Some of my fav songs and the story behind them in my life

Through one of the toughest times in my life of feeling very lonely and not understanding what God was doing in my life (right before I met Jay), I spent TONS of time in the Word and I was introduced to Shane and Shane by my best friend Amber (who has since graduated to glory) and I was hooked instantly.  Their music is so honest, scriptural and worshipful.  To this day I love to listen to their music and never get tired of it and always feel closer to the Lord for listening.

When I met Jay, one of the first things that gave us an instant connection was that we both were in the Word, LOVED listening to Shane and Shane and we were both reading A.W. Tozer at the time.  It is almost like God was confirming that we were "equally yoked" and confirming that we were supposed to be together.  We have since been to several of their concerts together, some even out of town while on vacations (we don't go to many concerts).

I also loved Bethany Dillon and especially her song "Beautiful."  I think every girl ought to listen to the song and how true that all of us women face struggling with our beauty and the difference between the beauty the world sees and the beauty God sees in us.


Bethany started touring with Shane and Shane and eventually Bethany married Shane Barnard.  They have since had a little girl and named her LUCY JAMES BARNARD.  Of course you know that Lucy is my youngest daughter's name and James is my husband's name.  As you can tell we have many special connections with them and their music and I wanted to share some of it with you for those that might not have heard their music.

Shane and Shane "The Answer"
My happiness is found in LESS OF ME and MORE OF YOU.


Shane Barnard "Psalm 145"


Shane Barnard "You Said"
Shane quoting scripture of things God said including God to heal the nations and for the nations to see the glory of God.



Shane and Shane "Be Near"



Shane and Shane with Bethany Dillon "Yearn"



In the car, you will often find me listening (when I am not listening to Kidsongs of course) to Shane and Shane or Bethany Dillon.  You can check out Bethany's blog here.

A blank check

from the Journey (August)

"Help me understand your instruction and I will obey it and follow it with all my heart."  Psalm 119:34

As Christians, we give a lot of lip service to doing God's will, but sometimes when we find out what He wants us to do, we may balk about actually doing it.  We may think that the path he wants us to take is too hard or uncomfortable.  If He prompts us to witness to a neighbor, fear grips us.  Then we imagine that if and when we do follow through, our neighbor will think we're pushy or dumb or unsophisticated, or just plain crazy.  Or God may call us to a life of singleness when we want to be married, to a different career when we think we're settled, or we may have to let go of a painful situation and trust Him with it.

The Lord's way is the narrow path, but the alternative is not the wise choice.  We read in Psalm 1:6, "The Lord watches over the ways of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to ruin."  Deuteronomy 28 instructs us on the blessings of obedience and the curses for disobedience.

When we ask God to show us His will, if we're asking with a pure heart, we're handing Him a blank check.  he will fill in the blanks and let us know what He wants us to do.  Our job is to say YES and OBEY.

"Teach me to do your will, for you are my God.  May your gracious spirit lead me on level ground."  Psalm 143:10

My testimony

I realized as I was reading Kelly's link-up this morning that I don't think I have ever shared my testimony on my blog.  Honestly I have struggled with my testimony at times because I feel I don't have a "good story."  But over the years I have realized that it is a blessing and an honor that the Lord has kept me from certain sins that others might/have struggled with in the past.  God has saved me just as He has others and He brought me from death to life and that in itself is truly amazing.

I was blessed to grow up in a Christian home and my parents were teaching me and guiding me through scripture for as long as I can remember.  My father was a minister and we were at church every time the doors were open and it was always a priority for my family.  I know that church doesn't make you a believer and there are some that "attend" their whole life and still don't know God.  But I am very thankful that it was a priority and NOTHING came before church (sports or other activities).  They instilled in me early on the importance of priorities and what was truly important.

I was saved when I was 6 years old in the summer of 1985.  I was at a VBS puppet show and I knew that God was calling me to accept Him.  For me, I remember the day like it was yesterday and it was even a physical feeling for me.  The moment I realized I needed Him, I got chills all over my body and my heart felt physically heavy.  I accepted Jesus right there and my burden became light.  It was like a load had been lifted off.  No I didn't know everything about God and never will, but I knew I was a sinner and that God had taken my place on the cross.   I followed through with the Survival Kit (like a 6 week training making sure you understand the decision you had made) and was soon baptized by my own dad.  That was so special to me and must have been such an honor for my father.

I was blessed with an amazing youth minister that challenged us throughout my middle school/high school years and held us accountable.  I spent lots of time in the Word through quiet times during those years and I believe that is the only thing that kept me out of "trouble."  Today I am so thankful for the teaching/guidance/accountability I had over those years.

I was able to go to a Christian college (Union University) and again surrounded myself with wonderful Christian friends that challenged me in my walk with the Lord.  I had several relationships in college and some that I expected to end in marriage. When things didn't happen the way I expected them to happen, I was discouraged and felt very alone.  It was during those times that the Lord drew me to Himself more than ever before and I was at a place of full surrender.  I realized that I was absolutely nothing without Him and my focus changed from what God could do for me to what I could do for Him.  I believe that is when the Lord truly transformed my thinking.

