The Manor Manor: January 2017

Tuesday, January 31, 2017

January Blessings

January has been full, but full of good things as God shows us Himself and teaches us to trust Him in all things. He opens doors, gives grace, peace and love, and shows us how He is in control of all things even when it seems things make no sense at all. Here are a few ways God has blessed our family this month.

Great Sunday Sermon on First Things First
God stirring our hearts
Being challenged to take advantage of our freedom
New Year's Gifts
Learning to dream together
Fun family time
Bible time with kids
Reading
Nehemiah praying
Jamey working diligently
Time with Lillian
Becca coming over
Seeing Mandy
Sam's tooth still doing well
Over half off Chick-fil-A
Jim talking to his mom
Aldi pizza
Homemade blueberry scones
Stretching CG time
Day with the Vander Weert family
Lillian playing well with Clarity
Sharing hearts
Encouragement
Time to talk to Brit
Working with Jamey
Enjoying the snow fall
Cleaning up the kitchen
Talking with God
Getting good news from Brit
Being on the same page
Time to talk with Sarah S
Being encouraged and affirmed in what God is telling us
Date night at Arby's
Enjoying time with Jim
Doing a lot of reading
Sleep
Jim growing in baking
Kids playing well together
No TV!
Working our minds
Starting new books
Great sermon on One Master and purpose
Clearing out email
Starting School of Missions
Meeting new people
Kids excited about class
Jim home early from class
6 kids at the table
Sharing my heart at book club
Laughing
Nehemiah learning nose
Tickles
Time with my kids
Good school day
Time with Julianne and Joyanna
God's movement
Nehemiah holding hands to pray
Time with the Gunns
Home made tacos
Class getting canceled
Moving the shelf at the bottom of the stairs
Good work time
Going to bed at 9
Going through the closet
Meeting Nina
Selling a book
Finishing the week strong
Talking to Bec
Time with the Felix family
Homemade mac and cheese
Dippin' Dots!!!!!
Jim meeting with James
Dealing with emotions together
Looking at reading lists
Learning together as a family
Finishing Frankenstein
Ordering more books
Relaxing afternoon with Jim
Hearing what God is doing in Asia
Sharing wedding pics with the kids
Nehemiah singing "Be Thou My Vision"
Talking to Mom
Getting 6 chapters edited in my book
Time with Reuben
Going to the pool
Boys doing well at the doctor
God's protection in unusual ways
$10 coupon from a stranger
Gabriel sitting with Jim at CG
New people
Sharing the good
3.5 hours of overtime
Being reminded of the joys of flexible schedules
God's provision
Spiritual conversations with Jamey and Lillian
Productive day without Jim at home
Experience Norwex meeting
Winning 3 prizes!!!
Seeing Jessica
Meeting Katie- in business with her husband and has 6 kids
God affirming more of our direction
Fillings going smoothly
Starbucks
Rising without alarm clock
Really yummy lunch
Talking about Plexus with Becca
Working through what God wants
Excellent sermon on suffering
Interesting connections with Lee
Getting all 7 kids to and from church by myself
Taco Bell
Time to work on overdue things
Dr. Gregg Allison at School of Missions
Seeing Heather
Dealing with heart issues
God working in Jim's heart
Cooking together
Gabriel having time with Jim
Planning for the next day
The Spirit speaking to me
Time to write out some thoughts on business
Pumpkin muffins
Working through business desires and ideas with Jim
Ice cream cones
Good paycheck
Tara available to help with blog set up!
Plexus Ambassador
Great first day of co-op
Friends
Connecting
Sharing
Meeting new people
Jim being tech support
Winning Usborne money!!!
Roger helping with the dishwasher
Learning about more business opportunities
God moving
Great reminder of need for diversity
Taking a nap
People asking about business
Praying with Jim
Feeling more awake
Learning to repent to my kids
Learning to fight the flesh
Fleshing out heart emotions

January Evaluation

Spiritual

Spend at least 10 minutes praying daily- Yes! It's not always at one time, but I'm getting this in each day so far
Spend at least 10 minutes reading and reflecting on the Bible daily- Thank you, pumping! Yes this happened daily this month
Memorize verses with the kids - We have done 3 verses this year so far, I'm confident in 2 :)
Have extended prayer times 4 times during the year- Jim had his first of the year this weekend. Need to get the rest scheduled
Read Christian books (Jim- 13 (not school related), Emmie- 26)- We read "The Insanity of God" together for our first of the year, and Emmie read "Humble Roots"
Teach Kids 12 Hymns this year- We have worked on "Be Thou My Vision" and have the majority memorized

Marriage

Pray together daily- Yes! Though we need to work on praying before we collapse in bed and more concentrated prayer times
Go out for a date once a week- We did most weeks, though last week ended up off and had a date night in
Go on a night away once this year- Have a weekend away planned for March thanks to Emmie's parents! Ready for it to come.
Read 2 books together this year (read one day a week)- We read "The Insanity of God" together for school of missions and have done some sort of reading together one day a week, except 2 weeks ago
Discuss plan weekly on Saturday afternoon- We're still not doing very well with this, and it shows.

