It has been a long time everyone. We adopted a little boy 2 years ago and my blogging has taken a back burner for a while so he could be center stage. I still need the encouragement and the daily reminders to "choose contentment",  do you ? I plan on becoming active in my blogging again, I hope you can hop back on and join me. See you soon.

love, Kimberley

Turning Forty

     So I am turning Forty at the end of August of this year 2015 and I have not been to thrilled about it to say the least. I mean really, this girl still uses the "Twenty Nine" ( from her 29th birthday cake ) candle on her birthday cake every year from almost Eleven years ago. My Grandfather who passed on in his late Seventies was still 29 till the day he passed so I come from a long line of Young at hearts. I was sharing my distaste for the upcoming event with a friend recently who quickly put me in my place. Don't you love and appreciate those types of friends? Instead of dreading turning Forty she said why not look at it as your Graduation from your Thirties on to your Forties and leaving your Thirties behind you. Why not look at it as a time to be grateful that you survived your Thirties and that you have been given the gift of entering your Forties. She went on to say, start it with Thanksgiving and praise to God  and remember all the events that could have kept you from entering your Forties, God brought you through it and has kept you here. Well, she is right and how ungrateful I sounded. In my Thirties we moved three times, I helped my husband build a new Business from the ground up and then closed it four years later and followed a dream to foster and parent at risk youth girls at a Boarding School, paid off over fifty thousand dollars in Business debt, we built a College ministry at Church, I lost two friends/colleagues to suicide, lost two Grandfathers and my husband lost two Grandmothers. I struggled through over two thousand seizures, survived Brain surgery, went on to survive Uterine cancer, went through two years of post cancer surgery issues, helped and loved on a very dear friend as she lost her life to Uterine cancer, took on sudden surgical menopause like a champ, continued to raise and home-school my wonderful daughter, moved to a new state and started over, again. Without God's mercy, grace and guidance I would have never survived and my marriage would never have survived. So I stand corrected, turning Forty is going to be a celebration of God's grace and mercy in my life, a celebration of the gift of life and how precious and delicate it is. Turning Forty is going to be a new beginning and I am so grateful that God has blessed me with more time on this earth to make a difference for him and his Kingdom. I know He is not done with me yet. Forty here I come..........

 

 

Cheers ! to turning 40

 

Love you all,

Kimberley

 

 

Easter Holiday Contentment

    Often when the Holidays hit we see a need to go way over board with decorations, food, traditions, new clothing and the list goes on and on. We all do it and I have done it as well, a lot. We end up with large sums of money being placed on credit cards and more decorations to shove in the attic the day after the holiday is over. We watch and cringe as chocolate bunnies get smeared all over the new fifty dollar dress we bought our child to shine on this glorious holiday. Why do we do it ? As my husband and I approach twenty years of marriage I have noticed I have begun to simplify over the years and I have to say it is nice. Last year we were low on funds and believe it or not I bought my daughter and I matching t-shirts at the Dollar Store with matching scarves to throw around our necks as Easter outfits. A whopping two dollars an outfit. We wore them with jeans and sandals and we loved the outfits just as much as the expensive ones from the past Easter Holidays. We laughed and posed for pictures the same as every year. I think we can find contentment with whatever we have, it is all in our attitude towards it. My daughter had no ill feelings when wearing her new,cute Dollar Store outfit last year because I had no ill feelings about it. Our little ones reflect our attitudes. So this year be content in what you have and what you can do for prepping for the Holiday. Find joy and contentment in what you are blessed with and choose to be content with what you haven't been given and lets choose to remember the meaning of the Holiday. We do not need all the fancy stuff the T.V. commercials say we do to remember that we are loved so much that Christ chose to die in our place, to sacrifice for our sins, so we can enjoy Eternity with our God. What a sacrifice and what a blessing and what love shown to us. We sometimes get so busy preparing that we don't stop and just say Thank you and accept that it was done for us. That's all God asks from us.

Happy Easter everyone and may you  rock out your Dollar Store T-shirts or the like this Easter Holiday and love it.  

 

Contentment is a choice, the more you choose it the easier it gets.

