Such a long time

It has been so long since I have even got to stop by and check everyones blogs.  I am composing things to write and hoping that now that summer is here I will get to catch up.  We are doing well and so thankful for the many blessings God gives us daily. Can't wait to take a few days to read and see what you all have been doing.  Miss keeping in touch.
Blessings-
Jill

Father's Day 2013

 

The Proverbs 31 Woman

I started a new 90 day study with a friend called "Becoming the Woman God Wants Me to Be" Living the Proverbs 31 Life. I really love it-I wanted to share part of today lesson that hit home with me.

The Proverbs 31 woman was noble and dignified. But there is nothing noble or dignified about woman that complains. Capable women don't complain. They take action to change the situation or have enough faith to accept the things they cannot change.

 

 The best gift you can give yourself and those around you is an optimistic, can do attitude. People treat us by the way we treat them. There is good in everyone if we choose to see it. By believing the best, we bring out the best. The same is true for circumstance, even if that good is merely the opportunity to become a more patient, more compassionate, or wiser person. Look for the lesson; look for the positive. Seek and surely you will find.

 

Of course if you look for the negative, you can always find that as well. But why would you want to? You can look at all that is right with the world and the people in it and be happy or you can look at all the is wrong with everyone and everything and be miserable, which will rob you of joy and peace and make you and those around you unhappy.

 "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind." (Romans 12:1)

 

I feel like I have been struggling with a "why me" or "why this" attitude for a few months.  I needed to get my attitude adjusted and this study so far has certaintly done that.  I am excited to read more and study more about the Proverbs 31 women.  I have always loved this scripture but to be honest (like many women I  have talked with) wondered if that was possible.  I have so enjoyed just the first week and look forward to the next 83 days-praying I will become more like the Proverbs 31 mom, wife, daughter, friend and most of all Christian woman, that God has called me to be.

 

On this Pathway-

Jill

Please Pray Rex

I have been gone from here for quite a few weeks and I have missed you all.  We have had so much going on with Brandon's surgery and Alyssa being diagnosed with a certain type of dermatitis (not life threatening but trying to get it under control has been not fun) and just all that summer does to change our schedule-all full of blessings just different from our normal routine.
All that being sad I have so many thanks and praises from Brandon's surgery-it was two weeks ago today and he is up and walking, the rash that he broke out in from the tape on his bandages is finally gone and he is doing really well.  They removed the rods and screws.  They was a small piece of cyst in the top of his hip that they would have had to break bone to reach so they injected it with steroids to hopefully just finish killing it off if there was any activity left in it and thunen they packed his bone with marrow where the rods were to try and grow new bone.  Please keep him in your prayers-that the bone would grow healthy and strong and that no new cysts would come back.  Thank you.

The real reason I am here though today is to ask that you would please pray for Rex and his family.  He is the little boy that 20 months ago was told he had a brain tumor and would need surgery and chemo and radiation to try and heal him.  I ask for pray on here for him at that time.  He has been doing well until about 6 months ago they found something on a scan that they weren't sure if it was another tumor or scar tissue.  They have been watching it to see if there was growth before doing anything again to his brain.  Yesterday the family went for a scan and today his father posted this message-Please lift this family up in prayer-I know God is in contol, but very heart is very heavy for them today.

Family and friends, the news we received late yesterday from Rex's MRI on Monday was not good. The tumor is growing and spreading toward his brain stem, which makes operating on it unlikely. Rex will be starting on another clinical chemotherapy trial in the next couple of weeks that will run a 3-month course. At the end of that 3 months we'll re-scan and see if the tumors have shrunk. If not, we'll seek out other options, but those are quite limited as well.

Rex doesn't know anything other than he is starting the trial in a couple of weeks, and he is fine with that. That's the way we would prefer to keep it until we (Jill and I) choose to tell him. The bottom line is that we might not have much more time with our son whom we love so much.

He will celebrate his 10th birthday on October 17, and without a miracle it will be his last here on earth. We have prayed since November 2010 that Rex would be healed, knowing all the while that it might not be here on earth that he's healed but in heaven.

Please keep our family in your prayers as you all have done since this journey began 20 months ago. Pray for Rex as he begins his journey towards his eternal life that it would be graceful and full of peace and love. Thank you all.

Thank you all for praying!
Jill

Oh  it feels like forever since I have posted.  We have finally finished school, dance, VBS and my mom and dad went back home to NY.   We have so much going on I felt like I haven't had any time to get to my blog.  I miss you all when I am not able to get on here and read your blogs and post on my own blog.  So I was happy to have a little time to get on here and catch up today.

We are finally settling into a summer routine and are taking swimming lessons.  God is so good-4 years ago June 5th we almost lost our Alyssa to a drowning and this summer in swim lessons she is in the highest level before Life Guard.  It is amazing to me to see her swim and I was humbled and very emotional this last session when she took her test and made it into level 4/5-to think of what happened and God's amazing grace and mercy over her life and ours brings me to tears.  It also reminds me of the many miracles I have personally witnessed in the last few years in the lives of my family members.

