Friday, January 4, 2013

January 1 - 4 My Thankfulness Planner and Journal

For 2013 I bought a The Thanksfulness Planner and Journal for Wives and Mothers from www.Joyfulmomma.com.  I love it!  It's very simple and takes me about 5 minutes to complete but it keeps me thankful for what I have. It helps my focus to be on the positive things and not the negative.  It helps me to remember the good things in my life.  I fully recommend that everyone find 5 minutes of time in your morning to name the things that you are thankful for.  Keep them in a journal.  You MUST write them down though.  Date the page.  You will find you are thankful for the small things more than you are the bigger things.  America has really went downhill in the past few years. I refuse to let my family fall into that category of going downhill.  If we go down with the world, how can we be a light to shine for those in the darkness?  I am THANKFUL that I stumbled upon this journal.  It really makes you thankful for the small and seemingly insignificant things.  My plan is to write a post once a week on my thankfulness journal, to write my thoughts and feelings and me filling in these blanks.  By the way the journal is FREE as an ebook on the website mentioned above.  Take advantage of it!

January 1
Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.  2 Corinthians 9:15
Today I am thankful for: family.
Today, I am thankful to my husband for: being a Godly husband and father gladly providing for his children and I.
Today, I am also thankful for: health.

Today I get to:
-Spend time with my Jesus
-Let my husband know how thankful I am to be his wife
-Love on my children and show them how grateful I am for them
-Keep Skyler
-Have lunch with my family, parents, and grandparents

January 2
We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints.  Colossians 1:3-4
Today I am thankful for: rain and health
Today, I am thankful to my husband for: putting up with nonsense at work.
Today, I am also thankful for: my parents, grandparents, my sister, BIL, church family, and pastors.

Today I get to:
-Spend time with my Jesus
-Let my husband know how thankful I am to be his wife
-Love on my children and show them how grateful I am for them
-declutter my boys' room
-spend this day inside with my kids
-budget
-pay bills
-plan 2 week menu
-write grocery list

January 3

O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever. 1 Chronicles 16:34


Today, I am thankful to God for: friends, health, happiness, and contentment.

Today, I am thankful to my husband for: his staying firm in his beliefs and being happy with the way he is even though a lot of people don't like it.

Today, I am also thankful for: my children and the priviledge to be able to homeschool them.

Today, I get to: go to Just Jump for Kids and let the kids run off some energy with friends and spend time with my friend Amanda.

January 4
And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the LORD; because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel.  And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid.  Ezra 3:11


Today, I am thankful to God for: my home.  It is a beautiful place.  Also for the safe community that I live in.  It is so peaceful and not so crowded.

Today, I am thankful to my husband for: for taking the kids to town and getting a few groceries for me so that I can have a few moments by myself.

Today, I am also thankful for: the ability to put up with my children and the fact that I look forward to doing school with them no matter how difficult it may get.

Today, I get to: 
-Spend time with my Jesus
-Let my husband know how thankful I am to be his wife
-Love on my children and show them how grateful I am for them
-clean my house
-spend time with my kids and husband 

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Our Compassion Child

We will have more info within the next month but I am excited to say that we are sponsoring a child from Haiti through Compassion International.  We sponsor two children through another company.  We have not been able to correspond with them as much as I would like.  Since my children are getting older I want them to be able to write them letters and get letters back at least once a month.  Not only will it be a great thing to correspond with the children we sponsor but it's great practice in grammar and punctuation(coming from the mom who home schools)  During the Christmas season it's easy to focus my children to giving and on Jesus.  I was in search of something for the rest of the 11 months of the year.  I think this is an awesome way to keep the focus on others.  This should be our focus all 12 months of the year and not just in December.  We will certainly be serving others more, doing more for others, and just be a more giving family in the name of Jesus.  Our child we are sponsoring is in Haiti and he is 4 months older than Noah.  Our goal is to sponsor 3 children in all and them all be gender and age of our children.


Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Good morning!  Today will be an easy day for us.  Wednesday always is.  It is rainy outside so I have declared this a movie day for the kids.  I think that I may work on my declutter project an hour or two today breaking up into 1 hour increments.  I am so trying to get my home decluttered and organized this year.  That's really my only goal apart from just being a better person all around. 

New Year's Day was mostly spent at my parents' house.  We kept Skyler since his parents had to work that day.  He is always such a pleasant baby.  We stopped keeping him back in October. It was just too much to do it full time but I always enjoy keeping him every now and then when they need me.  We got to mom and dad's about 11 I think.  Maybe a little earlier.  My Granny Smith was able to come as well as my mom's parents, my Grandma and Grandaddy Walters.  It's always such a blessing that I am able to spend holidays with my grandparents.  That means that my children are able to spend time with their great-grandparents.  All of mine but one had died by the time I was old enough to remember them.  Some died when my grandparents were children.  I find it as a blessing to be with them.  They are all Godly people and I love my children being able to get to know them and hear them talk about Jesus and know that we have Godly heritage.  We had a delicious lunch.  Dumplins, sweet potatoe surprise, turnip greens, and other delicious New Year's food.  One thing is for sure. We ate very good yesterday.  We sat around and talked enjoying each other's company.  We left around 3 and took Skyler home because his mom had already got off work and was home.

Last night we had our family devotion.  This is something that we have wanted to do for a while and we have on and off but my husband and I feel that it's very important that we do this.  We are also going to be doing a study on the book of Luke.  I'm doing this with an online group called Good Morning Girls.  It starts January 14th and they are doing a study for kids too so I am going to participate in both.  They have free ebooks of the studies which I think is awesome.  The study is called Live Like Jesus.  I can't wait to start the study.

Something that is brand new to Noah, Sarah, and I in 2013 is the fact that we have completely changed our homeschooling.  They are both enrolled in Georgia Cyber Academy which is K12.  They start January 14th on that.  We are all excited about it but a bit nervous too.  I'm mainly ready to get into the groove of things so I can set a routine.  I'm a very scheduled person and I have found that my kids thrive off routine and schedule.  They are the type that they have to know what is coming next.  It's very beneficial to them.  We already have all of the school materials and can't wait to get started!