SOO BLESSED

Tomorrow is Thankful Thursday and my thoughts for the last couple of hours or so have been sifting through this last week and what the Lord has blessed me with, and what I feel like He has been doing in my heart.  The time whips by soo fast I can hardly get my head around the fact that already April is nearly gone.  The pages of my life recently have been turning soo quickly it is hard to even keep up.  There are some major changes coming up and I am not certain just what the Lord has in mind yet.  But I do take comfort in the fact that He is still on His throne and totally in charge.  Part of me (more than I thought it would be for sure) is actually somewhat excited over things.  I have NEVER been one who does change well, so just this is a blessing directly from Him no doubt.  As things unfold I will be sharing some of these changes with you, but in the meantime I would so appreciate your prayers for my peace of mind over all the coming changes, and for the Lord's will for us to be clearly revealed.  I will say that I have ABSOLUTELY no doubt that the Lord will not only met our every need, but far exceed what we could ever hope for.

Eph 3:20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us..

I am also grateful that my youngest son James and his 3 precious kids came and hung out here last Friday and spent the night as well, as Jimmy's wife Larissa was on a retreat.   We had such a good visit and had a really good time.  I enjoyed watching my son "work" all of his kids.  Changing diapers, giving baths, brushing teeth, cooking dinner, and then cleaning it all up....not to mention of course refereeing squabbles, and keeping them all entertained.  And when it was time for bed?  They went in and layed down and went immediately to sleep without a single tear or problem.   I LOVED it!   I am soo grateful that they both do such a good job with their children.  How blessed these grandkids are to have the parents they do, and I thank God for it every day.  On Sat. I took Capri (5) and JD (3) to the movies to see Oceans while Tella (1) napped and the guys watched some basketball playoffs.  This was the first time I have taken the 2 of them anywhere by myself and we had such a good time.  They were soo good.  They were totally entertained with the movie too, though they both are REALLY into ocean animals which helped.  I think they the fact that they both had their own icees (a first I guess) and popcorn helped things along a little bit too, haha..And then on Sunday after church, I headed over to my other son's house and picked up Lindsey (9) and Jeffie (6) and traveled down to Orange County to my sister Donna's house for her son Blake's 7th birthday party.  Grandpa had some things to do at home, so we were on our own.  Everyone enjoyed themselves for sure.  I didn't take any pictures as my sister Diane @ Mountain Moments was there as well and she has SUCH a good camera and takes such GOOD pictures (check our her blog ~ these next two pics are just a sample of her work) that there didn't seem to be much reason for me to snap them too.  I am grateful that there is so many opportunities for all the cousins to get together and enjoy each other.

The birthday boy, Blake...

(stole this GREAT pic from Diane)

Here is where Jeffie accidently (?) pinned the tail on "his donkey"...Grandma...haha...the kids loved it.

His face says it all....such good times.

Then, yesterday I traveled down to San Diego to spend the day with Jim and Larissa's kids again (and Larissa too for most of the day) while they attended a meeting at the school where Capri will attend next year.  I soo enjoyed myself.  The drive was beautiful and I thought to myself more than once how blessed I am to be in a position to do such a thing.  It is only about an hour and a half from door to door.  Larissa took Capri for a haircut and we snapped a few pictures of this darling little place she takes her for haircuts.  They devote an entire side of the place to a play area for the kids complete with a castle, slide, dress up clothes and lots of toys.  The kids had a ball.   Capri's hair was soo adorable too.  They washed it and cut it and then styled it in french braids, sprinkled on glitter and put little roses in it as well.  I did get (well actually Larissa took them for me) a few pics of this....

This was only a portion of the area..

See the roses and glitter in her hair?

Power Ranger JD rescues the princess Capri...

Little Tella peering out of the castle..

Well, guess that about sums up this week so far.  As usual soo many blessings, soo much to be thankful for.  And while I can always look to my circumstances and life and find things that I am grateful for etc., as always right at the top of my list is the Lord.  He has been filling me with His peace recently and yet I long for more.  It seems to the older I get the more I want to know Him and please Him.  I have also found that I realize so much more now just how much the Lord has truly blessed me over the course of my life.  I have been thinking for a couple of days of who I might chose this week to mention from the blog world that soo blesses me.  And there are just soo many.  Some of these blogs I read on a daily basis (or close to it anyway) and comment on and I rarely if ever even hear from them.  I am not sure if they even read mine.  But I have found that it doesn't really matter.  My blog getting read (or not read as the case may be) is not what really blesses me sometimes, though I DO love hearing from everyone.  I have just come across soo many women who are soo interesting.  Some just like me in many ways (kindred spirits) and others who are as different from me as they could be.  From every season in life you can find.  So this week I chose....It feels like Choas.  I just can't explain enough how much I enjoy this blog.  First of all she is a strong Christian woman who obviously loves the Lord and her little family.  She is funny, real and totally entertaining as well.  But I think one of the main reasons I so enjoy her is because I see so much of myself from years gone by.  It brings me down memory lane (a lane I enjoy well) as she tells the tales of life with kids.  There are a few blogs that do this for me.  But if you get the chance, check out this wonderful little blog and I know you will be blessed. 

Hope you all have a wonderful week, and to join the other Thankful Thursday posts click HERE....But better yet, write your own list of blessings and link up.  Can't tell you how much I enjoy this.  = )