What Are You Thankful For?

Today is the day that we are supposed to pause and reflect on all that we are thankful for. Unfortunately, when my feet hit the floor this morning, I didn't pause to reflect. I immediately started thinking about getting the turkey in the oven and making all the yummy food my family will eat in a few hours. I should have started my day with a prayer of thanksgiving.

One thought I have is. . . are we only thankful for the good things in our lives? Of course we are thankful for our spouses, children and family members, our jobs, our homes and our things. That's a given! But. . . are we thankful for the hard times that come unexpectedly? Are we thankful for the loss of a job, because although it's horribly stressful, it brings families together and forces us to put our faith into action? We have to rely on the Lord to "Give us this day our daily bread". Are we thankful for illness that stikes in devastating ways? Or the loss of a loved one? Or the war that our country is in? Or (and this a big one for me) our President?

Difficult times of trial or testing do just that. . . they test our faith. Do we just talk about our faith or do we live it? Trials and tests make our faith practical. WE have to seek the Lord's will and put our own aside, because He has a plan when ours so often fails. We have to humble ourselves to the lessons that He wants us to learn. It's those lessons that make us better people. It's those lessons that truly make us a "child" of God. We have to sit at His feet and glean from Him His wisdom.

It's easy to reflect on all the warm fuzzy feelings we've had over the year, but I challenge you (and myself) to be thankful for the difficult. The pain. The tears and the troubles. AND. . . (this is big!) be thankful for them throughout the year. Each day thank God for the trials, because they one day will be blessings.

I wish each and every one of you a very BLESSED Thanksgiving! I hope it's a day that you can spend with the ones you love making the most amazing memories.

May God Richly Bless You!

DESIGN TEAM CALL

ATTENTION!!! Shimmerz Paints is having a Design Team Call! We are looking for individuals who are not afraid to think outside of the box. Get Messy! We are looking for artists and designers who can create a variety of projects such as layouts, cards, altered art, and whatever else you can do!
Design Team Responsibilities:
3 required projects each month, posted on your personal blog and the Shimmerz blog. More is great! One must be Shimmerz specific.
1 tutorial with photos during your Design Team tenure.
Willing to promote Shimmerz on blogs, forums, Facebook, and anywhere else possible.
We are looking for Team Players!
Benefits:
Name and blog link added to the Shimmerz blog.
A Design Team kit to start creating Amazing projects.
Publication Incentives.
A Design Team Discount
New Product Releases!
Chance to be part of a Wonderful Design Team!
What To Send:
Submit 2-3 projects (Does not have to feature Shimmerz, but we want to see the sparkle and shine); Good Photography is a MUST!
Name and Contact Information.
Blog Address.
Previous Design Team Experience and/or Publications.
A few sentences on why you want to be a part of Shimmerz.
If interested in being a part of Shimmerz, please apply by emailing photos of your projects, and other information to mcelyea@q.com by December 28, 2009. The new Design Team will be announced on January 1, 2010.
Blog: shimmerzpaints.blogspot.com
Website: shimmerzpaints.com
Email: mcelyea@q.com

A Big Day at the McElyea's

My baby is growing up and I HATE it! Gracie came to me a couple weeks ago and said, "Mommy, I have two loose teeth!" My response was, "Oh Wow!", thinking I had lots of time. Hhhmmm--not so much. She worked on both those teeth at the same time and in record time and before I knew it they were gone. I kept saying, "WAIT!, I'm not ready." She was so proud of herself because she got two teeth out and Sami and Kaleb only pulled one at a time. I was happy for her, but secretly mourning those first little teeth that came as a baby. . . my baby. UGH! It's so silly, but so incredibly hard to watch her grow up so fast.

Well, the Tooth Fairy came and left $5.00 along with lots of Fairy Dust. She was happy about the money, but over the moon over the Fairy Dust. She informed me tonight that the Fairy Dust was going to stay on her dresser forever and if we move she will scoop it up and take it with us. How cute is that!?

She'll always be my baby. That's a title that will never go away. I'll always call her "Baby Mac". She may hate it when she's 16, but I hope she'll always know that there is something special about being the baby.

HooooRay!

Today is most definately a day that I will write on the calendar. As you know this has been a super yucky summer for me. This whole adrenal fatigue thing has wiped me out both physically and mentally. No energy, no clarity of mind, LOADS of anxiety attacks and so on.

BUT. . . .

Today I woke up with engergy and clarity. I am really feeling like a new person. I took all those things seriously for granted. It's like a dark, ugly cloud is lifting and all I can say is THANK YOU LORD! I just hope it all lasts. I'm still learning to cut myself some slack. I am what I am. I've always been a bit of a perfectionist. I always will be, but it's okay if things aren't perfect all the time. Right?

We put off our vacation later this month and broke the news to the kids a few weeks ago. I'm hoping now that just maybe we can put those plans back into action and still go. I actually feel like going now.

Dave and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary yesterday. I was going to post a wedding picture, but they are all packed in a box up in the attic. Sorry---I'm not digging that out. Trust me, we love each other so much more now than then. We've had some really hard years, but we stuck to our vows and we have been blessed for it. We're older. . . . Dave is really grayer (not me--tee-hee-hee, I still have the same color hair I did 19 years ago, with no help). . . we are wiser. . . we are more in love than even we could have imagined. I'm a very lucky lady!

We are bringing some fun and awareness to Breast Cancer this month on the SHIMMERZ blog. So put your pink on and come have some fun with us. Skip on over to the blog for the details. We're giving away 16 prizes at the end of the month. http://shimmerzpaints.blogspot.com You don't have to be a pro stamper or scrapper, just show us your pink.

I'm Giving Away 5 of Them

So much fun is being had at the Shimmerz blog.

We are doing a VIDEO blog hop.

Each member of the Education Team did a little video to share the new colors along with a technique or two. Watch each video and be sure to note all the members fave color and you could win 1 of 5 sets of the new colors.

It's fun, so put on your hoppin' shoes and join us in the Shimmerz VINTAGE color release.

http://shimmerzpaints.blogspot.com

Guess What's Coming. . . September 21st?!!!!

The New and Improved Look of SHIMMERZ

Lookie at what we have. A nice shiney NEW logo to go with. . . .

our NEW WEBSITE!!!

Yep, we've made some changes. It's now much easier and faster to place a Shimmerz order.

WaHOOOOO!

Be sure to skip on over, take a peek and let me know what you think.

www.shimmerzpaints.com