Are you missing Baby Jesus?

The other day I noticed that baby Jesus was missing from the nativity set in my dining room. I have several Nativity Sets throughout the house, but this particular one gets rearranged by my granddaughter on a daily basis.

I asked her if she had seen him, because she often moves him from one place to the other. One day he was with Santa Claus near the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. Another day he was sitting near some Christmas wrapped candy. Another day he was under the Christmas tree. But he always returns to the manger.

Maddi replied, "No, I don't know what happened to baby Jesus, MawMaw."

 A couple of days went by and the manger was still empty. I was sitting at the dining 

room table going over bills and decided to look away from the checkbook for a moment. 

I looked over at the manger scene and noticed something unusual up in the loft in the 

right hand corner of the nativity. I walked over to it, bent down, and peeked in. There 

was baby Jesus nestled in the corner of the loft. 

I called for Maddi and said, "I found Baby Jesus!" 

She came running with excitement, "Where, MawMaw?"

I pointed to Baby Jesus in the loft. When she saw the baby she 

smiled and said, "Oh yeah, right where I left him.... I forgot!". 

This got me thinking. How often do we "misplace" Jesus in our lives? 

We can get so caught up in "life", that we forget about the "Giver" of life. 

Suddenly, we look up one day and see a glimpse of Jesus nestled in the 

corner of our heart. "Oh, yeah, right where I left Him... I forgot!". 

Have a merry Christmas and remember, keep Jesus out in the open, 

not hidden in "loft" of your heart.

As always, go with God, and God will go with you!

Have a merry Christmas,

Debbie Davis

One Blessed Chicky

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shop online with me, your Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant

Good-bye, Grandma

I know, I KNOW, it's been a really long time since I've posted. To say I've been busy is an understatement. These past few months I have been out of the country on a mission trip, out of state 2 different times with Full Life Trio to record our new CD, and the busiest part of the summer.... we have FINALLY moved into our new home at Cross-n-Bows Farm! (More to come on that subject).

But, yesterday, we laid my grandmother to rest. She passed away late Thursday evening, Aug 1. I was in West Virginia with the trio when I got the news. I am comforted by the fact that Grandma had called me a couple of days before my trip, and we had a nice 10 minute conversation. My grandma NEVER called me. If we talked, it was because I called her or went to visit her at the nursing home. But, SHE called me. I will cherish that conversation :)

Grandma is in a better place. No more pain, no sickness, no death. She is reuniting with loved ones gone before her. She's walking on streets paved with pure gold. She's probably getting introduced to her new mansion about now. Oh, and seeing Jesus face to face was probably the best part of her first day in heaven.

Good-bye, grandma..... I'll see you soon ♥

Have a blessed day,

Debbie Davis

One Blessed Chicky

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shop online with me, your Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant

Master Bedroom Mood & Color

Two years ago, my husband and I purchased some acreage about 10 miles northeast of the town we are living in. Living out in the country had been a dream of ours for over 25 years. Getting the acreage was the first step. Now, 2 years later, we are in the final preparations of finally putting a home out there.

One of the things I love about Pinterest is all of the home ideas I'm finding. With moving into our new home just months away, I'm searching frantically for wall decor ideas, bedroom colors, kitchen organization ideas, and so much more.

In today's post, I'm going to show a few bedroom ideas that I have found on Pinterest. I have always had white or off-white walls in my bedroom (yawn...boring), so coming in to the new home, I want to add some color. Here are the lovely bedroom colors I have found:

Source: GetDecorating.com

Source: Pinterest

Source: SegretoFinishes

Source: AWellDressedHome

So, there you have it! I guess the "mood" I'm trying to achieve in the Master Bedroom is more of a romantic one. I'm not going to get too "bold" in my colors, yet I want a change from the drab, boring white and off-white walls. I'm welcome to any ideas you might have, so feel free to comment :)

Have a blessed day,

Debbie Davis

One Blessed Chicky

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shop online with me, your Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant

Valentine Cherry Pastry Cookies

I was searching Pinterest the other day or a recipe for a Valentine's Day dessert to take to my church's Sweetheart Banquet. 

