Unpacked

Most people space out their posts, but since it's been awhile, and I haven't really updated on anything new in awhile, I figured I would do just that.

Our days and weekends have been spent unpacking and organizing. Every box has been opened and almost all of them have been unpacked, except for the office. The kids really love the new house and spend almost all of their time in the play room. I love having all of their toys in one place. It makes cleaning up much easier.

Unfortunately, it has been extremely cold in North Texas and we have yet to spend any time in the backyard. Sunday, it snowed for the first time this winter. The kids have never seen snow before and were so excited to wake up to snow that day. It snowed for about two hours at our house, not enough to accumulate on the ground. Mason was so disappointed because he wanted to build a snow man. Trying to explain that you can't control the weather to a three year old is a lot harder than I expected.

Taylor loves the stairs and doesn't want to be carried up or down the stairs. Miss Independent wants to do everything on her own these days. Thankfully, she doesn't play on them and knows she must have an adult with her every time she goes up or down the stairs. Speaking of independent, she also likes to feed herself. I tried to help her with her spaghetti the other night and she threw a fit. I gave in and loved seeing the joy on her face as she did it on her own. It was quite a mess, but worth it.

We have been researching and asking around about churches. Hopefully soon we will be able to start visiting some. I really miss going and look forward to getting plugged in and making new friends. February & March are the busiest months of our year. I think we have something almost every weekend until April.

Now that I have time, I'll finally get around to taking more pictures and blogging. I've missed it. Although it is a bit late, Happy New Year!

Blessings

There are many things I love about Texas, one being Kingsland Baptist Church. We switched churches so that my sister and I could go to church with friends from our school. I wasn't really thrilled about the idea and tried to fight it. Changing churches right before I started high school meant new friends all around and I am not a huge fan of change.

During that time, I began to build friendships and learn to like our new church. It was hard for me to admit it, because I didn't want to leave my old friends behind. However, I still remained friends with everyone from both churches. God taught me a lot during that process of change in my life and I'm so glad He did.

This past Sunday, the sermon was about "Suffering to be a Blessing." When you think about suffering in the Bible, usually you think of Job. Job suffered to be a blessing. Suffering is never easy and this doesn't mean that you can't cry, mourn, ask why, or be angry. It means that we are right with God through our suffering and when this happens, our thinking will align to His way of thinking and that is when we will be a blessing.

It's easy for me to think that if I just get through this struggle in my life, then things will be better and I can be a blessing then. But God wants me to be blessing in the good and the bad. He never promised life would be easy and He never promised we wouldn't suffer. It's through the struggles and the suffering in our lives that He molds us and teaches. That is when we grow.