Buying a New TV this Season?

Are you planning on purchasing (or giving) a flat screen TV this Christmas Season? Are you looking at buying (or giving) an LCD or maybe even a Plasma TV?

Get. the. protection. plan. Especially if you have small children in your home!

One hit on the screen can render your brand new TV completely worthless with no way to fix it.

You can guess how I know! We even keep ours in a TV cabinet.

If we'd bought the protection plan our TV would have been replaced instead of sitting outside in our shed.

(It's in the shed because my husband can't bear to throw it away, yet.)

Hero

I have been avoiding this 'blog for awhile. I wanted to avoid typing the inevitable. Yet, here I am.

My Grandfather passed away a week ago Sunday.

Yes, 6 months and 1 day after my Grandmother.

It just doesn't seem possible that they are both gone.

Yet, I have the assurance that they were believers and I will be reunited with them in heaven.

But it hurts now.

My Popaw was a WWII Normandy Beach Veteran and was given full military rites at his funeral. It was POWERFUL.

I just wished my Popaw could have seen it.

(Front Row, first on the left is my Grandpa)

I love you, Popaw! You always will be one of my heroes!

Facing Death

My Grandfather is in the hospital and not doing well at all. To be as blunt as possible, he is dying. My Grandmother passed away in May (the first death ever in my family).

I am so conflicted at the moment.

On the one hand, I know that my Grandpa misses my Grandmother and longs to be with her. I also am convinced that he has a personal relationship with Jesus and knows Him as his Saviour. His death is not a terrible thing.

On the other hand, it is so hard seeing him fade away. I keep thinking of their home and what it will be like when neither of them are there, will it be just another house? I feel selfish for having those thoughts.

I'm finding it very difficult to concentrate on much.

I am working on taking every thought captive and washing my mind in Truth, but my emotions sometimes get the better of me.

Birthday Cake Round-Up

Fishmama is having a Birthday-Cake Round Up. I thought I'd share a few cakes I've made.

The first one was for my youngest son's "Shark Birthday."

This cake features graham cracker crumbs as the ocean floor, jelly beans as pebbles, fruit roll-ups as sea weed, rainbow goldfish, and a cardstock shark fin poking out the top.

We rounded this out by floating a shark in what I had thought was supposed to be blue kool-aid, but actually turned out to be red kool-aid. The whole scene looked macabre and the little boys ate it up!

The next cake was a Jo Jo's Circus Party and I did the faces of both Jo Jo the clown and Goliath her pet lion.


Character cakes always freak me out...nothing shows devotion to a character like eating its face!?!

Here is my first attempt at making a cake (I know I didn't have to tell you that). For my oldest's first birthday we had a farm theme featuring a cow cake complete with milk dud eyes:



Of course there was the year I cheated and didn't make a cake. I just made blue cupcakes to look like water for the pirate ship to float on:


The cakes may not be perfect but there was a lot of love that went into them.


My boys remember these cakes fondly (except for the cow one, which is fine with me) and don't care that they didn't have fancy store bought cakes.


Check out more cakes at Life as Mom.

Reflections of the past year...so far!

We are at the halfway point in the year and I want to take time to look at the last six-months.

These last few months have easily some of the most difficult times in my life.

In February, we got news that my youngest son would require a delicate surgery that was scheduled for the first part of March.

In March, he had his surgery and the recovery was incredibly painful for him and very stressful to me.


Two weeks after his surgery my husband's 58-year-old Aunt passed away in her sleep. It was incredibly shocking.


A week after her funeral, we took my son's kitten in to be spayed and she died on the operating table from complications from the anesthesia. It was extremely difficult to deal with her death and help my son to understand.


At this time, I had begun to have quite a bit of pain in my digestive area and I attributed it to stress. I spoke to my doctor about it and she ordered an ultrasound that diagnosed gallstones. To this point, I have opted to not have the surgery. I just haven't had the time to be down with a surgery recovery.


On May 14th, my precious Grandmother went home to be with the Lord. It was rather unexpected. She is the first person in my family to have passed away. I have dealt with loss in my husband's family, but the grief I feel over my Grandmother has been very different. I am still coping with the fact that my Grandmother is gone. I rejoice for her, but at the same time I long for her.


In June, we were in a car wreck where we were rear-ended twice. Last Sunday's paper revealed that they had apprehended the woman who fled the scene on foot and she actually had an open container in her vehicle at the time of the crash. She really was drinking and driving.


This year has been a roller coaster for me!


As I was having my quiet time and reflecting on this year so far, I recalled a prayer that I had prayed around the New Year.


I had prayed that the Lord would grant me a greater heart for those that are suffering. So often when a member of the body was aching I intellectually could understand their heartache, but I felt I lacked true empathy.


I actually chuckled thinking about my prayer because certainly THIS year I have a whole new perspective. I see with new eyes what it is like to have a child go through trauma both physically with his surgery and emotionally with his kitten, I watched my husband's cousins deal with the unexpected loss of their mother, I had a health scare of my own, my Grandmother's death is still difficult but it is a first-hand loss that I had never experienced before, and the car wreck has affected a certain amount of security.


Even though I have dealt with a lot this year, I am thankful that God is conforming me to the image of His Son. Keeping that in mind is helping me to get through this.

What has the first half of the year brought you? How is God working in your life?

Leave me a comment and let me know.