to come before the lord with Joyful thanksgiving

I am thankful...

- that I, though very flawed, am saved by God's grace through Christ the Lord. I can never be thankful enough. I just recently read through all the suffering Christ endured at his death, and it just shows his beautiful character and steadfastness and that he truly is all that is TRUTH, and most definitely the biggest expression of Love anyone could give. None of us have that kind of character. But thankfully, again, if we believe that he died for our sins, he is faithful, and will forgive us and love us.

- that I have a lovely family to enjoy

- for good food- what else could a pregnant woman want? :)

- for good health and abilities given to me, though I sometimes think bad of what I have, I realize there are lots of gifts I've been given that are simple to me but to some they have to do without: such as for example the given ability to walk, talk, etc. which enables me to do lots of things

- ESPECIALLY for Grace. I fail daily. But I have the truth to stand on that God's love for me NEVER fails!

And I run toward the goal to take the victory of the calling of God from on high in Yeshua The Messiah.

-Philippians 3:14

Homemade ritz crackers

Caleb loves crackers, and I hate giving him something processed with preservatives in it, so I decided to try to make some homemade. And of course our favorite is ritz so I found a recipe for those. You can find it here.

They turned out fairly well. I had to use coconut oil instead of butter, though which made them a bit different i'm sure. But they taste pretty good! wish I had a ribbed edge cookie cutter for them.

celebrating christ this year-- "decorations"/worship

JESSE TREE

Our family doesn't believe in celebrating the current cultural "Christmas" because of its pagan origins. But we do however want to celebrate thankfulness in Christ as well as the story of the birth of Christ and why he came as well as God's promise to us because of his coming. :) 

I found out about something called a jesse tree, which is to represent the time before Christ's coming and God calling his people out of slavery in Egypt and giving a new good king, king Jesus. It starts Dec 1 and continues on to Dec 25, with a small ornament with a symbol/scripture for each day. 

I found a small part of a branch and put it in a glass jar and made tiny little circles out of paper for the ornaments. Very simple, but we don't have much space and really aren't much into decorations. I am going to use it for two purposes: 1- as a thankfulness tree, 2- as a jesse tree of course. 

Right now it is sitting on my dresser with 2 little ornament notes about 2 reasons I am thankful. It is a reminder to always think on the Goodness of the Lord. Sometimes I can forget. I am going to try to do one a day until dec. 1 and then start the symbols and stories/jesse tree.

Please read more about it here: More about the jesse tree.

Table of Scripture Readings for the Story

Date	Persons	Events/Themes	Scripture	Symbols
First Sunday	Introduction of the Jesse Tree		1 Sam 16:1-13 Isa 11:1-10	The Tree
Mon Wk 1	God	Creation	Gen 1:1-2:3	Dove
Tues Wk 1	Adam and Eve	The First Sin	Gen 2:4-3:24	Tree with Fruit or Apple
Wed Wk 1	Noah	The Flood	Gen 6:11-22, 7:17-8:12, 20-9:17	Rainbow or Ark
Thur Wk 1	Abraham	The Promise	Gen 12:1-7, 15:1-6	Field of Stars
Friday Wk 1	Isaac	Offering of Isaac	Gen 22:1-19	Ram
Sat Wk 1	Jacob	Assurance of the  Promise	Gen 27:41-28:22	Ladder
Second Sunday	Joseph	God's Providence	Gen 37, 39:1-50:21	Sack of Grain or Coat
Mon Wk 2	Moses	God's Leadership	Exod 2:1-4:20	Burning Bush
Tues Wk 2	Israelites	Passover and Exodus	Exod 12:1-14:31	Lamb
Wed Wk 2	God	Giving the Torah at Sinai	Exod 19:1-20:20	Tablets of the Torah
Thur Wk 2	Joshua	The Fall of Jericho	Josh 1:1-11, 6:1-20	Ram's Horn Trumpet
Fri Wk 2	Gideon	Unlikely Heroes	Judg 2:6-23, 6:1-6, 11-8:28	Clay Water Pitcher
Sat Wk 2	Samuel	The Beginning of the Kingdom	1 Sam 3:1-21, 7:1-8:22, 9:15-10:9	Crown
Third Sunday	David	A Shepherd for the People	1 Sam 16:1-23-17:58, 2 Sam 5:1-5, 7:1-17	Shepherd's Crook or Harp
Mon Wk 3	Elijah	The Threat of False Gods	1 Kng 17:1-16, 18:17-46	Stone Altar
Tues Wk 3	Hezekiah	Faithfulness and Deliverance	2 Kng 18:1-19:19, 32-37	An Empty Tent
Wed Wk 3	Isaiah	The Call to Holiness	Isa 1:10-20, 6:1-13, 8:11-9:7	Fire Tongs with Hot Coal
Thur Wk 3	Jeremiah	The Exile	Jer 1:4-10, 2:4-13, 7:1-15, 8:22-9:1-11	Tears
Fri Wk 3	Habakkuk	Waiting	Hab 1:1-2:1, 3:16-19	Stone Watchtower
Sat Wk 3	Nehemiah	Return and Rebuilding	Neh 1:1-2:8, 6:15-16, 13:10-22	City Wall
Fourth Sunday	John the Baptist	Repentance	Luke 1:57-80, 3:1-207:18-30	Scallop Shell
Mon Wk 4	Mary	The Hope for a  Future	Luke 1:26-38	White Lily
Tues Wk 4	Elizabeth	Joy	Luke 1:39-56	Mother and Child
Wed Wk 4	Zechariah	Anticipation	Luke 1:57-80	Pencil and Tablet
Thurs Wk 4	Joseph	Trust	Matt 1:19-25	Carpenter's Square or Hammer
Fri Wk 4	Magi	Worship	Matt 2:1-12	Star or Candle
Dec  24	Jesus	Birth of the Messiah	Luke 2:1-20	Manger
Dec  25	Christ	The Son of God	John 1:1-18	Chi-Rho Symbol

reasons why i am so proud of my husband..

- He is a great provider & saver for our future together

- He is an AMAZING Daddy. He plays with and loves on and helps with our son no matter what

- He's pretty much good at everything really- knows how to build things well, cook, clean, you name it!

- You'll hardly ever hear him complain. He likes to bring joy to life and has a positive outlook with Humor.

- He truly LOVES his wife and child(ren soon) as the bible calls a husband to do.

What else can I say? He is a great man and I thought I should think on that this morning and for anyone reading for them to know how much respect he truly does deserve.