Sunday Currently… AKA giving my brain a break

reading: Deuteronomy! But I’m almost done 1-2 more days and I’ll be done I think! Read Deuteronomy 28 where Moses lists out the curses for disobedience. Y’all it was bad. It for sure would make me want to obey… Well maybe. I probably would be exactly like the Israelite’s. Because how often do I disobey God now…

watching: Um… The shows I’m keeping up with- NCIS, The Bachelor (I think Vanessa wins, and there have been some awesome moments that have made for good TV this season), This is us (although I don’t actually like this show, but it is written well and makes me want to come back and see what happens to the characters. Mainly to see how and when Jack dies, I think it’s getting close)

cooking: I made breakfast for the girls this morning. Scrambled eggs and sausage.

dreaming: I legit dreamed I was working at Jack in the Box last night and Nick, the bachelor, happened to be working there too. The other night I dreamed I was attached by a baby cow.

loving: chocolate (duh), chips or fries as well. Basically all things unhealthy. But I’ve also loved the salads I’ve had recently… Things not food related- #thenext100days reading scripture, journaling about it, and praying

frustrated by: the fact that I feel so tired lately even though I’ve gotten lots of sleep.

listening to: Creekside bible church live from their app. So currently Matt is preaching

making: to-do lists.

missing: both my best friends!

planning: The youth retreat next weekend, the youth event next month, my trip to cali soon, maybe a trip to Washington in April, Sunday school lessons, the list goes on… I have anywhere from 3-6 meetings this week that will involve lots of planning as well… Going to try to make the verse about we plan but God directs our steps in mind during all this planning.

sniffing: my freshly washed hair. The macaroni and cheese my girl is making herself for lunch. The chips I was just snacking on.

Currently… Avoiding Everything I’m Supposed To Be Doing

reading: Exodus! Doing a 100 day challenge where we started in Genesis and are seeing how far we can get in the bible by reading and journaling about it everyday. I did read the new Stephanie Plum novel, and the Jack Reacher novel that the newest movie is based on over thanksgiving break. Those were so good!
watching: My kids??? Does that count?? I haven’t had time for much tv recently. I did catch up on NCIS last off days… I may be behind again though…  I want to start watching This Is Us, but again no time
eating: Lot’s of junk… We’ve had 3 parties in 3 days.. Two Christmas, and a birthday… Lots of sweets, lots of candy and soda, the boys had pizzookie tonight and will have it the next two nights (so many birthdays)… Nothing good
laughing about: something my kids have done or said…
loving: my job! My kids are awesome, and I just am so thankful I get to be a parent like figure for them…
researching: nothing… I don’t have time to research lol… I googled how much an iPod shuffle was for one of my boys.. And the other day I looked up the elephant sanctuaries in Thailand where you can go and hang out with elephants sign me up!
thinking: of my to-do list and how long it is… But let’s just avoid it some more with this blog :)… Really I just needed a little me time.
listening to: The sound of my fan… I should have turned on Christmas music while I was doing this…. Also I just finished this sermon series on my runs last week, it’s really good and I think something we all need to hear, so check it out!
planning: my week out… runs, parties, paperwork, sleep, errands, bible study, meetings, kids, youth group calendar… life is busy right now but good! And will slow down after this week!
sniffing: nothing!!
feeling: all the feels! Seriously!

30 day challenge

“So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.² Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— ³ if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.” 1 Peter 2:1-3

 

These verses come right after Peter was telling the people to be holy because God is holy, and that because they are born again they need to love one another. It’s like Peter knew the people were going to ask, “How do we do that?” So he explained how.

First they are supposed to put away ALL malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander. He could have just said all once and then put the words. But he chose to repeat all several times therefore drawing emphasis to the seriousness of getting rid of all of it. He is saying there is no place for these things in people who want to be holy as God is holy, and who want to love one another because they are born again.

Second they are to long for the spiritual milk, so that they may grow. He likens this to how newborns long for milk. The only way newborns grow is if they get milk from their mom or formula. But they need the milk to grow. So for us to grow in Christ we have to long for the spiritual milk.

Then Peter basically says if you are truly born again then you will do these things. If you have tasted that the Lord is good, these things will be a desire of yours. If you really believe then this will be something you long for.

