- Jamey changing a poopy diaper on his own
- Going to playgroup
- Seeing a lot of people
- Getting a chunk of War and Peace read
- Good CG time
- Catching up with Laura
- God moving
- Getting almost everything ready to start school
- Good date evening
- Panera for dinner
- Jamey and Lillian helping and learning
- Getting my hair trimmed
- Nice morning with the Felix family
- Jamey helping to dress the little boys
- Learning more about discipline
- Talking to Brit and Daddy
- Working on lessons plans
- Hanging out
- Very productive day
- New shelf
- Organizing School stuff and toys
- Making room
- Spontaneity
- Growing with Jim
- Teaching the kids practical things
- Sleeping until 8 am
- Working on stuff
- Enjoying a couple of movies
- Talking with Bec
- Jim making a cake from scratch
- Time to talk
- Direct answers to prayers
- Making it through a Sunday with Jim at work
- Everyone napping including me
- Leftovers
- Restful afternoon
- Some one on one time with Lil
- Dancing
- Finishing up the cake
- Hanging out with Jim
- Reuben turning 4!
- Going to the zoo
- Seeing Megan
- Fun family day
- A good Mexican Pizza
- Getting some school work done
- Family celebrations
- Learning to talk and connect
- First day of school!
- Getting what we needed to done
- Making a grocery run in the middle of the first school day
- Middle boys excited to learn
- Trying new real food recipes
- Good CG time
- Talking with Jim
- Living and learning together
- Pizza rolls from scratch
- making it through 2nd school day
- Jim growing in taking initiative for dates
- Getting through school with 4 by myself
- Time to read for fun
- Thinking
- God's mercy
- Jamey working well alone
- Neo's smile
- Sam's laugh
- Being able to talk through stuff
- Day 2 of school without Jim
- Getting finished early
- Getting folders finished for co-op
- Going to the Fall Festival
- Free Chick-fil-A
- Sweet moments with Neo
- Going to bed early for us
- Finishing up our school week
- Bec vacuuming
- Getting lots of reading done
- Making homemade granola bars
- Having a productive day
- Pizza for dinner
- Learning about trials at church
- Jim working 8 so he could be off on Monday
- All the kids napping 4+ hours
- Time to talk with Bec and help with her paper
- Dancing!
- Jim being off of work!
- Working through more heart stuff
- Being broken for God's glory
- Jamey getting extra school work finished
- Date night
- Learning as a family
- Jim letting me sleep in a little
- Getting a lot of school work doing
- Reuben doing well with his 4 year old shots
- God's mercy
- Getting a lot of other things done
- Productive day
- Learning to work hard
- First day of co-op
- Kids doing well as a whole
- Time to meet new people and catch up a little bit
- Going to member meeting for a bit and hearing from our new Pastor
- Stories of God's grace
- Getting a lot of school work done
- Learning what is best for our family at this time
- Quiet evening at home
- Kids playing well together
- Wanting to be home
- Jim being home
- Making AB and J poptarts
- Working as a family to get things done
- Learning more of what is best for our family
- Becca and Ryan mowing the yard
- Talking with Jim
- Playing Clue
- Sleeping until 8 am
- Nehemiah sleeping 11 hours!
- Finishing our school week well
- God moving
- Having some family time
- Watching Prince of Egypt and talking through it
- Hanging out
- Being convicted of idols in my life
- Time to really talk with Jim
- Getting to deeper heart issues
- Kids napping
- Learning how to seek God together
- Finishing War and Peace!
- Getting through a busy day
- Evaluating what our days need to look like
- God's deep grace
- Teaching the kids to clean more thoroughly
- Seeing Jim truly happy at home
- Getting through a busy day without another adult
- Starting The Accidental Feminist
- Dawn
- Great conversation at CG
- Seeing God work around us
- Good day at Co-op
- Tim to talk with Jo
- Encouraging note
- Continuing to learn to battle
- Nice date night
- Great conversation at Sweet Frog
- Connecting with Jim
- Visit from Shannon, Gage, Courtney and Asher
- Growing in community
- Notes from Jim
- Reuben asking for forgiveness without being prompted
- Kids working hard
- Growth in our family
- Reading with Jim
- Gabriel passing out lunch without being asked
- Reuben and Gabriel asking to do school work
- Time to read
- Growth
- Spending time with CG Sisters and meeting new Sisters
- Neo staying with Jim
- Snuggling on the sofa
- Sleeping until 8:30
- Getting school work done throughout the day
- Sweet moments with kids
- Full productive day
- Trying Moussaka
- Constantly learning
- Muffins for breakfast
- Walking to church
- Learning about the 2nd Commandment
- Being challenged
- God working in my heart
- Beautiful weather
- Lunch at Harvest
- Great family day
- Nehemiah turning 3 months
- Taking a long shower
- Bearing my soul before the Lord
- A God who knows what's best for us
- Book Club
- Being able to talk with Meagan
- God breaking me down so I can know Him more
- Eating lunch with Jim at work
- Rainy day
- Kids responding in co-op
- Encouragement from friends
- Prayer
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
September Blessings
How quickly September has passed! It has been a full month for our family, but so many blessings have come from it. God is working and moving in our lives, which is always a blessing. Here are some of the specific blessings from this month.
