A list of loves

1. My favorite happy place of all is the beach, and last night we caught a sunset!

We apparently have no talent when it comes to taking sunset selfies though! ; )

2. I don't know where I heard about this website but I like it. It is a free service! First, you take a survey of the kinds of books you like and then Bookbub will send you a daily email letting you know what ebooks are free on Amazon that day. (or at the most -$2.99) I love books and I love FREE! : )


3. These cookies are healthy and YUMMY. My kids aren't convinced that their cookies need to be healthy ; )  but to my utter surprise, they loved these. They are gluten free too!

Peanut butter cookies:
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup of coconut sugar  (I'd never heard of such a thing but apparently it is made of the nectar of coconut flowers!)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
Bake at 350 for 10 min and eat!

4. Trader Joe's is another one of my happy places! I love it!!! And these are one of my favorite things there:

And every time that I go in there and don't buy them, I'm so proud of myself. LOL (its been ages!) What I always do buy are their flowers. Isn't this a whole lot of happy for $3.99?

5. Hubby and I LOVED this movie! 

See it when it comes to DVD, if you are like me and love it when the underdogs win!

6. These glasses from Ross are the cutest and they came with the chalk! Now my kiddos can't tell me that forgot what glass is theirs and get a new one every hour! : )

7. This book by Jack Hayford is awesome. It is about the things Jesus said on the cross and how they can give us hope and inspiration in troubled times.

Have a great weekend!
~Becky

Wednesdays in the Word

Loving Psalm 146 this week! I want to commit it to memory.

"Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
While I live I will praise the Lord;
I will sing praises to my God
while I have my being.

Do not put your trust in princes,
Nor in a son of man, in whom
there is no help.
His spirit departs, he returns to his earth;
In that very day his plans perish. 
(so true!)

Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help,
(I love, love this! It made me do a study on the life of Jacob and his encounters with God -more on this next week!)

Whose hope is in the Lord his God,
who made heaven and earth,
The sea, and all that is in them;
(This reminds me of my kids marine bio classes! So much in the sea that they were clueless about back then but that we marvel at today!)

Who keeps truth forever,
Who executes justice for the oppressed,
Who gives food to the hungry.
The Lord gives freedom to the prisoners.

The Lord opens the eyes of the blind;
The Lord raises those who are bowed down;
The Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the strangers;
He relieves the fatherless and widow
(AMEN)
But the way of the wicked He turns upside down.
(Look out!)

The Lord shall reign forever-Your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the Lord."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yes, Praise the Lord!
 And have a great Wednesday!
~Becky

First job, take two!

This girl got a job here:

Whoo-hoo!!!
What is kind of fun is that it was one of our favorite places to eat when Hubby was going through chemo and radiation because it was so close to the cancer hospital and it felt like comfort food. It was also the first place we ate after he was healed from surgery and able to eat again. I'd say we are fans.

This isn't exactly her first job. She did an internship and got a job at a cute little bakery/cafe, but since they wanted to pay her under the table, she quit, pretty much before she got started. God bless her.

We love that she will never have to miss church to work on Sundays! -This will probably help me to remember not to try and eat there n Sundays, which I've tried to do twice in recent months. LOL
It also means I will be spending a lot of my time in the car as she works to earn her own car...and I will be trying really hard not to go through the drive thru. ; )

~Becky

Bridesmaids!

Tiffany had a party for her bridesmaids on Saturday night. She surprised them all with this beautiful party and asked them to be in her wedding! So sweet!
Her decorations were just gorgeous:

 And here's a little photo bombing by her dad. LOL

There were gifts! 

T-shirts for all and monogrammed tumblers! 

 And some great food cooked by Zac!

The future bride and her bridesmaids! 

The moms! 

 The special day will be on September 10th!

~Mother of the Groom! 

Happy Resurrection Day!

Hubby started taking an annual Easter photo with the kids and I back when there were only two wiggly little boys to photograph. 

Today we realized there's going to come a day pretty soon when Andrew and I will be the only ones in this photo. LOL

Hubby got this picture of all of us at lunch. We were a tired bunch due to lots of fun and ministry that took place over the weekend.  

And because of all that,

 there is a ham and lots of side dishes waiting to be cooked another day! ; )

Happy Easter. He is Risen! 

~Becky

An empty chair

Hubby has often said that he won't feel like he's healed until he is back at work and climbing a 32 foot ladder! And bless his heart, that is a ways away due to his strength level.
As you can imagine, sitting in his chair day after day has been at times, rather depressing.
But the greatest thing happened today! PTL! -His company created a position for him working in the office and he can start tomorrow!
It is right up his alley, doing things he excels at. And he can "leave if he gets too tired or put his feet up on the desk and take a nap" on the spot. How sweet is that?! I could cry! Seriously cry!

We are so excited! Not because it means he will get paid. Because this amazing company has been paying him the entire time he's been unable to work! (and the reality of that often does make me cry!) We are excited because he so desperately wants to work and be productive.

After having him home for six months, it is going to be weird to see his chair empty tomorrow.
There were months that he could barely speak due to the pain in his esophagus and so he didn't. He just sat silently in his chair. Then there was a month or two when eating or drinking made him cry out in pain from that chair. But there have been many more months, thankfully, when he felt semi OK and he made the most of his time by engaging our kids in conversations as they passed by his chair. Beautiful, helpful times, when he spoke into their lives. He helped Joy figure out what it was she wanted to do after graduation. He helped Zac with proposal plans and the wedding venue search. He and Andrew talk Bible or guitars constantly. And he has theological discussions late into the night with Nate when he is home or by phone.
Just today, the homeschooling mom in me had to remind him
that the kids have schoolwork to do. LOL
And he ignored me. ; )

After all we've been through, we know that this was a special time and season we lived through together.

And tomorrow begins a new season in this ongoing recovery process,
 but it is one that does not include his chair. : )


In awe of God's goodness,
~Becky

Wednesdays in the Word

Sometimes I think that as long as something ugly, unkind or negative doesn't come out of my mouth, then it is all good. But unfortunately, even though I forget this often, this just isn't the case.
My prayer needs to be "May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer." Ps.19:14

Reading these verses this morning reminded me of how very important the state of our heart is because all kinds of evil starts there FIRST:

"What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of the HEART of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, coveteousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man."
(I have no idea what an 'evil eye' is but I'm sure I don't want one) ; ) Mk 7:20-21

This explains why the guarding of our hearts is so important. "Keep your heart with all diligence for out of it spring the issues of life." Prov.4:23

Jer. 17:9 says "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"

Which makes this prayer a necessity:
"Search me, O God, and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts, And see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Ps.139:23-24

And this prayer for good measure on a regular basis:
"Set a guard over my mouth, Lord; Keep watch over the door of my lips." : )  Amen!
 Ps. 141:3

~Becky