Hope has Come~ A Review and Giveaway!

A recurring theme for me this year as I entered this holiday season has been that Hope has indeed entered the world. There is such Light and Hope that awaits us as we anticipate the birth of Jesus. Seeing all the anticipation and excitement through the eyes of my littles is so much fun, but it also reminds me that we have such responsibility to teach them about how Jesus came. I was thrilled when I saw the Love Came Down collection from Dayspring and was even more excited when I was given the chance to review a piece from that collection. I immediately selected the Felt Advent Calendar. I had been wanting one of these to use with the littles, and this year is the perfect storm~ we have a lovely place for such a thing, but more importantly, they are at ages when they can both learn and appreciate these days that lead up to celebrating Jesus' birth.

I found a place for our calendar on the wall next to our Jesse Tree. (If you've been around for a while, you know I take the world's worst pictures, but here's a small shot...)

We've been using the Jesse Tree Advent Family Devotional from Ann Voskamp, and while a lot of the material is pretty deep for my 5 and 3 year olds, I have loved building the anticipation and talking about the line of people that led up to Jesus in his family tree. On Sunday we were singing the bridge to a song that repeats 'You make all things work together for our good', and I couldn't help but make it tie in to our Jesse tree. God used an amazing (and somewhat shady) group of people to lead to His coming King. Love Came Down. And if He can use those folks, He certainly can use us!

Okay, so I'm rambling... sorry. But I do love this advent calendar! Every morning my littles ask whose turn it is to move the sweet felt heart to its new pocket. Remy loves that he can tell what day it is, and every day he and Halle count the days until Jesus' Birthday. And here's the best part of this for you~ The lovely folks at (in)courage & Dayspring (who sent me this product to review) have given me a $20 gift to give away to one lucky reader to use on their own selection from Dayspring.com. Have you been to their online shop before? They have tons of great inspirational books, gifts, things for your home... I got my holiday cards there this year.

All you have to do to be entered is leave a comment telling me your favorite tradition about the holidays and why. I seriously think that this sweet calendar is going to be one of my favorite things in years to come!! I will leave the comments open until 8am Monday morning, when I will select a random winner. Happy Commenting!

**The fine print... (in)courage and Dayspring sent me this product free of charge to review in my home. The opinions expressed are only mine.**

*** Commenting is closed! The winner is Jenny V. Congrats! I'll contact you about your gift! ***

Third Thursday Again?!

Hi, lovely ones! I promise that I'm still alive~ I'm just so busy living that I don't even have time to write about living... Life creates material for this wonderful space, but without the life itself, I'd have nothing to say. It's a crazy cycle~ live to blog or blog to live? Y'all are wonderfully patient with me, and I'm so thankful for you. I really do have much to say and hope to get back to a writing rhythym soon...

But in the meantime, it's the Third Thursday again, and that means that I'm hopping in with other Hearts at Home bloggers today. I really didn't even realize that it was the 3rd Thursday until Monday when panic suddenly hit that I needed to send out the info for this hop. I'm seriously drowning here with so much going on!!

Today we are blogging about the moment we realized we weren't alone in 'this thing called Motherhood'. And let me just start by saying I have had many, MANY lonely days... Especially when we were first in Nashville. Remy was almost 1 when we moved, and Trace was on the road with the band a lot. If he wasn't on the road, the guys were rehearsing or recording or he was working his construction job to pay the bills. All that was wonderful and social for him, but it meant that I was home with a baby in a place where I had few connections and we hadn't found a church that we felt connected with. Those were pretty dark days.

Then one day while out running errands, I saw a billboard for an online communtiy for Nashville moms. It seemed like a pretty easy way for me to investigate~ being online, I could hide in the 'shadows' and not actually have to put myself out there while searching to see what was happening in the community around me. I created an account on the site but had every intention of just being a 'lurker' (for those of you who might not know, a lurker is someone who frequently reads a site but doesn't comment or participate...). The more I was on the site, the more I felt like I wasn't alone. There were tons of stay at home moms like me who needed to get out. Who felt exhausted. Who were wondering if they were alone. Who needed community.

I became more active on the site and actually took the next step to join a playgroup. Through that group I met a kindred spirit, my friend Courtney (you can check out her lovely blog space here). It was one of those God-orchestrated connections~ Courtney and I made an instant connection. We had boys the same age, a similar passion for God, about a zillion other things in common. Have you had friends like that? That you meet someone who it seems like you have known forever? And it was through our time hanging out that summer that I realized that God had a greater plan for me. That God had placed me in Tennessee at that time for a reason, and also that He didn't intend for me to be alone as I walked out the journey He had/has for me as a mom. And even since then, Courtney and I have been separated by miles and life has taken us different directions, but she still is such a big part of my journey and will always be a sister. I'm so thankful for her!

So have you ever felt like you were doing this alone? Did God show you that He desires more for you? You can link up with me and other Hearts bloggers by adding your post to the hop!