Vacation=Relaxation

This past Sunday we got back home to the Cottage after being gone for a week. We were gone on vacation to the beach, Myrtle Beach. We had a very relaxing vacation. No agenda, just to sleep in, get up, go to the beach, and then do whatever else our family felt like doing for the afternoon/evenings. One word: VACATION

What is a vacation? Or leave? Or holiday(as called in Europe)? All are a time of rest, relaxation and pleasure. That is exactly what our vacation was too! The first time in awhile that we have been away on vacation as a family just the four of us away without going and visting family along the way. It was nice to just focus on the four of us.

I must say that if you want to have a really nice vacation, and a really inexspensive one as well, and you are an active military family, Myrtle Beach is the place to go! We received huge military discounts everywhere that we went. For example:

Ripley's Aquarium....the general price here is $21.99 for an adult(ages 12 and up). We paid only $21.00 plus tax for the 4 of us! Awesome deal! And to be truthful, it was not worth the regular price of $21.99 a person, thank you Lord for the huge military discount and thank you Ripley's!

Another place that we enjoyed was Mt.Atlanticus putt-putt. This is one of the coolest putt-putts in Myrtle Beach. It has high tiki huts and a high-rise tiki torch. The regular price at Mt.Atlanticus is $10.00 per adult and children up to age 12 are $6.00. We all four played for $24.00! Wow what another awesome military disount! We had a fun time playing at Mt. Atlanticus and I must say, if you're wondering who won, it was I....MOM!!

Another place where we enjoyed going was to Crabby Mikes to eat. We love going to Crabby Mikes! It's an all you can eat seafood restaurant with crab legs, along with over 200 other items! They gave us a 20 percent military discount. And we were stunned when the Bookworm tried fried shrimp and loved it! He ate two plates of fried shrimp!! Here's a pic of their infamous van!

Another place was Wild Water and Wheels. Wild Water and Wheels is a waterpark. We spent all day there, and had a great time! Once again we were given a nice military discount. Regular price per person is $29.95....our discount was $18.40 a piece! Awesome discount! Thank you Wild Water and Wheels! The Major and I enjoyed lazying in the lazy river for most of the day, although he did ride the slides with the Princess and the Bookworm too. Mom even rode some slides as well! It was a relaxing day. At the end the kids fed the turtles that were there, there were sooo many different sizes of them! They were all cute!

If you are ever in Myrtle Beach and you want to try something different than putt-putt then you must go to Maze Mania! Maze Mania is awesome, it's a maze, you must find the cheese and then find your way out. If you find the cheese and get out in 5 minutes or under, you win a free t-shirt! And if you're wondering if we won a shirt, no, but we did get out in under an hour, 40 minutes to be exact! We had a fun time!

The Major and the Princess enjoyed building a sand-castle. The Major and the Bookworm enjoyed playing football on the beach. The Bookworm also lived in the water enjoying his boogy board.

And of course we enjoyed going on the beach everyday. How can you not love the ocean. It's an awe to look at the ocean, and think that it is one of the most awesome and wonderful creations that God has made. There is nothing like sitting on the beach and reading a good book, and I must add that I read and finished two books on my kindle! It was also nice to get into the ocean water as well. I am usally one to not get into the ocean water, but it felt really nice.

The Major spending time with the kids. It's days like this that I'll miss when he's deployed.

VBS,Father's Day,Vacation and A Birthday

It's been awhile since I have blogged, but I do have a good excuse as you can tell from the title! That's right, we've been pretty busy around the Cottage and not until today have I had some free time to sit down and even look at my Blog.

Alot has gone on.......we had VBS at Church(our family was in charge of Recreation time, and boy did we have fun), then it was Father's Day, then we had vacation(we left after Church on Father's Day), the ending the Vacation/last few weeks with the Major's birthday being yesterday. Whewwww......and now here we are and we are on a Terrific Tuesday.