September Evaluation
Due to circumstances this past year, I'm not really changing my goals. Some will go that are not top priority, but I'm keeping the ones that fit with the overarching goal of having a God-centered life and the things I see Him leading me to right now. So thus far this is how it goes:
Spiritual
Spiritual
- Spend at least 10 minutes praying daily- Yes, I'm working more directed prayer into my day
- Spend at least 10 minutes reading and reflecting on the Bible daily- Yes!
- Memorize verses with the kids - We have already memorized 8 verses together
- Memorize Scripture- Doing this with the kids in school time
Marriage
- Go out for a date once a week- Yes
Go on a night away once this year- Yes we went away for our anniversary!- Read 3 books together this year- Read more this month
- Discuss plan weekly on
SundaySaturday afternoon- We are discussing plans but still need improvement on consistency and sticking to our plans as much as it depends on us
Kids
- Spend 30 minutes of one on one time with each child every week- still need to work on this, but am beginning to do this more
- Go to playgroup each Tuesday- With starting school we have missed a couple as needed
- Write in individual journals at least 3 times this year- Almost up to date for the year!
- Finish Jamey's 1st year Scrapbook- Need to go through pictures with Jim so this is on hold currently
Homemaking
- Keep up with cleaning schedule- We are getting better at cleaning regularly, schedule needs tweaking
- Keep up with my calendar- Status quo, still need improvement here
- Being fully present when with my family- Getting better at this but always room for improvement
Ministry
- Continue sending out Prayer List- Yes
Personal
- Read a book a month for myself- Yes! Finally finished "War and Peace"
- Journal 5 days a week- Yes! God has really been giving me opportunity to do this in the morning
- Write (books) 3 days a week- Did not work on this
- Edit novel to prepare for publishing and research publishing options- No additional work on this during the month
- Finish Rosetta Stone Russian level 1 - Have not worked on this
- Continue to meet once a month with writing group- Again, did not happen
- Blog 3 days a week- Nope
Health
Go to water aerobics once a week- Started back to find out that our instructor was moving and they are going to begin charging for classes so only did this half the month and this will be no moreMaintain weight until birth- Did well with this, still gained some but far better than other pregnancies- Lose weight after giving birth- Have started this, but it's slow, down 3 lbs this month!
September zoomed by this year! It has been a busy month as we started hour homeschool year. God has been moving and teaching us a lot about family and what our priorities should be. We are still figuring this out but we are learning together. Many things did not get done this month that I would have liked to get done, but the important things did! Father keep teaching us?
How was your September?
How was your September?
Thursday, September 24, 2015
August Blessings
August flew by and life has been crazy but full of amazing blessings. God is so good to His people, even though we do not deserve it at all.
- Fellowship with Kimberly
- Talking about what God is doing
- Seeking to understand together, Finishing The Silver Chair
- Learning about contending for the faith
- Talking with other Sisters about contending for the faith and how God wants to change our hearts
- Going to Half Priced Books
- Reading with Jim
- Hearing Jim's heart
- Good day as a whole
- Jim getting a good raise
- Bonus pay
- Jamey helping dress the little boys
- Getting clothes sorted
- Jim coming home at 1500
- Relaxing, fun evening
- Starting The Last Battle
- Going to playgroup by myself with all 6 kids
- Taking the kids to see Jim at work
- Meeting another mom with stairstep kids
- Going to water aerobics
- Rain
- Jim letting me sleep in
- Chocolate chip cookie dough milkshakes
- Nehemiah sleeping well
- Doing school work with Jamey
- Everyone taking a nap
- Washing my hair
- Getting Norwex party set up
- Going to water aerobics
- Making it through a relatively good day
- Sleeping in a little
- Jamey doing some school work by himself
- Going to playgroup
- Meeting with Jessica
- Getting more things talked through for August
- Talking
- Writing
- Pajama movie day
- Getting some work done
- Reading
- Making it through a Saturday with Jim at work
- Dancing with the kids
- Going to bed early
- Getting all 6 kids ready for church by 7:25 am and to church before 8 by myself
- Everyone napping 4 hours
- Blog posts
- Jude
- Planning
- Norwex
- Sam loving on Neo
- Very productive day
- Talking through the school year, schedules and routines
- Time to hangout with Jessica
- Facebook Norwex Party
- Looking at possible ministry opportunities
- Going to playgroup
- Going to water aerobics for the last time
- Getting box-tops ready for co-op
- Enough box tops to play for all our classes!
