Day of Peace and Rest

Hi friends!
Most of you know 'my life': that it consists of nearly constant busyness and lots of to-and-fro. And that my house is typically full of people, at all times. Well...I thought I would share a little bit of what REALLY recharges me - a little slowdown.

Sunday night we stayed home as a family, made pizzas, and watched Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (which is now Mark's favorite movie). Monday morning I woke to Bella complaining that her eye hurt, and her eyelid began to swell. At some point in the day I learned that an ice storm was coming to town, so I made the decision to stay in and off the roads. The storm never materialized. So we spent the day cooking, baking, cleaning, doing some school, nursing Bella and sewing. When Mark got home, I had made a big pot of my Minestrone soup, that I haven't made in ages. We also ate about a hundred cookies that were left from our Christmas Party. We spent the evening doing a puzzle and playing Uno with the kids. After the kids went to bed, I continued to sew while Mark played on the internet. This morning, Bella's eye was worse, and we woke up and watched a taped Christmas movie - and this afternoon we are home doing some school and laundry.

You might this is a boring, waste of time type of day, but it is completely RARE in our life. As much as feel blessed and honored that God has chosen HFH for our family's work, it can be ridiculously exhausting and painful at times. I am just thankful today that God has given us a moment's peace and rest - in the midst of our life.

Blessings!
Mylissa

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Channeling Grandma Abraham

The famous Grandma Abraham chocolate roll...10 billion calories but really yummy!!

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Where in the world...

not that you were actually wondering, but I have been 'absent' from blogging to attempt to get ready for Christmas! We are headed to NY to spend Christmas with Nonny Margaret, and we will leave here Dec 20th. Before then I needed to finish all of my Christmas projects (not done yet) plan a small party or two, and order the kids' gifts to be sent to New York. And buy everyone a few more warm things, as my husband assures me it will be snowy and cold up there :) (the last Christmas were up there, it was 50 the whole time).


Here are a couple of the completed projects:

Funky little burpy cloths for baby Meena (cousin Nicole's baby that will be born close to Christmas)

Set of 6 placemats and napkins for my brother's family



Dishtowel set for Andy and Ginny's new house. There is an embroidered G on there, for Gross...but you can barely see it. bad choice of thread color on my part! Still learning...but enjoying it!

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Rejoice!

Happy Birthday Poppy Joe!!! We love you.

Hi all!

I intended to write a post today to ask for your prayers. Although I would still love it if you would pray, primarily I would love to share how God is meeting Mark and I right in the midst of trouble this day.

First of all, I won't go into great detail, but Mark and I are experiencing stress and pressure in really all areas of our ministry life right now. We have children that we have loved dearly that are in the process of dying, we are at that point in the year when churches renew their funding (and with the economy we know our funding will likely decrease), we are experiencing some struggles within our team...and yet some great advances as well. Of course, as we close in on the holidays, we are missing Gary (Mark's dad) more every day. I can't begin to imagine how Margaret must feel - and it hurts us to be away from her.

Yesterday, Gretchen posted a few new items she had created that were for sale. I quickly contacted her and told her I wanted to purchase this:























I just love it, and it gave me joy right away. And just to know that my sweet friend made it makes it all the better. Last night, when Mark came home from his men's group, he grabbed my OLD Streams in the Desert devotional off the shelf. He had bought it for me when I was pregnant for bella. We read through some of the prayers that I had written in there several years ago, and it gave us peace. This morning, I grabbed it off the bedside table and found this for November 20:

Blessed is he that waiteth. Daniel 12:12

Wait in faith. Express your unstaggering confidence in Him. Believe that if He keeps you tarrying even till midnight, yet He will come at the right time; the vision shall come, and shall not tarry.

Obviously the waiting part is so timely, but this: "the vision shall come and shall not tarry" is taken from Habbakuk 2:3, which happens to be one of the verses the Lord spoke to Mark through a Garifuna woman in Honduras in 2005 (call mark if you want to hear that story!).

And then I sat down and read over Mark's shoulder; he has been faithful to move forward in reading the bible cover to cover this year. The Psalm today was Psalm 118:19-27

Open for me the gates of righteousness;
I will enter and give thanks to the LORD.
This is the gate of the LORD, through which the righteous may enter.
I will give you thanks, for you answered me;
you have become my salvation.
The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone;
the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

O LORD, save us; O LORD, grant us success.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD.
From the house of the LORD we bless you.
The LORD is God, and he has made his light shine upon us.
With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession up to the horns of the altar.

So I wake this morning knowing that the Lord is with us, that He reigns, and His peace and rest is with me.

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New HFH Site

The new Habitat for Hope site is finally up!!

HUGE thanks to Chris from 1Perspective, and to Robin Cornett for so many of the pictures.

There will be tweaks here and there, but we are so glad it (pretty much) done!

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Special Mom, Special Kid

If you've known me for a while, you will know that special kids have a special place in my heart. Moms of special kids have an extra-special place in my heart :). Today I found this on Heather Bailey's blog and I was so impressed. Heather is a pretty busy woman, and to take the time to ease her daughter into this by creating something really cool...she inspires me.

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My Precious Girl

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