Gabriel is 4!

Today our 4th baby is 4 years old! It's so hard to believe how much has happened in the 4 years he has been in our life. He has grown so much and God has taught our family greatly.

Gabriel has added another element to our family as he is strong willed and mighty in everything he does. His name means "mighty man of God" and he has mighty down quite well. We pray daily for the man of God part and pray that it comes soon!

In his might Gabriel bucks against God and us, but more than that he is passionate about everything. If you have ever talked to Gabriel you know that he is excited about everything! He will talk your ear off about anything and everything. He loves life and I love that about him. He regularly brings a smile to my face as he laughs, dances, squeals and tells me what he is loving at the moment.

Gabriel loves to sing and dance. He loves to run around outside and explore. He just loves to go, go, go. His energy is contagious. He loves playing with his siblings, especially Sam. They wrestle and go at it all the time. They are fun to watch until they start destroying. But Generally it brings a smile to my face seeing my boys play together.

We are doing pre-K with Gabriel this school year and he loves it! He wants to learn and asks to do school work everyday. It's challenging on the days we have nothing specific to do, but he is content to get his journal and draw or write in it. I'm excited to see how much he will learn this year!

Some of Gabriel's favorite things are giraffes, drawing, digging in the dirt, mac and cheese, pancakes and anything sweet. He definitely loves to eat.

We are so thankful for this spunky personality to keep us on our toes. God has blessed us so much with Gabriel's life. Father, please save Gabriel and make Him mighty for you. Show him how much life with You is a blessing and a joy like he has been in our life. Thank You for this precious image bearer that You have given us to enjoy and raise.

Happy Thanksgiving 2016

I had grand plans to make a list of 10,000 things I was thankful for that were all different, similar to a few years ago. Or doing something every day like I've done before. But best laid plans don't always go as expected.

This year has been busy and full because we have been so blessed! And none of that happened. We've been given marriage, 7 beautiful, busy and crazy kids, a home, many things to fill our home, jobs, church, family, and friends. God has been good to us and we have so many people and things to be thankful for this year. 

But this month I have realized I have not been a good steward of the blessings that have been given to me. The past 2 1/2 years we've been working to be good stewards of our marriage and to be God honoring in it as we seek to live out the picture of Christ and the church marriage is to be. The past couple of months we have been wrestling with what it looks like to be a good steward of our kids and our home as, after marriage, these are our God given mandates to look after first. Women in particular are called to be homemakers and God is teaching me what this looks like for this season.

Right now I'm showing thanks by getting my home in order and teaching my children as diligently as possible. It is hard but good. This month has been filled with going through all that we've been given and seeking to give to others, organizing so we have order, and cleaning from top to bottom. None of these are my strong points. But I'm learning to die to self and live according to God's Word. God desires Thanksgiving and the sacrifice of self. This is what I'm learning this Thanksgiving. 

We were blessed to spend Thanksgiving with Jim, as he did not have to work this year, and the McMillin family here. We are so blessed to have them in our lives. I'm also learning to be grateful for the people in my life and not take them for granted. I don't know what that looks like all the time, but I'm learning and I know that as I learn to fully give myself to God and His plans that I better love others and am less likely to take them for granted. 

It all goes together. As we love God and are thankful for what He has done for us we love others as we should and become the stewards God has made us to be. May I continue to learn this and grow in it everyday.

What did you learn this Thanksgiving season?

When You Just Want To Go Home

Sometimes I just want to go home. Not Smyrna, but Heaven.

No, I'm not suicidal. Life is just hard sometimes and it is evident everywhere that this world is not supposed to be.

A friend's baby is born early and has been hospitalized 3 times in 3 months, fighting for her life.

One of my doctors has a mass and has to have emergency surgery.

People are shooting each other regularly for no good reason.

Friends my age are dying in the most unexpected ways.

Satan is constantly attacking and I just feel drained.

I could name so many other things, but you get the idea. Life is overwhelming. Sin and the effects of the fall abound and it seems as if nothing will ever get better. Those are the times I stare into the sky and look for any hint that Jesus may be on His way back.

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will [a]dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”" ~Revelation 21:1-5

See, Jesus has told us He is coming back. He will make everything new. No more death. No more suffering. No more striving to figure out what to think, do, say. Everything will be perfect as it was intended to be. How my soul longs for that. How I want to be in God's presence worshiping perfectly as He created me to do. How I want things to be perfect.

I recognize some of this is selfish in motivation, but the more I get to know God the more I just want to be with Him. I want to be in a place that really worships Him as Lord over all. I want to live the way He intends.

I'm so thankful that Jesus has given me a way to have this and that one day all of this will be true. I will be with God and worshiping Him perfectly. I will be in a place that worships Him. I will live perfectly as He intends.

Sometimes I really want to go home. Until then, I press on. Many days are hard. My heart grieves the loss of life, of health, of sleep, of obedience. I sometimes seek to control it. But God reminds me even in those heart breaking moments, He is in control and by His grace I will overcome and see this great day!

"Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son." ~Revelation 21:6-7

Kids Who Love to Clean

My kids love to clean. No really, they do. Sometimes I wonder where they came from because I cannot say that about myself. In fact, I hate it. But I love that my kids love it!

Because of this I am stoked that Norwex has the Kids EnviroCloth and Kids Window Cloth on sale this month! Slightly smaller versions of the EnviroCloth and Window Cloth, they are perfectly sized for little hands to use and still get an excellent clean. Have them clean alongside you to learn or let them go to clean on their own. Kids like to feel like they own something. This is a great way to build that ownership and teach them how to clean and care for their cloths as well as how to care for their home.

With Christmas around the corner this is a fun gift idea that will be life giving in many ways.

Do your kids love to clean? What is their favorite thing to clean?

Please Contact me with any questions
Emmie Manor Independent Norwex Consultant
Emmie.reducingchemicals@gmail.com
www.emmiemanor.norwex.biz
Catalog (p. 43)

October Blessings

As October comes to a close I can't figure out where it went. But I do know that even in the blur that was this month, God has been very gracious to us and blessed us far more than we deserve. Here is a picture of the blessings we have experienced this month.

1. Productive school day
2. Malachi attempting to nurse and doing OK with it
3. Spending time with the middle boys
4. Singing with the kids
5. Evening with Jim before a long week
6. Ryan and Becca coming to help for the day
7. Hearing about work in Asia
8. Catching up with Brian and Karine
9. "Blue Bloods"
10. Jim enjoying class
11. Jim being home at dinner time
12. Jamey and Lillian working on science together
13. Working on business
14. Encouragement to reach out
15. Time with the younger boys
16. Everyone at CG and the kids doing well
17. Meeting Jim for lunch at school
18. Running errands
19. Good milk production
20. Getting work going again
21. Talking future with Jim and hearing his thoughts
22. Good nutrition visit
23. Uploading pictures
24. Ordering pictures to change the wall
25. A little time to write
26. Getting into co-op with the kids helping
27. Talking with Tara
28. Free spaghetti for dinner
29. Jim coming home early
30. Playing "LOTR Trivial Pursuit"
31. Cleaning and organizing the entire living room
32. Jim cleaning the kitchen
33. Getting most of to-do list done for the week
34. Great sermon on how we're all messed up
35. Sunday class encouragement
36. Time to really talk with Jim
37. Watching a movie together
38. Having a good day with the kids
39. Working on Box Tops
40. Getting addresses
41. Kids working well
42. Neo singing Noah
43. Good postpartum appt
44. Being encouraged in my knowledge of birth
45. Getting groceries with the baby
46. Catalogs
47. Free Starbucks
48. Good CG discussion on vulnerability
49. Getting party set up
50. God opening my eyes more and open wrestling with Him
51. Jamey asking to take a nap and to do housework
52. Learning more balance
53. Fun Norwex party
54. New customer
55. Catching up with Candice
56. New Pizza place
57. Jim planning date night
58. Good writing group
59. Catching up with Sisters
60. First time to a pumpkin patch
61. Time with our community
62. Fun pictures
63. Getting to bed early
64. Good sermon on growing in Spiritual maturity
65. Jim seeing to make the best decision for all
66. Restful afternoon
67. "The Chase:
68. Good Dentist appt
69. Neo taking steps!
70. Cleaning the majority of the kitchen
71. Getting packed
72. Haircuts for all the boys
73. Having a calm spirit
74. Productivity for being home without Jim
75. Good intense discussion at CG
76. Challenging each other
77. Kids doing well all day
78. Going to eat lunch with Jim at work
79. Time with Gage
80. Being available to help
81. Unexpected blessings
82. Comfy Cow with Sara
83. Finishing a couple of projects
84. Lillian having time with Jim
85. Learning to let go of perfection
86. Being reminded what's important
87. Getting to co-op early
88. Being in Karate
89. Jim being able to help in the afternoon
90. Getting on the road by 3 pm
91. Kids sleeping in the car
92. Caravaning with Becca and Ryan
93. Chick-fil-A Breakfast with Max
94. Relaxing afternoon
95. Time with cousins
96. Seeing FBC Smyrna Family
97. Seeing Noemi
98. Unexpected gift
99. Great sermon on giving our whole life to God
100. Shower for Rachel and Becca
101. Time with Brit
102. Jim having breakfast with Jeff
103. Getting on the road early
104. Talking with Jim while driving
105. Encouragement
106. Making good time
107. McDonald's with good inside playground
108. Nehemiah saying "amen", singing, dancing and walking
109. Meal night at CG
110. Catching up with Meagan
111. Surprise big Norwex order
112. Closing out 1 party
113. Jim working an extra 4 hours
114. Getting through a really busy day without too much incident
115. God protecting our teeth
116. Being able to be honest without losing it
117. Playdate with Shannon & Gage, Courtney & Asher
118. Doing some much needed work
119. Talking with the kids
120. Nursery 4th hour at co-op
121. Working on clearer scheduling
122. Aldi's pizza for dinner
123. Sleep
124. Helping out Will and Abby and getting to know them more
125. Relaxing afternoon
126. Talking with Alicia
127. God providing
128. Good sermon on abundance
129. Learning about worshiping as a couple
130. Advocate training- learning more about encouraging workers
131. Solutions to issues in the house
132. Jim getting to work on school
133. Time to work together in the office
134. Good OT
135. Family movie night

