My Spiritual Journey

To read the previous entries of My Spiritual Journey, click here

The past week has been spent doing a lot of reflection over the past year and refocusing on where I think I need to be more intentional. Brent and I sat down the other night with some reflection questions from simple mom. As we were discussing our past year, books we've read that have impacted us, things we learned, areas we grew, I realized how different this past year looked AFTER I became intentional in my walk with the Lord. Pre July, I can tell you lessons I learned or things I accomplished, but I can't remember areas of refinement or areas where I was pursuing the Lord. Life was a bit more scattered. Post July, when I started to get serious about setting weekly goals, tracking my walk with the Lord, and holding myself accountable to do the things I felt God was calling me to do, I can list numerous specific examples of growth.

So this got me thinking as I've been setting goals for this next year, my growth happens through intentionality. I am not a structured person so this type of structure goes against every fiber of my being, but if I'm serious about becoming a deeper worshiper and lover of God, I must be intentional about it. So I'm starting off the new year with that word on my mind...intentional.

This week I'm refocusing myself and recovering from the lack of intentionality that happens over Christmas break because whatever the opposite of intentional is, that is what I was over the last 2 weeks!

Goals for this week:
1) Begin memorizing the Sermon on the Mount
2) For some reason, the alarm always seems to get shut off during holidays, so this week I will get back in the habit of getting up at 5:30am every morning.
3) Continue to retrain and focus my mind on continuous prayer throughout the day. Feel free to email me prayer requests...I would love to start lifting you all up throughout the day.
4) Work on being able to have a clear and definite answer to question numbers 1, 5, 15,19, and 20 as I set a vision for this next year.
5) Confirm service opportunity for my family

This whole vision casting and thinking about what I want myself to look like and accomplish has been really hard for me. So I'll let you know how I do on # 4 next week =)

If you haven't spent any time reflecting or vision casting for the new year, the first link above has great reflection questions and the second link in goal #4 has vision casting questions. It was really beneficial for Brent and I to sit down and talk through them the other night. I encourage you to go through them at some point as well!

Mom moment

I had a mommy moment today where I realized that I was going to be THAT mom on the kindergarten steps bawling like a baby as my babies go off to school. I started practicing for that moment today. Today was Avery's first dance class, I teared up in the car as she was asking questions about the class, I teared up watching her learn to point her toes, and I teared up when she came running out of the room with a huge smile on her face saying, "That was so fun mommy. It was kind of hard too, but my teacher just taught me how to do everything. I want to do that again!"

This is her before class...a little nervous about what is about to happen. I know, pictures through a window don't work, but I needed evidence that she actually went into class and had fun =)Thanks Grandma for such a great Christmas present!!!

I'm sure by next week I'll be over the tears, at least I hope so! If not, we'll just blame it on the pregnancy hormones =) For now, I'm just enjoying the moment of watching my little girl overcome her fears of the unknown and push herself to keep learning and not give up even when everyone else could do things she couldn't. Today, in addition to the tears, I was one proud momma.

Its official

I'm old. When a tea pot and a griddle are the two presents that make you giddy, you are definitely old.

Family Fun Week

So usually I post every Friday about our Family Fun Day. This past week was way better than a family day though. Brent took the whole week off and we STAYED HOME! I can't ever remember a time where Brent took vacation and we got to be at home. Vacation days are precious, so we tend to save them for the long travels to see our families. But this year, we got to the end of the year and still had 3 days left! So no fancy pictures or fun stories from the week. Just a good time relaxing with our girls, working on some home improvement projects that needed to get done, and enjoying our time together in our house. Thank you Jesus for some down time as a family.

Happy New Year's!

How did you celebrate?

She said that??

Avery: "ORANGE?? You painted my bedroom orange? You know I don't like orange. I only like pink, red, and yellow." this was said during the middle of the painting project

Avery: "My room is so cool. I love orange." this was said after the room was completed.


Avery: "I don't want oatmeal. I want peanut butter!!!!!" (Screamed while laying flat on the ground on her stomach as I was fixing everyone breakfast. She ate the oatmeal.)
Avery: "I don't want peanut butter. I want oatmeal!!!" (also screamed on the same day while laying flat on the ground on her stomach while I was fixing lunch. Again, she ate the peanut butter. Girls...already fickle at age 3 =) )


I'm in the process of training Elliana to come when I call.
Me: "Elliana, come here. And I need to hear 'coming'. "
Elliana: "Not coming" as she runs in the other direction.
Me: "Come or you will be in trouble"
Elliana: (making a U turn and running in my direction) "Coming!"

Transition...Phase 3

The transition into the same bedrooms is complete...well, as soon as the girls learn to SLEEP in the same room and not just lay in bed and GIGGLE in the same room.

We started this morning with a bedroom that looked like this...








