely important and necessary we also know that a whole week without your kids will drive you crazy. Besides no one can make noise the way our sons do. So as we lay in bed and I come to the close of this blog my friends I say kiss your kids and hug them tight tuck them in and say good night. And remember we should always be greatful to God for the blessing of being parents not just parents but parents to our very own special wonderful precious cargo called our children. Have a wonderful week and if you find yourself having a second or two you might want to say a little prayer for Jim and I to finish up the week and really enjoy our time together. Did I mention we will be picking up the boys on Friday.... Hey that's as long as we could wait.
Sweet blessings,
Angela

Monday's blog posted on Wednesday

Great Monday morning to you. If your anything like me: hitting the snooze (way too long), jumping out of bed, rushing around getting ready, kissing your spouse and running out the door with barely enough time to make it to work on time... just to realize you need to stop and get gas for your van that is already shining the empty light, you might be asking what makes this a GREAT morning? The answer is simply it's my choice.
What if in life no matter what happens throughout our day we make the choice to smile instead of frown, to be happy instead of aggravated, to say I feel sweetly blessed instead of stinky bad even through the hard stuff. What an incredible encourager we would be. What an inspiration we could be. I believe that attitude is contagious and what better way to share the love of Jesus than with our daily everyday life actions.
Happy Monday guys & gals,
Angela

Here's a little secret, I had already typed out a whole blog post and was about to save it when my sweet precious will be 5 yrs old the end of this month, son climbed up on our bed to sit beside me and watch cartoons. So I decided instead of sharing with you what God is doing with me these days I would share some quality family time instead. A wonderful moment can sometimes be sitting on your bed at 9:42pm and watching Big Time Rush with your husband and youngest son and knowing that in about 5 minutes this bed will be full when the other 2 boys realize no one is in the den they'll be in here too.
What a wonderful night in our home.
Thank you God for allowing me to realize this moment. And to anyone who has taken the time to show up at our blogsite the GRILL we are glad you dropped by and wish you a good night.
ps Never leave your bra laying out on your bed you never know when your 4 year old will decide to put it on !! kodak moment.... his dad says NOT!
Sweet blessings,
Angela

I just don't understand but Jesus is here.

Around our house in May you would have heard nail guns, drills and saws just about every day. A dream of mine and Jim's was finally coming together. We have been in our home for nearly 5 years and we have always wanted to move our deck from one side of our house to the other. We would draw it sketch it talk about it dream about it and look forward to the day when we would move our 24 ft pool and our little tiny deck to a better suited place for us with a beautiful view. It finally happened as Memorial weekend came upon us we were busy putting on the "finishing touches" Completed by solar lighted post tops we were done. With everyone invited to our home for Memorial Day we were anxious about sharing this new wonderful space with our family and friends. Memorial Day was as great as we had expected with swimming, hotdogs, hamburgers, watermelon and that famous homemade icre-cream. But we could not have imagined the following day. Awaken as usual and running out the door to work only God knew the course our family was about to be on.
That morning I received a phone call that my uncle had fallen from his very high deck and was believed to have been life flighted to a major hospital in the Nashville area. (unbelievable)
That afternoon I received another phone call my 1st cousin's 6 yr old little boy had just drowned in the city pool. (unbelievable)

As these 2 catastrophic events started to unfold the remainder of that first week in June is a blur.
By the end of the week our hearts are devastated for our family. Our hearts are broken at the loss of this precious little boy who had just shared his 6th birthday with my children at his big birthday party at McDonald's. My uncle slowly got better (amazing miracle) and by the following Tuesday was released to come home.
And so the questions fill my mind why was this the completion of little Samuel's life here on earth? Why did God want him to come home to heaven now? Why did this have to happen? How can we ever understand? How will my cousin and her husband ever heal in the midst of such pain? How can our family move forward?
As I have prayed over the events that have been the start of what we had thought would be a wonderful summer on a wonderful new deck, I have changed from asking God why to asking God how? How can I use such a horrible situation to show my family the grace and mercy of my Lord and Savior Jesus? How can I be used to serve God through this time to show love and support to my family? How can I allow the peace and love of Christ to shine through me at this time?
The answers are not showing up quickly but I know my God is good and He loves us all and God uses all situations for His glory. What does that mean? I don't know but I can rest and you can rest in the sweet arms of Jesus anytime especially when we don't know and can't understand.

