What Makes Me... Me

The last post that shows on here was 7 months ago, and it's actually been about 5 months since I last posted. At the request of people of great importance to me, I removed my last post. A lot has happened in these past few months. Strangely, I just haven't had the desire to really post much - until now.

I'm sure I'll get to all of the fun things I want to post on here - decorating ideas, crafts with my kids, organizational tips, I could keep going... But for now, I want to share with you all just what makes me me. This stuff is the most important of all of the "stuff" in my life. It's really what makes me who I am. Because all on my own, I'm nothing to talk about - and certainly nothing to blog about. But with Jesus Christ in my life, I'm a daughter of the King of kings. I still may not be much to talk about, but my Jesus is. I hope that you'll please let me tell you about Him...

First of all, I want you to know that God cannot sin. We're told this in Hebrews 4:15. He won't mess up. He won't slip up. He won't make a bad choice. He just won't. He's not capable of it. Perfection is the very essence of His being. Here's what Hebrews 4:15 says: "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin." Did you catch that? He knows what we're going through. He's not just looking at us from up in the clouds, totally displaced from our lives. He's been here! He knows how it feels to hurt and to fear. The difference is, He experienced a very real existence but did not sin. Not once. That very real existence was through Jesus' life on earth. It's important that you understand that Jesus is God (John 10:30). Otherwise, a lot of this will not make sense.

In saying that God is sinless, we can easily transition to the fact that He is just. As in, He is in the business of bringing justice. I say that's an easy transition in our thought process because God, who is perfect, will obviously be about bringing justice. If He was perfect, how could He allow for injustice? Likewise, if He was imperfect, how could He bring true justice? Psalm 9:7-8 says, "But the LORD sits enthroned forever; He has established his throne for justice, and He judges the world with righteousness, He judges the peoples with uprightness." Some people will say, "How can a loving/just/good/etc. God allow ____ to happen?" My answer for this is that we only see the things that affect us. God sees the whole big picture. I believe that things happen in our lives sometimes in order to accomplish a greater purpose. Let's be real. I think most of us really do know that the world doesn't revolve around us. How could I really think that just because something isn't the way I think it should be in my life that it must be unfair overall? Perhaps I don't really know everything...

Another thing I want you to know is that God loves you (and me) regardless of our performance in this life. We don't have to be good enough for Him to love us. We don't have to be the best at something for Him to pay attention to us. He loves us no matter what. Romans 5:7-8 says, "For one will scarcely die for a righteous person - though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die - but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." That means that Jesus didn't wait for us to get it all right before He came and died for our sins. He looked at us, even in all of the messes we make, and said, "I love you so much. Let me clean you up." You don't have to be perfect - or even close - to come to Jesus. We can come in our brokenness, and He takes those pieces, fills in the gaps, and makes something totally new.

Now, this God who loves us no matter what also wants each of us to have a real relationship with Him. We're told that He wants all people to be saved (1 Timothy 2:3-4). He doesn't just love some of us. He loves all of us. And it's up to us to love Him back.

The last thing I want to share with you tonight is that, contrary to the cultural norm in America today, God's number one priority is not to make us happy, healthy, & financially prosperous. Rather, His first priority is to receive the glory and honor that is rightfully due Him. Isaiah 42:8 says that He gives His glory to no other, and Isaiah 43:7 says we are created for His glory. We aren't made to try to make the most money we can before we die, or to have the nicest house we can, or even to have the most well-behaved children we can, or to give the most shoes to the homeless. Those things (money, houses, well-behaved children, charity, etc.) are not bad things in and of themselves. But if that's our focus in life, rather than pointing everything we do back to the One who made us all, then we have sadly missed the mark.

There is so much more I want to tell you, but I'll save it for another post. For now, please give careful consideration to these points. Without these things, I'm convinced that the rest of our beliefs aren't really relevant.

Jesus, please use these words however you see fit. Your word to us in the Bible says you give wisdom and knowledge and understanding (Proverbs 2:6), so I pray you will make your word clear to anyone who reads this so that they can see and understand even just a glimpse of who you really are. Thank you, Lord.

Our "New" Wardrobes

Well, my plan to reorganize our house has started a little more slowly than I anticipated... After a few months, I have several unfinished projects. (Imagine that!) But, I'm going to stick with the plan! So, let me share with you what I've done so far...

