~ Insta Blog ~ November 28th, 2016 ~ In The Mean Time ~

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~ Insta Blog ~ November 29th, 2016 ~ Believe ~

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Perhaps Now More Than Ever We MUST Choose to Believe, I Say "Choose" b/c Sometimes Faith & Belief aren't Easy, or Natural, We Must Choose to Believe that He Hears Our Prayers & Already Has Answers to Them. Shootings, Fires, International Warfare, Refugees, Bus Wrecks, Earth Quakes, Plane Crashes, Floods & the List Goes On. We Are in Desperate Need of Believers Who Are Vocal About Their Faith. Vocal & Persistent About Their Prayers. Vocal in the CHOICE to Find Joy in Affliction, Trauma, & Loss b/c We KNOW, Not FEEL, but KNOW w Our Minds, That Based on Romans 8:28 , "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.".

There is Much to Question When it Comes to the Lords Individual Plans for Each of Us, but as a Body of Believers He Has Made it Clear Our Duties While on this Earth, Luke 10:27 "And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.". Our Neighbors Need Us Now More Than Ever. Be Who You've Been Called to Be. Not Everyone is a Trained Fire Fighter, RN, EMT, Police Officer, etc. Decide What Gifts the Lord Has Allowed You & Use Them Now to Help the World Around You. I Choose to Believe We Are Capable of That. Loves, Hugs & Prayers.

~ New Music Monday ~ November 28th, 2016 ~ On Repeat ~

Aubrey Sellers - Lyric Video for

"Sit Here and Cry"

fr "New City Blues"

I have already shared several of Aubrey Sellers tunes with you in past #NewMusicMonday posts, but with the official release of her first video off of "New City Blues", I wanted to share another. Sellers has released, at the moment exclusively via CMT her official video for "Sit Here and Cry". I posted the lyric vid above, but to see the official video click here --> Aubrey Sellers Official "Sit here and Cry" Video on CMT <-- . I LOVE this video and think that it goes so perfectly with Sellers musical style which she lovingly calls, "Garage Country". I think this video is a great suggestion as to how to deal with a break up. If you go only on the lyrics you will be deceived on Sellers thoughts on break ups. You need the visual! Go give it a watch and listen and then download Aubrey Sellers album, "New City Blues". You won't regret adding it to your music library.

Again, I know that I have shared several RaeLynn tunes with you in past posts and have even declared my official RaeLynn fan status. So, you should find this share no surprise. RaeLynn had a busy week leading into the Thanksgiving Holiday. Blake Shelton used Facebook Live to announce her as his 2017 touring opener and as if that wasn't enough her label, WB, announced that her original release date for "Wild Horse", which was December, would be pushed into 2017. RaeLynn mentioned in a interview that 2016 had felt so big to her with her marriage, a new label, and serving as opener on several Blake dates this Fall, that she wanted to push "Wild Horse" until 2017 so that it could have it's own space to live. I think that is a wise thought and valid reason to push it's release. I have already pre-ordered, "Wild Horse" and am in love with the first four tracks that you get when pre-ordering via iTunes. One of which is the title track, "Wild Horse", with lines like, "If you wanna love me you gotta understand, You gotta be down with the way I am. All my flaws and all my quirks, all my glitter and all my dirt. I gotta thing about being free this restless heart just can't breathe", this one tapped directly into my ideology of what it might take from someone for me to consider a forever love. Isn't what everyone is waiting, striving, and praying for? Someone who loves you for your flaws as much as for your perfections? I love all four tracks that I have received from "Wild Horse, which include, "Wild Horse", "Love Triangle", "Insecure"( I am CERTAIN I will share this one in a future #NMM), and "Diamonds". If you are debating a musical gift for someone's stocking stuffer I recommend a iTunes card so that they can pre-order "Wild Horse".

