Why am I awake you ask? Let me tell you...
For going on three days now every time we sit down to eat something my 3 year old decides she isn't hungry or wants to watch a cartoon or do LITERALLY anything besides sit and eat. Typical pre schooler am I right? John and I did the usual "No you will sit and eat with the rest of us." That would work fine except we also have a 9 1/2 month old and neither one of us wants to wait it out at the table arguing with a tiny human. As the days went on we started "compromising" if you will "Ok eat X pieces of chicken etc etc and then you can get down." After three days of this I was kinda fed up. She needs to learn that we eat as a family and we don't waste our food. Please note I give her a picky eater 3 year old size portion so it's not like we're expecting her to eat a whole chicken breast.
Last night we all sat down for dinner and she did her usual ask for cartoons and we told her no. We all said the blessing and then slowly as everyone was done S was the only one left at the table. This time we took a different approach we let her say she was done and then we warned her that if she didn't eat a good dinner she couldn't have anything later;because she likes to then use the I'm hungry excuse to try and prevent bed time.
Bed time went well and she fell asleep fairly easily as did the baby. Four thirty this morning came and I was awakened by "Mom I'm getting hunny." We went downstairs and I made her the quietest and quickest thing I could think of PB&J. She scarfed it down and now the whole crew is awake and I'm over hear wishing I could sneak back upstairs and get a few more winks.
Today is our busy day. We go to our home church in the morning where I lead the singing and then we visit my grandma's church at night. I'm not so sure if we're going to be doing all of that this Sunday, we'll just have to see how the day plays out.
Anyway how many of you have mealtime battles with your kids? Let me know in the comments and no joke I would welcome any tried and true methods aside of starvation that help get a child to eat her food.
-Jessica
Sunday, January 21, 2018
Saturday, January 20, 2018
Home Buying
After much discussion we decided to put off buying a home for a few months until we get back from Chattanooga. We'll probably start up again in April. That will give us a few more months to save up some more money our goal is to add 4,000 to our 8,000 and have a total of 10,000. We may even change and do FHA instead of Conventional, but we'll have to see. I'm thinking about switching realtors because I am not really feeling ours. I don't like to give people a lot of leeway when it comes to following through on promises or things that they say. It may not be the best attitude, but there are so many realtors out there and so why should I have to make allowances.
It looks like we'll be getting ready for our month long vacation here in the next couple weeks.. Even though my hubby will still be working it will be a vacation for me and the kids! I'll have lots of pictures to share. Chattanooga is a really nice town with tons of stuff to do.
-Jessica
It looks like we'll be getting ready for our month long vacation here in the next couple weeks.. Even though my hubby will still be working it will be a vacation for me and the kids! I'll have lots of pictures to share. Chattanooga is a really nice town with tons of stuff to do.
-Jessica
Thursday, January 18, 2018
Whenever things start going good, a curveball is always around the corner....
Last night we got pre-approved for a home loan for 150,000$. There is not a ton of homes on the market at the moment. Johnathan now tells me that his company offered him the chance to be in Chattanooga for a month. They say they are willing to pay for us and the two kids to go, but how is that going to affect us looking for a house? Do I really want to put our life on hold for a whole month? On the other hand it would be really hard for both of us to be away from each other and him the kids for a whole month, so it feels like we kinda have to go. The only other option would be to not have him take their offer and have him just go down every other week with the rest of the guys like they do already. I know he pushed for it because he thinks it would be fun to get away and it would, but is the fun worth the stress? I'm not so sure about that at the moment.
Way off topic, but I was at Meijer this morning and was using their "boat" of a cart as I call it. The one with the bench that faces out and then a full size cart. I had S on the bench and H in the cart and we went about our shopping. They really need to make double cart like what they have at Sams Club. We also went to Sams this morning and it was nice having both of them right there side by side and I didn't have to maneuver this huge cart that couldn't turn all through a crowded store.
Tuesday, January 16, 2018
House Hunting
So Johnathan and I have all of our paperwork ready to go the our lender. The only thing standing in the way is time availability. John works 40 minutes away from the bank so we have to have the latest possible appointment. I called today and she was booked so Monday was MLKjr Day and today she's booked that pushes us back to Wednesday! That's half a week down the drain. The housing market in our area is so competitive in our price range and with what kind of property we need and want. I don't want to rush, but I also want to get the jump on a good property before spring comes and everyone else floods onto the market.
