Ok, so I don't think I have to do a true confession for you. It's pretty obvious that my week gets away from me. Before I know it things get crazy and I've only posted once or twice in a week. It's not my intention, trust me. I just need to work out a little better schedule in the day so I can get a blog post typed up. Anyways, back to My Favorite Fridays.... 1. Aaron and I were able to go to Emmy's Christmas party at school yesterday. She loved having us there and we loved being there. She was excited to show us everything. They played games, made some crafts, read some books, had a snack, at attempted playing musical chairs. A great time had by all! I'm so thankful that we've found a school that Emmy loves and that Emmy loves in return. She loves her teacher, Mrs. Kelley. It made me a little sad knowing that Mrs. Kelley wouldn't be her teacher next year. I told myself not to think too far ahead, there's still half a year to enjoy this class. And I'm positive that next year will be just as good. And next year we'll have 2 kids there instead of 1! 2. I read a short devotional early in December this year about complicating Christmas. We often say Jesus is the Reason for the Season, but that never seems to keep us from packing our schedules full, traveling cross country, buying stuff we don't need, and stressing every minute about every detail. I knew we didn't have travel plans this year for Christmas, or many plans at all to be honest, and I purposed that this Christmas would be a simple one. Simple in many ways. Low stress, more time making memories than making plans, and being an open example to my kids about what the miracle of Jesus birth is really about. And I can sit here right now and say in honesty that I'm so happy with how the last few weeks have been. Last night we were able to STRESS FREE walk through the mall and enjoy the holiday cheer and being together. We've had the opportunity to sit and watch Christmas movies together as a family and eat popcorn and snuggle. We've been able to pile in the van and just spend some time enjoying Christmas lights a few times just this week. It's been one of my favorite Christmas Seasons to date. At least in the 5 yr history of our little family. 3. Aaron started his new job this week! He had two and a half days of training at the begining of the week. He seems pretty excited to get started and I'm so thankful he's got something to be excited about again! He starts back on the 26th. I know he's glad to have some time off, but he's also ready to get things going. 4. This last Tuesday we had our Women's Christmas Tea for Church. This was our third year doing it and our first year hosting it on our own. It's one of my favorite events that we do at Church and I was so excited about it again this year. The last 2 years we've LOVED going to some nearby Tea Rooms, but we knew we'd be able to do it a little more inexpensively this year. Due to the nasty flu that's going around, it was rescheduled once and the location was moved last minute but it still turned out great. I'm planning on doing a bonus post with more pictures today or on Monday. We had a great time and the food was excellent! 5. One of the best things about this week is that the flu is over!!! It's finally out of our house and the house is clean and degermed! Here's to hoping we're protected from it for the rest of the season! My prayer for you over the last few days of this Christmas season is that in the rush and craziness of the last minute, that you would stop and take some time to reflect on what Jesus coming to this earth, taking on flesh, living, and then dying -for you- means to you right now. At this point in your life, whenever you are in your marriage, your situation with your kids, your relationship with your friends and family, whatever your struggle, hurt, or pain is... What does the birth of that baby mean to you?
Consider it. Write a few things down. Post them somewhere. That way when the craziness of the next few days peaks and your mind is going a mile a minute and wrapping paper is coming out of your ears, you have a reminder right in front of you of your specific "reason for the season"!
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An end to another week. I'm actually pretty excited about next week starting. I enjoy the holiday season so much. I'm excited to spend Thanksgiving with family and kick off the Christmas season. And, to be honest, I'm pretty excited about Black Friday Shopping. Last year I headed out at 8pm and got home sometime around 8 am. But I loved every minute of it. I love shopping. And I think it's a great opportunity to #1 save some money on Christmas shopping, but #2 Be a good Christlike example in a situation where we hear so much about fighting and arguing and so on. I saw this pin on pinterest and I had to chuckle... Let it be known that I've never trampled anyone for a sale! Pinned here. Well, onto the Top 5 for this week... 1. Number 1 has to be Emmy's Thanksgiving program. She did such a good job singing and I was super impressed with her teacher being able to get her to actually put face paint and a feathered headband on! 2. My living room is painted! I love it. It's such a nice change. It really does feel like a totally different space. 3. Last night the girls and I made biscuit pizzas for dinner. It wasn't on the menu until today, but it just sounded good last night. I realized as I was pulling all the ingredients out of the fridge that I had very little mozzarella cheese. Oh well, we used cheddar and american instead and they were still great. 4. Due to the pink eye that's been making it's way through our house, I've been able to spend lots of time at home with the girls this week. Emmy didn't go to school on Tuesday so we've had 3 whole days of hangout time. It is safe to say that I no longer have a baby. Macie is now fully toddler and she surprises me every day with her growing awareness. I've convinced she's known how to talk for a long time, she just decided not to until about a month ago. And Emmy's imagination is so active she cracks me up. My girls are definitely the best 2 daily companions. It makes me sad to think that some day very soon I won't have this time with them.
