Thursday, February 28, 2019

Kami-fied my office area


I love having my desk area.  I have my devotions and prayer time here.  I study here.  I write here.  The kids do school here.  Lots of things happen at my desk!  But, lately it was feeling a little cluttered and dull. 

Then a box came in from one of my blog readers (thanks Mayo family!!) with lots of treasures and cute things.  There were adorable flags and stickers and flowers....I knew I wanted to add them to my desk area!

My mind started thinking about things I could do and color I could add.  I decided to take the paint used on our fireplace and mix it with some white to create a slightly lighter tone and paint the back wall.  I loved how it turned out!!  It's quite bright, but it's definitely my kind of color!

I still kept a lot of the "clutter"  I just moved it so it's not as noticable the moment you walk in my front door.  I like to have quotes, pictures, and Bible verses hanging so I can easily see them.  I also have a picture of my 9 with positive qualities about them.  Some mornings as I pray I just thank God for how amazing they are!  He is so good!


I love my home and love changing it up every so often.  This area has been officially Kami-fied. :o)  Thank you Mayo Family for the box of goodies!  Perfect timing!!

Wednesday, February 27, 2019

He read his Bible through!


I'm so proud of my Silas!  He finished reading his Bible through from cover to cover!  He started about 2 years ago and has been so diligent to read.  I'm so thankful for him and his passion for the Lord.  He's inspiring to me!

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

On this ground


As we were having our very first service on the new property, I looked down.  I realized that others may just see a bunch of dirt, dying grass, and some weeds.  But to us...to us we see the future!

 We see ground that will be prayed over.  
We see ground that will one day have a beautiful building.  
We see ground that will be the place where people put their faith and trust in Jesus as their Savior.  
We see ground that will be the place for many thriving ministries that will point others to Jesus.
 We will have many victories here.  
We will praise Jesus here. 
 We will fellowship and enjoy being in the family of God here. 
 We will serve the Lord, together, here.

On this ground.....so many exciting things ahead!!


After I got home from the service I looked at my church shoes.  There were pine needles and dirt....I couldn't help but be so excited all over again, and thank God for how He is working!!

Monday, February 18, 2019

Homes for the Puppies


Well, it was time.  We needed to find the puppies homes.  To be honest, they were some work!  Adorable work, but work!  I'm happy to say that we found homes for all of them!!  It's neat because some of the people that were complete strangers are now texting me photos of the puppies and telling us how they love them.  That makes me happy. :o) 

There are two homes, however, that the puppies were placed in, that the address looks a little familiar.... 
The first one was for the puppy named Seven.

 After much pleading, Patrick decided to let Beth keep her puupy, Seven.  This big guy was the last to be born and the largest.  This is the one that didn't want to breath at first.  Patrick blew into it's nostrils and then Beth rubbed it for almost an hour until it showed signs of life.  You could say that Beth and this guy have bonded. :o)


For an 8 week old puppy, this guy is huge!


 Yes, he likes her!


She's just not so sure about puppy kisses!




The other home is quite close as well....

 The puppy that we nicknamed "Bear" (because it's cute little bottom looked like a bear) is now named Belle.  And she has found a home with our Liberty Anne (and of course her Mom and Dad)


It's cute to see Liberty with her puppy.  She sort of likes her.  And sort of doesn't.
But, it always makes my heart happy when they come to visit and I see them coming up the stairs of our porch!



Well, that was an experience!  It was fun....not sure we'll do that again.  With the rehoming money that we made, Peaches will have an appointment to be Spayed.  I think she'll like that idea.  After awhile she wasn't too crazy about her own puppies!

Friday, February 15, 2019

I Love You Banquet 2019

 The Annual Gimenez "I Love You" Banquet is starting to become one of my favorite family traditions.  We draw names a couple weeks beforehand.  Then the secret keeping begins (sort of!) and we start creating a gift for the person that we drew.  The only rule is that no money can be spent. There's so much giggles and creativity that happens.  I love it!



We start out with a yummy meal together.  This year we decided to go with Coconut Chicken, Oven roasted potatoes, garlic grean beans, and honey glazed carrots....So delicious!!




Then, we start exchanging gifts.  Everyone did such a great job and really thought about what the other would like!
Patrick made Micah a race flag for when he races on his dirt bike.



I made Brenna Coconut Oil Bath melts infused with essential oils.


Josh made Callie breakfast muffins.  Although there were so many M & M's I don't know if it qualified as breakfast!  She was so excited!  She kept out four and froze the rest.  She's been defrosting two every morning for her breakfast and enjoys showing me how much chocolate she gets to eat so early in the morning!

 Beth made Silas some Reeses Cookies.  Goodness. Gracious. I think those are some of the best cookies I've ever tasted!  She also painted him some rocks.  He loves when he finds painted rocks lying around.  Now, he has some he can put in different places himself.



