Thankful for Being Blessed

Through this Thanksgiving season, I've had a reoccurring theme going through my mind.  Why are the terms thankful and blessed used interchangeably?  Especially around the Thanksgiving season?  Some comments I got in the last couple weeks are "I'm thankful you helped me.  I feel blessed by your smile. I am thankful that we have heat.  You are blessed that your family came." 

The dictionary says that the adjective blessed means 'made holy; consecrated' and the noun means 'those who live with God in heaven.' According to this definition, how would I bless someone with my smile?  Or be blessed because my family came and visited me?  I am thankful for sure and happy to boot, but blessed?  "You have a beautiful voice." "I'm blessed."  You are blessed..made holy...because you have a beautiful voice?  Confusing.

Thankful is an adjective described as being aware and appreciating a benefit, being grateful. I've heard the quote "exchanging grumbling for gratitude turns unhappiness into joy" as a slogan to try and get people to really focus on being thankful.  As long as I am thankful, does it matter what I am thankful for to attain joy?  Does being thankful really bring joy if it's only for selfish reasons, for things that benefit only ourselves?  "I'm thankful I can afford a car, a house, a family."  "I'm thankful for good health."  What happens when they are lost?  Do I lose my joy?

These are a lot of the questions that I've been asking and pondering.  As I studied and sought, my heart has been challenged with this truth.  I am selfish.  Christians are selfish.  We have allowed the desire of pleasing and benefiting ourselves to trump Christs command of denying self and following Him. (Mark 8:34)  We want to follow him, but still need to have that mink scarf.  And we consider being able to "afford" a mink scarf to be a blessing and are thankful for that blessing because "he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." (Hebrews 11:6)  If we can't afford/have the mink scarf, we are not blessed or thankful.  We are annoyed, angry, feel abandoned; essentially, no joy.  

Being blessed is not based on this earthly life and a thankful heart does not come from seeking things of this earth.  Maybe a blessing could be the mink scarf, but we are truly blessed because our God in heaven set us apart (1 Peter 2:7-10) and it is by being thankful for this that our hearts can be filled with a lasting thanksgiving.  We can never be "giving thanks always" (Eph 5:20) to the giver of eternal life if what we truly seek is not Him, but self.  Man, it's so easy to get distracted and caught up by the things around me that I "need".  It's been a heart check.  I hope the Lord stirred your hearts as much as He did mine through this holiday.

On a less serious note, my family visited for Thanksgiving.  We were disappointed that my older sister and spouse couldn't join us, but there is always the hope for the future.  We traveled to Marble, CO where we had a small cabin for a couple days.  Marble is tucked back in to a quiet valley, and there was marble everywhere.  It was strange.  We took a couple small hikes/walks, ate good food, and did a lot of relaxing.  We were thankful for the time together : )

 

 

Below are pictures from Penny Hot Springs.  The spring comes out of the ground at 120 degrees and then combines with river water in to a little rock pool.  We spent both Thursday and Friday night there and with no lights around, viewing the stars was incredible!  It was so dark in fact that only the flash captured the "creeper" below.

 

Life Goes On 11/27

Jake and I celebrated 2 years of being together on October 31st. So to commemorate, here are a few pictures from the beginning of the rest of our lives.  

 

 

Notice a picture taking pattern?! Not much has changed : )

The Wiegands school had a book fair at Barnes & Nobles a couple Tuesdays back.  When we arrived, the face painting stand was open & the girls helped themselves to painting me up.  I had paint on my cheeks, hands, and at the moment they started pulling my sleeves up to start on my arms, we were kicked off the booth by the lady in charge.  I was thankful!

I have really bad luck with spiders.  I've had 4 decent spider bites in my lifetime, the worst being from a brown recluse on my collar bone the summer before my freshman year of high school.  Above are two bites that I just recently received.  I know this is gross but...it's a reminder of a story...  

Once upon a time at a teenage bible study..

Victoria: When you love someone, you serve them because you want to, not because you have to.  For example, I bought Tif tea tree oil for her spider bites...

*girls start freaking out about the bites.*

Me: Recounting how it happened and other really exciting details about spider bites, because honestly, who isn't interested or creeped out by these happeneings! Then whispering goofily, "Jake may have two on his...*points to rear*."

