Forever Beloved - Faith, Love & Truth

November 28, 2019

Blogvember Day Twenty-Eight | Thankful

For a complete list of The Blogvember Challenge prompts, click HERE!

November 15 – Today is all about being thankful. Tell us what you’re thankful for!

When I think of what I’m thankful for, I’m certain I could fill this blog and four more. There are so very many things in my life that I’m incredibly thankful for. I’ll try my best to just hit the highlights and not make this horribly long.

First, I’m thankful for being a daughter of the King! He has had an apparent hand in my life from the beginning. I’m thankful that I can throw myself in a messy, teary heap at my Fathers feet and He doesn’t judge how big or little my mess is. He is always there for me, even at times in my life when I wasn’t there for Him. He never turned His back on me or abandoned me, and I know He never will.

I am extremely thankful for my love, Mr. Cutler. Oh, how I love this sweet man. Twenty-three years he’s walked through this crazy life beside me. I honestly have no idea what I would do without him. He has taken me to the hospital countless times on a moments notice and never complained once, sleeping in cars so he could still work the next day. He has sat in many a waiting room during a ridiculous amount of surgeries, even sleeping in one overnight with my babies. I’m certain he has spent countless hours worrying, but he would never tell me that. He has taken over all the household chores without hesitation when needed. He took on so much extra responsibility while my business skyrocketed and supported my choice in closing my business and retiring. He is always there with a hug and knows the right words to say. He is truly a very special man and I am blessed to have him in my life. My sweetest downfall.

I am thankful for having the most amazing, understanding, wack-a-loon, caring, full of love, funny-as-all-get-out (aka pee-my-pants-daily-laughing) babies. Together we are a far cry from normal but then again, what is normal anyways? I am truly blessed beyond blessed to have them in my life. Seriously, they are the best. Together these people have made me who I am and I wouldn’t be this person if it wasn’t for them. Thank you so very much for loving me (when I was unlovable) and teaching me (when I was bull-headed) and showing me (when you didn’t think I was looking) all that I ever needed to know. Today and every day I am thankful that I am a part of this family.

I am so extremely thankful for the most amazing parents ever. I’m so thankful God decided to give me to them 40ish years ago. I am so thankful for them showing me what a faithful walk with God looks like. I am so thankful for the millions and millions of things they do for us daily. Even a small act like bringing me my mail, keeping Spaghetti O’s on hand for my boy and when they would make sure there is ice cream in their freezer for my littles {and for Pap when Nan isn’t looking, ha}. They have poured into my littles lives and helped mold them into the amazing people they are today. The best decision I ever made was to raise my family in the house beside them. So many times, little legs ran up through the yard to grab a cookie and a kiss. They would stop whatever they were doing to scoop that little one up and love on them. Without them, I don’t know how I would have made it through all the sicknesses and surgeries. They are my rock. My Mama is my best friend and I wouldn’t want it any other way!

I am thankful for my birth mother, who made the most selfless decision 44 years ago. If y’all have read my blog for any amount of time, you know exactly how thankful I am for that. Without that decision, I wouldn’t have had the life I did. And I’m so SO thankful that God brought our lives back together after so many years. My adoption was such an amazingly beautiful thing and I love telling the story. I am truly so blessed to have never once felt an ounce of resentment or anger, to have somehow understood from an early age that it was just right. To have never questioned it, to never have felt different but instead felt fortunate that I had two sets of parents when most kids only had one. And most of all to have an adoptive Mother and Father that absolutely supported me in finding my birth parents and understanding why I needed that. My Mama told me that she never felt threatened by it because she knew she had raised me with enough love in my heart for all of them. I’ve also have to be thankful for my birth father, even though he walked out of our lives a few years ago {you can read that story here}. I know God has a purpose and a reason for everything that happens. And he obviously had a part in my life, or I wouldn’t be here and I’m thankful for his part in my adoption as well. It’s a perfect example to me of how God has His hands in our lives, even when we don’t realize it. And oh how thankful I am for that!!!

I’m thankful for my friends. God has truly blessed me with the BEST, most amazing friends ever. I honestly don’t know what I would do without each and every one of them in my life. I’ve realized throughout the years that I don’t need a bucketful of friends, all I need is handful of true friends. How lucky am I to actually have that! I am completely blessed to have these amazing people in my life. Two of them have even been there since basically we were babies, bless their hearts. I don’t know how those girls have dealt with my “Amyness” for that long. We can go months without seeing each other and pick up right where we left off. I absolutely adore the sweet, sweet friendship we have together! So many of my friends I’ve met online, either through scrapbooking or photography. Lifelong friendships that I treasure! My handful of friends might each look different, and have different personalities, but I hold each of them close to my heart. And I know that with one phone call they would be here for me, and I for them.

