Goodbye 2008...Hello 2009

Wow...it's the last day of 2008.

It's the end of a year...but it's really not the end. It's the end of writing 2008 yes, but it doesn't mean that life stops and that we don't continue. Last night I went back and reread a bunch of my posts from this year...its was mighty eventful for my family. We had a crazy year..and yet would easy be any better. So here is some of my thoughts looking forward to 2009

1. I want a deeper relationship with God. I have grown this year but I need to grow more. I so often fall into the poor me's and whine and complain. I want to look at my life the way God sees me and strive to be more holy.

2. I want to be a better wife to my husband. I honestly don't know how I am going to do this but it is a goal for next year. If you have any ideas on how to do this or a book that you found helpful(outside of the Bible, I'm doing a study on what Scripture says currently) I would love to know!

3. I want to be a better mom and train my children to love God, to be neater, to be accountable. I want to give lots of hugs and yell less. I want to make home a place that they love to be. I want to be less frustrated and more loving.

4. I want to be a better cook. I want to be able to make more foods that are yummy, nutricious and cost effective. I'm not gifted in this area and feel I have lots of room for improvement.

5. I want to be a better housekeeper. I want to not get lazy and be messy...very hard for me!

So those are my thoughts as we begin a new calendar year. I am thankful for all that God has done for me this year. I am thankful for all the lessons I have learned this year. I am thankful that I have a loving God who takes good care of me.

Thank you God

Last night I was very frustrated and discouraged. I had trouble sleeping and so instead of reading fiction like I sometimes do I turned to Scripture. I was wrestling with feeling low and unaffirmed and the following was so obvious.

I was looking in the wrong place for affirmation. I don't need the affirmation of the world. So last night I looked over the Psalm that our pastor is preaching over and I don't need to find my happiness in my family or my home. My happiness needs to be resting in God. He needs to be my focus. I need to remember that God loves me more than I can ever imagine and He will supply the things that I need. I don't need to be affirmed by my family, I don't need to affirm myself. I need to be content whether on a Mountaintop place or down in a valley. I need to be relying on the strength of God not my own Strength. I need to wait on the Lord and not think that things need to be the way I want them.

I need to seek the Lord and His plan for me. I need to trust in Him and acknowledge His ways. I need to make Him my focus first and then my family. I need to love my Husband and submit and let him lead our family(something I am not good at) because that is God's design for the family. Please pray for me as I work on being a good wife and mom that I would make Jesus and pleasing the Lord a bigger focus and let my family benefit from me being the person God wants me to be.

Dealing with Discouragement

Recently I have been struggling with my feelings regarding my family. On the one hand I am incredibly blessed to be the wife and mom of this great family. My children are thriving, my husband has a good job and provides for us well but at the same time I am frustrated and overwhelmed. Some days I feel like nothing more than a glorified maid and chef (and not a very good one at that) who lives in the house. I feel like I can't do anything right and when I get stuff done it's no big deal or just mom taking care of things. It's hard. I don't feel like I am being supported in what I am doing and it's draining.

My husband is a good guy but there are days when I feel like he is demanding so much more than I can deliver...he wants things fixed immediately and he wants things done his way. I understand his point of view but at the same time when you only see someone 3 days a week and they are discouraging and grumpy its hard. I haven't been responding the way that I need to either, I get very catty and frustrated easily. He thinks that his way is best but instead of working with me to get stuff done it's his way only that he thinks should be done. I simply do not think like him, things that work for him do not make sense to me. Plus, he thinks from the perspective of a singular individual and I think how would this work for 4 people. He cares nothing for the way things look--he is very male--but I need things to be more asethically pleasing. I am working on my attitude but it is so hard when I do the majority of everything in our lives. Since my schedule is different I end up bearing the weight of making phone calls, and getting stuff done.

I don't know why I am writing this...I am feeling discouraged and needing to get my thoughts down where I can read them at a later point. If you have any ideas on things that work when dealing with a stressful situation and making things work when you feel very low please leave me a note...

Christmas Snapshots

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

You be the Judge

Would you say that this is Fun or Noise...please leave your vote in the comments section.

A big Thank you to Dear Aunt Debbie for making our Christmas more full of joy and music.

Merry Christmas

From our little house in Missouri to wherever you may be...the Jonathan's wish you a very Merry Christmas...may we remember the true meaning of the Season and the Love that was shown on our behalf.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Cookie Baking...so yummy

Sunday night we made a batch of roll out sugar cookies. The kids did all the rolling out themselves. We had a fun night of playing together and being a family.

Janea is very careful!
Jaron makes a Christmas Tree

Frosting and Sugar make them extra yummy

Teamwork!

Janea had frosting on her face!

Christmas Break!!!

YEAH!!!!

Christmas Break is hear with it's much needed battery recharging time.

I am so thankful to be able to spend time with my family and enjoy Christmas with them!

The presents are almost all bought, we are making goodies to share, and just enjoying being a cozy family in our home.

To everyone who may read this...let me say....

Merry Christmas!!!!

Will we have school or not???

That is the question right now...there is icing possiblities here in the Kansas City area and I don't know if we will have school tomorrow or not. It's a little nerve wracking...

Feeling a little Guilty

This morning Dan walks in our room at 6:11 and wakes me up by asking what the number for the kids school is. I thought he meant the phone number and he meant the district number. I told him and he tells me the kids have a snow day today!

So I am home today with my kids, I lose a day of pay and I feel slightly guilty since I am leaving my coteacher on her own today. I am hoping that many kids stay home because it is still snowing today. However, I do feel it is important for me to be with my kids as they stay home today.

Oh Christmas Tree...how lovely are your branches

Here are a few pictures of our Christmas Tree this year!

