Forever Ago Birthday Party...Oops.

Forever ago we held Ruthie's birthday party.  

It was a girly, vintage inspired, outdoor tea party with fancy attire preferred and finger foods and lemonade for all. And of course cake- A Giant. Pink.Cake.

Each girl received a bag of goodies with their name on it that doubled as place settings.

I  basically stripped my house of decorations and took them all outside for this shindig.  Nothing but the gift bags and the goodies in the gift bags were purchased (and the food of course).

We served turkey and cheese on croissants, cheese puffs, veggies, and lemonade in mason jars.

No girly party would be complete without a ginormous pink cake- Ombre for the win!!!

Little Sister was in sugar-coma bliss- No nap, all the sugar she could hold- it was like a dream come true. When the melt down finally came I knew the party had been a huge success- lol.

Blessings,

Hair Growing and Photo Shoots...

Little Miss Thing is finally growing some hair!  After a year or so of her pulling her own hair out she has finally broken free of that horrible habit!  Yay!  There's even enough for a bow!

Blond?  Where did that come from?  But it's so sweet and cute!  And as we go to the pool it gets blonder and blonder!

The other day we had a little impromptu photo shoot...

Dirty feet and all...

That smile completely cracks me up...

I want to bite that face...

What most of the pictures really looked like...

She really was having fun- Ha!...

Little Girl- I love you so!  Beautiful inside and out and so kind and full of joy!  I pray for you to love God and to know Jesus in a way that your little heart can't help but explode from the love that grows through that knowledge of him!

She's so busy and fun.  I just love her!


Blessings,

Summer of Awesome- Still Awesome...

H-man is getting so big.  

He started crawling over the past few weeks.  Eight months old.  I can't even wrap my mind around it!

He is so cute and funny.  A mouth full of teeth and the worst napper on the planet...not cool.

His big brother spoils him rotten and is turning him into a spoiled monster who thinks he has to be held around the clock.

But that face though...

Little Miss Thing is into everything.  Why do they call it the Terrible-twos?  It should be the into everything and too much energy Threes.  She's so funny though, and might be the friendliest child ever.  I hope she stays that way forever.

Those eyes...

Love her...

Why is he wearing this vest?  It's like 100 degrees outside.  So strange.

I took this girl for ice cream the other night and it basically took her like an hour to eat a bowl of ice cream that was about half the size of mine.  I asked her why it was taking so long and she told me she wanted to savor every bite.  It's like she's her father in a female, younger, smaller body- bizarre.

He just crawls around making messes the whole way.

Summer of Awesome is turning out pretty awesome.

However, I'm not actually getting any of the things I originally set out to do done.

We finally got certified to Foster and we've had three babies all under three weeks old in our home over the last few weeks since summer started.

Right now we have a sweet baby girl.  Please pray for us as we walk this path God has brought us to.

Pray that:

-We will be the family she needs right now and love her the way God has called us to love.

-Her family will receive the help that they need, and that hopefully we can love on and encourage them in the process.

-For her to continue to be healthy.

-For our own children to embrace her and to love her without any holding back.

-Most importantly- For God's will to be done and for us to obey and trust that His plan is always best no matter what.

So obviously Summer of Awesome has taken on a different look than I originally planned- Less reading and sewing and more diaper changes and bottle feedings.  But ultimately I hoped that this summer would be Summer of Sharing the Gospel.  What a better platform to open conversation with tons of people- than when they look at me like I'm crazy for having two babies under the age of one and three others for a total of five kids.

"Hey person- it's a God thing.  Let me tell you how awesome He is."

Blessings,

The Summer of Awesome...

So I've officially declared Summer 2016 the summer of the following things:

-Summer of Sharing the Gospel

-Summer of Reading

-Summer of Creating

-Summer of Getting Healthy and Fit

I know.  It's been declared probably too many things, but I couldn't narrow it down to just one.  It seemed to me like all of my choices held their own level of importance.  Some more than others obviously.

The plan to Share the Gospel is simple.  Like Nike always says- "Just do it."  If I'm out and about start conversations, hand out tracts, basically just get the word out that "God is Awesome and Jesus Saves".  I plan to enlist the help of my children.  I mean don't you think we would have more missional/evangelical minded people in the world if we trained up our children doing it from a young age?  Get relational with my neighbors and invite them to church, vbs, or just over for dinner and games, and some gospel talk.  Mainly the point here is to be more purposeful- make it happen.  People need to know that all have sinned, and that all have fallen short, and that Jesus filled the gap and died for any and all who believe.  But how can they know if we don't tell them?  So Summer of Sharing the Gospel 2016 is all about telling people.

