So tonight I'm gonna be on a reality tv show.

YAll. It is here. The day has come that my appearance on TNT's On The Menu is here!

I am extremely nervous and excited at the same time. I hear this is called "nervocited" 

The love and support i have received over the last few days from family, friends, past teachers and parents of friends has been so overwhelming. No matter the outcome I am blessed with such amazing people in my life.

When I agreed to be on the show, it was after many nights of prayer. I really wanted to make sure that God was on board with this idea and not against it. I begged him that if His plan was not for me to do this that It wouldnt happen. I can't wait to share with you next week just how spiritual this experience was for me. 

So tonight 7/8central on TNT catch me compete to have my dish on the menu!

Oh. My. Gosh!

Here is a little article/interview 

http://www.eatdrinkmississippi.com/mississippi-native-to-compete-on-tnts-on-the-menu-december-5.html

Operation Christmas Child

Today for school we learned about the Samartians Purse and Operation Christmas Child. 

Our church does a campaign called Be Rich and during this campaign we all pack shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child. This has been a holiday tradition of ours for years but this year we added the learning aspect to it.

We started off our lesson watching videos on the Samartians Purse site about how the boxes are distributed-success stories-and then we learned about Haiti (a country that is big on our families hearts) and the kids there. 

We discussed and made a list of items the kids and their families may need.

Things like cups, plastic utensils, ponchos, soap, tolietries, bandaids...

Then some items the girls wanted to include. 

A doll, a jump rope, note pads, candy.

And we headed or to the dollar store. 

I let the girls just start picking items. 

And they had a great time. "She will need this..." "Oh mom she needs socks!" This unknown child somewhere wasn't being thought Of as a stranger-she was a she and a friend they were shopping for. 

When we came home we got to packing...

That's what they decided! 

Items are

A book

A doll

Floss

A toothbrush and paste

A notebook

A jump rope

Poncho

Snack containers

Headbands

Soap and a wash cloth

Socks

Tissues

Bandaids

Suckers

Jolly ranchers

A small bag

Combs

Gum

We used every inch of space. The snack containers held the jolly ranchers 

The cups had the gum and plastic utensils.

And the we took the bandaids out of their box and put them into an Elsa ziploc bag and buy them in the little bag. That way each item they opened had a special something inside. 

Two full happy boxes were then prayed over and a letter and photo of us included. Letting our new friend know that we love her but most importantly JESUS loves her! 

Holidays.

So the holidays are upon us and it's going to be a different year. We will be in Georgia all holiday season. That means the first holiday ever I will have without my family. I am beyond devestated but logistically it's the best decision. 

My mom is coming for thanksgiving. But my dad is staying in Mississippi. 

Our family has always done xmas eve together-so I asked my parents to stay in MS for xmas to keep the tradition with my brother and sister in law and niece and nephews. It's hard to have a lot of kids, esp when one moves away. Because I had to move, it's not fair for my parents to have to chose. And it's not fair for my siblings to miss out on nana and pawpaw. 

My wish was to have everyone here for xmas-bc my dad is retired, my mom and sister are off for school holidays...but my brother works weird schedule. So that puts him not being able to make the trip. I had big plans for a big family Christmas with Christmas morning breakfast-(my brother is the breakfast chef) and a day in Jammies. But it's not going to happen and truthfully-it makes me really bummed. My nieces and nephews are my other kids and I have never missed a holiday with them. 

Since my holidays are missing family-I've been on a kick to get all my decor out-I thought if I could make my house merry it might fill the void of not having them here. 

So I pulled out all the decor and sure enough I'm missing some very key items. 1. Our elf on the shelf. I know I can go buy another but that's not the point. He was our little elf and he holds special memories.

2. Santa pictures for 3 years. I have 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013. I'm missing 2007, 2011, 2012. They are no where online or in any photo box. 

3. A ton of family ornaments.

4. My manger scene 

These little things hold special memories for me. They help me feel like our family is near. And I'm just really sad that I have misplaced them. 

Great kids snacks

It has been a bit since we received our great kids snack box and I wanted to share a few more things we did with our box. 

My girls have never had granola (outside of a chocolate chip bar) so when we had multiple packets of granola in our box we made yogurt sundaes and added the granola in! 

aubrie kate also decided to make a "peanut butter and granola roll up" for a snack one afternoon! She was so proud of her creation! And she ate it all!

