Finding Fulfillment Gods Way.

Lately I have been seeing a lot of things like this around: 

Find fulfillment in yourself, only you can change you. 

Fulfillment: 10 Steps to loving your life. 

Every change begins with your first step. Be strong enough to take it. 

Fulfillment doesn't come from your partner, it comes from within. 

Or pictures like this: 

Now, at first glance, this looks like not such a bad thing, find your fulfillment in yourself, don't feel you need a partner or friend to be your fulfillment/change your life. 

But there is something deeply wrong with this statement. 

And this sentiment is everywhere in our culture. The 'me' focused attitude. 

I'm telling you right now folks, if you try to find fulfillment in yourself... you never will. Ever. 

Christ is the only way you will find fulfillment. Christ is the only way you will ever find fulfillment in this life. You won't find fulfillment in a husband, in friends, in self actualization, in partying, or in clothing. 

Women are built with deep desires for emotional and social closeness. And we seek to fill this need with people, especially our husbands. We spend years hunting for the 'perfect man', for 'prince charming', only to find that once the shining armor comes off, that Prince Charming is just another guy who farts and has faults... just like everyone else. You try to make it work, but just like you're not perfect, he's not perfect, and something goes missing. Some need of yours is unmet. You decide he can't make you happy, so you leave. 

And that is perfectly acceptable in this world. 

No wonder the divorce rate is so high. 

No man will ever make you fully happy. Ever. 

The way to deal with that is lean on Christ. All of those things you need and want, Christ alone can fill them all. Christ will be the one person who will. 

When you feel like all the world is closing in and you're so alone... lean on Christ, and HE will be the one to fill your every longing. 

- Adele

Thank You Lord.

Thank you Lord for... 

Baby smiles.

The sound of my children playing together.

Late night fire truck rides.

Bedtime prayers.

Playing in the grass. 

Moments of clarity.

Snuggles. 

Family. 

- Adele

Biblical Womanhood Sunday: Appreciating my husband, 51 ways to show him I love him.

(Hey everyone, so this WAS written on Sunday. But then Wiggles got REALLY sick. Long story short, we went to the hospital, she's fine now, but my post is a little late.)

Appreciating my Husband: I fail so badly.

51 ways to show him I love him. 

You see this photo? There is a very specific reason I chose this photo for this post. It's not because I look great in it, or because it's some magical thing my kids did that I think the whole world should gawk at. No, I chose this photo because it, it's little bitty self, a bunch of pixels on a screen, so sums up my husband. 

He's got my daughter in one arm, his arm wrapped around my son with his other.. and his elbow is holding me up from toppling on the floor. And he looks so HAPPY to be right there, being the glue holding us together. 

That is who my husband is. He is the rock every person in my house leans on.

He is the smile on my childrens face everyday at 3:30 when he gets off work. He is play time, and prayer time, and that soft voice after they've been rebuked by his hard voice. He is snuggle time and love. 

For me? He is my rock. My calm in the storm. My voice of reason when my emotional side is out in la-la land ignoring half the facts. He is the one single person who I can honestly say gets me. All of me. Who knows my weaknesses, and who isn't afraid to tell me. The person who looks at me and in one question tears down my facade and sees where I'm struggling, and isn't afraid to poke a bit to get me back on track, especially when it comes to my spiritual walk. 

My husband is, I'm convinced, the entire reason God brought me all the way out to Ontario. Because the person he is making me... needs this man beside her. Not only as her mate, but as her friend, and accountability partner. This man, in all his craziness, draws me closer to the Lord everyday. Like no one else has. Through being with him... my being with Christ has become richer and more deep than any other time in my life. Why? Because HE leans on Christ. His whole world is permeated with the love of Jesus, and he wants nothing more than to see Christ glorified in my life. 

I love that about him. 

Now, here's the funny thing. I find it really hard to tell him these things. I find it really hard to sit down and express these things to him out loud. Sure, I can write them here... but practically putting them into actions is HARD. 

So this is my brainstorm if you'd like, of things to do for my husband to help him feel more appreciated. I'm going to make a list of 51. One every week for a whole year. And I'm going to do them all. Why? Because he deserves to know how much we love him. 

Some of these will involve our children, some not. I'll choose at the beginning of each week which I'm gonna do, and I'll cross them off my list. By this week next year, I'll have done all of them. I'll keep you guys filled in on the progress made. Please note: Not all of these will be things will be things that he will notice at first. Some of these things... are things that will just make his life easier. That's part of this. My husband works hard at a physically intensive job. Doing small things to make his life easier is one way I can show him I love him. 

Some of these are repeated. This is because these are things I know he really appreciates. 

1: Place at least one note a day around the house of things I appreciate about him. 

2: Send the kids to a babysitter for the night, make his favourite meal, plus his favourite dessert, and have us time. 