5. This one is going to be somewhat abstract... but I'm thankful for change. Even if it's hard. It's a continual reminder that I'm alive and God has given me another day. The last few weeks have been difficult, but God is faithful. And I know that in a perfect world situations and circumstances could be changed with the snap of a finger. But, if that were the case every time, we'd never learn things about God, ourselves, and each other. Have a good weekend! It's been a while. A long while.
The truth is sin consumes. It consumes your your mind, your strength, your engergy, your time. I've been consumed. And I didn't want to take the time to put truth out there through this blog because #1 I wasn't believing it myself and #2 I wasn't living it. I could sin, but I would not be a hypocrite. Funny how even though you have good intentions, it doesn't always happen that way. The Lord is redeeming me. My marriage. My children. My life. I would like to share that redemption with you. Some of it. Someday I will be able to lay out my story for you candidly. My goal has been to always be open and honest with you through this blog and I will aim to continue that and be transparent as possible but protect the hearts of those whom I love. Today is supposed to be My Favorites Friday, but quite frankly, this has been one of the hardest weeks of my life. For those of you who have followed my blog for a while and have read My Wilderness Story, you might be hard pressed to believe me. But I am in the desert again. No, that's not true- I'm actually standing in my kitchen. But, my soul has been dry. There will be no favorites this Friday. But there will be brokeness. There will be forgivness. There will be healing. And there will be redemption. I hope you will stick with me through this time. I'll be here on Monday and I hope you will be too! Last week I didn't do a My Favorites Friday post. Things were kinda crazy (and still are) but I'm not as discombobulated this week. But, a lot of good stuff happened last week, so this is going to be a combined post from this week at last! 1. Campmeeting and NYI convetion! I love campmeeting. I grew up in Michigan and although our campmeeting is slightly different than here in Indy, I love getting together with fellow [Nazarene] Christians and worshiping. Plus, it's always such a good reminder of the Christian heritage we have. And, it's a great time to catch up with friends I haven't seen in a while! NYI Convention, which is basically a business meeting for the youth department on the Indy District, was great too. Although, I missed a lot of the meeting since I was selected to be on one of the ballot counting groups. Oh well. It was fun being with teens and youth pastors. We got to meet some youth pastors on the district and network some! 2. My girls have discovered sleeping in! Well, if 8:30 is sleeping in. Anyways, they're getting like an hour and a half more sleep than normal for the last 2 weeks. And although this has made me rework napping, I still enjoy getting a little more sleep.
3. GAME NIGHT! I'm so pumped about tonight. Some friends are coming over to recieve the worst Monopoly deal booty whoopin they've ever recieved. Plus, we're going to have grilled chicken, brats, fried corn and some other awesomness to eat. 4. I've mentioned it before, but the devotional book, Jesus Calling has been such a blessing to me over the last week or so. It's a great book, but it seems like what's written has been written exactly to me from God. If you haven't checked it out, you should! 5. Toronto in 8 days! The lists and spreadsheets have been made! I haven't really started on anything yet since if I packed now, I'd just have to pull stuff out of suitcases. And my parents will be here on Thursday, so if I did a deep clean now, I'd just have to do it again before they get here. So, on Monday, the cleaning starts in earnest. Aaron's got Wed (the 4th) off. So, hopefully, I can get alot accomplished while he's home to entertain the girls. And with my parents coming in early I'll be able to pack sanely since they can entertain the girls while I pack. Well, it's Friday again. It feels like I was just typing that yesterday. It's amazing how quickly the weeks go. I'm not going to lie, it's been a hard week. Lots of struggles, lots of quesions... but I'm trying my hardest to choose truth over emotions. Anyways.... here are my favorites from this week! 1. Even thought it's been a hard week and I feel like there are so many unanswered questions, I can't deny the fact that God is showing himself to me in random ways. Ok, not random, because God is never random. So I'm thankful for bread crumbs, even when I want the whole loaf. 2. On Wednesday night, Aaron and I went down to teen camp to sit through the last service with the kids, then bring them home. It was an awesome service and God definitely moved in the kids lives. I think back over my teen years and I can say that camp was always a time when I made difinitive decisions in my relationship with God. After the service we got to enjoy the finale lip sych. Here's a picture of some of the campers and a youth pastor being camps version of One Direction.... "New Direction". 3. On Saturday, I was able to have a Mommy date and have Starbucks with one of my former Pastor's wife. They pastored the church I grew up in in Michigan and now they live about an hour away up north in Indiana. We met half way and talked and talked and talked for over 3 hours. I was a young teen when they left our Church, and I've always counted her as one of the women who helped disciple me through some of the hardest years of life (teen years). I feel blessed that I was able to talk and share with her and that I can still be discipled by her through the other hardest years of my life. She was such an encouragement and I look forward to the next time we can have a Mommy date.
