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.

1. Great Sunday Sermon on First Things First
2. God stirring our hearts
3. Being challenged to take advantage of our freedom
4. New Year's Gifts
5. Learning to dream together
6. Fun family time
7. Bible time with kids
8. Reading
9. Nehemiah praying
10. Jamey working diligently
11. Time with Lillian
12. Becca coming over
13. Seeing Mandy
14. Sam's tooth still doing well
15. Over half off Chick-fil-A
16. Jim talking to his mom
17. Aldi pizza
18. Homemade blueberry scones
19. Stretching CG time
20. Day with the Vander Weert family
21. Lillian playing well with Clarity
22. Sharing hearts
23. Encouragement
24. Time to talk to Brit
25. Working with Jamey
26. Enjoying the snow fall
27. Cleaning up the kitchen
28. Talking with God
29. Getting good news from Brit
30. Being on the same page
31. Time to talk with Sarah S
32. Being encouraged and affirmed in what God is telling us
33. Date night at Arby's
34. Enjoying time with Jim
35. Doing a lot of reading
36. Sleep
37. Jim growing in baking
38. Kids playing well together
39. No TV!
40. Working our minds
41. Starting new books
42. Great sermon on One Master and purpose
43. Clearing out email
44. Starting School of Missions
45. Meeting new people
46. Kids excited about class
47. Jim home early from class
48. 6 kids at the table
49. Sharing my heart at book club
50. Laughing
51. Nehemiah learning nose
52. Tickles
53. Time with my kids
54. Good school day
55. Time with Julianne and Joyanna
56. God's movement
57. Nehemiah holding hands to pray
58. Time with the Gunns
59. Home made tacos
60. Class getting canceled
61. Moving the shelf at the bottom of the stairs
62. Good work time
63. Going to bed at 9
64. Going through the closet
65. Meeting Nina
66. Selling a book
67. Finishing the week strong
68. Talking to Bec
69. Time with the Felix family
70. Homemade mac and cheese
71. Dippin' Dots!!!!!
72. Jim meeting with James
73. Dealing with emotions together
74. Looking at reading lists
75. Learning together as a family
76. Finishing Frankenstein
77. Ordering more books
78. Relaxing afternoon with Jim
79. Hearing what God is doing in Asia
80. Sharing wedding pics with the kids
81. Nehemiah singing "Be Thou My Vision"
82. Talking to Mom
83. Getting 6 chapters edited in my book
84. Time with Reuben
85. Going to the pool
86. Boys doing well at the doctor
87. God's protection in unusual ways
88. $10 coupon from a stranger
89. Gabriel sitting with Jim at CG
90. New people
91. Sharing the good
92. 3.5 hours of overtime
93. Being reminded of the joys of flexible schedules
94. God's provision
95. Spiritual conversations with Jamey and Lillian
96. Productive day without Jim at home
97. Experience Norwex meeting
98. Winning 3 prizes!!!
99. Seeing Jessica
100. Meeting Katie- in business with her husband and has 6 kids
101. God affirming more of our direction
102. Fillings going smoothly
103. Starbucks
104. Rising without alarm clock
105. Really yummy lunch
106. Talking about Plexus with Becca
107. Working through what God wants
108. Excellent sermon on suffering
109. Interesting connections with Lee
110. Getting all 7 kids to and from church by myself
111. Taco Bell
112. Time to work on overdue things
113. Dr. Gregg Allison at School of Missions
114. Seeing Heather
115. Dealing with heart issues
116. God working in Jim's heart
117. Cooking together
118. Gabriel having time with Jim
119. Planning for the next day
120. The Spirit speaking to me
121. Time to write out some thoughts on business
122. Pumpkin muffins
123. Working through business desires and ideas with Jim
124. Ice cream cones
125. Good paycheck
126. Tara available to help with blog set up!
127. Plexus Ambassador
128. Great first day of co-op
129. Friends
130. Connecting
131. Sharing
132. Meeting new people
133. Jim being tech support
134. Winning Usborne money!!!
135. Roger helping with the dishwasher
136. Learning about more business opportunities
137. God moving
138. Great reminder of need for diversity
139. Taking a nap
140. People asking about business
141. Praying with Jim
142. Feeling more awake
143. Learning to repent to my kids
144. Learning to fight the flesh
145. 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?