Lots of love,

Kimberley

Goodbye for now !

   I lost a good friend to complications of cancer this past weekend. Who gets sick and who does not ? Who is healed and who is left to endure disease ? These are things we just don't know. I think it has been the question of all man kind since the beginning, how does God think ? If someone is diagnosed with cancer they must not have taken care of their bodies right ? If someone is not healed then their faith must have been lacking right ? Wrong! I have seen God heal many times and I have seen the most healthy and most faithful to God suffer the most or be taken back home to God early in life as well. We live in a fallen world full of sin by our own doing. From the time we are born we are all starting our journey to death, which is our way back to Home with God. We are limited by seeing time, God does not have those limitations, remember that. None of us are getting out of this alive, this life is but a vapor, a small tiny bit of all of eternity. We can choose our outlook and we can choose to lean on God through all our struggles and this journey of life. We can choose to be a leader and an example to those we leave behind. We are all going to leave people behind one day. My friend was a faithful follower of Jesus Christ and always kept a smile on her face and her nails done regardless of how much pain she was in. In her late twenties to early thirties she had also been diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy and it had progressed rapidly over the years, she could barely walk. A few years ago she was diagnosed with Uterine cancer the same time I was. I watched her push harder then anyone I have ever seen to walk and live everyday life and now to endure surgeries and radiation and the symptoms involved with a bladder tainted by cancer and a liver not working due to cancer that had all spread from the original location of her cancer, her Uterus. She pushed and pushed and all the time talking about how God loves all of us and how she leaned on Him to get through all of this. God had blessed her with a beautiful daughter and she wanted to show her how to lean on God through trials. She wanted to show her that you can stay positive and classy and enjoy life even with chronic pain and sickness being thrown at you. Well, she did it. Even to the end she showed her daughter and everyone who knew her where she found her strength. Her strength came from the Lord and she stayed classy till the very end. Job well done my sweet friend. I was supposed to go see her and I had procrastinated over the past few weeks and got busy with life, I would go tomorrow, maybe later, I had time right ?  Never put off what God is calling you to do today. I missed saying goodbye by only a few days and now I will have to wait to see her. I will have to wait till I get to glory myself one day. I know she will be there patiently waiting while she runs and jumps and enjoys her new healthy body with no pain and while she holds her 2 babies she never met and walks and talks with our Lord. Till then my friend, I will follow your example and stay classy and reach out to others and lean on the Lord even through pain. See ya soon !



 

Love, Kimberley 

Monday night cooking extravaganza !

   My daughter now plans and cooks dinner for our little family on Monday nights. She so enjoys being in charge and picking what to make for her family. Cooking everything to present to her family makes her feel some ownership to the day to day happenings of our family and it helps her see that she is valued. I of course coach her as she cooks but she knows that I am coaching her with the goal that she will be able to independently cook from scratch meals for her self one day and her own family down the road. She appreciates that and Mondays are always fun and exciting in the kitchen. She cooked a banging meal tonight. Pork chops with a honey, butter and onion topping along with mashed potatoes and collards. It was amazing and all cooked by my very proud 12 year old daughter. I encourage you to get your kids in the kitchen and ask their advice as much as possible. No matter how fast the generation gap creeps up on you, you can always build a bridge to each other in the kitchen. Food brings everyone together !

Pork chops for dinner !

Lots of love,
Kimberley



Get rid of muscle pain with no drugs !

   I recently had a Tens unit delivered to my home prescribed to me by my orthopedic Doctor for pain from an injury from a fall a few years back. It is amazing how well it works. So much of our bodies aches and pains are due to muscle tension that throws everything out of whack. I would highly recommend looking into getting one if you have chronic pain issues. You can even buy them online without a prescription for a very frugal price if your medical insurance does not cover one.  In the few days I have had mine I have felt a big difference in my shoulders and neck. Make 2015 a pain free year.

