It's July!?
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| This picture was a few months ago when Blake shaved his head in honor of his sweet Nana who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. Please pray for Nana! She has endured so much already in her fight and has a tough road ahead. Her faith is strong and God has blessed her with such a loving community during this time. We sure do wish we were close enough to go give her hugs and chocolate chip cookies though. It's a pleasure to pray for her! We love you Nana! |
Hello! I'm back! When you neglect a blog for almost three months, it calls for an extra large update! Oh, I've missed sitting down and blogging! I think this is the longest pause I've ever taken. I can't let that happen again!
We are still praising God for allowing Blake to be promoted at Lowe's again! Blake was promoted a few weeks ago to a Pro Service Specialist! I am so proud of him and how hard he works to provide for our family. Our marriage will never be perfect but this past year has definitely been a season of peace and grace. We are so thankful to be on the same team, to be able to correct each other in love, and to make a lot of mistakes and forgive one another. We're pretty crazy but God is so good! I remember back in August right when Blake quit a job that turned out to be a scam, we sat before God with empty hands, waiting to be filled. Frustrated, worried, scared, confused, yet God was right there holding us. What were we going to do!? The scam job allowed us to rent this beautiful home we live in, but we needed Blake to find a job so we could pay our bills. God showed us that we really can and need to trust Him with everything. We get to trust Him!!! We can do nothing apart from His grace! A few days after we moved in, Blake got a random phone call from Lowe's and started his job on my birthday, August 19.
Of course, working at Lowe's wasn't Blake's first choice but he did what he needed to do! As it turns out, Blake loves working there and has treasured time working with people who don't know the Lord; and especially working outside of the church walls. God's perfect timing blew us away! He knows what we need! Since we are a part of a new church plant, our church budget is going to change soon so this new promotion brought us to our knees with HALLELUJAHS! It's a joy to see God work all around us. He's in everything, isn't He? I was scared that we wouldn't have enough money to pay our bills but I was calmed by the Holy Sprit to not worry. God really opened my eyes about how much worry offended Him while we were in transition down here. I've blogged about worry before so I'm not going to elaborate here. However, just as my seasons of lack of trust and worry can deeply offend Blake in our marriage, even more so it offends a Holy God who is sovereign over us! When I worry, I believe a lie that I'm in control and that God doesn't care. Not true! So thankful that He forgave me!
Matthew 6 has a lot to say on this! I like how the translation of "The Message" puts it.
Do Not Be Anxious
25-26 “If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.
27-29 “Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.
30-33 “If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.
34 “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.
Lately, our house has been filled up with this aaaamazing music... get a copy!
This book is full of scripture and reminders like, "Bible-based tips never rescued anyone's soul from destruction or carried along the whispers of eternal life into their mundane. Jesus saves, and the fruit of the Spirit is far sweeter than the fruitless flowers of mere moral living. God transforms us from the inside out."- Gloria Furman
Zoo day with Ashely, Grace, and Anna!
I'm also thankful for a much needed GIRLS NIGHT OUT including the marvelous Katie Suggs who came to visit us last week! Thank you Katie for being such an encouragement and truth speaker to me! Katie came down here and sang her little heart out on Sunday! She's got the most amazing voice and truly leads people into worship! It was a joy to have you here in my house, on my couch, and to reminisce about how Blake and I wouldn't be dating without you! You are such a woman of God, a joy to be around, and I can't wait to see if you end up living down here soon!
Kelsey, Katie, Me, Ashley (I just shared about her above) and Katie Suggs
Speaking of church, our church family has been growing... mostly by massive amounts of kids...
THANK YOU for praying for Desire Church! We have seen at least one-maybe six or seven visitors each Sunday! It would be easy to get discouraged with our numbers over the summer since everyone is traveling but we just have to keep a level head about it. We still keep in touch like a family when someone is out of town. God isn't slacking, that's for sure! We've been preaching through the Sermon On The Mount! Feel free to check out DesireChurch.com if you'd like to listen to some of the sermons. It's encouraging to grow together with a new family as we learn more and more about Jesus.