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- 

Marriage

• Pray together daily- 
• Go out for a date once a week- 
• Go on a night away once this year- 
• Read 2 books together this year (read one day a week)- 
• Discuss plan weekly on Saturday afternoon- 

Kids

• Spend 15 minutes of one on one time with each child every week- 
• Special Outing Alone once during the year with each child (hopefully during birthday month)- 
• Family fun activity once a month- 
• Write in individual journals at least 4 times this year- 
• Finish Jamey's 1st year Scrapbook- 

Homemaking

• Make a cleaning schedule that we can keep up with and do it!- 
• Look at calendar once a day-
• Update Google Calendar twice a week 
• Being fully present when with my family- 
• Try 12 new recipes this year- 
• No TV 2 days a week (watching)- 

Ministry

• Continue sending out Prayer List- 

Personal

• Read 2 book a month for myself- 
• Jim read one fiction book- 
• Journal 5 days a week- 
• Jim Journal 3 days a week- 
• Edit novel to prepare for publishing- 
• Book Club once a month- 
• Continue to meet once a month with writing group- 
• Blog 1-2 days a week- 

Health

• Mild Exercise twice a week- 
• Lose weight- 
• Making more from scratch food and balanced meals- 

December Blessings

As we close out 2016 I am reminded that I have so many things for which to be grateful. God has blessed us far more than He should and I'm so thankful. This month is no exception. Here is a small glimpse of the amazing blessings God has bestowed upon our family this month. I can't wait to see how God will bless 2017!

1. Taking a day off to rest and heal
2. Really awesome Norwex deals
3. More sales
4. Working on calendars
   
5. Snuggling with my babies
6. Eating left overs
7. Time with the Felix family
8. Kids excited to hang out with friends
9. Pizza
10. Encouragement
11. Wisdom
12. Kindred Spirit
13. Women's gift exchange
    
14. Lillian participating in the gift exchange
15. Catching up with people
16. Jamey cleaning the kitchen
17. Organizing the pantry
18. Great sermon on our need for God and how Christmas should disturb us
19. Talking with kids over lunch
20. nap
21. Talking
22. Nice family time
23. Feeling more rested
24. God's great grace
25. Working with Jamey
26. Productivity
27. New Norwex
28. Having Jim home
29. Working on our room
30. Jamey getting caught up
31. Teaching kids to clean and organize
32. Getting everything set up for surgery
33. Getting budget in order
34. Ordering pictures
35. Jim getting the day off
36. Victor hanging out with the kids
37. Surgery going as planned
38. Jim keeping the kids off so I could sleep
    
39. Jim waking up to get my meds for me in the middle of the night
40. Jim working with the kids
41. Getting caught up with school work
42. Kids doing well with me unavailable
43. Jim taking care of everything
44. Being able to go to church
45. Seeing Tara
46. Restful afternoon
47. Time to talk with Jim
48. Surgery site healing well
49. Getting laundry done
50. Getting Monday work done
51. Time to work with the middle boys
52. Book club!
53. Ashley being available to pick me up 
    
54. Brienne coming to book club
55. Jim being off another day and taking care of me
56. Working on emails
57. Christmas party at CG
58. Fun Time
59. Fruit basket
60. Time to read
61. Working upstairs
62. Feeling more normal
63. Costco
64. Going to bed at a decent hour
65. Working through feelings
66. Good day without Jim at home post surgery
67. Being with the kids
68. Time to write
69. Movie
70. Working on normality
71. Handkerchiefs
72. Blogging community
73. Finishing the week strong
74. Middle boys drawing
75. Kids helping around the house
76. Growing together
77. Praying all night
78. God sustaining me through the day
79. Time to journal at Panera
80. God working on my heart
81. Finishing upstairs
82. Doing haircuts
83. Washing hair
84. Good sermon on humility
    
85. God growing my heart in humility
86. Talking through sermon as a family
87. Painting nativity together
88. Hanging stockings
89. Waking at 7
90. God's mercy
91. Jim getting replacement phone for FREE!
92. Good milk production
93. Getting addresses and envelopes addressed
94. Running errands as a family
95. Cheap Chick-fil-A
96. Cleaning kitchen together
97. Aldi pizza
98. Learning not to let time dictate and teaching kids this
    
