Deanna Doss Shrodes

I was reading an ezine today by author Mike Robbins entitled, Completing the Year with Power.  You can listen to the audio of this article here.  Robbins talks about making sure we bring proper closure to this year before embarking on the next, and gives the following as one of several reasons:

"Completion allows us to bring things to a close with a sense of gratitude, authenticity, and peace. When we allow ourselves to experience a sense of true completion, we move into the next phase of life bringing with us the gifts, lessons, accomplishments, experiences, and more from what we've just been through. When we don't take the time to truly complete something, we end up carrying baggage, regrets, fear, and unresolved issues into our next experience. These things don't serve us and often end up undermining our success and fulfillment."

At the conclusion of the article, he offers the following questions we would do well to ask ourselves, and write our responses, to b…

There was a period of time here on my blog that I stopped talking about any of my blessings.

I now regret that.

Sometimes we make bad decisions and this was one.  It was in response to criticism about sharing (or bragging as it was referred to) about things I receive from others that I enjoy.  They deemed it hurtful that I write about getting my nails done, mentioning where we went on vacation and what we did while there, or showing pictures from our family activities.  Supposedly this was hurtful to those who don't have as much particularly in this economy, and it was cause to make them depressed. 

Not wanting to ever hurt anyone who is struggling, I decided in response to that criticism to stop talking about any of my blessings here.  It was hard, because I'll be honest with you -- I get excited over things I receive, large and small.  (No, I'm not referring simply to finances -- anyone who knows me knows that I get enthusiastic over a 50 cent pen, or a trip to Goodwi…

“If we fill our hours with regrets over the failures of yesterday, and with worries over the problems of tomorrow, we have no today in which to be thankful” ~ Unknown 


So I've been worrying over something the last 24 hours and I'm reminded of something Joyce Meyer says -- something to the effect of the fact that we have only one thought at a time (although sometimes rapidly in succession) and it's impossible to think about two things at once.  Therefore, we have to always utilize self control and make sure to "take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."  (II Corinthians 10:5)  This way, victory is assurred.

It's my desire to be thankful today.  I can't let this day slip away without acknowledging the goodness of God in my life.  I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.  Nothing is guaranteed but what He says, so that's all I can go on.  I have seen miracle after miracle after miracle occur and well -- I have to believe for t…

Blogger and church/ministry analyst   Steven Acosta at The Church in America has given me permission to re-print his excellent blog post,  "I want to go in full time ministry because..."

 There's a lot to think about in this post if you are someone who is considering full time ministry.   I couldn't wait to share it.  Thank you, Steven for allowing me to.  Here goes...

So you want to go into full time ministry. Are you qualified? Have you taken the assessment tests? Lets look at some reasons people give when asked, “why do you want to go into full time ministry?” I also have added questions you should be asking yourselves. They are blunt and to the point. Don’t ignore them.

I want to go into full time ministry because….

1. “I love the Lord” -

Yet what have I done the last two days to show it?  Is it just an emotional response or is there more to this?

2. “I want to see people come to Christ” -

Yet what did I do this week to help people come to Christ? If I’m not maki…

This is my spice cabinet, and also where I keep the coffee and tea, which merits it's own shelf since we consume so much of it on a daily basis.

I'm posting photos here because at his own initiative Larry re-organized this cabinet for me yesterday, after getting me a spice rack/organizer for Christmas.  Now I can see all of the spices better without sorting through them all just to find one thing.  (Thanks, babe!) 



I love cooking and entertaining, as most anyone who has known me for longer than 2 seconds knows!  In fact right now early this morning I'm preparing to have a crew of people over this afternoon after church.  There will be fourteen people here for Sunday lunch/dinner.  We've decided to take the ham bone and some leftover ham and do a roaster full of cabbage, potatoes and carrots, and some bread and  desserts.


I am passionate about hospitality, and I believe there is no excuse for Christians to not practice it.  I will come back to the subject of excuses i…

We had a great day yesterday!  After sleeping in  (my kids are older now and hate waking up early, even for Christmas) we ate sweet rolls for breakfast.   We opened our gifts and then it was time to finish preparations on the dinner.  We had an amazing array of food and even better conversation.  Right as we were sitting down to dinner and the bread was coming out of the oven fresh, I had Savanna take some of the homemade yeast rolls over to our neighbors.  It's been my tradition for five years ever since we moved here -- every time I make bread, rolls or biscuits -- which is usually at least once a month --  we take a basket of it over to them.  One of the neighbors is an atheist and it's my prayer that they will feel God's love through this "ministry of bread".   God is at work there...I am believing for great things for them.  Sometimes it just takes time for people to come around...in this case more than five years, but who's counting?  (Not me, I'll …

Perfectly browned -- recipe for Sweet Potato Casserole that I shared on the blog this past week.


Maddie got a snuggie but it was too tight.  She is a lot larger than what I thought with the chart that was on the box.  Oh well...the best laid plans...



She also got a new chew toy which when she opened it, began to play with it with Savanna immediately.  She was running around so excited and seemed to be well aware that this was a special day.


Jordan got a hoodie from Tilly's from his sister, also a Zune from  us among other things.  He was a happy young man this morning.


Dustin got a computer.  He was pretty much freaking...very excited.


Savanna opens up her gift and is just a little shocked too..."no way!  for real?" she says.  So excited.


The past few days Maddie has kept running underneath the Christmas tree and laying underneath there.  She's so funny.  Had to take her picture doing this.



We were joined by our good friends Lisa...


and Bernie and their girls.


Larry cuts the …

Last night was Christmas Eve Communion at the church.  At our church we have a tradition of opening the church from 5-8 pm on Christmas Eve.  It is not a service but a time when wepersonally serve each person/family communion and pray a prayer of blessing over them. 

The staff members gather to be served last and and afterwards it's our family's tradition to go out for Chinese food.  We always invite the staff members to go along as well as a few other friends at times as well.  The following are some photos from Christmas Eve Communion as well as our time at the Chinese Restaurant.  We took up one whole section.  We also exchanged gifts as we normally do and had a lot of fun.  Most of these photos are self explanatory but for the ones that are not I'll put a caption.  I'm sure I'll be posting more on Christmas Evening of the day's events, so for those who are having a relaxing Christmas day and actually reading blogs ...enjoy.  :)    I hope you are having the…