It's so different in this area compared to where we were in Georgia. In Georgia it's flipped there are more sellers than buyers so there was a lot to chose from and you could always come in below asking price and guarantee you wouldn't have to get into a bid war with other buyers. That is what I really want to avoid here in Michigan. We are looking for a unicorn of sorts. We need 3 bedrooms 2 bathrooms a large garage and acreage. We also want to find a property with a bonus barn or pole barn some other out building that you would store a vehicle in. We don't want suburbs, lake shore, our anywhere with sidewalks out front!
Right now 90% of the houses for sale are in a lake community or within city limits. I have only found one that had everything we wanted, but by the time I saw it they already had a pending sale.
I'm just going to continue praying for Gods wisdom and guidance during our home buying. John and I always argue so much when it comes to big purchases. I love my husband and I respect him as the Godly leader of our family, but we have differing ideas on what is needed and we're two strong willed people. It works great when we are on the same side!
I will be keeping tabs on the different houses that we look at and of course be posting once we find our unicorn!
-Jessica
It's so different in this area compared to where we were in Georgia. In Georgia it's flipped there are more sellers than buyers so there was a lot to chose from and you could always come in below asking price and guarantee you wouldn't have to get into a bid war with other buyers. That is what I really want to avoid here in Michigan. We are looking for a unicorn of sorts. We need 3 bedrooms 2 bathrooms a large garage and acreage. We also want to find a property with a bonus barn or pole barn some other out building that you would store a vehicle in. We don't want suburbs, lake shore, our anywhere with sidewalks out front!
Right now 90% of the houses for sale are in a lake community or within city limits. I have only found one that had everything we wanted, but by the time I saw it they already had a pending sale.
I'm just going to continue praying for Gods wisdom and guidance during our home buying. John and I always argue so much when it comes to big purchases. I love my husband and I respect him as the Godly leader of our family, but we have differing ideas on what is needed and we're two strong willed people. It works great when we are on the same side!
I will be keeping tabs on the different houses that we look at and of course be posting once we find our unicorn!
-Jessica
Monday, January 15, 2018
But I Really Want Cake
I still haven't started my goal of losing 40lbs. I am not sure if I can afford to eat healthy like I think I should. I don't know what kind of exercise I can do. Pretty much I'm not starting because I am afraid I won't make it! Horrible I know, but it is what it is. This morning I did find a yoga for beginners video and tried that out to see if I liked it...I didn't make it through 2 minutes and I had my three year old underneath my belly trying to help me.
On a positive note I have begun to be more mindful of the fact that I need to reduce my portion size... I haven't really done a great job of actually eating less, but it's a little itty bitty baby step.
-Jessica
On a positive note I have begun to be more mindful of the fact that I need to reduce my portion size... I haven't really done a great job of actually eating less, but it's a little itty bitty baby step.
-Jessica
Sunday, January 14, 2018
Not Being Afraid to evolve
The idea of change is not really something that most church's embrace and oftentimes for good reason. The Bible is the Word of God and nothing about it needs changing; that is a fact I completely agree with. My thoughts on change lay mostly in how to grow a church and how to get young people excited about God while also not straying for Gods Word.
Take for example an older small church with mostly elderly members. They have been doing things a certain way for many years and it might just be a trait of old age, but change is something they don't embrace even when it comes to socks or where to have lunch! At these same type of churches though you seem to hear talk about wanting to grow the church and wanting to get new younger families. They obviously realize that without new members eventually their doors would close. Somewhere between knowing they need new younger members and actually agreeing upon how best to do that comes SO MUCH DRAMA!! The older members begin to feel ownership over the church(not realizing it's just a building and the church is in the people gathered together). They shoot down ideas that are new and push for "what we've always done." Thus time goes on and on and no new members are added or at least none that stay for any length of time.
I think we should never be afraid to utilize a method that would help bring new people to Christ or add new members to a church. Provided that it aligns with Gods Word.
The use of technology is not something to be scared of. A projector can be a very beneficial and useful tool. I'm not saying to turn away from the traditional way of things. I love cracking open a hymnal and singing loud and proud like the next gal. I also think implementing different ways of doing things can shake stuff up in a good way. Having a young person who usually just sits in the pew and having them be responsible for using Power Point and running a projector, that is a perfect way to get them involved and make them feel like they are a part of the ministry.
