Praise His Name [song]

Praise His Name 

by Jeff and Sherri Easter

When you're up against a wall 

And your mountain seems so tall 

And you realize that life's not always fair 

You can run away and hide 

Let the old man decide 

Or you can change your circumstances with a prayer 

When everything falls apart 

Praise his name 

When you have a broken heart 

Raise your hands and say 

Lord, you're all I need 

You're everything to me 

And he'll take the pain away 

When it seem your all alone 

Praise his name 

When you feel you can't go on 

Just Raise your hands and say 

Greater is he that is within me 

And you can praise the hurt away 

If you'll just praise his name 

Ohhh, 

You can overcome 

By the blood of the lamb 

And by the word of your testimony 

You'll see the darkness go 

As your faith begins to grow 

You're not alone, so how can you be lonely

I couldn't find a link to the actual song, but this song is on my mind this morning.  Our choir at church sings it and I love it! I have some friends and family who are going through some hard times now, and I know what that's like because I've been through my own share of hard times {and I know there will be more}. The words to this song are exactly true though! Praise Him and He WILL take the hurt away! You're not alone, so how can you be lonely?!?! 

I love all of my friends and family. Sometimes it seems like no one cares about you or your circumstance, but most times that's just in your head and not true at all. If you want to feel God's love, just ask Him to show it to you. He can carry the hurt/pain for you and give you relief, but you have to give it to him! 

Thankful

I have been reading my friends' thankful posts on Facebook for a couple weeks now. I started to join the fun, but I know myself and my current circumstances would simply not allow me to be successful... I am extremely thankful this year though! I'm a list person so here goes:

This year I am thankful for:

1. God - continuous mercy, healing, grace, and salvation! Provider of all of my needs (see list below). AMAZING to know Him and to know His true Hebrew name, YHWH YHWSH. 

2. Josh - I will be thankful for Josh and the time we had together for all of my life. Great husband, great example, great father. 

3. Jon - my sweet husband. I'm so thankful that God allowed me to find a second wonderful husband! He's a great dad too! 

4. Gracie - daughter 1. She's an "old soul" - easy to talk to, fun to be around, entering the teenage years OH MY! Loves basketball. Smart and Silly. 

5. Caroline - daughter 2. I think she may always be a kid at heart. Loves art and crafty things. Great babysitter to Anna Kate. Funny and Kind. 

6. Anna Kate - daughter 3. Whew! Sweet baby girl. Loves animals, movies, and food. Wears shoes ALL the time (possibly changing them 3-4 times per day). Makes me smile and laugh daily. Sassy and Sweet. 

7. Family - lots of you fit here! I'm thankful for each one and the ties that bind us together.

8. Home - Not necessarily the actual 4 walls that surround me (although that's important), but the happiness and peace that is found within.  

9. My job - "stay at home mom"- so much falls in this category - time to focus on being a wife and mom, opportunity to cook and clean for my family, a chance to help others by volunteering to work, etc.  

10. Health - This has been a big part of my prayer list this year. I'm so thankful to be healthy and have a healthy husband and kids.  

11. Dayspring Academy - an above average safe learning environment for my children. Teachers who care about them and their well-being. A parent group who cares as well. 

12. Friends - people I can enjoy being with, count on in my time of need, help in their time of need, have honest relationships with.

I'm sure as soon as I click "publish" there will be so many more things that pop in my mind to add to this list - maybe I'll start another one...

I want to be clear about something though - I have not earned all the wonderful blessings I have been given.  YHWH has blessed me beyond measure with these things. I don't want to ever take them for granted. I am thankful to HIM for these wonderful blessings in my life. I'm so humbled when I think of how good God has been to me.

The many Faces of Anna Kate

Anna Kate has been attending Mother's Day Out for a few weeks now. She seems to like it pretty well. Of course she doesn't like when I leave her, but she ends up having a good day and even taking a nap while she's there. I had no idea how much I needed a break every once in a while - The 5 hours when she is away have been put to good use though! 

They took class pictures a couple weeks ago, and even though I don't love school pics as a general rule, these stole my heart:

Look at that sweet dimple!

This is her mischievous face

What a cutie pie!!! 

I don't know what they did to make her smile and laugh so much, but it worked! I could just squeeze her! 

She is getting so big! Walking Running, talking, counting to 3, playing with her toys. I just don't know where the time goes! Right now, her favorite thing to do is play with her baby doll. She wraps it up [or has one of us do it], and then sways back and forth like she's rocking it. She has been making us laugh so much when she throws the baby down in the floor, picks the blanket up, and brings it back to wrap the baby up again. The next cutest thing is when she steps up on the stool in her room to turn the lights on and off. Playing peek-a-boo has become a fun time too. When we tell her to cover her eyes, she covers her nose and mouth with her hands and then pulls the away quickly and says "Doo" - the "b's" sound like "d's" right now. 

I am enjoying spending my days with "Punkin" so much right now. :)

I made this!

I have been reading a few blogs that have some tutorial crafts on them. Today I decided to try some of them out. The first one was turning a Large T-shirt into a tunic. I am so excited to have tried this! It turned out great an I plan to wear it tomorrow night :) I didn't snap a pic of this one but its really simple. I basically trimmed the edges down using a tunic I wear often as a guide. Then I sewed up the sides. The arms are long since the shirt was so big to begin with so I just trimmed them down to size and voila! New shirt!

The next one which I am super proud of is a scarf! There's a pic of it somewhere in this post but I can't tell where because I'm posting from my phone... Anyway, don't be surprised if you are a member of my family and you receive one of these as a gift sometime :) I love the way it turned out! Since I like to give credit where credit is due - Here's a link to the tutorial I used.

I'm enjoying my new sewing machine so much!

Gracie liked my new shirt so much she had me "fix" one of hers too! She told me she's glad I can sew but she's glad I don't sew too many things and make her wear them ;)