I wanna play! I wanna play!

Hey friends! I found these fun games on Georgiana's blogsite, and thought I'd tag along! =)

THE RULES:

1. Each player starts with 5 gifts that they would want for Christmas. (I know Christmas is over, but for those who didn't get what they wanted...) =P

2. People who are "CARDED" need to write their own Blog about their 5 things & post these rules.

3. At the end of your Blog, you need to choose 5 people to get "CARDED" and list their names.

4. Don't forget to leave them a COMMENT telling them they're "CARDED", and to read your Blog.

My Materialistic Gift/Wish List:

1. A book contract from a mainstream publisher!

2. My house to sell! I'm ready to move to our land!

3. More space to house my books and a kitchen big enough for two people to stand in! (which really goes back to my #2 wish!)

4. More shoes.

5. To REALLY believe right now that I'm not fat, I'm pregnant! I'm in that end-of-the-first-trimester-stage of clothes being tight and stomach being pudgy but not really feeling all that pregnant! It'll change, I'm quite sure. But right now....waaahhhh!!!!

My Spiritual Gift/Wish List:

1. The discipline to have more regular, in-depth quiet times and not be afraid to sacrifice sleep!

2. To be a better wife, especially right now while I'm super-moody. =)

3. To have a healthy pregnancy for my sake and the baby's.

4. To be less selfish.

5. To be a good mom when the time comes in July!

NEXT!!

If your life was a book, what Genre would it be and why?

Romantic comedy! I'm such a sucker for romance and my hubby does pretty well there =) The comedy because, well - my life is just flat out funny sometimes.

Would it be a stand alone or a series?

Series, for sure! The really lovable kind of series everyone couldn't wait to read next =P

Would the title of your life’s book be?

Irony at its Finest

What’s the spiritual theme of your book?

Letting go and Letting God!

What would your goal be?

To finish the race well, both spiritually and in regards to my husband and soon-to-be-mom status.

Who’s your hero?

Snoopy! Just kidding. My hubby would be my romantic comedy's hero. Funny, spontaneous, rugged, and with just enough face stubble to qualify for YUMMY =)

What’s your conflict?

Mainly my own internal doubts and lack of trust, and desire for control.

Who’s your antagonist?

Me!

Where are you in your life’s book? (The beginning, middle, end, have you reached your black moment, are you into your resolution?)

Book #2! The falling in love and marriage part is complete, now its on to the growing family!

Is there a happy ending?

Of course!!!

I'm not tagging anyone, like Georgiana, I just want everyone who wants to play, to play along! Join us, won't you? Leave a comment with your link so everyone can see your answers! =)

Christmas Recap

MERRY POST CHRISTMAS! I hope everyone had a blessed holiday season. I can't believe how fast it all sped by. It'll be New Years before I know it!

I've posted a few pics to share our Christmas with everyone...they're worth a thousand words, afterall - right? =)

Me and the grandparents, Christmas Eve, at our annual party at their house. Fun times!



Me & Hubby!



Lenora Worth's new book - not released until January. It's good to have connections =P Mammaw was thrilled, especially after seeing it was signed to her with a personal congrats on becoming a soon-to-be great grandma!!

Me & Daddy!!

Mommy and her cute new hoodie!

Sissies at Christmas!

YAY! Barnes & Noble, Starbucks, here I come!!! A laptop at last!

Hubby in his new LSU beenie

Samson getting his Christmas bone and Christmas cookies! =)

This was taken a few weeks ago but was too cute - had to share. He's in his hunting vest!

Mom and Sissy Christmas morning at the parents house!

Christmas couple!

More LSU stuff for Hubby!

Guess who is going to see REBA in concert in February???

Mom was a LITTLE surprised - I got her the complete Girlmore Girls DVD set! The whole series!! Woohoo!! (that's "our" show!)

Dad's new guitar - we all went in together to surprise his socks off! He hugged it without even unzipping the case - knew exactly what it was and was shocked!!! hehe Christmas surprises are the best =)

The time has come!

