Presents Galore

Welcome to Mommy Monday! 

I did a few changes to the Mommy Monday page tab, because I don't always go all out and talk only about Mommy stuff lately.

So I have a little dilemma I've been trying to figure out, maybe some of my Mommy readers can give me some advice about this. Matthew and I decided to start a three present Christmas tradition, then some Santa gifts, with Levi because not only did Jesus get three, but also because Levi's birthday is less than a month away from Christmas Day. My sister, Tosha, also has a son with a birthday in early January. I asked her on Christmas how she does it, and she gave me some funny advice, "Don't tell them what day their birthday is on, just surprise them a few weeks later with a present."

I just have a feeling this is always going to be a stressful time for us to jump from Christmas right to a birthday. Of course it can always be done, but does anyone else have this similar situation? Any good suggestions or ideas? What do you do for presents? Maybe some small presents on Christmas and then one big present from Mom and Dad on their birthday? This might make me seem like a mean mom, but I really don't want Levi to have one of those rooms that is overflowing with more toys than we know what to do with. And I want him to understand later on that it's not always about getting things, more of the time it's also about giving.

I know a lot of my readers don't have Google accounts to leave comments below, so if you're viewing this on Facebook feel free to leave a comment in the Facebook link of any suggestions you might have. Thank you and have a wonderful rest of the week!

xoxo

A Generous New Year

 Part 1

I'm in our truck in the parking lot of one of our favorite restaurants as I'm beginning to write this, waiting for Matthew to come back with the little buzzer to tell you when your table is ready. It's freezing here and the restaurant is pretty packed, so we decided to wait in the truck. I want to tell you how we got here tonight, but for me to tell you please understand I'm not telling you this to brag or anything of that kind, and Matthew doesn't know I'm writing about this either... that is until he reads it when it's published. I want to tell you because it's God's good works, and I would like for all my readers to have the chance to experience some of God's magic and blessings, if your heart is in the right place to do so.

I recently started reading The Blessed Life by Robert Morris, and our lives have already changed within the few short weeks I've been reading it. Robert Morris is one of my favorite Pastors to listen to on podcasts or their Gateway website. In his book, he brilliantly breaks down everything you need to know about tithing and the gift of giving. If you don't already know, we are a young family in every aspect of our lives. We are in the thick of figuring out all of the highs and lows of this economically challenged world we live in today. Yet we are not intimidated by it. We live by our faith and that God has put us where He wants us for now. We have already reached some spiritual maturity in the area of giving since learning more about it, and sincerely doing it with your heart rather than thinking it's something you have to do.

The story starts at Matthews work on Christmas Eve, where they were doing a raffle drawing for two Christmas turkeys. Matthew took a ticket but my mom had already purchased our family turkey. Matt ended up winning one of the turkeys, but he knew we didn't really need it. So he gave it away to someone who really did. Soon after that the same day, a coworker came to Matthew and gave him a very generous gift card for our favorite restaurant. That's how we ended up where we are tonight. God told Matthew to give that turkey away, and in return He gave us double, a full meal. You can't out-give God. This thing we call money is not ours, everything we have, God has given us. It's all His in the first place. So if you're not already tithing, I really would like to encourage you to start. And to make sure you're doing it right, if you're confused about it I highly recommend reading Pastor Morris's book, and reading the scriptures about it as well in the Bible. Our churches need their body. As we ring in the New Year, I wanted to tell you this story so you might decide to set a goal for giving in 2015. Trust me, your life will be so blessed for doing it. I also recently started the One Year Bible and I'm ahead on my readings for January. One of my resolutions is to be able to say I have read the whole Bible by the time I turn 25 years old. Have you set some wonderful resolutions yet? 

I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas and have a very blessed New Year! 

____________

I'm also going to send out a prayer request for my readers today. When we got home from the restaurant last night, we didn't know one of our neighbors houses was on fire. One of their other close neighbors called the fire department and three different ones came. The fire got big but they worked until 2am putting it out. We thought they were going tell us all to evacuate but they got it contained. We have a lot of trees around where we live and the wind was blowing last night. Luckily no one was home but I was told they had some birds inside. The family is in Mexico visiting for Christmas except for one girl, she stayed because she had to work but she's safe and staying with her aunt. They had seven family members living in the house and I think pretty much everything is ruined, and we don't think the house was insured. We know the family, and our whole community is devastated that when they come back from Christmas vacation they won't have a home to come back to. Matthew and I went out and talked to people last night and we are all going to do everything we can to help. Please pray for this family, please pray very hard. Pray that somehow we will find a way to get them a home. My sister, Tosha, drove over last night during the fire and she has a terrible cold, but she still came and she had tears in her eyes but she said the most beautiful words, "I know I'm sick but I came because we are the church, we should be here." 

We are the church.

If you're not already giving, please do with all your heart. Rise up, and be that light people see when they're lost. Be the church.

