Paul Fredrick Holiday Travel Tips!

Friends! I am looking down at my desk calendar and I cannot believe the Holidays are finally here! It's so crazy how it sneaks up on you isn't it!? Are you ready?! Wait, am I? I don't know about you, but I always have a habit of planning at the very last minute when it comes to getting prepared for the holidays, it's a habit I desperately need to kick! 

Lucky for me and you, Paul Fredrick, a fine attire of Men's clothing including an array of suits, dress shirts, pants, sweaters, you name it for the sharp dressed men in our lives contacted me with some helpful hints on being prepared for the upcoming Holidays, travel-wise! While our family only "travels" down a few country roads to our Thanksgiving/Christmas destination, we do have family who usually travel a good ways to get to us! I can just imagine the panic of staring down into my suitcase without one thought of where to start when it comes to packing things just so.. and neatly at that! Paul Fredrick wants to share with us their helpful travel tips today, I hope you will make your way to their blog page HERE to get the inside scoop, I know I sure don't want to miss out on some great advise!

Paul Fredrick also wanted me to share some of my Holiday travel tips, but since we aren't the traveling kind of folks, I decided to prepare a list of Holiday tips for being prepared here at home, I may leave a few out and if I do share them with me please I just may need it! So here are my Holiday Tips guys!

1. Don't Stress. Easy for me to say right? Holidays have to be the absolute most stressful times of the year, even worse since the idea of Black Friday came along! I hate to ruin the holiday mood simmering in the jolly pot, but Holidays are very much different than a few years back that I can remember. They are glammed up to such extremes these days the sole desires of our hearts are in these material things we think we must possess/give to make the Holidays just perfect for example:

Although the Ham and Turkey are indeed pretty important pieces to serve on the dinner table, if we don't get to it first in line you can bet we are going to have a holiday throw down at the local grocery store! At least that's how it pretty much rolls down here in the South. Not only that, it's important for us to have the best looking Christmas Tree fashioned with yards of ribbon, tinsel for days, the best of the best gifts nestled beautifully underneath it's whimsical branches lite to the max- all the while we forget just what/who the Holidays are all about don't we?

I know it's hard guys, I can just see myself scrapping the shelf for that one last pack of frozen pie shells for that genius Pinterest inspired dessert I will most likely wait until the last minute to "whoop up" but don't forget the importance of that special time we need to spend with our families, friends, spouses, co-workers. Holidays bring instant joy, share that happiness with your folks, show them that they are the reason Holidays are joyful!

2. Write It Down. Another thing that can add stress I can imagine, is knowing exactly what will go down on the very day of our Holiday exstravaganzas! Do these sound familiar: Who all is coming to Thanksgiving/Christmas Dinner? Do I even have a head count? Someone has a baby that will need a high chair, am I right? Oh, I know what main course foods I generally cook, but what was that dessert I made last year that was the highlight of the sweets?? Did you think to write it down on paper? It's a good idea if you haven't friends! Not only will it help you to logically prepare for all your Holiday must haves, but making lists and making notes are great ways to keep a record for the next Thanksgiving/Christmas to come. Just a thought.

3. Enjoy. Notice what word resounds at the end of the word Enjoy. Joy. Make that word echo loudly in your hearts this Holiday Season. Don't worry about getting everything done, when all else fails, if the turkey comes out blackened, a koolaid faced kid ramshacks your dessert table, Lord forbid you got punched in the snout for snatching up the last can of cranberry slices, the company of family and friends are generally always there and if they aren't there are people out there who will make you at home to their traditions and such. Also, make it a point in your day to Give. Give love, give hope to those people we see who have nothing but the skin on their backs most importantly, give with ALL your heart, that's how it counts!

I want to thank Paul Fredrick for contacting me and allowing me to share their wonderful Holiday Travel Tips to you guys! I love sharing great ideas, so when opportunities like Paul Fredrick come along, it's a given that I must share with my readers! I do hope you will make your way down Paul Fredrick's lane, they just may have that hint you haven't thought of so far for your travels! Not to mention, they may just have that perfect suit or tie for Holiday party/get together you and your husband will be attending! So go ahead, check them out, you won't be sorry!

