Merry Christmas!!!

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas.  I sure did.  I really enjoyed being surrounded by family.  We were even invited to a wedding on Christmas.  I will have pictures and a story on that next week.  I found a quiet moment and thought I would drop in to say hello and ask you our Q of the Week. 

Was there a moment on Christmas day, that you felt Holy Spirit goose bumps because you realized the importance of that day?

Jeannie-Mine was during our Christmas service at my Mom's husband's church.  He is the pastor and did a nice little message about the joy in the world, when you have Christ.

Wrapped up in a Title

I was just reading in my bible study and the woman said, when we are in ministry of any kind we need to focus on the people and not on the task or title. That soooo applies to motherhood and keeping a home. We get wrapped up in a task that we are doing, when a child runs in or our husband comes home, we feel interrupted because we weren't done. This week let’s all remember who it is that we are doing all of this for. It doesn't mean that we can't expect to get things done, it just means we need to watch our attitudes when we are interrupted.
As far as that title goes, motherhood can actually take on a negative feel.  Many of us have felt the sting of the phrase “just a mom”.  Let me remind you and myself also that we are doing the hardest, most important job in the world.  Without us where would the world be.  Actually, many moms have left their post and we see the effects of that in our society today.  We play a vital role in forming the leaders of the future.   Keep up the good work and pass on this message to another mom to encourage her.
Jeannie

Our Month of Birthdays

In our house we have 4 birthdays between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  It makes life just crazy and expensive.  For our two little ones this year we decided to have a friend party in February because it is so crazy.  Here is a peek at our birthday celebrations.

This is little guys cake, made by the lovely and talented Allie.  She is such an artist.  She did this free-hand.

Here we have Mr. 16.  He wanted a Brownie Trifle for his cake, layers of brownie and pudding.  Yummmm!!!  He had a sleepover, hold the sleep.

This belongs to Bella.  She turned 7.  Allie did this cake too.  Bella wanted a Tinkerbell/Gingerbread house cake and that is what she got. 

And I got a surprise party from my daughter and best friend Melissa.  They had me till I started questioning Melissa’s husband’s ploy to get us over there.  Oh really you got a new snow blower and I care why?  BTW (teen talk for by the way.  I try my best to stay with it)  I turned 28 again!!  Ok,Ok  40.
Jeannie

After God’s own Heart

I'm doing a study on David right now and they were comparing David and Saul, asking what made David more of a man after God's own heart. Both Saul and David committed great sins against God (you can read about both men in I and II Samuel). The difference is that Saul's heart had hardened against God in his sin and David sincerely repented to God of his sin. The condition of our heart prepares the path of our lives. We are all going to mess up in parenting and in marriage. The way you handle those mess ups determines the way God is going to help you. Spouses and children are awfully important to us, just as Israel was to David. We need to follow his example of seeking God for wisdom and being obedient. If we are not obedient we need to repent ASAP.
So, If you lost it with your husband or children today and spouted off horrible things to them, you have not damaged them for life or ruined you marriage. Just ask the forgiveness of God and of them and God will bless that which you have been so richly blessed.
Jeannie

Q of the Week.

How many days a week do you eat dinner at the table as a family?

Jeannie-I would say that we eat at the table about 4 days a week and once at the coffee table.  Whenever we have a snack night or pizza we watch a movie with dinner.

Little Things

This week, I want you to take one of your children into your lap and measure your hand to theirs. Really study it for a moment. There are 2 things we can learn from doing this. First, it gives us perspective when we are frustrated with our small ones that just aren't getting it.(Why do you keep pulling your sisters hair, after 10 time outs).   They have only been here on this earth for a few short years. It takes time to master this thing called life.
The next thing we can learn from doing this is, that this is how our heavenly Father sees us. In our faith and our knowledge of Him we are just small children, who just don't get it so much of the time. We have a Father with endless patience and love for us because he knows we are still trying to master this thing called life.
Jeannie

Take up your weapons while you build!