It was during those few months when I was emotionally at rock bottom yet closer with the Lord that I had ever been before that I met Jay.  I truly felt that the Lord was waiting on me to be at a place of full surrender before He brought my mate into my life.  My relationship with my husband is amazing and I truly feel it is because Jay loves the Lord more than he loves me and together we have a common goal.  We don't expect that the other will fulfill us because it is only the Lord that can fill those voids.  Knowing that, we are able to enjoy one another and serve each other faithfully.

The Lord has continued to take me on an amazing journey and the longer I have been a believer, the more I realize that I serve a complex yet amazing God and the more I realize I don't know but want to know about Him.  He has given me many blessings that I don't deserve and could never repay Him as long as I live and could never be "good" enough for Him.  That is where I claim God's grace He has given me and I will be forever thankful for that gift.

My desire at this point is to be a Godly wife to my husband and to teach my children the ways of the Lord.  I pray that the Lord saves them at an early age and that I live to see the Lord transform their lives. I want my legacy to be one of a Godly woman by Biblical standards, not the world's standards.  I realize I am not perfect and will never have it all together, but I will continue to strive to be all that God has called me to be.

My birthday date day/night

While Lolli has kiddos for a few days, Jay and I had a whole day/night just to spend together.  We hung out at home today and spent alot of time talking, reading, and relaxing.  It was much needed and enjoyed.  Since it was my "birthday" date, I got to choose where we went.  I wanted to try some new places and was so excited about them!  I have had some blog friends recently suggest some places around town so I owe it to Simply Smithwick for suggesting Sharky's and Summer for suggesting Muddy's.  

Before we left

Sharky's was such a cool restaurant.  One of my fav things about going on vacation is getting to lay out all day and then going out to eat that night.  Sharky's is a seafood restaurant and it reminded me of those nights on vacation.

The food was delicious!  We shared some spinach dip and then I got nigiri sushi (tuna, salmon and yellow tail).  Jay ordered grouper I think and he said it was delicious!!!

Muddy's is a local bakery and I am not normally a cupcake kind of girl (I don't like the icing just the cake part) but I ordered a mocha madness and it was seriously the best cupcake I have ever had!  It had many options as you can tell and it was pretty cheap too!  I highly recommend Muddy's!

As we were leaving, it started pouring and the streets immediately flooded within minutes.  I was freaking out!  We passed a van that was coming out of a funeral home and had to cross the flood and seriously, no joke...the water came up over the hood of their car!!!  I can't believe they made it out of there!

A few minutes later we saw this...

It reminded me that my God may flood the streets, but He promised He will NEVER flood the earth again.  And my God keeps his promises!  That rainbow was such a sweet reminder of how good my God truly is!  :)

Jay and I go to a movie maybe only once or twice a year and we have heard so many people say this was a great movie so we went to see Inception.  It was a fabulous movie!  It is one of those "thinking" movies which I usually don't prefer but I loved it.  We were still talking about all those details all the way home. Whoever wrote that movie was seriously a genius!

Great night...good food but an incredibly handsome date! :)

My 31st bday

Today I turn 18 again (for the 14th year)!  It has been an amazing day to say the least.  It started off this morning being showered with cards and gifts from my family.  If you remember, I convinced Jay to give me my gift early last week because I knew what it was (I asked for it) and I got a 50 mm lens for my camera.  If you have read my blog for one day you know I love to take pictures!  I have had fun playing around with it...so fun!  Also the kids got me some candy and a Target gift card...can't wait to go and spend that!!! And Jay made me waffles and coffee this morning for breakfast...some of my favs!

Jay is off this week on vacation so I was trying to think of something fun for us to do today but everything I wanted to do was outside and it so stinkin' hot I didn't want us to be absolutely miserable and I am kinda over the swimming thing?!  So I decided I wanted to stay home today and just relax...I set some rules for myself...no cleaning, laundry, just play and have fun.  And I did it and my house can prove it haha!  We played with the kids, relaxed, made tents, ALL 5 of us took naps and just hung out.  

Tonight we had made plans to try to go the Redbirds game that got postponed earlier this week.  So we got a babysitter for Lucy (thanks Mrs. Phyllis...you're the best!) and headed out.  We ate at Abners and then headed to the game.  EXCEPT when we got there, realized there was NO game.  We had looked at the schedule wrong and the lights were off, gates closed.  Maybe 3rd time's a charm???  So we came up with plan b which ended up being better anyway!  We walked around downtown, went to the top of the Peabody to see the ducks, got ice cream cones at Maggie Moo's and then took a "Cinderella" carriage ride (as Karis called it) around town.   

The kids were watching this little guy do ALL kinds of flips down the street and thought it was so cool!  He and his buddies were SOOO talented!