Love, Kimberley







The origin of Saint Nicholas

 

   I always find it so amazing how the origins of some pretty amazing people stem from pain and suffering and how amazing it is that it fuels them to reach out to others. Nicholas chose to reach out to others because of a tender heart stemming from being orphaned at an early age.  He used his inheritance for others, not himself. God can and will use such things to work together for his glory. Roman 8:28  And we know that in ALL things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.Unfortunately we have twisted Santa Claus into a mega money making machine in the past 100 years. However we can still choose to look back and remember and appreciate the deeds of this man and use it as an "example" to look after others and look past ourselves and our own situations and what we want. We can remember not to be selfish and to look to God to teach us what He wants us to learn through whatever trial we are going through. He is always teaching us and attempting to give us his Godly wisdom and out look if we only choose to listen and then act on his behalf. We are his hands and feet on earth.  

 

 I hope you enjoy the biography below, Merry Christmas.

 

Love, Kimberley

 

   Born in Patara, a land that is part of present-day Turkey, circa 280, St. Nicholas was a Christian bishop who helped the needy. After his death, the legend of his gift-giving grew. St. Nicholas transformed into the legendary character called Santa Claus, who brings Christmas presents to children around the world.

Early Life

   St. Nicholas was born sometime circa 280 in Patara, Lycia, an area that is part of present-day Turkey. He lost both of his parents as a young man and reportedly used his inheritance to help the poor and sick. A devout Christian, he later served as bishop of Myra, a city that is now called Demre.

Reputation

   There are many legends about St. Nicholas of Myra. One story tells how he helped three poor sisters. Their father did not have enough money to pay their dowries and thought of selling them into servitude. Three times, St. Nicholas secretly went to their house at night and put a bag of money inside. The man used the money so that one of his daughters could marry. On the third visit, the man saw St. Nicholas and thanked him for his kindness. He also reportedly saved three men who were falsely imprisoned and sentenced to death.

Death and Legacy

   Several sources state St. Nicholas is believed to have died on December 6, 343. Over the years, stories of his miracles and work for the poor spread to other parts of the world. He became known as the protector of children and sailors and was associated with gift-giving. He was a popular saint in Europe until the time of the Reformation in the 1500s, a religious movement that led to the creation of Protestantism, which turned away from the practice of honoring saints. St. Nicholas, however, remained an important figure in Holland.

   The Dutch continued to celebrate the feast day of St. Nicholas, December 6. It was a common practice for children to put out their shoes the night before. In the morning, they would discover the gifts that St. Nicholas had left there for them. Dutch immigrants brought St. Nicholas, known to them as Sint Nikolaas or by his nickname Sinter Klaas, and his gift-giving ways to America in the 1700s.

   In America, St. Nicholas went through many transformations and eventually Sinter Klaas became Santa Claus. Instead of giving gifts on December 6, he became a part of the Christmas holiday. In the 1820 poem "An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas" by Clement Clarke Moore, he is described as a jolly, heavy man who comes down the chimney to leave presents for deserving children and drives a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer. The cartoonist Thomas Nast added to the St. Nicholas legend with an 1881 drawing of Santa as wearing a red suit with white fur trim. Once a kind, charitable Bishop, St. Nicholas had become the Santa Claus we know today.

Lets choose to remember the "real man" and the "thoughtfulness" behind this way out of control modern day Santa Claus tradition. Sense my daughter was old enough to understand we have read stories to her about the real Saint Nicholas and all he did for others in need and why we should do the same.

Lets Choose to remember and learn.

 



  

 

 

         
          

 

  

  

Sensitive people

Sensitive people are the most genuine and honest people you will ever meet. There is nothing they won’t tell you about themselves if they trust your kindness. However, the moment you betray them, reject them or devalue them, they will end the friendship. They live with guilt and constant pain over unresolved situations and misunderstandings. They are tortured souls that are not able to live with hatred or being hated. This type of person needs the most love anyone can give them because their soul has been constantly bruised by others. However, despite the tragedy of what they have to go through in life, they remain the most compassionate people worth knowing and the ones that often become activists for the broken-hearted, forgotten and the misunderstood. They are angels with broken wings that only fly when loved. — Shannon L. Alder 

 I really liked and related to this description, do you ?

Lots of love, Kimberley

 

Fall fun !

