This Year's Verses

All at the same time I was reading Praying Circles Around Your Children by Mark Batterson (loved that book!)  AND one of my favorite blogs (Specific post HERE).

Both of these ideas themed around the fact of praying for your kids.  "Praying" for my children was already a given, but both of these sources gave me the idea to designate Bible verses to each of my guys and pray for them through that verse.

Last year's verse was a shared verse:

"Let them grow in wisdom and stature and in favor of God and man."  (Luke 2:52)

Since this was the first time trying this, I decided to practice with the same verse for each of them.  This allowed me to think over verses all this year for the next year.  Verses that I felt would benefit them personally.  Individually.  Here's what I came up with:

Cameron, my cautious, inquisitive, planner and thinker:

Philippians 4:6 New Living Translation

"Don't worry about anything; instead pray about everything.  Tell God what you need and thank Him for all He has done."

Tate, my independent, determined, fearless two year old:

Proverbs 3: 5-6 ESV

"Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths."

Here's to another wonderful year that I get to pray for these boys.

Spring Break 2014

Well,  Spring Break, what can I say?

We had big plans.  Lots of outdoor time.  Lots of sunscreen.

It just didn't totally work out that way though did it?  It was cold, it was wet, there was vomiting involved.

At the end of it though, today being Sunday, the sun shining beautifully, I look back on this week as a total blessing.

Some much needed R&R.

This is legit sleeping

A family road trip to Georgia to see family and farm.  (Post here)

To celebrate.

Lots of time to just do nothing with my guys.  Chuck E Cheese, bowling, jumping with great friends.

                                                                                                                    


To even read a book that's been on my list for a long time!  (The Help- I know, I'm behind, but it was SO worth the wait!)

Lots of time to get to a few Honey-do list/school list items and a 10K family run.

Maybe it was rainy and cold last week so that I could appreciate just being.

Well played Spring Break.  Lesson Learned.

My Inspiration Today

445

These are words that I am clinging to today.  I am a huge fan of finding inspiration through scripture.  Even small ones like this.  I love to pick verses to apply to different parts of my life.  I even pray verses specifically for my children.

Having said that, I feel that a lot of confusion is sometimes created when reading bible verses all by themselves like this one.  I feel that that is where many misconceptions and different interpretations come into play.  I should say, that this contributes, there will still be different perspectives.  Kind of like the verse that talks about it being harder for rich people to get into heaven than a camel going through the eye of a needle.  Without context that verse has been torn apart and misconstrued and put into a lot of weird places.

Either way, allow me to share this, Matthew 5:6 is coming from the Sermon on the Mount.  Basically, Jesus has been baptized, met some of his disciples, was tempted by Satan during his fast, and began his ministry.  He actually spoke these words in a section of the Bible (in the Sermon on the Mount) called the Beatitudes.

I feel that Jesus came and rocked the world.  He really shook up a place and time where religion had taken over and worship was being misplaced by rules and statuses.  He says a lot of things that aren't necessarily easy for strict law followers to grasp.  Things that this girl sometimes often has to revisit and put in check.  Things like, instead of an eye for an eye, turn your cheek.  Etc.

Now that there is a very (very,very, very) short and detail lacking Kelly version of a context I want to get to my point.  This verse is inspiring me today.  In a world of busy and crazy, I start to question what I am hungry and thirsty for.  What are my priorities?  For crying out loud, how many priorities am I going to have before nothing is a priority anymore?  What are my motives?  Are they focused on righteousness?  Jesus?  Others?  or are they focused on Kelly?

Oh, and don't forget the comma.  The Bible is so good at adding "so's" and "therefores" and commas.  Sometimes these also lead to misconceptions.  People stop reading and don't read really good parts!  Just like the bus driver tells us about the Pigeon driving his bus, "Don't forget the comma!"

This time the comma is the best part, this time it's a promise folks!  "for they shall be satisfied".(446)  Sigh.  Swoon.

How I am taking this today is:

"Kelly.  Hunger and thirst for righteousness.  This is how you will be blessed.  I promise, you'll be satisfied."

