True Story

First basketball event of the year and my kids were playing in the gym as normal. Only this time, Mr. "I'm almost 4 years old" decided to get adventurous.

One of the coaches happened to see him just sitting up here...on this tiny little ledge...with only a nice slab of concrete to fall on. Fantastic.



 

 The rescue.

 And then we just left Jason. ha.

The real "fun" part was seeing that Noah was 1/4 of the way up when the coaches saw Lincoln.

He Fights For Us

I have always struggled with worry.

When I was little, I remember my mom commenting on this lovely little trait of mine a lot. In my elementary years, I worried about the weather. My parents said they always knew when a storm was rolling in because I would start pacing around the house, talking "90miles/minute", as they would say. You know, kind of like what a dog does when the weather changes.
That was me.

And then in high school/college, I would worry about relationships and grades - the big 2. My mother would frequently remind me that "worrying was my nature, and not a good one, and that I always over dramatized things, making them worse than they really were."

Then I had kids. And I realized I didn't even really know what worry was. Amen??

I've talked about this on here, but about 3 years ago, I had a huge surrendering of my spirit for my worry about my kids and Jason. My battle weapon? Every time a worry would creep in, I would instantly start to pray against it. God had shown me how ALL worry is a sin, and that by worrying, I was in fact playing God in my own ridiculous way. It demonstrates a lack of faith in my Creator, my Protector, the One who loves me more than I can fathom...and is an incredibly self-centered way of thinking. I don't know about you, but when I worry, it consumes me to the point that I cannot enjoy much. I am so inwardly focused...right where the enemy would have me.

Anyway, through the help of the Holy Spirit, I was able to make great strides in this area a few years back.

I'm not sure if I got too arrogant in it or what exactly happened, but over the past 6 months or so, another "worry" slowly started creeping into my thoughts, and yesterday I literally felt as if I might explode with anxiety. Finally...finally (why does it take so long sometimes to surrender to God??!) I listened to the Holy Spirit and recognized it as straight sin and something that was slowly robbing me of joy and effectiveness. Maybe it was spiritual attack trying to keep me from some new things that have been started this semester?? Maybe it was just my own plain fleshly nature presiding because I was not seeking Christ in the way I should have been? Maybe both??
Whatever the cause, I gave it up yesterday. And I could not wait for Jason to get home to tell him. It was so freeing and after talking to Jason I realized perhaps one of the most important features of surrendering to God things that inhabit our lives - sharing that with others so they can help you along the way. And obviously whom better than your husband.

So here's the awesome way God works:
This morning in our Bible study, I felt like Beth Moore and I were having a conversation about the very things I was conversing with God about just yesterday. It was bizarre y'all! There were 2 things specifically she talked of that I was talking with Jason about last night.
One of which I want to share, for the hope that you, too can find it helpful.

It was about mercy - feeling other's pain - being able to walk/pray with them through difficult circumstances...
I was telling Jason how in this social media age, I have found myself getting so weighted down and almost depressed with all the sad news. There is SOO much lately. And some of it is close to home...it's not all strangers. And I gravitate toward it. If it's a sickness, I'll see what their symptoms were and analyze if any such exist in me/family...if it's car accidents, I'll worry more than ever when my husband goes on a coaching trip...you get the point. Me and the Internet have not been getting along lately. But I told Jason, I feel like I should "feel" with these people and pray for them, yet I also feel like it's total overload and making me an insane mess!!"
Beth's advice this morning (I told you, we seriously had a one-on-one - ha) was: don't stop feeling...don't stop being capable of having mercy, but let God be the one who brings about those opportunities into your life. Don't go searching for them or jumping from blog to blog reading sad stories.
Loved that.

And here's what else I have done:
1. plastered my favorite verse on the fridge:
"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."   Phil 4:8
(and I memorized it)

2. listened to praise music and sang praises to God. We taught our cell group girls about this as a way of fighting sin on Sunday...I was teaching myself. :)

3. I "hid" FB statuses that don't line up with the verse in #1...ones that I see constantly that don't provoke the things in that verse. And then I replaced them with "liking" people like John Piper, Gospel Coalition, and other Christian pages. I did this a few weeks ago and it truly has made a difference since I see so many encouraging verses/quotes now when I scroll down facebook.