I came across a recipe for Cherry Shortbread Cookies and I went to the pantry to search for the ingredients to see if I had the "stuff" to make these yummy looking cookies. 

Well, I didn't have the exact ingredients, but I had similar ingredients. Below is a photo of "my"version of the cookies. They turned out fabulously!

Valentine Cherry Pastry Cookies (OneBlessedChicky.com 2013)

Here is a link to the original recipe from BHG.com. 

I substituted white chocolate baking chips for the white chocolate baking squares, and I only used 6 ounces. They all went into the mixture. I also added an 1/8 teaspoon of the cherry juice to the mixture for added cherry flavoring. I had to bake mine for 13-14 minutes (but my oven is funky). 

On the top of each cookie I used white frosting with a cherry on top (since I didn't have any white chocolate baking squares for dipping). They turned out very tasty and they looked good too :)

I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day with your sweetie pie ♥

Have a blessed day,

Debbie Davis

One Blessed Chicky

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shop online with me, your Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant

Yes, We Believe in God

Hello friends, here is another devotion from my archives. I wrote this one back in February of 2004. I hope you enjoy it. It's a true story of persecution.

Jessica & Tifanee 2005

Mark 13:9 “But take heed to yourselves: for they shall deliver you up to councils; and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten: and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them.”

Jim Elliot, Joan of Arc, Cassie Bernall, Rachel Scott, Stephen, James, Peter.... names that you may or may not recognize, but all have one thing in common; they were martyrs for our Lord. From the early church of the Apostles where all but one of the twelve Apostles died a martyr's death, to the modern-day story of the teen-agers at Columbine High School who were shot to death because they believed in God.

Being persecuted for the sake of Christ was not just something that happened to the early church in the book of Acts. It's as real today as it was then. Christians in Sudan and other parts of the world are being persecuted daily, for no other reason than, they won't denounce the name of Jesus.

In the spring of 2003, our local high school held its yearly Talent Contest. Tifanee and Jessica, my two daughters, along with four of their friends, decided to enter. They chose the song "Breathe", a well-known worship song made popular by Michael W. Smith. During rehearsal they had some sneers and laughter from other teens that were not Christians. Knowing they would be made fun of, they still proceeded to sing "Breathe" during the contest.

Tifanee told me later that the anointing was so strong while they were singing that it didn't matter what the other kids thought of them. After they finished singing, they went and sat in their seats among the other students. A few rows back there were a group of boys snickering and laughing at them. Suddenly one boy cursed and shouted out "Hey, what about the separation of church of state?" Then the boys began throwing half eaten suckers at my girls and their friends. One girl ended up with a sucker stuck in her hair and another girl was hit in the eye.

Persecution? Yes! They may not have been beaten like the Apostles, or burned at the stake like Joan of Arc, but the mental persecution from their peers was real to them. A few days before the contest, they had the opportunity to minister to an unsaved friend of theirs... and of all places, in the girl's restroom at school. A group of them held hands and prayed while other high school girls went in and out of the restroom. Ashamed? No! If they had it to do all over again, they would... persecution or not!

"Father, I pray that no matter what the cost, we will be Your light to a darkened world. Even if it means being made fun of, laughed at, or beaten. Give us strength to take a stand for our faith and declare aloud like the courageous teens at Columbine High, ‘Yes, we believe in God!’.”

 © Debbie L Davis 2004

Have a blessed day,

Debbie Davis

One Blessed Chicky

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shop online with me, your Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant

The Three Marbles

I came across this journal entry I wrote in 2007. I hope you enjoy it!

 The LORD your God will always be at your side, and he will never abandon you. Deut. 31:6b

When our children were younger, my husband Larry received a job transfer from our home in Northwest Missouri to the hills of East Tennessee. We had never lived outside of our home state before, and it was quite a challenge being away from family and friends. But it was a year that I’ll never forget, nor regret!

Larry’s job at that time was driving a road service truck for the company he worked for. His job kept him on the road for long hours each day as he traveled all over East Tennessee, and sometimes up into Virginia, to service utility trucks. We prayed each day for his safety on the road.