Kids

Spend 15 minutes of one on one time with each child every week- We are doing this sporadically. We're really wanting to work towards this apart from school time, but they are getting this with school lessons currently
Special Outing Alone once during the year with each child (hopefully during birthday month)- None this month, just routine outings
Family fun activity once a month- Family day at the pool and eating out, The parents were more excited than the kids, but 4 of the kids gave the big pool a go!
Write in individual journals at least 4 times this year- We're on track for this
Finish Jamey's 1st year Scrapbook- There were grand plans to get this finished in the next 5 months, but sadly I think it will have to wait until the 2nd half of the year

Homemaking

Make a cleaning schedule that we can keep up with and do it!- We've been doing a lot of cleaning this month, but no schedule yet! Need to get this figured out
Look at calendar once a day- Um, no
Update Google Calendar twice a week- Nope
Being fully present when with my family- By God's grace I have been much better at this on the whole, but still struggle when I feel stressed and overwhelmed
Try 12 new recipes this year- We tried a broccoli and cheese soup recipe this month. It wasn't bad, but we're looking for another one
No TV 2 days a week (watching)- I actually think we did this! I know the last 2 weeks we have accomplished this, and sometimes there were 3 days! Loving having the TV off more

Ministry

Continue sending out Prayer List- Yes!

Personal

Read 2 book a month for myself- This month I read "Frankenstein" and "Humble Roots" as well as "The Insanity of God" with Jim (reviews to come on all of these). I also started 3 other books with good headway in them
Jim read one fiction book-
Journal 5 days a week- I really struggled with this during January. We've been attempting to find a good rhythm, and towards the end of the month, this was getting back to normal
Jim Journal 3 days a week- Yes! Sometimes more
Edit novel to prepare for publishing- Spend one evening editing this month!
Book Club once a month- Yes! Really enjoyed a nice evening at Jo's house this month
Continue to meet once a month with writing group- With everything going on, I could not get it together, but looking forward to meeting this ladies next month
Blog 1-2 days a week- If you follow my blog, you know this did not happen this month, but we have spent a lot of time revamping Childbirth Conversations and once we get that blog up and going, this will become more of a reality
Spend one evening a week on business (added in Jan)- Yes we have done this and more! God has really opened up some opportunities for us to step into

Health

Mild Exercise twice a week- I've been doing a lot of work around the house, and one day at the pool, but that's about as far as exercise goes. This will change next month!
Lose weight- Down a couple pounds. Really wanting to press into a healthier lifestyle next month and making adjustments to do that
Making more from scratch food and balanced meals- Yes! We have done more from scratch meals and have done a better job balancing the types of foods as well as colors when we can! Still have room for improvement, but we're off to a good start

January has been quite a blur. We have spent this month getting our home in order, figuring out the best way to make necessary repairs, and figuring out what God wants for us in this next stage of life. We have done some major cleaning, organizing, purging, and seeking out aid for projects that are over our head. We're also looking at business that can help our family. We continue with Norwex and seek how God would use that as well as looking at the blogging world. There are a lot of opportunities and we have been looking at what God would want for us. We are wanting to really seek to be healthy in a Godly way and seeking things that would aid in that. Recently we decided to try Plexus with our holistic eating and adding more activity into our day. Clearly it's been busy!

But God continues to draw us to Himself. He continues to open doors that we were not expecting. He continues to grow us into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. He draws us to each other and grows us as a family and with our church family. God continues to be God. And even though it's been chaotic at times, we are still pressing forward in life as He guides our path and points us to His plans for us. Please pray for us!

How can we pray for you? How was your first month of January?

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Goals for 2017

It's 2017! Time to reevaluate our goals and think through what our family desires to be intentional about this year. Many will continue because they are what we know God has for us that does not change. But with Jim graduating this year, we are thinking through the whole year with the knowledge that things may change mid year.

Spiritual

Spend at least 10 minutes praying daily-
Spend at least 10 minutes reading and reflecting on the Bible daily-
Memorize verses with the kids -
Have extended prayer times 4 times during the year-
Read Christian books (Jim- 13 (not school related), Emmie- 26)-
Teach Kids 12 Hymns this year-