Reflections of 2012

I have never ascribed to the making of New Years Resolutions. How many people actually keep them? But I do enjoy reflecting back on my year to see what the Lord taught me, how I grew in my walk with Him, what I enjoyed, what made me sad or hurt....all of those things. Just reflecting.

(this post is three weeks into 2013 because we abstain from most social media during this time each year. I managed to replace Facebook with Pinterest this year. It's like progressing from one drug to another that is even more addictive. That will have to be banned for 2014. So sad.)

1. Letting the Lord lead- in everything.
    Why is this so hard? Why?! Because I'm human and sinful and I like to just do things my way. But seriously, the times this year I stepped out of the way were when He amazed me and did His work- all without my help! Imagine!! Like saying I would never, ever move out of Mobile, that Ethan could just keep driving those 3.5 hours each way and living in a hotel during the week. But God....well, he changed my heart once I actually gave it to Him and I suddenly DESIRED to move so far from home. Of course there were a few things He allowed to happen to make me want to leave, which leads to.....

2. Gossip. It really is as bad as the Bible makes it out to be.  Plus, Silence is awesome.
    I've never thought of myself as a gossiper. Just talking, catching folks up on what was going on with so-and-so. About two years ago I read a devotional by Lysa Terkheurst that SO convicted me of this. If I didn't have something nice to say or wasn't talking about someone because there was a real, spiritual need there, then my mouth needed to be shut. However, we live in a world where others like to talk. And sometimes it's about you. And sometimes it's not true. Because when we live around people who are just as sinful as we are, things get messy. Especially when they are trying to cover up their own sin and make themselves look better, be the victim, etc. This can really (seriously) hurt. And I'm not talking about just hurt feelings but serious consequences to people's lives, well-being, family....all of it. It was confirmed in an experience with our neighbors that yes, gossip really IS bad. The Lord led us to keep our mouths SHUT, even if we had every right to speak out. This is HARD. This is the nastiness of gossip and lies. But there is a Proverb that tells us silence is the best answer to a fool. Amen. Keep quiet, people, and carry on....He knows your heart.

3. Homeschooling is hard. Still.
   We are four years in and it's so beautiful, a blessing and so incredibly hard. I'm accepting that it always will be, because while there are many reasons we homeschool, the Lord is using it to change ME, mold ME and reveal sin to ME. Thought I was supposed to be doing that for my kiddos but it's me who is being changed....growing. Sanctified. And nothing will do that like educating your kids at home (Read: Being around them 24/7) But they are a BLESSING from the Lord and I am so grateful to Him for allowing us this walk.

4. I miss my family.
    In the last 7 years I have lost family that I was the closest to- My dad, grandmother & grandfather. Two of those within the last year. It hurts. I'm so glad there is a heaven....and I will see them again. But here, on this side of heaven, it really stinks.

5. My health is important.
    From someone who was always skinny and fit, to be thrown into a world of weight struggles, hormone issues and mystery health problems, it's been a rough and overwhelming ride. Apparently, I am living in a non-reality where I think one day I'll wake up and things will be better. But this is not so....and finally, FINALLY, I am being proactive. (Beyond the week or two I normally give to this) I owe it to my family, myself and lastly, the Lord.

6. Change can be good. VERY GOOD.
    Well, we did move to a new city, even with my stubbornness of telling the Lord and my husband it wasn't ever going to happen. It was hard the first month or so but then things started falling into place. It was so wonderful to see the Lord answer our continual prayer that He would prepare new friends and a new church for us. Within a few months we had all that we had been asking for. He has drawn us to a place that He wants us, not necessarily where we wanted to be. Now that we are close to being able to move back 'home' we feel convicted to stay!! He has a plan that we cannot see nor always understand but this time, I'm letting Him lead. (see number one!)

7. TV is really a time-sucker. And video games, too.
    Duh. We all know this. But after years of talking about it, we got rid of cable/satellite TV. We kept the actual TV and can stream Netflix.....but we rarely do anymore. The kids have so much more fun using their imaginations and playing during their free time. Plus, their minds are protected from all the worldly junk they used to sit and soak in. Video games are now only allowed on weekends and can only be played through the earning of tickets during the week. This has been a great challenge and blessing to our family. Lots of UNO games are being played, too :)

8. I still love TV.
   Ha! I do. I can't help it. I blame it on the fact that television basically raised me. Ethan will tell you that there is not one TV show from around 1978 until 1999 that I haven't seen. So the TV thing was really hard on me.....but because of the lack of cable, I've become picky about what I spend my time streaming/watching online. And also has led to more time enjoying music, reading, hobbies and other things.

