Carol aka CACrafty!  You have won my "We Give Thanks" printable Fall/Thanksgiving decor kit.  I will be sending it your way later today.  And thank you all for participating in my count down (or up actually!)  It was a lot of fun to celebrate with friends.  GranAnn, I’m still waiting to hear your choice of kit, just let me know and it also will be heading your way.

As to my word of wisdom today… on my 49th birthday… just a short one.  My late husband passed away when I was 36 and he was 44.   I realized then, that birthdays were a treasure and not a curse.  I determined that I would choose never to regret or resent a birthday or the number or years that it represented as each one is a very special gift.  I realized that aging was unavoidable but getting old was a choice.  I also realized that the youngest people I knew who were older had a few special things in common, 1. they all kept young people in their lives and continued to make and nurture relationships with many people who were younger than themselves.  2.  They all loved God and His people  3.  They were all invested in seeing people’s lives change around them.  4.  They dealt with change gracefully, because as you age change happens.  You lose friends and loved ones, you lose body function (and a little off of the brain’s function 🙂 ! )  So much of life is about constant change.

So I’ve never had a "hard" birthday, I don’t sweat the number or worry about how many years I have passed through or how many years I’ll have yet ahead of me, I just enjoy each day to its fullest.  I delight in the family God has given me, as well as the husband who is the love of my life and truly my dearest and best friend.  I marvel at the career that I’ve been blessed to have, one that I wake up each morning excited to see what I’ll get to create that day and have a hard time stopping at the end of the day.  And I LOVE the incredibly wonderful heavenly Father that made all of them possible!  Thank you all for your sweet birthday messages, it’s been so fun to wake up to them and so hilarious to see the countdown to my birthday around the world thread on the message board at DAISIE yesterday.  THANKS!!!!

SCRIPTURE OF THE DAY: Phil 4:4-7 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!  Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.  Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  NIV