It's almost that time! Christmas is a mere 4 days away! That means starting this evening, the calendar is full! We'll be spending time with my family, watching movies (can't wait to see National Treasure 2 - Book of Secrets!) looking at Christmas lights around town, drinking hot chocolate, and eating way too much. But hey, I'm pregnant - bring it on! =)

Monday and Tuesday will be busy for me and hubby - rotating between grandparents and in-laws and parents houses. I can't wait for the chaos! But in the middle of it all, I'm determined to seek out a few quiet moments to spend reflecting on my Savior - the real reason behind the season.

Here are a few things I'm looking forward to over the next few days!

FOOD! Every Christmas morning for as long as I can remember, my mother has always made sausage balls and cheese biscuits. Even after my sister and I moved out of the house and started our own homes and families, every Christmas morning, we still join at my parent's for sausage balls and cheese biscuits before opening presents. This year, since I can't seem to stop craving meat, (maybe that's a sign I'm having a boy? lol) I'm even more excited!! hehe. She better make a double batch! =)


PRESENTS! I know, Christmas is not only about gifts, but come on, who doesn't love tearing cute wrapping paper off a box and ripping in to find what's inside? This year, I'm very excited about some gifts I got for others. I love surprises, and I can't wait for the secrets to be over so I can squeal along with my loved ones!


TRADITION! This year, I'm starting a new tradition. I'm going to watch "The Nativity Story" on DVD Christmas Eve day. Its a startling, inspiring, emotionally stirring movie that I saw in theaters last year, bought at Easter, and can't wait to watch again. Being pregnant this season, I know it will mean even more to me than before. I can't wait to sob into my hot chocolate and feel the spirit of Jesus in my heart deeper than ever before.


Next Christmas, having a baby around for the first time, will definitely change things. It'll be time to hang the breakable ornaments higher on the tree. Time to baby-proof the house and hide the gifts from grubby little hands. =) But I so excited about starting our own traditions with our new family, and incorporating a few of the ones I've enjoyed so much over the years.


CHURCH! This year, my church is having a special Christmas service Sunday night, including the Lord's Supper. It will be so wonderful and I can't wait. We only do the Lord's Supper in our church periodically, so its always a neat time and one of my favorite experiences.

What are the things you're looking forward to this Christmas? Any traditions you'd like to share? Any recipes? (hehe!) Leave your comments and maybe someone else will get a neat idea for a new Christmas treat or tradition.


I'll be back after the holidays are over and I've thoroughly digested all the sausage balls I ate! =)

Distant Heart - Tracey Bateman

In the second book in the Westward Hearts trilogy, will the promise of a new life out west heal the scars of Toni's past?

This series tells the stories of three strong women as they struggle to survive on the rough wagon train and lose their hearts to unlikely heroes along the way!

Thin Little House on the Prairie meets Francine river's Redeeming Love and you begin to get a sense of the riveting historical series that Tracey Bateman has created.

In this second installment, we follow Toni Rodden, a former prostitute who sought to escape her past and build a new life, and a new reputation, when she joined the wagon train. Despite much resentment and distrust from the other women, Toni has finally earned a place on the wagon train and found a surrogate family in Fannie Caldwell and her two siblings.

For the first time in her life, Toni actually feels free. But while Toni once harbored dreams that her new life might include a husband and family, she soon realizes the stigma that comes with her past is difficult to see beyond and that she'll never be truly loved or seen as worthy. As the trip out west begins to teach her to survive on her own, she resolves to make her own living as a seamstress when the train finally reaches Oregon.

But despite Toni's conviction that no man will be able to see beyond her marred past, Sam Two-feathers, the wagon scout and acting preacher for the train seems to know of a love that forgives sins and values much more than outward appearances.

Will Sam have the confidence to declare his love? Will Toni be able to trust in a God that can forgive even the darkest past? Faith, love, and courage will be put to the test in Distant Heart.

Tracey Bateman is the award-winning author of more than twenty-five books, including Defiant Heart, the First in the Westeard Hearts series. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and recently served on the board as President. She loves in Lebanon, Missouri, with her husband and their four children.

Buy your copy here!

Seeing Christmas through Mary's Eyes

Seeing Christmas through Mary's Eyes

Betsy St. Amant

(article first appeared on Crosswalk.com)

This Christmas, everything is exactly like it’s always been. Icicle lights drape off my roof. My artificial, pre-lit tree, adorned with a wide variety of beloved Hallmark ornaments, stands in its usual place of honor in front of the red living room drapes. My nativity scene sits on the entertainment center, and my vast penguin collection decorates every unoccupied corner of the house.