That is what I am pondering over today.  I hope it inspires you.

By the way, Dictionary.com says this:

right·eous

  [rahy-chuhs]  Show IPA

adjective

1.

characterized by uprightness or morality: a righteous observance of the law.

2.

morally right or justifiable: righteous indignation.

3.

acting in an upright, moral way; virtuous: a righteous and godly person.

4.

Slang. absolutely genuine or wonderful: some righteous playing by a jazz great.

One Lucky Winner

Yay!  The winner of the C'est Si Bon scripture book is:

Julie Allen! (425) 

I am going to be emailing you, but if you read this before then, you are welcome to email me at ten000reasons@gmail.com to let me know which of the scripture books you want!  

Just so you all know, this scripture book is going to be causing some great encouragement.  Julie's husband Josh is being deployed to Russia at the end of this month so she's making it for him.  If you could join me in praying for Josh, Julie and their sweet 1 month old baby James (with the awesome hair) then I would love that!  

Congratulations! 

Thank you everyone who participated!!  We had 18 entries in our first giveaway!  Yay!  (426-443)  If you didn't win, that's okay, the C'est si Bon scripture books are still available to you!  You can check out the Etsy shop here

And, oops, I forgot to post yesterday to tell you that I was featured on TBMB (here) discussing "baby swapping".  Feel free to check it out!  As usual, I love to hear your comments!

Encouragement and a GIVEAWAY!!!

Encouragement is SUCH an important gift.  I was just talking to someone today about how important it is to actually share encouragement rather than hang on to it.

In a world (and an Internet) where everyone is seemingly so interested in sharing their negative opinions despite the reaction of the recipients, it is so refreshing to receive some good news, some "way to go's" and some "you are specials... Really!"

Look at this:

Or perhaps this:

Or if you're like me, look at my favorite:

You might be thinking, "Okay Kelly, these are pretty, but what do they have to do with encouragement?"  Well first let me inform you that these are all pictures of books.  I wanted you to see them before I explained them so that you could judge them by their ever-so-adorable covers.  Now I'll tell you what they are.

Kristen is the lovely and inspiring mama behind the also lovely and inspiring C'est Si Bon Blog (link). 412 She has inspired once again by coming out with an (obviously) amazing line of scripture books.

Kristen has personalized verses for special occasions (babies, weddings, anniversaries, every day, etc.) and puts people's names directly into the verses.  I have to say that I have been praying verses with my guy's names in them for quite some time now and it really does leave an impact!  Talk about encouragement!  How poetic it is to be using ancient life guidelines that are still so applicable today!

In her words:

"it is so good to encourage one another.

it is so good to love one another.

it is so good to be a true friend.

it is so good to celebrate one another.

it is so good to comfort one another.

it is oh. so. very. so. good.

and what better way to do all of these good things

than by sharing the Word of the Lord with one another.

each book is hand crafted using high quality chipboard albums.

luxe paper. & beautiful embellishments.

the pages are overflowing with scripture. with the recipients name entered in.

"for God so loved Baby Patrick, that He gave His only son . . ."

such a powerful way to remind ourselves of the promises we stand on.

i just love how personal the scriptures become when we add our name in."

(Link)

If you love these books and have someone in mind that you'd like to encourage with scripture, then I really encourage you to go and visit her Etsy shop (here) or to go and check out her blog where she really dives deep into the makings that go behind each gorgeous book. (link)

Now that you've done that I can tell you that this is where the "Giveaway" title of this post comes from.  Are you ready for this?

Ten Thousand Reasons Blog and C'est si Bon are proud to announce a first!  413  We are putting together a giveaway Scripture Book to one lucky reader!  Yes!  You can have the chance to get your very own scripture book if you follow the guidelines below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck to everyone!  Thank you for encouraging me!  Now go and encourage someone today!  

So I Have This Friend...

... Who also happens to be a published author.  That is just fun to say.  I knew as soon as I was accepted to be a contributor for Tampa Bay Moms Blog that it was going to be cool for a multitude of reasons.

K.D. Brown is another wonderful contributor for TBMB, as well as a mommy herself.  In all of her spare time (haha), she happens to write children's books.  Two of her books have recently been published by Tate (gotta love that name!) Publishing and are coming out on the market!  Yahoo!

The stories are Four Lucky Leaves (377) which is being released on 11/19/13 and Hi, God (378) which is coming out on 11/12/13

                                                          

I have personally read both of these lovelies and they are so darn sweet!  In the writer's (doesn't that just sound so official!?) words:

"I wrote Four Lucky Leaves to teach kids that our differences are what make us special. I wrote Hi, God to show kids that it's not important how we begin a prayer, just that we talk to God." (KD Brown)

I can totally see Hi, God being taught in Sunday Schools across America.  Hey, I think that I even learned something about prayer through the sweet tale!

If (when) you'd like more information regarding either of these stories then it, can be found on her blog at www.kdbrownwriter.blogspot.com. There's a "Children's Books" tab that outlines everything and a link to that page is http://kdbrownwriter.blogspot.com/p/childrens-books.html. They will each be $6.99 on paperback but can also be purchased as ebooks for $5.99!

If you're local, you can also look for her to do readings around town, all of that info will be on her sites.

Way to go K.D., thanks for being an inspiring mama!

"Children Are Made Readers on the Laps of Their Parents."

That's a favorite quote of mine that I found somewhere on Pinterest, but have lost it.  I'm thinking about smacking  it on a bookmark to pass out at the Back to School picnic next year.  

Anywho, I'm a teacher.  My husband is a teacher.  My Mom reads a billion page novel just about every day.  If I could read blogs for a living, I just might.  Needless to say,  a lot of reading goes on around here.  

Luckily, it's contagious and it's spreading onto our children.  I wanted to discuss a book that we've been reading a lot of lately.  It's pretty much changing our home and our lives.  It's a book series really and we can't seem to be getting enough of it.  

What is this real page turner I'm discussing?  It's the Llama Llama series by Anna Dewdney whose website is here.  This series was introduced to us at Christmas when my Aunt Tracy and her family bought us one of the books as a gift.

Llama Llama is a normal child llama who is learning lessons right along with his Llama Mama.  It rhymes.  It's funny.  It's sweet.  It makes us think.  It teaches us lessons.  We can relate and make connections to the characters.  Plus it has fun pictures.  It's a book that is fun for the whole family.  In other words, we read it a lot and I recommend it.

If you didn't check out Anna Dewdney's webpage, then I should tell you that there are many books in this series.  We currently love, Llama Llama Red Pajama, Llama Llama Mad at Mama, and Llama Llama Home with Mama.

This guy is my 300th reason for my heart to sing on this blog!  

                                               

HUGE News 73

I have a slight confession...  I wrote this post on Sunday.  I knew already that it had sold and that it was scheduled to close this week (potentially, you know how these things go).  The house pictured below has SO many reasons for my heart to sing attached to it. 

 Another confession...  My heart has not always sung about this house.  Well, perhaps it was singing, but it was one of those annoying, whiny songs that have way too many long, drawn out notes.  You see, it has been a huge financial burden on our little family for a really long time now, but as you'll see below, it has come full circle.  

Not a photographer.  

This may be longer than my average post, but this is a truly monumental turning point for us.

74.  This was our first home as a young married couple.  When we came home from our Honeymoon, this is where we came.  We're one of those old school couples that didn't live together before getting married so we really started out together right here.

75.  We got to experience that new married couple old house fun, like a broken AC (the first time we turned it on.  After the inspection), a flooded garage (resulting in a new washer and dryer, and a busted dishwasher the first time we used it.  Those seemed stressful, but deep down, I loved every second of it.

76.  We put a lot of love and personal touch into this house and with that came a huge sense of satisfaction and personalization.  The inside was pretty much done (besides issues noted above) when we bought it, but the outside was...  Ugh.  We laid a concrete driveway and patio in the back, we made the little garden, we laid all of the sod (by hand.  the week of our wedding), put in a fence, and put up the pretty front door.