Some of my fave things this year were:
    ~ Parenthood
Oh my.  A friend told me this was on Netflix and I was immediately hooked. I'm now caught up to the current shows, which I watch on the weekend. LOVE IT.

   ~ Friday Night Lights
I almost blew up our streaming capacity by zipping through 5 seasons of this in a week. No joke. If you haven't seen it, get to it. Honestly one of the best shows I've ever watched. I grieved for about a week once I was through all of them. Can't believe it got canceled but I guess there are only so many story lines you could do with this one...

 
   ~ Nashville
I love Connie Britton, simply because of Friday Night Lights. But this show is more than just her and it's addictive. Plus the music helps. Actually, I'm listening to the soundtrack as I type. Get it! (note, it is really weird/wrong to hear their adorable daughters- below- sing a song about someone leaving secrets in their bed. Ehhh....no.)

   ~ Downton Abbey
Who isn't hooked on this? Maybe if you're Amish. I love it and have only seen season one. I'm waiting patiently for Season 2 to be online....it may kill me.

   ~ Rhett & Link 
This is an issue in my home- from watching so much of it and singing a song of theirs CONSTANTLY. And the new solution to any problem in our family is, of course, to Rub Some Bacon on It. These guys are hilarious. We love them. You can hate me for it later, when you are singing the Perfect Bathroom Trip for the zillionth time that hour. Brain worm songs, I call 'em. But so fun.

There is NO WAY I can list all of my favorite books from this year- I read....a lot! Planning on keeping up with that this year. Will have to do a posting of the stack that I'm about to go through, later this week. Just finished The Second Empress by Micelle Moran- great read!

I'm looking forward to 2013 and all that the Lord has planned. I'm trusting in HIM, which can only lead down the right path, no matter how hard or long it is! Happy New Year!!

Where'd it go?

October, that is. We were super busy. TOO busy. I finally had a mini-meltdown and proclaimed we had to put some 'school' back in our homeschool, rather than just home-field-tripping! Cause us homeschoolers don't socialize, 'ya know.

The biggest deal of October was our baby girl turning 11. It was almost enough to send me into a mid-life crisis. Never mind the fact that I'm not middle age yet- I hope. So I decided to save it until my youngest turns 8 in January.

ELEVEN.

I feel like an invisible clock was turned on and now we are zooming towards adulthood at lightening speed. I know our job is to prepare her to be on her own and doing what God wants her to do- even if that is being a missionary in INDIA. (One of the many things she wants to do) I'm not gonna think about that for now. Instead we are enjoying being the delight of her world, and her ours, because we've seen some 11 year old girls out there where that is NOT the case. It may be coming but I don't think that is how it has to be just because she turns into a teenager- which people say like it's the equivalent of your child turning into a Gremlin. That doesn't age me at.all. SO.....

                                                       We went from this....

To this.....

To here....

And now here. She's beautiful, inside and out.

Here are some shots from a couple of other things. I have a ton of pics on my camera still, but I'm too lazy to go get it and download them.

Is this not the most gorgeous rooster, ever? I thought so, too.

We have a very relaxed, tons of actual HOME schooling, planned for November. The only significant family outing is taking Lily to have her doggie parts rearranged. Free Tip: Sometimes vets do not know what they are talking about when they recommend waiting until 6 months to have your girl spayed, because chances are she won't go into heat. Which Lily did 2 weeks ago. She's been glaring at me nightly ever since because we can't take our after dinner stroll through the neighborhood. If she only knew the favor I'm doing her!

Me haz burfday cake, pleez? 

Menu Plan 10/1 ~ 10/7

Life feels so much calmer and organized when I have a menu laid out for the week. This probably makes me strange, but based on the amount of links I found on Pinterest for menu planning, maybe not! I thought I'd share mine for this week. For the recipes I found online, I'm linking back to those so check it out if you'd like to try one. I'll be sharing my smoothie recipes later ;) If you'd like you can also find me on Pinterest!

I'll throw in that I've been avoiding desserts of any form and processed, artificial sugar for going on 6 weeks now. I will use 'real' sugary substitutes in my smoothies but only a small amount. Speaking of smoothies, I've also for a week been substituting a healthy smoothie for breakfast and lunch. Then for dinner I eat with my family. My only allowed snack in the afternoon is an organic apple, sometimes with all natural almond butter but usually without.