Our son Matthew, who was 7 years old at the time, had a bag of marbles that he played with now and then. One day as Matt was playing with is marbles, he had an idea. He ran and got an old t-shirt and cut a small square from it. He placed his three best marbles into the bag and put a rubber band around the top. When his dad came home from work late that evening, Matt ran and got his little marble treasure.

“Here Dad,”  he said as he reached out his small hand with three marbles clutched inside. “As long as you carry these marbles with you, you’ll know that you’re not alone out there on the road.”

Larry took the three marbles from Matt’s hand and smiled, “Thank you son! It kind of reminds me of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.” Matt smiled, knowing that his little treasure pleased his dad.

Larry kept those three marbles in his service truck for the remainder of the year that we lived in Tennessee. And Matt was right, they were always a reminder that Larry was never alone.

Over the years Larry would come across the marbles going through a drawer, or packing a box during a move to a new house, and each time he would remember the precious gift from his small son.

Photo by xandert at MorgueFile

In the summer of 2007, we had the privilege of dropping off our son, who was then 17 years old, at the Marriott Hotel in Kansas City. He would be shipping out to Fort Jackson, SC the next day for basic training for the Army National Guard. As we somberly sat in our Durango outside of the hotel, we prayed a blessing over our son. We prayed for God’s hand of protection to be with him over the next nine weeks that he would be away from home. Then my husband reached into his pocket and said, “Son, I have a gift for you.”

Before Larry’s hand had a chance to come out of his pocket, Matt’s eyes widened with delight, “The three marbles?”

“Yes, the three marbles,” Larry said as he handed the now worn bag of marbles into his son’s hand. “Just a reminder that you’re never alone.”

May 2007

The gift wasn’t new or wrapped in a pretty package with a brightly colored ribbon, in fact, it was a bit stained from the months that it traveled in a service truck, and the years that it was stored from one place to another. The rubber band that was so perfectly fit around the top of the cloth years before was now worn and cracked in places. But it was a gift that you could never put a price tag on. It was a gift once given from a small son to his Daddy that he looked up to, and now from a Dad back to his son whom he is very proud of, a son who is a soldier in the Army National Guard.

Debbie L Davis (c) 2007

Until next time,

Debbie Davis

One Blessed Chicky

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shop online with me, your Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant

"Go with God and God will go with you!"

Learning from Others

It's been a little over a week since I decided to start blogging. I'm still learning the "ins" and "outs" of it, but for the most part, I'm enjoying it. One of the fun things about blogging is that you can share or "link-up" with others who are writing about the same things that interest you.

One of those is "The Better Mom". I first heard of Ruth and all the gals at The Better Mom from Pinterest. I have even been following a few of these Christian ladies on Twitter... actually, for a quite while now, even before I started my own blog.

What I love about these women is their sincerity and honesty. They tell it like it is. And many times, we as Christian women, need to hear that. God created each of us in a unique way, yet we can learn from each other.

        For you created my inmost being;
           you knit me together in my mother’s womb. (Psalm 139;13)

We were not made on a manufacturing line where each of us are exactly the same, God created us, "knitting" each one of us while we were still in our mother's womb. We are all different. And because of that, we can learn from one another. And I for one, am "learning" as I go.... how to become a better wife, a better mom and mawmaw, and a better Christian chicky. I hope you are learning too ♥

Debbie Davis

One Blessed Chicky

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shop online with me, your Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant

Song on My Heart Weekend

I went on a search today for Christian Women Bloggers and I came across Tania at the "Simply God's Girl" blog. She is hosting a "Song On My Heart" weekend. She asks, "Is there a song that speaks to your heart?"

Being a songwriter and singer myself, I have always been one to "run" to songs to lift my spirits. Songs have life in them! The life of the writer, the passion of the singer, but most of all, the spirit of our Heavenly Father.

This week, the song I keep singing in my spirit is one that my daughter, Jessica, wrote when she was in her teens. She's almost 25 now and is a worship leader at her church. She had surgery on Friday to remove a suspicious lump, and we are praying all is well with the lab reports. Maybe that's why I'm singing her song right now, or maybe it's because it's such a simple worship song, but takes me straight to the throne of God.

