Holy Home

How do we bring the Holy home? That's what andwe asked us as we started our bookclub today. (We're reading No Ordinary Home, btw, if anyone wants to join in.) It's also kind of what they're talking about over at Choosing Home so be sure you check that out this week. It's a topic that's really close to my heart. I want to have a home filled with His presence - I want people to feel Him when they walk in the door and I want to equip us to take Him to the rest of the world. But how does it look? What do we do?
Right from the beginning with Levi we've had daily prayer times. My dad always said our prayers with each of us at night and that's a really special memory of mine so I wanted to be sure and include that in our family. So every evening Casey and I pile all the kids on our bed to talk about the day and say our prayers. We start out teaching them to say "now I lay me" but also pray for people we know or specific situations that have come up in our talk. Levi is starting now to forego the "now I lay me" part and pray in his own voice. He amazed the people at church on back to school prayer night by praying outloud in front of everyone (and cracked everyone up by praying that God would help me make more milk for his little brother!).
We've recently started having a family prayer time in the mornings, too. Our days are so much smoother when we start off that way.
Another thing we do is have scripture all over the house. I'm still working on painting on the walls. I only have one verse painted on so far, the Train Up A Child verse in Levi's room. Complete with a train:) I have framed caligraphy all over the place though with scriptures from the "fruits of the spirit" to "choose you this day". I can't wait to paint even more - I'm especially looking for a good marriage one for our room, if anyone has any suggestions.
We're also both very careful to make sure that the kids see us reading our Bibles and hear us talking about our Bible study (even if it's over their heads). We want them to understand that reading the Word is a daily thing.
I've been thinking a lot lately about celebrating the Sabbath in a new way. We've always gone to church on Sundays and usually spend time either as a family or with our church family then, too. But I think I would like to do something more. So I hope to spend some time looking into that soon. I'm really excited to see what ideas other people are trying, too. You never know where a great idea is going to come form:)

Works for me Wednesday!

I thought I'd jump back on the WFMW bandwagon! I've learned soooo much over at the other Shannon's site - check it out!
So my tip for this week is ...plastic placemats for kids. I'm sure most moms already figured this out, but scrubbing the table after EVERY meal was getting old fast. The placemats are so easy to wipe down or just haul to the sink. And the kids loved picking their own at Walmart. For $1.88 it sure has made mealtimes easier!

1st day of homeschool

This morning was our first "official" day of homeschool. Official to us anyway:) Levi's very excited about being in preK - he wanted to show off his pencil box and school supplies. We also marked his and Brenna's height on the doorframe. Brenna did NOT appreciate that. I don't know what she thought was happening, but she howled! And that's why we have no picture of Brenna.
We have a few other things planned for today - cupcakes for snack time and an after-supper in-our-jammies (the kids! I meant the kids!) ice cream run. But lessons are over for today (the preplanned, sit at the table ones anyway) - we kept that kind of short. And they went really well. Levi's reading is coming along:)

Monday - time to check in

I actually didn't weigh myself this morning. As of Friday I hadn't lost any weight, but I can tell a little difference in the way my khakis fit:) I've been sticking with my original goals (except the coconut oil - forgot it at the grocery store!) and I think I'm ready to add in a little more.
1. a walk every day except Sunday - I'm going to try to head out alone right after Casey gets home while it's still pretty cool, but if I have to I can walk around the yard while the kids are playing. Jack loves the walker now that the grass has come in a little:)
2. start pilates again a couple of nights a week. I always sleep so well if I do this workout before bed, and that brings me to...
3. Go to sleep earlier. Ideally, I'd like to be asleep by 11:30. But Jack's going to have to stop waking up at 1 (and 3 and 5 - what's the deal?!?).
So hopefully after a few weeks these will all be second nature. My aunt and uncle are doing a very interesting sounding 3 day on/ 4day off diet that I may look into when I can start "dieting" just to speed this process along. But I'm trying really hard to focus on being healthy and not so much on being thin. Sure is hard though!

On the health front

Well, it's Monday - time to check in. I've lost 2 whole pounds! For a grand total of 7! It was a long stressful week and I won't claim that I met all my goals, but I did manage to handle the stress without binging and without relying on coke to keep me going. That's definitely progress. I'm going to stick with these same goals for one more week and hopefully by next Monday I'll be ready to add a few more.

A Sad Weekend...