I have been reading in Nehemiah lately.  It was one of those times when I was done with a Bible study and needed something to read.  So I said, “alright Lord what book of the Bible do you want me to read?”  I heard him say, "Nehemiah", which I have never read or even thought of.  So, I flipped there and started reading. 

 What a great book.  It is about a cupbearer for the King of the land that had taken them over.  He was a Hebrew and heard that the wall of Jerusalam needed rebuilt so he asked the King if he could go there to help them do that.  He must have had great favor from the King because he let him go. 

I won’t get into any more about the story but you have to read it, it has such great truths in there that we really need to look at for our world today.

The Big thing that I want to tell you of today is what I gained from Chapter 4.

As mothers we have so much to do in the process of serving as builders of our homes.  But we have an enemy that seeks to devour us.  If he can destroy the builder he can totally stop the building process and then he has won. 
In Nehemiah, as they were rebuilding the walls of the city, Nehemiah instructed the ones that brought in materials to carry the materials with one hand and with the other hand carry a weapon.  As for the builders they wore their sword by their sides as they worked. 

What does the Bible say that our Weapon is?  We are to use “the sword of the spirit which is the word of God” Ephesians 6:17.  If you read on a little from there it says “And pray in the Spirit in all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.”

If we aren’t armed with our weapon we can be attacked by Satan our enemy. I don’t mean carrying your Bible as your weapon.  I mean having God’s word in your heart from studying it.
If you would spend just 20-30 minutes a day with the Lord, reading His word and praying, then you are arming yourself with the most powerful weapon known to man.  Try reading Nehemiah.  It's in the Old Testament.
God Bless
Jeannie

Goals For December

Considering this is so late getting in here, I would say getting organized should be top priority. First, let’s see if I accomplished something last month.  It sure does not seem like it but sometimes if you look at a list you can see for sure.
Home-

• Organize my kitchen cupboards (ugh!) X
  
• Finish my meal planning for November(better get that done quick, so we can eat) X
  
• I am going to actually plan this year’s Thanksgiving beforehand.  X
  
• Start planning Christmas (when I figure out what that means I will share it with you)  Still in the works, but I did start.

Homeschooling-

• Finish putting together new calendar set up for classroom. X

Blogging-

• Write more inspirational posts I actually slowed down on posts sorry.
  
• Start writing a Bible study This is half done
  
• Write an article or two for other sources.  Nope

Well I would say I accomplished about half of what I wanted to.   So here we go…
December’s goals:
Home:

• More efficient meal planning.
• Sticking to the meal planning.
• Keeping paper work/school work papers under control.
• Take a look at Flylady.net and try it out (Melissa is trying it and loves it.
• Have healthier snack choices for my family.

Homeschooling-

• Better scheduling of work.
• Planning ahead a little more.
• Getting everything done before Christmas break.

Blogging-

• Get things ready for a great series we have planned for January.
• Better planning.

Thank you for listening.  You know I list all of this to inspire you and keep me accountable.  Hope it helps.  Here is my inspiration.

Jeannie

I just love to watch them learn.

We have been homeschooling for about a year and a half.  I feel so blessed to be able to teach my own children.
Above Gigi is using a Read, Spell, Write mat that I down loaded on Homeschool Creations go on over and check out all of the great things she has.  Even if you don’t homeschool, I promise you will find something you will love.

Here Franklin is counting frogs to match with the numbers.  I can not remember where I got these from.  There is so much on the internet to help you teach your children, whether you homeschool or just love to teach watch you kids learn.  Hope this inspires you to check around for some things that you can use with your kids.
Jeannie

Just a reminder…

See this gross light switch.  I saw this the other day and started to get irritated but then the Lord reminded me that there will be a day before I know it when my home will stay clean and will be quiet and empty.  Those reminders give me more patience.
To my husband’s irritation I left this like this for about a week to save the memory.  This also reminded me of the paintings that my children created with this paint. 
Hope the next time you see a mess, you will look at it with loving eyes and think about it enough to sear the memory in your mind for future days.
Jeannie