Monday, December 31, 2007


TAAA DAAAAAH!!!!!!

I did it! I finished the first part of the large cross stitch! I do have a good bit yet to get done between the border, the back stitching and the embellishments, but I have finished the cross stitch part. Here are the pictures. Reckon how long it will take to finish the finishes?

Monday, December 24, 2007




Merry Christmas!!

There is a lot that I did not get done/finished, but we are having a good time with our family.  Junior  and I went shopping one day for about 3 hours and that was about it. Most everything was handmade; I'll try to get some pictures of the ornaments that I made for most of the nieces and nephews before I give them tomorrow.

Here are some pictures from today's work that I think are pretty funny. We thought that the reindeer looked more like a crocodile at bedtime last night! The first picture is before I got started stitching this morning and the other is after I finished this evening. All I have left of the reindeer are the antlers, the candy cane in his mouth, and his haunch. Then the border and the embellishments. Yikes!

But I am having fun doing this. Stitching time is great prayer time.

Have a blessed and Merry Christmas, and please pray for Todd, who urgently needs a new liver.

Thursday, December 13, 2007



Junior's home! Junior's home!Junior 's home!! It is so good to have our son back in the house.

I am busy with a number of projects; finishing the big cross stitch, working on Makenna's gift, making ornaments, and the Christmas cards need to get out soon, too (but I am not going to try and do handmade this year). Here are a few pictures of what is going on.

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold,a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14

Friday, December 07, 2007


Mr. Marvelous is off today, Yay!! Jr. has one more final on Saturday, and we are praying hard for him. I may write more later today, but I wanted to share this quote before the day got any older. This is written by T. Davis Bunn (one of my all-time favorite authors) in his book "The Ends of the Earth"

"They came to their chosen church not to worship, but rather to worship publicly. Their worship was a daily act, a constant communion"

Monday, December 03, 2007

Wheeee!!! Yippeee!!! Yeeehaaaahh!!! and Yay!!! Tonight I finished the second of four pages of the BIG Christmas project, so I am (hopefully) half-way done. I will try to post pictures of this tomorrow; it is a little late to do that tonight and Mr. Marvelousis tired (me too!). Mr. Marvelous read to me as I finished from Richard Foster's book, Celebration of Discipline. An excellent book and one I highly recommend, especially if you have a husband sweet enough to read it to you while you cross stitch.

Meantime, I am floating at what I have accomplished....and trying not to fret over what I have left to get done on this.
Yesterday morning I had the honor of working with K church at Grace Baptist. These are the 3-5 year-olds. What fun we had! My friend Noah was not a happy camper, so he got to climb into my lap and learn how to do the wheelchair dance while we sang praise songs. A few of the songs were slower and not appropriate for dancing, so he held my hands and taught me the motions to the songs. He is a snuggler, and I thoroughly enjoyed that. Next week I get to tell the story, and then I get to go in once a month and be the story teller.

This week's story was about the annunciation. We got to the puppet show and the puppets talked about the fact that Mary was a little scared by the angel, so the angel had to tell her not to be scared. They also talked about the fact that Mary was probably a little scared about being a good Mommy to Jesus and wondered if she could do a good job. It occurred to me that Mary is the ultimate human example of completely removing SELF from the picture and surrendering to God completely.

As I spend this advent season preparing for the coming of Christmas and for the second coming, my prayer is that I will do a better job of surrendering self to God.

If thou could`st empty all thyself of self,
Like to a shell dishabited,
Then might He find thee on the ocean shelf,
And say, `This is not dead`,
And fill thee with Himself instead.

But thou art all replete with very thou
And hast such shrewd activity,
That when He comes, He says, `This is enow
Unto itself - `twere better let it be,
It is so small and full, there is no room for me.`


Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682)

Saturday, December 01, 2007





















If you have checked in lately and prayed for John, Thank You! He has improved significantly and we are all very thankful for this.

We had a great Thanksgiving with our family, even though the McNutt contingent was absent and I STILL have not met Makenna Grace, our newest great-niece. We look forward to making her acquaintance in December sometime.

Mr. Marvelous, Jr. was home from Tuesday evening through Sunday and we had a great time with him. We didn't do anything wild or crazy (no Disney World that week), but it was so good to be in the house together and get to talk and visit. I think the best part of the break for him was getting to sleep past 0600.He  went to church with us Tuesday evening for our annual Thanksgiving dinner, communion, and service of thanks. Jr. was still in uniform, as required, and looked rather handsome in his ACUs. During the service of thanksgiving, one young man stood up, turned around, pointed to our son, and said, "Sir, would you please stand up?".He  stood to attention. The young man said, "That is what I am thankful for. The men and women who are in uniform and are willing to put their lives on the line for our freedom". What an honor for our son to get to stand in for these heroes! He knew that he was representing so many, many heroes. What a sweet young man to have stated his thankfulness in that way!

On Friday Jr. and I attended a memorial service for a gentleman in our St. Andrew's Society in Aiken, SC. This gentleman had been a retired military officer.  Jr. sat with two friends who are retired military. Across the aisle from them was another gentleman who was obviously retired military as well. At the end of the service when the trumpeter began to play Taps, it was as if there were a common thread connecting all these gentlemen (Jr. included) and pulling them to attention. It was interesting for me to watch as Jr.'s Mom. They were rather impressive!

I am including a picture of some fall foliage, just in case you do not have any where you are. I am also including a picture of Cadet Akin in his class A uniform. This was taken Thanksgiving morning after he raised the flag for me and before he went to church with his grandparents.