Family Under Construction

Has anyone else been watching this series? It is based on the Bryks family who purchased a nearly 75 year old home and are fixing it up themselves. Can I just tell you how much I would love to do that??? Well, I guess we did in a way. Our house just wasn't 75 years old.  Any who, this season is over and they're taking applications from families for the second season. I just hope the next family will be as creative and inspiring as the Bryks!  I loved this show! It usually airs on Thursdays at 10 PM ET on DIY.

Letters To A Soldier

On Thursday I let my students make cards to send to my brother in Afghanistan. These cards show the  sweetness and purity in a child's heart. I thought I would share a few with you. They brought me to tears.

Front: Dear Sgt. Carter, This is a book for your team.

Inside:  I will pray for you and thank you for fighting for Amarica. All of you are great and God will take cair of you. Thank you Lord.

Front: Amracn Fllag! thak you for fing! (fing= fighting in first grade language)

Inside: Sgt.Carter  I hope you are ok over their. get the bad gy's. We pray for you. We love you!

Front: sgt. carter  you'r brave!!!!!

Inside: Im prayIng for you de safe thak you fou keeping us safe you'r so congeneyole!!! (Congenial was on of our robust vocabulary words this week. Several students used the word).

Friday's Favorites

1. Seeing My Brother
 I've been able to video chat with my brother twice. It's so good to not only hear from him, but to actually see him.

Last Saturday my Dad, Kris, niece, and nephew came over to talk with him. I was able to snap this picture.

*Note: Please excuse the cluttered desk.

2. Bible Study

On Tuesday/Thursday nights a few ladies at my church get together for Bible Study. We just finished One in a Million by Pricilla Shirer. I enjoy being able to dig in and explore God's word with my sisters-in-Christ. We've had the month of March off, but I'm looking forward to starting again in April.

3.  Running

Those of you who've followed my blog for the past few years know that I love running. In the Fall I was so busy with adjusting to a new school that I didn't have much time for this part of my life. Since Christmas I've been able to get reacquainted with it. I look forward to my evening runs around the lake. I just wish I had a jogging partner..... any takers?

4. The Smell of Fresh Cut Grass

 5.Orange Tic Tacs

These little things are addictive!

6. Towel Hooks

I loathe, despise am not fond of towel rods. I've never had much luck with them. They always end up wobbling around and eventually pull the screws out of the wall. Plus, you have to fold the towel before placing it on the rod, otherwise it looks messy. I will add that my husband is not the fold-the-towel-so-it-looks-neat kind of guy.  A few years ago I started using regular hooks. Much less hassle!

Master Bath

 Guest Bath #1

 7. Daylight Savings Time

I love  having more time in the evenings to spend outdoors. However, I hate that it's now dark when I'm getting up. Guess we can't have everything....

8. Flip Flops

Yellow Box is my favorite!

9. Crawfish
I look forward to these every Spring. I justify my overindulgence by the fact that they are only in season for a short while.

10. Green

Green is one of my favorite colors. Seeing the trees put on new leaves reminds me of just how much I love it.

Happy Friday!

To Everything There Is A Season

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 is one of my favorites!

Spring has finally made its debut! Along with the extra time in the evenings, we're also enjoying the warmer air, blooming flowers, and cheaper light bills thanks to the mild weather! :) Life on the Little Lake couldn't be sweeter!

Notice the new plantation shutters :) They make me smile every time I see them.


Remember my lovely topiaries from last year.... well, unfortunately they did not make it (as predicted by my husband). So, ferns will have to make do until I can swing into town and get more. We're also on the lookout for a simple iron bench to go on our front porch.

This was a little project I finished over Spring Break.

And these little red beauties are great for attracting hummingbirds. I'm proud to say that I've already spotted a few checking out my feeder ( and these flowers).


I love seeing God's creation in bloom this time of year!

Happy Spring!

Love Never Fails- by Big Mama

I recently came across this post and loved it. It's definitely worth taking time to read. Such good stuff!