I don't agree with churches that rely solely on their music program to put people in the pews and replace getting into the Book, but I do think music is an important part of ministry. I love the classics just as much as the next person, but again with younger people they aren't listening to " Amazing Grace, or Just As I am Without One Plea" on the radio and let's be real....neither are we! Contemporary Christian radio is every bit as Godly as the classic Hymns. There are some that blend Christian with Rap; you don't like it? okay so don't have Rap! There are hundreds of other artists and songs out there that I see no reason why you wouldn't put one of those songs up there from say Family Life Radio and have a young person make a slide show of it and provide the instrumentation? Try it out and don't like no harm done; nothing ventured nothing gained.
What I don't think honors God is stubbornly sticking to how things have been in the past and shooting down and admonishing others who bring ideas forth just because it makes YOU feel uncomfortable and it's not something YOU personally are interested in. You can pray all day for God to bring new people in to your fold, but at the same time God wants YOU to do the work.
I'm not sure of the passage, but there is a scripture that goes something like"God works all things for the good(his glory).
What are your thoughts on the topic of getting new younger members and dealing with older members?
-Jessica
Take for example an older small church with mostly elderly members. They have been doing things a certain way for many years and it might just be a trait of old age, but change is something they don't embrace even when it comes to socks or where to have lunch! At these same type of churches though you seem to hear talk about wanting to grow the church and wanting to get new younger families. They obviously realize that without new members eventually their doors would close. Somewhere between knowing they need new younger members and actually agreeing upon how best to do that comes SO MUCH DRAMA!! The older members begin to feel ownership over the church(not realizing it's just a building and the church is in the people gathered together). They shoot down ideas that are new and push for "what we've always done." Thus time goes on and on and no new members are added or at least none that stay for any length of time.
I think we should never be afraid to utilize a method that would help bring new people to Christ or add new members to a church. Provided that it aligns with Gods Word.
The use of technology is not something to be scared of. A projector can be a very beneficial and useful tool. I'm not saying to turn away from the traditional way of things. I love cracking open a hymnal and singing loud and proud like the next gal. I also think implementing different ways of doing things can shake stuff up in a good way. Having a young person who usually just sits in the pew and having them be responsible for using Power Point and running a projector, that is a perfect way to get them involved and make them feel like they are a part of the ministry.
I don't agree with churches that rely solely on their music program to put people in the pews and replace getting into the Book, but I do think music is an important part of ministry. I love the classics just as much as the next person, but again with younger people they aren't listening to " Amazing Grace, or Just As I am Without One Plea" on the radio and let's be real....neither are we! Contemporary Christian radio is every bit as Godly as the classic Hymns. There are some that blend Christian with Rap; you don't like it? okay so don't have Rap! There are hundreds of other artists and songs out there that I see no reason why you wouldn't put one of those songs up there from say Family Life Radio and have a young person make a slide show of it and provide the instrumentation? Try it out and don't like no harm done; nothing ventured nothing gained.
What I don't think honors God is stubbornly sticking to how things have been in the past and shooting down and admonishing others who bring ideas forth just because it makes YOU feel uncomfortable and it's not something YOU personally are interested in. You can pray all day for God to bring new people in to your fold, but at the same time God wants YOU to do the work.
I'm not sure of the passage, but there is a scripture that goes something like"God works all things for the good(his glory).
What are your thoughts on the topic of getting new younger members and dealing with older members?
-Jessica
Saturday, January 13, 2018
New Year New Beginnings
It's just over two weeks into 2018. I don't know about ya'll, but my resolutions are going pretty well. I made three resolutions/goals that I want to accomplish this year. 1) Lose 40lbs 2) Buy a new house 3) Grow spiritually in a positive church environment.
I love God and I love serving my Lord. The past 1 1/2-2 years have been an uphill climb, a humbling journey, and most of all a stressful teachable situation.
My weight loss goal is going to be the most difficult resolution to keep and achieve this year. I am working to get toward my pre-children weight of 128. I love my children with all my heart and am very thankful that God blessed me with them, however let's be honest...kids do a number on your body! More than just the number on the scale I am also trying to work on my eating habits. I am a late night snacker and pop drinker. I am one of those moms who somehow got in the habit of eating my kids leftover food.. so weird and gross because I hate sharing food, but I guess a part of my mommy brain just doesn't want to see food go to waste. At this point going to the gym is not really doable. I have found that YouTube has hundreds of video workouts so that is the road I am taking. My husband bought me an Instant Pot for Christmas(like a million other hubbys). I have been trying to cook more nutritious meals and having just one pot makes clean up super easy.
