The best book ever and an update

Christmas CHECK
Eli’s birthday CHECK
Mail out Christmas cards/newletter STILL NEED TO DO!

We had a great Christmas! Eric’s parents gave us a piano. It is a restored 1914 player piano and it even came with music for the player. It has pedals so it is great exercise for the boys. It is a beautiful piano. The boys have already started lessons. Today they were making up stories with the different sounds. They were inspired by Peter and the Wolf which we learned about this past November when we studied the orchestra.

My favorite gift was a book from a sweet Titus 2 woman of mine. The book is called “Jesus Calling” by Sarah Young. I don’t like devotionals, but this is unlike any I have ever read. It is incredible! This woman was a missionary and each page is an entry from her quiet times where God spoke to her. When you read it it is like God is speaking to you. And the scripture references are phenomenal. I have a link to it on my sidebar. After I received it as a gift I went out and bought 5 of them to give as presents. I LOVE IT!

The boys had a great Christmas. They are learning it is not about having an abundance of presents, but to appreciate the ones they did get. We really struggle with the materialism of Christmas, but we really try to focus on the birth of Christ. We ordered an advent calendar from http://psalm128.blogspot.com/2007/10/advent-calendar.html. It was INCREDIBLE! She makes them herself and she includes scriptures to read with each day. My boys loved it and they couldn’t wait to put baby Jesus on it on Christmas day.

Eric and I got a camera for Christmas to each other from each other and we are loving it.

Eli is one of the lucky few whose birthday is right after Christmas and so I go to extra measure to make sure that he feels that it is special and separate from Christmas. That was a success.

My birthday is coming up in a little over a week and I am excited to have some girl time with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law. We are going to have tea at our favorite tea shop. And then one of my friends is going to take me to the beach and to a spa for a weekend getaway. Am I spoiled or what? This is a first for me so don’t think that I am too spoiled. I feel very blessed to get to do this. I am a little scared to be going to the ocean after all of the recent floods, but I am sure that it will be okay. It is always hard for me to leave my little guys and big guy, but I know it will be good for me to get away.

On a side note, I really like the show “The Biggest Loser” and I actually considered applying for it, but there is NO WAY I could be away from my husband and children that long. So I bought the workout videos and I am going to start keeping a food journal and I found a great website inspired by the biggest loser http://www.weighins.com/. They have challenges on it and you weigh in and keep a food and exercise journal so it will be a good accountability. And it is FREE! You can’t beat that!


Hopefully next time I can post some pictures with our new camera.