a hug

i've never considered myself a hugger

truthfully i don't really like to be touched

but yesterday i had a student who just seemed angry

and has been all year

she can be disrespectful and plan ol rude

so i took her in the hall

i said what is wrong

why are you so mean

no answer

no eye contact

look away she will go away

so i just hugged her

and she smiled

and every time she has seen me

she smiled
a true heartfelt, thank you smile

sometimes all a person, young or old, needs is a hug

Hug O' War

Shel Silverstein

A Light in the Attic

I will not play at tug o' war

I'd rather play at hug o' war,

Where everyone hugs

Instead of tugs

Where everyone giggles

And rolls on the rug,

Where everyone kisses

And everyone grins

And everyone cuddles

And everyone wins.

are you a hugger? do you ever find yourself not knowing what to say but a hug seems to sum it up?

Mother's Day

we read hannah's story today

hopeless hannah prayed for a child

a child she promised to return to God

and my heart ached for my children

and i pray for them

and i pray that they love the Lord

and i pray that I can give them to Him

seven years ago i sat in a pew

hopeless

unwed and pregant

scared

and Jesus spoke to my heart

and i gave myself and my unborn child to Him

and a burden was lifted

this son

this sweet son of mine

made me a mommy

he taught me love and laughter

sacrifice and the sweetness of life

i watch him grow in awe

and love him more than i ever thought possible

this year was my first mother's day with a daughter

my precious little girl

who only wanted me to hold her

cried when others looked her way

buried her head in my arms and closed her eyes

and tears ran down my face

God has entrusted me with one of His own

And she made a vow, saying, “Lord Almighty , if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.” 1 Samuel 1:11

Happy Mother's Day

lovely linkys

http://www.jumpingtandem.net/
http://www.5minutesformom.com/
http://iliveinanantbed.com/

identity



my daddy, me, my daughter



i've never struggled with my identity

Karrie with a K

daughter of Claude Jr. and Vickie

this is how i introduced myself at age 7

i knew who i was, where i came from , and where i was going

i will be a teacher like my grandmother

i will attend NC State University because well its the best

i am a child of God

but with Jesus no identification required

He knows how to spell my name

how many hairs are in my head

He knows who i am, where i've been, and where i'm going....even before i do

and He loves me all the same

"Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine." Isaiah 43:1

lovelylinkys:

great grandmothers

To say I have strong women in my blood is an understatement.....

These two women are my
GREAT GRANDMOTHERS, making me fourth generation and my childern fifth generation. 


We gathered this weekend to take some photos of our special family. Thank you MHC Photography for capturing this day for us.


Let me introduce.....

Irene Barker also known as Mom (above on the left) was born in 1921 in Ashe County, NC, one of six children, 5 girls and one boy.  She attended Riverview School until the 7th grade.  She married Lee Shupe and moved to Maryland for work.  They later returned to Ashe where her family still resided.  She had three girls.  My grandmother being the oldest.  She is was a quilter and lived next door to her sister in a little yellow house on a the hill.  This is where she still lives.

Ruby Shupe also known as Grandma(above on the right) was born in 1917 in Carrol County, Virginia, one of ten children.  Ruby went from primer to seventh grade.  She did not go to high school because you had to pay to ride the high school bus and her family could not afford it.  She then went to work on the family farm milking cows, plowing with a horse, and working in the fields.  Ruby married Tom Shupe, a coal miner.  They moved to West Virgina for work and later moved back to Virgina.  Ruby is still a member of the rescue squad.  A few years ago she was in the hospital because she fell out of a tree she was trimming.

If you google their names you aren't going to find anything, but they have surely left a legacy.  The best canned green beans from Mom and the best pickles in the whole world from grandma.  I sneak out every Christmas with a jar.  They each have three children who are still around to keep an eye on them, because they live in their houses by themself.
They have loved and lost, they have moved across states for jobs and family.  They have watched their children grow and have hard times and good times and then their grandchildren and then their great grandchildren and now their great great grandchildren. 

They are a true blessing.  They have taught me to can, how to shop at yard sales, how to plant a garden, how to make a quilt, how to love your children no matter what they do, how to give, how to love, and most of all how to live.

five generations of girls

Thank you Lord for the gift of GREAT grandmothers.

