giving up Facebook

only for a time. I have to admit, I was very hesitant to stop using Facebook for awhile. There is no good reason why I was hesitant. I've been on Facebook for 8 or so years, I've gone that whole time without taking a break. It was becoming too much of my world. So sad. The great thing about it is, it hasn't been as difficult as I thought it would be. That's all that needs to be said about it right now. I'm sure I'll recap when this is all over. I'm thankful that God put this conviction on my heart.

The kids have been wonderful lately.

Charles (3) is really starting to grow up and understand so much! I am loving this stage in life with him. He is such a wonderful boy. Charles loves play-dough, puzzles, netflix :), being outside, running around, playing swords, being loud, loves singing, loves reading books before bed, playing with is matchbox cars, his cousin JJ, cowboy boots, super heros- especially Superman, wrestling with Daddy and cuddling with Mommy. So much energy, drive, will, determination, love, sensitivity... He really could lead nations some day.

Emilia (1) is learning something new everyday. She walked at 8 months, she can go up and down stairs with ease and without me freaking out all the time. She LOVES her Daddy :) Anytime she hears Stephen's voice, she whips her head around so fast to find where he is. She is a social butterfly, she loves people, and wants to do things all on her own. She loves to help me unload the dishwasher, challenging at times, but she loves a task, loves little toys like cars, trains or little figures, spinning, DANCING, that girl will dance to ANY tune she hears, doggies, books, she loves putting on her brothers boots, blowing kisses, she loves baths, sitting on Daddy's lap and cuddling with Mommy. She can say Mama, Dada, she tries to say Charlie, baby and doggie. She likes to bark at the neighbor dogs. Signs "more" "please" "thank you", we are working on drink, sleep, and all done<- that usually consists of her pulling on her bib.

Sometimes I dread coming down to the kitchen, after the kids are in bed, to finish cleaning up. And then there are times when washing a few dishes really do something for the soul. The time to stop, stand, get your hands warm, get something accomplished without a million distractions... Sometimes I grumble and complain, but sometimes I enjoy the moment.

Holidays

Holidays could be renamed to Busydays. I get that, I get why people want to have parties, get together, celebrate... I get that, but it doesn't make it any easier. I mean, just this month alone, we have already had many days of Christmas shopping, multiple Birthday parties, small group get- together's, family dinners, more birthdays...it's only the 16th. It's a good thing I'm a people person or else I would be buzzed out. Um, have I also mentioned that my oldest child is only 3. Once those littles get un-little then we have all of their crazy stuff to do as well. Wow, sigh, and wow again.
I am blessed and grateful for everything we get to be a part of. Family, church, small group, work thing, other organizations. I just hope I can remember to breathe through it all.

That is my hope and prayer for these times right now. BREATHE. Reflect on everything you're doing and who you are with, but most of all, make it INTENTIONAL. I don't want to just go through the motions, I want to really get to know the people I spend my life with. Breathe.

Breathe.
Reflect.
Be Intentional.

Jesus took his time with everything He did. He wasn't rushed. He was the most intentional person ever and LOVED everyone. He dined with sinners, tax collectors and prostitutes. He spent His time pouring into others. He hardly ever had time alone. He gave so much. Do I reflect any of those qualities? Do I even TRY to reflect any of those qualities? I've been reading through the gospels and have longed for Jesus to show me who He was. Praying that He would open to my eyes to the kind of Man He was and to really feel it inside of me. I want to know Him, to really know Him.

The Lord has been bringing to my mind over and over the LOVE that He has for everyone. Not just His friends, the disciples, family, the good people or the rich ones. But really, it's everyone. I know this is a simple thing to grasp, but honestly He's been banging this over my head the last month or so. I want to see people like Jesus saw people, the orphans, the widows, the missionaries. We had such an opportunity to reach out to a sweet college girl over Thanksgiving and I felt so blessed to be able to spend some quality time getting to know her. She is so sweet, LOVES the Lord, is so giving of her time and energy and wants to be a missionary after she graduates. I know The Lord had been preparing my heart for that. Along with that though, I want to pour out my love and myself to our families. Sometimes your family members are the hardest ones to get along with! I can't pour myself into everyone else and then leave my family high and dry. I need to be intentional with my family (and I do mean siblings and parents), always wanting to know them better. Ya know, we think that as families we know everyone and everything about each other, but honestly sometimes they are the ones we know the least!

With that, I know that from here on out, I will be a different person this Christmas season. Christ is my focus, all else can fade into the background. 

Breathe.
Reflect.
Be Intentional.

I'll get off my soap box now.

Peace

Coffee is starting to kick in! Bless The Lord for that. So, how is it possible to have a journal and write in a blog, both? Am I crazy, I can hardly keep up with one, let alone two! Oh, well, I'll sure try.

You know, In my devo today I was reading in Luke, specifically 12-14. Jesus sure holds us accountable for a lot, as He should.  "22Then He said to His disciples: “Therefore I tell you, don’t worry about your life, what you will eat; or about the body, what you will wear. 23For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. 29Don’t keep striving for what you should eat and what you should drink, and don’t be anxious. 30For the Gentile world eagerly seeks all these things, and your Father knows that you need them."
For some reason, this part of those verses really stuck out to me. The truth is painfully simple, but the power is mighty. Al

l the Lord wants from us is for us to trust Him, love Him and give all we can to Him. Why do we try to make it more than it is. HE already knows what we need and when we need them! It also amazes me at how much Jesus LOVES EVERYONE. Every single person. I prayed this morning that The Lord would open my eyes to things that I am normally blind to.  I will admit, I am a little apprehensive to what I will see. Will report back on that later.

