Yes, everything is exactly the same—but at the same time, everything is completely different. This Christmas offers a greater impact than usual, and it has nothing to do with the warm glow of holiday cheer or the toasty feeling I get when drinking hot chocolate and melted marshmallows. Instead, it has everything to do with the fact that I’m two months pregnant.

It is very strange to think that next Christmas, Lord willing, I’ll have a five-month old in my lap while opening gifts with the family. There will be a car seat in the back of my Sebring, next to the pile of presents on the way to my grandmother’s house. There will be toys and tiny clothes and pacifiers everywhere—oh, I can’t wait! Yet even though I realize that next Christmas will be radically different, I can’t help but feel that this Christmas is the most unique of them all.
And it’s all because of Mary.

I can’t stop thinking about how she must have felt. The Christmas story in the Bible has become real to me in a sense that is hard to explain. My pregnancy differs from Mary’s in oh, maybe a thousand ways, yet I feel that I can now understand her a little bit better. Growing up, hearing the nativity story in church, Mary always seemed somewhat distant. She was a nice girl, chosen by God, to bring Jesus into this world. She was young, yes, and a virgin, which is mind-blowing the miracle of God’s ways, but I never really got her.

Until this year. Now, I think of her situation and tears fill my eyes as if on cue. Mary was a teenager, alone, scared, and with a huge mission. Overwhelmed doesn’t even begin to describe what lay before her! When I found out I was pregnant, it was from a home test. Mary didn’t have one line or two pop up in a little circular window—she had an angel of the Lord break the news! My husband and I were planning a pregnancy—Mary hadn’t ever known a man. Our family and friends were ecstatic with our news—Mary’s family and friends scorned her and doubted her integrity and purity. My husband and I have drawn closer together through the discovery of this new adventure—Mary almost lost the man who loved her because of disbelief and shame.

The differences continue to amaze me. Just because Mary was pregnant through a miracle doesn’t mean she didn’t experience the regular symptoms every pregnant woman experiences. Every ache, every hunger pain or craving, every cramp or sore muscle or mood swing must have reminded her of the incredible task to which she’d been assigned. I feel a random twinge of pain and immediately wonder if something might be wrong. How much more would Mary worry, knowing the importance of the child in her womb? Then again, Mary realized her son was blessed by God, and would be protected. Still, as a woman, I don’t know if that would have kept me completely anxiety-free!

In the midst of my sympathy for Mary’s situation, for the emotional roller coaster she surely rode, for the unknown stretched before her like a giant canyon, lies a sense of deep respect. I don’t know about you, but if I had been in Mary’s sandals, I might not have responded to the angel so politely. Luke 1:38 - "I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said.”

I have to admit, my response would have probably been something more like “Are you kidding me? That’s impossible. I haven’t even had my first kiss! I’m too young. Don’t you know what everyone will think of me? What this will mean to my future? No one will want to marry me if I’m pregnant. I’ll have no security, no husband, no means of taking care of myself…” And probably would have gone on and on until the angel hushed me up like the Lord did to Zechariah!

But one thing I’m certain of is that my God is bigger than my mood swings. Despite any doubts Mary had, any fear or anxiety, I know God gave her peace and strength to get through it all. She carried a miracle in her womb, and would go down in history as a chosen woman of God. To be such an essential part to a life altering, world-changing event such as Christ’s birth was surely worth the midnight food cravings and the swollen ankles. Something tells me that Joseph, good man that he was to stick with her throughout those scandalous nine months, probably rubbed Mary’s feet for her!

I’m only getting started in my pregnancy. Still in the first trimester, with lots to look forward to and also worry about it, if I let it consume me. I’ll possibly worry a little anyway, but just like Mary, I know God is in charge of things here! He’s got it all under control. Just like Mary probably sobbed with relief when she heard those piercing first cries in the stable that star-studded night, I’ll cry for joy when I receive the first glimpse of my own little miracle.

This year, my nativity scene is right where it belongs on my entertainment center. But I can’t quite look at the figurines the same. I can’t see Mary and baby Jesus the way I did last year. My heart has been opened, and I think that’s the best Christmas present I could have ever unwrapped.