4. I no longer let FB alerts or blog alerts show up on my phone, and I have a limit on time I am on Internet now.

The whole idea was to free up distractions - the ones that were feeding my bad habits - and replace them with whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy!

I told Jason last night, when I realized yesterday how worry had, yet again, crept in and started overtaking my life, that I got MAD (pissed, actually) and declared war. I praise the Lord he fights for us!

Oh and so on FB a little bit ago, this quote popped up in my newsfeed :)

Lions!

We LOVE the Gentry Zoo. It's the only place in the world I have found that lets you play with their wildlife. Since having the kids, we have gotten to play with Kangaroos (with babies in their pouches even!), baby cows, huge pigs, baby piglets, gobs of goats, baby Lama things, monkeys, baby Ligers, lion cubs, snakes, donkeys, and peacocks. Those are the things we have actually touched, held, chased, and fed. Amazing.

It's awesome having this place so close because our Noah is an animal lover. He has no fear and they seem to gravitate to him like a male Cinderella. It's hilarious. I guess in the sense of his name, he never would have minded God telling him to live on a boat for 40 years with every animal created! I seriously think if they let him pitch a tent in the massive goat/pig/lama/cow/kangaroo area, he would with a happy content heart - and never come home.

Today was no different. We literally got to play with 2 lion cubs that were super vivacious, hyper, and talkative (they said it was their growl).

Then when we went to look at the Tigers (they have tons), we happened to be there at feeding time and were the only ones around! We sat and watched them fight over food, and devour their meat. It was fabulous. And the lions were all prowling around because they were next in line to eat. All the animals wee so lively today - it was great!

Because of the hand-on aspect you get at this cozy little place, it is just leaps and bounds better than big commercial zoos (IMO).

Loved the sweet friends we went with!!!

This picture cracks me up because I feel like my baby looks SO old!

Thing 1&2

I tend to only be posting about Adelynn, so for the sake of keeping things even, (and since big boy has a birthday coming up soon), I thought I'd throw in some updates on the boys.

Lincoln:
He is about to turn 4 and he is so excited about his party. He changes his mind daily on what he wants his cake to look like...I'm not really sure how he will make the final decision. He is still insanely social, and honestly could make friends with a fleet of turtles, but the fact that most of his favorite buddies will be at his party has about sent him over the edge. I'm surprised he's still sleeping at night. He remembers every detail about his party last year - some I even forgot about - which is phenomenal to me. He has such a sweet heart when it comes to his buddies and I think he'll always be the kid who doesn't care where he is or what he is doing, as long as his friends are with him.
HE has his 4 year well check coming up and he has to get shots since he'll be starting pre-school next year. I never stressed about the baby shots but this about has me in a knot. Do I prepare him before? If I do, I can seriously see him not getting out of the car...or do I wait until they pull out the needle and have a major intense round of screams and kicking, all by which he won't trust me coming to the doc anymore? I've already told Jason I made it very early in the morning so he can go with us to experience what I'm sure will be incredibly pleasant times. Oh joy.
He is still BIG. He is in all 5T clothes and can actually wear a boys small. Crazy. He's also out of the toddler shoes sizes and into boy sizes (which are significantly more expensive now). Again, crazy. I also predict by his 5th birthday, his hand is as big as mine.

Noah:
Noah is tall. If he wasn't so dang tall though, no joke - he would still be wearing size 12-18month clothes. This is actually the size that fits him, but is just way too short. He has no hips/butt/tummy. (Remember he is almost 3yo - Lincoln passed this size before his 1st birthday!).
When Noah talks about his birthday party, he wants a Larry boy Superhero/Bad Apple on his cake - every time. It never changes. He doesn't want any kids to come, and sometimes he only wants Jason to come. He calls Jason "my best friend". He has since said a bunch of adults he likes can come, but still doesn't want any kids. Ha. It's funny because he is not so much of an introvert anymore, but doesn't like to feel threatened with his toys. He is getting better but still has some ways to go in the sharing department. He has started being much more obedient as of the past few months! He finally got rid of his pacy, too which is fantastic. Doesn't even exist anymore. :)
One of my favorite things is still watching him play with Lincoln. They are so creative and truly enjoy each other (most of the time). Noah is at an age where he is just really funny. Lincoln has said Noah is the funniest person he knows - I agree. He's stinking hilarious.