We lost my Uncle Jack this weekend. The memorial service today was very moving. Casey gave the eulogy and I don't know if I've ever been prouder of him - he did such a wonderful job of capturing Uncle Jack's personality. We will miss him so much, but can't wait to see him again in Glory.
This has been the first opportunity we've had to talk much about death with Levi and that's been emotional, but so special to me. We talked about Uncle Jack's mansion in Heaven and Levi wanted to know if it would be near ours. I promised him we'd all be in the same neighborhood - it's Heaven, right?

Obedience and Weight Loss

Well, I haven't lost a pound this week. Five pounds all together but none this week. But that's not the real measure of success here. What I'm really concerned with is how I obeyed Him. So on that count how did I do? Well, not well enough. Never well enough. The exercise, the coconut oil and the coke didn't give me too much trouble, but I didn't reach my water goal even once. SO there's still room to improve. But I did learn one very important thing over the past week. Every time I was tempted to ignore what I knew I was supposed to do, the outcome depended entirely on whether or not I prayed. If I wanted a coke and prayed "Lord, I know that for my own well-being You've asked me to set this aside, but it's hard and I need your help" then I could put it down and walk away. If I thought about trying to lose weight as if that was my goal, it was all over but the drinking.:(

My mom and sister are coming for a visit today!

I'm so grateful for a chance to see them. They live way out in Texas and didn't get to make their usual trip home for the summer, so I've been extra missing them. My sister is about to start her senior year of high school this fall and I was really bummed about not getting to spend anytime with her first. She's been busy (BUSY!) this summer with mission trips and work at church and a few fun trips too, so this is really the first chance she's had to visit, too. So we're squeezing in a long weekend! I wish my dad didn't have to work:( But I'll take what I can get!

Weight Loss Plans

I can't believe I'm going to post this, but I'm trying to give myself a lot of accountability here - no place to hide is actually what I'm going for. Most of you who know me in "real life" know that I have some weight to lose (thanks for not mentioning it!). And now that Jack is getting a little bigger (sigh), I'm getting in a big fat (yeah, I said it) hurry to get in shape. I don't want to continue down this road of being out of shape and out of breath and too big for the slide on the playground. But more than what I want, God's calling me to get this under control (only by His grace, of course), to be more disciplined across the board. So I'm jumping in.
Here are my goals for this week -
1. No coke - this one should be pretty easy. I actually quit about 2 weeks ago (and had a massive week-long headache!).
2. 8 cups of water a day - I'd like to drink more, but I think I'll work my way up from here.
3. 2 T coconut oil everyday. When I get a second I'll come back and add a link here. Coconut oil is supposed to be very good for supporting the thyroid and since I have thyroid issues, I'm going to try it.
4. Something raw at every meal.
5. 10 min of some kind of exercise every day. I know it's not much, but it's so much more than I'm doing now.
So that's it. Every Monday I'm going to note how I'm doing, so feel free to skip Mondays for those of you who love me for my wit and not my body :)

No more trips to the Post Office:)

My Works For Me Wednesday entry this week is pretty basic but it is such a big help to me. With three littles and a post office with no parking, I just don't have time to run in there every time I need stamps. And sure I used to buy them in the checkout at the grocery store, but with kids begging for candy and all the half-naked women I'm trying to teach Levi to ignore...well, I'm busy at the checkout. So I get my stamps in the mail. You can order them here. But I have a bright orange envelope that I got from my mailman. I leave a check in it and put it in the mailbox. He takes the check and leaves me stamps:) Nice and simple, just like I like.
Head over to the other Shannon's and read all the great ideas!

My personality type

You Are An INFJ

The Protector You live your life with integrity, originality, vision, and creativity.Independent and stubborn, you rarely stray from your vision - no matter what it is.You are an excellent listener, with almost infinite patience.You have complex, deep feelings, and you take great care to express them. You would make a great photographer, alternative medicine guru, or teacher.

What's" Your Personality Type?

July 19 WFMW

I love Works for Me Wednesday!

This is something that millions of other people have probably already figured out but ... We had a serious stuffed animal storage issue going on. The kids have lots of beautiful stuffed toys and they love to play with them so getting rid of them wasn't really an option for me. I had to have something high enough that they couldn't pull them down on there own (I let them pick which ones to keep out for the week). And I didn't have a free corner to hang one of those cool nets that they sell for this very purpose - also they didn't really go with the decor (which is a lovely princess theme that you can't see in this picture). So we took three cup hooks and threaded through about 4 yards of leftover tulle from someone's wedding. It looks a little lopsided in the picture, but it's usually quite pretty. Brenna calls them her animal clouds:) 

Works for Me Wednesday

Love, LOVE, LOVE Works for Me Wednesday over at Rocks In My Dryer. Check it out for great tips on everything!