The carriage ride was a blast.  I love seeing the kids get so excited about things.  They have seen this carriage so many times and always comment on it and they loved getting to actually ride on it tonight.  It was just perfect.

You all can agree that as you get older and once you have kids especially, birthdays (the age part) is not as much fun as it was when we were kids and it certainly isn't about the gifts anymore.  Honestly, we don't live extravagantly but we don't want for anything.  The Lord has truly blessed and there is NOTHING I need.  So there was no better gift to me than to spend the day with my favorite people in the world.  It is better than all the money/gifts the world has to offer.

And I was TOTALLY blown away by all the love you all have shown.  Over the course of the day, I had texts, calls, emails, cards and over 200 messages on Facebook wishing me a Happy Birthday!!!  I felt so loved and special.  I am truly blessed to have such thoughtful friends and family!  :)  THANK YOU!

I have come to the conclusion that growing old isn't so bad after all.  In fact, I kinda like it!

Fish, swimming and Huck Finn

***I saved this as a draft a couple of weeks ago (July 26) and just realized I never posted it.  But I wanted to post it even if it is old.  It is dated back to the original date.

Jay went fishing with his friend John this morning and check out this fish they caught!!!  It was probably 8-10 lbs. and 2-3 feet long (per Jay).  It was massive!

In this pic, I had Jay touch it's tail to the ground and it came up past his knee!

They caught alot of brim too.

Partying with the popcorn....

And then I caught Lucy cleaning it up herself...

I kept Axton today so we all went swimming.  They loved the floats today and I was excited about that.  It made my job alot easier!  :)

Mari-Morgan and Nathan came too...

It's a train...

Brayden came down dressed in these overalls which are WAY too small.  We rolled them up and he looked like Huck Finn.

Sunday pics

Church this morning was great.  Sunday mornings are one of my favorite things in the week.  There is something so amazing about worshipping with close friends.  I don't know what I would do without my church family...having other believers that I can relate to makes life easier and definitely more enjoyable. Jay preached at another church today so he couldn't go with us.  We had (I think) a record high at church today...yah!

I haven't taken Sunday pics in a while so I attempted it today...as you can see it was NOT a success.  These are my only 3 attempts at all of them...I could tell it wasn't going to work today!

        

I did get some good ones but none of all 3...poo!

My mom (Lolli) got the girls these dresses a while back and Lucy is just now able to wear hers.  So I had to take some pics of the girls in their coordinating dresses.

I took this pic of Karis and then she was making me laugh.  She started posing and saying, "Mom take this picture!"

My sweet FOUR year old boy...I can't believe he is already 4.

Church was over and I picked up Lucy from the nursery and she went into the preschool room where Karis and Brayden were playing.  She started singing and dancing with Anna so I grabbed my camera.  She does this anytime she hears music.

http://vimeo.com/13627950

Lucy singing and dancing from Amanda Lemonds on Vimeo.

Fun Saturday

The morning started off early...Lucy was crying at 5:00!  I finally got up with her about 6:00 when Karis came downstairs and said she had had a bad dream.  So I got up with Lucy and Karis crawled in the bed with her daddy.  Lucy's schedule is all out of whack because I am trying to get her to one nap instead of two.  She is waking up early, drinking milk and going straight back to bed until 8 or so.  Then she naps after lunch usually for about 3 hours.  But I think she is going through a growth spurt too because the last two days she has doubled the milk she drinks.  She guzzles it like she is starving!!!

I love this shirt she has on.  I kept asking her "Lucy what does your shirt say???"  And she looks down at it like she is reading it...so funny.  The front says "I love daddy.."

        

Jay planned to take Brayden fishing tonight so he was getting their poles ready this morning and Lucy was very interested in them!  Maybe daddy will make a country girl out of her yet...or not!!!

All the kids were playing so well together for about an hour (Lucy included) and I snuck some pics of B in the toybox.

He is pointing to his new shoes that are "sooooo fast" he says.  He wears them ALL day long.

This afternoon I took Karis shopping for school clothes.  It was so fun just to spend special time with her...I hope we made memories that will last a lifetime.  We shopped until she told me she wanted to go home and take a nap....for real she did.  After shopping, we made a run by sonic and picked up some slushes.  We took these while waiting...

She got some clothes, headbands and shoes.  Her favorite was no doubt the raincoat and boots...she wore them around the house tonight after her bath.

While Jay took Brayden fishing, Karis and I sat down and wrote our Compassion child Moses and then made a chocolate chip pound cake for the boys to eat when they got back.  :)  

It was so good but very rich.  YUM!  I got the recipe from Kelly's blog and included the recipe.

Chocolate Chip Pound Cake

Ingredients:

1 pkg dark chocolate cake mix

1 pkg instant chocolate pudding mix

1 16 oz sour cream

3 eggs

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preaheat oven to 350. Grease a bundt pan. Mix together ingredients and pour in pan. Bake for one hour and then cool. Top with powdered sugar!