 

   My daughter and I entered a pie baking contest at church. There were only maybe eight entries but it was still stinking fun to win. I embarrassed my daughter when I screamed wahoo at the top of my lungs while throwing my arms in the air when they announced we won. However, no else new but my daughter and I that I had forgotten about the contest. So we got up that morning and we banged out a pie with what we had and invented the recipe that morning. So it was quite an accomplishment to just get it done and to the church on time much less win. Apple cranberry pie with a brown sugar crunch topping. That was the ticket !! Baking can be fun with your kids. Let them do some inventing and you will be surprised at the accomplishment they feel.

 

Wahoo !!!!!!!!!!!

 

Eat your heart out !

 

Love, Kimberley

What I learned from Steel Magnolias

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Apple Harvest and BBQ

   Fall brings so many wonderful new colors and smells and the best of all is the bountiful harvests and Festivals that remind us of how blessed we are here in America. My husband, daughter and I kicked off the Fall season last weekend harvesting apples at a local fruit farm with our daughters homeschool coop. This weekend we volunteered and barbequed chicken for our local 4H club my wonderful daughter is involved in at a local Apple festival to benefit 4H. We had a ball and this southern girl learned some tricks for barbequing from some Yankee men who have been volunteering their time to barbeque for the 4H club at our local festival for over 30 years. One of my favorite things was spraying the BUTTER/APPLE CIDER mixture on the chicken towards the end of the cooking to give it that amazing crispy buttery crust. Joining in and taking part volunteering at local festivals is such a great way to get to know your neighbors and to usher in the change of seasons and enjoy all that brings to spice life up a bit.

Loading hundreds of chicken halves on the custom made grills.
These men and a few of us women were elbow deep in chicken
for over an hour and loved every minute of it.

Placing the chicken over the flames and hot coals.

Wow isn't this a site?

Sizzling chicken !

Can you smell it ?

Almost ready for butter and apple cider.

We used a device usually used to garden and spread pesticide which
 worked beautifully to spray the chicken each time it was flipped. We
loaded this baby at least 4 times and sprayed and flipped, sprayed and flipped.



A very happy BUTTER QUEEN !!!!! 
A big shout out to the real Butter Queen, Paula Dean

 

Our finished product. Yum !

Happy Fall Harvest everyone

Love, Kimberley

Trying to take a nap !

Archie decided to lay on my head

 

Then Smokey decided to climb over me and sit by my head to keep watch

 

Bandit decided sitting on my face was a great place to hang out.

I guess a nap today is out of the question.

Love, Kimberley

Happy 39th to me

   Well, I turned 39 yesterday and went rock climbing today, I love the North east, we have great hiking here. I have to push a bit harder but this old girl can still get up the mountain. We hiked up a river bed and it was beautiful. The pictures I took could not capture the beauty we experienced today. What a challenge and a reward all in one. Happy Labor day weekend everyone.

 

Love, Kimberley  

Hiking up

Whewww can I make it ?

Up and away

An old tree trunk that looks like a elephant

Around the river bend

 

Almost there

View from the top !!  I made it.

 

Photo shoot with my daughter

   My daughter wanted to take on the challenge of taking some pictures for her old Mama to change my blog up a bit and make the pictures more, well, the crazy me I am. I am a very emotional person and smile a lot but when I don't, I really don't and I have good days and bad days but I try to be content every day. I wanted her to try and capture that in some of the pictures she took. I think she did. Thanks my sweet girl for the fun afternoon, I think you were successful in capturing your Mama. As I am approaching 40 I feel more comfortable in my own skin now then I ever have and yes I come with some bumps and bruises. Yes I have crows feet, big teeth, rather large feet and a huge scar on the side of my head and one eyebrow is paralyzed and grey hair sprouting out everywhere but I am happy being me. I am still here and will soon be  celebrating the last year of my thirties. Yep 39, wow, where did the time go ??

"Time keeps moving and pretty soon honey you realize it's marching right  across your face."

 

 (Taken from Steele Magnolias -Dolly Parton). 

 

Love yourself and love the skin you are in, after all what choice do you have?

Lots of love, Kimberley