A Time For Every Season....

"You have turned my mourning into dancing for me; You have put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness, To the end that my tongue and my heart and everything glorious within me may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever." ( Psalm 30:11-12, AMP )   We are so thankful this year! There are just too many blessings; it is hard to record them all! Our biggest praise for 2009 is the blessing of John's hard-earned Teaching job! What began as an aid position, soon led to him taking a very difficult exam, which we just found out John passed – with an 84%! John has found favor with many teachers and the principal at the middle school where he works, with his present position and credentials there are a few job opportunities being discussed. We're excited to find out which one God will bring to fruition. I'm also thankful that for the first time since marriage, my husband has a normal job with set hour...

The Thanksgiving CD is playing, the sweet potatoes are boiling, the pumpkin pie is going to be made, and the little peanut is kicking away at my rib cage. It is a glorious per-Thanksgiving day! Drew and Daddy are wrestling out front, Gabe is deep into slumber, John built a fun hopscotch course in our kitchen, the house is clean, soupo is in the crock-pot, and thankfulness is in the air. Wow, God is the master planner of blessings! This past year has been quiet, reflective - preparation for the changes ahead. Changes of jobs, changes of family dynamics, changes in finances, & hopefully it all leads to changes within our hearts. We are a thankful family, there is nothing I could possible be ungrateful for - it was all pre-ordained by God and those few things in my life which I like to grumble about are also the things that grow me and raise me up to handle a God filled life. I am truly grateful today, more so than ever before. We have health, a roof over our heads, a great marriag...

I'm so sorry your sick with pneumonia, but I'm so happy your feeling better and that nasty cough is going away! Your such a little trooper, always happy and running around. You actually remind me when its time for a breathing treatment and love the fact that you get to watch 10 minutes of Dinosaur Train while your treatment is running. I'm so glad your feeling better!

We had such a wonderful week, it was quiet, relaxed, and full of fun. The leaves finally dropped in our yard, the sun was out, and we enjoyed time playing together as a family. I baked some yummy pumpkin chocolate chip muffins and we drank tons of cocoa - thanks to John and my Birthday gift! The boys and I have had cough's for weeks, I'd hoped staying home relaxing could get rid of them, alas no such luck. I'm beginning to wonder if we're just suffering from allergies? Gabe and I have it the worst and we're both prone to allergy issues. Drew must be at the top of his learning curve, he has been asking tons of questions like, "How big is my brain?" and "How do you spell reptile?." He has also been doing tons of math problems in his head and talking all about our frogs being nocturnal and making "hypothesis" about various topics. Wow, I can't keep up with his creative mind, Drew talks non stop all day and is always asking tons of ...

Be joyful always;  pray continually;  give thanks in all circumstances,  for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.   1 Thessalonians 5:16   I just love Fall! I love the season of Thanksgiving and the quiet evenings of tea by the fire. I love books and reading to my boys. Recently John and I started to dialog about ways we teach our children about gratitude; we soon discovered that gratitude in our house needed to be emphasized more. We felt Drew's excitement for Christmas & his Birthday, yet quickly picked up on his "I need, I want" attitude. So we went back to the basics and have been implementing some fresh ideas into our Fall fun, I'm so excited to see Drew's heart change from "I want" to "Lets give!" Tonya Ruiz writes on her blog that, "The Bible tells us that the wicked are not thankful, but that Christians are to give thanks always, for all people and things. I'll admit I don't always have a gratef...

Wow, the past month has just flown bye. I'm not sure what happened to October, but I think I blinked! I'm already getting Christmas calendars ordered and thinking about celebrating Gabe's birthday on November 19th, then on to Thanksgiving; my most treasured holiday, then to Christmas and the birth of our little peanut. Wow is all I have to say, In honor of slowing down the time a little, here are some pictures from today, we took a much needed trip to the park and visited Daddy while he was out working at Mr. Mike and Mrs. Sue's house - they have a wonderful and quiet park in their neighborhood which has wonderful lighting!. The boys have had tons of energy so this was actually our second trip to the park in a 24 hour period, I forgot my camera on the first trip. We're having a lazy quiet Saturday today, we've tried to get lots of vitamin D and enjoy our 70 degree Fall days. Now I'm off to wash the car & the dog while Gabe naps.

I had a great appointment today! At 26 weeks our little peanut is growing and moving as she should be. She is in the head down position and pressing nicely on my bladder! I thought she had moved from transverse last week to the head down position since all her little movements started to feel different. I guess I was right!  I had another scan today and despite all the contractions, mostly between 5 & 10 pm, my cervix hasn't thinned or shortened! That is wonderful news, it means the contractions aren't doing anything for the time being. I also inquired about my iron levels since I've been addicted, and I mean addicted, to ice over the past month. My iron was indeed low so I'm on some prescription iron pills, since the OTC ones made me so very sick. I also came very close to failing my glucose test, praise the Lord that my doc is so understanding and allowed me to fall right on the line of passing. I had a 137 and the range for passing is 130, but can be as high as...

Click here to view this photo book larger

Click here to view this photo book larger

We had a great week here in the Williams household! I am quite exhausted with all the fun we had. The boys went to the Harvest Festival at their Preschool one night, we built a paper castle one day, and over the weekend they boys dressed up and went begging for candy! Drew and Gabe were so excited to dress up, stay up late, and eat candy! We also cut open some pumpkins and all hopes I had to baking the seeds were lost when Gabe decided to put them all on his head. Then the dog enjoyed cleaning up all the leftovers. On a new note, our science project arrived, only to be void of tadpoles. We were going to study the lifecycle of a frog, but the tadpoles won't arrive until the Spring when the weather is better for shipping. Anyhow, Drew was so disappointed that we ended up buying two Fire Bellied Toads. I think mommy is more excited about them than anyone else, but the boys love watching them and feeling them crickets. Their new terrarium will arrive Thursday, until then they are hidi...

Wow, Kroger is having some awesome deals this week! You can view the great deals matched up with Internet and Sunday paper coupons at www.mypennypile.com - just look under the Kroger section. All of the items I purchased we use or needed so it is quite a great sale - I was especially tickled with the 3 FREE Snuggle fabric softeners and the 4 Birds Eye meals which I paid 2.39 per package (normally 7.59). Everything pictured was free (or within pennies) except for the wipes (2.50), banana's, and the .45 ketchup and the Birds Eye meals mentioned above. In total I paid 14.67 for everything above and the original bill was 95.00! That is a savings of 85%. My Fall and Winter baking will love the 14 free cans of condensed milk (only a few are shown) and the boys are loving the free Mandarin oranges! It was a great shopping trip - one of the best I've had in a few months! I even went back the next day and grabbed some free tuna!