- Fun time at the playground
- Getting co-op paid for
- Reconnecting with people
- Getting errands run
- Good doctors appointments
- Meeting with Dawn
- Free Coffee
- Date night in
- Heart conversations
- Having a decent day while Jim was at work
- Dancing with the kids
- Everyone sleeping
- Talking to Brit
- Reading with Jim
- Having a good day with Jim at work
- Lots of dancing
- Getting 2 weeks of school plans finished
- Movie night with Jim on the sofa
- Sleep
- Jamey picking roses for me
- Meeting with Karey
- Becca getting home safely from her work trip
- Jim and kids getting some cleaning done
- Cheap pizza
- Getting homeschool letter sent
- Relaxing evening
- Church as a family
- Beginning the Exodus series
- Serving with babies
- Lunch at Harvest
- Gift card
- Deep conversation
- Working through more issues
- God's faithfulness
- First field trip to Schimpff's
- Candy
- Kids doing well during the field trip
- Getting the first hostess package from Norwex
- Getting Phase 10
- Good blessing us in mysterious ways
- Playgroup
- Nice conversations
- Never being alone
- Jamey getting a lot of math done
- Same praying at dinner
- Great discussion at CG
- Jamey finishing handwriting and language arts!
- Everyone sleeping
- Good doctor appointment
- Jim being able to come over for a minute
- Chilled evening at home
- Spending the morning with the Felix family
- Encouragement
- Calling Daddy for his birthday
- Celebrating Hannah and Abbey's birthday
- Meeting new people
- Sam swinging Nehemiah
- Jim getting extra work hours
- Making cookies
- Working on more school plans
- Going to the Home for His Glory pool party
- Lillian dunking herself in the water
- Fellowship with friends
- Meeting Kimberly for coffee
- God using my hurt to minister to her
- Nehemiah doing well during our time
- Getting a really good deal on folders and binders
- Napping
- Reading with Becca
- Hanging out
- Learning more about redemption in Exodus
- Meeting to discuss Love to Eat Hate to Eat
- Becca sharing
- Planning
- Talking with Jim
- Sharing my heart
- God moving
- Getting started on co-op lesson plans
- Jim working extra
- Lillian reading to her little brothers
- Sam praying
- Meeting new people at co-op orientation
- No TV for 24 hours!
- Sarah and Asia coming to visit
- Lillian doing well at music class
- Good CG time
- Being encouraged
- Sleep
- Day 2 no TV!
- Getting stuff finished for N Good Health
- Completing first 4 weeks of school plans
- Trying a new French restaurant
- Making plans to start eating real food more
- Only TV for dancing
- Working on co-op class plans
- Getting prayer list sent
- Nice paycheck
- Having some fun with Jim
- Getting our Norwex stuff!
- Going to see the Nina and the Pinta
- Terry helping me
- Co-op field trips
- Time to sit with my girl and love on her
- Figuring out what's important
- Meeting with Sisters to discuss how God informs every part of our life
- Panera for lunch
- Adults talking about schedule
- All kids napping
- Time to talk with Jim
- Learning together
- Walking to church
- Family day at the fair
- Hearing 4 great bands
- God growing my heart
- Meeting another big family
- Double date night in with Ryan and Becca
- Getting errands run
- Talking through priorities with Jim
- Pizza and a movie
- Book club
- Nehemiah having a good appointment
- Beginning to make daily life plans
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
August Evaluation
Due to circumstances this past year, I'm not really changing my goals. Some will go that are not top priority, but I'm keeping the ones that fit with the overarching goal of having a God-centered life and the things I see Him leading me to right now. So thus far this is how it goes:
Spiritual
Spiritual
- Spend at least 10 minutes praying daily- Yes, I'm working more directed prayer into my day
- Spend at least 10 minutes reading and reflecting on the Bible daily- Yes!