Here are a few excerpts that I loved:

My walk with Christ is as uniquely mine as my personality. I’ve spent a lot of time believing I should be more like this Bible teacher or more emotional like this person or hear from God in a certain way or adopt a child from Africa or sell all my earthly possessions, but He’s made me to be me. And He’s made you to be you. If God was only after one type of relationship with one type of person, it probably would have been a whole lot easier for Him to just create one person and be done with it.

I do not want to serve a God who fits into my limited understanding. I don’t want to serve a God who can be completely explained in the human realm. I want a God that is so much bigger than me that I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to know Him more, love Him more, and serve Him better.

I believe in a God that removes my sins as far as the east is from the west because that’s a distance my mind can’t comprehend. I’m doing Beth Moore’s study of Revelation and she talks about when John has his vision and sees the throne room of God. He describes so many incredible, unbelievable things, but he never describes God. Most likely because God defies description.

Welcome Back

Ahh.... it feels good to be back. I had several people comment on my extended absence from blogging. Please accept my apologies. I'm not going to give an excuse, because to be quite frank, I don't have one. Unless I can plead my recent bout with laziness.

Hopefully the quick blog design update will motivate me to blog more. I'm really digging the new header and how quickly I was able to do it.

Any who..... Here's a brief recap of what Sylvia Grace has been up to lately.

• Jan. 2- Said good bye to my brother who has deployed to Afghanistan.
• Jan. 5- My vacation was over, it was back to work I went.
• Jan. 18- Contractors began work on our master bath. (I cannot wait to share this with you!)
  
• Jan. 19- Turned 25! (Insert gasp) Along with realizing that I'm half way to 30, I was struck by the fact that, for the first time in a very long time, I'm completely content with every aspect of my life. I love who I am and where I am in life.
  
• Feb. 11- Enjoyed a marvelous weekend away in B'ham with my hubby. It was a weekend full of awesome worship, good food, and relaxation.

Around the House: 1) Finished master bath, 2)Updated our pantry (remember this post), 3) The last of the plantation shutters were installed
I cannot wait to post before/after pictures of these projects.

1-2-11

My family and I have been dreading this day for a while. My brother is being deployed for his first tour in Afghanistan. I felt so sick this morning. I've been praying for strength and peace to make it through today. On my way to meet my Dad, Kris, and Josh I called my pastor and prayed with him. I also called several of my prayer warrior friends and asked them to send up prayers on our behalf.

We had a good drive to Mobile. We stopped and ate at Waffle House. It was hard not to cry. We dropped him off and it was so sad. We watched him pack up some of his stuff. Then, we huddled around and prayed over him, said our good byes, and shed many tears.

There are simply no words to describe this.

Packing up

Dad saying his good-byes.

Resolutions

Last night while counting down the minutes until 2011, my husband and I picked three resolutions we wanted to stick to and then shared our picks with each other. I thought it was neat that we both had pretty much the same 3 resolutions. So, here they are:

1. Allow ourselves to be all consumed by God. Yes, we are both believers. Yes, we go to church. Yes, we study our Bible together nightly. Yes, we try and live according to His will. However, sometimes it's easy to try and fit God into a box, or a routine. For instance, confining Him to a certain time of the day or a certain day of the week. Instead, we want Him, the Giver of Life, to be part of every breath we take, every thought, every step, every decision. We want to completely immerse ourselves in Him.



2. Spend more time together away from the house. Yes, we spend almost all of our spare time together. However, we're usually at home and that means we still have things we have to do (like laundry, ugh!). We want to travel more and spend more time with each other away from home and our responsibilities. Even if it's just a night away in Vicksburg.
3. Get our finances in order. We're both really bad about just spending money on stuff. Well, we've got more useless stuff than we will ever need. We want to do the Financial Peace program from Dave Ramsey. Along with this, my personal goal is to be more faithful in tithing (my husband is much more faithful and diligent in this than I am). They say that if you want to know where your heart is, look at your check book.

