Spreading Christmas Cheer!

Decorating for Jesus's Birthday

I decorated the house, well in my case the living room for Christmas on Sunday. I get a little overwhelmed when the whole house is involved so I just stick to the living room. It always feels so cozy with the lights on. Plus I like to change things up a bit every once in a while. This gives me an excuse to do it. Mark hates to put up the tree and decorations so therefore he doesn't get involved. (So Kyle's theory on putting up the lights isn't true in the Downs household.) It does get me in the mood for Christmas. I spent some time today shopping for a project we are working on for a men's prison in Henryville. If you know me at all, you know I love to make thing "cutesy" and I found it quite challenging to pick out items for a gift bag for men. I threw in some Slim Jim's, does that make it manly?????? We'll be looking for help to put them together in the near future so if you feel like getting together and making some cute, I mean manly gift bags let me know.

Head of the Class

I'm such a sap, I always cry at Hallmark movies. I just watched one called Head of the Class. It was about a teacher who had Turret's Syndrome (sp?). It was one of those movies that just encouraged you. It made me remember why I teach (that can be hard to remember this time of year) and how much I can learn just by embracing my situation. No matter what it is. I love a good "cry " movie. Mark thinks I'm crazy when I say that! Anyway...........I would recommend the movie if you ever get a chance to see it.

TGIF

Thank Goodness It's Friday! School is always CRAZY this time of year. I'm ready for a good break!
Speaking of this time of year, I can't believe how quickly this year has gone. I remember planning a trip to Italy for the future and now that has come and gone. It was quite an exciting year, with Bosnia and Italy and all. I just love to travel so all in all I can say it was great! It just happened sooooooooooo fast.
As this year winds down and as the Christmas season comes upon us I keep trying to figure out ways to share the gift of Christ with others. This may be more difficult now than other times of the year. I just returned from Kohl's and I am amazed at how grouchy people can be when they Christmas shop. I tend to do almost all of my shopping online so I haven't been to the stores during Christmas in a long time. I'm just not cut out for it. I'm weak........I don't have that shopping gene or something.
I've also been putting together some Christmas treats for friends. I was sent a recipe for "Dangerous Chocolate Cake." It is made in a mug, in the microwave. I thought I would buy some cute mugs and make this. So after buying stock in mugs yesterday I came home and tried the recipe. Well......................I suppose maybe I should have tried the recipe before I bought the mugs because the cake was AWFUL. It was so bad that I feel bad for the person who sent it out. It was from a fellow FACS teacher and being that FACS is so closely related to Home Ec. everybody think we can cook really well. This recipe would have proved otherwise. :-) So it looks like I'll be putting together something else, just not sure what yet. If you have any great ideas let me know. I know some of you are SUPER creative!

I wish I were better at jounaling and keeping up with my blog. I never know how or what to write about, but I suppose this is the only way I'm going to learn. So let's see.........Mark and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving. My dad, Beth and grandma Betsy came down as usual. We always have such a great time. We spent Thanksgiving day with Mark's family. It is fun having our families together for the holiday. I know most people would think......."Oh my, both families together," but ours get along great. We skipped the shopping (thank goodness) on Friday and spent a lot of the day playing Wii with my dad and Beth. Grandma Betsy just cheered us on. We laughed so much. The whole weekend was rejuvinating.
Obviously, this time of year makes me think about the things I am thankful for. It's easy sometimes to think about the things I wish were different, but sometimes it's hard to pin point what you are thankful for. I'm going to try and pin point some of those things here:
Jesus Christ paying for my sin.
A family who loves me and my husband and who gets along so well with Mark's family.
Friends that I can be open with and who hold be accountable.
Having a beautiful place to freely worship God.
A warm home that God lets me use.
Two sweet cats (even though one of them pukes all of the time.)
Grandmothers who are still alive and that I can spend time with.
A husband who loves the Lord and me.
A job that lets me impact the world.
The freedom to go on mission trips.
Financial Peace
New babies- not my own yet, but all that I have learned from friends who have new babies
Man, I guess this list can go on and on.
"Thank you Lord for all of the blessings you have placed in my life. I want to take this time to thank you especially for all of the people you have put in my life that provide so much support, guidance, accountability and encouragement. Thank you especially for those "God Girls" that live out their lives with you in mind. They keep me on track and I need that."

The down side of teaching!

I love teaching, I'll admit, some days are better then others, but I love teaching. One thing I don't like are all of the little germs that float around a school. You would think the middle schoolers would know what a kleenex is, but they don't. Inevitably I end up sick once a year, usually just a cold or something minor. Not this year, this year I got strep throat and I am down for the count. I haven't had this since I was a kid. All I can say in NO FUN!
So, if you would send up a get well prayer for me it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks...........you guys are great!

Who would have thought?

What a crazy weekend. I don't think Mark and I sat down for more than 10 minutes! :-) It was one of the best weekends we have had in a long time though. Friday we got to take our niece to see Peter Pan at Floyd Central. If you aren't familiar with Floyd Central High School Drama you are missing out. Their productions are always outstanding. On Saturday morning we got up and went to the decision guide training as mentioned in the prior post. Obviously I really enjoyed that. That afternoon we headed out to church so Mark could rehearse for orchestra. I got a chance to spend some time with the girls who have been staying with us since Thursday. Estie and Brittney were here for the medical missions health conference. I just had a blast with these girls. After service and discover groups (where GOD totally did His thing and ministered to some of our group members who are really going through some tuff stuff) we got to take the girls to dinner and really get to know them. What a great time. We ended that night with the girls and I staying up and watching a movie. On Sunday, Mark was playing at church and I stayed home to sleep in and get lunch ready for the girls and Mark when they returned from church. I made my first ever pot of chicken noodle soup. I'm not really a soup person, but I have to say it was pretty good. We got to share a lunch with the girls and they left. That afternoon we had our first meeting with the outreach team for the Indiana campus. I am so excited about what God is going to do. I just know he has something BIG in store for southern Indiana! Our weekend finished with the last fall weekend bible study with the Indiana campus members. As you can see, it was a busy weekend and a very "church" oriented weekend, but one of the best yet. I'm still on a high from it.

Life

Mark and I had so much fun this morning. We went to a training to be a decision guide at church. (For the new campus) We never knew it would be so much fun. We met some new people and really learned a lot about sharing your faith and leading people to Christ. We had to practice sharing the plan of salvation the same way we would at church as a decision guide. We had a lot of laughs as we made up different characters and scenarios that could come up in that situation. In a way it's kind of scary to share your faith, but after this training I'm so excited to get started. (Thank you Lord for the encouragement this morning!)

New To This

OK, so I'm trying this out. Not that I have a baby to blog about, but I really enjoy reading my friends blogs so i wanted to jump on the bandwagon. So the goal is that I will keep this updated with what is going on in the oh so exciting life of Mark and Betsy Downs. Oh yeah, I can't forget about Noot and the new addition of the feline variety, Bootsie. So here it goes, I'm off, on my way to blog land. Lets see if I keep it up!