Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you!

If you normally get a Christmas card from us you have probably noticed yours has not arrived in the mail yet! I have run out of time... so instead we are planning to do a New Year's card along with our annual letter of the happenings in our household this past year, so be on the lookout!

May you have a wonderful Christmas and may Christ be the center of your heart and your celebrations!

Thankful Thursday... on Friday...

"Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
I will praise the Lord while I live;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being."
Psalm 146:1-2

I have really missed doing my Thankful Thursday posts, and am really planning to make an effort to get back into the habit of doing them again in the New Year... I thought all day yesterday about what I wanted to share that I am thankful for, but did not have time to do the post... so instead of not doing it at all I am going to do it a day late.

I am giving thanks to my Lord for:

• The gift of Jesus... how thankful I am that Jesus was willing to leave the glory of Heaven and the presence of His Father to come to earth to live among sinners, to show us the love of the Father, and to pay the price for our redemption... what a gift!
• The opportunity and privilege to homeschool my children... it has been a wonderful adventure so far, definitely trying at times, but also definitely worth it. It is priceless to see them learn new things and apply them, and such a blessing to have hugs, kisses, and laughter in the middle of the day!
• A very much unexpected gift for our children... a friend of my husband's gave him money yesterday to buy the boys a BIG Christmas present! A wonderful, unexpected blessing in the midst of tough economic times...
• The blessing of studying God's Word through Bible Study Fellowship (BSF). We are doing an in-depth study on the book of John... what a wonderful and "meaty" study this has been. I have been blessed with a deeper understanding of God's Word and blessed with new friendships with ladies who also hunger for God and make time to dig into His Word. And an added blessing is that my children also are studying the book of John as well as learning hymns and songs during music time, they absolutely LOVE going!
• The ability to run! I so enjoy getting out and running... it gives me time to clear my mind, to spend time in prayer with my Lord, and is a great way to take care of my body, His temple. I am currently attempting to train for a 1/2 marathon, knowing the Lord has lessons for me to learn as I commit myself to training for such a long run...

It feels so nice to share what I am thankful for again! I have missed this part of my week and hope to be able to make time for it again... what are you thankful for this week? I would love to hear from you!

Wordless Wednesday

Special or not so special...

Do you like to be made to feel special?

Do you like to know that you are appreciated, loved, and cherished?

I certainly do... there is just something nice about someone you love doing something nice for you, going out of their way for you, to make you feel loved and special. Especially on those "important" days... like birthdays, an anniversary, Mother's Day, and really any gift giving occasion, such as Christmas or Valentine's Day. What is even more special is when someone goes out of their way to make you feel special for no reason at all... just to let you know you are special to them.

As I have been attempting to prepare for Christmas this year I have been thinking about this... and about making Jesus feel special, especially at Christmas, when He left the glory of Heaven, and became flesh and dwelt among us.

I also have been thinking about how we feel when we are not made to feel special... when someone you love forgets that birthday or that anniversary, or maybe just doesn't make such a big deal out of it as you would for them, so you begin to feel less special... less appreciated... less loved...

As I have tried to make my shopping list for gifts for this one and that one, I have found that I just really can not get into the "Christmas spirit" as the world portrays it this year. I feel that much of what our world does for Christmas does not make Jesus feel special at all, much of it does not even point to Jesus at all... it points to ourselves... to greed, to selfishness, to worldliness...

The busyness of this season often times takes away from Jesus rather than encouraging others to focus on Him. We rush from this party to that one, from one store to another, spend extra time and money decorating and getting our house to look like Martha Stewart's, and often times spend money we do not have to buy things for people that they really do not need or even want... how does any of this make Jesus feel special?

My desire is that others could take a peek into my life and be able to see how special Jesus is to me... but can they do that? Is the way I spend Christmas a reflection of how special my Lord and Savior is to me, or does it look just the same as the world's way of celebrating Christmas?

What do you and your family do during Christmas to show Jesus that He is special to you? What have you seen others do that shows that Jesus is special to them? I would love to hear...

Still here... a short update!

Life has been busy... but we are still here!

With homeschooling and preparing to host Thanksgiving here
this year I have had little time to blog.

Now I am sick and David is sick,
so this week has just been spent in survival mode...

I have much that I desire to do to celebrate Christmas with my boys...
several fun ideas for celebrating advent,
but we haven't started any yet due to our sicknesses.
Hopefully after a restful weekend we will all feel better...


I did want to share some pictures of our Thanksgiving celebration...

The boys made place cards for everyone...

The cousins feasting at the kids table!

Grandfather all bundled up to watch everyone play soccer...
we had to burn off some of those calories we consumed!

The backyard was transformed into a soccer field!
All had lots of fun!

Thanksgiving evening we put the tree up
and all the kids helped to decorate it!

The Schmid cousins...
David, Timothy, Katie, John, Paul

Grandmother and Grandfather...
with all their grandkids!

The whole Schmid family,
except for Aunt Susan, who is in Africa
serving our Lord...

Paul and David ready for Christmas!