Preparing For The Holidays...

Last night as I sat working on my calendar for the week and our weekly lesson plans I came across a section in my Well Planned Day Planner that helps me plan for the holidays.

We have been in San Antonio for 3 months now and November is my favorite month for a couple of reasons. Number one being it is my birthday this month! I am turning 40 on Sunday and I am really looking forward to this stage of my life!
Number two being the beginning of the "Holiday Season."

I have always been a planner. I am not very organized but I am a planner! *chuckle to myself* I know odd right? Well I am, what can I say! So as I start putting things down in this section of my planner I came across a page that  has a list of who to buy for, what you want to buy, where to buy it from, and how much you spend or spent. Now I'm NOT that organized! LOL However I do have a plan on what I want to buy for my husband and daughter, and this year I plan to do just that!

Previously for the past 3 years we have struggled financially and now that we are back in the city I love I am earning a livable wage for the first time since we left here 8 years ago! I get to be at home with by baby girl all day and teach her lessons, I get to make dinner for my family and I get to get out of the house for a few hours at night and have adult conversations, meet new people and explore my city! I LOVE IT!

Driving for Uber has been the best decision I've ever made! I'm getting to save to help build my travel business which will eventually tie into my Uber business! I"m feeling a little more independent. It felt nice to know that the groceries we bought this weekend came from my earnings and that I was able to contribute to our house hold once again. I've never felt that I had no value but I always have had some tiny amount of guilt that my husband has been the primary bread winner in our family for almost our entire marriage. I've done things here and there but my income has always been paltry until the first time we moved here. I worked full time and a health insurance agent and I love my work then as well. However since the birth and adoption of our daughter my sole focus has been raising her. (Something we discussed and were 100% willing to make a sacrifice for)

Now she is going to be 8 in December and she gets to have alone time with her daddy each evening and I get to help contribute to the betterment of our family!

So, Now that I've rambled on about me contributing financially, let me get back to the point.
I sat looking at this planner, and I thought to myself what to I want to buy my family for Christmas this year? I want to buy them some surprises!
So I'm getting our usual, Christmas Pj's and we will need new stockings this year as well as a tree skirt and lights for our new tree. This year will be our first San Antonio Christmas as a family!
Hubby and I spent 2 Christmases here just the two of us, now it is good to have our baby girl here in the our city! 💖

I got a few things written down but I am still trying to decide what to do for her Christmas gift. She has mentioned wanting several things and it all boils down to two things... she has too many toys she doesn't play with now and doesn't want to give away, AND she needs more options for storage in her room and closet and storage makes for a bad gift for an 8 year old!

Hubby is not any easier to buy for but I do know he would like a couple of things and I'll let her buy him something and I'll buy him something and then of course they will have to go shopping on their own for me ( like they always do).  I love these two. They always try to do something they know I'd like! 😍

Well I've got some school work that could stand to get done and I need to take a nap so I can work tonight.

Tell me how you plan for your holidays! I'd love to hear how other people plan, prepare ect..

God Bless,
G

Building Relationships With Other Couples

I just finished my blog post for my business. (I have a Travel/Food blog) I have been working on my continuing education for my Travel Agency and trying to homeschool as well as balance the daily chores of being a stay at home mom.

It's not easy! I often feel overwhelmed and I don't sleep much but I love my life. We are still taking time do adjust to hubby working night shift.. then of course we have to bounce back to day's after Thanksgiving! Such is life!  

Over the weekend we attended our churches Fall Festival. It was so much fun! We really did have a good time!  I helped make cotton candy which I enjoyed and Niki really let her inner social butter-fly out!

As a family we try to do things together that allows each of us to interact with other people. We use the social interaction to build relationships.  Since this particular activity was at our home church we were able to build on our relationships within our congregation. :) That always makes me happy.

You see we have been marred 19 years this month and we have few couple friends. We have always tried to connect with other couples. We struggle to find couples who have similar likes and things we can bond over. We do have 2 couples we are very close with, one local and one 

Learning From Our Failures

On the 3rd of this month my husband and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary. We didn't do anything ostentatious, just dinner out the weekend before and a quiet dinner at home with our daughter the day of because it was in the middle of the work week. We are usually pretty low key on "non-milestone" years. So that means about once every 5 years we celebrate with a party of some sort.  

Over the years I have often felt like I was not good enough to deserve the life I have been blessed with. I have felt inadequate, lazy, sloppy and down right depressed about how I behaved as a wife and mother.  I have struggled with depression since I was a teen and have had a long road sometimes and over the years have learned how to "pull myself up by the boot straps" and move forward. 

I have utilized anti depressants in the past (before our daughter was born) and since she has been in my life I have struggled tremendously.  What makes it even worse it that I feel bad for being depressed! I feel like I should be a better mommy, be more fun and more playful. You see I was 32 when she was born. I've always been over-weight and I keep saying I'm going to loose the weight to be a better more fun mommy but I keep going back to the same old patterns. 

