Journey With Jen

Wow!  This month is almost over!  It has been a very easy task of being thankful for just one thing each day.  Imagine how this could change our attitudes if we did this each month!  How could we be sad or angry, when we realize how much we have to be thankful for?  I look around and there are numerous people and things that I have not named.  A warm house to come home to.           A pot of soup waiting in the crock pot.                     Christmas lights shinning in the evening.                                Homemade blankets to cuddle on the couch with.                  ...

I Day 24:  I am thankful for little get aways that break up the work we've been doing on the house!  We got to escape to Branson on Friday and Saturday.  Yes, that's Black Friday.  Yes, I did a little shopping. :)  But, even for a little shopping, I still had to cruise the parking lots just for some one to leave and pull out so I could get a spot!  Shopping is NOT my favorite thing.  So many times I questioned myself on why we are here again! But, we got a room at the Grand Country Inn.  Which to those of you not around here ~ they have indoor water slides for the kids.  Kids loved it.  They played all Friday afternoon while my mom and I ran around the stores.  It was great to just get away for a couple days. Day 25:  Today I am thankful this beautiful weather we're having.  This fall I was unable to get out and enjoy it as usual.  We've been so busy with the kitchen that the fall leaves came and went witho...

Day 19:  My day just wouldn't be the same without Christian radio like KLRC.  I am thankful that there are stations and artists that put me in the right frame of mind.   They remind me as I am driving or at home that God's with me where ever I am.  Their message has to the power to speak to me even when my mind might be going 100 miles an hour on something else.  It blesses me to hear my daughter singing in the back of the car.  Or my son ask me to turn it up.  So thankful. Day 20:  I am thankful for my brother-in-law, Brent.  In February, it will be 16 years I've been married.  Through the years, Brent has become truly like a brother to me.  Being a family is not held together by blood relation.  Family are people held together by memories, times spent together, and love.  My Dad would always speak of Uncle Howard as his brother.  (Although Howard was his brother-in-law.)  I am lucky enough to have that...

I've been blessed with so much.  Of course, I had to mention the biggies like my kids, hubby, and home.  But there are those 'other' things that just make life a bit easier!  So, for this grouping, I am shifting gears! :) Day 12: What a blessing a dishwasher is!  Ok, now since we've moved in our new home in August, we have not had a working dishwasher.   How I miss the days of one kid-o would empty the dishwasher, then the other kid-o would fill the dishwasher.  And so the cycle went.  Now, there is a working dishwasher in a box just waiting for a working sink in our kitchen!  It will be so soon, I just know it! :) Day 13:  With a family of 5, having two cars is a big deal.  We have dealt with one car for a while and it was hard.  My husband and I were both tired.  He would get up to take me to work by 7:30.  Then, I would take him to work in the afternoon and pick him up at 11 p.m.  Get up...

Day 7: Today I am thankful for the democratic process.  Gods plan has put me in the United States during a time where women can vote.   It is something that I shouldn't take for granted.  Not that many years ago, women wore clothing that covered them from head to toe.  Not because they liked it, it was because they had no say.  Faces were hidden behind lace veils because their voices where never meant to be heard.  Once the right to vote came about in the 1920's, women's lives changed for the better.  I am blessed to live in a country where we elect our officials.  Whether or not everyone that I voted for becomes elected, I am still thankful for the process and God's hand in it. Day 8:  The things we take for granted, like a place to call home.  We moved into our home in August of this year.  This place has changed so much in 4 months!  We'd been renting and moving for the past couple years.  I...

Day 2:  I am thankful for FIELD TRIPS! :D  I love being able to take a day and spend individually with my kids.  On Friday, we drove to Little Rock and spent the day with Faith.  I have loved going to pumpkin patches, hiking, and to battlefields through the years with each of my kids.  That one-on-one time means a lot to me as well as them. Faith on a field trip Friday to our State Capital. Day 3:  What a busy day!  I am thankful that we got the tile down today.  One step closer to having a kitchen again.   I used the wet saw for the first time and I did ALL of the cuts in the entire kitchen.  Looks pretty good too! ;) Cannot wait until the cabinets! Day 4:  I am thankful for my kids.  It is true that time goes by too fast.  I look at my children and wonder how I can have a 15, 13, and 10 year old.  I'm not old enough, am I? ;D  I am thankful that I can still kiss them good-night ...

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”   Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”   ~   Matthew 16:15-1 Would you know God if He were before you?   Would you act different if He were standing before you?   I think honestly we all would.  So it is easy to forget that He is everywhere.  Not just in the church.  God is in the car with us.  Walking with us through our workday.  There is not a place that we could go that God would not walk with us.  In times of troubles, we rely on that message.  The knowledge that God will not leave us or forsake us.  The faith that will carry us through the storm. But would we recognize the hands of God in our own life?  God is there working through others constantly.  We have to stop for a moment and recognize it.  Stop for a moment and be THANKFUL.  Many times, God is working through others ...