I am thankful for being a country girl. For dirt roads and corn fields. For chicken raising and garden growing. For the ability to change my own oil, bake up a cake from scratch and put shingles on the roof. For learning to drive a 1946 John Deere H when I was 11. For truck pulls and diesel fumes. For cowboy boots, t-shirts and jeans. For loving to get muddy and spinning out every chance I get. For not being afraid to tackle any task while my husband is at work…whether it’s putting new plumbing in the toilet or replacing the thermocoupler on my furnace. For my Mama showing me how to grow and can my own food. For my Dad teaching me dirt washes off, how to replace a universal joint, how to mix bondo {which I love the smell of…is that weird?} and how to weld and braze. For being country even when it wasn’t cool. There is no place else I’d rather be than in my little Small Town, USA.

November 26, 2019

Blogvember Day Twenty-Six | Family Recipe

For a complete list of The Blogvember Challenge prompts, click HERE!

November 26 – Share a family recipe (but make sure to ask Mama first).

When I was growing up I was blessed to grow up in a family of farmers. I not only have a Mama that grew her own food, but canned it as well. Not only my Mama, but all the women in my family. Many family gatherings would include a circle of women chatting about their recent crops and what they were planning on canning with them.

This is the spaghetti sauce recipe that my Grandma, Mama and now myself use. It’s absolutely our favorite. Store bought sauce doesn’t even compare to it.

Spaghetti Sauce

1⁄2 bushel tomatoes
2 bulbs garlic
4 hot peppers
3 lb. onions
1⁄2 cup salt
1 1⁄2 cup sugar
3 tbsp italian seasoning
8 cans tomato paste
2 cups oil

INSTRUCTIONS:

Put everything into a blender and puree. I cut the stem part off the tomatoes, quarter them and put skins and all into the blender. I also leave the seeds in two of the hot peppers to add some heat.

Bring it to a boil and cook until thick. I cook mine for 4-5 hours, stirring occasionally.

To can, pour into jars. Place rings and lids on jars, making it fingertip-tight. Place on a cloth-covered or wood surface, several inches apart, until cool.

If you try this recipe, I’d love to hear how you like it! I can’t wait to read all your family recipes today.

November 24, 2019

Blogvember Day Twenty-Four | Marriage

For a complete list of The Blogvember Challenge prompts, click HERE!

November 24 – What is your relationship status? Are you engaged, married or walking through a beautiful season of singleness?

I have been married 23 amazing, hard, exhausting, lovely, fun, exasperating, learning, beautiful, blessed and love filled years to this man.

I am no stranger to storybook romance. Marrying at twenty to the sweetest man, I am blessed to be familiar with this form of love – love as a falling and a pursuit and a passion. We were introduced for the first time on a cold February evening, bundled up as we stood outside while snow gently fell around us. We stood there with our cherry-red noses, enamored with each other.

One month later we were engaged. We were married three months after that, with vows breathed in the little country church I was born into.

We both entered marriage in love with being in love. I adored the romance, comfort and support a spouse offered. I loved waking up beside him each morning and laying down beside him each night. I loved that he was my best friend and knew me better than anyone. We had our own unwritten language and could share a look or a word that no one else would understand but WE knew what it meant. I loved how he could make me laugh more than anyone else.

Throughout the years, I’ve collected every card and love letter my husband has written me. I have them all safely tucked away but on occasion will pull an old one out and pour over the words. It’s in that moment, between the lines, I can see this love of ours has, without a doubt, changed over time.

It isn’t because it’s any less. It isn’t because we’re walking through a valley. It isn’t because the laundry is piled sky high. It is something different. Throughout the past twenty-three years we’ve made a conscious choice to daily say that we still do, even now, especially now.

He has continued to choose me, even on days I wear sweat pants and a messy bun. He has continued to choose me, throughout every sickness and surgery. He has continued to choose me, even when I’m undeserving.

And I’ve chosen him.

This is daily love.

Daily love is strung together choices. The feelings, undoubtedly, will rise and fall. Being in love with love will fade as the toughness of life becomes a reality. But marriage is not meant to be a lifetime commitment to fairy tale love alone. Marriage is designed to be a repetitive I do, a daily commitment of choosing us over me.

Marriage was designed specifically by God to mirror the relationship between Christ and His church. In marriage, we are acting out a living parable to help our children and others around us grasp what God is like in a more concrete way.

Over the years God has softened and shaped my heart. He has shown me that I need to love my husband without unreal, fairy tale expectations. He has shown me that marriage means intentionally looking for love. It’s in those moments, when I pause and reflect, I am flooded with displays of love right in front of me:

It’s in the endless miles he’s driven me to appointments.
It’s in the washing, drying and folding of laundry he does.
It’s in the hug and kiss I get when he walks in the door.
It’s in the time we spend together, from grocery shopping to shooting guns.
It’s in his understanding when somehow 8 backyard chickens suddenly become 43.
It’s in his support of all my crazy ideas.

In these ways and thousands of others, he shows me, he tells me, he loves me.

I am so thankful our love story has so many chapters left to be written in it. As your love story is written by the ultimate Author of love, you might just be surprised at the romance you find. And just how much your husband does, in fact, resemble prince charming. No matter what the situation, or what mess it may hold, he’s still my hero and I’m still his girl.