Mommy got in on snack this day. With lentil chips paired with some hummus. I am a huge chip fan and these did not disappoint!

The great kids snack box has been a huge blessing for this momma! Knowing that the kids are exploring new flavors and healthy ones at that sure does ease my mind! 

Raising Girls: the day I lost my....

Mind. 

Saturday's I usually leave for work around 1:30-2pm and arrive home 1:00-2:00am. It's a long night and Sunday mornings come EARLY. 

We have church at 9am and then youth at 11. So I am usually running on coffee fuel on Sunday's. 

I have one rule for Saturday nights: get your sunday morning stuff together. It just makes the morning rush easier when your jacket, shoes, outfit is all ready.

Well-this particular sunday morning nothing was done. No shoes out, no jackets out. It was where is my.....I can't find my....

A battle that I am in at this phase of life is to teach the girls to be responsible for their things. I happily wash, dry, fold and put hang ups on hangers. I deliver them to their rooms and neatly put them on their bed. Their job is to put them up. That simple. Our shoes are either in our closet or in the shoe basket by the door. (Atleast that is the rule) if you take them off in the car and forget to bring them in...that's on you. 

Some people think this is asking a lot of the girls but I truly believe that kids value their stuff when they are responsible to take care of it. 

So back to Sunday morning...I went to wake the girls up and all chaous broke loose. And  as a result they went to church without their jackets because they  had forgotten where they took them off. Luckily it wasn't too cold.

Afterwards I decided that maybe a closet full of clothes is too much for them to handle. So I narrowed down their wardrobe to 10 outfits. Then their shoes to boots, church shoes and play shoes...1 pair each. And then their jackets 1 each. 14 things. That's what they have for the month of November. 

 

Raising girls is more than making sure they look cute and become good wives and moms. I want to raise good girls that care about others and that care about taking care of the blessings that they have. It's not about the "things" it's about caring for them. Being thankful for them. 

One year of a new life part 3: the village.

Life was becoming routine. We had been here a few months-had visited many churches-started having family dinner night with Todd's family. We met our neighbors (who are all great people) we had made friends in the neighborhood at the pool-life was starting to show a glimpse of normalacy...atleast I thought so. 

In the spring-the girls started a homeschool school. During their classes I would sit in the living room of the school house and talk to other moms. It was nice to just have a few hours of adult time, esp. With moms who had been homeschooling. They poured so much knowledge into me those months there. I would come home and journal everything they had told me about curriculum, getting Aubrie back on track, life skills class. It was a great start. Todd and I begin to really talk about what our role in serving at our church would look like. He has a huge desire to work with middle school/high school boys. His own experiences with not a lot of male guidance during that time really drives his desire to be a role model and mentor. I like teaching but I just wasn't feeling like that was the directions I was being pulled. I looked at other options and guest services stood out. I could still be utilized in an area that needed help. Also, the idea of leading an adult group was on my heart and I really did not want to overcommit myself right out of the gate. So Todd signed up to lead a youth class and I signed up to help with check in. 

One of the biggest lessons over this year for me is it is okay to not do everything. The girls haven't jumped into sports and extracurriculars here. Not that they haven't wanted too-I just needed some time to decompress from the go-go lifestyle of Mississippi. 

The summer was great. We ate a ton of fresh veggies from various markets, we went to the coca-cola museum, we had visitors A LOT during the summer. We swam-almost everyday-we walked everywhere. Our section of town has sidewalks and walking trails everywhere so we spent a lot of time just walking around.

I hold my "village" very close to my heart. My village is people who are in my life and who I have sincere relationships with. They know my Good and my bad. They are there for fun, silly, crazy and hard times. They help raise my kids and I do the same for them. Building a new village is intimidating. I have all these people in my life from Mississippi that I hold dearly close And they are forever in my village. But not having them daily makes me have to make room for new members. 

We decided to join a small group-which I can officially say-was a total God thing. We have 7 couples in our group and we love them all-they each bring a different dynamic to our life and I am so thankful for them.

Also, we have become great friends with a couple we serve with in Transit (youth) they are newly married and no kids but they are such a blessing to us. 

