Three Decades

Yup.  Three Decades...that's how long I've been alive as of today!

 

 A dear friend that I talk to far less often than I would like called me this morning.  While we were chatting she asked me how it felt to be THIRTY to which I responded...not much different than it felt to be 29 and 364 days yesterday.  ;)  She said she had gotten a bit depressed when she hit thirty and felt like she hasn't really accomplished much with her life (she was being very silly I assure you!  All you have to do is follow her on Instagram to see how many young people she impacts EVERY DAY!)

BUT...her comment got me thinking a bit more.  What exactly HAVE I accomplished?  What do I WANT to have accomplished?  Really....what are my life goals?  And I think I discovered why I was ok with it all.  Because I really just want to be more like Jesus today than I was yesterday... or the day before...or the day before that.  I want my kids to know that I love Jesus and I want them to see that love overflowing into their lives. 

I frequently get down about how I feel like I'm not making any progress in the areas of being more patient and loving.  I'm not very much like the Proverbs 31 woman who

"Opens her mouth with wisdom" 

and who has 

"the teaching of kindness" on her tongue.  

 

That's not me.  That will NEVER be me unless the Holy Spirit is the only one working.  So....I think I'm ok with being 30 and with what I have "accomplished" because, while it might not look like all that much on the outside, I know on the inside I'm so much more like Christ than I was 15 years ago.  I know my need of him so much more deeply. 

So....here's to another 30 years (Lord willing!  lol) of growing in Him and walking "in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God."   

(You can follow me on Instagram @BabyFishDesigns)

Moving and More

Moving is always fun, right?  So having three kids and being pregnant with number four makes it four times as fun!  lol.  Really it's not bad at all...except I feel like a bad mom and like I'm neglecting them as they sit around and watch PBS and I pack.
But WHY do I feel guilty?

Is it really because watching a lot of tv for one or two days is going to ruin them for life?
Is it because they're learning things I don't want them to learn?
Is it because there are things they could be doing that are better for them?

Because those would all be good reasons...but I'm fairly certain I just feel guilty about it because somewhere along the way I've picked up the idea that "good" moms, "godly" moms, don't let their kids watch tv hardly ever. Now, don't get me wrong.  I think that TV should be VERY limited...because they could be playing, interacting with each other, using their imaginations, and so much more, but I also have to remind myself that sometimes, especially at this stage in life, I have to let go of the expectations of perfect, or even ideal for that matter.

God is gracious and I'm pretty sure that a few days like this every now and then aren't going to permanently hurt my children.  And if you think they will...well....please don't leave me a comment saying so!  lol ;)

Blessed Are the Peacemakers...

After reading Meg's post on fighting I was prompted to record some thoughts I had at Bible Study last night. 

(we're doing a Precept Upon Precept study of Matthew) God convicted me greatly over "Blessed are the peacemakers."

Because I am weary of being a peacemaker between my children. I don't want to do it. I often expect them to deal with...which is sinful on my part. 

Random thoughts I jotted down last night during the lecture:

• Don't just endure being their peacemaker...desire it.
• See it as an opportunity to be blessed (see Mat. 5)
• Use it to point them to Christ and their need of the cross 
• Be reminded myself of the True Peacemaker
• Don't expect them to know how to be peaceful, they're 1, 3, and 4 year old little sinners for pete's sake!
• Rejoice over the opportunity to teach them
• Remember that I WANT to be the one teaching them about being peaceful...because if I don't the world will be teaching them to think only of themselves.
• They aren't born knowing how, or WHY for that matter, to be peaceful. They're born with tiny selfish hearts and every fight, every outburst of anger, every fit, I should view as another opportunity to point them to Christ and their need of the cross. 
• To remind them (and myself!) that we do have hearts of stone and we can't be kind and loving on our own...BUT because of God's great love, he'll take away our hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh.

Do I do this? No. Not often. My oldest is 4 and I'm due with # 4 in a few weeks and rarely do I see all the fights and fits in this light. I grow weary and lose sight of the cross...but God is faithful.

So Excited!

So many exciting things have happened in the past few days I'm not sure what to share!  lol.  Well...one I can't share quite yet...you'll have to wait a few more days for that one.  ;)

Tomorrow is my "Golden Birthday" so the sweet hubby took me out for dinner and then surprised me with a trip to Best Buy.  He let me pick out a new printer (for my photos!!) for my birthday...and let me tell you what, I printed some pictures today and it is SAAA-WEET!!!!!!!  I love it!