After reading these verses and studying them, my question then becomes “What does this look like practically?” For me what it looks like is making time every day to spend with the Lord, in prayer, in bible study, meditating on scripture, etc. The more time I spend with the Lord the more I long for more, the more I know I need time with him to grow. And I also know for myself when I’m daily spending time with him I’m less likely to be envious of others, to slander others, to lie, etc. Because the more time I spend with Him, and the more I learn, the more that I want to share with others. The more time I spend with Him the more He comes out in my words and actions. I’m a better parent, friend, sister, daughter, etc. the more time I spend with Him. The more I taste of the Lord the more I see how good He really is.

I know this is not true for just me. I know it’s true for anyone who spends time with Him. So I have a challenge for us in this tidbit, because it’s easy to hear God’s word and then not put it into practice, I’m guilty of it a lot. Let’s not do that this time, let’s put these verses into practice. Let’s taste and see that the Lord is good. For the next 30 days let’s commit to daily spending time with him, whether it’s 5 minutes, or an hour, doesn’t matter. But will you commit with me to making it a priority to spend some time with the Lord every day for the next 30 days?

Tidbit # I lost count

So I know I said I would post the tidbit’s I send out at work here.. But I’ve been a little behind the eight ball with it… So I’ll slowly but surely catch up.. Here is this weeks though!

“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” Hebrews 10:19-25

I wish I could just put the entire book of Hebrews in this tidbit, but that would be too long. So for those of you who have not read Hebrews, I challenge you to do it! It is a book all about who Jesus is and then what that means for us. It’s so good!

The above verses are kind of the shifting point in the book. Anytime you see a sentence that starts with the word therefore you should go back and see what it’s there for. This therefore is a big therefore in my opinion. I think it’s the writer taking a big breath after describing Jesus in depth and says because of everything I just said about who Jesus is this is what you should do.

Since I can’t put the whole book of Hebrews in this tidbit I’ll summarize a little of what the writer has said about Jesus. He starts out the book explaining that Jesus is his son, and is fully God. It states that Jesus is higher than everyone, or thing because it was created through Him. It talks about how God chose to speak through the prophets in the old days but in these days he chose to speak through His son. And because He chose to speak through his son, we better listen a little more carefully because Jesus is better than the prophets, better than Moses, and Joshua. Then he goes into how Jesus is a High Priest. And not a high priest from the line of Levi, but a high priest from a better order. It goes into how Jesus’ sacrifice was better than the rams and the bulls because those continually had to be offered for sins and Jesus’ sacrifice of his own body was once for all! The writer basically describes how Jesus is better in every respect than everything that has come before, and that the new covenant he established with his death and resurrection is so much better.

The writer says because of all that let us draw near to God with confidence, let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, and make sure we meet together and keep encouraging others.

So how do we do this? How do we practically live this out? I think we make sure we are spending time with the Lord, and when we pray we pray in confidence that He hears our prayers, and that He answers prayers. We remember that God is still in control, even when things seem like they are out of control, when things are so uncertain.

Instead of focusing on each other’s faults, or weaknesses, or the latest gossip, we focus on how to stir one another up to love and good works. Elsewhere in Hebrews it talks about how we should exhort one another every day, and that doesn’t leave much room for non-edifying talk. When we meet together let’s keep all the negativity out and lets focus on Jesus, and how to be more like him. Instead of tearing each other down let’s encourage each other.

My challenge this week is for us to pick two people a day and intentionally encourage them, or show them love, in some way. Whether you send an email, shoot a text, make a phone call, or say it face to face.

Jesus is better, so let’s strive to be like Him!

A day in the life… Sort of

I don’t have a normal Monday-Friday 8-5 kind of job. So when it comes to writing a post about my typical day, I struggle. I work 8 days on and then have 4 days off. But for the 8 days on I’m split between two different cottages of kids. This past year was 4 days with girls and then 4 days with boys, but last month they pulled me from my girls cottage and put me with another boys cottage to help fill a gap since we are short-staffed. But each cottage has a different schedule and routine. They typically involve the same things just different times or ways of doing it. Then you throw in whether it’s summer when the kids are home, or during school, or even a weekend and the day is completely different as well… So all that complicated mess to say this is what most school days consist of, but it vary’s so much I can’t say it’s typical

5:50 am Wake up, breakfast and devotion with the jr high and high school boys

6:20 They leave for the bus. I get some chill time till about 6:45 when I make sure the elementary school boys are awake. We do breakfast and devotion about 7:10

7:40 They get on the bus and I then take my dog for a 45-60 minute walk

After that it’s time to get ready myself. Sometimes I’ll have training, meetings, kids doctor appointments. Occasionally I’ll get to take a nap for a bit, or catch up on a show. It all just depends on the day

12:00 Usually at least once a week I’ll get to meet a friend in town for lunch. I cherish these time as we talk Jesus, life, and encourage each other. 8 days straight gets long if you don’t get time to recharge.