The plan for Reading is to aim for at least 30 minutes of reading a day.  This of course will be separate from my bible reading.  This plan also will include my children.  We have a pool membership this summer so the plan will be to swim in the morning and to come back in the afternoon for resting/nap/reading time.  Our local library and Barnes and Noble has a great reading program for children that awards prizes when they meet their reading goals.  If your kids are anything like mine- prizes are a big help!

Here's where I'm at with my reading list so far:

Women of the Word- I'm really excited about this one.  I've already started it and it's super good so far...



Glimpses of Grace- is about seeing God's grace even in the little day to day tasks like changing diapers and washing dishes.



The Pastor's Wife-  I know this may not be relative to many of you, but I'm super excited about this one!



Fierce Women-  Using our fierce strengths to encourage and inspire our husbands.



Desperate-  Encouragement, help, and answers for moms.



Disciplines of a Godly Woman-  I'm almost finished with this one and it's amazing!  We could all use a call to be more purposeful and disciplined as we walk in our faith.  I'd call it a very practical look at Sanctification. Every Christian woman should read this book.




Family Driven Faith-  Raising our children to walk with God.



-Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ- by John Piper
-Mere Christianity- by CS Lewis
-The Case For Christ and The Case For Faith- by Lee Strobel (they have a simpler/shorter versions of these for youth that my 11 year old is reading.)
-Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die- by John Piper
-The Reason for God- by Timothy Keller
-The Meaning of Marriage- by Timothy Keller
-The Next Story- by Tim Challies
-The Missionary Call- by M. David Sills
-The Holiness of God- by Sproul
-The Knowlege of the Holy- by A.W. Tozer
-The Cost of Discipleship- by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
-Anne of Green Gables- by L.M. Montgomery
-Pride and Prejudice- by Jane Austen
-The Scarlet Letter- by Nathaniel Hawthorne
-The Secret Garden- by Frances Hodgson Burnett

My kids and I also enjoy it when I read aloud to them.  So I will be reading children's books to them as well throughout the summer.  If that interests you here are a few that my children and I would highly recommend (I asked them):

-Doctor Dolittle
-Robin Hood
-The Bronze Bow- (a must read!)
-The Bridge to Terabithia
-Old Yeller
-Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh
-The Tale of Despereaux


Summer of Creating is pretty self explanatory- My creating of choice will be sewing.  I love to sew, but sometimes my life doesn't always allow for me to prioritize it, but this summer it's happening.


Summer of Getting Healthy and Fit- feels more complicated and right now feels like it will require the most discipline. I'm getting a membership to a gym and plan to start working out with free weights and doing cardio with a friend this week.  I'll tell you more about the diet side of it when I figure it out.  Ugh.

Anyhoo...That's what's happening around here.  If you'd like to join in the fun on any or all of the summer happenings you can find me on Instagram @thepurplecladjewel - Just tag me or use any of the following hashtags:

#summerofsharingthegospel2016
#summerofreading2016
#summerofreadingkids2016
#summerofcreating2016
#summerofgettinghealthyandfit2016
#summerofawesome2016


Happy Summer of Awesome Friends!


Blessings,

Let's try this one more time...

Blogging...

I've not been very dedicated to it in the past.

How are so many others able to keep them up?  Do they have super powers that I'm unaware of?

Some days I can't even find the time to brush my hair- so blogging isn't usually real high on my list of must do's.

But I want it to be.

The truth is I a have this desire to write, to create, to put my thoughts to paper.  I want to tell you (whoever you may be), all the many things that I feel God is laying on my heart- about faith, hope, joy, family, ministry, serving, and life.  I want to be real and I want to share where my heart is, and what God is doing in my life.

God is big and he's awesome and I want to make him known.  I'm not eloquent.  I'm not even a good writer. What I am is a wife to a pastor, mother, friend, daughter, sister, and most importantly a child of God.  And I need a place to write about all that my God is doing...

So what better place to start than here...On my little, neglected blog.

So stay tuned...