Back Road Trippin' ~

My husband and I were able to take a road trip this last ten days.  We put over 4,000 miles on our rig and had so much fun seeing the country together.  We spent many hours watching bison and trying our best to photograph them. Can't wait for another trip ~ feel so blessed and fortunate for the sights we saw, and the time together.

In His Love ~ Kim

"With Jesus in Her Heart, and Coffee in Her Cup" 

Smile! Jesus Loves You!

Proverbs 15:30 A cheerful look brings joy to the heart; 

Psalm 126:2-3 Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.” The LORD has done great things for us; we are glad.

Job 9:27 If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint,I will change my expression, and smile,’

Being a believer means that we should possess that content joy that the world doesn't have.  Will life be easy? No.  Will we always "feel" happy? No. But put a smile on your face! Joy is a fruit of the spirit that we are to possess, and that is something that comes from Him, not our circumstances.

Our good friend, George always says that he wants to tell people "So, you're a Christian? Why don't you tell your face?". Always makes us laugh, but it's so true. When you are unkind or stand~offish, or won't speak to others around you, even other believers, you have no light to shine.  Always smile and act like the woman of kindness and grace that we are instructed to be. None of us are perfect, or always have a good day, but we can always greet each other with a smile and a "Hello" ~ it really isn't that difficult.  

Remember who you are in Christ and what He has done for you. That gives us the biggest reason in the world to smile and be kind to everyone around us. 

In His Love ~ Kim

"With Jesus in Her Heart, and Coffee in Her Cup" 

After The Storm

We haven't had a very snowy winter, and have had bare ground, until yesterday.  We got 2-4 inches of snow.  This morning the blue skies looked pretty stunning in contrast to the white!  By noontime the sun had melted all the snow off the trees.  Amazing how much warmer the days are already getting.   As it melted, it sparkled like diamonds.  Quite a beautiful day!

Loved the look of the clouds above the mountains and the fog lifting out of the valley in this picture. 

In His Love ~ Kim

"With Jesus in Her Heart, and Coffee in Her Cup" 

Living a Legacy for Christ

My maternal Grandmother ~ Grandma Stacy, was probably one of the biggest influences in nurturing my faith and my walk with Jesus.  She did not have an easy life, but she was always "real", positive, and loved Jesus and shared her love for Him and what He had done in her life with everyone she could.
When I was 8 she brought me to her Vacation Bible School with her.  It is there that I was led to Christ by her pastor.
Grandma Stacy has since gone on to be with the Lord.  I miss her daily.  I miss picking up the phone to chat. She always answered with such a melodious hello and ended with the same melodious goodbye.  I can see her sitting in her chair listening to her Christian music with her eyes closed like she was picturing heaven, and her hand and foot tapping to the tune.
On Sunday, her Pastor and his wife visited our church.  I was able to bring the tiny Bible that I was given by him that day I asked Jesus into my heart.  My sweet hubby snapped a quick picture of us.
Feeling blessed!

In His Love ~ Kim

"With Jesus in Her Heart, and Coffee in Her Cup" 

Focus ~

I don’t really make specific New Year resolutions.  Most people make a resolution and can’t keep it until the evening of January 1st.  Most things that I would resolve to change are things that I should be doing anyway.  I was thinking a lot about focus.  Where is your focus? Focus often is what prioritizes things in our life.  If we have the focus where it should be, things more easily fall into place. 

It made me think about a kaleidoscope. I’ve always loved them! I have marveled at the beauty that a little tube with tiny pieces of glass can create. The word kaleidoscope comes from the Greek words “kalos”, which means beautiful, “eidos” which means shape, and the Greek verb “Skopein” which means to look.   Hold it up to the light and look through it.  Inside are beautiful pieces of brokenness.  It contains shards of glass or small beads that may be beautiful, but are often pieces of something broken.  You must hold it up to the light and turn it to focus it, and then the light shines through all of the broken pieces and the pieces come back together and it becomes something that is beautiful.

It is much like our lives.  They are ever changing, and when we take them out of the light, the images are blurred and out of focus.   We can have many areas of brokenness.  Beautiful and not so beautiful shards from this daily walk.  There is only one thing that can mend the brokenness of our lives and put things back together in a beautiful way.  Looking to Christ, the Light of the World, turning your focus on Him and what He has done for us, can bring our lives back into order and mend the areas that are broken.  And the only constant we have, is Christ. When the focus is skewed, or the light dims, the pieces fall apart again. 

Many of us may make resolutions, but I choose to continue with my focus.  Focus on Christ and HIs Word, and place things in the order He has intended.  He leads and guides us by His word, shows us the importance of our relationship with Him.  It is then, that  our marriages are strengthened, our families become stronger, we seek to follow Him more urgently and with greater care, tend our temples, and share what He has done for us. 

In the coming year, I pray we can all look to Christ, the author and finisher of our faith.  Let us seek Him in every aspect, let us put our focus on Him first of all and let His light shine in us and through us. 

"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

"Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life."

"Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid."

"And I will bring the blind by a way [that] they knew not; I will lead them in paths [that] they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them."

In His Love ~ Kim

"With Jesus in Her Heart, and Coffee in Her Cup" 

Kitchen Changes

I've been wanting to change up my kitchen a little bit for a couple of years now, but I'm a bit too scared to paint my cabinets.  Last week I did a mini makeover and I love it! I don't know if I will ever dare to paint the cabinets or not, but until then, this is a nice change for me.  

I saw a blog last week where the woman featured her sisters gorgeous kitchen.  She said it's not the coveted "white cabinet" kitchen that everyone seem to want these days, but it is a gorgeous kitchen. That's how I feel about mine.  I am blessed with a beautiful kitchen, and a space that I love working in.  I spend a lot of time in my kitchen.  It may not be the "in" kitchen, but it is still a great kitchen and I feel so blessed to have it!

The yellow in the before pictures seems brighter than it really is, but nonetheless, it is a gold color.  I had very beautiful, but dark and heavy drapes on my sliding glass door and double windows, that I had custom made for the space many years ago.  

Most of the rooms in my house are painted grey. I so wanted a grey color in the kitchen too, but most grey seemed to wash everything out.  I found this color, that has undertones of grey depending on the lighting.  I really like it and feel like it brightens up the room nicely!

Still working on finding the perfect accents for the space now that I've re-painted it.  But it feels so fresh and clean and bright, that I am really enjoying it! 

In His Love ~ Kim

"With Jesus in Her Heart, and Coffee in Her Cup" 

Little Red Sled Bazaar ~

Another year in the books for The Little Red Sled Bazaar.  We had a successful day of sales, sold out fairly quickly (had a few marshmallows left), and now we are focusing on Christmas with our family. 

Quick I-phone picture the night before the bazaar, of my booth.  I didn't have my cinnamon rolls in the case till the next morning, but the pictures from the morning aren't as clear.   Many hours of work in a little space!

In His Love ~ Kim

"With Jesus in Her Heart, and Coffee in Her Cup"