Special people deserve special prayers

                                               MOM

                               SHIRLEY (mom-in-law)


Sometimes we just need special prayers for the people that we love. Today I ask for prayers 

my two moms. My sweet mother -in-- law aka THE DOGGY MEMAW is in the hospital after 

a fall. She is ok but needs  to have some tests run and to be kept for observation for a day or 

two. Also asking for unspecified prayers for my mother aka MEMAW. These two amazing

ladies bring so much joy and love to their families and so I lift them up in prayer for God's 

healing hands to make them well. Thank you in advance for all prayers lifted in their names.



1 John 5:15 " And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him."


With much love & gratitude,

Dalene

Of hallways, owls and love..

Well today was the day... That's right it was back to work again after a wonderful two week break. The picture on the left is what the hallway where the classroom that I work in is located. This picture was taken at around 7:40 this morning and as you can tell the halls were pretty sparse at that time. The cute little owl on the right is a stock image I found somewhere out there in internet land. 

Today I am going to write just a bit about what work means to me. I work as a teacher's aide in a self-contained classroom of special needs students. I love my job and the kids are awesome. My co-workers in general are wonderful people but some of my best friends work with me and that makes my job oh so much easier to like. 

I get to make a difference in the lives of children everyday. I probably spend more time with each of them on a daily basis than their parents do. I get to help develop their minds through  educating them but my job goes far deeper than just that. I get the privilege of helping to teach them life skills like manners and appropriateness (believe me that is important in life) , how to dress themselves and to take care of their personal grooming needs. In addition to that I get to laugh with them , make them smile and of course that works in reverse as well , console them when they are upset, calm them down when they are angry, anxious or just plain fidgety , hold them close when they are scared or just need a hug and most importantly love them in a way that they have no doubt that school is a safe place that has people who care about each one of them and that are there each day eagerly waiting for them to walk through the doors.

Our school mascot is the owl and every time our assistant principal does the announcements he always says, "It's a great day  (pause) to be an owl." Today as is the case with most of my days, because of these kids and the relationships that we have created with each one ; as well as the friendships of teachers and other school staff I KNOW that today WAS a great day to be an owl. 


"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."  1 Corinthians 13:4-7

PICS!!!

 YAY!!!  I figured out that if I switched my browser I was able to upload some pictures. Soooo. Here are the some of the pics that I talked about in my last post. Hope you enjoy ....

With Love,

Dalene

Happy New Year, a few days late..

I have been trying in vain to figure out this whole blogging thing. I have spent so many hours online trying to download cute fonts, adorable backgrounds and then today I have tried to apply some of those things and well.... IT JUST ISN'T WORKING!! If you are an old I Love Lucy fan, insert her wailing cry here!!


I can't figure out how to add photos which is the primary reason I decided to attempt this whole blogging thing again... Ughh.... I know it has to be easy but I am at a loss right now. I want to blog about whatever picture I take each day and whatever else strikes my fancy..

Right here is supposed to be a picture of my vintage Santa collection. As we begin a New Year it means that YES, all my decorations must lovingly be boxed away again  for another year. I have many treasured Christmas lovelies..I have collected Santa's for over 15 years and I have all sorts of them. I have whimsical ones that make me laugh, fabric ones , all types of glass ones , lots of different wooden ones and a slew of vintage plastic ones.

I also collect snowmen and gingerbread men/houses. I know, I know... My husband says that I am a hoarder in every sense of the word except that I am not one who suffers from psychological issues where my home is stuffed to the ceilings with trash or anything, just I have a lot of stuff and I have a strange  attachment to it.  That's not to say that if something were to happen ( God forbid) I wouldn't get over it because it is after all just stuff  and material things can't be taken with you anyway.  I absolutely adore collecting all these things though and enjoy keeping my snowmen up a little longer ( till  around the end of February) since they are Winter related and not necessarily only for Christmas. I didn't put up  any of my gingerbread stuff this year.. Some years it is like that and I go through phases. I also did not put up my huge snow village either. I had started to collect the cute little houses several years ago and then maybe two or three years ago my mother gave me all of her houses and accessories so now I have a huge SNOW VILLAGE with a candy shop, multiple churches, bakery, park with gazebo, school, and about a dozen different houses. I have all sorts of people that go with it including snowmen, carolers, kids and parents..

I also have an infatuation with all the ornaments I have collected over the years ( insert another cute  unloaded picture here). I relish in unwrapping each ornament and placing them under the tree while I decorate it as I "look " for just the right place for that special memory to go. I have the first "set" of ornaments that we got the first year we were married almost 28 years ago . A salesman was selling them door to door which is odd to me now but not so much back then. It is a set of a dozen porcelain bells that are in the shapes of animals. I don't remember how much I paid for them but it couldn't have been much. We have the Hallmark sports figures ornaments with the likes of Troy Aikman, Jeff Gordan, Dale Ernhardt Sr. & Jr, Larry Bird, Tony Stewart just to name a few, not to mention the Batmobile with Batman and Robin racing to their next adventure. We have all sorts of religious ornaments from crosses, angels, nativities to ones that were made in Sunday School classes.  All of them holding some special meaning or memory. Of course my recollection of our many ornaments wouldn't be complete without mentioning my most favorite ones which are the handmade ones. I have a sweet little girl made from embroidery floss, felt and a pipe cleaner that I made with my paternal grandmother so many years ago. I also have some that she made me as well. I have some ornaments and decorations from my maternal grandmother as well and seeing as they are both in heaven now, they are precious reminders of love, happiness and all things sweet. I adore all the sweet , cute, messy ornaments that were made by sweet little boys that have turned into men now.. Those are my FAVORITES... Then there are the handmade ornaments that I forced my men into making with me back in 2004. I planned a whole day around making memories and part of that plan was having everyone get creative and make special ornaments. The memories that go with these ornaments come flooding back each year as I unwrap each ornament one by one. 