Phase 1: Totally forgot how long it takes to prep a room before painting. That is the worst part of the whole thing! After prepping the room, the first step of the morning was priming the green wall
Phase 2: Thinking to myself, "Did I really choose that color yesterday? I don't remember it being so orange!" Brent quickly reassured me that everything good is risky, only to say a few minutes later that we could always repaint if we don't like the finished product =) Phase 3: The brown wall. I have some pink paint that I am going to stencil with on the wall later. Too exhausted to attempt that today. Phase 4:The finished product!









What do you think??

Christmas

We had such a fun Christmas week. Unfortunately, both girls were sick with pretty bad colds the whole week so you'll notice all the stuffy noses and teary eyes in all the pictures! They always get sick right when you have fun stuff planned =)

Our Christmas started with a fun time with my extended family in Dallas. My cousin Denise had everyone over for a great dinner and a fun time with the family. The girls had a blast with all their cousins.

Then my parents came for Christmas Eve day. We played the whole day with them and then opened presents. The girls were in heaven with all the new toys! My parents stayed into the evening and attended the Christmas Eve service with us as well. I was thankful they went to service with me! The girls were sick so I couldn't put them in the nursery and needed some extra hands to keep them attentive during the entire service! Some of my fondest memories growing up are with my family on Christmas Eve so it was blessing to be able to spend this Christmas Eve with my parents.

We woke up Christmas morning and opened all the gifts from Santa!


After Santa gifts were done, we jumped into the car and drove to Brent's family's home in Oklahoma.


We ate Christmas lunch with his mom's side of the family. The girls also got to open presents from Nana and Pappa (their third present opening! They were in heaven!)



After the girls woke up from naps, we drove over to Brent's dad's house to eat dinner and enjoy the evening with his dad's side of the family. Elliana decided she loved her cousin Aislin and was very "affectionate" towards her. Thanks Brent and Rachel for not caring when my kid kept knocking your over as she attempted to get hugs!

All day Friday was spent at his dad's(Gramps and Grammy's) house enjoying our new Wii's and letting the girls get to know their grandparents, aunts and uncles. It was a blast. By the end of the night, Avery was really sick though so I spent the evening rocking her in a chair trying to help the fluid drain from her ear.


Then we spent the day Saturday with Nana and Pappa relaxing. We drove home Saturday night with two exhausted but very happy sick little girls.





You can't beat a Christmas surrounded by family. Thanks for a great Christmas everyone!

Christmas Traditions

The older the girls get, the more intentional we are about starting traditions within our family. These are some of our traditions from the Christmas holidays.
We all worked together to set up the tree and decorate the house for Christmas.We did one character from the Christmas story every morning over breakfast. They girls didn't enjoy listening to the story nearly as much as they did trying to figure out who's turn it was to pull the character out and put it on the felt board!
I had Christmas books wrapped under the tree. During the month of December, every night before bed they took turns unwrapping one book and that was our bedtime story. This was probably their favorite thing we did this Christmas.I tried to get the girls involved in all the Christmas presents this year so they made all their own cards for the presents and helped cook Pappa and Gramps and Grammy's presents.
What Christmas would be complete without baking some homemade sugar cookiesAnd then making your own icing to frost them with!And we ended our pre Christmas traditions by dressing up and going to the Christmas Eve service at church. This may have been my favorite night with the girls. They were both fascinated with the reenactment of Christ's birth, but didn't quite understand why we couldn't go see baby Jesus on the stage. In fact, Avery got a little upset at daddy that daddy let baby Jesus go away before Avery got to see Him. They also didn't quite understand why they couldn't participate in communion. "But families share mommy. You're not being very nice" were the words I listened to while attempting to take communion =)

All in all, it was a great month leading up to the birth of our Savior and I hope it impacted the girls at least half as much as it impacted me.

Oops =)

So I said I would post this last Tuesday...oops. Christmas fun got in the way of remembering to do anything!

I had talked about wanting to start serving as a family outside of the church. I'm still searching for something permanent, but in the meantime, Brent and I decided to start doing small things together. Last week was our first attempt.We took the girls to a nursing home and sang carols for the residents as they were getting ready to play Bingo. The girls were really excited when we practiced at home, but a little overwhelmed once we got there! After a couple songs, Elliana warmed up though and started dancing for everyone. Avery just stood stone faced and sang very quietly. But, once we got back to the car, both girls were bouncing off the walls with excitement and couldn't stop singing. I think they really enjoyed it.

Now for the next opportunity...tune in to see what we come up with next =) Feel free to give me some ideas if you have any!

My Spiritual Journey...

If you would like to read previous entries of My Spiritual Journey, click here
I'll make this one short and sweet...after all, it is the holidays. Who has time to read long entries =)

What I've been working on over the last week:
1)Praying with no solution in mind. Not that I always necessary have a plan that I want God to accomplish when I pray, but I think that somewhere in the back of my mind I have an idea of what life will eventually look like when He answers my prayer. So this week I have really focused on praying with no solution in mind which allows me to truly work on trusting God to hear and answer my prayers. Don't know if any of that makes sense, but trust me, its been eye opening for me!

