OK: Where did it go?

Not sure where the picture went. Will do my best to figure it out in the next few minutes... otherwise it might be awhile before I get to it...

Hope and I had hot cocoa in her tea set from Auntie Holly.













Brady while on vacation. I am so thankful for my kids!

my aunt

My Aunt (one of my Dad's sisters) was just on-line at the same time as me so we were able to chat. This happens ever so often and when it does it makes me happy! I like visiting with my Aunt Sharon. She was one of the adults in my life as a kid who didn't treat me as a kid once I was no longer a kid. That has always been appreciated. :)

I like opportunities such as this! I love my aunt too.

I don't feel like writing much tonight. But I want to stay in this habit of being thankful, so I have found a few verses from the Bible to leave you with.

Col 3:15	Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.
Col 3:16	Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms {and} hymns {and} spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Col 3:17	Whatever you do in word or deed, {do} all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

I found it at the following location: http://www.blueletterbible.org/

Wow, we have so many opportunities to read the Word! I didn't even have to get up off my butt to find that. I had considered walking back to my bedroom to find my Bible, then thought I would do an on-line search. I didn't even have to go looking for a dictionary to find the correct spelling for my misspelled words. Spell-check is awesome. The tools we have at our literal fingertips! I am thankful for this...not to be lazy, but that it is here for us to use.

Easter

My kids finding Easter Eggs at church.

(and I think I am going to really like this mobile posting~ sending pics and text from email. We are going on vacation soon, and we can just take pics and send email posts from my husband's phone to keep people posted. I think I am gonna like this!)

Title

I think I have finally settled on an actual "title" for this blog. The editor hidden deep down inside me couldn't allow "Untitled" as the title much longer. It just didn't fit. So for now! I like the song, "Give Thanks" from which I derived the title.

Give thanks with a grateful heart
give thanks to the Holy One
give thanks because he has given Jesus Christ, His Son...

And as a grateful heart is what I am trying to cultivate, it is fitting.

Everything else could fade away and the one thing I am most thankful for will still remain. I am so grateful for the salvation that my Jesus brings to me. With out God I am just nothing. I am thankful that God sent His son to take my place so that I can go to heaven when I die and be with him.
Not only does He grant me salvation from hell, he gives me here in the present, peace, contentment, and joy even in the midst of the craziness of life. I still need to make a conscious effort to be joyful and thankful, but He has given it to me, so I want to experience it! It is in reach. This blog is a tool to help me be more aware of being thankful for the blessings in my life as well as just being thankful for the little "stuff." I think it is helping. There are times when I think of things I can write about for which I give thanks, but don't have an opportunity to write. I am thankful for so much more than what you see here.

I took this on one of our walks along the path in Kapa'a. It is a very nice walk! The view is spectacular. We even saw a pod of whales on the same walk I took this picture. I need to get out and walk more. I just need to do something to give myself more energy and air! I am glad that there is somewhere to walk; now I need to use it.

What you can't see...

is my favorite beach in the photo above, in the title area.
We were taking a "road trip" to the North shore to find a sunny beach to play on and well, it rained a lot that day. As a result we were able to see many rainbows on our "trip."

I had Jack turn around (on that narrow winding road) so that I could take this photo. There were some tourists taking the same photo, but they were crazy, letting their young children stand on the other side of the guardrail. Oh my goodness: I didn't even let my kids get out of the car!

I love views like this. Someday I will get to go back down to this portion of Lumaha'i Beach.

Untitled: more stuff I like (am thankful for)

sunshine
sand
warm ocean water
family
my kids
friends
sunscreen
aloe vera
picnic lunches
canvas chairs
warm beach towels
blue sky
blue ocean
monk seals
mountain views
igneous rocks
tiny shells
shave ice

--can you guess what we did today?

Sorry for the lavendar. I have a headache today (it is almost gone, for that I am thankful!) and so lavendar is supposed to help in that area, right? hahahah.

I have this friend who has deided to do short daily blogs rather than letting time go by and writing long blogs. I have been enjoying reading her daily posts. She is studying in Rome at the present and she has such adventures. Makes me almost envious because I love to travel and see new places. But I am truly not. I am having my own adventures and opportunities. Sometimes it doesn't seem so adventurous, since this is now "home" but there are days when I can truly appreciate the absolute beauty of this island. Then there are days when I wish roaches weren't part of the adventure! thankfully we haven't had one of those for awhile.

I am thankful that I have friends who keep in touch regularly. I have friends who miss me (and I miss them too). We are all in this big adventure of life in different areas of the world and the US and I am OK with it.

This is all sounding rather random. My apologies. I am going to go now because of the next thing I am super thankful for. BOTH. MY. KIDS. ARE. SLEEPING. oh yeah. It is nap time for me too.

Merci! Mahalo! Arigato!

I am still mulling over ideas in my head about the purpose for this blog. I am still using that freewebs page for family updates, but this spot keeps yelling at me to write.

I need to be consciously thankful. So. Here I am going to write about stuff I am thankful for. So why am I still mulling over this idea? Not sure of the format. Do I do "Favorite Things" or "Stuff I Like" or "For this I am grateful" or "I. Am. Thankful. For. (the following)." It really does make a difference. Not really. But yes. Because in my HEAD it is different and that is what matters. Right?

I have so much to be thankful for that I don't know where to begin. Just this evening I was watching a DVD that I am going to show to the youth at my church in preparation and as part of the 30 Hour Famine (partnering with NCM) we are participating in a couple weeks from now. It was hard not to cry! Kids who have absolutely nothing and I have food scrapings to send down my garbage disposal. 29,000 kids die EACH DAY do to hunger and malnutrition...

If you happen to stumble across this blog please take the time to follow the link to World Vision and check out their orginization and how you can make a difference in the life of a child: be it through sponsoring a child, or participating in the 30 Hour Famine. World Vision is a charity organization that I believe in. Do check out thier site for more information. There are two main issues that tug at my heart: kids who go hungry and kids who don't have education. WV addresses both needs and more.

So yeah. I am thankful for my God, family, food, a nice place to live (even with those bugs I always complain about), nice weather, etc!

Feel free to comment with what you are thankful for. It is healthy to be thankful. Take the first step and let me know what makes you say "thank you!"