Lots and Lots of Tape

Just a warning to anyone getting a present from us this year....the kids are doing a lot of the wrapping....all by themselves!~They are covered with tape! It's actually kinda cute...or it's a mom thing...I'm not sure!

Christmas Concert 2008

Tonight was the schools Christmas Concert...at my school. It went well, the students did a good job and showed off their hard work and boy am I tired from helping to corral them. It was a good night but I don't want another recital for some time!

Janea and Jaron got to hang with Grandma and Grandpa for the evening. Mom and Dad picked them up and they went out for pizza and then back to grandma's house to make cookie dough for us to bake on Saturday! They are getting to be good little bakers!

Busy weekend ahead and hopefully I can get together with a friend from my Bible College days and get my house just a little bit cleaner!

On a side note, I got more Christmas shopping done today....my sister now has a gift from us and I will get the other half of my dads gift this weekend! Almost done! HOORAY!

A Cold and Wintry Day!

So as if today wasn't busy to begin with it certainly was made more exciting by the 2+ inches of snow that fell here today!

My parents and I went to see Janea in her Christmas program at school today. She did a good job and so did the kids. It was definitely a 3rd grade performance but they did a good job! Well, when we got to the school it wasn't snowing or raining. When we left almost an hour later it was snowing and it was starting to stick! I then left to go to work and it took me longer as the roads were getting slicker and slicker. I had an uneventful afternoon and work and then the adventure began!

The kids school district cancelled all after school activities so they didn't have Good News Club and so they rode the bus home. Well, traffic was nuts, I couldn't go past 40 on any road and my 22 minute drive took about an hour. Just as I am getting close to home my phone rings and it's the bus driver. Praise God she kept my kids on the bus longer and then called me and was understanding that I got stuck in the nasty weather! I am so grateful for the people who help me take good care of my kids!

Janea's program was cancelled for this evening...so it's a good thing I went this morning since it looks like it will be resceduled for Monday night and I have my Christmas party for work. So we have to look at things to see if Janea can participate or not. I am glad to be home safe and sound and not needing to go anywhere else this evening.

2 pills for a buck

Both kids have bad colds and are not feeling 100% so I made them take Tylenol before they left for school this morning. Jaron did not want to take it...so I told him if he took the Tylenol I would pay him a dollar...so he took it...and I paid him a dollar...if this keeps up I'll be broke!

Busy Busy Busy

That's what our week looks like...and wouldn't you know it the kiddos aren't feeling too good!

*Tuesday we have Janea's school Christmas program...she is the understudy for a speaking part and so she will get to perform in the 10:00 performance at school. Grandma, Grandpa and I are all going to support her. Then in the evening she will perform with the chorus in the final performance! I'm excited to see the performance since she has been singing the songs for like a month! Between the school play and the upcoming kids program at church we are practicing like crazy!

*Wednesday night we have AWANA! I'll be a few leaders short but hopefully we will have enough leaders to cover the kids as they say sections. I'm not worried about Gametime too much.

*Thursday night the kiddos are going to Grandma's since my school is having their Christmas program and it's a piano and violin recital and I don't think that my children will be up for it so they get to visit the grandparents and I will go and support the kiddos in my class!

On the upside there are only 13 more days of school until Christmas break and then I will have some time off! YEAH! Plus we are going to grandmas to bake cookies and make other goodies this weekend!

On the homefront, I am trying to stay diligent and be a better steward of my time and finish jobs. I am making progress on the living room and kitchen but need to apply myself better in the dining room/office and our bedrooms. At least in the bedrooms I can shut the doors! All in all God is showing His Faithfulness to us by providing for our needs and helping us to get through everything that needs to be gotten through!

Sparkly Christmas Land

We took the kids out to Longview Lake last night! It was a lot of fun. Jaron enjoyed all the different displays of lights! He was giggling and carrying on in the back seat with his Sister.

They had such a good time! Here are some really not so great photos of the various displays. If you are in the area you should go and see the lights.. One tip from us to you if you go try to get there as close to 5:30 when they open so that you are in line for a shorter amount of time!

I didn't want too

Ever have one of those times when you don't want to do something and you whine and complain and throw an inner tantrum cuz what 30 something looks good throwing themselves on the floor and crying? I had one of those today. It was a tough day at school. The kids were crazy and cranky, I was tired and cranky, it was just a cranky day! So I get home from this what seems like extra long terrible day and wouldn't you know it I can't crawl in bed and watch TV and turn off the world like I want it's Wednesday and that means AWANA. And I don't wanna go! However this is my ministry and God wants me there and I need to be there since I am the director and the kids are important. So I rest for a while and then go...well I am now glad I did go. One of my kids needed me to be there to hug on her and love her and another boy had a rough night and needed me to be there and hug on him and love him...I didn't want to go but I did and I am glad for it!

We talked about being thankful and doing stuff even when we don't wanna. God loves us no matter what and Jesus died on the cross when He knew that it would be terrible and He didn't want to do it but He did and I need to be reminded of that when I don't want to do something little like wash dishes, or clean or stuff.. Sometimes we just need to do it! It's important!

And the Winner is....

Janea Jonathan!

Janea won the 3rd grade division of Hillcrest Elementary Schools Spelling Bee!

yeah!!!!!!!!

I'm one proud momma!

Day One of my December Challenge

My challenge is to complete what I need to in order to not put off things...here's a rundown on stuff...

1.Completed decorating our Christmas Tree...looks good...forgot camera will post picture later!

2. Ran dishwasher...after loading full sinkful!

3. Vacuummed the livingroom...my children are pigs...I vacuummed just 2 days ago...I hate vacumming!

4. I switched out the laundry! Still need to fold and put it away...hopefully will do this before bed....to complete my challenge!