The next goal is to buy a new house. This goal kinda frames around the third goal because they are tied together in a lot of ways.
(I have to take a break and go back a few years to talk about our time in Georgia and the church's we visited as well as why we moved back to Michigan before I get into us now wanting to buy a house)
We moved down to Georgia in 2014 after we got married and had our daughter because we wanted to start someplace fresh, find better work, and just set out on our own and see if we could do it. Many months of searching and we found a pretty large fifth wheel camper to live in. It was like a house on wheels. We moved from Savannah to Newnan and then Jackson GA. During our full time experience we met so many nice people at the different campgrounds and RV parks we stayed at. There are so many amazing Baptist churches in Georgia and the three two that we joined while down there were wonderful. Crestwood Baptist Church in Tyrone GA was the first. It actually happened to be a church; and school, that Johnathan attended when he lived down there with his parents several years before. Pastor Edge and his family are great Godly people and it was nice to attend a church in a new area and not feel like strangers. We learned so much at this church. I really enjoyed how services were learning services. We quickly realized that we would always need a pencil and paper.Pastor Edge used power point slides like lessons. As he went through his sermon you could follow along and also take notes. It was different and really helpful for at home study.
The next church was Berean Baptist Church in Griffin GA. Never have I ever been to a more friendly and welcoming church. A co-worker of Johns and his wife went to church there and they invited us to come out and join them one Sunday morning. I took up really well with the women of the church. They had a ladies bible study on Thursdays. Those ladies were everything to me for the short while we were there. It felt nice to be around other Christian women and to learn about how Christian women talked about in the Bible and about being a Christian wife. I learned what my Spiritual gifts might be and it was just good fellowship.
During this time we were looking to try and buy a house there and that was a stressful and ultimately futile endeavor. We prayed and prayed and asked God to guide us every step of the way. We didn't think God would pick us up and carry us all the way back to the snowy north! That is just what he did! God always answers prayer maybe not in our time or the way we want or think he should, but always works all things according to HIS plan.
Now we are back in Michigan in the end spring of 2016. We realized we couldn't live in our camper because snow and below freezing temperatures so we had to decide if we wanted to pay for an apartment, live with his parents, or be homeless lol... we found a third option. The church that we married in a few years before and that we were currently attending offered to let us stay in their vacant parsonage. They couldn't rent the house out to anyone per township rules so they came to us and said that if we fixed up the house (it was completely unlivable) and worked with the young people at the church that we could live there. Johnathan and I talked about and ultimately decided that it would be our best idea. We sunk our measly 5,000 and more into fixing up the house. We put in new doors and new tub/shower, fridge, all new paneling on the walk ways and carpet in the house. The people who lived there previously had dogs and they destroyed so much in that house. It had also flooded previously so there was some damage leftover from that. A few months later and we were ready to move in.
This brings us to the last goals of buying a new home and growing in Christ.
Living in the home next to our church started out very positive and seemed like a huge answer to our prayers. Not having to pay rent was a big plus to us. We really enjoyed being back at our new church. It didn't take long for us to realize that things were not how we remembered and that probably had alot to do with out new role in the church. Instead of being attendees we were like staff members and with that came A TON of drama. As time went on it became clear that in their minds we were doing what they expected of us. We were constantly being chastised and when we tried to explain and ask for help or at least try and stick up for ourselves we were shut down. My hubby and I are not trained in Youth ministry. We've had no previous experience with soul winning or networking. We were just thrown in with two twenty year old people and told "Do It." It became clear that we needed to move on from this church, but because of the agreement that we made we were stuck. We weren't in a place where we could afford to buy a house and so all we could do was pray. Pray for healing with out church, pray for a better job, and pray that all the negativity wouldn't affect our heart and our relationship with God. Now that we have a better paying job we are beyond ready to get started on finding a new home and put all this garbage behind us.
I started this blog as a way to track my weight loss and home buying journeys
this photo is me at 176lbs.
-Jessica
I love God and I love serving my Lord. The past 1 1/2-2 years have been an uphill climb, a humbling journey, and most of all a stressful teachable situation.