Here's a tiny piece of a story from the Bible that I've really fallen in love with, about Mary using a very expensive perfume to anoint Jesus. -

"Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages. ” He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.'” (John 12:2-8 NIV)

 Part 2

 Christmas with the Valentine's! 

Levi didn't like the flash too much.

 Opening his first present! 

He was so excited to finally get to tear into something!

 Our Christmas at Nana's house!

This is the only good picture we could get of him in his first Christmas outfit by himself, he wouldn't hold still.

-I hope everyone has a very Happy New Year!!
xoxo

Merry CHRISTmas

 

















As Christmas Eve or Christmas Day approaches, whichever one you get together with your families on, I feel I should give some encouragement. As wonderful as it is to see our families, don't forget to share the wonderful things God has been doing in your lives to your loved ones. You never know who needs to hear those words come from you. To be honest, sometimes I have family who only comes for the meal they will get because it might be a long time before they get another one like that. It really breaks my soul and my heart to share that with you but it's true. We have family who does bad things and gets in a lot trouble for it. They don't know where they will end up tomorrow or if they'll even be alive, but our hearts are tender and we invite them to come because they are our family. And I feel Jesus would've done the same. All you can do is try, try and try again. However long it takes. What is more important than one lost soul?

As I lay next to my sleeping baby, I always think of Jesus's mom, Mary. How scared she must have been to know her tiny baby had so much ahead of him. So many people coming and saying he's the Savior of the world. Who would he be? Will people hate him? Will they hurt him? How can I protect him? How am I going to be able to let him go? It's so joyous yet heartbreaking to look at all the nativity scenes for Christmas and all the beautiful babies in this world, knowing that little baby Jesus would die the most horrible death. For what? Horrible people.

Mary watched her son come into this world as a precious tiny angel and yet she also had to watch him get beaten and hammered to a wooden cross. Can you just imagine for a second? I would be beyond hysterical if that was my son. They would've had to put me in the nut house after that...

Remember this on Christmas when you're opening presents with your beautiful children, who took their place for our sins. Baby Jesus. Remember to thank God for all you have in this world. He took up all of our crosses and all He asks of us is to love Him with all our hearts and love each other.

I pray that each and every one of my readers have a very blessed and magical Christmas!

"Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." - Isaiah 7:14 NIV 

xoxo

 

Mommy Tuesday!

I'm sorry I didn't get to post for Mommy Monday yesterday for lack of a computer. My dad had to do some maintenance on it yesterday. Very frustrating. I'd say it's time for a new one... but I know that's a dream I'm having.

Before I start my rambling, I would like to brag on my sister, Tosha, for just a few seconds. She painted this incredible picture, and I just can't get over what a beautiful job she did. I'm really in love with it! I'm so proud of her! 

I've been wanting to share with everyone what we've been up to this Christmas season, as for family activities. We've done a bunch of things that I've either never done before or it's been a long time since I got to do it. 

We just started to string popcorn last night and that's something I've never done, we're not quite finished yet, but I've always really wanted to do it. It's a long process, but it's so fun and very beautiful on the tree. All worth it in the end!

I handcrafted an ornament, it was just something very quick and easy but I'm quite proud of my tiny tree.

The paper snowflakes are very frustrating for me to do, and at first every one I did fell apart and Matthew laughed at me... But somehow I finally ended up with a decent one. 

We sent a care package to one of my friends that's a soldier in the Army, that's overseas right now. I'm not going to say what all we put in it because he hasn't gotten it yet (we'll save that for another post). I've never been able to send one before, and I thought that was a great way to say thank you and give back for Christmas.

We also sent out our first family Christmas cards!

Last but not least, I was trying to think of a way to give all of my nieces and nephews gifts for Christmas without spending a ton of money. Because it's Levi's first Christmas and his birthday is also coming up in January, and we needed to be reasonable. So thanks to pinterest, I found these cute candy sleighs to make!

These are all great family activities to do with your kids and even though Levi is too small right now, he loves watching us be a little crazy for Christmas!

Happy Mommy Tuesday & Merry Christmas everyone! 
xoxo 

The Big Santa "Elephant"

The past week I've enjoyed reading all of the discussions on Christian families choosing not to let their children believe in Santa. I get it. I really do. However, my opinion is a little different. I've said before in one of my previous posts, that I have a very childlike heart and sense of humor. To this day, I wish I still believed in Santa Claus. Does that make me less of a Christian?

Christmas is about celebrating the birth of Christ. And I'm 100 percent about that. I just don't see anything wrong with my child also believing in Santa Claus. Just like nobody sees anything wrong with taking their children trick-or-treating on Halloween. Here's my reasons...

First, let's clarify the age range. I'm talking about kids between 1 and 8, maybe 9. Usually this is when they start to figure it out for themselves, or kids at school start spilling the beans.

