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