Day 3: Three Graces Overheard

1.  My children singing along to Christian radio in the cake seat of our car a I drive. They're favorite song right now is Mandisa's "Overcomer", which I also love. I'm often amazed to hear my just-turned-six year-old song literally every word to every song that plays, and it melts my heart each and every time.

2.  "Oh, good, Angela's here! My kids will be so happy that her kids will be here for them to play with."  Overheard today upon entering the gym. So thankful that my kids are welcomed/assets to the nursery play group, as opposed to being dreaded bullies.

3.  Jason, snoring in bed beside me.  This sound is the result of a hard, but honest day's work to provide for our family. It also indicates that he is peaceful and deep in sleep, resting the body that  has performed so many physically draining actions  throughout thr course of this day ;and countless others).

Day 2: A gift inside, outside, and on a plate

1.  A gift inside...central heating! It was SO cold outside today (you know we Texans can't handle temperatures below 65 degrees without a parka!). Each time I went outside today I was thankful for the warmth of the house I was blessed to return to.

2.  A gift outside... Sweet neighbors! After a few days of being cooped up indoors, I let the kids play outside (in the aforementioned cold) with our neighbors down the street. They had so much fun playing together, and came home happy, tired, and well-exercised, I'm sure.  It is such a gift to live on a street with sweet families who look out for each other!  (And yes, to enjoy a little quiet inside when the kids are outside!)

3.  A gift on a plate...tonight--Freebirds nachos!  Enjoyed with good friends, which made it taste that much better.

Day 1: Three Gifts Heard

1.  "I heard an old,old story--how a Savior came from glory. How He gave His life on Calvary, to save a wretch like me. I heard about His groaning, of His precious blood's atoning.  Then I repented of my sins and gained the victory.  I heard about a mansion He has built for me in Glory, and heard about the streets of gold, beside the crystal sea. About the angels singing, and the old redemption story. And some sweet day I'll sing up there the song of victory.  Oh victory in Jesus, my savior, forever. He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood. He loved me ere I knew Him and all my love is due Him. He plunged me to victory, beneath the cleansing flood.  ("Victory in Jesus" by Eugene Bartlett, 1939).

2.  "It's a girl!/It's a boy!" Both times were magical and overwhelmingly wonderful.

3. The sounds of my children playing peacefully together  (especially when they are in "pretend-mode". It blesses me every, single time.

Day 17: Three gifts frosted

1.  White cake!! I'm an icing girl--give me a corner piece with a layer of frosting, border, and a big ol flower any time!
2.  Gramps' hair. My maternal grandmother has the most gorgeous head of naturally snow white hair of anyone I know.  It's been that way for as long as I can remember, and I've always thought it's beautiful with her pale, blue eyes. I'm already working on quite the crop of white hair, myself...I hope mine looks just like hers someday!
3.  Window panes...how can I NOT think of that classic song in conjunction with the word "frosted", THIS time if year?!  I love the song, and I do love frosted window panes, particularly when I'm seeing them from the INSIDE of a nice, cozy room.

Day 16: Three Gifts Bethlehem (unlikely)

1.  Scrap fabric...I keep most of mine, and for the most part, it lies in wait in a dark drawer, forgotten--until a need arises. Scraps, while small and seemingly insignificant; can be joined together to make beautiful, useful things.  From school projects, to make-shift barbie blankets, from appliqué embellishments to rag dolls.  Some of mine have even found their way to Ghana  resurrected from the depths of my sewing closet, given new life and purpose as quilts for Mercy Project rescued children.
2.  Potato Soup...it's meager ingredients cost less than $10 to feed our family of 4 (plus left-overs!), but it's warmth in our stomachs on a cold day (with nary a complaint from two occasional picky eaters) was worth it's weight in gold!
3.  Dirty Laundry...I don't mean the juicy kind!  These days, it seems like our clothes hamper is constantly overflowing.  No matter how many loads I do in a day, it' always fills back up at bath time.   It's maddening.  But it also reminds me how blessed we are to have  an abundance of clothes (enough, even to sustain my family through my sometimes less-than-brief laundry-duty vacation lapses.  It is also evidence of the gift of an active lifestyle.  Jason's and my gym dedication doubles our daily laundry contribution (and Jason's physical job often triples it!).  It also helps me realize what a blessing it is to own a washing machine...if I dread doing laundry this way, I can't IMAGINE what washing everything by hand would be like!

Day 6: Three Gifts Sweet

1.  Kisses from Berkley (pictured left)...my first niece just turned 10 months old, and gives the sweetest (and wettest) kisses EVER.  I received my first one this past weekend and it instantly melted my heart.

2.  Maylee's hands...my second niece is barely one month old, and has the sweetest, most delicate hands.  There is something amazing about tiny, perfectly formed fingers that don't yet know what they're capable of...

3.  Cotton Candy...random, I know.  But I LOVE it.  I feel a little guilty that it's the one thing I want if ever we find ourselves at a circus or arena-type venue.  Grown-ups aren't supposed to go for that kind of thing, right? At least now I have 2 kids, so I can buy it for them (wink, wink).  Mmmmmm..."Spun Sugar"...it sounds like the magical product of a fairy tale! 

Day 5: Three Gifts Silver

1.  A pretty,  bird ornament I found while the kids and I were decorating the tree last weekend.  I had completely forgotten all about it, until I flipped it over and read a little tag on the bottom..."To: Angela, From: Julie  Thanks for the knitting lessons--2012"...Yes, its only been one year, but I had forgotten all about it.  (And that I had helped teach Julie how to knit.)  And it was such a sweet surprise/reminder and totally made me smile)

2. Linings...I'm most always an optimist.  And spending time thinking of blessings--be they spiritual, material, or memorial reminds me daily what a blessing that is.  The ability to focus on the good (in spite of the bad) truly is a gift, and I believe a huge source of achieving contentment.

3.  New Friends..."Make new friends, and keep the old.  One is silver and the other, gold."  (Shout out to my former girl scouts)  I am blessed to have made (and kept) many friends in my life.  I'm amazed at the way that even at 33, God can still introduce "new" friends in my life, who very quickly can become invested and integral to my life.  While I have some extremely special "old" friends with whom deep ties and bonds of friendship have been forged, some of my closest friends are also "newbies" (who I have a feeling will be earning their "gold" status in due time)