A Life of Gratitude

Our family always enjoys dressing up for Halloween. Our plans were a little different this year but we still had a wonderful time! Dylan and Evan both dressed up as Spiderman (apparently there a multiple types of Spiderman now!) Tyson dressed up as Link from Zelda. Allison dressed up as Cinderella, Bryan was her Prince Charming, and I was her Fairy Godmother.  We normally go Trick or Treating around the neighborhood but since most people weren't giving out candy due to Covid-19, we decided to do some other fun things! These guys were excited about the Trunk or Treat! Look how she's looking at her daddy! Sweet girl!!! I was so happy to put her hair in a little bun! We made our trunk into a Gumball Machine for the Trunk or Treat. Tyson had soooo much fun handing out candy! When we ran out of candy, all of our boys started giving out of their own candy stashes. It made my heart so happy! Bryan wouldn't dress up as Price Charming for just anyone. Allison has her daddy wrapped a

Today when I checked the ministry's mailbox I found the coolest note. Alveda King, the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, has placed my book in her museum library! And she wrote sent a handwritten note to let me know! I couldn't believe my eyes!           Ms. King is a pro-life activist, civil rights activist, author, and speaker. It means so much to me that she would place my book into her library and take the time to write a personal note to me. I feel so honored! Today I am thankful for all the ways God is using my book, I Had A Secret For Seventeen Years. I would have never imagined that my story would end up blessing so many people. I definitely never thought it would end up in Alveda King's library! I am eager to see what is yet to come!   Get your copy of I Had A Secret For Seventeen Years  HERE

 Today was Evan's 9th birthday!  He loves nature, hiking, and all things outdoorsy, so we decided to celebrate with a day-trip to the mountains in Boone, NC! He has been so excited! We began the day with a hike to the Lower Cascades. The waterfall was beautiful and the weather was perfect.  Look at that grin! The waterfall was gorgeous! My sweeties did great hiking the trail! How precious are they? Evan got these binoculars for his birthday. He really enjoyed using them today! We had a lot of fun exploring together. I love doing fun things like this with these guys. I love this fella too! After the hike we went to Mystery Hill. We had a great time! Dylan thought it was awesome! It is so weird to see people standing like this! I had to pull Allison around as best I could because she couldn't figure out how to walk. Allison especially loved the bubble area! Evan kept blowing these huge bubbles. I think Bryan liked this huge bubble thing as much Tyson did. Completely covered in a

   A few days ago my oldest son was doing his chores when I heard him say, "Phew! That stinks!" Then, our house quickly filled with most horrific smell. It was seriously so terrible that my kids were gagging! He had just started our Rainbow vacuum cleaner. (Rainbows use a water filtration station instead of vacuum bags) I immediately thought he hadn't put any water in the canister but when I asked him, he said, "It   does   have water in it." Then he added, "I actually never emptied it from last time." I jumped up from my seat and rushed over. I yelled, "You didn't empty it last week?" The smell almost knocked me down! "Why not? You have to empty it every time!"  We emptied the canister with the week old nasty water. It smelled absolutely horrible. I scrubbed the canister and put new water in but when he started the vacuum again, it still stunk. I lit several candles around the house just to cover up the smell a little bit but i