4 hours ago
Georgiana turns one year old in about a week! I might be in denial a little bit.
We are going to be buried in boxes and renovations on her actual birthday, so we decided to have her first birthday party a couple weeks early while we are still in this house! It seems fitting to have her first birthday party here, since this is where we brought her home when she was just tiny.
Our last party in this house. I am a little sentimental about it. We've celebrated so much here, from our very first gender reveal party, through all the kids' birthday parties, and now this is the last one. I can't believe my tiny little baby is almost one year old!
I decided to go with a autumn/donut theme, because it was easy to pull off. It ended up being perfect to celebrate our sweet girl and send this house out in style.
I got most of the decorations from the Target dollar spot and Hobby Lobby. My friend Danae did the lettering for Georgie's wood sign (which will now live in her room at the new house). I told my sister I wanted a simple sprinkle cake this time (she's the master cake decorator in this family), and she made it come to life!
The centerpiece of our donut-themed party was the donut peg board, which Derek made for the party (I got the idea from Ashley's gorgeous baby sprinkle). It all came together really well! I am so thankful for my family and friends who helped me put it all together this time. I love going all out for the first birthday party, and this one was so easy with everyone's help!
I let Georgie have a taste of cake when we took birthday pictures a few weeks ago, so at the party it didn't take her long to remember that cake is pretty good!
It was so good to celebrate one last time in this house, with our dear family and friends. I'm glad we had a chance to celebrate our baby girl here. I might have cried a little after the party was over. It's bittersweet, leaving this house, and watching your last baby turn one.
But good things are on the horizon too.
T-minus 8 days until we close on our new house! I wanted to show you the last corner of our first home before we leave it.
This room is one of the harder ones to leave. It's gone through many transformations over the years, from blue airplanes, to pink and purple flower garden, to orange and turquoise ocean-themed, to coral and mint florals. Each of my babies have slept in here at one point or another. This is how it looks right now, how I decorated it for our last baby, Georgie. It's hard to leave it, especially since she turns one year old in a couple weeks. I labored over that quilt when my belly was so big I couldn't pick up the needle when I dropped it. I rocked her when she was only as big as a loaf of bread, right in that chair.
The only thing missing is the rows of family photos that were on the wall right above the bookshelf - I took pictures of it before I took them down for showings, but I accidentally deleted the photos, so aside from one photo from my phone, you'll have to use your imagination. Still, I'm glad I found time to snap a few more shots of this room amidst all the packing that is happening this week. I want to remember the place where each of my babies slept.
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That's it, guys! Our whole house, all the rooms in our first home. We've had so many milestones here, so many good memories, and a few tears. This house has been good to us, and the Lord saw us through it all and blessed us here.
Goodbye, First House.
You can click the button below to see the entire home tour. Now, on to our next place! I'll share "before" pictures of our new house in about a week or so!
Confession: I give my kids Marshmallow Mateys for breakfast sometimes.
Now that we've gotten that dirty little secret out of the way...
Lately I have been branching out a bit on breakfasts for the kids. When I went to the homeschool conference this summer, one of the speakers said that you can't really get mad if you gave your kids sugary cereal with nothing more substantial added in, and they act all crazy later.
As we've established, I have nothing against breakfast cereal, but I did think she had a point.
So while we still do Coco Puffs for breakfast occasionally, I've added a few other things into the rotation, with the intention of helping my kiddos get some brain-sharpening, focus-encouraging nutrients in, especially on school days! Here are a few of my current go-to's.
Oatmeal - One of the reasons I used to default to cereal was because it was a quick, easy breakfast for the kids - but I've learned that oatmeal is fairly quick and easy too! And it's healthier and more sustaining since they are getting the whole grain. I use old-fashioned oats, and add a little brown sugar, nuts, chocolate chips, raisins, apples, or cinnamon. The kids think I'm the best mom ever when I add in chocolate chips (but it's still less straight sugar than cereal!).
