Have you ever met or know of someone who just has a joy about them?   They enjoy life, enjoy others,  making  you want to be around them hoping that some of whatever they have rubs off on ya.  I have a few people I could name, how about you?

I have found that in my crazy life, I don’t do much celebrating.  I just make sure the lists are done and checked off.  Then I collapse into bed exhausted.  I get up the next day and do the “lists” all over again.  Not fun and no way to live.  That is what life and it’s curve balls has done to me.  I am not complaining or looking for empathy, just being honest.  Life is tough and sometimes how we thought things were going to go..well they don’t.    So I have decided that while I am pursuing simplicity, I want to celebrate life.  I want to celebrate those I love, celebrate who I am in Jesus and just have some simple fun.  Life is too short and too stinking busy.  So let’s share what we can celebrate and how.  Who do you want to celebrate?  What do you want to celebrate?  Who would you like to celebrate and how are you going to celebrate?  Let’s be fun, simple and enjoy life.  Let’s catch us some joy and laughter!  Here are some ideas I have come up with.  Now we  know we celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, births of babies, graduations, weddings and baptisms so let’s think outside of the box! 

**when our kids figure out potty training…hallelujah!

** the graduation from kindergarten to first grade..that is a big one..all day school. 

** the first day of school and the last day of school.  (fix a special breakfast or dinner)

** promotions at work

** driver’s license

** passing quizzes and tests

** teachers/mentors

** neighbors

** our first date anniversary with our spouse..(hopefully you can remember)

** weight loss

** achieving a goal

** reunions

** memorizing scriptures

** your child learning to ride a two wheeler

** your child learning how to swing themselves

Okay so share some you have thought of.  What do you do to celebrate?  We can make a cake, go for ice cream, make a celebration banner,go to a  favorite restaurant, have a picnic, go to a specialty cupcake store, have a special plate that is used that night for dinner or dessert, make a homemade card, take a picture, start a celebration journal that you leave sitting out so others can see what your family celebrates.  

It will be fun learning how we all celebrate life and our families/friends.  I know that I need to have my memory jolted and I am sure we will come away with tons of  ideas and ways to not just do our “lists” but to live and do it with a burst of pizazz!

track and field day

Phoebe was the first base gal..

 My dad was in town for a visit and it poured rain on Saturday so we had Mario Kart Wii battles.   It was hysterical watching my dad trying to get the hang of the control. 

He finally figured it out and the battle was on!  They had a blast and it was a good way to spend a rainy day.  The visit was terrific…great food, great conversation and the girls getting to spend time with Papaw W. and Gramma W.  They headed out on Sunday to go back to Georgia and we headed to Louisville.  My mother in law turned “65″ this weekend and she had a birthday party.  We had beautiful weather and tons of food.  What’s a party with no food??  We had BBQ, buffalo chicken dip, salad, deviled eggs, potato salad, fruit, slaw and to finish it off…CAKE.  Now this was not just a cake, it was carrot cake and I mean it was good!  Rich, creamy, and the edges were dredged in toasted almonds.  Check it out..

 Do you see where Phoebe is sitting..yep that’s my girl.  She doesn’t miss a thing.  Nana cut her that huge yellow balloon for her piece! 

 The kids played in the sprinkler and we sat under the shade tree.

Natalie enjoyed being outside.  The warm weather is so good for her.  I just wish we could get rid of these dang ear infections.  It seems like we get rid of one and within weeks she gets another.  UGH!

So we are in the midst of summer.  I love it.  No schedules, relaxing, eating dinner late, sitting outside, visiting with family and friends, summer fare food, flip flops, pools, sunscreen, tank tops, fresh fruit…the list goes on and on.  What have you been up to or what do you have planned?  Do you have any goals that you are working on this summer or do things get placed on the back burner for these 3 months? 

Have a blessed week!

Tricia with Abby Rike

This morning I was surprised with breakfast in bed!  Yum, it was delicious and so very nice.  We attended church and heard a great sermon on beauty.   Gals, it is all about the beauty on the inside!  The most beautiful thing to God is Jesus.  God is more concerned about the condition of our heart, not what we are wearing or our hair style.  We have let society dictate what is beautiful and majority of the time their beautiful is photoshopped and touched up!  Let’s stand up and stand firm on God’s truth regarding beauty.  We are gorgeous to Christ!  He delights in us just as we are.  Now, I do believe we should treat our bodies as the temple they are, taking care of them but let’s claim our beauty in Christ!  