1:00-2:45 Generally I’ll go to the office and turn in paperwork or pick up things, check the mail, talk to people in there, etc. I also try to walk my dog again and play with her some before the boys get home. Also during this time I plan out what I’m going to make for dinner… I used to be good about planning that out in the morning but it’s been crazy lately and I haven’t been able to.

3:15-7:00 This is study hour, tutoring if they need it, counseling appointments, dinner, and chores. I tried to remember to take pictures during this time but it’s kinda just a busy time that I forgot and couldn’t. I’m helping kids with homework, cooking, making sure the ones done with homework aren’t getting into trouble, etc.

7:00 If there is time after dinner and chores before their bed times we have free time. Sometimes we play outside or go to our gym. But lately the obsession has been playing a card game called Indian booty scratcher, or also known as egyptian rat screw. I taught this game to them a one weekend a few months back when all of them had lost electronic privileges for a few days, and they all loved it so much when they got their electronic privileges back they still wanted to keep playing the card game. So now we’ll go through phases where we play a lot and then we won’t play for a long time, just depends.

8:00-9:00 Things start to settle down, the boys are in their rooms showering and heading to bed. A few of the younger ones ask me to read to them, so we’ve been going through the chronicles of Narnia. By 9:00 the lights are all out and I’m able to go walk my dog and settle down for the night myself. I catch up on text messages, emails, occasional blogging, etc. Then I head to bed myself since I gotta be up early to start over again.

 

Joyful joyful we adore thee

I’m a pretty non-committal person. Ask me my favorite anything and I’d be pretty hard pressed to just pick one! So ask me to name five things that bring me joy; I think I can do that! So here goes… These aren’t in any particular order.

1. My dog when she is covered in mud. My dog loves to play in puddles and the mud. Even more so when she’s chasing a bug through puddles or mud. Most people think I’m crazy for allowing my white dog to do these things… But you know what… I find great joy in allowing her to have fun. If you were to ever see her play you would allow it too!
2. Changing my hair style and color… For the first 23 years of my life I had the same style and color. I ventured away once on style and hated it. I was a tomboy and all I wanted to do with my hair was put it in a ponytail. So when I got the first taste of changing my style at 23 years old it was so good. I needed more.. Now I want to change it all the time! But for now it’s growing out… I do however want it more blond than it is, which will be remedied soon.
3. My amazing kids and the awesome times that we have… Yes there are really rough times too. But even through those times they still bring me great joy. I am so incredibly thankful the Lord brought me to this job and allows me to be apart of these young men and women’s lives!
4. Studying God’s word. It’s so good, you learn so much, there are so many parallels, there is just so much good stuff. The above studies are just ones I’ve done fairly recently. But even just studying on my own is awesome too!
5. Anything to do with traveling. Road trips, flights, train rides, etc. I have the disease called wanderlust. And it brings me great joy to travel. So I try to do it fairly often. I have discovered that there is such thing as too much travel for me however. So I’m trying to find the balance.

Songs I’m Loving right now!

I’m the type of person to find a song I like and then want to hear it 80 million times in a row. I haven’t updated my iTunes account in a while so I haven’t been able to buy any of these songs yet… Probably why I still like them… I do rock out every time I hear them on the radio though!

1. Your love is fierce– by Jesus Culture. I can’t get enough of this song and it’s message. Also pondering how to fiercely love others!
2. Can’t stop the feeling– by Justin Timberlake. This was my summer jam… Last summer was shut up and dance with me.. This summer it’s good ol’ JT! how can you not just dance to this song!
3. My victory– by David Crowder. That bridge though! “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away our sin who takes away our sin, the Holy Lamb of God makes us alive again, makes us alive again”
4. Magnify– by We are Messengers. Their sound is unique and I just like it
5. Eye of the Storm– by Ryan Stevenson “When my hopes and dreams are far from me and I’m running out of faith, I see the future I pictured slowly slip away and when the tears of pain and heartache are pouring down my face I find my peace in Jesus name” been my anthem recently… not that it was anything serious that happened but still.
6. O come to the Alter– Elevation Worship

There are probably lots more I can add to this list.. But I’ll stop there… How bout y’all any of these on your list too?

2016 myspace survey

Anyone remember filling out myspace survey’s and posting them to the boards?? And all the drama that was filled in them? Ohhh the days of jr high and high school! I certainly don’t miss the drama. But I love me some survey’s!