It's the one month out of the year that children get the chance to experience some magic. I feel like if you tell your children that all the fictional characters they believe in at the time aren't real, you're taking away a piece of their childhood and forcing them to grow up faster than they have to. I don't want to be the parent that takes away the magic that comes along with my son getting to experience all the joys of Christmas. We were all children once, does it really matter that we believed in Santa Claus? Did it ruin our lives and taint our belief in God? No. 

For me, believing in Santa was a privilege. Even though it was short lived, I cherished it. I didn't think of him as a second God, I never thought he really watched me while I slept. Even as a child, I knew there was a difference between God and Santa. And all the while I still loved celebrating the birth of baby Jesus, going to church for the candle light service, and watching the nativity show. Until you're more spiritually mature, you never really understand the magic that comes along with being a Christian. After all, there was a real St. Nicholas that gave to the poor, and loved and worshiped God. I'm looking forward to incorporating that in our seasonal readings.

Believing in Santa only takes away however much you as the parent allows it to take away from Jesus. As a child, my family didn't talk about Santa all year round. We weren't tortured about whether or not we were good enough for Santa to bring us presents.

Personally, I don't remember every single question I asked my mom about Jesus or Santa when I was little. I don't think any of us do. We all figure it out for ourselves in the end anyway. I'm not the type of parent that wants to sit down and discuss logic with my child, he's a child, let them have an imagination. I will have plenty of time to sit down with my son and discuss logic when he's a teenager. Jesus is the reason for the season, and for some that's it.

As for our family, we're looking forward to all of the visits from Santa to come! And celebrating the birth of Christ all in one!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! 
xoxo

Christmas Traditions

Happy Mommy Monday!

Tonight I want to share some of our long time family traditions that we have done throughout my life, and some new ones that Matthew and I want to work in, now that our family has grown.


My family has been going to see the Nature in Lights display since I was little, not every Christmas but as much as we could. This is something that I definitely want Levi to get to experience like I did. It is absolutely gorgeous!
These are some pictures we took this year of our trip to see the lights! (I had to take these pictures with my phone because we were moving too fast, so sorry about the poor quality.)

Our family also loves to sing Christmas songs around our tree, and turn off all the lights except for the tree and drink some eggnog or hot chocolate. I've always loved that, it really brings out our Christmas spirit. This year I would also love to go Christmas caroling! I've always wanted to do that! 

Matthew & I want to incorporate reading The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve now that baby Levi is with us along with the Story of Baby Jesus, so this will be our first year to do that.

Our home town finally has an artificial skating rink that they've been putting up downtown. This is the second year for this, and I would really like to go ice skating every year. I think that would be a great family activity.

There's always little things I can think of that would be such great activities to do at home with your kids, if you're not able to get out of the house much. Such as crafting up an ornament or cutting out snowflakes, decorating gingerbread cookies and houses. Our family really gets into the Christmas spirit, and I think that's where I get my love for Christmas. We even do Christmas in July every year!

I really hope everyone got some fun ideas out this Mommy Monday! And don't forget the Reason for the Season! Jesus Christ was born!

xoxo

Rescue Me

What are you living for?

Is it school? A career? A sport? Your boyfriend or spouse? Money? Your kids? Starbucks coffee in the morning?

We see these picture perfect lives on television and in movies and we get lost in them, we put ourselves in their shoes. And when we walk away, whether you want to admit or not, we all strive to be like them. But what about your own story?

In all reality, are we going to get to take any of our worldly things with us when we die? No. The real answer is no. Even if you're not a Christian, all the things that you accumulate in this world will stay here when you go, and then someone else will have to take care of it all. 

Tomorrow is not promised, so why do we spend so much time worrying about it when we should be preparing for eternity?

Recently Matthew and I were blessed with a good amount of money. When I was driving to go deposit the check, right when I pulled into the bank, there was a woman with her child standing on the corner. She had a sign that said, "Mom with 2 children..." (That's all I could really read while driving.) I took it as a test. I felt like God was saying to me, "I blessed you with this money, now what are you willing to do with it?" When I pulled up to the bank, I knew what I had to do. So I deposited some and took some out for her. When I drove out, she was gone. I drove around for a while looking for her but I couldn't seem to spot her anywhere. I think it was still a test of where my heart was. And the money was not wasted.

I don't want my possessions to own me. I don't want to live for "things." I want to live for something that makes me grateful and thankful every single day that I wake up, no matter where I live. If I had to live in a car, I would want to strive to still be thankful because there's someone out there who has to sleep in the cold under a bridge. Or the men and women who are overseas who are afraid to sleep at all in fear for their lives every day, fighting for us to be able to have our warm beds in our warm houses. I know it sounds cliche' but please don't ever forget the reason for the season. Jesus. Be thankful for your life.

When you're really living for God it changes everything. It changes your values, your mindset, your priorities, it changes you. And it should.

So again I ask you, what are you living for? Is it something your soul can take with you when you die?


"Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." -2 Corinthians 9:7


xoxo