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