My tip for today is pretty simple. I use an over the door shoe holder to organize the nursery closet. Brenna and Jack share a room so there is a lot of little stuff to keep track of in that room. The pockets are just the right size for diapers and/or pullups - the closet is right next to the changing table so everything is easy to reach. I also keep Brenna's hairbows so I can match them to her outfit when I pull it out of the closet. Ditto for hats, shoes, etc. There's plenty of room for creams and powders, too, and they're up high out of the reach of little girls who love lotion:) It's a lifesaver for me!

When I am dry You fill my cup

I asked for prayer this morning for my attitude. My pastor's a riot - he wrote "Shannon's 'tude" on the list. I've been so ... fed up lately, feeling criticisized at every turn, angry at everyone. And I certainly realize that some of this is postpartum aftershocks, some of it was me taking my eyes off the Father and focusing too much on the opinions of this world.
Well, God is no slow-poke and He answered my prayer only moments into the service through the music. I'm very close to our music leader but I hadn't talked to her about what's going on (I'd rather whine to y'all where I can delete anyone who calls me on it - haha) so I know it wasn't her planning that I have to thank. I was just singing along to the chorus All In All, encouraging Levi to sing up since he knows the words, when the words washed over me so powerfully that I lost my breath...

You are my strength when I am weak
You are the treasure that I seek
You are my all in all
Seeking You as a precious jewel
Lord to give up, I'd be a fool
You are my all in all
Jesus, Lamb of God, worthy is Your name
Jesus, Lamb of God, worthy is Your name
Taking my sin, my cross, my shame
Rising again, I bless Your name
You are my all in all
When I fall down, You pick me up
When I am dry, You fill my cup
You are my all in all

My cup has been dry - not only are people sipping out of the top, some of them are gulping actually, but I've been struggling with others who seem determined to drill some holes or make some cracks, too. But my real problem, the one that hinges on me falling short and not other people that I can't control, is that I haven't been seeking Him. I've been looking for approval in all the wrong places and when it wasn't forthcoming (and, boy, was it not forthcoming) I've let it affect me. He is my All in All and He asks me to Trust and Obey (can you guess what the next hymn was?). So I did get a 'tude check at church this morning:) Just what I needed.

Works for Me Wednesday

My works for me post this week is one little tidbit and one BIG DEAL THING THAT I COULDN'T LIVE WITHOUT.
The tidbit is this - I try to keep a vinyl tablecloth in the car for imprompto picnics, to sit on when the ground is wet, etc.
But my huge thing I couldn't live without is my family. There is nothing in this life like having a close and loving family. We pull together, we *know* each other, we take care of one another. And that works for me!
Run by Shannon's place to see the rest of the fabulous ideas.

The Two Jacks

I'm only going to leave this up for just a little while, but I wanted to share this picture with y'all of our Uncle Jack holding his namesake. This is one of my very favorite men in the universe - he's just everything I think a man should be. He has this incredible ability to make you feel like the most beautiful, cherished, precious woman in a room. There are so many things about him that I want to pass on to my boys - he's so caring and so protective and such a *man's man* - but never in a condesending or belittling way. He has such a strong wife and daughter and is so proud of both of them. Oh, I have tears in my eyes just trying to type this. I wanted to ask for your prayers because we may lose Uncle Jack soon to cancer. I just can't imagine the hole that would leave in the world. And how I hate the idea that my boys might grow up without listening to him tell a story and that Brenna won't know what it's like to hear him say "hello, darlin'." When we decided to name our first boy after Casey (and his dad and his grandfather), we already knew that we would want to name our next son (if God blessed us with two) after Uncle Jack and my daddy. We want our boys to know these great men and to feel a little of the weight of these great big shoes to fill. And we wanted these great men to know how much we love them. 

