my word for the year

Ali Edwards is a digital scrapbook rockstar whose blog I have read for years now. Every January she picks a word that she uses to be her focus for the year...sort of a word to guide her priorities, choices and attention. Last year I tried this, but I chose four words, and honestly, that just isn't that effective. This year she wrote a beautiful post about the word she chose and why she chose it. And recently she posted a huge list of words to choose your own word from.

So I read through the list, and the first time through the list the words that stood out for me were: relax, calm, renew, and peace. But see, that's four words again. And honestly, not one of them really sums it up.

Yesterday in church we sang a song we have sang a lot lately. It's a slower song that sings the words of the 23rd psalm moving into a chorus that sings slowly, "And I will trust in you alone. And I will trust in you alone. Your endless mercy follows me. Your goodness will lead me home."

And I found my word: trust.

The roots of this word are found in my relationship with Christ, and it brings peace to my heart, renewal, rest and causes me to breathe deeper and relax.

If you'd like to listen to a version of the song from church, click here.

snow drifts in nebraska

The thing we are still getting used to in Nebraksa is the wind. It is amazing. Even in the summer it is impressive how windy it can get with no buildings or hills or mountains to block it. This winter the wind has given us three blizzards.

Blizzards move the snow around so some areas are left without a whole lot of snow. But wherever the snow is collecting it can make some impressive drifts. We drove down this road today, a few blocks from our house, and had to get out to take some pictures. I'm only in there for perspective but based on the fact that I am 5' 10'', those are some large snow piles.

Believing God kick off day

Today is the day we begin Believing God! If you're interested in joining, please do. You can go to this site to register.

Today's task is simple: Just log into your account on this page, print the listening guide and watch the 60 minute video. When you click on "View Video," six segments will appear next to the icon, and you click on each segment one at a time. When I clicked on the first segment, I had a pop-up blocker. This is a yellow strip at the top of the screen...click on the yellow strip and scroll down to, "always allow pop-ups from this site." Hopefully that will do the trick. Then go back and click on first segment again and enjoy!

I have started a google group to organize all of our conversation. If you haven't been invited to join, and would like to be, email me at beccagroves (at) gmail.com and I'll add you to the list.

fun and games

template by the great Jessica Sprague and supplies from Crystal Wilkerson

A few Christmas' ago, Stumblebum was introduced to the Groves Family Christmas. Lisa brought it, and I remember the game made for the best pictures. We played again this year, and clearly the picture taking opportunities did not disappoint.

The game is easy. It is your basic game of charades, but before you act out your list of words, you roll two dice. On each die there are different things you have to do while acting out your card such as fingers crossed, hand over eyes, hand on head, eyes closed, hum a song, on one leg etc...

I recommend this game for families that need a full participation game for all ages.

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I am trying to get my christmas pictures into digital layouts right away. Digital scrapbooking is so quick, and I am beginning to utilize ready-made templates. It means that the Stumblebum layout above took me about 15 minutes to put together...not bad for getting so many pictures showcased on one page.

The template I used is up at http://www.jessicasprague.com/ as a free download. Plus, Jessica has a video tutorial of how to use the template right on that main page (just scroll down). If you have Photoshop or if you have ever wanted to get a better idea of how digital scrapbooking works, I recommend you buzz over to Jessica's website to watch the tutorial. I think you'll be glad you did.

crushes and boyfriends

I recently had a conversation with a friend who I grew up with at church. She's in college and she's got a crush. She told me every detail of every encounter she has had with this boy. And as she talked I got so excited for her and my tummy started tying itself in knots. And I felt giddy and nervous and hopeful and so happy for her.

It made me think of how fun crushes are. Every single thing she told me brought me back to that place where I would look for any excuse to "need" to call Rory. Or how I would check my email every three minutes just to see if he had dropped me a line that day.

It's amazing how comfortable I am with him now...so much so that I forget to date him. When we were on our 6600 mile road trip a year ago, we downloaded a lot of Dr. Laura. This is a radio program where people call in with their marriage/parenting/relationship issues and Dr. Laura basically tells them the very blunt truth about how they are messing up their lives. We didn't agree with everything she said, but honestly, she's got some good and painful things to say to the world and it made for fabulous car entertainment and the best conversation starters you could ever hope for while driving across the country.

I mention Dr. Laura only to say that she makes a big deal to tell women they need to be their husband's girlfriend. Even while happily married, they need to do all the fun girly things they did to get their husband's attention while dating. (and she has advice for husband's too, but now I'm just talking about the wives...) I hung up the phone with this friend, so excited that she's smitten, and decided I am going to kick it up a notch. I'm going to be Rory's girlfriend again.