- Memorize verses with the kids - Starting this with our homeschool next month
- Memorize Scripture- Not much
Marriage
- Go out for a date once a week- Yes
Go on a night away once this year- Yes we went away for our anniversary!- Read 3 books together this year- Have started 2 books this past week
- Discuss plan weekly on
SundaySaturday afternoon- We are discussing plans but still need improvement on consistency and sticking to our plans as much as it depends on us
Kids
- Spend 30 minutes of one on one time with each child every week- still need to work on this
- Go to playgroup each Tuesday- I think we made it to all of them for at least a little while
- Write in individual journals at least 3 times this year- Got a little behind this month, but still on track to do this
- Finish Jamey's 1st year Scrapbook- Finally went through some of the stuff and looked at what I need to do with what I already have, nothing additional
Homemaking
- Keep up with cleaning schedule- Still really struggling to do this
- Keep up with my calendar- Status quo, still need improvement here
- Being fully present when with my family- Getting better at this, but still struggling
Ministry
- Continue sending out Prayer List- Yes
Personal
- Read a book a month for myself- I'm 3/4 through "War and Peace"
- Journal 5 days a week- Yes! God has really been giving me opportunity to do this in the morning
- Write (books) 3 days a week- Did not work on this
- Edit novel to prepare for publishing and research publishing options- No additional work on this during the month
- Finish Rosetta Stone Russian level 1 - Have not worked on this
- Continue to meet once a month with writing group- Again, did not happen
- Blog 3 days a week- Did well at the beginning of the month, but the later half was crazy
Health
- Go to water aerobics once a week- Started back to find out that our instructor was moving and they are going to begin charging for classes so only did this half the month and this will be no more
Maintain weight until birth- Did well with this, still gained some but far better than other pregnancies- Lose weight after giving birth- Have started this, but it's slow
August was a crazy busy month and I have no idea where it went, hence me writing this post half way through September. We were still adjusting to being a family of 8 and really working on being together as a family as well as prepping for homeschool. Most of August was spent getting things organized and attempting to figure out schedules. In fact I was on the computer very little during August and have barely been on it in September thus far. Life has been so much about learning and seeking what God would have our life look like right now, in particular what it means to be a family under His rule. This is our top priority right now, and we are continuing to learn this everyday.
How was your August?
How was your August?
Monday, September 7, 2015
Happy 4th Birthday, Reuben!
Today we celebrate Labor Day in a different way. Today we celebrate that 4 years ago, I labored and delivered our third child, our precious Reuben Yates. It's so hard to believe that 4 years have already passed since welcoming Reuben into our family. He is such a blessing to us and our family because he is so different. Reuben is very quiet and mild mannered. But he is opinionated. It makes me laugh how much like Jim he is. He loves being around people, having fun and laughing, but he will not insert himself just because. He is content to be alone and enjoys sitting by himself quietly.
Reuben is so funny, but is very subtle about it. He loves to dance and can keep up with the best of them when we play the dance game. He loves the TV way too much! He will watch anything and play any video game. He enjoys acting out what he watches and plays with his siblings. He is such a bundle of energy and is so fun to watch.
It is a blessing to see Reuben learning to get along with his siblings. He can be very sweet and is generally agreeable. Most of the time he will give them anything, especially Lillian. I pray he will be a great protector of his big sister. They enjoy doing many things together, especially dancing and acting out movies. He also enjoys building with magnets and Legos. I hope he will grow in his love of building.
This past year, Reuben has begun to like reading more, which is a huge blessing. Tomorrow he will be starting pre-school in his first official year of homeschool. He seems to be excited and has grown in a love of learning recently.
Some of Reuben's favorite things are dinosaurs, robots and super heroes. He loves to eat fruits and vegetables, especially carrots. He has also developed a great love of coffee and enjoys sharing a cup with Daddy in the mornings. He also likes his siblings. Occasionally he will ask to hold Nehemiah, which is very sweet.
As our family grows together, Reuben has grown in praying. He likes to pray at meals and at night when we pray together. He is also diligent to pray for his siblings as well and makes sure to tell us who he is praying for.
I am so thankful for Reuben. He has grown and challenged me. I love his sweet smile and love of life. He is such a blessing!
Father, thank You for giving Reuben to us to raise for You. Thank You for Your mercy and grace in parenting. Please save him by Your grace and grow him into a mighty man after Your own heart.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY REUBEN!!!!! May God bless you with many more years.
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