2) Serving as a family. I've pursued an opportunity only to discover they wanted us to take over the organization...not really what we can sign up for at this point since we're having a baby in 13 weeks! So today we are going a different route and doing our first family service outing. You'll have to check back later today if you want to know what we did =)

I always struggle with consistency during the holidays so throughout the next week, my goal is to continue to learn and grow and pursue Christ daily even in the midst of a vacation.

And that's the short and sweet version of My Spiritual Journey! Have a great Christmas!

Typical Sundays

Sundays are always rather eventful around here. Those of you married to a pastor of some sort understand what I mean. But the picture below demonstrates the typical Sunday in our house.
Brent posted the picture on his blog as well, but I couldn't resist =) Sundays are crazy because Brent leaves so early to get to church and start rehearsals, both girls need baths, clothes need ironed, breakfast needs fixed, and all of this is perfectly manageable, except for one thing...I need to look presentable as well. Having the girls so close in age usually means that on a typical morning I get to spend 15 minute getting ready. Its just the way life is right now. However, on Sunday mornings I have that added pressure of trying to squeeze in at least 30 minutes of getting ready time so my hair can be completely dry and my clothes wrinkle free because I'm actually going to be seeing some adults on this day. Trying to squeeze that extra time for myself in usually results in this.

Good mom or bad mom? Who knows, but at least my hair is dry for church!

Then the girls and I load into the car, check into their classes, and begin our Sunday morning worship time. We usually get to the church by 9am and are there until 1:00pm or so. By the time we get home, the girls are overtired, hungry, and a little overstimulated. This results in very few Sunday afternoons where they can sleep and get refreshed. (Hence the picture at the top of the page!) We then load them into the car by 4:30pm and head back to the church for our small group Bible study.

Sundays are crazy and the girls are a bit cranky, but I wouldn't change it for the world. Granted, it would be a little less crazy if Brent were here to comb and dry one little girl's hair or hold onto one little girl's finger while we walked across the parking lot or could drive us to church so I could put make up on in the car, but the important part is we all get there and we have the opportunity to worship our King. That opportunity is what brings the joy to my heart despite the potential stress the day may hold.

I hear a lot of moms talk about wanting to serve but they can't right now because it conflicts with their child's schedule. I completely understand that because I was there once. I used to resent volunteering on Sunday mornings because it meant that the rest of my Sunday was going to be spent with tired kids, but then God convicted me of this selfishness. He doesn't call us to serve when its convenient or when it fits into our schedules. He calls us to serve, obey, and trust Him to take care of what happens in our lives. So Sundays have become my day to quit worshiping my schedule and my well rested kiddos and start worshiping our King who is more than able to meet all my needs as well as my families. Praise the Lord for that!

Fun Times

Cold weather, a park,some cookies, hot chocolate, and a hayride all equal ...



















a great family evening!

Family Fun Day

Friday was another Family Fun Day around here. This week we had a lazy family day. We had all had a busy week so we decided to just hang close to home and relax together. It was close to 75 here yesterday so we rode bikes, played hide and seek in the yard, and just had fun together.
Then after dinner, we took the girls on a walk to go see Christmas lights. They are fascinated with the lights this year!
Elliana spent the walk saying "wow, wow, wow" mixed with "more clause pease, more snowman pease" as she pointed to all the different lights. Avery just wanted to find all the lights that change colors and then touch them.
I love relaxing days at home with the family! We all needed a down day before the holiday week began!

Date Night

Every other Tuesday night Brent and I have a date night. This past Tuesday was our night to go out.

Talessa is our standing babysitter. She also watches the girls on Thursdays when I'm teaching. The girls love her to death! Every time I go to leave the house, they start jumping up and down shouting, "Talessa come, Talessa come!" She may be their favorite person in the world.(Avery took the picture below in case you were wondering about the weird angle!)
Even though our kids are in bed by 7pm and Brent and I have every evening together, there's just something special about actually going on a date with your husband. We decided not long after Avery was born that we were never going to be able to afford babysitters or dates, but that in the long run, we couldn't afford not to plan a date night for us. Tuesday night was a blast, and I look forward to our next date after Christmas!

Santa Disaster

Yesterday we attempted to go see Santa at the mall. Even though Avery has already asked the dreaded question, "Is Santa real or pretend?" and now knows that Santa is just pretend, I thought it would still be fun to get the girls' picture taken on Santa's lap. Boy was I wrong!

Here's the girls anxiously waiting in line to see Santa. Notice their hair is curled, and they have their Christmas dresses on. They are still excited at this point.
Then, no picture with Santa. We'll just say Santa was sweaty, grouchy, and really didn't possess much of the holiday cheer yesterday. I even got reprimanded by Santa! Maybe we'll try the Santa at Cabella's this weekend instead and see if he is a little more jolly =)
So to salvage the effort it took to go on this outing, we went and played in the playlandand ate chocolate chip and M&M cookies.
And ended the day with a picture in front of the tree. Just a side note: Today, Elliana doesn't want to read any books with Santa Clause on the front cover. She pushes it aside and says "no, no Clause". Maybe we need to end up skipping the whole sitting on Santa's lap for a picture experience this year!