I lift my hands up, God
To your holy throne
I lift my hands up, God
For your name is holy
God, you are my God
You're the peace inside my heart
Lord, come and fill me up
To the highest point of my heart
Lord, you are my God

(C) Jessica Wilson

If I had a recording of Jessica and my oldest daughter, Tifanee, singing it, I would post it. Maybe some day. It's a beautiful song and the young girl who wrote it is beautiful inside and out!

Thank you, Tania, for hosting the "Song on my Heart" weekend!

Debbie Davis

One Blessed Chicky

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shop online with me, your Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant

Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Yesterday I noticed the last two bananas on my counter, and wondered what I should do with them. They were over-ripe, and I don't know about you,  but I just can't peel and eat an over-ripe banana (yuck). So, I did what any normal gal would do.... I went to Pinterest. 

I did a search for "Banana recipe", found one that looked good, then pinned to my "Recipes I Need To Try" Board. Then I opened the recipe and went to work. This is my second attempt of trying something with mushed bananas, and it turned out better than my first (that's another story ☺).

 

 Source: GloriousTreats.com

The end result was pretty good! Mine didn't look as "pretty" as Glory's (above), but it got my ugly bananas off the counter and a pretty good Banana Cake (or piece of it) in my tummy. The only thing I did different was the frosting. I had a can of Pillsbury White Cream Frosting in my pantry, so I used that instead. Thank you, Glory, for sharing this recipe. It will now be moved to my "Recipes I've Tried" board.

If you'd like to try this recipe, head over to GloriousTreats.com and give it a go!!

Happy pinning,

Debbie Davis
One Blessed Chicky

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shop online with me, your Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant

My Favorite Photography Pinterest Pins

How to Create a Wall o' Canvas 

From the Creative Mama Blog

If you haven't discovered the FABULOUS world of Pinterest yet, I encourage you to do so. I don't know exactly how long I've been on Pinterest, but as of today (1/23/13), I have 54 Boards and 692 pins. I've pinned everything from DIY gifts, organization, quotes, & photography, to recipes, gardening, desserts, and holiday decor ideas. But, there is so much more!

On my birthday last year, hubby bought me a Canon Rebel T3i camera. Although I'm not a "professional" photographer, I am enjoying learning tips and tricks. I'm also enjoying taken LOTS of photos of my grandbabies ♥

Today's blog post will feature 5 of my FAVORITE "Photography Ideas" from Pinterest. So, without further ado, here is my list of my photography ideas favs (in no particular order)! 

UPDATE: This list was updated in March 2014 since I've pinned so many over the past year since posting this.

Generations Print (Moose Photography)

 Photo Montage Mat

From Scrapbooks Etc

  


Bride & groom in frame by
Brooke Letourneau

JOY Holiday photo

Butterfly Chaser Photography

For This Child I Prayed

Well, there you have it. What are some of your favorite Pinterest pins dealing with photography or photos?? Please comment here and let me know  ♥

Check out my complete photography board on Pinterest!

As always, go with God and God will go with you!

Until next time,

Debbie Davis

One Blessed Chicky

Shop online with me, your Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant

Find me on Facebook

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Tuna Noodle Casserole from Scratch

Thanks to Pinterest, I have found a new love for cooking! I have never been what  you would call an outstanding cook, but the more I do it, the better I get.

This week I tried a new Tuna Casserole recipe that I found on Pinterest. I have been making Tuna Casserole for years... the same recipe my mom made while I was growing up (and still makes). There's nothing wrong with my old recipe, and the family loves it, but I wanted to try something new.

Source: AllRecipes.com

 

The new tuna recipe was a hit! Will I  make it every time tuna shows up on my monthly menu? Probably not. Why? The preparation took longer than my old recipe. If I have extra time on my hands, then I will go with this one, but if I'm having a rushed day, then my old stand-by will be my choice. If you want to try it for yourself, here is the link. 

Let me know if you tried it and what you think!!


Happy cooking,
Debbie Davis
One Blessed Chicky

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shop online with me, your Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant