My husband and I have been on a Daniel Fast since Jan. 9th. This is a fast where you can't have any sweets (NOTHING with any added sugar), meat, or dairy. This is a salad I made with olive oil and vinegar. It's amazing how much I enjoy salad now without cheese! I think my body is lacking protein or iron because I actually miss meat more than sweets. How do vegetarians do it? During this fast I've already seen miracles happen and I'm standing with expectancy that more blessings will be poured out on us because of our obedience to God. Most importantly, we have drawn closer to Him and can feel His holy presence more than before. This is a time to honor God by giving Him the first fruits of our year. If you are reading this, I pray that God will also bless you and your family with a wonderful, prosperous year, but most of all, that you too will take time to draw closer to God. He loved you before you even knew Him.

I am really having a hard time with Christmas this year. My eyes have been opened to see the commercialism and religious (or non-religious) rituals that so many people have bought into. Now that the scales have been dropped from my eyes, I'm having a really hard time transitioning from all of the ways we used to celebrate Christmas, to making this Christmas all about our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I can't help to think about how He must feel about Santa. Our God is a jealous God and I know He doesn't like us making idols out of anything or anyone and that is what I feel Santa has become for so many households. My heart really breaks for Jesus because He deserves so much more than a quick prayer over your family dinner or a quick, "Thank you Jesus" for the gift you got.

He came to this earth as a tiny baby in a manger. And He left this earth with His body nailed to the cross to pay for our sins. Is it really too much to truly give Him ONE day out of the year to celebrate Him and everything that He means to us and has done for us?

I really want to honor Jesus this year and each new year to come. I want to thank Him more, praise Him more and spend more time alone in His presence. I don't want the presents, trees, lights, decor, dinner, or family gatherings to overshadow Him! I honestly could care less about all of those other things. I want to take communion with my family to remember what He did for us and to receive His blessings. The thing that makes this transition hard is our children and also the guilt trip I get from adults who think we're robbing our children of a part of their childhood that they can never get back.

My Christmas wish for you is that you will take even just a few minutes and bathe in His presence and remember why there even is a season. It's ALL about HIM! Please don't forget that, no matter how you choose to celebrate!

SO MUCH FOR POTTY TRAINING

Well, I have WAY too many other things that I try to accomplish on a daily basis, and potty training has recently taken a turn downhill. I'm not sure what happened, because he was doing so well. I think in order to keep myself from having a stroke, heart attack or anurism, we are going to go back to diapers for a while. I am really getting sick and tired of cleaning pee off of the couch and poop off of the floor, and spending 80% of my day with a 2 year old who is fighting the urge to poop, next to the potty. So for now, goodbye messes all over my house and hello diapers!

Potty Training ~ Day TWO

So it's day two of potty training and we've made some MAJOR progress, thanks to our friends M&M's. I give him one M&M for each time he pees in his potty and 5 for each time he goes #2. He has peed MANY, MANY times in the potty today, but has also had a few accidents. He has also gone #2! I had to catch him when he was squatting and set him on the potty, but it worked! I'm one proud momma right now! I'm also one very exhausted momma! I'm loving the money we are saving on diapers though! We'll see what tomorrow brings. It should be interesting because Daddy will be home and get to experience this first hand. :0) I'm excited to have the extra help!

Potty Training ~ Day ONE

I've decided to start potty training Stinky Face. He is 25 months now and shows all of the signs of readiness. The problem is, he's a male...therefore he's stubborn! LOL Today we went through about 6 pairs of underwear, but I'm happy because we saved at least that many diapers! Let's see what tomorrow brings. I don't know what to expect, but I'm happy to at least be giving this a try and saving some money in the mean time.
This is his frog potty. When we think it's time to go, we tell him to go sit on his froggy!

THIS IS A FUN ART PROJECT WITH SHAVING CREAM AND FOOD COLORING THAT WE DID!

Before food coloring

G.Q. experimenting with colors

All of the great colors he created

My little baby getting messy

G.Q. getting messy

Uh oh, things are starting to get out of control!

This is G.Q. after Stinky Face smacked him across the face.

Bath time!!!

THE END!

OUR HOMESCHOOL DECISION

This year I felt like putting my son back in public school because homeschool has always seemed so hard for me. I let him go to a public school to tour it and see what it would be like. He got all excited and wanted to go, but I didn't have peace about it in my heart. But at the same time, I didn't have complete peace in my heart about homeschool. One night, I got alone with God and asked Him what His will was. I should have done that before I took my son on a tour of the school.