Well today at church our pastor preached on how those patterns when we keep doing the change from being a bad habit to being a way of life! How God wants to sow His seeds in fertile soil so we can serve Him and live a blessed life but that those habits that become a way of life are separating us from God so that He cannot plant seeds. You see God won't plant seeds in ground that is not prepared. Pastor talked about how we need to prepare ourselves to receive the seeds God wants to plant so that we might bear fruit. 

God is committed to the fruitfulness of our futures. He is asking if you would commit to His commitment. 

John 15:4 says " Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and  you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me." 

John 15:8 " When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to the Father." 

John 15:16 "You didn't choose me, I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for using my name."  (emphasis mine) 

So you see the habits we have are sin and we all know that sin separates us from God. Pastor says we should Identify the "thorns" in our life. Boy that hit me right in the heart! My refusal to take care of my home and husband over the years has been me being disobedient to God. The bible says that God created me to be his Helpmeet. He works hard to provide for his family and I am supposed to be diligent here at home providing a haven for him. Teaching our child, making sure my family has food and clothing and are well respected. I am meant to HONOR ( aka RESPECT) my husband. I made that vow! 

The word goes on to say 

"Plow up the hard ground of your hearts! Do not waste your good seed among thorns." Jeremiah 4:3

Our prayer should be:

"Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offend you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life." Psalm 139:23-24

We should let the Holy Spirit filter us completely. I sat in church with tears streaming as I hear the spirit speaking to me. 'You have strayed daughter, you don't spend time in My word anymore, You only come to church, but you forget to hear with you whole heart.' I was truly and fully chastised. 

As I prayed and cried and repented of my obvious sin. I begged God to give me a renewed vigor and hunger for His word and for teaching my daughter how to live according to Proverbs 31. I had wanted that for us since before she was born. I always wanted to teach my daughters how God intended us to live. 

My 7 year old struggles to accomplish any one task because I have allowed her to become slothful, like me. So tonight after my husband went to work (he's on nights for a few weeks). I sat down with my bible and my little princess and I apologized to her for neglecting to teach her what I knew in my heart God had instructed ME to teach her. I showed the the biblical characteristics of a wife and mother. I explained to her that this week we are going to focus on a different one each day and possibly extend it to one week on each Character trait. 

I prayed and asked to God to forgive me and to guide my steps as I step up to the challenge of working through the pain ( because with significant change comes pain {mental and/or physical}) . 

Starting tomorrow I'm getting dressed to my tennis shoes, and taking my daughter and dog for a nice long walk. We are going to get active every morning and then crack the books starting with bible study. So I'm asking for any and all of my mommy friends to help me stay accountable! 

We are going to have a clean house daily, a clean kitchen before bed each night and fight the war on clutter. I have a week planned including the evening meal! 

Well If you have made it this far thank you. I knew earlier I was going to make this post and I was asking God what to say and I felt that I needed to just share the ugly truth. 

I would love you feedback, especially if you have tips on how to stay motivated to keep your home tidy! 

I want to be organized even though I was not born that way! 

Be Blessed! 

G...

Gross Neglect...

My poor little blog has been neglected for almost a year! I had not realized in all of the chaos that is my life I had completely neglected my blog.

Things have changed dramatically! This time last year we were preparing to travel to our favorite city San Antonio, Tx. for a little vacation. Today I'm sitting in my new apartment IN San Antonio. That's right. We FINALLY made the move back to the big city! No more dinky little town for me! We are back to big city living where you can get almost anything delivered to your door ( including sandwiches that aren't made at a pizza place)!


I'm doing some continuing education and working on my Travel Agency. I'm still homeschooling Niki and even though we live in the same city and have been here since the first of August we STILL haven't seen Holly.  Not a surprise really.

I'm rethinking life in general these days. I'll be 40 soon and I am hoping that I can contribute more to this life by blogging a bit more on the things we love. I'm going to share my travel blog here and I'm going to be posting more recipes and home school related things here as well.

I'm really excited to be back to the blog life. I miss writing and encouraging my daughter to write. I have always used this blog as a place to be open and honest with myself and you and well if we can't be honest with ourselves about how we feel what are we doing in life?

So I apologize for the Gross Neglect and I am committing to work toward getting things updated and going full swing again!

Many Blessings,
G

Fall Break and back to Homeschool!

We took a bit on an extended fall break because we were moving and then we went on vacation! Both my students (one's my daughter, the other is my cousin) went on said vacation and LOVED it! They got history lessons and science lessons and even a couple of true to life math lessons.

Neither of the girls had ever been to San Antonio, or Corpus Christi, Tx so we loaded up the suv and drove down. Of course this was not just a spur of the moment thing and me being the planner that I am took several months to plan this 5 day vacation!