We are awaiting Brandon's surgery coming up in about 3 weeks.  July 10th is the day-we won't know till closer to the time when it will be that day but I would so appreciate your prayers for not only him and his body and the pain he will be in, but the Dr.'s and nurses, we are not sure all what will happen that day until they get in there, we know they have to remove the rods and screws because they are now too close to his growth plates but we won't know what they are going to have to do until they are in there and can actually see how much bone and has grown.

Two years ago his recovery was very hard, I have to be honest and say I am a little anxious about going through this all again-and if they remove the rod and just pack bone marrow in there-the rate of it breaking again especially if the cysts return once again, is very high.  He is pretty nervous about it all.  We have been able to kind of "do life as normal" this last year and now we will go back to being restricted from all physical activity again and that is hard for an 8 year old boy.

My heart is a little heavy over it all.  But, God is so good, they showed a video in church on Sunday about Scott Hamilton, and I don't know if you knew it or not but he is a Christian now.  He gave his testimony and talked about having cancer and then finding out he had a brain tumor that had been in his brain since he was a baby and that they now know caused him to only grow to be 5'4" and how they removed it and it has come back and they are treating it and how it rocked his faith and how strong his wife was and that they gave it all over to the Lord and he now is trusting Him completely to heal him.  He talked about how he knows had he not had the first tumor that he probably would have not had the wonderful life he had as a skater because he might have grown to be too tall and not been able to skate like he had.  It was amazing to watch and to hear.  I sat there thinking I wonder what God is doing in my Brandon's life, one day we may understand this side of Heaven and then again maybe not, but I do know He is in control and that makes it so much easier to face the next few months again.

I will get on my laptop and post again soon-that is where I have all my recent photos of the girls dance recital.  They had such a wonderful time and it was so neat to have my parents here to see them dance for the first time.  God is so good.

I hope and pray that you all are doing well.  Happy Summer!!!  I am so glad to be back in a schedule to check back here more often to see how you all are.

On this Pathway-
Jill

A Grand Day in Grandbury!

I have been blogging for about two years now and in that time I have been blessed to meet some of the most wonderful people through my blog.  Many have encouraged me and prayed for me -laughed with me and cried with me through many things.  I have had sweet cards and presents, wonderful
e-mails with encouraging words and prayers that have gotten me through times here those prayers and love and words of encouragement reminded me of the love of our Savior for me.

So about a year now one of my fellow blogger friends and I have been trying to find a time to meet since we only live about 3 hours away from each other. :)
She has been such a blessing to me from barely even knowing me but finding out I was pulling our oldest daughter from public school to home school because she was struggling so much.  She was my cheerleader and even though I was scared to death encouraged me through her wonderful comments on my blog, prayers and e-mails and when her husband was coming to Abilene on business sent him to my house with a box full of books and homeschooling goodies to get us started.  I was overwhelmed by her kindness and sweet words of encouragement.  And although meeting her husband was a wonderful experience I so wanted for us to be able to meet one day too -so I could hug the neck a wonderful friend I had come to love and appreciate so much over our blogs.

Yes, she is beautiful both inside and out!

Well, I know you are all wondering who I am talking about-I know that if you haven't already been to her blog you will want to go and be blessed-because I can tell you she is even more wonderful in person.  God blessed me with the opportunity this Saturday to finally meet my dear friend Janette from Janette's Sage.

We had e-mailed back and forth the last few weeks trying to set up a time when she could be free and I could be free at the same time to meet some where for the first time.  She told me about a quaint little town called Grandbury, TX it was about 2 hours for both of us to drive there so we decided to meet there. It was my first time there (since I am not a native Texan) and I loved it.  Lots of cute stores to shop in and a great little old town to walk around and get to talk and know each other better.

Main street across from the courthouse-it is a wonderful place.

The ClockTower on the top of the Courthouse in the center of town.  We met here.

A statue of Mr. Grandbury

Parts of downtown built in a square around the courthouse.

More of downtown-just looks like a horse and cowboy should come riding down the side walk any moment now. :)

Inside one of the stores from the second floor.

My first Janette sighting. :)

I got there just a few minutes before we were supposed to meet because I had left early since I didn't know where I was going and didn't want to be late it case I got lost. :)  I sent her a text and she was just a few minutes behind me.  When she got there she text me and said she was there and in jeans and a pink shirt.  Well the funny thing is she parked around one side of the courthouse and I had parked on another and so when we got out to walk around we were missing each other. ha!  I finally told her that I was near where they were acting out some scene for years gone by and shooting off guns and I text her and said I am by the gun fire-at the same time she was on her way to her car to get her camera to take photos of them shooting.  So I spotted her before she saw me and I got this photo.


