God REALLY cares about lights!

If you didn't read my last post, read it first and then come back to this one!

If you are still here, then you've read the last post and you saw that God answered my shallow but heartfelt prayer about Christmas lights. Well, he wasn't through yet....
I went to church tonight for a Christmas program and when I came home I noticed we had several new light additions in the front yard! Scotty said that right after I had left for church, there was a knock on the front door. It was our friend Chris Woodruff and his 5 year old son CJ. CJ handed Scotty 6 boxes of lights and said, "We brought these over for you to use because we don't need them." Y'all, I am so glad I wasn't here because I would have scared that little boy to death with how much I cried!!! It was so simple and they probably thought it wasn't that big of a deal. They probably thought they were just bringing lights and didn't realize they were bringing a message of hope and encouragment from our Savior to 2 weary people. I don't think I'll ever look at our Christmas lights the same again!

God cares about lights

So the economy is bad......I guess we all know that by now! I'm sure that everyone is feeling the effects of it, and some more than others. Scotty has had a really tough year with business. He sells advertising to local clients for Comcast. Although these are the times when people need to advertise the most, it is when they want to advertise the least. Everyone is holding their pocketbooks very tightly and very closed! So it has been an uphill battle all year. I'd like to say that I haven't struggled with all the cost cutting at all, but let's face it....I like buying cute new clothes for my kids! I like being able to get highlights! I like buying new decorations for Christmas! I love to decorate and see SO many thing I'd like to do in our new house! I like to cook really fun meals! I like a lot of things that I just simply can't afford to do right now. Some days I'm ok with it. Some days I'm very stressed about it. Some days I'm downright angry about it. And some days I just feel sorry for myself. I think that as the economy has gotten worse, I've had a lot more thankful days and a lot less pity-party days. There are too many people that are truly suffering for me to feel bad about having kids in second hand clothes and having dull brown hair.



Anyhow...



As we pulled out our Christmas decorations this year, we were sad to see that almost everything we used to light our old house won't work here. We LOVE to decorate for Christmas, so this was a real bummer. We put up our wreaths and some lighted garland around the door. We both agreed that with all of the huge bushes in the front, some net lights would be great. But, not in the budget. I realize it may sound shallow, but it was just kind of a downer. I think it just kind of represented how our whole year has felt. I was pulling out of the driveway last week telling God I was ok with it, but was there any way we could get some lights for the bushes? A super sale somewhere? Someone who didn't want theirs? I'd take anything!



Fast forward to this past Tuesday...



My birthday club group met to celebrate my birthday and Christmas. We all brought a gift from our house that we didn't want anymore to play "dirty Santa".....can you see where I'm going with this? Yes, I picked the box that my friend Courtney had brought, full of Christmas decor and 4 boxes of NET LIGHTS FOR THE BUSHES!!!!



Can you believe that???? God cares about lights! More specifically, God cares that I cared about lights. I'm still absorbing it, and I love it!



I am so grateful for this small but very significant reminder that God will supply for all of our needs. He even supplies for some of our frivolous wants. So when the paycheck isn't matching our budget book, I remind myself that it will by ok, because we serve the God of light(s)!

Open to the Public again...for now!

I'm opening up the blog again after being "invitation only" for a while. Sorry to make you guys sign in every time! What a pain! There are crazies among us though......crazies who have absolutely no idea who you are but feel the need to read and comment on your blog! Keep an eye out!

I took Jack in today for his 4 month check up. He is such a great baby! So sweet! I can't believe he is 4 months already! He is 19 pounds (the cute nurse made a goof last time when she said 21!), and 27 inches long! He is so big! I am waiting on the high back booster I bought for Molly to arrive so I can put Jack in a carseat and get rid of the carrier. His feet literally hang out of the end of it, his head reaches the top, and let's face it, I don't have the muscles to carry him! He got a clean bill of health, but there is one little issue...his head! The little man likes one side better than the other, and apparently I need to get him to give both sides equal attention or he will need to see an orthopedist and get some x-rays of his skull. I'm having visions of Jack in one of those helmets....oh good grief! We will do what we can to work that one out!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and is all geared up for Christmas! We put our tree up over the weekend and Molly hasn't been able to stay away since. She wakes up every morning and from every nap saying, "ornaments? lights?" So far we've had 2 casualties...a red ball and a Georgia Bulldog ("football doggie", as Molly calls him). She LOVES it! It's so fun to watch her excitement and remember what Christmas was like as a kid!

Here are a few pics of the kiddos...