 We came home from church and dug in the dirt planting flowers and plants.  I think alot of families around here do this on Mother’s Day weekend.  It is the official, it’s okay to plant flowers, the weather is good now in KY. 

I pray that you have a wonderful mothers day!  I pray that you claim your beauty in Christ and pass this truth onto the girls in your circle! 

Here are my delights and my beauties!  I love them with my entire being. 

 HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!  GOD BLESS

Hi friends,  isn’t God’s creation beautiful.  This time of year amazes me.  All the color and growth.  I hope wherever you live you are enjoying spring. 

Well, babies are coming to our home.  It is so exciting!  Oh, what to do to prepare.  Cleaning and nesting.  Anticipating the arrival.  What will they look like, what will we name them?  Will they be up all night or will they get on a good routine?  Will one be a early riser, will one be the babbler, will one…oh, you probably are thinking I am having babies, oh no not me, this one is having the babies,

Mama bird

She built her nest outside our bonus room.  It is so cool how it is a perfect circle.  She must have worked so hard.  We can pull the curtains back and be nose to beak with her.  She usually flies away quickly but doesn’t go far, keeping an eye on her babies.  Here are her babies first photo’s.

This was yesterday

This was today..four eggs!

Someone told us that she would lay four eggs and then she would tend to sit on them  most of the time, not leaving the nest.  Well, we now have four.  So I guess we will see more of Mama.  It will be fun seeing the little birds hatch and teaching  the girls about God’s wonderful creation and the amazing miracles of birth!   So now the big question is what to name them?  I am sure we will come up with something fun! 

We will keep you posted on the “hatching.”  I just can’t wait to see them, no feathers and all.  I have never seen baby birds.  It’s kinda ironic…new home, new dreams, new birth happening literally right outside our window.  I like to believe it is God smiling down on us, saying that things are joyful, things are delightful, things are fresh and we are going to have many new dreams and memories “birthed” out of our new home.  Yep, that’s God!!   He is a blast, I adore and praise HIM!!

Bet you are confused?  Growing what with soap?  Ourselves in God’s word!!    This is such a great idea!  With summer right around the corner, I know many of us are trying to decide what bible study to do, and how we’re going to get our quiet time in with kids home and very open schedules.  This idea is gonna help you. 

I like to start my day by getting cleaned up and closer to God with a little SOAP.  The SOAP I’m talking about is more than just a surface clean, though…  it is a way to get into God’s word and grab my nugget every single time I read.

So, what is this SOAP?  Well, I’m glad you asked…

It is a simple way to read through the Lord’s word, pray and reflect on just what He might be telling you in that passage.

All you need for your study/ journaling time is a Bible, notebook, pen and about 20 minutes, depending on the length of your passage.

Here’s what I do:

Pray, asking God to guide me through His Word and clear my mind of distractions.

Read the passage and find the one thing I believe God is telling me that morning. Then I journal about it using the acrostic SOAP as a guide.

S: Scripture-Write the ONE scripture that I feel God is using to speak to me in today’s reading

O: Observation-What might He be telling me with that scripture?

A: Application-How can I apply it to my life?

P: Prayer-What is my prayer to ask God in helping me to make that application?

Isn’t that a terrific idea.  Give it a try and let me know how it goes.   This was not my idea.  I got it from this blog, check it out!   The gal was thrilled that I wanted to share it with you.

The great thing is that now we can focus on our family.  Things are in the past, we are in our new accessible home and we can begin a whole new book.  The old book is finished, complete.  I love that feeling!  We can set new goals and dreams moving  forward!   It has been quite a journey with many mistakes and many, many blessings!  God has been faithful and mighty!  We have fond memories but there is just something about moving on. 

Speaking of being finished, the morning bible study that I go to is finishing up our study this week.  We have been on an incredible journey through “Experiencing God.”  If you have never done this study I would strongly encourage you to.  It is life changing.  You will learn how much God loves you and desires a relationship with you.  You will learn how to know when God is speaking to you, how to believe HIM and adjust your life to him so that you will experience all he has for you.  It’s all about not having a religion but a relationship!!  