We went down and spent time with extended family so that Nikirhe got to meet her Tia Rachel and Tio Noe.(Little Spanish lesson: Tia = Aunt, Tio = Uncle)

They had an instant bond and it is great that they are going to have a lovely relationship. 

We had an amazing time on our visit! We got to visit the Alamo, and since it was raining we decided to forgo the River Walk and just take the girls to Build A Bear! :) 

After Build A Bear we took the girls to see our old neighborhood and took them for come Churro's at El Pollo Loco ( The Crazy Chicken). Great chicken btw! 

After Churros we took the girls for some art supplies at Asel Art Supply and had to take a picture with the window art! 

Then we headed over to my favorite place to get cheap Margaritas and good food for Family and Friends dinner! 

We had a blast and can't wait to do it again! 

Saturday was road trip to the beach day! Just a short 2.5 hour drive south on I-37 from San Antonio you come to Corpus Christi and if you keep driving just a bit further you come to Padre Island! Otherwise known as "The Island" 

The first thing we came to was a great photo op! 

 The kids loved roaming around on the Sand Castle. It was a lot of fun!

Of course I had to get a seflie with the Mermaid! :)

So The beach was awesome! It was very windy and the  girls made some lifelong memories! I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story! :) 

Radio days...

I've had a part time job at our local radio station for about 5 months now.  I have an education background in broadcasting so this is not something completely new to me.

I LOVE coming to the station to work weather it be sports or a remote broadcast for one of our three stations.

I mostly produce sports and it's not too bad. This week I'm filling in on the air for our sports caster while he is on vacation. I get to write my sportscast as "report" the sports 4 times each morning. It's pretty cool because yesterday I got to help our morning show host with the 2nd half of his show after I was finished with my sports.

My daughter is 6 and gets to come to the station with me anytime I work during the day. She is a good girl and everyone loves her! LOL She does talk a lot so I have to remind her that this is a place of business and the people here are working so she needs to stay either with me or in my office while I'm on the air and not bug people! :D

She does pretty good sometimes. hee hee.


Well I've finished writing my sports cast for today and am preparing to go live. So I guess I need to get to the studio.

Our 3 stations all link together.. so if you ever want to listen live just go to... KLBC or KBBC  or KSEO 


Have a Blessed Day!

G

horrible blogger

I have been a horrible blogger!  I have allowed life to get in the way of thing I really wanted to do.

Back in August I became a Certified Travel Agent! I LOVE it! However, it seems to have taken over my life. I seem to eat sleep and dream travel.

Even homeschool has taken a back seat to building my travel business. I am working very part time at at a local radio station which I do love and I want to be doing that a little more  but home school is so much more important that I need to find balance between travel business and homeshcool .

So Starting today we are getting back to time management and doing school work and house work during the day and working on travel in the evening. It has to be this way or I will have no balance.

My husband is feeling like he needs to be working toward being a pastor and that means I as his helpmeet need to be working toward being a pastors wife. I need to focus on being a better home maker and I need to work toward loving people unconditionally. I know God will give me what I need to serve Him and give Him the glory.

I am so very proud of him and I want to show him how much I love and support him!

So today my prayer is that God will give us grace and mercy and show us the path we need to take to be in His will.

Thank you for taking the time to read. I would love your feedback!

Trusting God for Guidance

It is never easy to put 100% trust in anyone. Shouldn't we be able to trust God with everything? I mean He did create us! He gives us life and directs our steps.
However as the flawed humans we are it is sometimes hard to learn to trust and all knowing,all seeing God who loves us in spite of ourselves!

That's RIGHT! No matter what decisions we make and no matter how ridiculous those choices are God loves us anyway!
Praise the Lord for that!!! As we seek guidance in our lives for the next phase, we often forget that God already has a plan. All we have to do is trust him to direct our steps to His Perfect will!

Living my life for Jesus

I am so excited that my hubby and I Are both now officially ordained ministers! We are working to follow God's call on our lives! I am actually working on a bible study. I am praying about this and ask God to annoint me to spread his word!

I have always felt called into ministry and since I was a child wanted to be a pastor/minister like my grandfather. I have always been told I couldn't be because I am a woman! I kept praying and praying and now I know that I can and will fulfill God's call on my life!

I KNOW God has a plan for us and I'm excited to find out what it is!

Preparation for Our New Ministry

My husband and I will begin our new ministry position this week! We will be helping at The Great Physician Pharmacy! We will be building relationships and Praying with people!

I'm so excited to go share the love of Jesus with others! I want to share what He has done in my life!

God is working in our lives and Satan is working hard to deter us!
We found the perfect home for our little family and I'm praying Satan had no power to take it from us!

Lord show us favor and guide us on your path!