4. We moved our girls into the same room on Saturday. Our townhouse is only 2 bedroom and until now (13 months), Macie's crib has been in our room. I wanted my room back. So, we moved the crib in there and it's been loads of fun ever since. I was shocked at how quickly they adjusted and we love laughing at what we hear over the monitor when they are in there together. I'm so thankful that (right now at least) my girls are each other's biggest fan. 5. I'm excited about the challange I have today of coming up with a extremely cheap/free Father's Day gift for Aaron. I know he'll probably read this, so I can't divulge any secrets, but I have a few ideas and I'll share his gift with you guys next week! Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's out there. It's almost the weekend! WOOP WOOP! 1. I'll start with the biggest thing that happened this week. (If you don't want to have part of my wilderness story ruined, stop reading now.) We found out Monday night that Aaron has been approved for a new District License and is on his way to being ordained in the Church of the Nazarene. A lot of this is denomination talk, but trust me this is a GREAT thing. A God thing big time! 2. I'm pumped about our plans for tomorrow! We're going downtown for Kids Day in the Park. It's a big event with meet and greets for some of Emmy's most favorite characters from PBS- Elmo, Super Why, Word Girl, Cat in the Hat, Curious George, and a bunch more. I made the mistake of telling Emmy about this on Tuesday and she's been beside herself with excitement ever since! Plus, it's free. Awesome! 3. This week has basically been a week of nothing. We didn't even leave the house until yesterday afternoon. Last week was very busy, so it was nice to have a week to just hang with my girls. I'm hoping we can make it to the pool sometime this weekend! Although, it was wierd not having youth group last night. Most of our kids were on vacation, so I haven't really seen them in like a week! Can't wait to catch up with them this Sunday! 4. My running has been going well. When I'm doing it, I hate it. When I'm not doing it, I want to. I finshed up week 1 of Couch 2 5k, but I think I may do another week in week 1, or at least another day or 2. Although, I found a motivation dress on Pinterest! I love it, even though I'd have no where to wear it! Pinned here. 5. Change is happening. I'm not one of those people who is resistent to change. Infact, majority of the time, I embrace it. There's so much happening right now and I'm excited about it. Once the ball starts rolling on some of it, I'll include it in some posts. Right now though you'll just have to take my word for it!
Have a great weekend! On Friday's I'll be doing what I'm calling "My Favorites Friday". It's a short list of some of the good things that have happened this week or things that I am enjoying. So, here goes! 1. Emmy's 3rd birthday party was on Tuesday! I can't believe she's already 3. We had a great time with a few of her friends. We ate lunch, enjoyed cupcakes and opened gifts. 2. This one I didn't necessarily enjoy, but on Wednesday I started my training for the Color Me Rad 5k run that a friend and I are doing. I don't particularly enjoy running or feeling like I'm dying but I did enjoy the feeling of accomplisment that I felt after I finished the first day of training. Today will be day 2. I'm actually dreading it because I'm not feeling well at all and have been coughing up a lung the last 2 days. 3. Skype date with the best friend this afternoon. YES! We've been friends as long as I can remember. Seriously. I don't remember her not being around. The hard part of growing up... not being in the same place to enjoy typical friend activies. (Our favorites happen to be eating and shopping) 4. I picked up the devotional book Jesus Calling by Sarah Young a few weeks ago. If you have a chance to go through this book, DO IT! It's awesome! 5. Rain! I'm so glad we've finally got rain. It just means my flowers will live to see a few more days. Don't mind the sad looking droopyness of my poor flowers. At least they're alive!
Everyone enjoy your weekend! |
HEY, I'M JESSICA!
Christian. Wife. Mommy. Daughter. Pastor. Friend. Saved.Redeemed. Beloved.
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