Life of Eucharisteo

　 I love the smells of this season. I take comfort in the familiar. Every year the farmers sow their seed and in the Fall we all reap the bounty. For the farmers, their crop, and for me the sights and smells of the familiar. The smells of Fall. Cotton on the stalk. Bales of hay. Freshly dug peanuts. Then there’s boiled peanuts! Smoke from the grills filling the air at a football stadium. Candy corn. Turkey and dressing. Pecan Pie. Those are some of the smells of the season here in the South. Today I’m thankful that God saw fit for me to spend my life here. I feel so fortunate to have grown up in a place so rich with the beauty of God’s creation. So full of heritage and history. A place central to oceans, rivers, creeks, mountains. I’ve had a taste of it all. So often people in small towns want to hurry up and get out. I was one of them. God let me leave this place. He let me see life outside of Small Town, Alabama. I’ve seen wondrou...

On this first day of November, I sit quietly on the couch, computer in my lap, sick baby girl at my side, Little Bill on TV. In this morning’s episode, Little Bill is searching for “his thing”. A year and 100 posts ago, I felt the same as Little Bill. I was looking for “my thing”. Searching for that one thing that I really enjoyed. My creative outlet. My contribution. My gift? My thing. Today I can tell you that I found it. I am not widely followed. None of my posts are pinned on Pinterest. My words have not been re-tweeted. I haven‘t written any kind of book. I’ve not had anything go viral. What I have done…. I’ve written 100 posts. Out of 365 days, 100 of those were spent writing. Spent praying. Spent doing life. Spent giving encouragement, and being encouraged. Spent doing “my thing”. God knows the desires of our hearts, even if we don’t. He knows what will fill us up. What will bring us peace. For me it was writing. He gave me “my thing...

After playing hooky from 31 Days, I'm popping back in on day 31 to say Happy November Eve. The month in which we celebrate gratitude is upon us and I love it! I can't wait so I'm gonna go ahead and say it... Happy Thanksgiving! This October I've counted thanks in pictures. In November, I'll count in words. Looking forward to a great month! Thank you all for being a part of the journey here at Life of Eucharisteo. Love you BIG! Tracey

Not sure where I’m going today, so here’s a little disclaimer. Hang on. Yesterday was a doozy. Seriously. A Monday for the record books. 　 　 Now I don’t ever want someone to read here and think, “Man, she’s such a complainer!” I write here to share my reality, and to find gratitude in spite of it. Sometimes we want to read eloquent words of wisdom. Sometimes we want to read plain ole’ fluff. Most of the time, I want to read real stuff. You know the nitty-gritty, mundane, scrubbing the toilets kinda stuff. So if you’ve made this far, your cookie is in the mail. ;) 　 　 Yesterday was certifiable. It didn’t start out that way. It was like someone flipped a switch and it went from zero to full blown stress-fest in about two seconds. It went down like this… I woke up before the alarm. NEVER happens. I got up and made homemade sticky buns. Should have known something was gonna go wrong when they came out perfect. Agai...

Nature. Wildlife. Beautiful Fall days. There's joy waiting to be found! Thankful!! Hope your weekend has been peace- filled and soul-refreshing. Tracey

Need help finding some gratitude this morning. This is how my day started. Two inches deep in the mud. Grrrrrr! :/ Just tryin' to keep it real for y'all.

        Thankful for the fifteen years that I've been blessed with to wear this ring.   Help me pray for the sanctity of marriage to  be restored in this world. My heart is burdened with family and friends that have lost sight of this. Marriage is hard. Don't give up.         Tracey <><

"He answered and said to them, He that sows the good seed is the Son of man;" Matthew 13:37 Thankful today, for good earth and seed, Tracey

Days 13 & 14    Signs of Fall are everywhere and I love it! Praying you've all had a chance to enjoy some of the sights and sounds of Fall this weekend. Tracey <>< All photos in the series are courtesy of ME. (Tracey Padgett @ Life of Eucharisteo)

Thankful for sweet friends, and 11th Birthday's!

