My current reading selection is a book called The Prayer of Jabez. It is a 31 day devotional by Bruce Wilkinson.
In the bible, in 1 Chronicles is all the begets. A bunch of
lineage stuff. REALLY boring. In the middle of all that it stops for 2 verses and there is a man named Jabez, who by all accounts wasn't so important in the grand scheme of things. His name actually means pain. He should have been overlooked and carried on with the begetting. It was what he asked God for and how he asked him that got him recognition in the Bible. Here is a quote from the book.
The story of a man who started out with almost nothing but gloomy prospects, cried out a simple prayer, and ended up a man of honor in the eyes of God.
Now Jabez was more honorable then his brothers and his mother called his name Jabez saying, "because I bore him in pain." And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying "Oh, that You would bless me indeed and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!" So God granted him what he requested.The devotional is about opening yourself up to ask and receive all of Gods blessings. When you become a Christian, a Child of God, you
automatically receive blessings. Almost like you have rights as an
American, you have rights as a Christian. You know that you have the blessing (right) of forgiveness from the Father. You have the blessing (right) to ask God to provide all of your needs.
This book is about understanding that God wants to shower you with blessings that you WANT, not just need. Like a child having everything he needs food, shelter, clothes, a bed but will still come to you and tell you he wants a toy or a treat. God wants to give us our toys and treats as well. If you want a new car, lower house payment, a new computer. ASK! All he can do is say no, like any parent.
So I wake up every morning and I pray and ask God to shower me with blessing throughout the day. I tell him that I am open to
receive them.
Tuesday, I went to pay a bill. I wasn't past due but somehow the guy had did something in the computer wrong and it was saying I was. So I went in to straighten it out and go ahead and pay it. My next payment of $99 wasn't due until December 1st. I was standing there with my money $52.47 and I told him I had it and that I was paying it and that I would pay the other $99 on the 1st. So he is pulling everything up on the computer and getting ready to take my money when the lady next to me hands me a $100 bill. I just kind of looked at her funny. I didn't know what to think. She told me to take it and pay it so I would be payed up until January 1st. I told her no, I couldn't take her money. I told her that I could pay it, it wasn't a problem. She said no, I want you to take the money, God has blessed me and I want to bless you. I have never had anything like this happen to me. I took the money and I gave her a big hug and a big God bless you and a big Thank You. I left all misty eyed.
That same day my boss was having a Gold Party. It is where you take in your junk gold. Broken bracelets and stuff like that. I had a little, a very little. Most of my stuff is sentimental, stuff Luci has given me. But I had a few things that was broken or I had bought and didn't want anymore. So I took it to her and she told me that she would give it to the lady and would have a check for me the next day. So I talked to her on Wednesday morning and she said that the lady had dropped off my check and it was $40. I said alright, that is about what I expected. I really hadn't given her very much. So I went into work later and she said she has a surprise for me and then she told me that she had lied and she handed me my check. It was for $175. I almost fell over.
I want to get the kids a
Wii for Christmas and I didn't know where I was going to get the money and right there in 2 days I had all I needed. God is so good. So he is blessing me or my kids have been praying for a
Wii and he answered their prayers.
LOLIf you haven't read this book give it a try, it will
truly bless you.
Click the photo to see the papers up close.
This is a photo of Luci on Christmas day, I just loved this photo because it captures his true spirit. He is always a happy person and can always lift me out of a bad mood. I sure do love this guy.
Click on the image to see it larger.
On this page I created a distressed tree using 2 patterned papers and sewing around each piece. This is Lucas on Christmas of 2007 as well.
I have always wanted to make an advent calender and I finally got my chance. Everything I used was in the kit except the sled, paint, ink and nail.
At SSS they are starting a new card kit. I created these 4 cards using 1/2 of the kit. I had such fun making them.
I followed a Japanese book binding tutorial to create this fun book. Everything was in the kit except for the chipboard that I covered to make the front and back covers of the book.
This is my happy page about Lucas. I used Bo Bunny paper on this one.
This is a page I did for Nicholas. I used a hambly transparency as my base page, it is hard to tell in this photo that it is a grid pattern on a clear transparency. I will try to get a better photo of this .
I took some of the photos from our wedding and had them printed in a sepia tone and placed them on the table, we had our original cake topper and knife set.
A close up of the cake. It didn't turn out the way it was supposed to, but what can you do? 
Here is a close up of the table arrangements that my mom made for me. She had such a great talent for these kinds of things.
Here are all the boys, what a big difference from 10 years ago. LOL