The plan was to start with the laundry room. That seemed easy enough! Hahaha! So... after getting some really good "before" pictures and trying to move forward with the ideas I had drawn out, I couldn't get over the reality of the mountains of laundry that continued to pile up. As soon as I got close to "catching up", there would be another explosion of clothes. All of that led me to the realization that we just have way too many clothes. Granted, we have a growing family of 8, but we have been blessed with so many hand-me-downs from friends that our kids hardly wear some of their clothes before they've outgrown them. And since we do have such a large family, storage is (and probably will always be) an issue. To remedy this problem, I researched several other blogs to learn about the concept of a minimalist closet. I talked it over with my man, and we decided to do an experiment. I have sorted through each of their wardrobes, narrowed down the outfits, and removed the excess to store during our experiment. Here are the guidelines that I used to keep me on track:

Girls
Shirts (short-sleeved) - 9
Pants - 2
Shorts/Capris - 5
Skirts - 3
Dresses - 3
"Gettin' Dirty Clothes" - 1
"Fancy Clothes" - 1
PJs - 9
Tights - 4
Socks - 10
Underwear - 10
Undershirts - 5
Sweater/light jacket - 2
Swimsuit w/ Cover-up - 1
Tennis Shoes - 1
Flip Flops/Sandals - 1
Church Shoes - 1

Boys
Shirts (short-sleeved) - 9
Pants - 4
Shorts - 6
"Gettin' Dirty Clothes" - 1
"Fancy Clothes" - 1
PJs - 9
Socks - 10
Underwear - 10
Undershirts - 5
Sweater/light jacket - 2
Swimsuit w/ Cover-up - 1
Tennis Shoes - 1
Flip Flops/Sandals - 1
Church Shoes - 1

We're somewhat in between seasons right now, so I kept a few long-sleeved shirts and some extra pants for each of them as well. In Texas, we never know what the weather will be like each day! The "Gettin' Dirty Clothes" are outfits specifically for really rough play or work (painting, etc.). These are things that won't matter if they get stained or ripped. The "Fancy Clothes" are outfits that are never to be played in, but kept in great condition for nice events, Daddy/Daughter Dates, etc. Our "church clothes" tend to be what we wear on a daily basis a lot of times, so I decided this would be a guarantee that there is always one really nice outfit for each kid that we can use as a backup or be able to go to quickly if needed. Oh, and the other disclaimer is that for our younger ones (particularly those that are potty trainees), I will keep a few extra outfits in their dressers.

Having smaller wardrobes will likely mean that their clothes will wear out a little faster, so I will still be shopping the thrift stores and will still get lots of use out of those hand-me-downs. But my hope is that the turnover with the clothes will be somewhat slow, and that this new change will be a success for our storage and laundry issues!

My theory is this: If we only have a little over a week's worth of outfits, I'll be somewhat forced to keep up with laundry. (Only having a little over a week's worth of outfits is also the reason that I'm just storing the excess for a little while instead of getting rid of it altogether. I'm infamous for my lack of laundry skills!) Anyway, hopefully then I'll be able to get my laundry room organized close to matching my Pinterest dreams!

So, we shall see... :)

New Adventures

At Christmas each year, our family almost always gives new family pictures to the grandparents and great-grandparents. Not only do they love updated pictures of the grandkids and great-grandkids, but it's also a great gift for people that generally have everything! Anyway, this year we had an extra special picture for them...

(Photo Courtesy of Adam Huffman)

 

After having to explain the numbers to a few people, everyone finally understood... We're expecting! We feel truly blessed by God to have another precious life join our family.

 

It's true that it's not the "cultural norm" to have 7 children. But like I've said before, we're not really "normal" anyway. :) I absolutely love our big family and wouldn't want it any other way. Having a full house, a packed dinner table, and Nerf bullets all over my house makes me crazy happy. On the rare occasion that I find myself at home with no one else here, it's just downright strange.

 

So, now that the reality of another little person joining us later this year is setting in, I'm in full-swing list-making, planning & organizing mode. So over the next few weeks (or months), I'm planning to share with you my attempts to prepare our house and family for one more precious person. My first project is going to be my laundry room - exciting, I know! :) So stay tuned to see what I come up with...

 

 

"And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." - Colossians 3:17