Matthew 7:7 "Ask and it shall be given, seek and ye shall find, knock and the door shall be opened unto you."

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NKJV) "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths." Fallen trees = Balance beams and jungle gyms. Thankful for country living. Reliving my childhood today, Walking on our nature bridge, Tracey

The "Burning of the Boxes" Ceremony Symbolizing the fact that the house is done and we shall never move again! I almost broke out it native dance. It was a seriously happy moment for me. Just curious. Got any ceremony-worthy moments in your life that you'd like to share with the class?

I so enjoy seeing thanks through the lens of a camera. Just another thing to be grateful for. Praying you find thanks everywhere you look today, and praying that someone will let you know how thankful they are for you. Let me be the first. I'm thankful that you stopped by today. Thankful that you shared part of your day with me. Thankful for the quiet prayers that you never boast about. Thankful for my sisters in Christ. You are treasured today.    "And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house,                                    and upon thy gates"                                   Deuteronom...

So I've decided to do my own version of " 31 Days ". And because it's my own version it's okay that it's six days into October and I'm just getting started. The plan is to do a photo a day for the remaining days of October. I think I'll call them Photos of Gratitude. Sounds good, huh? Probably better for a November post, but like I said I'm doing it MY way. ;) So let me catch you up on the last six days. Scratch that. Let me catch you up on the last month or so. I'll nutshell it. We've finished our house enough to move in. When I say move in, I mean throw all of our stuff into the room in which it goes, put up some beds and sleep there. We're waiting on bathroom countertops and a kitchen. We should be fully functional by the end of the month. Praise Jesus! Having said that....I shall now confess to a few things. I have fallen into the black hole of materialism in the past few weeks. All I have done is fret about fu...

It must have happened when I blinked. Could thirteen years have passed already? Wasn’t it just yesterday that I left her in that Kindergarten classroom? A little girl sitting in a big desk. Legs dangling. Little hands holding the back pack that was bigger than she was. Her little lip quivering and me making a quick exit so that she wouldn’t see my own quivering lip. Surely just a few short weeks have passed since we walked down the halls of this small country school on the way to the start of her first day. The same halls of the same country school that hold all of my childhood memories. The halls that saw lifelong friendships form. Saw fights and make-ups. Witnessed first loves and held the deepest of secrets.  I love that we share these halls in common. Every nook and cranny of this old building. The same sights and smells. Same cafeteria. Even the same color paint on the bathroom stalls. All memories binding us closer. I see her with her friends in th...

I could have missed this. This morning I wake up before everyone else and start my day. (The Proverbs 31 woman is patting me on the back.) I could have made the choice to start laundry or write grocery lists. Instead I chose time alone with my Lord and His Word. In return I got peace for my day plus an added bonus. You see because I was sitting with God this morning, I had a lap to offer to my littlest when she woke up unexpectedly. Had I been up and busy I would have shooed her off to the couch or the breakfast table. Then I would have missed the blessing of rocking my sweet almost 4 year old girl back to sleep. Counting my gifts today. This one is at the top of my list. What's on your list today? Don't have a list? You should most definitely start one. Counting thanks leads to Him and He is the key to unending joy. Thankful for moments like these, Tracey <><

The girls are gone. It’s just us. We sorta stop and stare at each other for a minute with these confused looks on our faces. The same question running through our head. “What’s that sound?” (Silence) and “What do we do now?” It’s not often that we find ourselves together alone. So of course we do what all couples would do that find themselves in this situation. We go to our local home improvement store. What says romance more than a trip to Lowes. My hubby is a worker bee, and he loves to get me involved in whatever he’s working on at the time. I really don’t mind, because after 15 years of marriage I’ve learned that this is just how his brain is wired. So I go with it. We stroll thorough the aisles of tools and hardware, electrical and plumbing. Romance at it’s best. (Hee Hee) I love watching him as he ponders over the drill bits. He’s got so much going on in that head of his. I don’t know how he keeps it all straight. He really is our r...