This is what the Lord spoke to me. "God did not give me the ability to homeschool to be stressed out all the time. He gave me this opportunity to spend quality time with my children while they are young, to lead them down a path of righteousness. He has provided everything needed to homeschool and part of the reason we are broken right now with our finances is because it is not God's desire for G.Q. to go to public school. He has already provided for homeschool needs and next years needs will be met as well, with abundance. By then we will all realize that it is God's desire for both children to be schooled at home."

Now there is COMPLETE peace in my heart about our decision. I thank God for such a timely message and I greet homeschool with open arms, trusting Him to help me be the mother and teacher that He has called me to be. He doesn't lead you anywhere in life without equipping you with everything you need!

Baby Signs

Our little 17 month old has been learning sign language to help out with his communication skills. He is doing great with simple signs such as ball, bite, more, please, cracker, drink and play. It's adorable and almost unbelievable that a child so young can understand sign language and pick up on it so quickly. Being Christian parents, we want to make sure that Jesus is a part of everything we do. So today, I taught Stinky Face the sign for Jesus. It's very simple. Take you right middle finger and place it in the palm of your left hand. Then take your left middle finger and place it in the palm of your right hand.

JESUS

A GIVING HEART

I am so thankful that my family has such a giving heart. My preacher could preach on tithes and offerings the whole church service and it wouldn't bother me a bit because Jesus himself preached about it in the Bible and I think it's really important for people to grasp the concepts that Jesus tried teaching. It really upsets me when new believers are turned away when the preacher talks about tithing for too long. If they only knew the impact that faithfully tithing would have on their lives, they'd never feel that way again. Yesterday my husband and I gave a significant seed to our church, completely out of faith and because we felt led by the Holy Spirit to do so. I've probably only written about 2 checks that were more than that, but it felt SO great. We couldn't wait to get it out of our hands. I know that that offering is going to open up the windows of Heaven and His blessings will pour out over our lives because we took that huge step of faith. So many people our more worried right now about their Christmas funds than making sure they get their tithes in. We really need to get our priorities right. This is one priority that I know in my heart that my family has right and I am very thankful to God for giving us all such a giving heart! May God richly bless everyone who reads this and may you be challenged to start tithing regularly and just watch what God will do in your life!

Deliverance

I am so happy that the spirit of depression and other things I was facing, have been broken off of me. Our pastor laid hands on anyone who needed healing. I didn't realize when I went up, that I needed more emotional healing than physical healing. But God new and he delivered me from that! He can do the same for you!!! Just give it to Him and tell Him that you need His help! He loves you no matter what you have done.

SOAP

Our pastor has us reading one chapter of Proverbs a day and doing the following as a part of Ecclesia: SOAP

Scripture
Observation
Application
Prayer

I was having a real difficult time choosing my verse to work on, but I found something that is helping me. Since I homeschool our 9 year old son, I am having him do the same thing. I read the chapter from his Bible and then help him choose his verse. Reading from a child's Bible helps me understand things better and doing it as a part of homeschool insures me to be able to fit it into every day.

Ecclesia

Our church is embarking on a new journey called Ecclesia. It is a nine month session of working with our pastor on better ourselves and our walk with Jesus and our involvement in the church. It is a strong commitment to make, but Aaron and I are seriously considering it. I feel like if we don't do it, we will be sitting stagnant and not really growing much in our walk with Christ. I was ready to walk out of church last Sunday because Stinky Face was crying in the nursery and I felt like I couldn't get anything out of church. By the end of service I realized that Ecclesia is something I can definitely use at this point in my life.

Some of the requirements are $250 fee for all of the material and a retreat that we will be required to go on, if you miss more than 2 meetings you are automatically out, you should read through the New Testament twice (that's recommended but not required), you will be involved in some area of service at church (we already lead a small group and I might be joining the kid's on course choir soon), you must commit to one date night a month with your spouse and there are a few other requirements.

When I think about all of the responsibility that comes with this, I think about 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 that says, "Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified."

That is the whole point of Ecclesia; to build us up to be soldiers for Christ who will be better equipped to go out and share the gospel with others! The more I think about this, the more I feel like it's something I don't want to miss out on! I know the commitment is immense, but my reward will be an eternal crown!