3: Have a 'I love Daddy' day with Flash and Wiggles. Make handprint Christmas ornaments, and write something they love about their dad on the other side.

4: Don't ask him to do anything the entire week. Let him walk in the house and do nothing but sit. If he offers, say no, he deserves to rest.

5. Enter every contest I can to get spitz(Sports team around here) tickets. Hopefully get some. Surprise him with a sports night for him and I. Don't complain of how long the game is taking. 

** If I can't get tickets, we will watch an nfl(Bengals) game at home, and I will make nachos and cheese, and try to cheer for the right team. XD

6. Make a solid effort to never interrupt him while he is speaking, the entire week. (I'm really bad for this and it's one of his biggest pet peeves.)

7: Have the house clean everyday when he gets home, no matter what it takes. He loves coming home to a clean house.

8: Give him back rubs. Do some research on massage. Give him one every night.

9: Get dressed up. Everyday. Do my makeup, get well dressed, shave, do my hair, everything. If he asks, let him know it's for him. 

10: Make him a coupon book full of favours and things he loves. 

11: Take time to cuddle with him at least once a day. 

12: Praise him verbally at least once a day. 

13: Make his favourite cookies. 

14: Clean the car out while he's at work. 

15: Find ways to touch him. His hand, his back... anything. Be extra aware of touch this week. 

16: Make all three of his favourite meals. have them ready for him when he walks in the door.

17: Don't complain. Let a whole week go by where only pleasantness passes your lips. 

18: Have a wii night with the kids. Talk to the kids before hand and let him choose all the levels and things. 

19: Send the kids to a babysitter for the night, make his favourite meal, plus his favourite dessert, and have us time.

20. Find ways to touch him. His hand, his back... anything. Be extra aware of touch this week.

21: Praise him verbally at least once a day. 

22: Get dressed up. Everyday. Do my makeup, get well dressed, shave, do my hair, everything. If he asks, let him know it's for him. 

23: Give him back rubs. Do some research on massage. Give him one every night.

24: Watch a game with him. Be interested. 

25: Kiss him. Everywhere. Anywhere. Take time at least once a day to kiss him outside of our normal good bye kisses. 

26: Get a babysitter. Have us time, even if that means just sitting on the couch and watching a movie cause we're so exhausted. 

27: Save up the pennies. Take him for dinner on me. 

28: Do a chore he normally does to make your life easier. For me this is laundry. It's hard for me going up and down the stairs while pregnant, so he does it. But he hates laundry. So I'll do it for a week, hopefully getting it all done, so he doesn't have to. 

29: Get up before he does and have breakfast ready before he goes to work. For those of us who are night owls, this one might be a big sacrifice. :)

30: Tell your kids the things you love about him. In front of him, and not. 

31: Clean the entire house as a surprise for him. Enlist the kids if possible, have them make a sign telling Daddy how much they love him. 

32: Let him nap. In fact, insist he naps. At least once this week. :) 

33: Spend a night watching his favourite show. Specifically one you hate. Don't complain, smile and like it. 

34: Don't ask him to do anything all week. Let him just relax. 

35: Let him nap. In fact, insist he naps, at least once this week. 

36: Make his lunches and have them ready for  him everyday this week. Go out of your way to make them special.

37: Praise him verbally at least once a day.

38: Wii night with the kids! 

39: Get dressed up everyday. Let him know it's for him. 

40: Have the kids help making a special meal for him. Set the table nicely, get the kids dressed up, have a meal you all love. Enjoy the night.

41: Take at least an hour every night to simply cuddle with your husband. A little physical touch goes a long way. 

42: Be extra kind. Be very aware of how you are dealing with your husband and children. Don't yell, don't snap. Let kindness permeate your life this week. 

43: Don't complain, let only pleasantness pass your lips this week. 

44: Have the kids make him breakfast in bed. Spend the morning cuddling as a family. Make a backup meal in case the kids meal turns out really bad. :P 

*****WARNING: These next things are sexual in nature. Nothing graphic, but lets be  honest wives out there, our husbands are sexual beings. To neglect these things from this list would be a shame. I debated a long time about putting these in here, but the Bible talks a lot about sex between husbands and wives, and God delights in sex in marriage, so we should too. So here goes.******

45: Initiate sexual activities. There really is no better way to let your husband know you still think he's sexy. 

46. Whisper to him how much you want him. At least ONCE this week. In public is better.

47: Wear something you knew he finds you unbearably sexy in. If this is underthings... let him know you're wearing them in a public place, or while he's at work.

48: Do something in bed you aren't super fond of, but he loves. Revel in it. Learn to enjoy it. Take pleasure in knowing that his pleasure is your pleasure. 

49: Tease him. Touch him intimately through out the day until all he can think about is you. Make sure to follow through at night. 

50: Initiate. 

51: Spend some time honestly talking about your sex life with your husband. Listen, don't take offense if he says something you don't like.