New and Renewing

Hi ya'll. It's been over a month since I've taken a moment to blog. Thanks so much for taking the time to check in at our "GRILL" today. So today's blog is titled new and renewing.

Let me first say how great it is that the newness of spring is finally showing it's sweet self ever so slowly. I'm ready for warm days and yellow buttercups.
Second I am the very proud aunt-cousin to a brand new beautiful baby girl. Why am I an aunt-cousin? Well I have a niece and nephew that are actually Jim's niece and nephew, but I say they're mine. And since my one and only younger brother has no children I will never have nieces and nephews of my own. So back to this aunt-cousin that I have become. I have a younger cousin who just had her very first baby this past Friday night. And fortunately for me she doesn't mind one bit that I have decided to claim this beautiful baby girl as my niece... i.e. making me her aunt-cousin.

So let me stop here to give a big huge SHOUT OUT to our brand new little precious Gracie Marie. She is our very first baby girl in the family. Remember Jim and I are blessed with 3 boys. So little Gracie is our one and only little girl... at least for now. I have 3 more cousins on that side of my family so I may have LOTS of nieces & nephew-cousins!!

So that's a little NEW information about us. Let's talk about RENEW... can you hang out with me for a few minutes longer? OK then here goes. For sometime now I've been asking God to grow me in my relationship with my husband and with my children. I know what your thinking, uh oh trouble at the Walker house! Nope, no trouble. I won't go as far as to say Jim and I have a perfect marriage, because for one he is married to me and not only am I NOT a perfect person but I am definitely not a perfect wife. But I do think we have a really wonderful and loving marriage. I think we both feel very blessed to have the relationship that we have. So if it's so great why am I praying over it? Because I think one great reason that Jim and I are happily married is because of our relationship with God through Christ. Over the weekend God opened an opportunity to spend some planned special time with Jim, a surprise to him if you will. Now I could have said, "Not now God we've had a busy weekend and I'm just too tired to worry with that." But I chose to say THANK YOU God, for showing me this opportunity to surprise my sweet husband. It was a moment to renew my relationship to him. A moment to say this time is all about you and me. It was a fabulous surprise but it was a surprise just for him. Time for us to share together not as mom and dad but just as husband and wife. What did I get from the time I surrendered for my husband? I got the joy of showing Jim that he is so very important to me. It was time all about him and spending special moments with him. He was surprised but best of all he was so appreciative of the effort I had given in planning our time together. Thank you Lord God for renewing relationships.

So this spring as we begin a new season may we all be encouraged to allow God to renew relationships in our lives..... even already good relationships.

Sweet blessings,

Angela

Blind Faith

For years Jim and I went 4-wheeler riding. Whenever we would come up on a hill or something that required most passengers to get off and wait while the driver of the 4-wheeler went acrossed, I would always hold on to him tighter and say, "WHOO-HOO you gotta have BLIND FAITH" He would gas on it and away we would go. No fear, no second thought... I just trusted my husband, closed my eyes and had... blind faith. That was my 4-wheelin' motto you might say. Years later I know I would still hang on behind him with blind faith and ride through whatever was ahead of us. So the question comes to me, "Why don't I have that same BLIND FAITH with my God?" Am I saying I don't trust God? No, but I do have a tendency to hold back and think I need to handle some things on my on. Just in case God's plan and my plan are not on the same terrain. 4-wheelin with my husband did I trust that everything would be alright? Yes! Was it always alright? No. As a matter of fact we have been known to wreck, and on one scary occassion we even flipped our 4-wheeler with me holding on the whole time. God has laid a reality on my heart this week. The reality is in alot of situations instead of having blind faith with my Lord I have bending faith. I sometimes walk beside God instead of hanging on and riding all the way through with him in the driver seat. This past weekend God very urgently laid a situation on my heart. It required having blind (unseen) faith. It required saying yes when I reall wanted to say no. It required trusting God to see me and my family through for the remainder of this week. While my first thought was to wait and handle it at a better more comfortable time. God kept tugging at me. You know when God is working with you it seems like he lines everything up around you as confirmation to give in and allow him to be great and glorious in your life. Sunday morning and Sunday night at church was directed to me. Giving me confirmation that God is in control that he wanted me to trust him, to surrender to his will. To rest in the safety of knowing all I need is to have BLIND FAITH and God will handle the rest. So with that BLIND FAITH I finally gave in to the request God had for me. Not knowing where that would lead me and my family this week I rode on through with God in the driver seat. That was Sunday night. On Monday morning God showed up in a huge way and gave back to me 50 times more than what he required of me. How great is our God ! If you have ever been like me and been known to get off at the first sight of a sticky situation instead of closing your eyes and having blind faith that God will handle it. I encourage you to allow God to grow you in your willingness to give him what is already his.... EVERYTHING.
Sweet blessings,