What will your legacy be?





lovely linkys:

real

real is staying up too late

and getting up too early

real is being out of bread and milk

and going to walmart for the third time this week

real is diapers, pacifers

and baby toys all in the floor

real is dirty hands and faces

and dirt all the floor beside the bath tub

real is piles of clean laundry not folded,

dirty dishes, and stacks of mail on the counter

real is the laughter, the tears, the smiles, and the cries

Real is that He is with us through all that is Real

And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Matthew 28:20

all in a days work

Sowing in the morning, sowing seeds of kindness,
Sowing in the noontide and the dewy eve;
Waiting for the harvest, and the time of reaping,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.
 
its easy to start my day with patience and kindness
as i stand at my door and greet my students

good morning i say as they pass my way

 

Sowing in the sunshine, sowing in the shadows,

Fearing neither clouds nor winter’s chilling breeze;

By and by the harvest, and the labor ended,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves

but as the day continues and the complaining begins

the arguing, the disgrutle comments come my way

my work becomes weary

and my sunshine falls in the shadows

and i question my calling

and pray for patience (sometimes out loud)

Going forth with weeping, sowing for the Master,

Though the loss sustained our spirit often grieves;

When our weeping’s over, He will bid us welcome,

We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.

and i cry out to my collegues and complain of my plight
i force my self to smile, to forgive, to love despite

then i walk down the hall and an eighth grader gives a hug

and another says "I miss you Mrs. Combs"

and i rejoice and remember

to rejoice in my labor

because it is worth it to one

things you can do for the teachers you know:

pray for them

pray specifically for your child's teacher

send them a note, an email, or even chocolate!

say thank you

give them a new pen, i'm sure someone has borrowed theirs and not returned lately

offer them grace

pray for them again

lovely linkys:

 

thoughts on saturday, sounds of sunday

8 Godly women

gathered in his name

to expand their minds

on how to serve God's kingdom

reach God's kingdom

and most of all

be God's kingdom

8 women who didn't know each other

didn't know of their plight in life

but after 3 hours

left as not only friends

but friends in Christ

alison krauss

marty stuart

scythian

buffalo barfield

andy may

sounds of sunday

filled my heart with joy

i danced with my children

and laughed with my mom

said hi to friends new and old

and felt proud

to be from a place where music fills the air

and warms the soul

inRL

chocolate covered strawberries made
t-shirt on
handouts printed
amy sullivan....we are coming to hang out

more to come...........

so excited

community

i've never thought of my friends as a community
i've never considered what my life would be without my friends
i've always thought of my friends as family
but really they are more
community


what makes a community
living near each other
liking the same things
looking alike
no, no, no


a community is when you are part of each others lives
the every day
the nitty gritty
the good the bad and the ugly


a community is meshed and mashed, smiles and tears more than friends
people
they share their lives together
face to face, screen to screen, phone call to phone call
holding each other up as they travel this world together
a community

who's ready to gather with the inRL 2012 incourage community tomorrow?  me me me

growing with delight

my little girl is growing so fast.....

to think a year ago she was only 6 months in my belly,

not even ready to enter this word....

and now look at her....

smiling, standing, thinking she's a big girl...

i often think how alike we are to children in our christian walk...

God must smile as we grow and take steps to walk for him..

He must cry when we fall and gently pick us up and say "it's going to be ok, I'm here"

He must ache for us when we must learn on our own

when He can't do it for us

but most of all He loves us

He worries about us

He cares about our well-being

He delights in us

The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing. Zaphaniah 3:17

He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me. Psalm 18:19



lovely linkys:

 

heaven on my mind

my pastor has been doing a study on heaven. 

do you......
     Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. Collossians 3:2

what do you look foward to doing in heaven.....

today he said the top the three things we will be doing
1.  worship  (i can't wait)
2.  resting   (i can't wait)
3.  serving the Lord  (i can't wait)

three of my favorite things to do!!

i try to set my mind on heaven......this is not our home....this is brief and fast and we are merely dust....

but to get to heaven i must overcome my fear of death......

what are your heavenly thoughts?

