Be Strong and Courageous

  It's Friday again and this weeks prompt from Gypsy Mama, is BACKWARDS. So here goes: How perfect that this would be this weeks prompt, as we are getting ready to head and go BACKWARDS in time to 1861. We have been Civil War reenacting this year as a family and it has been a great time. Back in April we attended an event at Ft. Steilacoom (near Tacoma, WA) and our oldest daughter, age 13, said the best part was just being together. This weekend we are able to stay pretty close to home at Ft. Simcoe and I am glad to say the weather is gorgeous for camping out. The reason we like going BACKWARDS in time varies from each one of us, I am sure if you asked a group of reenactors why, you would get a dozen reasons. I love doing it because it seems to bring joy to everyone in the family. My history buff husband likes the meaning and remembering of it all, it took our nation much loss to have great gain and understanding of true freedoms. My son, age 15, love the action ...

I continue to be so amazed at the gifts God lays out before me daily. I am daily convicted that my whole attitude has everything to do with the start of my day in His Word and in prayer about the 'first things' in my life. The last few days I have hit the off button and not started my day in the solitude of just the Lord and I meeting for a few minutes and it has not been pretty. I am grateful for the newness of every morning and a new chance to connect with him first. Have a blessed day, thanks for stopping by to glance at my list almost half way to the first 1000 beautiful gifts from God. 429.The Love of My Man 430. rest 431. Watering new seedlings 432. Smores 433. Addysen ~ being such a big girl 434. Growing teenage boy 435. Rainbow squares in the sky 436.Beauty seen in wet rocks - more rainbows of grey and pink and white 437. Days blessing 438. 1 thing said 2 heard 439. blogging 440. an old friend on facebook 441. Life - Breath - Love 442. Desire to clean an...

A few weeks ago I entered a give away at The Mom Creative  who was giving a way a canvas from Red Letter Words  and I chose this wonderful reminder of all things thankful. It is called Be Thankful and say so to Him . I have been reading A Holy Experience  for nearly a year now, most every day; along with having read Ann's book One Thousand Gifts  and trying to really give thanks and experience Joy more freely. So as this now adorns the kitchen wall where everyone can see, I am encouraged to keep the list going. this puts it so well Be Thankful and say so to Him;   Psalm 100:4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name.

REPOST : from a while back, Just passing along to anyone who will listen and learn from the wrong way to 'speak' of others. I have been subscribing to motherhood.yourway for a while now and appreciate a lot of the subject matter she passes along. She has this list of 5 things to remember when blogging or facebooking or even emailing for that matter. Below is is my favorite point. This is the part of all this social media that cracks me up most of the time. The whole Venting episodes that people will post. There is a difference is posting something once you have spoken to that person and tried to resolve the conflict and are looking for help. It is when we talk about situations that are private, that make us upset or angry with out ever seeking to resolve the matter with the offender. Just because you do not think that person will ever read your blog or does not have a facebook, does not mean you should lay out the 'laundry' so to say. As she points out, ...

 I have been so fed by the gracious words of Ann today in her blog. The title of today's blog "  hurting women can help eachother heal  " And the quote that caught my eye, and my heart. --- "And when you’ve been hurt, you’re making sure that won’t be happening any time soon and you keep this wary distance from anywhere where you’d have to show the bare underbelly of your tender heart. But no one tells you that the shields you carry to keep you safe, become the the steel cages that keep you alone."

It has been a few weeks since I posted a 5 Minute Friday blog post so here goes. If you and I were to meet for the first time I would hope I wasn't too busy to connect with you. I have the tendency to be of a single track mind sometimes. If you met me I would hope that you would discover how blessed I consider myself to be a follower of Christ. I also hope that we would have time to swap information about where we are from and what we love most about where we are currently. If you and I were to meet I hope that we would have something oddly in common, like your favorite color being the same as mine - cerulean blue - not sure why but it is. I know for sure if you met me a cup of coffee would not be that far away, whether in my home or out and about. If you and I met I also hope we could talk about what God is doing in our lives to take us just through today. One final thing as time runs short I hope I had time to show you pics of my most wonderful husband and 3 great kiddos, as...

The process of time out has been around for ever. To take a break, to rest, to rethink, to recoup.... all these are done because we are off track.  I love the post from Ann today about finding peace. Here's the link  http://www.aholyexperience.com/2011/04/how-to-make-take-a-peace-retreat-right-where-you-are/  

http://www.corelies.com/ This is a great resource for all women. Tak the 20 minutes to read it thru quickly and then go back through it at your own pace. I discovered a few things, never to old to learn, I guess.

http://vimeo.com/19623489   This link is the video for chapter 6 of Ann's Book - 1000 gifts. It is worth every Mother's time to hear these words.

Faith Barista  is gving  away 3 copies of   Organized Simplicity  . It my next "I'd love to read in 2011" pick. Just wanted to share. She is one who is doing the Hot spot challenge I mentioned yesterday.

This weeks challenge is our closet, I think taking a peek in all the closets is necessary this week. As Spring tries to come, the change out of clothes and the growing children call me to check in on them all. Simple Mom  is hosting a 5 week challenge, in preparation for getting into the deep cleaning of Spring.

  Five Minute Friday  hosts a challenge that looked like fun and since I don't post much on the weekends I thought i would give it a try. So take the challenge and write for 5 minutes on any given topic would normally stretch my limits but ask about friendship , I have so much to say. Not sure if 5 minutes will suffice. But here goes, I have had very few true, good, long time friends . I have had a handful of them through childhood, and into adulthood, as my life and my goals and purposes have changed friends have fallen wayside to my Husband and my Lord, and my family. But I have been blessd by the Lord with a handful of friend who hold the same ideals and truths that I do and these few women I a grateful to call friend . I have been richly blessed by a group of women that over the past decade have kept their lives real for me and shared their love for the Lord in such a way that I want to glean from them all that they might share, the good, the bad, and the not so bea...

I just love this photo I caught last week and playing around with the color  was totally fun. I linked up over at Household6Diva  for her regular FotoFriday, have fun stopping by and looking at the amazing transformations.

This morning I came across a great give away The Reluctant Entertainer  is hosting a 4 part giveaway, to include 3 great books,    ,   ,   and an apron . Check it out.

What an amazing weekend of blog hopping. I was so blessed by the all those who participated that I was able to stop by. I even created anew favorites tab just for the blog hop. So many inspiring women, many whose husbands are serving this country we live in. Many who worship God with open hearts and transparency of their lives as a witness to His Grace. I wanted to thank all who came by to say hello. I know that this thing we call blogging is a blessing to so many and I hope any who stopped by will come back around and become more like friends in the years to come, Lord willing. Have a blessed day, Look to the Lord for your strength and He will hold you up.

I joined in on the Blizzard Blog hop via household6diva Feel free to check out the nearly 200 who are linked in so far. My name is Nicole and I blog over at Be Anxious for Nothing  . I have been at this blogging thing for a few years and love the opportunity it gives me to see other women wanting to be an encouragement to those they can even via the web. I blog mostly about what matter to me,  my family and my faith. I have been married to my man for 16 + years and have 3 wonderful children.  I love the Ocean - here we are at the beautiful Outer Banks of NC. We woke the children at 525 AM to see the sunrise and none of them even complained.  I can usually be found with some form of coffee with in a few feet of me. I love sunrises and sunsets, and taking photos when the opportunity arrives. We built our first home in 2009 and this past summer I grew my first 'tiny' garden. The tomatoes were a big hit. This is the love of my life, we w...