Angela

"Stinky bad or Sweetly blessed"

I am so excited today to have a moment to share my thoughts with you this Thursday. Our first blog post was up on April 17, 2009. Feel free to go back and read that post of how this site originated. When I began this site nearly a year ago I had no idea how God planned to use it. And I still don't know what will come of being obedient to keep this site open. But today I got a wonderful surprise. A person that I have known for many years through my work had called the office. While we were speaking he mentioned that he really enjoyed our blog. That it was very nice; different from alot of other sites you may get into. I had never mentioned our site to this person. He just happened up on our blog site and enjoyed what he read. I realized at that moment that I may never know who visits our site, but I don't have to. God knows who will see these words and how they may impact those people.
Let me share with you a moment from the Walker home. Our middle son woke up in a not so happy mood this morning. As he sleepily makes his way into the bathroom where me and the other 2 boys are all sharing the sink and mirror he falls back on the side of the bathtub. Instantly he says I always have a "stinky bad day." At that moment I looked at him and said if all your days are "stinky bad" you choose them. You are given the same day I'm given and each day comes from God. And since nothing from God is "stinky bad" it's a choice you make. He sat there quietly for about 10 seconds just long enough for his 9 year old sleepy self to rationalize what I had just said and then slowly he got up and started getting ready with a cute little smile on his face. He didn't mention anything more about "stinky bad" so I'm thinking he has decided that regardless of how the day may have started.... remember he tripped and landed on the tub, he has a choice about how it continues.
May your day be sweetly blessed and not stinky bad it's as easy as making up our sleepy little minds. Thanks for stopping by. Hope you come back soon.
I would love to hear from you. So let me encourage you to leave a comment on our site. If you have prayer needs it would be my humble pleasure to lift you up in prayer.
Sweet blessings,
Angela

New year no resolution but new realization.

Thank you very much for stopping by today. As this new year begins my mind has been racing with the typical new year resolutions. However, suddenly I found myself in prayer asking God as this year starts to show me and grow me closer to Him and His will over my life. I'm so excited about the commitment our family began this new year. If you have read my older post from December then you know that we decided to sponser a sweet precious little girl from Ghana Africa. Her picture is on our refridgerator along with other family pictures. When we chose her or should I say when God chose her for us we took her as our own. No we will never probably meet her and yes she has her very on mommy and daddy, but she is part of our family all the same. She is our little girl. Last night during our youth class at church the question was asked to everyone in the room to list all the 10 commandments. WOW what an eye opener we were able to give 9 out of the 10 commandments. Even me!!! You can sometimes understand young adult youths maybe not knowing but you just assume that all adults know the 10 commandments. Even worse than not remembering is that the command we had forgotten is probably the command that we are more likely to break without even realizing we are breaking it. We had left out, "Thou shall make no idols or graven images" I'm paraphrasing of course. When I read that command which by the way is the 2nd command God gave I was stunned that I had forgotten that. Then I realize that so many times I will put things and objects in that idol place in my life. God may lay on my heart to read His Holy Bible and I will set that thought aside to finish watching a TV program. Last night I came to a very important understanding God can and will grow me closer to Him, but He will also allow me to decide how close that relationship is by what I do with His commands, with my time and with my abilities.
May God show me daily where I need to change gears in my thought processing so that my efforts and commitments are based on Him and his commandments over my life.
I'm so glad you took the time to read my thoughts today. And I hope that it has been encouraging to you just as our class was encouraging to me last night.
Love to you,
Angela