Happy New Years!!!

New Years is a time of New Beginnings. Being a Christian I can't get around the fact that God has given us the opportunity to begin again through His new life. 2 Corinthians 5:17 states "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (BTW the rest of the chapter is great, but it would be too long) AMEN! God has taken our old selves with all the sin and recreated us into something new that can change and be changed.
So now here I am in my human attempt to make some changes in my life that will cause me to be better. I do this with the understanding that most likely I will fail, but with God's help I will be able to be the person He wants me to be and I want to be.

Resolutions:
#1 Drink less DP in order to create a healthier body and lose some weight
#2 Read my Bible each and every day
#3 Try to do more crafty things for myself and with my boys

I probably could do a few more, but they say to do things that you can accomplish. So it's your turn. Tell me what yours are.

Happy New Year!! May God bless you and your family this year with wonderful memories.

Views of Christmas

We tortured our children this year by making them wait until the afternoon to open presents. Actually I think it was more torture for the grandparents.

Asher the Basher

I am amazed that are tree has survived this year. Asher likes to press his boundaries and the tree was one of those places. Here he is in action. He just loved the beads too much.

Meeting of the minds

Festival of Lights - Riverside

In downtown Riverside there is an inn called Mission Inn. It is rather famous and has had many well known people stay there including a few presidents. Needless to say they have beautiful lights around this time of year. Here is a picture of our boys in front of a gorgeous tree. You can tell Aiden was really excited about it.

One of the reasons I love Southern California

The first picture is what I picked. The second picture shows how many are still on the tree.

They add so much color to our house.

There are many reasons to not like So Cal, and I am sure that traffic has to be the number one complaint. In spite of the negatives I find the positives. In our backyard we have three fruit trees, orange, lemon, and avocado. Two of the three produce for us and we are trying to figure out why the avocado does not. Here are some pictures from the lemon tree. I noticed today that they were ready to be picked. Here are the fruits of our tree.This is the orange tree. It is almost ready.

Christmas Open House

I love throwing parties. I enjoy watching people interact and having my friends meet other friends. This season I decided to throw an open house and invite all of my friends that I know (in the area) without the constraint of being here at a certain time or leaving at a certain time. I wanted to be a place for people to come have a little fun and move on. We had a small group come, and we had a blast. It was so great. Here is a picture of the boys with their Uncle J.

Concert

So this week I had the unique opportunity to go out all by myself....no side kicks. Where does a mom go when she has no kids? Well, the spa would have been nice, but instead I went to a Christmas concert starring Michael W. Smith. It was great, but even better was getting to see Melinda Doolittle. Now for those of you who keep up with American Idol will know who she is. She got to the #3 spot and then received the boot. It was very exciting. I was really into that season, but have yet to follow it again. Why, then, you ask was I so into it? Melinda and I went to high school together. Yes, we were friends. We sang in the Union Avenue Singers (Union high stands proud forever, loyalty rides high. Memories forget them never as the years go by, friends we make from year to year watch as goals are reached. Union high will always be dear to our memory). It was fun to see how she has gone so far. I am proud of her and what God has done with her life. Go Melinda!

Addresses

Ok all who would like a card from the Atchisons must send their addresses or otherwise do not complain about how I don't keep in touch.

It's been one of those days

It's been one of those days. I had a rather frustrating day at work. Then I run to get the kids from a friend who graciously watched them while Adam had a meeting in Claremont. While I was feeding one, Avery decided to show his muscle by throwing a baseball over the fence which hit the nearby window. After dealing with a hysteric child who did not want to face his issue we went to the apartments to give our information and see what we need to do. Then we head to Target to get diapers because we had none. Home by 5 to cook dinner and then here I am ready for kids to be in bed and the magic fairy to clean up dinner, do the laundry and straighten the once clean house. I know many of you have had one of those days. I grab a Dr. Pepper and my Bible and turn to James. Here is what I read "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

Ok, so, before I could finish the blog, I was on the phone w/ my dad and I was away from the computer and my Bible...only to find out that Asher (whom Aiden has nicknamed so appropriately, Basher) had destroyed (i.e. eaten) several pages...Adam tells me there is a prophetic act--an OT (Elisha or Ezekiel) and a NT (Rev) reference-- to eating the scrolls (i.e. Scriptures), literally.

Back to the point. I know my trials are not horrible nor are they even a little bad. They are minor, but they are still my trials in which God is teaching me how to persevere because He desires me to be more mature.

Thank you Jesus for loving me enough to want me to grow in my faith in you. I wish that the hard things would go away, yet I know that they are what keep me glued to you. Help me to see that I am completely and utterly dependent on you. Help me to see the big picture and know that in reality my life is a dream. There are so many others who face far greater battles each day and here I am complaining about mine. Yet you still love me no matter what I do or say. What a peace to know I have nothing to offer and you require nothing more than myself. Amen.

Piano Recital

Avery had his first piano recital yesterday and I even got to participate.