5 Months

Little Miss is 5 months old! Of course I have loved all my dalings' stages of life, but I honestly do not remember the boys being nearly this delightful and cuddly (at this age) as this precious one! Is it a girl thing? Maybe the "this could be my last one" thing? A "I just don't remember" thing?
Ha. Whatever the cause, I'm totally, hands down smitten with this little beauty.
She is just pure sweetness and cuddles in the truest form.

So what's she up to?
SLEEP/EAT:
She has finally hit her stride of consistency! She gets a bottle every 3 hours (5oz.) starting at 7am, and her last being at 10pm. She usually falls asleep around 9:00pm (we get her up to feed her at ten and she goes back down), and sleeps all the way until 7:00ish. She gets a bottle, then falls back to sleep until about 8:00am.
The past few days, she has only drifted off to sleep for about 15 minutes in the morning (gets woken up usually by the business of our mornings). But then after her 1:00pm bottle, she immediately goes down from 1-4pm, just like her bothers. Then she will take a short little nap sometime in the evening, usually from about 6-7pm. I LOVE the long afternoon nap! This is how I trained Noah and it's always been great with everyone else's schedules in our house.
I have not tried solids yet and will probably wait until at least 6 months. We'll see.

DEVELOPMENT:
She can sit up, supported, and unsupported, will last about 5 seconds before toppling over. She loves sitting upright. She spends some time in her bumbo, but loves the jump-swing-thing (what is it called??) that hangs in the doorway. She loves standing, too. She rolls on her belly a ton, but only rolls back every now and then.

LIKES:
Two things make her belly chuckle and squeal like Justin Beiber just walked in the room (per, Jason's words of description - not mine!): 1. Watching her brothers jump on the trampoline, and 2. watching people throw and bounce balloons around her. So of course, we do them both all the time.

Her favorite place to be is in my arms, holding her tight on my hip. Seriously. The only child I have had like this and I love it. So me and her are basically attached. :) I used to carry the carseat around when I went places, but not with her anymore. She comes out of the carseat and on to my hip as we go about our days. Except for grocery shopping. ha.

Baths. Loves them.

Riding in the car and squealing at her brothers.

DISLIKES:
Honestly, I'm sure many of those will come, but she only really cries when she is getting tired.

I am going to try to get some fall pictures in the pretty colored leaves here in the next few weeks. Sunday night we had my mom's birthday party, and on the way I realized we were all actually dressed somewhat similar (which never happens!) so I had my mom take a few pictures. Now in retrospect, I wish I would have had Lincoln not wearing dark blue pants, but for the most part, it all worked!

 The birthday gal with her grandkids (I guess Lincoln will have to help hold the twins next year!):

Walmart/Sam's/Aldi's

If you're sick of these, disregard, but thought I'd share what I've found to be the cheapest (of the things we buy) between WALMART/SAMS/ALDI'S.

I've done my research, I've busted out the calculator many times, and this is what I've found to be the cheapest of the things we buy every month from the above three stores (I'm sharing with you because a few weeks ago, I was asking this question!):

WALMART:
Old Roy dog food (big red bag) - no contest on this one
produce that is price-matched from Aldi's - except Apples right now are cheaper than at Aldi's
GV bread - not cheaper, but not cardboard, either
Pasta - GV
Jennie O Turkey hotdogs
Butter (I like the kind i get here and it's only .69cents)
bag of frozen rolls my husband can heat up individually when he wants one with a meal

SAM'S CLUB:
6lb bag of Frozen Chicken (not the Tyson kind...the other kind that is $10)
Member's Mark Formula - absolutely no question...even way cheaper than the GV brand at walmart
GNC Mega Mens/Womens vitamins - 1/2 price than at GNC

ALDI'S
everything else
everything canned...never buy a canned good from anywhere else (fruit, beans, veg, pumpkin, etc.)
Diapers - waaaaay cheaper than Sam's and slightly cheaper than GV walmart
Wipes - 1/2 the price of GV and my husband likes them better
Baby Soap
trash bags
laundry soap - not sure if i like it better though
Dryer sheets
CHIPS!! and they are good!
eggs
milk
string cheese
breakfast cereal bars - much cheaper than GV
baking goods
3lb frozen hamburger meat
Frozen vegetables
Frozen Waffles
yogurt
shredded cheese
Peanut Butter (cheaper and better than GV)
graham crackers
capri suns (they are another brand though - just bought lots for lincoln's party)
potatoes
bag of baby spinach
*those are the things I got today, but literally everything else is cheaper here!!! Yall when I go to check out, my cart is literally overflowing...packed to the max. And my bill is usually around $120. Crazy.