Our neighbors are huge in our village-we all take care of each other's kids. The older ladies mentor our youngins and visit with them and make sure they are wearing their helmets. Snacks our huge in a neighborhood of kiddos and everyone has them and offers them without hesitation. 

Building a village is important. In Hebrews 10:24-25 it says 

"And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near."

Moving here We had to get uncomfortable and put ourselves out there to make not only friends but to find village member. And after several long, lonely months I can say that Gods promise to restore, confirm and establish was fulfilled.

Somewhere during the summer I finally found something for "me". Most people have their thing. Some love to workout, others like spa time, me? I love to work. Like seriously love it. After lots of prayer I decided to talk to Todd about getting a job on the weekends. He knows how I love working and he agreed it would be great for me if I could find one that www just on the weekends, flexible  (bc of his work schedule) and something I was interested in. Within a week. I found it. Working for Shutterbooth Atlanta has given me a night a week to go to events, enjoy the beauty of Georgia venues, and make a little money. I have a great boss that totally gets my crazy family life and supports the job of a mom. I have amazing coworkers that make doing this fun and unique job even better. To love what you do makes work 10x better and I love that I get to be a mom and be in the event field (to a small extent). 

For the past year, we have spent our time devoting ourselves to living a life where "in Christ we find out who we are and what we are living for." The past year has made me realize how hard I was making my life when I was the one trying to plan my next big adventure and every move (friend, small plan, afterschool activity) 

I still have lots of growing and learning to do. I feel like the past year has just been a small scratch in the surface of what God has in store. 

{{there is one more part to this series. Tune in Dec. 9th for it.}}

One year of a new life part 2: the silent months

So to pick up where we left off yesterday, the first seven months here taught me so much. When we moved we decided to begin homeschooling (Something we never thought we would do because of our excellent school systems in MS) but I have learned that if I say never God usually says "watch."

So here we are in a new place, without our friends and my family. No PTOs to join, no after school activities...no Wednesday night choirs, no small group. Our calendar was completly empty-except Todd's travel schedule. 

So to say we had a lot of time on our hands is a complete understatement. I was so lonely. Going from being busy all the time-to having so much time on my hands-was very, very hard. I was angry with God that he would put us here in this place and wouldn't provide me with a friend...really aggravated me. I mean didn't he want me to be happy? 

I spent the mornings doing school-and the afternoon while the big girls played and Mia napped studying trying to figure out what God had us here for.

As time went on, I found two verses that really stuck to me. "It is in Christ we find out who we are and what we are living for." Ephesians 1:11 and "After you have suffered a while the God of all grace will himself Restore, Confirm, Strengthen and Establish you." 1 peter 5:10.

Was I searching for myself in Christ? Was I living for his purpose? Truthfully-no. He was a part of my life but my life was a lot of "keeping up" with whoever. When you live in a small town your whole life you know everyone-and your daughters are suppose to take dance here, they need to play a sport there, you need to be on PTO-don't miss church on Wednesday or sunday-there was a lot of things I was living for-God was in the mix but not the main reason.

Being alone for someone social like me is suffering. I need people, friends...I like to know about people and pray with them and have them over for dinner. I like to surround myself with people who can be apart of "my village".

When I read 1 peter and it said "after you have suffered a while..." It was on a day when I was in tears. Todd was out of town working. Homeschooling took 8 hours and it felt like no progress was being made, Mia was screaming, I was just overwhelmed and very sad. I missed my Mississippi small group. I wanted to eat their food and talk about our kids and pray with them. I didn't want to be here and be alone. But I read this verse and instantly knew that God was talking to me. He was going to give me friends, after I spent time with Him. 

I began duel reading #momentmaker by Carlos Whitaker and #thebestyes by Lysa teurkurst. Both books were about life, moments and seeking God in choices. But 2 different approaches. (I am still in the mix of this self made study) I read each one individually-then went back and started taking notes correlating how I can still be a #momentmaker without being a yes girl. I am a total yes girl. And learning about embracing the Nos...was something I needed to do. 

I needed to reevaluate me. I needed to find out who I was and what I was living for through Christ. I needed to erase all the thoughts about who I thought I was or who I use to be and really focus on if that was the person God wanted me to be...and was it the best. 

In #momentmaker carlos says "We all have limitations. We all have fears. But Jesus meets us right where we are and guides us through the steps to overcoming them." 

...come back tomorrow for part 3.