99. Reading together
100. Free ice cream
101. Jim having his phone at work
102. Christmas cards
103. Neo using words clearly
104. Snuggling with Malachi
105. Growing in wanting to work hard and desiring orderliness
106. Nehemiah kisses
107. Malachi turning 4  months
108. Parents getting here safely
109. American Baking Show
110. Family time
111. Starting a new book
112. No alarm
113. Planning day
114. Sharing dreams and ideas
     
115. Panera
116. Free Refills
117. Encouraging others
118. Fun family day
119. Cookies and cocoa
120. Latkes and Donuts
121. Christmas Eve Service
122. Presents
123. Duck dinner
124. Cake 
125. 1st night of Hanukkah
126. Time and a half
127. Boys getting to go to a movie with grandparents
128. Baking with Lillian
129. Remembering the incarnate God!
     
130. Low key day
131. Finishing Don Quixote!!!!!
132. Girl's day out
133. Yummy brunch
134. Seeing Moanna
135. God growing my heart
136. Shopping
137. God's provision
138. Seeing Rogue One with Jim
139. Date night
140. No TV!!!!!
141. Nehemiah turning 18 months!
142. Hard work
143. Lessons from Hanukkah
144. Growing in knowledge of God
145. Writing in journals
146. Learning to repent to my kids
147. Nehemiah praying
148. Kids doing puzzles together
149. Psalm 90
150. God challenging my heart
151. God's peace

     

     Malachi's First Christmas and Hanukkah

152. Teaching my kids
153. Prayer
154. Getting work completed
155. Finishing Chronicle of a Death Foretold
156. Reading 11 classics
157. Lunch with Sara
158. Christian Studies
159. Talking to Noemi
160. Prepping for 2017
161. Meeting Donna
162. Getting a few things sold
163. God's provision

December Evaluation and Year End Reflection

Spiritual

• Spend at least 10 minutes praying daily- Thanks to morning pumping this is happening most days!
• Spend at least 10 minutes reading and reflecting on the Bible daily- Again pumping has really helped with this
• 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 The end of the year got to us and lack of planning kept us from completing this goal
• Read Christian books (Jim- 1 (not school related), Emmie- 3)- I only did 1. Again planning kept this from being as successful in this

Marriage

• Pray together daily- YES! Growing in more directed prayer times together as well
• Go out for a date once a week- This happened and my parents gave us a planning day as well! December was a blessing
• 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- Did a little better with this this month and still growing in scheduling our days and weeks to be intentional with each child
• Special Outing Alone twice during the year with each child- No outings again this month. It's been a struggle to plan extra outside activities with getting organized
• Family fun activity once a month- Celebrating Christmas and Hanukkah! Lots of yummy food and playing dreidle 
• Write in individual journals at least 3 times this year- Yes! I got this done! Such a blessing to be completely caught up!!!!!
• Finish Jamey's 1st year Scrapbook- Once we get organized there will be dedicated time for this. Too lofty a goal for this year.

Homemaking

• Keep up with cleaning schedule- We are finishing the year with massive cleaning and organizing so hopefully we will get this made for next year
• Keep up with my calendar- Been prepping it for next year, so been looking at it more
• Being fully present when with my family- This is back and forth depending on how overwhelmed I'm feeling, but still growing in this
• Try 12 new recipes this year- (12) Jim made chocolate cake and blueberry cream cheese icing for Gabriel's birthday and it was DELICIOUS! So we have also met this goal!
• No TV 2 days a week (watching)- Doing much better but still too much TV
• 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- Finished "Don Quixote" and "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" 11 of 12 classics read this year. Not too bad since I thought I'd only get through half
• Jim read one fiction book- Yes! He finished "Eragon", Eldest", and "Brisingr"
• Journal 5 days a week- This month was a struggle with this, new year will return patterns I hope
• Jim Journal 3 days a week- Yes
• Edit novel to prepare for publishing- No work on this
• Book Club once a month- Yes! Such a fun gathering! Love these Sisters!
• Continue to meet once a month with writing group- Again, Scheduled it, but ended up with a meeting with God, which was just as useful
• Blog 1-2 days a week- Think I got 5 posts in this month only because of the classics challenge

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!

