Surviving or Thriving?!

This has been on my mind a lot since we had the boys. Am I surviving or thriving? Lately, I'd go with surviving. And I don't like it that way. I want our family to thrive, but I get stuck on the daily details. Feeding kids, cleaning up after kids and keeping the house semi-clean. I really, really want to enjoy this time of life. I love staying at home with the kiddos and they are growing up way too fast. I just feel so busy. And it's worse if we try to go somewhere. Today we went to Cost.co and got a membership and whatever I could fit in the bottom of the stroller. It makes the whole day crazy.

If anyone with more experience has words of wisdom, bring them on. I should probably just let the housework suffer, but that's not me. My house is not spotless at all, but I like to have it sort of clean. I like to have it look clean anyway. I did vacuum a few rooms today because hair was all over the floor. When Emma gets too close to the boys' hands, they sometimes pull her hair out. And lots of it! And then it gets everywhere.

I am so thankful for my kids, though. They make me laugh. Did I mention that Samuel has a tooth on the bottom? I'm pretty sure I saw it before, but he's such a spitter I kept thinking it was spit up sitting in the front of his mouth. I finally checked tonight and it was a tooth! Michael has 2 teeth on the bottom. They will look so different with teeth! I love toothless grins! (I love tooth-full grins, too.)

Happy April, all. I'm excited for thunderstorms tomorrow. I just hope they wait until after MOPS!

Happy Thanksgiving - a little list...

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

I'm thankful for you. I'm thankful for our family and friends. I'm thankful for a God who loves me no matter what and sent His Son to save me. I'm thankful for a loving husband who is a great daddy. And for a beautiful little girl who makes me laugh every day. I'm thankful for a church that helps me grow in my faith. I'm thankful for naps. I'm thankful for the every day things that I often take for granted - like a house, a nice bed to sleep in, cars to drive, food on the table for every meal and a dishwasher!

What are you thankful for?!

Just a thought

I thought I'd share something our Bible study leader is having us do daily. She gave us a little calendar of just the month of October. Each day we read the corresponding chapter in Proverbs and write down the verse(s) that stuck out to us.

This is good for me to do because it gets me reading the Bible daily. Next month we will read through the book of Proverbs again and more than likely a different verse will stick out to us.

We are also supposed to weekly write down on three index cards a verse in Proverbs to pray for 1. ourselves 2. our husbands and 3. our kids. I've been a little delinquent in doing this. Mostly because I'm lazy. I've just been writing the verse down on the calendar and turning there to pray for each person.

On a different note, does any one else get a bit depressed when you hear everyone's prayer requests? There are so many sad things that happen in this world. I'm sure glad I'm not God. I couldn't handle it all!

No wonder my head hurts

I've been thinking!

Our speaker yesterday at MOPS talked about a lot of good stuff, including letting go of control of everything. Yes, I tend to try to do that. Control everything, that is. One of the lessons God is teaching me through infertility and going through a failed IVF cycle is that I have no control. I should clarify that I can control my attitude and choices, but not the outcome. I have no control over if we have more kids or not and sometimes I'm okay with it, but sometimes I'm not. I'm so, so thankful for Emma, but I'd love for her to have sibling(s). It's just out of my control.

She also talked about not being able to control our kids' actions. It's true. I can't control what Emma does. She talked about helping your kids make wise choices instead. And allowing or giving them bad consequences when they make the wrong choices.

Her quote that stuck with me was: "If you're not content with where you are at right now, you won't be content with where you want to be." So often I think I'll just be happy/content if...this or that happens. Not true. True contentment is found in everyday life. I am still working on it.

I guess you could say I'm a work in progress.



"I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength." Philippians 4:12-13 (written by the Apostle Paul...I'm not there yet!!)

Washed by the Water

*I was waiting to write this post until it was all said and done in case I chickened out.* But...I was baptized by immersion today (along with 56 others!) at our church's "back to school bash". Wow! K did the baptism. It was in a big pool on the church lawn. I was more than a little nervous. I understood what I was doing, but I just don't like to get in front of people and have them watch me. I didn't even have to say anything, but just the thought of everyone watching me made me nervous.

Here's my background: I was baptized as an infant in a Reformed Church. I grew up in a Christian family and trusted in Jesus as my Savior when I was 8 or so - don't remember exactly how old I was. After I met K, we started going to a Christian Missionary Alliance church. It was then that I was introduced to the idea of adult/believer's baptism. Note: I personally don't believe that baptism saves a person - only faith & trust in Jesus as their Savior can save a person.

