Busy, busy + a look at Thankgiving

Life is crazy right now.  Like super crazy.

I've got a whole sloe of posts planned, but not written, wouldn't you know.  In the meantime, here's a few pictures of my family from Thanksgiving.  My sister, Dalayna, blogs at Pointing Up and these are her creations.

Hope you enjoy.

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a Very Special Edition of Sister Talk

This week I got to spend quite a bit of time with my sisters and I loved every minute of it.  Here is a brief look at the Sisterhood in my family.  (Our sister in law is missing, but you may remember here from this edition.)


I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I want to wish you a Merry Christmas.  I'm sure you're aware, but it's Cyber Monday.  You should check out Outfit Additions.  They're got a sale going on that's oh so sweet.  The sale ends today so make sure you get in on it.

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a Week of Thanksgiving...Tiffany Cutcliff

Hello.  My name is Tiffany Cutcliff and I blog at The Dwelling Tree.  I write about life and family.  I'd love to have you stop by and send a greeting.

I am so thankful to Danette for having me! I have been a follower of her for a while now and am amazed at her creativity, vision, and ability to bring other bloggers into the spotlight. She is very generous! 

In keeping with the theme of gratitude, I am delighted to write a post about this subject. 

Isn't it amazing how fast our lives become complicated and heavy? Even if we have a roof over our head and food on the table, we have other things to worry about as well. Broken relationships, failure, and loneliness can plague our hearts. I have often made the same mistake over and over, or have regretted something I have done and wish I could turn back time. 

"...as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us." Psalm 103:12

Forgiven. A new start. I am free. 

This year, I am thankful for new beginnings. 

I have a past. My past contains many regrets I have and a trail of broken relationships, both romantically and non-romantically. To be painfully honest, I experienced a failed marriage in my early twenties. I truly believed in "till death do we part", but that didn't mean that I was exempt from experiencing a failed marriage. I thought I would never get my life back, and I hit an all time low. I viewed the world from rose-colored glasses and thought that giving my life to Christ prior to marriage meant having a joyful and blessed life. Divorce did not fit into that picture. 

I was about to find out that as a child of God I am not going to always have an easy life. Something I was going to learn was that God was the author of my life, that he walks with me through my heartache and pain, and that he could even turn my pain into a beautiful story. He is the God of New Beginnings, and he was going to give me my very own. 

See, my story went on. I found friends who loved me in my struggle, I found that God was with me every step of the way, and I eventually found love again. God redeemed my life and I enjoy a husband that is my best friend and I have a beautiful baby girl named Lillian. See, that isn't my new beginning though. I value my baby and husband more than I could express in words, but what God really wanted me to see was my New Beginning with Him! Jesus used my husband to build trust again, and my baby to show me what unconditional love is (as much as I even think I can understand)- all in an attempt to show me what He really did when He died on the cross. Jesus pardoned my sins as far as the east is from the west, and He gave me a new start. He promised me that he would renew my soul. He can fix broken relationships, failure, and loneliness. His promise of my New Beginning and the fact that he cleanses makes me more grateful than I could have ever imagined. 

What New Beginnings have you experienced this past year? Where has God renewed your life? 

May you have a wonderful Thanksgiving this year! 

"He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21:4

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a week of Thanksgiving...Dalayna Dillon

The warmth, the smell, the laughter in the air
today is Thanksgiving day.
You greet and smile, with plans to stay a while
but the day will all too soon come to an end.

This time of year you hold what's dear
in such a high regard.
The normal things that appear mundane
are the very things we are so glad to maintain.

It is easy to get caught up on all that we do not have,
we are people of want much more than people of need.
The things we have can soon be caught away
with other worries, concerns, and cares of the day.

But now we see, as we gather to be
together for just a short while,
that the things we want are not what we need,
the two are very different in fact.

As we gather today, to laugh and to play,
our hearts are more happy and won.
Won with gratitude and won with praise,
overflowing with joy and love.

Our thanks is not contained to a day or a date,
November the 22nd or 23rd, fouth, sixth, or the eighth.
No matter the day or season, we should always remember the reason
to count our blessings not our lackings
and give praise to God with a heart of thanksgiving.

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a Week of Thanksgiving...Lanie Luttrell

Hello, let me introduce myself. I am Lanie Luttrell from "Shoutin' It Loud" and let me just say I am SUPER excited to be here! Thank you so much, Danette, for giving me this opportunity to guest post. It is definitely an honor to post on one of my favorite blogs.