___ 

So there you have it ladies! My list! I'm going to start this next Sunday! I'll let you know how it goes! 

Gender Reveal, Kid #3, Pregnancy, and finally getting excited!

Ok everyone! So we went for ultrasound number 4 last week... and the baby is... A BOY! 

Yey!

Flash and Caleb wanted a boy SO BADLY. I mean when we told Flash that Wiggles was a girl he pouted for 3 days about how he wanted a brother before he got over it and started loving his sister. It's so funny now, cause when he gives me hugs, he gives my stomach one for his brother too. I think he's more excited than I am.

As for how this pregnancy is going, have any other moms out there noticed that with any child but your first, you don't have time to worry or sometimes even notice you're pregnant? Seriously, with the first one, that's all I thought about, was being pregnant. Now I'm so busy running after Wiggles and keeping my house in order, if I have time once a day to maybe do a kick count... I'm lucky. By this time in my first pregnancy I had been to the hospital twice. This time my midwife asks me if anything is wrong and I answer honestly, "If there is, I don't have time to notice.  No blood, so that's good..." She just laughs and says "Yeah, it's like that with the second."

On the other hand, I feel like this entire pregnancy I was living in a haze of "Oh my Gosh... 2 under 1..." And kinda freaking out. Now that I have a name, and can put a 'person' on this little thing that kicks the crap outta my bladder most days... I'm starting to actually look forward to having this baby, as opposed to just dread. Which is super exciting for me. It helps that Flash is so excited, his excitement is catching I tell you!

So so far, everything is good. In the next little bit you're gonna see more posts on labour and baby and getting prepared. We're making all efforts to go naturally with this one, so I'm stressing, so that's where my mind is. :P

- Adele

Getting organized with a family binder!

Lately I have been struggling with keeping up, in case the lack of blogging hasn't been enough of an indication. The good news is it's getting better, but it took a lot of work, and a lot of prayer. 

One big tool for me starting to get organized was my family binder. I finally sat down and made one that is functional for me. I'm going to talk a little about my family binder, but I'm not going to provide printables. Instead, I'm going to show you how I made mine work, and help give you the tools to make one that will work for you. 

I struggled a lot with using others peoples pages. I got bogged down in the sheer amount of pages out there, and it caused my to struggle to put one together.

A couple days ago, I got tired of it, scrapped all the pages I had printed off elsewhere, and set out to make my own. They weren't going to be super pretty, but they would be what I needed. I made a list of the things I would practically use. I wanted this to be a book I could love on, this is the list I came up with. 

- Address Book/Phone Numbers 

Because I don't have a cell phone anymore, and I'm getting tired of getting numbers from my hubby. 

- Budget

Caleb wants me to take over the budget, and this was a necessary page for me. 

- Spending Tracking

I actually ended up making this a cheque book kept in the book in a pocket after some thought. 

- List of Meals

I don't know about you, but when I get to sit down and actually plan my menu... I blank. This is a list of all the meals I can make. Sides, entrees, lunches... the whole bit. Makes menu planning so much easier. Makes it so I don't have to rely on my faulty memory as much. 

- Appointments

This page is a simple list with who/why/where/time. The next page is a card holder with any appointment cards that were given. I'm famous for forgetting appointments, but regular things I don't need reminding of, so I found a full calendar or day planner tedious. This lets me see all my appointments at one glance. 

- Dreamlist

This is the list of the things I want to do in each room. My 'dream list' for each one. Split up into "Now - Cheap", "Later - Cheap", and "Later - Expensive". This is also my brain storm for home decorating and things. It's nice to have some solid ideas. 

- Menu Notebook

This is a normal Hilroy notebook. I put it in there, and I use it to plan my menus in. I hate menu planning sheets, cause I shuffle things so much. I don't mind marking up a notebook. This is also where my grocery lists are. 

That's all folks! It's not very thick, but it's the most functional binder in my house! It doesn't have anything I don't need in it, and it works great for us! 

Here's a sample of what one of my pages looks like! 

See? Super simple and functional! 

Now for choosing your own notebook pages! First off, I recommend, make your own! It's not that hard, use word if you don't mind it not being pretty, and if you want it pretty, use a simple drawing program like GIMP. This allows you to make them how you want them, in a way that makes sense to you. 

Second off, choose what pages will actually work for you. Don't get pressured into putting something into your binder you're not gonna use! Sit down and think about things you struggle with. For me it was scheduling and budgeting. So that's what my binder focuses around. Yours might be around homeschooling, or include things for planning your family! You never know. 

Third off, put them in a place you will use them. This means for me it stays right near my computer, where I can write things down when I think of them, since when I'm at my computer is the only time I'm not chasing Wiggles around, thus the only time I really think. Find the place you think, and keep it near. It'll help you actually use it. 

That's all I have! I'd LOVE to hear your suggestions for family binders! 

- Adele