Of all the things that "say" Christmas to me none has more meaning to me than our Nativity. We actually have several but there is the one that I place over our mantle in the middle of our living space  front and center and in the most prominent place. . I always do the surroundings a little different each year but there is usually gold beads that represent the gold, a little woven basket that I imagine might have held the incense and a small wooden urn that represents the container that would have  held the myrrh. Of course there is also an angel in this setting too. This year I added two things ... I added a small slender tree on one side of the mantle that I made ornaments for. There were 25 ornaments each with a different name of Christ written on it. I also made a banner with 25 pockets to go over the mantle. Each pocket contained a different scripture or  bible reading to prepare our hearts for the coming of the Lord. I so ADORED how it looked but more imporantly reading all the messages each day. I must admit, I did get a little  behind and didn't read each one but close to it.I guess I will have something to look to forward to next year.

As another Christmas season closes and a New Year begins I am excited about the plans God has for me and my family in this coming year. What paths will he take us down, what obstacles might we have to overcome? Just as I anticipate putting out all my lovelies each Christmas season and cherishing  each memory that goes with each one I eagerly anticpate the memories that will be made in another year of serving my Lord.

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind can conceive what God has planned for those who love him." 1 Corinthians 2:9

Ponderings of Where the Past 5 Years went...

Oh my!!! Where oh where has the time gone?? Well as you can tell with your very own eyes it has been a whopping 4 + years since I made my last blog entry. I HAD good intentions of blogging more frequently, honest.. but life just kind of gets in the way sometimes. Therefore I decided to revamp this space and create a place that I want to write and that maybe others would enjoy visiting occasionally. My posts will be about random things I am sure because that is the way that my brain just seems to function most days. As we are just starting a new year I decided I wanted to try to blog more and to take time to make something creative everyday. I thought about this and came up with the idea of posting a picture a day and blogging about it. No real themes or pre-conceived notions of great photography but just the opportunity to LIVE and relish the everyday things we so often take for granted. As you can see I am already a few days behind due to my overhaul of this space but will try to make up for lost time and posting a couple of pictures and posts tomorrow. This girl is super sleepy from HOURS of working on this space so additional posts will have to wait until I catch up on a little shut eye.  I hope you will join me on my journey through the next year. May God Bless you until we meet again.

 

Dalene

The Worries of a Mother..

Worry... A five letter word that can do more damage to a person physically, emotionally and spiritually than anyone can imagine. As a mother, that word is permanantly engrained into my very being. Moms worry about EVERYTHING... We worry when our kids are ______________ (fill in the blank). I have 2 wonderful boys but lately I find that I have been worrying more than normal about their happiness.

As much as I would love to have children that are never unhappy, that is just not a reality and thus I have been thrust into finding myself in a "funk" myself because I am not able to be much help to my boys when they are unhappy. Unfortunately, there have been more than a few unhappy moments of late for both boys. There are relationship struggles, past hurts, shifts in friendships, etc.. Some days there is too much drama for this mama!! I have been trying very hard to give my worries and strife to God. Sometimes though... I take them back and find myself fighting the urge to "fix things" myself. (as if I could).

Some of my worries as a mom don't even directly relate to my children.. I worry about the future... mine... thiers... our families.. the nations... I worry about all my "kiddos" whether they are church kids, school kids, my children's friends, etc.. Maybe I would be alot happier if I worried less and prayed more... I started a new bible study " The Prayer of Jabez" and it is amazing how much God wants to bless us if only we would ask. That is my prayer... that I will no longer worry about the things that I can't change but ask God instead to bless me, my children and family abundantly. Just like the song...my new motto is going to be "Don't worry... be happy" and perhaps my ultimate happiness is just a prayer away.

I come in peace...

I have heard the phrase " I come in peace" everyday now for the last 6 school days. I work with children with special needs and sometimes they say the darndest things. I work in a lifeskills class that teaches these precious kids how to do basic tasks but also how to function properly in social situations. Everyday we have a time of the day known as morning message. The kids all take turns "greeting one another" and then introducing themselves; ex: " Good Morning, my name is Bobby." and then stating what school they are at and if they are happy, sad or mad. We have one precious girl that apparently is a huge sci-fi fan because she has yet managed to do her greeting without adding... I come in peace.... That in itself is just funny to me ...

This afternoon we had a mandatory meeting afterschool. We had one of the superintendants of our district there to address all the teachers about expectations for the new school year, etc.. He began his greeting with , "Hello, my name is Dr. ___ and I come in peace." It took everything I had to not bust out laughing at this because here we were trying to teach our children the "appropriate" way to greet their peers and then the superintendant greeted us in this manner. He meant his comically to kind of break the ice with the teachers but maybe that's what our little girl was doing to. She in essence has been drawing on something that she knows to "break the ice" with her new teachers and peers. Humor.... you find it sometimes in funny places. Can you imagine the ramifications if we all "came in peace" instead of throwing up our guard all the time? What a different world it would or could be... by the way... not only do I come in peace but I have peace in my life because of Jesus. Would you like a piece of this peace? Follow Jesus... the puzzle of life starts with Him....