Our friends Yin and Amber finally had their precious twins! Praise the Lord they were both healthy and momma is doing fine. These are the first babies born into DC! I try to keep in touch with miss Amber during the week because I know how it is to be cooped up all day breastfeeding-wonderful yet sometimes lonely! They're just so cute!
We prayed about resigning our lease to stay in this rental house for another year. It was a big decision for us for many reasons. However, since we felt confirmed that this is where we'll be for another 12 months, we decided to deck the halls with some photos. Blake really saved the day because he is really good at organizing patterns, hanging things, and helping me not freak out about the perfect design. We've seriously been collecting this stuff since we've been married so I'm glad that it all worked together. I believe the violin was Blake's sister's, thanks Whitney! There's a stitched frame that a family friend made for us for our wedding, a frame of "Great Is They Faithfulness," and an old picture of Union Station in Nashville. I treasure the picture of Blake and his dad in the Smoky Mountains, pictures of my family, and Jude's month to month progress photos! The little records are Elvis "I Can't Help Falling In Love With You," and "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious." If you know me then you know that I love Disney and Elvis. It's a joy to see everyone's faces!
I was also excited to move this large mirror this new wall in our house. This mirror belonged to my grandmother, we called her Mama Lee but her name was Georgia Lee. For about 20 years it hung above the piano in the house I grew up in, in Knoxville, TN. My sister Mary Beth used it for a while too but now I'm proud to have it. Mary Beth painted it white since the rustic gold paint went out of style. I even have the same piano I grew up with in our house, it has a lot of good memories tied to it. These are some pictures that I captured of the Key Biscayne lighthouse and Key West last year for our fourth anniversary.
I had been saving this little gem in the closet for a while and couldn't wait to get it out! Blake's Aunt Michele made this stitched frame (not sure what to call it) back in 1988, is't it charming? I added some antique white paint (from Lowe's if you must know) and it put some life back in it. Blake wasn't as excited as I was about this piece but after the white paint, he gave it a chance. I just want to have special pieces on the walls that remind me of home, this did the trick for sure!
We still see our share of amazing wildlife down here in FL. It's always an adventure! Recently, we became friends with this Osprey in our back yard. He is beautiful! Isn't God amazing? I could have sworn it was an eagle since we do have a lot of eagles on this side of town but a quick Google search proved otherwise. What we do without Google? Seriously. We also live about a mile away from the Everglades so we see our fair share of wildfires. Our neighborhood has been covered by grey ashy skies about six times so far. We've been told that the fires are normal but that they've had more than usual this year. We also have experienced some flooding in our front yard haha! The firemen came and opened up some drains so that it would not flood our house!
Oh, and there's Queen Lolly Cat. She surprises us every day by conquering a new spot in the house. She's my snuggle buddy. Thankful for that cat!
Just a quick flash back to my little Jude when he was about five months old. Sweet thing!
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| I still enjoy watching these dudes during the week. I have a pretty great view at lunch! |
Little Jude likes to fill his days with hours of reading. I joke that he's studying up for a big test! He loves to bring me books throughout the day, sit in my lap, go through every page once with me, and then he reads to book again to himself in mostly his own language. I just love hearing his little words! Even as I sit here, he has brought me multiple books to read. I just can't stop kissing his little cheeks! I love being his mom!