77.  We were privileged to be "landlords" of this house to our besties.  It was so fun to watch another brand newly married couple get off to a great start of their marriage in this little home.  I hope that they will always think of their times under that roof as happy ones and I hope that they can think of this house as a blessing to them also.

78.  This house brought me to a whole new level when it came to praying.  What happened with the sale of this house was completely out of my control.  The Circle Maker  book that I am completely obsessed with talks about praying through...  AKA keep on praying and pray hard.  I had worked like it depended on me and the only thing that I could do after that was to pray like it depended on God.  He came through.  Big time.  Honestly, this is the first time that this control freak was able to step back and let it go.

79.  I think that there might be some kind of theory about needing information and just then the right kind of teacher shows up (I'm really bad at phrases).  I wanted to share this quote that I came across just this week. Coincidence?  Maybe, but how many coincidences does one have to experience before they start thinking that it is coming from elsewhere?

"We continue to shout our praise even when we're hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we're never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary - we can't round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!"- (Paul, Romans 5:2-5)

Right now, my containers feel pretty over-flowy!  Patience is so hard sometimes, but in the end, it always makes sense!  Even what I considered troubles can make sense now.  Do I like them, no way, but I feel like I "get" them now.

Now I hope that this house can bless it's new homeowner.  It's amazing what it has done for us. 

Farewell to 4348.

Giving

To me, it is one of life's great ironies... When you give, you get more than what you gave.

Today our family (all 16 of us) went to downtown to feed the hungry.  We made sandwiches, chips, apples, and water.  The kids decorated bags and packed them.  We handed them out.  It just felt good.  (57)

Even the 2 year old got it.  As we're driving away from the experience, our conversation went like this...

C- "We gave man our lunch."

Us- "Yes, C.  He didn't have any food for lunch and we did so we gave him some to eat."

C- "Yeah.  We share lunch."

Oh my gosh, it hardly gets sweeter than a conversation like that!  I have to admit that I wasn't thinking that he was going to get it.  But on his own level, he did.  I can't express the happiness I felt knowing that he felt good helping someone out.  (58)

We may have given those people some meals, but we walked away with SO much more.  I feel so grateful for the lesson and experience that they gave our family.  It's important to us that we raise our boys knowing that there are needs and wanting to fill them.  Holidays are so fun and I love the traditions that go along with them, but I want them to get more than just the receiving end of the holidays.  I want them to get giving.  I also really want to give them experiences and I can't wait to turn something like this into a tradition.

Before going, we read a story about our favorite role model. (59)  Especially when it comes to giving.  We read a story to all of the kids (and adults) from Luke 17 where Jesus heals some men with Leprosy.  It's a good read if you're wondering.

If the Bible isn't your favorite read then know that giving isn't just in the Bible.  I know that Christian people aren't the only ones who can be good at giving!  I also read in Good Housekeeping Magazine this week that giving is a good habit of people who are happy.  I have to agree!

If you have given or are giving please let me know, let our hearts sing together!

20 Reasons in 1 Blog Post

Yes sir and ma'am, you are looking at 20 (and a half) dollars in rolled pennies. (29-49) 

At first, I thought that it would be considered cheating to put 20 reasons all with this picture.  Considering that this is over 2000 pennies , I had lots of time to ponder over it.  I eventually decided that each dollar should count as a reason because of the time and labor put into rolling each and every one of them.  

At the end of the day, it took time.  Now it feels totally rewarding.  I feel like just about all things that take time and effort end up being rewarding.  

Time is not all.  Completely coincidentally, I just started reading The Happiness Project (50) by Gretchen Rubin. One of her first tasks that she took on to begin her happiness project was to "tackle a nagging task".  This was one of my many nagging tasks.  

So there you have it.  I really recommend the book and the advice of tackling a nagging task.  Both made me feel happy and accomplished. 

Tackled any nagging tasks lately?  Do you plan to?  Let me know!