My weight loss goal is going to be the most difficult resolution to keep and achieve this year. I am working to get toward my pre-children weight of 128. I love my children with all my heart and am very thankful that God blessed me with them, however let's be honest...kids do a number on your body! More than just the number on the scale I am also trying to work on my eating habits. I am a late night snacker and pop drinker. I am one of those moms who somehow got in the habit of eating my kids leftover food.. so weird and gross because I hate sharing food, but I guess a part of my mommy brain just doesn't want to see food go to waste. At this point going to the gym is not really doable. I have found that YouTube has hundreds of video workouts so that is the road I am taking. My husband bought me an Instant Pot for Christmas(like a million other hubbys). I have been trying to cook more nutritious meals and having just one pot makes clean up super easy.
The next goal is to buy a new house. This goal kinda frames around the third goal because they are tied together in a lot of ways.
(I have to take a break and go back a few years to talk about our time in Georgia and the church's we visited as well as why we moved back to Michigan before I get into us now wanting to buy a house)
We moved down to Georgia in 2014 after we got married and had our daughter because we wanted to start someplace fresh, find better work, and just set out on our own and see if we could do it. Many months of searching and we found a pretty large fifth wheel camper to live in. It was like a house on wheels. We moved from Savannah to Newnan and then Jackson GA. During our full time experience we met so many nice people at the different campgrounds and RV parks we stayed at. There are so many amazing Baptist churches in Georgia and the three two that we joined while down there were wonderful. Crestwood Baptist Church in Tyrone GA was the first. It actually happened to be a church; and school, that Johnathan attended when he lived down there with his parents several years before. Pastor Edge and his family are great Godly people and it was nice to attend a church in a new area and not feel like strangers. We learned so much at this church. I really enjoyed how services were learning services. We quickly realized that we would always need a pencil and paper.Pastor Edge used power point slides like lessons. As he went through his sermon you could follow along and also take notes. It was different and really helpful for at home study.
The next church was Berean Baptist Church in Griffin GA. Never have I ever been to a more friendly and welcoming church. A co-worker of Johns and his wife went to church there and they invited us to come out and join them one Sunday morning. I took up really well with the women of the church. They had a ladies bible study on Thursdays. Those ladies were everything to me for the short while we were there. It felt nice to be around other Christian women and to learn about how Christian women talked about in the Bible and about being a Christian wife. I learned what my Spiritual gifts might be and it was just good fellowship.
During this time we were looking to try and buy a house there and that was a stressful and ultimately futile endeavor. We prayed and prayed and asked God to guide us every step of the way. We didn't think God would pick us up and carry us all the way back to the snowy north! That is just what he did! God always answers prayer maybe not in our time or the way we want or think he should, but always works all things according to HIS plan.
Now we are back in Michigan in the end spring of 2016. We realized we couldn't live in our camper because snow and below freezing temperatures so we had to decide if we wanted to pay for an apartment, live with his parents, or be homeless lol... we found a third option. The church that we married in a few years before and that we were currently attending offered to let us stay in their vacant parsonage. They couldn't rent the house out to anyone per township rules so they came to us and said that if we fixed up the house (it was completely unlivable) and worked with the young people at the church that we could live there. Johnathan and I talked about and ultimately decided that it would be our best idea. We sunk our measly 5,000 and more into fixing up the house. We put in new doors and new tub/shower, fridge, all new paneling on the walk ways and carpet in the house. The people who lived there previously had dogs and they destroyed so much in that house. It had also flooded previously so there was some damage leftover from that. A few months later and we were ready to move in.
This brings us to the last goals of buying a new home and growing in Christ.
Living in the home next to our church started out very positive and seemed like a huge answer to our prayers. Not having to pay rent was a big plus to us. We really enjoyed being back at our new church. It didn't take long for us to realize that things were not how we remembered and that probably had alot to do with out new role in the church. Instead of being attendees we were like staff members and with that came A TON of drama. As time went on it became clear that in their minds we were doing what they expected of us. We were constantly being chastised and when we tried to explain and ask for help or at least try and stick up for ourselves we were shut down. My hubby and I are not trained in Youth ministry. We've had no previous experience with soul winning or networking. We were just thrown in with two twenty year old people and told "Do It." It became clear that we needed to move on from this church, but because of the agreement that we made we were stuck. We weren't in a place where we could afford to buy a house and so all we could do was pray. Pray for healing with out church, pray for a better job, and pray that all the negativity wouldn't affect our heart and our relationship with God. Now that we have a better paying job we are beyond ready to get started on finding a new home and put all this garbage behind us.
I started this blog as a way to track my weight loss and home buying journeys
this photo is me at 176lbs.
-Jessica
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