David Shield

When I started this blog a few months back I decided I wanted something fun in the header. I looked at a lot of blogs and every one was unique to the author of that blog that I couldn't decide what I wanted to do. I thought a goofy picture of the family, or maybe the one of Levi and I watching the sunset on our honeymoon, or maybe just a cute one of our three little guys hanging out together, but I couldn't decide which I liked most and thus I created our collage.

It just so happened that while I was creating our collage Levi was creating a little something of his own. He was creating what we now call our family shield. He sent me a few different versions to choose from (you can see a different black and white one in Deuces Wild)...and I wanted to put them in our header...but I had just worked on that collage...and since I have been the blogger....his lost out. :{

So with the new year, comes a new header. Our new header is one of the shields that he created. It is the Aries Ram and the Taurus Bull. (And yes we do lock horns at times.)

Happy New Year!

Holiday Blues

Christmas Cards

I'd hoped to get out Christmas cards,
Especially since we missed last year.
But family pictures were delayed,
And now the holiday is all to near.

So there will be no happy greetings
There is no merry cheer.
Because our time is fleeting
There's no Christmas cards this year.

I have no family picture
To show how the kids have grown
There is no 2009 update letter
With a comedic undertone.

So Merry Christmas everyone
Love to all we hold dear
This is your only greeting
Because there are no Christmas cards this year.

--Aimee David

LOL and Love with all your Heart!
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year :)

Become your own superhero

Doubt is easy. The consequence of doubt is a given. Faith is hard, there is no reassurance, no material item received or substantial evidence that faith is well placed. I'm not speaking of one's religious belief, but rather to the doubt that festers within the mind - the faith or doubt in one's self, in one's ability.

How can you know that the doubt lingering at the edges of your mind is not sound advice? When do you turn away from doubt to know that your faith will prevail? How do you dispose of the seeds of doubt making room for the blossoms of faith? Is doubt a sounding board that reigns us in when our aspirations are above our reach? Or is it a menace that should be locked away with all the other detrimental negativity?

Doubt pursues like a villain in the night: haunting your heart, persuading your mind. It coils like a snake and strangles that which could push us to something far better than ever imagined. It weighs you down, siphoning the air from your lungs, essentially stealing the breath of your faith.

Yes, doubt is easy. With doubt there is no action required. Simply give in and the darkness of doubt will shroud you. Faith, though, requires more. It requires you remove the blinders of doubt, eliminate the shackles of fear and contain the villain that pursues. With faith you can make bold your beliefs and shine when others would see you dimmed. Doubt will come in many forms from many people, even the people least suspected; those that you love (and they have no idea they are planting the seeds) just as easily as from those you respect the least. Doubt does not discriminate, it simply smiles eagerly at its intended victim knowing if their faith is not sound it can and will wound quickly.

Hold fast to your faith. Stand bold when doubt positions itself for attack. Persevere. Let faith broaden. Let doubt shrink. Reinforce your foundation of faith with every strike that doubt deals because as surely are you will persevere, so will doubt.

Tis the Season!

I love this time of year! I absolutely adore the weeks that follow Thanksgiving before Christmas. The lights around town, the Christmas music, the joyful feeling you have when shopping. Sometimes I meet a new friend in the long line I am waiting in - a friend for the minute, if you will. It is a connection with another person, trying to make their way through this crazy, upside down, joyous, and funny life. Life is so much better with a friend, even if it is a friend for the moment. This time of year truly is amazing and if you look closely you will see miracles all around you. They are subtle and small but they exist.

I thank God that I know love, feel love and that I am capable of giving love because there is far too much hate in this world and people who are incapable of knowing, accepting and feeling love. I try to spread that gift even on a small level with every person I meet because you never know when your momentary friendship will be someone's life line.

With joyful hearts experience the love we were created to know and spread the wealth! Don't look at life through the goggles of obstruction, enjoy it with the heart of love. Laugh too much - I am going to earn every one of my wrinkles from laughter and not from frowns. Love fully - there is no limit to the abundance of love we are capable of giving or receiving. Live with every breath you take - you never know when it will be your last.

For this season and every, if you are reading this know you are loved. :)