(By the way, if you have an Earthfare near you- GO. I love this store! They have machines to grind your own natural almond or peanut butter right there! AND they have a mix of plain peanuts with dark chocolate chips which makes the most AMAZING chocolate peanut butter to use in smoothies or on apples. YUM!)


I have our menu spread out on a neat little printable my husband made for me, but I'm just gonna clump it together here. And you may not see 7 meals for each mealtime because we have one or two a couple of times during the week- and usually lunch will always be sandwiches for the kids.

Breakfasts for the Week:
Bagel thins with Cheese Eggs & fruit
Smoothies & Toast
Ham-n-Cheese Bagel thins & fruit
Pancakes & Bacon (Saturday treat)

Lunches:
Sandwiches, chips & fruit
Leftovers
Thursday- Greek feast at Co-op

My Breakfasts & Lunch Smoothies:
Pumpkin Smoothie
Strawberry/Spinach/Banana Smoothie
Pear-N-Pineapple Smoothie
Circulation Smoothie
Chocolate Peanut Butter Smoothie
Avocado Smoothie
Monster Green Smoothie

Dinners:
Monday- French Dip Sandwiches and Sweet Potato Fries
 * I put this roast in the crockpot early this morning and the entire house smells Deeeelicious!

Tuesday- Baked Chicken, Roasted Brussel Sprouts & Crock Pot Cheesy Potatoes (pictured up top- cannot WAIT to try these)

Wednesday- **Am making Baklava for the first time this day. We are having a Greek Feast at our homeschool co-op the next day. I'm using Pioneer Woman's recipe and praying it turns out**
AWANA night- Kids eat pizza from Little Caesars on the way to church then E and I get something out later. Usually a shrimp caesar salad for me & BBQ chicken for him, from Outback :)

Thursday- Shrimp PoBoys and Corn on the Cob

Friday- Calzones & Dip  from the Pioneer Woman (can't wait to try these!)

Saturday- Eat what you kill day. (Read- find ya' own food round here cause I ain't cooking)

Sunday- Crock Pot Beef Stew (put in the night before- for lunch and then leftovers for dinner) cornbread and lemon pound cake.

So there you have it! Now I'm starving after typing all of it up....and bummed cause I can't have any of that pound cake Sunday- it's GOOOOOD! Wah!!

10 Years....wow that flew by.

Obviously the blogging bug hits me in September. Because Lance's birthday was one of my last 'real' posts and here we are a year later.

10 years ago I was knee deep in babies. And other yucky stuff that I won't mention because we all know what comes with babies- and OUT of babies.

When Lance was born we had a not-even-eleven-months-old baby girl at home. It's all a blur, though I do remember his birth. It was the hardest and longest (at almost 6 hours, start to finish- go ahead and hate me for that- but the pain made it feel like 60 hours) of all three kids. In the end, we got our Lance-Pance. He has been a mess from day one but is incredibly sweet and loving. You can find us daily fluctuating between thinking he will be an amazing preacher or....else. He is so strong willed and passionate about things that we work hard to channel that into something to be used for God. Parenting- it's not easy. But just look at him- he IS going to be something great one day- I just know it. And he's double digits- holy cow! Enjoy the bazillion pics of our middle-man.

Climbing out from under...

This past year has left me buried. Buried underneath the boulders this world has thrown my way, many so heavy I was sure they would kill me. But nope. I'm here and finally seeing the light from the cracks. My gracious Father has been lifting them off, showing me along the way that even though I've been buried, never was I in danger of being crushed. I've done the typical panic in my head of where-is-my-God-doesn't-He-hear-me-does-He-even-care-WHERE.HAVE.YOU.GONE. JESUS?!?!

I'm sure you have no idea what I'm talking about.

A lot has happened. A lot of crappy stuff. Most of it just normal, this is how life goes stuff. Then others have definitely been at attack of the enemy on my family. Some I'll share because somewhere amongst my human emotions and disbelief of how sinful people really are, there are some good lessons. For me, for you, for all of us. The enemy has already been defeated. My Lord has not left me, not once. He sees all and most importantly, He loves me. That's what pulls me through to another day.

Yes, yes we do. I have a saved post that I've been waiting to hit the 'publish' button on. Just can't bring myself to it yet.

Huh?

Blog? What blog?