RaeLynn - "Wild Horse"

fr "Wild Horse"

 

 

Miranda Lambert - "Tin Man"

fr "The Weight of These Wings"

 

Queen Ran has released her highly anticipated double album, "The Weight of These Wings". The only "official" single and video so far is "Vice", which she released several months ago. The pair of albums are categorized by Lambert as "Nerve" and "Heart". Each boasting at least a dozen tracks if not more. It is rumored that Lambert has rejected all requests for interviews leading up to the double discs release and that she wants the music to speak for itself. She has done several late night talk show performances of "Vice" as well as performing at the CMA's a few weeks ago. I am sure that part of Queen Ran's reasoning in not doing typical media interviews to promo this album is in part to avoid relationship questions. Both of her divorce from Shelton and her current Beau, Anderson East, who lends his vocals to "Pushin' Time", one of the tracks off of "The Weight of These Wings". Can't say that I blame her. She is Miranda Lambert, if ever you expect her to do anything other than exactly what she wants then I strongly question your judgment.

 

I decided to share "Tin Man", it isn't a single and with as many tunes to choose from as "Nerve" and "Heart" have I'm unsure how Lambert and her team will choose what makes the Single's cut. I however am partial to "Tin Man", I'm not a fan of love songs and I think this may very well be the exact opposite of a love song, hence my draw to it. With lyrics like, "Every time you're feeling empty, Better thank your lucky stars. If you ever felt one breakin', You'd never want a heart.", Queen Ran warns the fabled Tin Man from Oz the perils of having a heart. She closes, "Tin Man" with the offer of a trade off, "By the way there, Mr. Tin Man, If you don't mind the scars, You give me your armor and you can have my heart". Personally, I think once everyone get a good listen of this double disc album Miranda isn't going to need to do any interviews concerning her past, present or future relationships. Based on the tracks I have heard, the music will indeed, speak for itself.

 

Lastly on this weeks, New Music Monday is Little Big Town's, "Better Man". I am sure everyone knows by now that "Better Man" was offered to the group by it's writer, Taylor Swift. The story goes, Swift wrote the tune and immediately thought of LBT as the vocalists for it. She reached out as any other writer would, via e-mail and shared the tune and her ideals on it with the group leaving the ball in their court. I think that they made a wise choice in selecting it to cut. Now, there is an amazing chance that simply because the writer was Taylor that the tune would have been welcomed with open arms by any artist, but this tune is great no matter who wrote it. I think that Little Big Towns vocals are as enchanting as ever on this track and I just ADORE the truth of it all. How many times has one walked away with the defeat that comes from knowing the one you're leaving could have made the situation one worth staying for. It is impossibly difficult, admitting that things need to change and choosing to walk away when they don't. Realizing that none of what's wrong, is in your control to be fixed. Per usual, Swift hit the nail on the head with this one. I mean, love her or hate her there is no denying that she is a talent in her field. She knows what she is doing and she does it well, very well. I am glad LBT cut this one. I think it's perfect in all it's ways. Side Note: Karen Fairchild, lead female vocal on the track wore the dress from the video for the groups CMA performance of the song. Which, at the time, viewers weren't aware that it's writer was in the building to present the last award of the night. I am sure it is always a satisfying feeling to hear someone else give your words life. Especially when it is a set of vocals like Little Big Town.



Little Big Town - "Better Man"

 

 

Don't forget that #NMM Christmas Mix was posted pre-Thanksgiving. So, if you need some tunes to inspire and sound track your holiday season Click Here  !

 

 

All of today's new music is new and several aren't singles yet, but that doesn't mean that you can't make your voice heard by requesting with your local radio. Requesting a song before it's a single can sometimes shift the scales when a team is deciding which single to release. So, call in and request "Sit Here and Cry", "Better Man" and even start asking your local dj's about "Wild Horse" and "Tin Man"!!!!!

 

 

~ Discount Diva ~ Netflix Review ~ Christmas 2016 ~

I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday. I opted out of the Black Friday shopping and instead binge watched the Gilmore Girls Revival. I'm still not ready to talk about that so, I thought I would share another gift idea for your Christmas 2016 gifting season.