Have A Safe and Lovely Thanksgiving Guys!

Eucharisteo.

Oh, I just adore Sundays. I look forward to them so much, I find rest in these day marks, I find so much rest in Jesus.

November blooms have been the sweetest yet. I have picked so many pickin's for my little medicine bottle flower vases and such that I have ran all out of prettys and have began asking my MIL for her November blooms, honest. I just can't get enough of this season, this season that I have escaped into bittersweet simplicity. The Lord is teaching me the meaning of true Eucharisteo: the greek word to mean, he gives thanks.

I will admit I gained this new food for thought from my newest page turner, Ann Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts. It seeps conviction right into your soul with every page turned, her stories, the pain and scenario's that she bore, the questions she begged for reasoning from God.. they come right at home for me. I read through her stories so far and can't help but compare them to pains my loved ones have suffered as well in a sense, instances when I myself sought after God's reasonings in my everyday strif goings of life, and I am inspired as she is to write down my one thousand gifts from God down with pen and paper. The good and the bad, the happy and the sad, the complicatedness and the simpleness of this world and I am again reminded that darkness comes before light and good always prevails against evil. 

I am reminded that when I give thanks for even the microscopic, I make a place for God to grow within me.

Grow within me.

I never put into perspective all this time of thinking I knew God so well, that my very saving is associated with the gratitude I express to Him on a daily basis. And I just want to thump the side of my head for overthinking or should I say not thinking at all about the big picture?

Looking back, it's expressed numerous times in the bible of giving thanks, so why now am I coming to realization of this new word: Eucharisteo? It's because I underestimated His love for me, there I said it.

Our God is a just God, but He is also a very loving God and boy am I feeling His grace enfolding me nowadays. I am learning so much about that tongue winding word, the divine purpose behind giving thanks and I love to write down my Eucharisteo's everyday. I seek in finding my gifts whether it be #63. Tea stained boilers or #89. Warm greasy popcorn on fingertips or #94. Grandma B's giddyness, when I run out of new found gifts I sit and wait on more to come to mind, to heart. It's a beautiful thing naming and acknowledging to our maker the wonderful things/people that He brings to our lives on an every day basis. It takes the stinch out of the pains of this world and gives the mind something to give glory to rather than give grief or anger.

If you are struggling or dealing with some issues going on in your life, I encourage you to find refuge in this book. I promise, you will find peace and comfort, you will be able to more fully point out your blessings more than your problems after reading just a couple of chapters. Take out a pen and paper, and write down your gifts may they be big or small, even if your unsure if they are even a gift, I can bet they are.

I am thankful for the gift of this beautiful Monday and the heart of our veterans, what gifts can you give name to today?

Joy Filled Home.

I LOVE the month of November. It's filled with so much thankfulness, colors, traditions, family and love. Not to mention it's one of the most cozy-est months of the year! If you haven't already, I encourage you to join in on this months Instagram picture challenge brought to us by Nicole from Bloom and Michaela from MichaelanoelleDesigns. Every day we will post photos from our home each day expressing our thankfulness of this and that, I just know the Lord is going to bring so much conviction to our hearts about the blessings we overlook in our home on a daily basis. 

This morning, I posted this picture of my "favorite room" in our home. I can't verbally express what this room means to me. All I can do is list simple words that describe it: Love, Comfort, Jesus, Haven, Relaxation.

 It is the place where we step out of our shoes into each others arms on the sofa each night after a long day at work apart, it is a man movie with popcorn while I enjoy a nap in my husbands lap before bedtime, it is where I do my journaling, drift away from reality to Coldplay,  bible study with God, and where friends and family gather when they visit.

I love this room and the love that flows from it, the instant sigh of awe when we open the blinds to let the sunshine in on Sunday afternoons after church is so humbling. For us, it is home.

So.. do your heart a favor and jump in on this challenge! You can find more information HERE and don't forget to use the hashtag #joyfilledhomechallenge to all of your photos!