Then today we were supposed to go have pizza with friends for dinner...but when we got there turns out my SIL had planned a surprise party!!  (I was just glad I wasn't wearing my fuzzy pants and old sweatshirt!  lol)

And last but not least...I had almost forgotten about this because I think I mailed off the LOs almost a year ago, but this book is now available for pre-order on amazon...and I have two pages in it!!!!  (sadly neither of them are included in the amazon preview so I'll just have to wait till I actually get the book!  lol)

So I think that's all for me for today.  I've had fun working on some videos and tutorials in the past few days so be watching for those too! 

You've Got a Friend in Me...

I'm not sure if it started when I saw a $5 Buzz plushie and bought it, or if it was when we ended up with Toy Story 2, or maybe it was the day Daddy showed us previews of Toy Story 3, but whenever it happened one thing is certain, the Toy Story phenomenon has hit the Johnson household.  

When I came home with said Buzz for Zeke (because he's more of a Buzz than Woodie kinda guy...) I was promptly asked, "Where's Woodie?!"  (they go together you know!) So I agreed that, yes, they do go together and since I had Kohl's cash I agree we could get Woodie (BTW, you can't use Kohl's cash on any "Kohl's Cares" items...and Woodie was.)  So I dropped my $5 and bought a shirt and left.  However, Grandma was with us on this particular outing and she thought Kessa needed a Buzz and Woodie too (Thanks Grandma! ;) So I ran back in and bought them.  

Anyway, that's how Buzz and Woodie (x2) came to live at our house.

Woodie is having a grand time...(along with Kessa in her new SLD inspired Toy Story dress made by her mommy)

but someone still always gets left out...

(notice who's inside watching by the window...)

Growing Up

That's what Grace is doing on me.  It seems like it's all happened overnight.  I walked into her room Sunday afternoon and instead of finding my sweet baby laying down sleeping with her kitty...

I found this....

one big girl standing up in her crib...

and looking VERY proud of herself!

and that has just opened up a whole can of worms at naptime too I might add!  lol

I'm off to finish getting everything together...because my sweet Sister-in-Law asked me if I wanted the day off tomorrow (ie...she's watching ALL three of my children!)  Thank you Michelle!!!

Swagger Wagon Addict

If you remember a few days ago I posted this video that had me quite amused.  This morning when the hubs was at the computer Kessa went up to him and asked if she could watch "Where My Kids At?"  We both thought that was rather funny as she's seen it maybe twice before...so he played it for her...and then she wanted to watch it again...and again...and then for the rest of the day I was cracking up as I kept hearing this:  (sorry it's sideways, today's the first day I've even been able to get videos OFF my camera so I'll take what I can get!  lol)



(and I do have lots of sewing and scrappy stuff to share, but it's going to have to wait!  Night night.  :)

Mean Gel-Mold

Have you seen this?  Crazy funny, imho!

Just for Kicks..

because this song amuses me to no end (sorry if it offends anyone...)

Texting God (and other random thoughts)

I don't know about you, but I feel like I have a hard time ever focusing all of my mental power on one thing.  Even if I do manage to get up early to have time with God before the kids get up...it doesn't work.  Someone always gets up.  I feel like God is trying to teach me so many things but I'm only getting snippets of them because there are just so many other things going on (and most of them are things I can't just ignore...no matter how hard I try...like the grouchy baby in the background right now.)  


I was discussing this with my friend Jess today (we were both working in the nursery during church.) and she said that she has this very same problem (we both have three very small children...) and she felt like she was just "texting God."  Just about the most accurate description of what I'm feeling I've ever heard!  Spot on Jess.  ;)


Anyway, I thought maybe if I got some of the random thoughts down here I could get them more flushed out and have a better understanding of what God is trying to teach me.  


First up, I just LOOOOVED this quote from Dug Down Deep by Joshua Harris.  
             "Maybe you've never thought about it in these terms, but coming to Jesus and listening to his words involves doctrine.  It involved knowing and understanding what the Bible teaches about who Jesus is, why we need him, how he saves us and changes us.  In other words, it involves knowing theological truth."
This is why doctrine is so important.  Because it DOES effect (or is it affect?) the way we live.   We can't know God if we don't know what the Bible says, and we can't love him rightly if we don't understand him rightly.

Moving on...I read this post on holiness yesterday on the Disciple's Notebook site and was struck so much by it.  When I was in college I did a very indepth study of holiness on my own.  I wanted to thoroughly understand it.  I mean...if God calls us to be holy as he is holy I figured it was pretty important that I had a very good grasp of just exactly what holy was.

"Holiness simply depends on your abandoning yourself to the indwelling Spirit of God, that he may maintain in health the life which he has himself communicated."
"It is true there are responsibilities. What are they? ....Second, an abandonment of the whole being to God, that He may possess the territory, and realize it according to His will, and for His glory"


So very often I let my own flesh creep in and push out the holiness that God is developing in  me.  I do it in a thousand tiny ways every day.  I do when I get frustrated.  I do it when I'm selfish.  I do it when I desire momentary enjoyment over knowing Christ and ultimate pleasure.  I need to be more conscious of all these times.  More conscious that I'm pushing out personal holiness when I do it.  I need to give it up to God so that I might be conformed to the image of his Son more and more.  