I had such a wonderful time.  It was such a blessing to finally meet one of my blogging friends from these last two years.  I told my husband I was a little nervous.  Kind of like a blind date ha!   You never really know what the other person may be like in person-people can be so different in person than on paper (or computer) but I can tell you she is just as sweet, kind, loving, genuine and such a lovely godly women in person-all that I thought she would be from getting to know her through her blog and comments and e-mails the last two years.  She even loves to laugh just like me.  I love to laugh-I laugh a lot and cry a lot too which Janette caused me to do both on Saturday;)  God knew I so needed to have a day that I could let loose and do both.  She made me laugh till I cried and cry because she encouraged me not to be discouraged about having to but Alyssa in a special school in the fall and that HS didn't work for us and the guilt I was carrying around I needed to get rid of.   We had so much in common even down to something as simple as the same little cell phone  charger in the same color pink for both our Toyotas(we both had Toyotas too:) )

I will share these last few photos because I refused to have a first meeting and not have a photo from our meeting together (especially when you will blog about it and need photos for the post. ) So not knowing anyone to take our photo we found a spot to set up my camera and put on the timer.  Since poor Janette doesn't know what a crazed picture taker I am I set the timer for 4 photos cause surely 1 out of 4 would turn out- right?! :0  Well, I didn't tell Janette I had set the timer for 4 pictures so this is what happened- I will treasure these always-they make me smile just looking at them.

First shot not bad-Janette thought we were done. :)

Second shot-opps she didn't know I was still taking photos. ha!

Third shot-I am trying to tell her to keep looking put we are laughing too hard to get that across.

Still cracking up.  Some poor couple came by and felt sorry for us and offered to take a picture for us.  But he took two and the first one was fuzzy and the second one he caught Janette in mid-blink.  So this set was better and much more fun.!! :0

Thank you Janette for such a special day.  Thank you for blessing my heart so much that day.  It was so great to finely meet you in person.  We must do it again soon!!  Love you sweet friend.  God amazes me daily at how much He cares about even the friends He places in our lives to touch our hearts.

You are a blessing that I am truly thankful for.

Such a blessed day before Mother's Day-which I now need to blog about but I have been fighting a sore throat since last night and so I am getting ready to hit the hay soon.  So that will be tomorrow's post.  

On this Pathway-

Jill

Signs of Spring

We had so much rain last week I was beginning to think about building an ark but it finally stopped and after the rain starting coming beautiful signs of spring-one of my favorite times of the year.  A time of the year that I think most represents our walk as a Christian-God takes the old, dead, ugly, sinful part of us (like our grass, and trees right now) and make them new and beautiful, just like He does our lives.  When Christ enters our life He take the old, ulgy, sinful nature and turns us into something new-something beautiful, full of His glory!

A bush outside of our house that is starting to get it's leaves.

Another bush in our front yard-starting to show signs of new life.

Little white flowers that started blooming in our grass that was way over grown till I got to mow on Tuesday.

Some kind of little flower (I think it is a weed actually) but purple is my favorite color and even God made weeds pretty. :)

My sweet baby girl out enjoying the sun and warmer temps (little did we know that she would wake up throwing up that night as we all started with the stomach bug this week for spring break.)

Looking at bugs

Look these rocks will squish these bugs-ha!  Sorry to any bug lovers-she was discovering the circle of life. :)

Time to slide -

Yay!  I made it down and on my feet!! (yes that is our grass that is ankle high-I told you it rained a lot)

Not so lucky this time-miss my feet

Pure sweetness-love this blessing God gave us after great loss and much heartache.

Trampoline fun!

A little static on the trampoline you think?!

  

More fun with the static-great hair raising experince. ha!

I just loved this shot because she was so deep in thought-watching the bugs she hadn't smashed with the rocks-crawl on the rock in her hand.  She was amazed by it all.  I love the sun hitting her hair and her sweet thoughtful face.

Thanks for letting me share a bit of our spring with you so far-loving the warmer temperatures and the flowers and trees and grass growing and most of all that we are all finally getting over this stomach bug-praise the Lord.

On This Pathway-

Jill

Simple and Delicious

What is a girl to do when she goes for a root canal, on a tooth, that out of the blue makes her wake up with a swollen face? Then gets to the dentist only to find all of the infection is not gone (even though she was on antibiotics and was already numbed up with so many shots that she couldn't eat for 8 hours?) I'll tell you what I did-feel sorry for myself and make an awesome recipe(since I could finally eat) that I found on Pineterest the other day.

Chocolate Chip Oreo Brownies-yummy-no calories here (wink)

Really easy-starts with this

First layer-chocolate chip cookie mix

Second layer-Oreo Cookies

Third layer the brownie mix

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes-this is what the inside looks like in all of it's yumminess.

Scoop it in a bowl with some yummy ice cream on top and enjoy!



So simple and absolutely delicious.  I don't think it really made my tooth feel any better but it was so yummy to eat after going all day with nothing that I enjoyed this bowl of sweetness throughly. :)

On this Pathway

Jill