Growing Together A November to Remember

Anastacia_Greyhound_2015November 5, 2015, I stepped out of my comfort zone and traveled by Greyhound bus to Nashville, Tennessee for a meeting with the Ask God Today Ministries team. I’ve been writing with Ask God Today for about a year now and I’m amazed at how God has grown me through being a part of this team. 

I wrote more about that meeting over on today’s Warm Hearted Wednesday Link up which I hope you will check out and join if you have something you would like to share. Link up parties are a great opportunity to meet other like minded bloggers and to share your posts with others. The link up will be open for a week so if you see this a couple of days after it started you can still join in. 

You're Beautiful, Mom!The rest of November just flew by quickly. I am about to launch a new book. If you like the stories I tell about my children and the things they say and do then you’ll really like this book. It’s entitled “You’re Beautiful, Mom! Lessons I’ve Learned from My Children.”

If you would like to help me by being an early reader let me know either by email or in the comments. I will email you an early copy of my book. Some of the things I ask is that you help me catch mistakes if you happen to see any and if you like my book share it with your friends and family once it is available for purchase. 

In return you will receive a free digital copy of my book along with an update to it once it is in it’s final corrected form. You will also be kept in the loop as to the progress of my book and the latest news from my Rock Solid Family.

That has been my work in progress for November. Another thing that happened in November was my agreeing to help coach one of my children’s team in Upward Basketball. I never really imagined myself as Coach Mom before this year. If you remember I also coached in Upward Soccer. Thankfully it’s been the youngest age group so far.

LandofLightsThen I took a break from it all during the week of Thanksgiving. I seriously enjoyed my vacation time. We started our Thanksgiving by visiting my grandmother for Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday morning. Then we went to my parents’ home by way of the Land of Lights in Athens. We enjoyed some special time with my family. 

My husband and I celebrated our 19th anniversary together on Saturday. We were married Thanksgiving day, November 28, 1996. It was interesting to think about the fact that I was 19 when I married Scott and we’re now celebrating our 19th anniversary. Of course my birthday is in December so I was just about to turn 20 so I guess I can’t quite say I’ve been married longer than I was single. That time will come soon enough. And now you know my age. 🙂

wedding2Scott turned 21 the August before we married. (Now you know how young he is too.) I had a fun time teasing him after his birthday that he robbed the cradle because a 21 year old married a 19 year old. Of course I didn’t acknowledge the point that we were only that far apart by a few months. If we hadn’t moved our wedding date up a month I would have been 20 but that would have ruined the fun. 🙂

I really like our Thanksgiving anniversary. We usually celebrate our anniversary on Thanksgiving Weekend. This year Scott reserved us a hotel room. Before we stopped at the hotel he bought me a new coat and I got him a new electric razor. We bought ourselves some food and reminisced over those early years and how young we were. 

It was funny how many memories we have that we keep shaking our heads and exclaiming, “We were just kids!” It’s nice that we can look back at many of those past mistakes and laugh. Everything in life is a growing experience. I wonder how many things we’ll laugh about 19 years from now when we look back at our time right now.

If we have grown this much in our first 19 years together I can only imagine how much more we will grow in the next 19. We never plan to stop growing and learning. In fact we are still looking to go to Argentina in the near future. I know we will have some major growth going on when that day comes. 

Do you have some special Thanksgiving memories you would like to share? 

Feel free to share them in the comments and if you want to share with even more people you can share your post in our Warm Hearted Wednesday link up, where our Ask God Today MinistriesContributing Writers and followers can read your post as well.

I’ll be sharing more about my book in an upcoming post.

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How to Be Happy Every Day (Book Review)

Have you ever felt sad or depressed? Is your cup half empty most of the time?

Well it’s time to fill that cup up!

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Bryan Hutchinson of PositiveWriter.com has written a book that will help you do just that. Fill your cup up with happiness.

In his book, Bryan shares from his own experience how he came out of the mire of depression.

Happy Every Day – Simple Effective Ways to Better Days is a powerful book that is easy to read. In it Bryan gives simple, practical tips to live a happier life.

“Happiness is about perspective. It’s not just a feeling.” ~ Bryan Hutchinson

He talks about how to create happiness through helping other people and encouraging your children to live happier lives. Those are just two of the many examples and steps he gives to encourage us on our road to happier days.

This book is for anyone that finds themselves depressed or sad about different situations they may face in life. Happy Every Day doesn’t put you down for having those feelings.

Instead it cheers you up and helps you to realize that you are an amazing person and knowing that should make you happy every day.

Reward yourself for choosing happiness. Grab a journal and this book and start living a happier richer life everyday.

Have you read Bryan’s Book “Happy Every Day” yet? If you have tell us about it in the comments. I would love to hear your thoughts.

Better yet go ahead and write your own review. Bryan is hosting several contests over at his blog “Happy Every Day” Book Launch Drawings and Contests where you can Win Kindles and Gift Cards!  Let me know if you write a book description and I’ll be sure to read yours too.

For those who haven’t read his book, don’t miss out. You can get it on Amazon today by clicking here or on the picture below.