When we moved to Nebraska, we started going to an Evangelical Free church and after a few sermons on the subject and much thinking I decided to be baptized. I'm ashamed to say that I wanted to wait until the church was baptizing quite a few people so I wouldn't have to talk in front of people. This Sunday was my big chance. However, I almost chickened out and missed the opportunity. I contacted the church office on the last possible day to get signed up (after having a couple months to think about it). But...I did it! And it was very cool - literally. That's the big news here. Over and out...



That if you confess with your mouth "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. Romans 10:9-10

Get Smart (with Money)

For this post, I have a guest post-er. Please welcome K, my husband (because I'm not very smart with money). He's the money person at this house. He will be telling us all about how his parents raised him to be money smart...Here he is:

When Julie mentioned this topic for what my parents did for me, two things popped into my head - example and practice.

In regards to example, I doubt this was intentional on the part of my parents, but all kids watch their parents and learn from their actions. I didn't see what my parents' income and savings looked like, but I did see their spending. I remember discussions about going out to eat or going home to eat and other discussions relating to decisions that affect how money was spent. Of course, we went out to eat sometimes and stayed home to eat sometimes, but I saw the process my parents went through in making some decisions including the part that money plays in those decisions.

For practice, this was very intentional by my parents. Somewhere around 2nd or 3rd grade, I got a checking account and a $30/month allowance. With these items came the responsibility to purchase my school lunches which the $30/month covered with a little to spare. Sometime around age 14 or 15 I got a $100/month allowance and a credit card. With this allowance came the responsibility to cover almost all of my expenses (car gas & insurance, clothing, still school lunches, etc.) except for food and lodging. With this practice, I was able to learn to manage money (make sure I didn't spend my allowance before I had to buy things like my school lunch) and I got experience using a checking account and credit cards. In addition, I got practice giving 10% of my income to church in the form of a tithe. All of this practice occurred at a young age when the stakes aren't that high. Now that I'm managing my income of more than $100/month, the things that I've been doing since a young age seem pretty simple even though the dollars are bigger, and I'm able to learn about more exciting things (like investing) instead of learning the basics I did when I was younger.

Hi me again... Well, there you have it. How to help your kids get a smart start with money.

This is love

Emma loves swimming in her little pool, but we need to empty it out and clean out the bugs and stuff quite often. K had emptied it out Sunday night (drained it into the yard, so we're not wasting water). Yesterday morning she kept looking out the patio window saying "coo". I told her that there was no "wa-wow" in it and it was empty. But she really still wanted to go swimming. So we were going to fill up the pool last night. K sprayed out the pool, but there was still some nasty black stuff lining the bottom. Yuck! So I got some bleach water, put my trusty plastic gloves on and wiped it out with a rag. Fortunately it is not a very big pool.

The whole time I was cleaning it out, I was thinking..."what a great mom I am...I must really love Emma to do this yucky job for her to be able to swim tomorrow..." Yeah. Then this hit me: "God the Father must really love me to send Jesus to do the yucky job of dying in my place." I know I love Emma very, very much and I know that God loves me more then I can love another person, but sometimes I just need a reminder.

"This is love: not that we love God but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." 1 John 4:10

The same only different

These two girls were born on the same day...


Emma is the one on the left. The other girl I will call Olivia. We are friends with her parents. I guess you could say Emma & Olivia are friends, too. We were watching Olivia last night while her parents went out for supper.

As those two have grown up together so far, it's been interesting how different their journeys have been. Olivia started moving much sooner than Emma (much to my dismay). I figured there must be something "wrong" with Emma since she couldn't crawl yet at 9 or even 10 months.

It's funny how much I was comparing these two as they developed. And how each one developed at her own speed! And how each one has her own strengths. Olivia is still better at physical stuff - she can climb up on stuff, run and play catch (all things that Emma is still working on). Emma can say more words than Olivia. But who's comparing?! I'm just saying that they are still developing at their own speed! But if you'd tried to tell me that a year ago I probably wouldn't have believed you. Why does it take me so long to learn these things?!

A Little Birdie Showed Me

I was sitting outside today and I noticed a robin looking for worms in our yard. First of all, why do birds eat worms? That's gross. And how do they find the worms? They seem to peck into the ground with their little beaks and somehow come up with a worm! And how do they actually eat the worms? This particular robin had found a worm and was eating it, I think. It was pecking at it and kept dropping it. Anyway, I also noticed that the robin kept looking around while it was searching for worms. It went something like this...peck - look, look, look - peck - look, look, look - peck, look, look - you get the idea. It seemed so suspicious of everything. Hmmm...I got to thinking that it reminded me a bit of myself. I am not very trusting of people or God for that matter. Little does the bird know that God provides for it shelter and food. And I should know that God provides for me, too. I pray that I can be more trusting of our awesome God!

"Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" Matthew 6:26-27