I have lots that I want to blog about, but I think that I'll split it up into separate titles and blog about them each individually. That should keep me busy with blogging for awhile! So for now, I'll bid you good-bye and leave you with a must read book. If you have not read "Heaven is For Real" I strongly recommend that you get this book and read it, it is a MUST read!

Summer Thus Far.....

Summer thus far at the Cottage has been quite busy, but it has been a good busy. This week we are helping with VBS at our Church. Our family is in charge of Recreation, it's been fun doing the Recreation part of VBS, I think we'll stick with it and do it every year!

We're gearing up for our family vacation, it will be nice to getaway for a while and just concentrate on us, our family. It's hard for people to understand how it is during a deployment, I get tired of trying to explain it, unless you've been through one, you have no clue! I could keep writing about this subject, but I don't want to, on to another.....

I picked my first tomato out of my garden today. It's exciting when you see the harvests of your hard work! I have put lots and lots of hours into my garden. I enjoy gardening, it's my passion.

I also love my children and the Major. I don't look forward to the Major leaving, my heart will be half empty when he is gone. In a month from now, we'll be on the countdown and I am not looking forward to it. But I do plan on staying very busy!!

For now I wish you a fun summery day :) Go make some memories!!

Officially Summer at The Cottage

Today is the official start of Summer at our Cottage. The kids and I actually got to sleep in.........it felt wonderful!!

We took the day easy and decided to go pick strawberries at a local Strawberry Farm. Just the three of us went and we enjoyed it, we had fun. We picked two big buckets full! Actually we picked one bucket full first, then we decided why not pick another one! I put up 6 freezer bags of sliced strawberries and four bags of whole strawberries up in the freezer. Yet, I also had enough left to just eat!! The strawberries are so yummy and juicy, no sugar is needed.

Tomorrow, tomorrow is the second day of Summer at the Cottage what are we going to do? Well, the Major has a class graduating, so we may go and watch his class graduate, it'll get us out of the house and who knows, we may go to lunch afterwards :)

Hope that you are taking advantage of your Summer and if your a SAHM(stay-at-home-Mom) like me, take time with your kids, spend time with them, don't let them veg or sleep all day, get up and get moving!

Still Here

As I "predicted" we are all still here. I do not think that I need to say anymore. If you need more, refer to the post before this one ;)

End of the World....Really?

I have seen the samethings that you have probably been seeing lately......clips on the computer, on the television and even signs that say that the end of the world is tomorrow, Saturday, May 21st. Really, because the last time I looked, "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone." Matthew 24:36.

If you are believing someone saying that the end of the world is happening tomorrow then I advice you to look at Matthew 24:36. NO ONE knows when the Lord will come, only the FATHER. So should you believe someone, some ordinary person, saying that tomorrow is the end of the world? NO!! But if you are believing it I want to advice you to look at this scripture, Isaiah 46:10 "Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." NO ONE knows that day of, only God the Father.

I do not put stock in to the idea that tomorrow is the end of the world/judgement day. There have been so many people over the years trying to predict the exact day of the end of times and guess what.....they were obviously all WRONG or else I wouldn't be sitting here typing this I would be in Heaven right now! And on that note I will say.........

If the end of times were tomorrow or today or in 5, 20 or 30 years(which we know that it could happen at any moment at any time) don't you want to make sure that you are ready. And I don't mean making sure that you have a stock pile of food, or a generator, or tons of bottled water stored, or going crazy and doing whatever you want to do because you think that tomorrow is the end of times, I mean don't you want to make sure that you are ready. Are you a Christian, have you accepted Christ as your Savior? John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." See, if we are a Christian, we are not to worry about the end of the world/the end of times/the world coming to an end because we will not persih, we will be taken to heaven where we will live with our Heavenly Father forever. I get chill bumps just thinking of that, don't you? I can only imagine what that day will be like. Can you imagine what it will be like standing before our Heavenly Father? "Let your hearts not be overly concerned. Believe in The God. Believe also in me. In my Father’s House there are many abodes. I am leaving to prepare a place for you. I will Return and will receive you home to me, that where ever I am you also will be." John 14: 1-3.