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Happy Every Day – Simple Effective Ways to Better Days

*None of the links in this post are affiliate. Even though I was offered a free copy of Happy Every Day for my honest review, I went ahead and purchased my copy. The price is very affordable and I want you to know that I wouldn’t suggest you buy something I wouldn’t buy myself. 

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Where to Find Real Love Guaranteed to Last

Have you ever felt all alone?

Maybe you’re in a room full of people but you may still feel alone. I know I’ve been there many times.

Did you know that even a prophet felt that way before? Yes, Elijah the Prophet!

You can read about it in 1 Kings 19. Elijah had to run for his life. Queen Jezebel wanted to kill him.

When he got to the wilderness he prayed to the Lord to take his life. He didn’t want to live anymore.

God saw that Elijah was week and provided him some food.

God asked him what was wrong. Elijah replied, “I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”(1 Kings 19:10)

Can you believe that a prophet that delivered messages from God could feel depressed and alone?

The story doesn’t end there though. God then revealed Himself to Elijah. Not in an earthquake. Not in a whirlwind. But in a still, small voice. Then He told Elijah about the 7,000 people that God still had left serving Him.

Elijah wasn’t alone.

Real Love guaranteed to last by Anne PetersonIn her book, Real Love Guaranteed to Last, Anne Peterson shares with us in a still, small voice that we’re not alone.

Someone does love us.

Through her own beautiful poetry, photographs, and true stories from her life, Anne shares with us lessons that she has learned from her own experiences.

Anne’s book is a must read for anyone that feels alone in the world.

Even if you don’t feel alone and have already found real love. You’re heart would still be blessed by Anne’s book.

If you would like to learn more about my friend, Anne Peterson check out her website at AnnePeterson.com. You can also get to know her better on her Facebook Page.

If you want to read more about Anne’s book, she wrote about it on her blog Why You Should Read This Little Book.  You can find her book for sale by just clicking on the image in this post or click here to find her book on Amazon. And if you prefer a paper copy of the book that will also be offered on Amazon soon.

Was there a time that you felt alone and then found real love? Tell us about it in the comments. And let me know what you think of Anne’s book! 

This review is my honest thoughts on a friend’s book that I received for free. I was in no way bribed, coerced, or begged to write this review. This post is my honest heart felt thoughts and I was in no way compensated for what I said.  Basically if I hadn’t of liked the book, I wouldn’t have written this review.   (And no I’m not saying that I will write a review for every book I like. If you don’t see me write a review for your book don’t feel like I didn’t like it. *sigh* I’m not very good at this disclosure stuff.) 😉

But that being said, I have been reading a whole lot of good books lately so don’t be surprised if I do talk about some of them.

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The Family that Draws Together is Drawn Together

Okay, I couldn’t resist that title. I mentioned in my last post  Happy New Month! that we have been drawing pictures every Monday.

My husband set a goal to draw something every day. He set that goal when he saw my need for artwork to go along with my writing. The neat thing is that with his goal to draw something for my writing that gave me the desire to write something for him to draw for. That in turn keeps him wanting to draw pictures for me to write to.

It’s a never ending circle but I see a lot of great things to come from it.  My husband is even talking about setting up a website to connect with my website. Won’t that be great!

I’m not as good an artist as my husband but I’m not horrible at it either. I just don’t like spending too much time on it. And if it takes a lot of effort I’d rather just not. Ha!

Okay, bottom line I’m lazy when it comes to art. I’d rather just write about something than to have to draw it. So having an amazing artist in the family is a wonderful thing.

Now about my charicature…

 

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Not too bad for my first attempt at Charicature. Don’t you think?

Do you recognize him now? I know my charicature  isn’t perfect. The eyebrows could use to be a bit shorter and longer. I think if I were to try again I’d do a little better.  However I’m not the artist remember. I just did this for fun with my kids.

Okay, as for guesses. Not very many people attempted to guess at who he is.

My brother, Jason, guessed correctly. He thought my drawing looked like Mr. Bean.

Thank you, Jason, for making a big sister feel better about her art work. I’ll never forget sitting outside watching your pig. I drew a picture of you and our sister. No, my drawing hasn’t really improved much since then.

My Brother-in-law, Justin, guessed that it was Dracula with his teeth pulled.

Umm… No.

I suppose if Mr. Bean had a widow’s peak hairdo then maybe he would look like a toothless Dracula. Hmm…

Alright, enough about my artistic abilities or lack thereof. Hopefully it won’t be long before I get to show off some of my husband’s work.

How about you? Is there something you enjoy doing even if you’re not good at it? Maybe it’s just for fun or for your family.  I’d love to hear about it!

Real Love Guaranteed to Last

I’ll be having a special post on Valentine’s day. I have a friend, Anne Peterson, that wrote a book about Real Love guaranteed to last.

Her book is free  Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.  It would make a great Valentine’s gift for yourself and to share with a friend. Just click on the picture of the book.  Go ahead and get it early!

Check back here on Thursday where I’ll be talking more about Real Love!

 

 

 

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