Reading… currently just the Bible, specifically Joshua and Psalms. I can only read other books on vacation because I get too involved in them and can’t put them down to take care of my responsibilities
Playing… with my puppy dog!
Watching… Bachelor in Paradise… Also I binge watched the last 7 episodes of Limitless this week. Can’t wait till NCIS starts!
Trying… to adjust to my boys being in school again and the routine that comes with that.
Cooking… I created a casserole the other day… The boys liked it, so that’s a plus… Cooking for 8 teenage boys is a challenge sometime.. Any recipes y’all wanna throw at me I’d appreciate it
Eating… everything bad… Yikes.. Need to get my act together
Drinking… Water and sweet tea. I can’t get enough of sweet tea lately.
Calling… my boys names over and over because they are on the struggle bus with following instructions
Pinning… fun stuff.. Lol jk really nothing
Tweeting… instagram pictures… that’s all I tweet… TBH I don’t even have twitter on my phone
Going… insane… wait I was already there…
Loving… watching the Lord work through me and others here to change the culture at my work
Hating… sin… I know that sounds like a cop-out.. But really it causes so much brokenness and my kids are suffering from that brokenness and I hate it. Because I can’t take it away
Thinking… about too many things to list.. Trips, work, co-workers, life, my boys, my family, etc
Feeling… excited for changes at work, excited for new partnerships, excited for new babies in my friends lives, appreciated, valued, and loved
Hoping (for)… answered prayers!
Listening (to)… Fierce by Jesus Culture.. Soooo good… “you cannot fail, the only thing I’ve found, is through it all, you never let me down, you don’t hold back, relentless in pursuit, at every turn, I come face to face with you” Man oh man. That is my prayer for every person! To know that God!
Celebrating… the birth of lots of friends babies!
Smelling… stinky boy… Guess that’s what I get for having 8 teenage boys
Ordering… plane tickets… I know that’s more buying not ordering but still
Thanking… friends for their constant support and encouragement. For relationships that spur me on to more love and good works
Considering… What being a peacemaker, and bringing Godly wisdom into situations looks likes
Starting… to try adjusting to new boundaries.
Finishing… paperwork… have to finish paperwork

Summer time fun!

Even though the weather in Texas doesn’t think summer is over, which I love, here are some of the fun things that happened this summer!

I got my first ever pair of chacos! And I’m totally in love with them! Definitely my favorite shoe and probably 6 out of 7 days of the week you’ll find them on my feet!
Cottage vacation with my boys was a blast again this year! This was day one. I just love these boys and am so glad I got to go with them.
I forget which day this was but it was also a good day. We had some of the girls from another cottage join us since they were doing well and the other girls in their cottage were not.
Last year I got to go on my girls full vacation. This year because we are short-staffed I only got to join them for two days. But we made the most of two days and I’m thankful I got to join them for those two days as well.
Yes I went to see wicked! It is one of my favorite musicals. And I’ve been wanting to see it again for so long! I’m excited they are finally making a movie out of it!
Got to go to Orlando again this year and lay by the pool! Most people think we are crazy for being so close to Disney world and not going to it! But when you just want to relax you don’t really care about anything else. Some day I’ll get to Disney world, and harry potter world… But this trip was some much-needed R&R
In Orlando there is a restaurant called Hash House A Go Go. And they have pancakes that are as big as your torso… No joke. Last year my friend Jamie and I each got our own snickers pancakes and learned our lesson. So this year we split one… And then we realized we had batman left over… Also yes it was gluten filled, and yes the pain and sickness were so worth it! Snickers pancakes will always be worth the pain!

Blogtember Days 1 & 2

Hello there! For those of you who don’t know I’m Juliann. I grew up in California, went to college in Oregon and 6 years ago packed up and moved to Texas. I’ve built a life here with good friends, who I now consider family, and a dream job I didn’t even know how to dream up!

A few more specifics about me- I have a dog. She’s an all white Siberian husky. And she’s pretty spoiled. Although She’s almost gone up for sale a few times for destroying my things, I wouldn’t trade her for anything.

I’m a mom to a whole bunch of teenage boys, so I’m learning the world of football, tying ties, and the best way to not have your house smell like gross boys.

Sunrises and Sunsets are some of my favorite things. The Lord paints some beautiful skies here in Texas and I take tons of pictures to share the beauty.

And the most important thing about me? I love Jesus, and I strive to live my showing his love to everyone I meet.

My goals for the month are simple. 1. Start running again and be able to run 1.5 miles easily. And 2. Participate in at least half of the blogtember prompts.