 Charles at 10 months and Emilia at 10 months. Just wanted to throw that in there :)

Thanksgiving week is upon us. I don't really have a lot to say about that. Usually every year I try to do the 30 days of Thanks, but for some reason I chose not to this year and I've actually been fine with that. I am beyond thankful for everything the Lord has done in my life, wonderful family, home, kids, husband, church...so on and such, but honestly I think I am most thankful for this year, That Jesus never lets me go, that He is there for me every stinking day. That His Grace is big enough to cover all of our sins. That I have a best friend I can talk to at any part of my day or night, He cares, He is love, He IS what we should strive to be. I could keep going but I'll rest here. I don't want this to just be the "right answer" this is my heart.

TODAY, after I do a little Christmas shopping- yay! and essential shopping (gloves for the Chuck), I will try to clean out/organize the other nightstand and clean out under the bed<insert blood-curdling scream here> HA, but for real, It's not too terrible, just needs to be done.

By the way, I absolutely LOVE mornings to myself. Can't say it enough, love love loooooove, them.
That is all. Thank you, kids for sleeping in today.

Happy Week of Thanks

Oh, life.

Started cleaning out the bedside table tonight. For some reason I had put my old journals in there, and I couldn't wait to look through them again! Oh, the memories came flooding back. The despiration of an 18 year old, excitement of a 20 year old and the uncertainty of 22 and out of college. I am beyond grateful for those journals for many reason, not mostly because there are little things in there that I wouldn't remember otherwise. Silly stories from when Stephen and I were dating, really special time with The Lord during Wildwood summer project, darker times when I knew the truth and chose to ignore it. I wouldn't change a thing and I am blown away at it all. 

So I did pretty good with cleaning out the nightstand! My new motto is "what would Sarah do/keep?" Haha. Sarah is in our small group and I strive to be even a fraction of how clean and organized she is :-) 

Next on the agenda to organize is the other nightstand/bookshelf. Gotta get the room orderly before the new bed gets here!!!! Merry Christmas to us. 

I am beyond blessed by The Lord. He is the most glorious being ever. 

Bed now. 6am will come too quickly. 

Peace. 

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9

Straight scripture. You can't beat that. You can't really do any better than to go to the Word.
I am beyond grateful that His ways and thoughts are higher than mine. The distance to heaven is unknown, so the distance that God's ways are higher than ours, our human minds can't even comprehend.

the days are long but the years go by fast. 10 year high school reunion! Really? How much have I changed since then...how many more people do I know since then...how has my relationship with Christ grown since then? SO many experiences, bad decisions, great decisions, relationships...When I sit back and really think about this, I can hardly even remember the girl I was. Did I even know who I was?
I wouldn't go back to those day for anything :)
Keeping it short and simple today.

No-Car aka North Carolina

I don't really feel like writing everything out from our trip. Seems like a big task that I'm not willing to take right now. However, I have posted some pictures for your enjoyment. There are, of course, more pictures but my computer is running extremely slow tonight and I don't have the patience. "Hello...my name is apathetic" tonight. 

Pre-Trip EXCITEMENT! Emilia can hardly handle it all.

 Stephanie took us to the cutest park. It was pretty much a castle and those boys had so much fun.
Of course we had to have yummy snacks pretty much all the time while we were there :)

 I love these boys so much. Picture above is from our hotel suite. I looked into the room and found all of the boys lovin' on Mia. Picture below is of all the sweet cousins. We had the BEST time with all of them. Charles didn't want to leave and constantly talks about Zach, James and Connor. 

 Family pic on the beach. Such a pretty sunset.

 Daniel, Steph, Zachary and James.

Below, Charles is enjoying his Creators Creation.

 I love Tatum! This girl holds a very special place in my heart. We spent a few days in Wilmington on Carolina Beach and Tatum just happens to live there AND work at the worlds best dougnut shop. I love how God cares about the small things in life.

 Returning from the beach we had Jon, Mallory and Connor meet us at D&S's house for dinner :) it was a special time of hanging out and just being with each other. Steph was taking the picture. I love this.

 Charles and Daddy on the Battleship :) This was rather exciting for Charles but it was also nap time aka melt-down time. In the pictures below you can see that fruit snacks, once again, save the day.

The one and only time this boy slept in the plane was on the very last flight back. He didn't nap for very long and then woke up stiff, sore and confused. It was a pretty rough flight but all in all the kids did WONDERFUL on the airplanes.

We had the best time visiting family in North Carolina. Made memories that will last the rest of our lives. Friendships were deepend greatly.

deployment video-chat fail.....

this picture pretty much sums up our whole video chat experience while Stephen was deployed back in 2010. The connection was horrible and our chats usually ended up in frustration and with both of us looking like this. I think this is terribly hilarious. Little did we know that most of the connection issues were because of our router in the states! laaaaame. Just needed to share this with the world.