Today I am recommending Netflix. For my birthday I received a Netflix gift card that provided three months of Netflix. I didn't register it till this week because I wanted to be sure to have it for the Gilmore Girls Revival. I wasn't a Netflix member prior so when registering I was given a free "trial" month, turning my original three months of free Netflix, into four!!! Since we are approaching the Winter months of snow days, black ice, and general hibernation I think it is a perfect time to have Netflix. I also now better understand how people would opt out of cable or satellite memberships for a Netflix subscription instead. While it doesn't have most shows instantly, if you can wait a week then you are only a week behind folks viewing programs via cable. It would be MUCH cheaper!! Along with current TV programs there are also movies, both current and old school.

I have a DVD player that also serves as wireless. So, I was able to view Netflix through my TV instead of my lap top. Anyone with a gaming system would be able to do the same.
A Netflix gift card is Stacie Recommended and Discount Diva approved for the Christmas 2016 gifting season!! I think that even if someone already has an account for Netflix a gift card would still make a nice gift. Saving them some dollars in their monthly budget!!

Happy Gifting!!

For past posts on "Christmas", "Discount Diva", or "Gift" ideas just type the appropriate word into the blogs search bar and a list of past posts should pull up for you to cruise.

~ Discount Diva ~ DIY Nativity Set ~ Christmas 2016 ~

This is My Awesome Nativity Set!! Made by Two of My Oh So Talented  Creative Besties Several Years Ago. It is Lavender with Glitter Over It. My Christmas Decorations are Purple, Gold and Sparkles So, They Really Got it Right with This DIY. Every Year When I Set it Out I am Reminded of So Many Blessings. The Gift of Christ the Savior, The Reminder That Sometimes Great Things & Great People Come From Seemingly Humble Beginnings, and with The Thought of the Shepard's That Kept Watch, I am Reminded That No Task is Too Small for the Lord to Use or Have Purpose For. It Also Reminds Me that I Have Friends Who Get Me and Can Appreciate That My Love of Pink & Glitter is Just As Much Apart of Me Being Me as My Brown Hair or My Blue Eyes. 

My friends made my set along with several others with the help of their husbands who cut up the 2x4's and 4x4's for them. They then used a Cricuit to cut the pieces for the silhouettes of wise men, animals, manger, etc. They painted the blocks of wood a base color, let it dry, then adhered the cutouts, let those dry and then, for my set, used a clear/glitter sealant. They made several sets the year I they made this one and each one was painted, etc. to go with the persons Holiday style. I got to see a few before they got handed out and they all turned out beautiful!!!

For me, gifts aren't about the cost, but the thought. I truly appreciate the time it took my talented pals and their hubby's to make these for their friends and family. I appreciate it was made with me in mind and colors that are very Stacie. LOL!! When DIY is done proper, it can be worth far more than anything from a store.

Have You Begun Your Christmas Decorations?! Do You DIY? Do You Have Plans to Give Some DIY Creations this Season? Please Feel Free to Share in the Comments!!

For Past Posts on "Christmas", "Discount Diva" Recommendations, or "DIY"'s Just Type One of Those Words into the Blogs Search Bar and a List of Past Posts Should Pull Up.

~ Insta Blog ~ November 26th, 2016 ~ Every Word Has a Meaning ~

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Joyful: experiencing, causing, or showing joy, happy.

Hope: to expect with confidence.

Patient: Steadfast despite opposition, difficulty, or adversity.

Affliction: the cause of persistent pain or distress.

Faithful: firm in adherence to promises or in observance of duty: conscientious.

Prayer: an address (as a petition) to God or a god in word or thought.

I Think That We All Too Often Read Gods Word without Really Studying it in a Desire to Fully, Truly, Academically Understand It. We Say Prayers That We Don't Fully Know What We Are Asking For. We Lean on Scripture because We Have Been Taught to, but Do We Really Believe, For Ourselves, What It Has to Say?!