I have to say that I am really sad.  I will miss my small group gals.  We  had some wonderful, deep conversations and have had tremendous growth in our group.  We have witnessed answered prayer and have seen the hands of God at work within us.  I will be eagerly be anticipating our reuniting in the fall!  This brings me to another topic.  What to study over the summer?  Summertime is always hard.  The kids are home, time is scarce and the days begin to run together.  All the activities keep you hopping.  But, that is one thing that I learned through Experiencing God, you have to stay in God’s word, staying connected and growing.  Just because it is summer doesn’t mean that we place God on the back burner.  We don’t put our time with Jesus on hold.  What if he did that to us?  What if he sent us an email telling us that he had some bigger fish to fry and he would be back with us in a month or so???  WHOA..that makes me think about how I treat my relationship with Christ.  What do I allow to become more important than HIM?  Sleep, t.v. shows, phone calls, housework, friends, kids activities, emails, facebook, twitter or searching the web.  This summer I want to make sure I am in the word, studying and growing.  So, if you have participated in a great summertime bible study, please share.  I would love some suggestions.  If you did, was it by yourself or did you do it as a group?  If it was with a group, how did you handle the kids?  Did you meet in the morning, afternoon, or the evening when dads are available?   Thanks in advance and I look forward to seeing what you all have done to stay connected to God!  Praying we all experience Jesus daily! 

P.S.  I hope to post some photo’s this week  from Easter and the new home!

I wanted to share with you a wonderful learning opportunity.  Proverbs 31 Ministries offers “She Speaks.”  This is a writers, speakers, and women’s ministry conference.  I read about it last year and began praying about going.  Well, now I really desire to go.  Let me explain why. 

Ever since Natalie’s injury I have had a few consistent people tell me that I need to speak.  Not because I am eloquent with words or have amazing bible knowledge but because they see something in me.  Well, I wasn’t sure what they saw  until recently.  They saw a hope in Jesus even when life handed me devastation and terrible heartache.  When my daughter suffered and life as my family knew it radically changed,  I  praised Jesus!!  I turned to Christ and his word to lead and guide me.  Choices…we all have them, it is what we do with them that matters.  I choose to praise God! 

God has done incredible things in my life the past 3-4 months.  He is so faithful and I adore HIM.  I have come to know truths that are so incredible I am still in awe over it.  I am learning to be BOLD IN Christ a whole new way.  I am learning to realize who I am IN Christ. 

I recently spoke at our morning bible study.  The topic was “adjusting your life to God.”  When I accepted, within days, I decided that I was going to back out. I am not equipped to prepare a lesson.   I prayed and talked with friends about it.  I spoke to our women’s ministry leader and she said that she was glad to hear that I was so nervous and felt ill-equipped.  That means that it will all be Christ!  That spoke volumes to me…I was going about this the wrong way, my way.  So I set out on my journey.  I came up with one outline after another.  I felt God telling my soul that they were good, but not the one.  Until…I had a huge personal breakthrough.  One that is too deep to go into here on the blog but can I just say that it was BIG, HUGE and provided tons of growth in the Lord.  So God gave me the words for the lesson, I walked up on that platform, and spoke truth and hopefully shined for Jesus.  I made it through with minimal tears, which was a God thing because our families story was woven throughout the entire lesson.  

So now this conference has been placed before me again.  I want to go to learn how to be prepared, how to form outlines for speaking,  how to come up with topics that move individuals into a deeper relationship with Jesus and the do’s and don’ts.   Lysa Terkeurst is giving away a scholarship for the conference.  If you don’t follow her blog, link up to it.  She is fun, witty and loves Jesus.  Her newest book was such a  fun read and very real.

Here is a link to the She Speaks Conference.  It is July 31-Aug. 1 2010.   Check it out, maybe you will want to go.  I am praying that if I am meant to go, God will make a way.   He is faithful!! 

Have a great weekend and many spring blessings!!

This year’s theme was “MOMS THE WORD”   It was about the words we say to our children and how they impact them.  Very deep, very real, spoke truth.  The worship was awesome this year.  Christy Nockels was the worship leader.  First, she is adorable, second, when you watch her worship you can tell that it is totally between her and God.  She was fun! 

I took great classes but my favorite speaker was Susie Larson.  Whoa, you talk about a passion for Christ.  This gal has it.  She was enthusiastic, fun, real and spoke TRUTH!  I bought two of her books and had some time to chat with her.  She shines for Jesus and is such a wonderful gal.    Nicole Johnson was also there with her comedic take on motherhood and her insight on having a “Fresh Brewed Life.” 

Needless to say we laughed, praised, laughed some more, cried and just has plain old good time fun!  We go a long time not seeing Carol, she moved to Indiana.  We communicate through emails or phone calls and when we get together it seems like we pick up where we left off.  Blessed!!  I am so thankful for the friends that I have and the realness of our relationships.  We always come away growing deeper in love with Jesus and desiring to know Him more. I know that I am itching to look over my notes, dig into some of the books I bought and pray about things God spoke to my heart this weekend.   Here are some pictures from the weekend.  If you can plan to attend next year’s Hearts at Home conference, you’ll be glad you did! 