And finally, here's a picture of a dress I made for a friend's daughter.  Not the greatest picture but I was in a hurry and wanted to get a pic. before I gave it to them.  :)

Ok, lots more thoughts swirling around, lots more to think about and hash out, but that's enough for one night!  ;)  

Freezer Cooking

So yesterday wasn't really a freezer cooking day per say, but I did have a lot of stuff I wanted to get done and ready for the freezer.  I would also like to note that I laughed in the face of pretty much all of Money Saving Mom's tips for freezer cooking day.  (not because I'm more wise than she, but because I'm a silly silly girl.)  In that, I did a lot of other things first, I started with a dirty kitchen, I didn't really have a plan, and I'm sure a hundred other things!

So, here's what I did get done yesterday:

7 lbs of meat browned
24 hamburgers pattied and seasoned
28 bananas peeled, flash frozen and then bagged and frozen

and here's my cute little banana peeling helper (we use bananas in smoothies every morning so when I find over-ripe ones on a good sale I stock up and just freeze them.)

and today I got some burritos made up and frozen and then the hubby and I had a date night!!!  WoohoO!!!  Thanks to my in-laws for watching the kids and allowing us to go out.  

When The Cat's Away...

hmm...I'm not really sure if I'm the cat, or one of the mice...but I'm going to be away for a few days and I'm sooo excited!!!  The hubby and I (and some other people from church as well) are going to Together for the Gospel in Louisville!  Many of our favorite preachers are going to be there and I'm giddy just thinking about how much I'm going to learn and be challenged!  I mean, we're talking BIG names like John Piper, John McArthur, Albert Mohler...eek!!!  (ok, now you KNOW I'm a dork! ;)  So, I'm quite sure we'll be coming back with reading material for at least a year!  lol

Just to give you a little taste here's an excerpt from Piper from T4G '08...

John Piper - Recap from T4G 2008 from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

AND...this is a kidless trip.  I'm excited and nervous both about that one.

On a scrappy note, I have been scrapping, but it was all for a DT call and I can't post any of it until I find out if I made it or not.  Wish me luck!  This is the first DT I've tried out for since all my other commitments ended...and I thought and prayed long and hard about it before applying...so I'll let ya know how it turned out in a few weeks!  ;)

Ok, I'm off to bed, I'll be back later this week, have a great one!!!

Wanna Crop?

    Well, like I mentioned yesterday I've been hanging out over at Scrap Attack Scrapbooking (great challenges all the time and a really fun forum) and I'm super excited because they just announced that they're having a big National Scrapbook Day Crop from April 30 to May 2.  Be sure and sign up for the message board now so that you'll be all set and ready to go for the crop!!!                                                                                        

Hope to see you there!!!

Random Ramblings

Hmmm...I'm not trying to steal your title Jess, it just fit!  lol ;)

First up, how about my little dude in his upcycled hoodie shirt?

(in the spirit of full disclosure, the "beatles" shirt wasn't technically upcycled, I paid a buck for it at Wal-Mart.)  The red-tie died shirt was a buck at Goodwill and the gray was given to me....free!!!)

On screen printing:

I tried my hand at screen printing for the first time yesterday.  I had used an ebay gc my brother and sis-in-law gave me for my birthday to get this screen printing kit and I'd been waiting for the perfect project to try it out (and a nice sunny day!)

What was the perfect project you wonder?  Why the kids Easter clothes of course!  Kessa and Grace's are all printed and cut out and just need to be sew together.  I'm totally copying this "Princess Dress" by Lil' Blue Boo as the starting point for their dresses.

I've still got to find the right color fabric paint before I can finish up Zeke's.


On Mini Albums:

I did my first clear mini album a week or two ago and it was a LOT of fun.  I'll share the whole thing sometime next week, but for now...

that's the back of a picture that pulls out of part of the mini...and you can see some sneaks of it behind my hand.

Also, have you heard of Punky Sprouts?  It's a newish mini book manufacture and while I haven't worked with one yet, they look amazing!  I'm dying to get my hands on one.  They're having a dt call...and while I'm not expecting anything I do think I'm going to throw my hat in the ring.  (did I mention I love minis?!)  After all...if I don't try I have no chance at all!


and on Easter:

anyone else filled to over-flowing at the anticipation of our Savior's resurrection?

My kids and I have a great time reminding each other,  "He is risen!"  "He is risen indeed!"