lovely linky
http://www.jumpingtandem.com/
hear it on a sunday

together

when did your relationship with Jesus begin
as a child, as a teen, as an adult
when were you together
on the same page
i knew Jesus as a child
i knew who He was

what he did

who his parents were

i knew Him

but he didn't know me

we weren't together

i could tell you all the stories

all the big parables

but we weren't together you see

until one day

when i fell on my knees

you and Jesus are you together

you are His and He is yours

random

i planted an herb garden this weekend
i know nothing about herbs

it was our first day back from spring break today

just 5 weeks left of the 2011-2012 school year....woohoo

addie has learned to speed crawl

she follows me around everywhere i go

owen entered a writing contest with UNCTV PBS kids

he won 3rd place out of all entries!!

i pray and plea with God for a friend

her family, her baby

wednesday is my anniversary

three years....i love him more everyday

if you know me and have ever talked to me

i talk like this
random
and at the end of the conversation

i'll be back with the herbs

i did learn lemon balm helps with indegestion




lovely linkys
Jen @ Soli De Gloria
Shanda @ On Your Heart Tuesdays

UBP 2012

Welcome to my blog via the Ultimate Blog Party.

Glad you came, enjoy your stay, and come back soon.

Here are some things about the one and only me.

• child of God, Ambassador for Him
• mother of two - a boy, 6, and a girl, 8 months 
• married 3 years this week to a wonderful husband
• grew up on a farm and still live on it
• teach 7th grade math
• teach young adult sunday school
• love friends and family
• enjoy coffee and gardening and reading and cooking and taking pictures and hanging out with middle school students and teachers  and LIFE

Some of my Favorite Post

• My Story
• Put my Jesus on
• Home
• Beauty

Thanks for coming.

Follow me ---> over here some where

Leave some love:)

good bye

God be with you.......

that's how we got to good bye

over the years it was shortened and changed

how i wish is was still God be with you

i think i would like it much better

never been a fan of good bye when it comes to people

i often say see you later instead

good bye seems to be too permenant

maybe i'll start a new trend and go back to the orginal

God be with you.......

forgiveness

i spoke of sacrifice on good friday because on friday thats what i thought it was about, but here on monday  all i see is forgiveness

i gave up fast food for lent.  it was was getting to be a problem.  its expensive and we don't have a lot of pennies to spare.  my weight is an issue and fast food isn't really helpful.  so i gave it up....a sacrifice.  wrong.  i made a sacrifice for me not Him.  sure i was faced with tempation and i prayed for strength.  but one morning about week four i "thought" i was staving.  so i ran up to bojangles before school.  ordered a sausage biscuit, all the while looking around to see if anyone say me.  i sat my biscuit on my console between the seats and in about two minutes as a made a turn my biscuit fell in the floor board, all the parts face down in the dirt. (yes i have a dirty car..i live on a dirt road, i'm married to a chicken farmer, and i have a six year old boy)  i had taken two bites on my biscuit...i cryed all the way to school.   not because my biscuit had fell but because i had.  saturday i confessed my failure to my mom.  she said you didn't eat it, i would have blown off and ate it.  i said "no it was a sign."  she says your right it was a sign.....the sign is God forgives. 

Easter shows us many things with its story, Jesus' sacrifice, His horrible death, He ressurection, His life....living eternally.  But under it all the blanket of forgiveness rest.  With the disciplices, Peter especially, with the two prisioners by His side, with the guards who beat Him and pierced His side.

 Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." Luke 23:34

me....my sins.....you.....your sins...forgiven

This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Matthew 26:28 

http://www.jumptandem.net/

easter

Good Friday has always been somewhat of an oxymoron to me.  I remember as a kid being so angry....WHY?  Why would they murder him?  He's Jesus.  God's son.  Why did they not understand?  And it wasn't until recent years that as horrible and painful as it was, it was the plan.  It wasn't murder, it was sacrifice.  Sacrifice can be painful, brutal yet necessary. 

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.” 1 John 3:16

But because He came, He lived, He died, He rose again.  We have hope, grace, and mercy.  And on the third day, we will rejoice, we will sing, we will shout, we will tell as Mary did that Jesus is alive. 

And we have His promise

“Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” Matthew 28:20

Wishing you an Easter that is a wonderful day and that you soak in the message of the most wonderful miracle and story ever.

storms

storms blow in these days

and not just in the atmosphere

at home
at work
at church
in our health
in our cars
in our finances
and I hear Jesus say
Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
after all He's done for me
why do I question the storm

its outcomes

its scariness





Photograph by Tracy Jolly
Roaring River, NC
taken 4/3/12

 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

Mark 4:39-40