Advice - the good, the mean and the messed-up

I know a lot of women. Some of them I know in person, some I've only met online, some I've known my whole life, some I haven't. But I know a lot of women and, of those women, there are quite a few that I am exceedingly fond of. Many I would cry over should we be separated. But none of them are me. None of them are my children's mother or my hubby's wife - that's just me. I can hear some of you saying "duh" but bear with me - I think if I type long enough this will make sense (you might want to grab a snack...).
Lately I've been struggling. I don't know if it's hormones or what (although I do seem to go through this about 5-6 months after a baby is born), but it has just seemed like being me is sooo hard. There's the hard working, sleep in the day time, super-busy hubby who needs me to be a good wife. There are the three precious blessings who I would gladly throw down my life for, but who are actually requiring me to throw down MY life - every day. There's the family, the church, the prayers, the questions, the real needs. In light of all this, those women seem to have fallen into two camps. In one camp are the women who are doing what I want to do, being the kinds of wives and mothers I want to be, believing what I believe. Not perfectly, mind you. I'm not putting anyone on a pedestal here - I love these women and don't want to see them break a hip in the fall:) But they're the ones holding out a hand, being transparent, showing me how they do what they do and why. For these women I am eternally (and I mean ETERNALLY) thankful. There are some I won't see face to face this side of Glory, but I do thank God for them. Then there are the other women. I love some of these women. Really love. And I know they love me. But we don't always agree. Which is fine. I'm not one to argue. Even when I think I know better. Even when I *know* I know better. (I'm a big sister, too, Dawn) But, lately I'm getting a lot of those comments. "Are y'all really going to have any more kids?" "Now, those teething tablets you're giving him- are they safe?" "Brenna sure is shy - maybe she'd do better if she got to be around other kids more often." "Levi sure is aggressive...(see last quote)." Jack doesn't look comfortable in that thing (my new mei tai) - take him out so his legs can move around." "He's getting so fussy - don't you have a pacifier with you?" "what do you do when they're all crying at once?" And on and on and on. From friends, from family, from total strangers in the grocery store. From people who would not intentionally hurt my feelings for anything and from people who are so hung up on proving that they're right and I'm wrong that hurting me is not even an issue to consider. It's gotten to the point that one friend suggested I plan some snappy comebacks to fire off when I get one of these comments. That might be fun. But I don't want to be snappy. Well, actually I do. But I don't think my Father wants me to be snappy. I think He wants me to give a gentle answer. And I try to. Did I mention that being me is kind of hard right now? :)
So, here is what I need from all of you gracious women out there who are trying to be Titus 2 women for me and for others. I need your grace - when it's been a long day, I need to know you've been there, I need to know that you think I'm doing okay. I need your wisdom - when you see me doing something that caused you a problem, that might cause me a problem, speak up. Do it nicely please, but do it. I'm a big girl (despite the whining you just sat through) and I don't want to reinvent the wheel. It's just that I don't always (often?) know what I'm doing. And when I ASK for advice, by all means pour it on! I need you excitement and encouragement! If you think I'm trying to do a great thing here - let me know. If you see something I'm doing that is working, please don't think I already know it's working. I may be too close to even see the difference.
There's more to say, but I'm surrounded by hungry little people. And you know, I like being surrounded by hungry little people. So I'm off to save the day!
BTW, my precious children are neither overly shy or overly aggressive - but they do have their moments:)

Great post you must go read

I just have to point you over to Wisdom Has Two Parts. This post just really did it for me today. The steady dripping of "shoulds" and the raised eyebrows (some imagined by me, some not) and the subtle pressure to affirm someone else's mothering by heeding her advice has really been getting to me lately. It helped to read that I'm not the only mommy who doesn't measure up:)

WFMW: Church Bags

In an effort to get our Sundays running a little more smoothly, I've designated a separate bag to take to church. It holds the Bible I take to church (not the same one I use at home so it doesn't have to leave the bag), the usual baby stuff, interesting stuff to keep the kids quiet in an emergency and anything I might need to take with me that Sunday (the recipe someone asked for or an alabaster box - stuff like that). Nothing spectacular. The usefulness of this is that the bag is only for church, has everything we need for church, and is repacked right after church and not touched again until we're on our way back to church. When you go to church three (or more) times a week and need the same things everytime, it is a big help to know that they're all ready to go. I also usually keep the kids' Sunday School offering in this bag (their little church Bibles are in there too)and hand it all out in the parking lot, but Brenna got the cutest little dressy straw pocketbook for her birthday the other day and it is just the right size for her Bible and offering so now her purse stays packed and ready inside my bigger bag until we get there.
It might not be a necessity for everyone, but it sure WORKS FOR ME! Make sure you check out all the other fabulous ideas at the other Shannon's site!

My Girl Turns Two!

I can not believe my baby girl is already two. She's grown up so much in the last few months!

We moved to this house just before Brenna was born, when Levi was just two, and we hope to be here for a good long while. I was so excited to have our own house and think that my kids might be raised in one spot that I couldn't wait to start some traditions. So every year we take a birthday picture on the front steps. I plan on starting a home-from-the-hospital picture on the front steps, too, but so far no luck on that one:(