Fall Fun

My family loves fall. Here are a few of their favorite things:

Boiled peanuts

Cool mornings and nights

The way the air smells

The cotton fields

The slow tractors on the road

The pumpkin patch

Vegetable soup

Fall clothes (My kids wear them even when it's hot!)

Bales of hay

Fall decorations

Speaking of fall decorations, my kids have helped to make our dining room very festive. We love to make homemade things here at the Foster-Whiddon house. So... we made chair covers using plain white pillowcases. We used freezer paper to make stencils for their names. I ironed them on and they went to town with the paint! We then glued felt leaves on and these cute little Indian people that we got from Hobby Lobby.



The centerpiece was made with tissue flowers. We put down a brown runner on the table then we used another white pillowcase. We folded it in half and decorated it with a stencil, felt leaves and cute little birds. We got the idea for the birds from my favorit place, FamilyFun!



It is so much fun to let your kids be part of the process of decorating. Not all of the things they work on are going to look like Martha Stewart... some my look better! :) lol There is a lot of joy in having a visitor come in and your child say "Hey - come look at what I made!" Fall is full of many great things and many great memories.

Made To Party

My family loves to have parties. We are in the planning stage right now for our fall party. The girls are so excited about going to the pumpkin patch and having family over. I love to build these memories for my kids. I feel it is important to celebrate life and have fun with the kids for no real reason but the simple act of enjoying life. Before I get into all our plans for this party I thought I should probably post about our last party. Zoe got to have a tea party while Daddy and Lexie were gone to summer camp. She loved every minute of it! Holton just enjoyed the food :) To read more about the party and see picture you can clickhere.

"What We Do Tomorrow?"

"Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."
~ 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

So here comes a new week, a week of new challenges and a week of new joys. I have a whole list of "to-dos" and things I want to accomplish. As we put my three-year-old down for bed tonight she asks the same question she asks every night... "What we do tomorrow?" She is most definitely a kid that likes to know what is going to take place; she likes to have something to look forward to. Most of the time my reply is "We are going to do school, play outside, eat lunch and maybe we will paint." (She loves to paint.) She smiles her sweet smile and acts as if I have just planned the best day ever... just for her. With great joy and excitement she says "Goodnight!"

So tonight as I think of the list of things I will be doing tomorrow I want to stop and ask myself, "What is going to make my family feel the most fulfilled at the end of the day?" Is it going to be having the whole house cleaned? Or is it going to be having all our school work done? No fight, no messes and every kid playing nicely? The truth is most days don't go like this at all. A lot of times at the end of the day I wonder, "God did you call me to do all these things? Because it does not seem like I can get it all just right."

As I read this verse tonight I see more clearly what God is calling me to do tomorrow. It is as if I am laying down to sleep and I am asking my Father "What we do tomorrow?" and He says back to me, "We are going to rejoice for this is a new day that I have made for you. We are going to be in conversation all day. Anything you need, just talk to me. And tomorrow, Vanessa, in everything give me thanks. Give me thanks for the small things, for the big things, for the bad things and the good things. This is my will for you tomorrow. This is my plan for you. Walk in it and it will be a perfect day." I look up to my Father with great joy and excitement and say, "Goodnight!"

This is indeed a new week to walk in freedom by remaining close to our Father.

Stamping Around

The last couple of days I have been laying around a lot. I am now 31 weeks pregnant and I am starting to have some small contractions. So in an attempt to not end up in the hospital I am taking it easy. Well, while I have been taking it easy I have found many cool ideas on the wonderful web! One of those ideas is making stamps. When I saw how easy it seemed I headed right out for some pink erasers and an X-acto knife. The first letter I tried was an O. I lost hope at the beginning because it did not look pretty at all, but the amazing thing is that it works! So I pressed on and I did Zoe's name. I found out that it is easy but the stamp part is not as pretty as I would like it to be. So I am moving on to Alexis' name and hoping I can do a better job with it. In the end they will have their own stamps and I did not pay a fortune for them - not to mention I had fun making them. Here is the site where I got most of my information from.

tired

So I am one tired mommy today. Maybe it's the 7 mouth old baby growing inside of me or the three kids living outside of me. Whatever the case, I am tired. So when I am tired writing is not what I want to do but I do love to read. So hear are somethings I am reading... FamilyFun
Parents.com
This is a great blog... Grace Violet

Times and Seasons

I wonder if at 50 I would still pick the same nail polish I pick today?
I wonder if at 40 I will still be using "snickerdoo" as my "ugly" word?
I wonder if at 30 I will keep my van any cleaner than what it is today?
I wonder if tomorrow my sinus infection will feel any better?

Life is full of moving into and out of different seasons. Friends come and friends go. Our hearts at one time or another are more sensitive to God. There days I feel so controlled by the Holy Spirit and other days I wonder if he is really in me; days I feel that beating my kids could be the anwer to all my problems and other days I think all they need is a 24-hour hug. There are days I feel like supermom and days I ask myself, "How can I keep doing this?!" There are days I feel like I could be a Harvard professor then other days I think "How can I home school when my ten year-old can spell better than me?"

Ecclesiastes 3:1 says "To everything there is a season, and a time for every matter or purpose under heaven."
A time to wear red polish, a time for silly words, a time when having a dirty van is okay and a time to walk through sickness.

So what season are you in? I am in "mommy season," which is not always the most fun or easiest job but it is MY job and I only have it for such a short amount of time.

Ecclesiastes 3:22 says " So I saw that there is nothing better than a man rejoicing in his own work, for that is his portion. For who shall bring him back to see what will happen after he is gone?"

Solomon says "There is nothing better than a man rejoicing in his own work." He did not mean this in a boastful, prideful way but in the way of being happy with the job God has placed you in. Somedays being a mommy is the best thing ever but other days it is so tiring. I feel like there is never any time left for me. The reality is there will be plenty of time left for me because this season will come and go and I will not get it back.

So I just encourage you whatever season you are in, do it to your very best and rejoice in every moment because this season WILL PASS.

Paul's Prayer for Spiritual Wisdom

This is a great prayer to pray for you husband, children, or friends. There is nothing better than praying the Living Word over those we love. Blessings!

Ephesians 1: 15-23

15 Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God’s people everywhere, 16 I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, 17 asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. 18 I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.

19 I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power 20 that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. 21 Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else—not only in this world but also in the world to come. 22 God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. 23 And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.