Women's Retreat!!

Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you'll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ. Col.3:3 The Message




This weekend was our Women's Retreat!! I have never been on any of our church's Women's Retreats before and I was a little nervous/but excited! My roommate got the stomach bug the night before we were supposed to leave, so I was a little bummed about that! It was good though that it came before- instead of at the retreat- that would've been really bad!! The retreat was at the Children's Harbour on Lake Martin in Alexander City (about an hour and a half away)!! It was the most gorgeous weekend!! We had an awesome speaker and it was like the message was just for me!! God was so good!! He knew exactly what I needed and I could not have been more blessed!! We have such sweet, amazing women at our church and it was so nice just to hang out with them!! There was laughing, sweets, hand-made flower pins, smores and a campfire, laughing, chatting, flowers, beautiful scenery, door prizes, laughing, crying, hugging, testamonies, singing, and worshipping!! It was so fun and I am so glad I went!! I even won a special door prize- a little painting that our pastor wife painted!! She is a very talented artist (some of her things are at The Nesting Place in Cahaba Heights)! I have always wanted one of her paintings!! :) I am already looking forward to next year's retreat!!


On the way home I see this...

Amen.

This Little Light of Mine!!

I LOVE this song!! Just thought I'd share- it just gives me hope!! Right now, I am just swamped! I feel behind in every area of my life and it's a little overwhelming!! Between all the sicknesses and laundry and housework and school papers to grade and appointments and projects I feel like I might just give up!! I am hoping/praying that over spring break some of these things might get tackled!! It's only 3 weeks away!! WooHoo!! Boy am I ready! :)

Valentine's Recap!

I can't believe it's been almost a week since Valentine's Day!! I just love Valentine's Day!! I was so sad to take down my beautiful Christmas decorations that this year Francie and I got our craft on and started to make Valentine's decorations!! We got a pom-pom maker and made pink and red pom-poms in a garland to decorate the mantel! We also found an "I Love You" banner at Michael's and we made a heart paper chain!! During a couple of our snow days decorated felt heart ornaments with jewels and glitter for our tree in the dining room!! It was so fun making things with Francie she loves crafts like her momma!! It really got me more excited about Valentine's Day and helped ease the winter time blues!!




























This year was a really special Valentine's Day!! Clint and I got to go out on a date to our favorite place The Tavern!! There was no line/ no waiting! It was so nice to just relax together and talk and laugh! Then we went to get dessert and coffee at the Cheesecake Factory!! Nothing says "Happy Valentine's Day... I love you" like Red Velvet Cheesecake!! Delish!! Will and Francie stayed with my mom and dad and ended up having a wonderfully special time too!! Mom and Dad took them to The Waffle House (a Cvacho household favorite)! The Waffle House had it decorated for Valentine's Day -there were white tablecloths, red napkins, and candlelight!! They loved it!! I always have a better time when I know my kids are having a great time too!!


Flowers from my Sweetie!!

Happy Valentine's Day, Silena!

I want the world, or at least the eight people that read this blog, to know that I love Silena more than anything in the whole world! However, Silena has a problem, and it's a pretty big one. You see, this beautiful girl doesn't know how beautiful and wonderful she really is. More than that, I can't fully convince her of my love for her. She is always scared that I am going to get tired of her and run away. She thinks that since we have now been married for eleven years and have been together for fourteen and a half years that I am going to get tired of her. How am I supposed to do that, Silena? People don't generally get tired of beauty. Why do you think we go to such great lengths to maintain works of art in museums? Why do people spend so much money to travel all over the world to see places of great beauty? Why have people been obsessed with the heavens since, well, there's been people?

Silena and I have built a story, a story that was written in the stars. A story that will never die. The first thing I ever did with Silena was take her to see a comet. When we officially began dating a comet visited earth (Hale-Bopp) that was so vibrant and visible that some rascals out in California took to worshiping it and killed themselves so they could be united with it. When I think of Silena, I think of the heavens:

when I looked into your eyes
and I saw every star up in the sky
well, I knew...
the meaning of true love.

Silena is everything good and beautiful about this world. She doesn't know it, but I will never get tired of proving myself to her:

we could look out on the sea,
and beyond even maybe
and I would tell you a story about my love.
underneath the stars and moon
I will whisper that someday soon
you will see that my love is as big as the sky.

That's pretty big, Silena. Someday you will see...I love you. Happy Valentine's Day!

The Meaning of Murdy Fox

My grandmother's step-father was a sawmill worker named Sam. It sounds like in a lot of ways Sam was about what you would think a sawmill worker would be like, but in a lot of ways he defied the stereotype as well. The most interesting people have a way of doing that, you know. Sam was part Cherokee and was born in Oklahoma when it was still Indian territory! This same guy lived to see man walk on the moon...and he understood the profound significance of that! He was a humble man who could be as big of a blow-hard as anybody. The story about Murdy's name is really about Sam, and it has been one of my favorite stories my grandmother has to tell.

Murdy Fox was an old spinster who was a family friend of Sam and my great-grandmother. One afternoon Sam was sent to pick Murdy up and bring her over to the house for dinner. You need to know something about Murdy at this point, she was legally blind and her vision was limited to recognizing different shades of light and vague shapes. I'm not sure why Sam was the one sent to pick her up because, apparently driving was not his strong suit.

On the way back to the house Sam began focusing on trying to change the radio station instead of driving. At one point the road hung a left but Sam didn't and the car pulled a Dukes of Hazzard into a cotton field where some sharecroppers were working. Sam started fighting the wheel and cussing like a sawmill worker while the sharecroppers started running and Murdy kept asking what was going on. Finally Sam managed to wrestle the car back onto the road and they made their way home.

When the story was told back at the house, Sam proclaimed, "it's a good thing I'm such a good driver or me and Murdy could have died!" Sam was an interesting dude...and Murdy is immortalized by a hound dog.

First...

1 Corinthians 13:1-10

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled. ~The Message

Amen. PTL!! (These are our memory verses at school for the month of February)!