Can We Take Gods Answer to A Prayer Being, "No"? When We Ask for "Patience" Do We Know What We Are Asking For? I.E. Trials. How Else Does One Attain Patience? In A Life with Zero Valleys, No Trials, & Perfect People Always Saying Perfect Things? No! 

I Say All This to Say We Are Entering A Season Filled with Beautiful Meaning, Traditions, Kind & Caring Words as Well as Actions. I Want to Challenge and Encourage You to Be Aware. Aware of What You're Saying. Aware of What You're Hearing. Aware of Those Around Us. Aware of What Silence is Sometimes Screaming.

Everyone of the Lords Words to Us Has Purpose & Meaning. In This Season of Worshiping & Celebrating His Birth, Lets Take Time to be Sure Ours Do To.

(Definitions from Webster's Online Dictionary)

~ Pray for Chattanooga ~

 

WIVK Instagram

 



I am sure that by now you all have heard of the horrible school bus wreck that happened yesterday, Monday November 21st, 2016 in Chattanooga, TN. It feels as though everyone was just getting to a place of putting, at least part of the pain, from the shooting that occurred over a year ago in Chatt behind them. Why is it that when we think we are at a good place, a place of moving on, a place of some small healing, another tragedy strikes? And around the Holidays no less!! If you believe that we aren't under attack you have been fooled. I don't mean under attack as in military, I mean attack as in Spiritually.

In the last year, and I know I won't be able to list them all, there was the Orlando Shooting at Pulse, the shooting of Christine Grimmie also in Florida.The attacks on Paris at the theatre and then in it's streets on Bastille Day. Isis, basically everywhere. Shootings in theaters, elementary schools, college campus', military reserves, bombings at marathons, Election 2016 and it's after math of protests. The pipeline protest, the bus wreck in Chattanooga and the list goes on and on. If you look at the world we are living in and for one moment think that we aren't under attack, you are looking with your eyes closed.

Local News 8 Facebook

As believers we shouldn't be all that surprised by the happenings going on around us. As believers we have been called, prior to these events, to be prayer warriors for our country, it's leadership, citizens and for our international neighbors. As believers in the midst of tragedy we have already been prepared to carry peace in chaos. In our acceptance of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior we received not only the gift of salvation and forgiveness, but we also received the gift of a peace that passes all understanding, (Philippians 4:7 - KJV - And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.). We do not walk alone in any part of our journey. He is always WITH us. He has ALWAYS gone before us. There should be a peace that comes to us with this knowledge. There should be a peace within us that shines outwardly to others who might not know Him, but are in desperate need of a touch from Him.

Reading and watching the varied news reports on this most recent tragedy in Chattanooga my heart almost no longer knows how to react. I don't want to say that it is going numb or becoming something expected, but I think that it is a situation where I am not longer surprised by tragedy. I think that at this point, I wake up expectant of something new and heartbreaking to be in my news feed. I hurt. My heart breaks for these families that are approaching what is very much a season that, commercially at least, is about the children in our lives. We get multi-color blinking lights for our tree's because that's what the kids like. We write letters to Santa letting him know how good we have been all year. We bake, wrap presents, we make memories with the intent that in years to come we will look back on these memories as the most special times of our lives. My heart breaks for the families who will not be able to move about the Christmas season in this way. My heart breaks for the first responders, emergency crews/teams, and the Chattanooga school board, law enforcement, and medical professionals who sacrifice time with their families so that they may be properly trained and prepared for this kind of tragedy. And as they have had to sort through what is a very confusing and slow moving situation with young children. I heard a report today from one of the doctors at a press conference just letting the public know that it has taken time to identify the children as they did not have identification on them, all dressed in the same uniform, and some so young that they don't know how to spell their names or their parents actual names. All they knew to say when asked for their mothers name was "momma". So, their team got creative and went all Grey's Anatomy in the fact that they took pictures of the children and with the help of Woodmore Elementary staffers slowly, but surely identified them and reconnected them to their families. Which I think is amazing ingenuity!!