Girls: giggles

Victoria: *sarcastically* "How do YOU know?!?"

Girls: more giggles

Nikki: *gets completely serious* "Wait...how DO you know?"

Everyone fell in to complete hysteria...for at least 10 minutes.

...The End

Autumn turned 25 this year and really wanted to have a themed party.  Here we are in our 20's get-up.  

 November brought lots of snow in the mountains.  We had an open Saturday and went cross country skiing north of Nederland.  I took a selfie to forever remember the 45 minutes I spent waiting on him to drive 200 ft further up the snowy road : )

Having a Pre-Thanksgiving chicken fry over lunch at work on a beautiful Colorado day!  

Have a blessed Thanksgiving y'all : )

I Will Build My House of Brick

Jake has spent the last couple weeks in renovation mode.  Our Visa workers are all headed back to Mexico for the winter and with that life is slowing down dramatically..for him.  He loves having projects in the winter to work on since landscape hours are weather dependent.  Last year it was the guest bathroom, which I guess I never posted finished pictures of.  You'll just have to come visit to see it if you're curious!  This year it will be our basement, which was flooded in September.  Ever since it flooded, Jake has been dreaming of what all it could become.  He likes that stuff, it is why our house looks so awesome.  For me, meh, I don't really care, but I will say I make a pretty great cheerleader for him.  Currently we he has the drop ceiling and walls pulled off to expose the floor beams and concrete, the lovely pink and blue linoleum thrown away (Sorry Em...it just had to go ;), and has part of a wall revamped...to look old.  A house was being torn down in an old neighborhood where one of his crews was working and they let him take a couple trailer loads of the old brick for free.  It's by no means at the cozy stage, but I can now visualize what he is thinking and it makes me excited, it's going to look great!

 

These are opposite ends of one side of the basement.  The wall in the left picture used to have a bookshelf and closets along it.  The right is what most of the walls in the basement looked like.

Bricks anyone??

Sophia Ann

For the last couple of weeks, our dining room has become my makeshift sewing room.

I haven't had a sewing space since our basement flooded and I really wanted to make my niece a quiet book for her 1st birthday.  My mom let me bring all the books from her children's book collection to my house and I found a quiet book made from the ladies aide society that we must have played with growing up.  I vaguely remember using it.  It inspired me to make Sophia one rather than just buy a book or buy one from online!  Making it ended up being a lot more of a detailed project than I imagined it would be.  I'm sure I should have seen it coming but...I didn't!  I worked on it for a couple weeks each evening after work and by the Thursday before her birthday party, I still had quite a bit to do and thankfully have great friends that were more than willing to help.  Kerry, Victoria, and Whit helped with the little accessories while I completed the pages.  It was very time consuming but she loves books and I love to sew, so it was completely worth it!  It may be the best birthday gift I have ever given.  Except maybe the vintage go fish cards that I gave my aunt eons ago.

  

 The fishing page was easily my favorite.  The "fishing pole" has a magnetic hook that you can actually "catch" the fish! 

  

 The tree is definitely the page I wish I had have thought through more...when it started looking like a Christmas tree...I wasn't sure how to change it!  There are little animals under the flaps on the tree.  

And there it is.  Sophia's quiet book.  I don't think I'll be making another one again ever very soon.  : )

Fall in the City

Soup in bread bowls. Apple pie. Pumpkin pancakes. Caramel apples. Apple cider.  Fall. You are delightful!  And obviously I am a huge fan of anything apple around this time of year. Mmmmm.  (Which is actually sad this year because a late freeze killed all the apples buds, hence, no apples to pick this fall.) We had a lovely get stuff done around the house weekend for me and continuing work on the seat wall at church for Jake.  Sunday was in the 70's and became a great day for biking around our city to see the fall colors!  19 miles in fact!  While I had to delete half my pictures (fancy that riding a bike and taking pictures would have this result), I think those left capture well the beauty of the day!  While the sun was sinking into a gorgeous orange horizon, we found a quaint off the beat and trail restaurant for supper and ended the evening with apple pie and chai lattes (homemade!).  *happy sigh from a very contented blogger*

The happy munchkin, who thankfully does not have whiplash from her bike trailer adventures!