Gearing up!

I am excited to announce that I am hosting a huge event starting next week! Tell your friends! It's an all about cloth month and I will be sharing everything that I have learned...I'm what I would call a "Seasoned Rookie". So I promise to be honest and I will have some AMAZING giveaways!!! Stay tuned and check back later next week:)

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Don't let these moments pass you by...

I think I hear that phrase just about every week:) I know that it is well intended but at the same time I had a different meaning. I would sometimes even get a little offended. I would think to myself "I am!, I stay home with them and I never leave them and I am constantly with them! Of course these moments aren't passing me by:(" I then realized that I hurry through my week, I rush my children and I rush through events spent with people that I love. I am thinking about what I have to do next week and sometimes next month all the time. I rush to get this done and that done. I am "here" and I am "living my life" but now that I have a new meaning to that statement and I have realized that I am not really "here". I am allowing life to happen around me while I wish for my tomorrow.

I have been reading this week and one of the discussions in the book was this topic...discontentment. Unfortunately, I have been discontent and I am rushing everyone to be or do something that I want. I don't even think that I meaning to do it. I didn't realize that I was rushing them to grow up or change into something else. I have to make this stop. So how do I do stop this before it's too late? I have to learn to be content with what God has already given me.

I am very blessed to be a stay at home mom and I don't want to "miss" out on my children. This year will be the only year that they will be exactly like this! I don't want to miss out on Baby Girl learning new words...bye, hey, momma, dada, bite, mine, i la lu, and so much more. Even what she is doing right now as I type this...trying to carry her baby in her shirt using it as a baby carrier:) I don't want to miss out on my son and what he is into right now...legos, learning to make new friends, growing into the "Little Man" that God wants him to be.

I don't want to take for granted the sleepless nights, the "helping" me fold clothes (as she unfolds them and runs away:)), the boy television shows, watching them make each other laugh, the messy house, the running around, the crazy not so planned days, teaching them how to build leaf forts, playing in the snow and so on...

I want to take in each day because today is the only day that will be exactly like this! I have to remember as crazy as they can be! Rarely do they always go the exact way that I want them to go. Nap time, lunch, and errands sometimes they go off without a hitch and sometimes I have to pray from the time I get up to the time I sit down at night...lol. It's true:)

I want them to grow up and have some awesome childhood memories. I want their stories to be good ones not something that they can't really remember. I want to remember too! We as parents are writing their stories. I don't want you to think that we have to go an extravagant trips every year and buy them everything that they want. They won't remember all the stuff we bought them...but they will remember what we did! Friday sheet tents, that ice cream mom makes in the blender, their favorite dish, at home movies and popcorn,snuggling before bedtime while reading a book, baking holiday cookies together, just being silly! those are the things that they will remember...

The same thing goes for your husband:) This is the only year that he will be this age, have this hair (lol), celebrate these days with you. Don't take him for granted either. If God has blessed you with a good man then you need to be content with the way that he is now...you should know by now that you can't change him. But you can decide to accept some of those pet peeves that he has because one day you will miss that...I promise.

I challenge you to LIVE in the day that you are in today. Don't be discontent with what you have and decide to be content with everything that you have been given. Take a few moments and cherish your family!

and so we said our goodbyes...

This past Sunday was our last day at our church. Were my step-grandfather preached for years and the entire church has known me since I was seven. Now my Uncle is the pastor and still it feels like home and it is hard to say goodbye. I have been going there for nearly 25 years, that's practically my entire life!

Why are we saying goodbye? Well, that wasn't an easy decision...

We had an urging a few months back but we figured that was just us and decided not to listen. Then the call became greater and even stronger. We decided to fast and pray. The entire month of October was devoted to this one question, "Lord, are we where you want us?" At the end of the month we looked at each other and hung our heads low because we knew the answer was to leave our church.

We were a little sad. It's not easy to leave a church to do God's will and have blind faith because you don't know where you will end up. It is very easy to leave a church when you are just leaving because of personal reasons. We had a ton of excuses why NOT to leave...