Not too long ago Josh talked about inventing his own ice cream flavor.  It was very detailed with espresso and brownie chunks and a bunch of other goodies.  Tabitha took note of it and created his own ice cream.  It was amazing!!!



Brenna stalked Tabitha's pinterest board and found this adorable painting and decided to recreate it for her.  It's so cute!

 Silas decided to make Liberty some new skirts.  He picked out the fabric from my stash.  I showed him how to cut it and he threaded through the elastic.  He did a great job and the skirts are adorable!

Micah made Beth some homemade shaving cream and some Allergy fighting shower melts.  As he and I were making the melts, they made our eyes water and we breathed amazingly well! :o)  It was a hit with my allergy-suffering Beth!

 And Liberty had my name.  I love the painting she did with her feet.  What a treasure!!

Family is precious....I love making memories with them!

Thursday, February 14, 2019

Property belongs to VSIBC!!


It's official!  We closed on the property for VSIBC!  There is such an excitement in our church as we look forward to the days ahead! 

The Sunday after closing we decided to have our services out at the property.  We rolled the piano out there and everyone brought chairs. 

As we sang, "We are standing on Holy Ground"  I saw people with the biggest smiles on their faces as the biggest tears were rolling down their cheeks.  We are so thankful for what God is doing here!


Patrick preached a great message!

 Brenna played the piano beautifully!


And Liberty was as cute as ever.  Cookied fingers and all!


 Then, we counted down as we unveiled the signs saying, "Future Home Of Victory Springs Independent Baptist Church."


There was so much cheering!

 God is good all the time and all the time God is good!!


Monday, February 11, 2019

How to encourage a busy beginning reader


My Micah is a busy kid. He's always been active and the type of boy that would love to spend all day outside building forts and getting his hands dirty. He loves an adventure and has a wonderful imagination.

 He does love school but to be honest his learning to read wasn't clicking as quickly as it had for his other siblings. As I started praying that he would catch on in the area of reading, I remembered what we did when Brenna was his age. We decided to have her read her own morning devotions out loud every morning. We would pick two or three verses and she would read. And we watched God bless in so many ways!  Her reading took off in a matter of a month. Now it's hard to get the girl to put a book down!!  :-)

So we decided to try the same thing with Micah.  January 1st I talked to him about setting a goal to read through the Book of John all by himself this year. He was excited to have a Bible reading goal just like the rest of his family. Each day we have sat down and he's read through a verse or two on his own. Now one verse may not seem like much, but for a boy learning how to pronounce things it does take some time.  Although I admit, I love my cuddle time in the morning with my little guy while he reads in the Book of John.

 I also encouraged him that God is going to bless him so much. Well, I feel like we've had that breakthrough that I knew would come. This morning he was reading along not having to sound out so much. And when he came to the word "cometh", he just read right through and said "cometh".  Not an easy word for a first grader! I stopped everything and started hollering you just read "cometh" that you just read "cometh!"

 So proud of my boy reading big words. It was so exciting to see the joy on his face! He doesn't want to stop reading the Bible now! He's loving reading all these big new words. I love how God's Word is so powerful and that when you read it it encourages you and God blesses you for it!

Thursday, February 7, 2019

Manatee Springs



It's been a while since we've crossed off a State Park from our list on our quest to visit every State Park in Florida.  Everytime we go I ask myself, "Why don't we do this more often?!?"  We love it everytime and it's always an adventure.


This time we decided to try Manatee Springs Park in Chiefland.  This park is about an hour from us.  The drive through the country on the way there was so beautiful and we spent the hour talking, laughing and singing.  So fun!


When we arrived the Park Ranger told us that most of the boardwalks around the springs were closed due to flooding.  Bummer.  They were right, there was a ton of flooding!

 We really should have seen some manatees there as well, but with the flooding, they were quite confused.  Even the springs that are supposed to be a gorgeous blue were mixed in with the murky river water.  That was a little disappointing. The pictures of the boardwalks through the springs that we saw online were beautiful!  So, even though we didn't get to experience that walk, we were determined to find adventure!




We decided to venture out on the Scenic Trail, Clay Trail and Shacklefoot trail.  We hiked a little over 2 miles and enjoyed so much Florida beauty!!




Callie had just learned about Indians making thatched roofs for their huts.  She was so excited to find one in real life!!!  I love it when school happens in the books and in real life!



Everyone enjoyed the Chickee Hut!

 I love to stop and listen to the birds, wind and nature all around us.

 There was a tree that had been struck by lightening.  You could see the burn marks all down the tree.





People tracks, dog tracks, deer tracks, raccon tracks, and my kiddos are always on the look out for bigfoot tracks!

It was a great hike!  Although by the end my crew was quite tired.  I love how diversified Florida Parks are!  Can't wait for the next adventure!