Lindsey Stirling's Instagram

 

Chattanooga will always be one of the cities I call home. I lived there for five years and still have friends there. I have friends in law enforcement, friends with school age children, friends that work/volunteer at the hospitals, and friends that are professional counselors. My mind has been on them all day. What today has looked like for them as we all get more details on what happened, how many sweet little lives we lost, and how many are still in critical condition. I don't think I can properly imagine what it has been like for them. I have been in a traumatic situation involving a child and in my experience it was like walking in Jell-O from start to finish and even awhile after. Yesterday, today, perhaps even these next few days to follow, are not going to be forgotten for any of these people. The victims, their families, friends, educators, school system, law officials, medical professionals, counselors, etc. are all going to remember this day, now matter how they hope not to.

 

I can say, I have read/heard many reports today and all of them complimented the work of all the officials, medical staff, first responders, etc. that had the impossible duty of on site management, communication to media, public, and most importantly the families of these children. I am not at all surprised. I heard a man say today that while this is tragedy, he had three children in the accident, one still in critical condition, and still he said that the silver lining of it all was that he saw his city come together for him and the other victims. It was one of the most beautiful interviews I've seen all day. He wasn't outwardly emotional, he communicated his feelings and thoughts well, he answered the reporters questions in a as honest as he could, way. I was impressed by him. I was touched by his ability to find a silver lining and to be able to vocalize his support and gratitude for all those that have been at the scene, hospital, etc. The chaos had to be overwhelming for everyone and yet there are still stories like this.

 

Why am I yammering on about all of this? I'm not 100% sure other than to say that now more than ever our world needs our prayers, actions and words as believers. It NEEDS our intercessory prayer, it needs our light to shine in these dark moments. This world needs us to be who we have been called to be as Christians. This world, needs our truth. This world needs our peace. This world needs our blessed assurance that this will one day, be over. This world, NEEDS our Savior. I was recently talking with a friend about hard times and we both said that neither of us know how folks handle this life and this world, with out Him. I can honestly say that with every ounce of my being and every breath in my lungs that I KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that my only salvation, my only hope, my only healing, provision, protection, comfort, confidence, and pure bliss comes from my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I have seen and continue to see what life with out Him can look like and I want none of it. I'm not saying that our Salvation exempts us from these kinds of tragedies. Actually, if anything, it usually puts us right in the center of them. It is in these situations, these tragedies, that folks need our Light, our Truth. It is in these times that our every word, action, and tear are watched as an example to those around us in what our faith in Him looks like in the midst of tragedy, in the midst of pain. They need to see our reliance on Jesus now, not when things are going well. Not when everything is right, every bill is paid, every one in our family is getting along, no. It is not those times that examples of our faith are most needed. It is in these darkest, so painful, unexplainable times that the examples of our Faith are most needed.

 

As you donate blood, send food, teddy bears, messages of hope, healing and prayers, I would encourage you to keep in mind and at the center of what you are doing that this is the time your truth and your salvation has prepared you for. Times like this are what being consistent in our quiet times, studying of the Word, living by grace in our day-to-day interactions, our individual, unique relationship with Christ and our constant prayers, are preparing us for. This is what the Lord meant when He said, "But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,..". 1 Peter 3:15 NIV.

 

I am praying for my city. I am praying for my friends. I am praying for the crews, teams, officials, etc. I am praying for the families and school staffers. I cannot pretend to fathom their loss or pain right now. But I will thank the Lord, because right now they may not be able to, for the healing He is going to provide for them all, in one way or another. I'm also going to be praying for the driver and his family. There is no way they are having a easy day either. In events like these all towns, are small towns, and everybody know somebody who knows somebody and there is almost never a safe place to gather yourself when you or yours are at the center of the cause of a tragedy. They are going to have some healing to do as well. They too need our prayers. I am praying for our international neighbors, partners, and enemies. I am praying for our Nation. I am praying for it's leaders. I am praying for you.

 

Join me.

Matthew 18:20 - NLT-, "For where two or three gather together as my followers,

I am there among them."