A couple things I am thankful for is God, Jesus, The Holy Spirit, the Bible, my family (including my pets), my church, friends (this includes your pets too!), my house, food, clothing, and showers. Now this may be the basics, but not everyone has the basic necessities. But there is a couple things I would like to share with you that I'm recently thankful for that has been radiating in my heart.

So lately I have been reading in the 4 gospels and something that has really been brought to my attention is when Jesus feeds several people with what looks like not enough. Every time the disciples ask if there would be enough, Jesus took the food and gave thanks and there would always be food left over after satisfying all the people in the crowd. (Mark 8:1-13)

There are several things you can pull from this story, but one thing I pulled out is the simple truth that He, God, is always enough. In fact, He is MORE than enough! When it looks like we won't have enough to get us through, we can still give thanks to Him for what we do have, and God will take care of us as long as we keep our eyes and heart on Him. That is another thing I am thankful for. Just remember, God will NEVER leave us, or forsake us!  

So anyway, Here is some more things I am thankful for that, well, isn't a need, but things I enjoy!

Music, my instruments (I practically collect them... there's so many!), my phone, the mall, my car Lulu, computer, twitter, Facebook, and last but definitely not least, my blog! 

Thank you so much All My Love for All My Days readers! I would love to hear back from you! Just comment below! 

Wanna come check me out, or at least... check out my blog?! Then here ya go!  http://lanieluttrell.blogspot.com/ 

I am thankful you read this :)

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a Week of Thankgiving...Lauren Frank

Hello all you lovelies! I'm Lauren and I blog over at Tutus & Tea Parties about parenting, crafting and some stuff in between. I'd love for you to come by and say hello!

Can you believe Thanksgiving is this week? I feel like the holiday rush has already started. Shopping, decorating, visiting family...stress! I always like to be sure that the season is celebrated for what it really is all about...being thankful! This Thanksgiving, I want to be extra certain to count my blessings. The Lord has given me so much to be thankful for this year and I want to make sure He knows how truly thankful I am!

If you follow me on Instagram, you will notice all month I have been posting a photo a day of what I am thankful for & today I would love to share some of those with you:

 My faith in my God! How awful life would be without Him.

 My hubby who always knows how to make me smile.

 These three kiddos who have such great hearts.

The relationship I have with my family. I love how close we are!

Friends who are so caring and would do anything for us.

I can go on and on about all the other things I'm thankful for...but these are the most important to me. Oh...and coffee!

  

Thanks you for having me here today Danette! 

 Don't forget to acknowledged all the things in your life you are thankful for this holiday season. If you want to see more of what I am thankful for I would love for you to follow me on Instagram. :)

Don't miss a thing, keep up with me here:

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Guest Post from Kim of Singedou[b]t and a giveaway

Hello friends of All My Love for All My Days!  

I am excited to be here today!  Thanks Danette for letting me hang out out here with your lovely readers!

My name is Kim and I blog over at Singledou[b]t.  I've been blogging for about a year or so, give or take a few months.  I blog about lots of things from my faith to my hobbies.  

I've been going back and forth for a week now on what I wanted to talk to you about. There is just so much going on in my life. 

I thought I'd spend some time talking about a few of the things I am thankful for.  We are definitely in that season so it seems more than appropriate. 

MY LORD

I am Christian. I have been since I was 13.  And like any relationship, I've had my ups and downs, my tantrums and demands, my awakenings and heaping tablespoons of humility.  In the 23 years I have been a follower of Christ, I have never stopped believing that I follow a God who loves me beyond my understanding and who wants so much more for me than I could ever imagine.

MY FAMILY

I, like most people, have an interesting and often crazy family, though small.  I have two parents who are still madly in love with each other and who support their kids no matter how they might disagree with them!  I can't imagine two better parents!

MY CHURCH FAMILY

I have been blessed to be a part of many churches in my 23 years as a believer.  Each one taught me something new about my Lord and myself.  I am now part of a new church plant, Trinity Grace Church Washington Heights. I am amazed every day at how amazing these people are

MY BEST FRIEND

Like churches, I have been blessed with some amazing girl friends in my life.  My sweet roommate and BESTEST OF THE BEST is my sister at heart and in Christ.  I feel truly blessed to have her on my side!

MY ART

I am a fickle creature.  My attention span can often be small but some things that stay true to who I am and what I love is my passion for creating.  Whether its my photography, my knitting, or some other random creation I am working on, I truly love figuring out how things work and how I can create it myself.  

Now these are just a few of the things I am most thankful for!  

What are you thankful for?  I'd love to hear them!