I just got groceries for the next 2 weeks (this includes all diapers/formula we will need) for $225.

So over the past month of doing this, those are my findings thus far. Hope thins is helpful!!!

Instagram

you can follow me on Instagram at melissc7. Thanks to instagram, I rarely get out my good camera (which is a shame since the pictures aren't that great - but still).

10 Years

10 years ago today my sweet Papa died. I absolutely adored this man and always felt a sense of calmness and comfort just being in his presence. He was very protective of us gals...never thought any of the boys we used to bring around were ever worth our time (and he would say so - ha). Which is why I experienced a sense of sadness knowing he'd never be able to see I actually finally met one that was worth my time and so much more.
He would have adored Jason as his own, no doubt.

He died before my younger sister and I married...and obviously before we had kids. It was a sudden death - he wasn't even really sick, but I suddenly got a call in California that I needed to fly home. I didn't make it in time, which Amy woul later tell me was a blessing. At that time, it was the worst day of my life.
That day has since been replaced.

But it got me thinking the other day...Papa finally got to meet his first great grandchild. I can see him now with Tucker - telling him all the same silly stories he used to tell us, letting Tucker rest his head on his big belly...I wonder how that meeting went.

Good Stewards

As Christians, we're told to be good stewards of the resources we are given...obviously money is the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of resources.

But what does that mean?? I ask that literally...seriously - please reply you answer. :)

I've been in knots with this concept over the years and and it seems the more I delve into Scripture, I find them contradicting each other. We're told to "save" multiple times in Proverbs (21:20; 6:6-8, to name a few), but then in Matthew, Jesus tells us to "not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal" (6:19-20).

So I guess my question is, where's the balance? I know our society tells us to "save,save,save" but it also screams to chase after:
1. making more money
2. building bigger houses
3. driving nicer cars
4. taking elaborate vacations
5. retiring nicely
And then once we attain those things, supposedly we have the American Dream.

But what freedom to let go of those things...to literally pray, "God - where do you want us? What do you want us to be doing?" After all, He created us with a purpose in mind.
The things promised for us in Heaven far outweigh what we can achieve here on earth. I was just discussing this with someone the other day, how our mansions are currently being created by the Father Himself...how unreal to one day soon see it for the first time and know it was tailor designed by the Maker.
Doesn't that just bring JOY?!

So I guess when Jason and I have discussed the notion of "saving" through this lens, also knowing that we're not promised tomorrow, and that God has work that needs to be accomplished now, it just seems silly to us to save sometimes?
Our inheritance is already in Heaven, so saving for retirement seems odd because, well, retirement on earth seems odd...saving for our kids to go to college even seems odd because what if God has different plans for them, and that money could be better spent now?
I guess my point is, if we save, it implies we think we're going to be around for a long time...as if we know. Now I do think saving to buy a car, for instance, so you can pay in cash and owe nothing is a whole different story. But saving for these arbitrary, years down the road things is what has me puzzled. And I'm not saying I'm right by any means, either with this thinking...it just all has me thinking.
I listened to a sermon once by my old pastor from California where he talked about how to be wise with making money. He was speaking to a fairly wealthy population in Orange County, and challenged them to be shrewd in making money - to get good at it. And then give it all away. Make more to give more. He talked about how we often make more to live more lavishly, and challenged us with what it might look like if the good money-makers only lived off what they needed (which I understand is relative - sometimes I think my house is small, but in the grand scheme of it, I know it's even more than I need).
Anyway, the best question I've been able to ask myself that brings the most clarity on this subject is, "Does what I'm about to spend further the Kingdom, or does it further me?" I fail at this question constantly. But it's a good check for me.
Anyway, this post is jumbled and might not even make a lot of sense but thought I'd throw this out here. Would love your conclusions/thoughts n these issues!

Let's Get Busy

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
Romans 10:9-15