October Evaluation

Spiritual

• Spend at least 10 minutes praying daily- At the beginning of the month this was a struggle, but as the month went on this grew and I believe I have been doing this, though I really want to be more intentional in my prayer times
• Spend at least 10 minutes reading and reflecting on the Bible daily- By the end of the month I have been able to do this. Really working to maximize my pumping time in the morning
• Memorize verses with the kids - working on this during school time
• Have extended prayer times 4 times during the year- Jim has had 3 and I have had 3
• Read Christian books (Jim- 1 (not school related), Emmie- 3)- 1 for me so far and started "Mission of Motherhood" 

Marriage

• Pray together daily- YES! 
• Go out for a date once a week- By God's grace I believe we actually managed this this month
• Go on a night away once this year- Yes! We were able to get away for 2 whole days for our Anniversary! Big thanks to Becca, Shannon, Julianne, Victor and Ariana who made this possible for us! It was wonderful
• Read 3 books together this year (read one day a week)- Crossing this off because it's not going to happen. Maybe next year when we're forced to for School of Missions
• Discuss plan weekly on Saturday afternoon- Did not happen 

Kids

• Spend 15 minutes of one on one time with each child every week- This is still a struggle, really working on scheduling the next month
• Special Outing Alone twice during the year with each child- No outings this month. It's been a struggle to plan extra outside activities
• Family fun activity once a month- We went to Mulberry Farms to play, do a corn maze and pick pumpkins with some friends from church. It was a great time!
• Write in individual journals at least 3 times this year- Got caught up on 4 journals! Huge blessing!
• Finish Jamey's 1st year Scrapbook- Got things moved around and organized a little better so I might actually get some work done on this before the end of the year!

Homemaking

• Keep up with cleaning schedule- Honestly we need to make a NEW schedule, talking through the best way to do this
• Keep up with my calendar- Still struggling to use it well
• Being fully present when with my family- Still struggling, but getting better as we get more normalized
• Try 12 new recipes this year- (10) We tried mini meatloaves
• No TV 2 days a week (watching)- Still using the TV a lot. Working on finding a better rhythm to prevent just turning it on because
• Begin gardening in the spring- Another that just did not happen and isn't going to, but that's OK!

Ministry

• Continue sending out Prayer List- Yes

Personal

• Read a book a month for myself- Still working on "Don Quixote" hoping I can finish my classics challenge this year but doesn't look like it
• Jim read one fiction book- Yes! He finished "Eragon", Eldest", and "Brisingr"
• Journal 5 days a week- I got close
• Jim Journal 3 days a week- Yes
• Edit novel to prepare for publishing- No work on this
• Book Club once a month- We didn't meet this month :( 
• Continue to meet once a month with writing group- Yes! It was a short meeting but so thankful for time to meet with these Sisters
• Blog 1-2 days a week- Yes! 

Health

• Mild Exercise twice a week- Nope, really need to work on schedule/routine/rhythms
• Maintain weight until birth- This did not happen, so I have extra work to do now
• Lose weight after giving birth- I'm basically stagnant at the moment. Hoping to get cracking on this soon. I need it and I need the energy!

Good-bye October! Where did you go? This month has been very crazy, busy and I'm not even sure why. Maybe it's like time and the more months behind the faster the year goes? All I know is it is at an end and I'm not sure where it went. Except for a quick weekend trip to GA we have been doing school, co-op, Jim has been working. It's basically been "normal life". But right now it is still a struggle. We are still settling in to being a family of 9. This transition has shown us how intentional we really need to be. We need structure and self-discipline so that the days don't just drift by unchecked. So here's to November that will, by God's grace, be more productive for us all, and most of all be what God wants it to be!

How was your October? What is God teaching you?

The Merchant of Venice

This Shakespeare play is my 9th classic in my Back to the Classics Challenge for 2016. This play is for the category A classic which includes the name of a place in the title.

This play was definitely in the comedy section of my Shakespeare Anthology, however I did not find it very comedic. I suppose for the time period it probably was, but I didn't get it. In fact it was in this weird realm between comedy and tragedy. I don't think anyone actually died if I remember correctly, but there was a lot of sinister plotting to kill people, in particular the merchant of Venice for whom the play is named.

There was certainly some witty banter in the play and a level of cleverness in the end to help resolve a horrible predicament, which I believe is what put it in the comedy genre. But a lot of the situations throughout the play were minor tragedies in a sense. It was interesting to see how the characters weaved together. I also appreciated the riddle given to the suitors of Portia to solve in order to marry her. So there were elements that I liked, but this was not my favorite play of Shakespeare's. Maybe I will read it again and appreciate it more, but it will likely be awhile.

3 Stars for this Shakespeare play.