To say thank you to Danette and her followers, I am offering a giveaway!  I am giving away an item from my shop.  

Winner's choice of:

~ An infinity Scarf

~ A set of dish clothes or scrubbies

~ 2 Swiffer covers 

or

~ 1 8x10 photo from City Girl Photography

So get to entering and stop by and say hi to me over at Singledou[b]t.

BLOG | PHOTOGRAPHY | TWITTER | PINTEREST | ETSY | FACEBOOK

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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November Free Printable

I hope you enjoy this printable.  Please feel free to download and enjoy!

Download Here

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I dare you...

source

I have a good friend who also happens to be a licensed counselor.  She is blessed with the gift of truly speaking her mind and I love that about her, but it can be a bit scary sometimes.  I'll never forget the first time she came into my office.  I personally painted most of the artwork in the room because I wanted to make it my own creative outlet.  I do spend countless hours in there creating.

Being quite the artist herself she took the time to admire my work.  Her first comment was, "Oh, this piece is quite dark."

Can you imagine what's going through my mind?  "What does she mean by that?  Is that a good thing?  Does this painting reveal some negative secret about my personality that I don't even know?"

I didn't think the piece was dark.  I actually saw it--felt it--as warm.  In reflection, I might agree with her.  Instantly our mind thinks of dark as ugly.  But is it really?  Or is it in the dark times, in those times of intense trial, when the most beautiful artwork, melodies, lyrics, rhymes, sentences flow from the deepest cisterns of our hearts.

This is a hard lesson to learn.  To believe that their is beauty is pain and to believe that the pain will make us better.

I think that revelation will only happen when we choose to be thankful in the hard times.  I believe that revelation only dawns on our tired, cold hearts when we become thankful in the pain.

Last Saturday I was confronted with this message again during a women's Bible study.  Honestly, it caught me by surprise.  I came to "work" for my mom, but found myself enveloped in the teaching.

We watched this video from Ann Voskamp.  As I watched the video I immediately recognized Ann from a blog I read called A Holy Experience.  As I was watching this I was absolutely confronted with the beauty...with the joy...that comes from pain.  The book is called One Thousand Gifts.  And I've decided to take the challenge.  A challenge that should bring great change and definitely reflection.  A challenge to find 1,000 things, people, life experiences that I'm thankful for.

• I'm thankful for long beautiful walks where the sun lights the path.
• I'm thankful for colors that completely express all emotions.
• I'm thankful for smells as they overwhelm me taking me back to moments, good and bad, that have shaped my life.
• I'm thankful for coffee.  It makes me happy.
• I'm thankful for my mind because even though it's complicated and difficult and misunderstood most of the time, it's still mine.
• I'm thankful for my parents--for their silent and not so silent love, support and strength.
• I'm thankful for bad times because in all their difficulties they help me remember the good.
• I'm thankful to be in a community where there is love and respect.  Perfect?  No, but still a home.
• I'm thankful for the majesty of the ocean.  It's overwhelming and simple as the tide sweeps in and pulls out. Its gravity pulls me to its shore almost begging me to find life in the waves.
• I'm thankful for flying cardinal birds because they remind me of my great-grandfather and the legacy I have to live to.
• I'm thankful that God cares and loves me so deeply that He has written me on the palm of His hand as a constant reminder.

So that was my first day.  I'm sure there will be many more.  And really what a great time to stop and be thankful and to give to praise to whom it is do:  Jesus, the giver of life and the sustainer of my faith.

I've already asked you, Friend, what you are thankful for.  (here)  Many answered, but I think the challenge here is more than just a simple "I'm thankful for..."

The challenge is live a life of gratitude, thankful for the hardships, and choosing joy in pain.  It's definitely difficult, but so much more rewarding than staying in the meer of this nasty, hard life.  And believe me, life will be hard.  It takes work.

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I'm thankful for...

With the Thanksgiving holiday quickly approaching it comes to my mind that now, more than ever, is a time to truly be thankful.  

What are some of the things or people or places that you are thankful for?

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Have Dress--Will Travel

Did your grandparents ever watch that show Have Gun--Will Travel?  Mine did, and believe me, I've sat through many a western show.

So maybe I'm not a gun fighter, but I enjoy a good party and I'm not afraid to travel to go to one especially if it's a formal one.  I've always been a fan of gold.  And I'm not certain that there's another color on earth that says celebration nearly as much as gold.

I've put together a look that I would wear to a formal holiday party.  Truthfully, it's on the pricey side, but beautiful just the same.

Have Dress--Will Travel

it's a Holiday Formal Party

1/2/3/4

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