He loves to say car, daddy, tree, cracker, shoe, mommy, truck, book, lolly cat, thunder, and more words that I'm sure I'm forgetting. He loves to eat his peanut butter, banana, and honey sandwiches for lunch! For breakfast he usually has some fruit, cereal, waffle, and some milk. He enjoys veggie burgers, plantain chips, pea chips, carrots, apples, spaghetti, grilled cheese and other things for dinner. Jude absolutely LOVES singing. There's no temper tantrum that "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" can't handle. We'll sing and do hand motions for "Jesus Loves Me", "The Wheels On The Bus," "Hallelujah! Praise Ye The Lord,"and others. Jude loves to dance in the kitchen with the boys, he also wants to be held and dance with me too. My heart just melts watching his little jigs! Jude gives the best kisses too! We usually sing a few songs to him before he goes to bed and in the middle of the song he will hold our faces and lean in with his mouth open... sweeeeet kisses! Sometimes he'll even come up to me randoly and give me a big kiss on my hip. When we took him to the doctor for his 18 month check up, he kissed the pediatrician while she was sitting in her chair haha! He's in the 98% for height, crazy! He's just so sweet and snuggly. At the same time, he likes to play rough, especially on the playground. He climbs up the stairs and goes down the slide all by himself. I still can't believe how brave he us. He loves so many different books, it would be difficult to list them all so I snapped this picture to help...
Jude drinking a big ol' cup of water!
Liam loves rocking out to music at our house haha!
Jude and I get really excited when it doesn't rain in the evenings! During rainy season, it's normal for it to rain every afternoon. :(
Our little 4th of July reader :) We had fun celebrating the 4th with some friends from church! Although we didn't get a family picture, I snapped a pic of these fun pretzels I made. I don't always blog what I bake anymore, but I do still enjoy baking!
Jude has fun playing with special toys that Liam brings over haha! We also still enjoy going on (very humid) walks around the neighborhood. Our friends (above) Blanca and Efrian gave Jude the coolest cell phone toy! He loves it! It's been a joy to get to know our sweet friends around the corner!
Back in May (I think) we were able to vacation over the weekend with my sister Lea Ann, her three kiddos, and my brother-in-law Michael in St. Augustine. Just about once and month, I have a cry-fest where I just miss home, family, friends, and mountains. I miss being able to share Jude with his cousins, grandparents, aunts, my friends, you know! God has definitely blessed us with a framily (new word) down here in the meantime. We still have such a peace (praise and thanks to God!) about being here in FL but I still miss home at times. So, when we found out they were taking their annual trip down here, and since we only live about 4-5 hours away, we hopped in the car and joined them! It was such an answer to prayer! Just to hug my sister's neck...nothing like it! Thankfully, we stayed in the same condo with them and my brother-in-law's parents. It was a beautiful weekend! We sure do miss living only fifteen minutes down the road from them. Lea Ann is the oldest sister of the five... it's amazing how God has allowed me to become close to each sister as we've gotten older.
Parker gives the best hugs!
The beach used to put me to sleep too. Jude LOVES the ocean. He runs in, runs out, repeat!
Sweet Mallory and all her beauty.
Little explorers!
Sometimes I cut seven inches off my hair and get bangs... I felt very pretty! I usually only wash my hair twice a week, I don't get to wear nice clothes often, and bangs don't really work in SoFlo with all the humidity... so this picture is capturing a very rare occasion!
I'll end this post with a yummy meal for you to try! I was inspired to make this dish after I ate something similar at The California Pizza Kitchen. All you need is some squash, zucchini, parmesan cheese, oil or butter of your choice, shrimp, garlic, and simple seasons to your taste like salt and pepper. You just peal slices of the veggies with a veggie peeler, throw them on a hot skillet with some melted butter/oil and minced garlic, add a dash of parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and presto! You're done. Just don't cook the veggies too long or they'll be too slimy. I know these directions aren't very specific but just try it, you'll get the hang of it. Plus, it's a great way to get some veggies in for the day!
Thanks for reading :) We love you!
Nice to hear that you've been keeping steady despite recurrent flooding. And it's rather pleasing to hear that at least the flooding is mostly kept at bay. While there is little we can do against natural occurences such as these, it still pays to prepare for the worst.
ReplyDeleteCharlena Leonard @ Weidner Law