On the other hand, if you are not a Christian, or you are wishy washy(is there a God, am I Christian, do I believe and have never asked Him into your life), I would be very afraid. Very afraid as to where I am spending eternity. And people, being a good person doesn't count! There are a lot of "good" people. There are many "good" people that treat others as they would like to be treated, those that would do anything for anybody, those that give of their time and money, but here's the catch with "good" people: being a "good" person is not going to get you into heaven, the only way into heaven is to accept Christ as your personal Savior. It's that  simple, because do you want to hear our Father say these words to you: "I never knew you." Matthew 7:23, "And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."

So to put it simple, let's look at the facts:
(1) Everyone will exist eternally either in heaven or hell (Daniel 12:2,3; Matthew 25:46; John 5:28; Revelation 20:14,15).

(2) Everyone has only one life in which to determine their destiny (Hebrews 9:27).

(3) Heaven or hell is determined by whether a person believes (puts their trust) in Christ alone to save them (John 3:16, 36, etc.).

Ok, now let's look at some other facts:
 Hell facts:

(1) Hell was designed originally for Satan and his demons (Matthew 25:41; Revelation 20:10).

(2) Hell will also punish the sin of those who reject Christ (Matthew 13:41,50; Revelation 20:11-15; 21:8).

(3) Hell is conscious torment.

• Matthew 13:50 “furnace of fire…weeping and gnashing of teeth”
• Mark 9:48 “where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched”
• Revelation 14:10 “he will be tormented with fire and brimstone”

(4) Hell is eternal and irreversible.

• Revelation 14:11 “the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever and they have no rest day and night”
• Revelation 20:14 “This is the second death, the lake of fire”
• Revelation 20:15 “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire”

Get what I'm saying? Hell is irreversible! There is no second chance, and the thing about universalism, you know, that all are eternally saved, yeah, that is wrong also. Look at John 3:16 again and also look at John 3:36. It's simple, a person either trusts in Christ or doesn't and rejects Christ and goes to hell.  Then there are those that believe that if God is such a loving God that He would not send people to a horrible hell. Wrong again! God is just(Romans 2:11). God has provided the way of salvation to all(John 3:16). Simply put, God doesn't send people to hell, they choose it(Romans 1:18,21,25).

What about you heaven or hell? And as for the end of the world tomorrow......I'll see you right back here on Sunday :)

Out Live Your Life

Can we out live our life? The answer is...yes. How? Simple, by making a difference. God made us to make a difference. Sure we are going to live forever and out live our life if we are a Christian because God has promised us Heaven as our eternal home. What I'm talking about is here on earth. We can out live our life here on earth as well.

We as Christians are to reach out to others in need. We were commanded to love thy neighbor as thyself. Well, lets face it, there is a whole globe full of people, we are not to only love thy neighbor, but everyone else in the world as well.

Think about it: what was the last thing that you held in your hands the past 24 hours? I'll tell you what I've had in mine; money, food, fresh vegetables from my garden, clean clothes, a warm cup of coffee, a cold glass of water, a brush, a toothbrush & toothpaste, a bar of soap, a warm washcloth, the steering wheel to my van, the handle to the stove and refridgerator. You get the picture, right? Now.....think about those in the world that have never held those items in their hands and never will.

We as Christians should be rockin' our world with Christ's love. We are to reach out and help others and we can start right in our own neighborhood and community. Scared you say? Walk by faith and not by sight. Don't be afraid to start rockin' your part of the world showing Christ's love through you! Put some miles on those shoes of yours, and some dirt on those hands and start getting busy doing what we were made to do!

Think of ways, creative ways, to get out and help those less fortunate than yourself. Think of ways to reach children and adults. Widows, the disabled, seniors and orphans too. Get those engines going, it not too late to out live your life!

Did you ever dream of changing the world? It's not to late!

(I invite you to get the Bible study "Out Live Your Live" by Max Lucado)