Well folks, this time tomorrow I should be headed South! Back to the land where milk and honey flows in the form of sweet iced tea and Southern drawls. My land, where the mosquitoes are a big as hummingbirds and the whippoorwills sing you to sleep. The place that holds a piece of my heart in its white sand beaches and blue green seas. It’s the place where I was born. The place where I was raised. It’s the place where I met my husband and bore my children. The place where I met Jesus. I’m so thankful for the opportunities that my little family has to travel these 50 states. We count it a privilege to be able to see all of the things that this great nation has to offer. But after all of our travels, it’s so nice to cross that state line and read those sweet words that seem to sing to us….”Welcome to Sweet Home Alabama.” Back home to friends and family….to friends that we consider family. It’s funny how two months can seem so short and so long at the same...

　 Do you ever look back on some months and wonder how so many things could go wrong in four short weeks? We’ve not had a record month, but we’ve had our share of days where we just shook our heads and sighed…”Really!!” We’ve had a busted toe, a trip to the ER, and slip down the stairs. All this to one kid. We’ve had things to fix. Brakes and hubs and car a/c to repair. We’ve had days of noses turned up at the food set before them. Mouths saying “I don’t really care for that.” They get points for being polite about it, but scolding because they should just be grateful they aren’t going to bed hungry. In other words….we’ve had LIFE this month. We’ve also had a choice. We chose between dwelling in the moment or looking beyond. If we choose to dwell we get stuck. Stuck in the moment of the hurt toe or the milk spilled on the carpet. We lose ourselves. We put on the blinders that cause tunnel vision. These are the times when the careless words...

What is your enough? This week I’ve seen mama’s that have quietly sighed their enough’s after long days of laundry, little one's battles, and cabin fever. I’ve seen precious servants of God wade their way through the heart break that accompanied the sights, smells, sounds, and touch of poverty. Enough, they said. I’ve had my own enough’s lately. They‘ve been all over the board. I say enough stuff. Enough always wanting more, more, more. We have so much, other’s so little. Enough trash TV. Gone are the days of Charles and Caroline, John and Olivia, and Lucy and Ricky. Enough food. We have leftovers that waste away in the fridge while others go to bed hungry. Enough bickering. Appreciate the sibling…the family that God has given you. Some are alone in this world. Enough sickness and suffering. Some people just can’t seem to catch a break. My heart aches for them. Enough hate. In the world and sadly among confessing Christians. “You...

Today I’m mapping new ground. I’m going two hours away with complete strangers. This is so far our of my comfort zone it’s not even funny. Don’t get me wrong. I’m no recluse. I can hold up my side of a conversation fairly well, but honestly it’s much easier not to. Not to get involved. Not to learn their stories and not to share mine. It’s easier to stay in my own safe little world with the known. “Not what I want from you” says the One who created me. So I’ll go and I’ll mingle, and I’ll do what He’s called me to do. I’ll be His light. I’ll tell them my story and I’ll hear theirs. Then, just maybe, through my obedience and by His grace they’ll know more about His story when we part. Pray for me today, Tracey <>< Yay for Friday!! Time for the kind of writing where you open up your thoughts and let them all spill out on the page screen. No editing. No overthinking. Just let it spill out, and see what you get. The thin...

The day I said "why not" and started this thing called blogging, I never dreamed that it would bring me to the doorsteps websites of so many wonderful women, with so many wonderful words to share. I'd never even heard of "community". There's just something about that word..."community".  It makes me think of lives and hearts weaved together by God. I  never dreamed of forming relationships with women I've never met.  I mean, I HAVE community....aka....friends I can see on a regular basis. But here I am...wading through cyber space watching women....wait....not just watching....coming alongside women that are changing the world for God....one blog post at a time. Let me introduce you to a few of them..... Jana - graceformymess.com Kelly - exceptionallyaverage.com Val - http://digtoesin.wordpress.com/ Sarah - http://shh121.wordpress.com/ Lindsey - http://www.keepingonthesunnyside.com Mindy - http://www.newequs...

Photo via Pinterest   " with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love" Ephesians 4:2 Thoughts?