Dear God, We Gratefully Bow Our Heads

Hope everyone had a great holiday yesterday. Mine was nice, my whole family showed up and it was peaceful and pleasant. Lots of yummy turkey and watching all my nieces and nephews be generally cute :)

One thing that really struck me yesterday, that I wasn't expecting, was how I missed my Grandpa saying grace. It was always very simple, said with head bowed and hands folded. Something to the effect of: "Dear Lord, please bless this food to the nourishment of our bodies, direct and guide us, in Jesus name, Amen." How I miss his voice blessing our meals. I wish with I had a recording of his grace. It is a precious piece of my life, lost.

One more note about grace.. Growing up my immediate family did not pray, but grace was said faithfully at my grandparents' house. And all the adults thought it was so sweet to hear my sisters and I chorus, "God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for this food. Amen." And this went on for years.. Then one year I decided us children should coordinate a new prayer -for Thanksgiving!- and recite it instead, to surprise the grown ups. We were around the ages of 10(me), 6, and 4 years old, three sisters. I coached them for weeks in secret - although I know my parents knew what was going on. The end result wasn't the greatest, but that silly prayer remains firmly stuck in my head. I got it out of a prayer book for children, I wish I had that book... Anyway, today's freebie IS that prayer, how cute is that?

Customers please note: I will be emailing the file to you as soon as I receive the confirmation of payment from PayPal. If the email you would like your file sent to differs from your PayPal account's then please let me know. You will receive your file within 24 hours (but probably much quicker). ANY questions, please feel free to email me, I know I'm working through kinks here :)
Today's bunch for sale:

$2.00

And today's freebie:

Remembering Those We Lost This Year

So today is the day. Let me be completely honest and up-front here, I have never been much of a Thanksgiving fan. I love the food and all, it's just never been a holdiay I get very excited about. And this year is especially rough after the loss of my Grandpa this summer. Am hoping today goes well.

So here is a little freebie for y'all, I hope your Thanksgivings are blessed with the family members you are lucky enough to still have around and the sweet memories of years past with those you've lost.


I'll be back tomorrow with another full post - for sure! Y'all have a nice holiday.

A Blessed Family, A Thankful Heart

Ah well it's been awhile, huh? But I always manage to show back up eventually :)

Things are doing well here. I'm in the middle of a cold; headaches, stuffy noses, coughs. It's unpleasant. I'm surviving, though.

We're having my family's Thanksgiving at my house this year. This is the first year we will ever have it away from my grandparents' house, but it is also the first Thanksgiving without my Grandpa, so we thought this might be easier on us all. I hope it all goes well. My hubbie is deep-frying a turkey, yumm. I really need to get busy cleaning house, though! This holiday has snuck right up on me!

Customers please note: I will be emailing the file to you as soon as I receive the confirmation of payment from PayPal. If the email you would like your file sent to differs from your PayPal account's then please let me know. You will receive your file within 24 hours (but probably much quicker). ANY questions, please feel free to email me, I know I'm working through kinks here :)
Today's bunch for sale:

$2.00

And today's freebie:

On Thanksgiving Day I will have another freebie up and am planning another full post on Friday as well, so check back for those and everyone have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Old Halloween Picture

Ok, last Halloween post, I promise.

I mentioned my years as a witch (warts, blacked out teeth, pointy hats, etc). It was always my favorite costume. And if you were reading my comments on that post, you might've noticed my sister piping up, naming her favorite costume as the Indian (Native American) one.

So I rustled up this picture. It's the Kirk girls, Halloween in the early 90's (pre-brother). Randi (me) the witch, Kelley the Indian, and our little sister Jesi, the pumpkin:

CREDIT: Ellie Lash's My Pumpkin Patch kit
I vow to now move on to Thanksgiving, thanks for bearing with me :)

(If you're looking for winners to my Halloween contest, it's one post down.)

No God, no peace

First of all, let me post the winner of my Halloween costume comment contest.
I went to Random.org to determine the winner:

Pamela! Congrats! :)
Linda & Michelle: Since I am so grateful to you guys for your support, I'd love to send you one of them for free, just for playing along.

Just leave a comment here or shoot me an email (chrishel00@gmail.com) letting me know the email address you'd like your winnings sent to (and which Halloween bunch one you'd like to have, if you won a single one).

Oh, and just so you know, Kelley wasn't included in the draw because she is my little sister. Not a digi-scrapper, just a fan of me :) :)

In other news.. I hope everyone had a fun, happy Halloween! I enjoyed giving out candy and seeing my favorite trick-or-treaters. And then on Sunday the Cowboys won! Whoop!

Also: is the time change throwing anyone else a little off? This morning I woke up in a slight panic, thinking Joe was late for work. The sunlight was streaming through the window and I was so sure I'd slapped the alarm clock off and overslept! But no, just DST messing with me :)

Customers please note: I will be emailing the file to you as soon as I receive the confirmation of payment from PayPal. If the email you would like your file sent to differs from your PayPal account's then please let me know. You will receive your file within 24 hours (but probably much quicker). ANY questions, please feel free to email me, I know I'm working through kinks here :)
Today's bunch for sale:



$2.00

And today's freebie:

Monday Links

Check out my Monday Links blog, new posts went up today!
CLICK:

And be sure to subscribe if you have a reader! I put up five fun new links every Monday, a small weekly distraction :)

And ALSO: don't forget my contest! Win my Halloween wordart bunches free with just a comment! The winner will be chosen this evening, so enter quick! It's two posts down!

Halloween Contest Reminder

Hey all, just wanted to post a quick reminder about yesterday's contest. Leave a comment on the previous post telling me about your most memorable Halloween costume and I'll choose a random winner on Monday evening (9pm CST) to win BOTH of my new Halloween wordart bunches for free!

So scroll down and take a second to enter!
(and much thanks to those who have already, I am LOVING the stories!!)