Karla and Carol

Jennifer and Tricia

Jill Savage and Tricia

Christy Nockels and Tricia

Christy Nockels and Jennifer

L to R, Carol, Karla, Tricia and Jennifer

Carol, Tricia, Jill Savage, Karla and Jennifer

Susie Larson and Tricia

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your family.

We have been married for 27 years…17 of them happily. After finding ourselves in a marriage counselor’s office around year 8 or so, we realized that we really didn’t know how to be married. We worked hard to turn things around and now we like to share that hope with other couples.

We have five children ranging from 13 to 25. Our oldest three are married. Anne (25) and her husband, Matt, live in Zion, IL, and are expecting our first grandchild in April. (We are very excited!) Evan (22) and his wife, Julie, have been married a year and a half and they live just a few miles from us. Erica (19) married her husband Kendall last September. They live in Augusta, GA, and wherever else the Army takes them.

We have two teenagers still at home. Kolya just turned 16. He’s learning to drive and we’ve nearly worn a hole in the carpet on the floor in the passenger seat trying to find that non-existent brake pedal. Kolya is the newest member of the Savage family. We adopted him at the age of nine from Russia.

Austin is 13 and in the 8th grade. He wants us to make sure and tell the world that this “living with less” life is a real bummer because he’s the ONLY kid in 8th grade who doesn’t have a cell phone.

Tell us about your newest book Living With Less So Your Family Has More?

The world screams the message that bigger is always better, but we have found that is not often true. When it comes to raising a family, less materially can actually result in more relationally. Children don’t need the best houses, the best lessons, the best cars, or the best clothes. What they really need is the best home life and the best family relationships we can give them.

Why did you want to write this book?

We didn’t start out with the “less is more” mindset. We started as a double income family wanting to have the “best” of everything. Then Mark decided to pursue ministry. We went from the “high life” to the “frugal life” very quickly as we moved to another state for him to go to Bible College full-time.

That experience introduced us to the concept that less is more. We definitely had less money, but we had more time. We had less stress and more peace. We had less activities and more fun.

Since that experience, we’ve continued to live primarily on one income for the past twenty years. We’ve had to battle cultural peer pressure and make different decisions for our family than many other families in our neighborhood have made. But we’ve never felt that we were materially depriving ourselves or our kids…instead we’ve focused on what we’ve actually been able to provide for them emotionally and relationally.

What do you hope your readers will gain from this book?

We hope the reader is encouraged to evaluate how they are living their life, spending their money, and thinking about family matters. Our goal is to introduce families to the “less is more” concept and then equip them with the attitudes and actions to actually make that happen.

For families that are already committed to less is more, we hope to bolster their resolve and help them stay focused on the long-term goal of providing relationally for their kids.

In today’s economy, there are many families being forced to live with less. We want to help them see the opportunity they have with this unexpected downsizing they’ve been forced to do.

And for those who have just been a little discontent with their life and saying things like, “I’m tired of the rat race of life,” or “Is there more to life than drive-thru meals for dinner?” we hope to help them see other choices they have and how they can lead their family in a different direction.

What unique elements will the reader find in Living With Less So Your Family Has More?

For couples who want to read the book together, we’ve included discussion questions at the end of every chapter. This helps move the readers to discussion and eventually actions. Even a single parent can use the discussion questions for personal evaluation.

Readers will find this book a practical guide to changing your attitude and your actions to live a successful “less is more” life. They’ll find our writing style to be a warm, casual, honest discussion where we not only share our victories but our mistakes along the way. We are an average couple living successfully on an average income who want to help others to see the possibilities before them.

This is a Hearts at Home book. What is Hearts at Home?

Hearts at Home is an organization that encourages, educates, and equips women in the profession of motherhood. Hearts at Home encourages moms through annual conferences, our extensive website (www.hearts-at-home.org), a free electronic newsletter, a radio program, and an entire line of books designed to meet the needs of moms all over the world!

Any closing thoughts?

It’s healthy for parents to occasionally pause and evaluate their vision for their family and the choices they are making. We hope this resource will help them do that together and that it will lead them to live a life of little regret.

Thank you to Mark and Jill!  I have had the privilege of meeting Jill and she  has a  passion for women in all stages of life to know Jesus.  Check out her blog. 

Have a blessed weekend,