Ok, enough randomness for one day...I'm off to sew up some dresses!

Saturday

Just a bunch of randomness today...

I ordered this last night and am waiting very impatiently for it.

I can't wait to be able to use it on the kids clothes instead of stitching over everything twice to make sure it will hold!  I'm not going to make the girls Easter dresses until it comes in...but I am excited to make a few practice ones out of t-shirts we got thrifting yesterday! 

I've got a shirt for Zeke almost done...just for the fun of it.  His reaction when I make him clothes is THE greatest!!!!  So totally amazing.  He jumps up and down and hugs it and screams about "mommy made it for me!"  *grin*  Makes me feel like a million bucks...which is nice since there was a huge screaming fit just trying to get another one to even try on a dress I made for her.  This is my life.  *eye roll*  lol.

I've been using a lot of Lil Blue Boo's patterns and I LOVE LOVE LOVE them.  They're super simple and they look amazing!  AND if you don't sew she sells ready made dresses in her etsy store...however they FLY out so you have to be a fast click!  :)

Ok, I'm off to hang with my kids and niece and nephew.  Have a great weekend!  Hopefully tomorrow I'll have some pictures of some of the clothes I've made lately.

Bleck

Soo....it's Monday and I had big scrappy plans.  I have several projects floating around in my head...and partially finished on my desk.... but then, the stomach flu struck.  Bleck.  So I thought I'd pop over and share some cute pictures of my kids at the park....but then I remembered that they're on the other computer and I don't feel like sitting anywhere but the sofa!  lol

So, happy Monday!  Maybe tomorrow I'll have some stuff finished to share.  :)

Bedtime Thoughts

Today I...

did laundry
ironed shirts
made sure everyone was fed
failed miserably as a parent.

Tomorrow I will...

do laundry
make sure everyone is fed
be a better mom by the grace of God.
and maybe if we're lucky I'll get a duvet cover or two made too!

night night

A Funk

I started to title this "A Bit of a Funk" but really...it's more than just a bit.  It's a full on FUNK when it comes to scrapping right now.  I'm not sure if I just need to get in there and play, or if I need to print some new pictures or what, but ever since some rather timely events in my life I've been on a bit of a scrapping hiatus...and I miss it.  I have finished a mini album from Zeke's 2nd birthday so I'll be posting that soon...and I've started sewing so that was filling a "creative void" for me for a while...but then I took my sewing machine to be serviced and they said it would be done in 3 or 4 days...and that was over a week ago!!!

Anyway, I mainly wanted to post something...anything...because it's been a week...and I've found that the longer I go without blogging the harder it is to do again for some reason.  And I do enjoy blogging.  And I do want to do it.  I just need to kick myself outa this funk!!!  (any tips?!  lol)

Soo...after all that whining (sorry!) I think I'm going to just print some pictures and get to my desk and try and scrap tonight...just for the fun of it!

And because no post is complete without some pretty pictures...how about this cutey?  I got to take her 1 year pictures last saturday and they were so much fun!

and on a side note...be sure to go tell Virginia congrats because she made the Lily Bee design team!!!!!  How awesome is that?!?!?!?!?!  I know someone famous!  ;)

On Family Life

(random photos from our "treasure hunt" for conversations heart are interspersed throughout this post to add to the cuteness level.)

Lately God has been teaching me (yet again) about priorities, about time management, about things with eternal value.  As I weighed my time and the ways I was spending it it became obvious to me that I was spending too much time on the internet (message boards, blogging, reading blogs, a wee bit o' facebook, apply of things, submitting DT work, and on...and on...and on...)  So I decided to resign from Scrap-Tastic.  I thought I'd just have one DT, one message board, it would all be great...but apparently God thought I need even less "outside" commitment.  My children need me.  They need all of me.  So after some struggling, some soul searching, and some meditation and prayer over these questions, (look for a post on them soon!) I've decided that now is a time to say no to some good things.  No to design teams for now.  No to much submitting.

But I'm not thinking of it as saying no.  I'm thinking of it as saying yes.  Yes to BEING with my children (mentally too!)  Yes to serving God in the roles he has so blessed me with (wife and mommy.)  Yes to more time read and study and meditate so that I can be real with my children.  Be honest with them.  Let them see me and all my struggles and all my dependence on God. 

However, as I refocus my mind, my life, and maybe even my blog, to reflect where I am right now (parenting three tiny children), my friend Jessica had some very timely words of wisdom on not making an idol of parenting.  

On a side note, I have been crafty lately...however it was with fabric not paper!  Hoping to share that later this week. 

oh, and just so you don't think I forgot about her...

Just for the Fun of it...

Take the Quiz here!

Which Austen Heroine are you?