As we come to the close of December we also close 2016! What a year. It's been hard. It has stretched Jim, me, our family. We have grown and learned more about God. We are growing in being more like Jesus and still daily reminded how far we have to go. December ended up off with me needing to have a tooth removed putting me out longer than expected. And with holidays we had extra family time, which is always special and a different productive than what western culture says is productive, but so important, took from some goals but helped with others.

We've strived this month to find order for our home and are continuing to work towards order in the physical home as well as in our time and in our hearts. As we order our home we find God ordering our hearts. It's difficult, but very much needed. It has been good and for the first time I feel really ready to begin a new year, not because I have everything figured out, but because God has given me so much grace to trust Him more than I ever have before. He is Sovereign and my life is following His plan for me even when it's hard and not what I want. I know it's His best for me.

We have plans and goals for 2017 that I will share at a later date, but ultimately we will accomplish what He wants us to accomplish and more importantly what He wants to accomplish in us. I'm so grateful for 2016, which, even with the challenges, I think has been the best year of my life. And now I look forward to 2017 and what it holds for our family, the easy and the hard, because God is my God and He holds my life in His hands!

How was your December?  What did you learn in 2016?  What are you hopeful for in 2017?

Classics Challenge Wrap-Up

Twelve month and eleven classics later, I've expanded my reading repertoire and I'm thankful I did. On the whole I enjoyed the classics that I chose, but there were a couple that were not my favorite. I think in general the ones I didn't like as much were ones that were not what I was expecting. I am thankful that I stretched myself, pushing through books I was not really enjoying, to grow in my knowledge of classics. The more I read them the more I appreciate stories of the past and the lives of people in other cultures and times. I very much look forward to reading more classics next year!

If you're interested you can see all of this year's book reviews linked below.

A 19th Century Classic: The Purloined Letter
A 20th Century Classic: The Old Man and the Sea
A Classic by a Woman Author: A Murder is Announced
A Classic in Translation: Don Quixote
A Classic by a Non-White Author: Chronicle of a Death Foretold
An Adventure Classic: Treasure Island
A Fantasy, Science Fiction or Dystopian Classic: Dracula
A Classic Detective Novel: Murder on the Orient Express
A Classic Which Includes the Name of a Place in the Title: The Merchant of Venice
A Classic Which Has Been Banned or Censored: Les Liasons Dangereuses
Re-read a Classic You Read In School: Light in August
A Volume of Classic Short Stories:  A Good Man is Hard to Find and other stories

With 11 classics I have 2 entries for this year's drawing!

Chronicle of a Death Foretold

I finished my 11th classic in the Back to the Classics Challenge for 2016. This book was for the category, Classic by a non-white author.

I think I have read this before, but glad I read it again. This story is very well told and, through written in a different style than usually written, it is easy to follow even though a scattered account. I really like that it is told in first person, but has third person account as well, showing that what the storyteller knows comes from not only his knowledge but the knowledge of others as well. I really liked this as it is clearly a community story. The language is a bit harsh, but the cursing was limited to appropriate for the telling of the story. It wasn't cussing for the sake of cussing. Overall I really liked the style of the book.

The story line was also very intriguing. From the beginning you know the end, and yet you still want to keep reading. I liked the interweaving of story lines to make one completely story line. There were a lot of characters so here and there it did get a bit cumbersome with all of the names, but because of the way the story is told it works well. I also appreciate the mystery that is left in the story as well. We never really know why this man was chosen to die. There is the spoken reason, but it is evident there is more to the story that we don't know and we never will. Usually this would drive me insane, but it worked for this story and I'm only slightly frustrated by it. I also appreciate the side story that led to Santiago Nasar's death that is concluded in an unexpected way.

This book also gives you a lot to think about when dealing with other people, helping and loving others. It makes you think, too, about what you would do when you hear something bad may be happening. I like that it shares what the majority of the people involved were thinking during the event, everyone except Santiago Nasar. It's a great look into humanity and even how we know and understand people, including ourselves. It's also a great reminder that we never really know what people will do.

On the whole I really enjoyed this book. 4.5 stars for this different style classic.