What about our pastor, or (insert name here)?

What about Little Buddy? We know making friends isn't easy...

What if?

and so they continued on and on. The more excuses we came up with as to why not to go the more "hurt" we became. Trust me we had a google of reasons why we shouldn't go...

Honestly, we becamea lot like Jonah. We were listening to our personal reasons and not to Him. Sometimes when you listen to reasoning and not God you begin to rebel. Not because you don't know better but because you don't fully understand why. We had began to be rebellious in our own hearts. We had to repent and ask God to forgive us and promised that we would stand in unison on this and go forth. Thank God we didn't decide to get on any boats...lol, I had too:) But sometimes I think life circumstances or reasoning can be your whale and it seems to swallow you whole.

We are not leaving because we want to, we are leaving because we have to obey. What I didn't know, at that time, is that my husband was being called to preach. This man that I petitioned before the Lord just years before to save him and allow him to get his life right with Him was being called. I have no doubt that he will be great, not because he is my husband but because he allows God to lead him.

When we decided to stand on faith and stop making excuses we felt like a huge load was lifted off of our shoulders. I am calling it blind faith for the moment because we still aren't positive as to where God is calling us. We had to fulfill our obligations first. I never felt like we should leave things undone. Too many people had promised to stay and fulfill an obligation and left in the middle of it and I never felt right about that.

So where do we go from here? Well, we have a church that is on our hearts and we feel like we are being led to go there. We shall see this Sunday when we go visit. We will be fasting and praying for direction again as we begin this journey. We are a little scared and even little more excited to see what God has in store for us. I ask you to pray for us to be sensitive to what He has to say and where He leads us...thank you!

Inspired to Action

One of my friends introduced me to this and I want to share with all of you. I think it may be too late to sign up officially but it is NEVER too late to decide to do this for yourself...

I usually have this type of day...
My baby girl still does not sleep through the night (yes, still gets up 1-3 times at night) so I try really hard to "sleep in", which to me is 8am. I do this because I feel like if I sleep until everyone gets up then "I will feel more apt to take care of everyone".
What I have found is I am actually constantly running behind all day.We rush to eat breakfast just so we can rush to start school, rush to get dressed, and rush to get going. I clean when I can and hope and pray that I can find a minute of peace to sit down and hopefully spend time with God and read the Bible. I clean and cook all day, take care of everyone's needs, and by the end of the day I am pooped! I am then sitting on the couch in a comatose state of being and realize that I NEVER had time for me and God. I never took a minute to sneak away. I pray all day long but I need a time when I can sit down and just enjoy being with the one true King.

I have tried to do this when I am in that comatose state of being at night and it just doesn't work for me. I have tried to do this during nap time but I am so tired at that point that I fall asleep...horrible I know. I can't do an away from home Bible Study unless I have a baby sitter. So what is a busy stay at home mom supposed to do?

Inspired to Action is a call for any woman who is wanting to draw closer to God. It is a decision to wake up early, more like 5:30ish, and be able to put God first in your day. It is a call to decide to "wake up for your family" not "waking up to your family". I have decided to join this group because I desperately need this time. I need a "me time". My whole day is devoted to being a loving mother and wife and I need sometime to devote to God.

I also realized this too: I totally believe in tithing. A tithe is a 10th, so what is a tenth of your day? 2.4 hours! If I get up at 5:30 and my family wakes up around 8 then I "tithed" the first part of my day to HIM! I thought it was a cool thought:)

This week I started getting up at 6:30am to make it a little easier on me next week, kind of easing into it:) The first day went amazingly well. I was able to get up and enjoyed the entire day. The entire day just flowed the way "it should". The past 2 days my baby girl hasn't been so eager to let me get up on my own. She hasn't been feeling well and I pray by next week she will be feeling much better.

I encourage you to join in on this even if you can't officially join decide to do this for yourself. Try it out. It's a new year...let's set this as a new goal for you this month!


You can click on the Inspired to Action above in red and it will take you to their FB page:)