2010- Our Year

Last New Year's my husband and I made each other a promise: 2010 would be our year. We stuck to that promise and saw all but one of our dreams realized.

January
I turned 24 on the 19th.

February
Enjoyed a beautiful snow day! I traveled to Birmingham to attend my first concert with my dear friend Mizz Hoppa- we saw John Mayer.

March
This was an exciting month. We sold our current place and found our new home- all during my Spring Break week. We began the month long process of buying a home and moved in with my Dad until we closed on our home.

April
This was a very busy month. We celebrated my sweet husbands 32nd birthday. We spent most of the month filling out paperwork and buying things for the house. We officially closed on our home on April 28th. We spent our first night in our new home on April 30th. I took off work and spent six glorious days getting acquainted with my new home. I was in heaven! We were both delirious with sheer joy!

May
We were thrilled to begin our happy little life of the little lake. We spent the month painting our house and making it a home. After months of job searching, I started getting call backs. We welcomed a new addition to our home, sweet Louie.

June
My elementary school did not let out until the 18th and then I taught summer school. I accepted a job teaching first grade at Sweet Water and began making the move and setting up my classroom.

July
We celebrated 5 blissful years of marriage! I finished up my classes at MSU and said goodbye to my coworkers as summer school came to and end, along with my time at Parkview Elementary. We spent most Saturday's in the back yard fishing with my Dad, nephew, and niece.

August
This was a fairly calm month. We didn't work on the house much. I started my new job and spent most of my time adjusting to a new school and a new grade. I officially graduated with my Ed.S degree from MSU.

September
I took the jump at 14000 ft. on September 11th.

October
I enjoyed decorating for Fall and we hosted our first party in our home (our housewarming party).

November
We began getting excited about spending the holidays in our new home. We traveled to Philadelphia to spend Thanksgiving with my Grandparents. I spent most of Thanksgiving week hunting with my Dad. I bagged the first buck of the season!
December
I attended the MSU graduation ceremony on the 10th. We had a wonderful first Christmas in our new home! We attended several Christmas parties/family dinners. We loved seeing all of our family!



2010 was our best year yet. These are just a few of the blessings our sweet Lord has showered on us. Looking back, it really was our year. My soul smiles as I think of the many happy and blessed days to come in 2011 as we continue to live our simple life and serve our loving God!

It is my sincerest hope that your year was as happy and blessed as ours.
We pray that 2011 will bring many more blessings your way!

See you next year!

I Am Nujood: Age 10 and Divorced

I rate this book 3/5.

My friend Chickadee loaned me this to read. It was a quick read and kept your attention, although some of the events are a bit graphic and will break your heart!

Here is a synopsis of the book from Booklist:

"Chosen by Glamour magazine as a Woman of the Year in 2008, Nujood of Yemen has become an international hero for her astonishingly brave resistance to child marriage. Sold off by her impoverished family at the age of 10, continually raped by her husband before she even reached puberty, Nujood found the courage to run away, and with the help of an activist lawyer, sympathetic judges, and the international press, she divorced her husband and returned home. Her clear, first-person narrative, translated from the French and written with Minoui, is spellbinding: the horror of her parents’ betrayal and her mother-in-law’s connivance, the “grown-ups” who send the child from classroom and toys to nightmare abuse. She never denies the poverty that drives her parents and oppresses her brothers, even as she reveals their cruelty. Unlike her passive mother, she is an activist, thrilled to return to school, determined to save others, including her little sister. True to the child’s viewpoint, the “grown-up” cruelty is devastating. Readers will find it incredible that such unbelievable abuse and such courageous resistance are happening now." --Hazel Rochman

Oh Christmas Tree.....

I mentioned in a previous post about our pitiful Christmas tree. So, I went looking for a new one two days after Christmas. I was in luck- I found a 9 foot, pre-lit, slim tree at Little Acres. Luck was even sweeter in that it was 50% off! I quickly bought it and now I'm wishing it was Christmas again so I could decorate it :)

Oh well....

Mark my words: Next year I will not have the pitiful tree!

Merry Christmas