Muffins (made with freshly-ground flour) - I mentioned that I got a grain mill this summer, and I have to tell you, I love it! When flour is freshly ground, it still contains all the nutrients that the whole wheat berry contains, so it's more sustaining, has a lower glycemic index, and it's healthier. But beyond that, I like the way baked goods taste when they are made with fresh flour, and the texture is chewier (which I actually love!). I have a few go-to muffin recipes from this book. I try to make one batch every week so they can be our on-the-go breakfast, but that doesn't always happen.
Hard-Boiled Eggs with toast - Also quick to make, because I just pull them out of the refrigerator! (Are you noticing a theme here? I like quick and easy breakfasts.) I have to be careful with this one though, because sometimes I forget I boiled the eggs and we don't end up eating them.
Yogurt - We don't eat yogurt as often as I'd like, because with five kids and me that could get expensive really quick. But sometimes I buy a big container of plain yogurt, and I mix it with honey and frozen berries for the kids' breakfast. This is also one of my favorite breakfasts for me!
Cereal or Donuts - Everything in moderation, right? Sometimes cereal or donuts is just easier, and I don't shame myself or anyone else for going there. Having a sugary breakfast sometimes is fine in my book.
What are your breakfast go-to's? Any other quick-and-easy ideas for me?
(A picture from when we visited our friends' ranch in the Spring. Ranch...agriculture...seeds...let's just go with it.)
Last year I started going to the Community Bible Study I went to as a child with my mom. I can't express how much of a blessing this Bible Study has been to me since I started back! It's so encouraging to hear everyone else's insights, and it challenges me to get into God's Word and think about things a little deeper.
Today we talked about the parable of the sower in Mark 4. To be honest, I didn't love the questions and commentary in the lesson book this week - I felt like they muddied the waters a little. I was also frustrated with myself for not preparing my lesson ahead of time this week, which limited my ability to contribute to the discussion. Since I couldn't really get my thoughts out today in class, I thought I'd write them out here since I've had a little more time to think about it.
“Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed.4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”
Mark 4:3-8
The parable of the sower is a tricky parable, and I've heard it applied different ways. But as I've read it, I've always understood it to be a representation of how different people who have not yet believed will respond to God's Word when they hear it. I did a little more research on it today after our lesson, and I wanted to write out my thoughts for my own clarity, and because I thought about one point in a different way after the discussion today.
"Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? 14 The farmer sows the word. 15 Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satancomes and takes away the word that was sown in them. 16 Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. 17 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 18 Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; 19 but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.20 Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”
Mark 4:13-20
These are the categories and my thoughts:
The Hard Soil - Those with hard hearts, who hear the word but it doesn't sink in or take root at all. Satan immediately snatches it away, and they do not believe.
The Rocky Soil - Those who have an emotional response to God's Word, but who only have superficial, incomplete understanding of it and have never truly repented. They may even say they "believe in Jesus" in a superficial sense, but we know from other places in the Bible that just acknowledging the truth does nothing. Even the demons know the truth (James 2:19), but they will not accept it and repent. When tribulations come, the true colors show, and it is shown that these people never truly believed. They superficially accepted God's Word because it made them feel good, and as soon as it doesn't anymore, they fall away.
The Thorny Soil - From the way I read this same passage in Matthew, these are the people who hear the Word, and initially want to accept it - but they love the world, they love the things of the world, and as soon as they get back to their lives, it all comes to nothing. John MacArthur (his sermons were some of my "research" - listen to them here) gave the rich young ruler as an example of this. They love money and everything else the world has to offer, and that love stifles the Gospel, because we cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24).
I think the important thing about those second two there is that these people did NOT lose their salvation! Jesus tells us that once we are His, NOTHING can snatch us out of His hand (John 10:27-30). Those second two categories of people are those who were never truly converted in the first place. The love of the world, and misunderstanding of the truth, led to false conversions.
I think the temptation is to try to fit people we know into these categories, but I don't think we should do that. God knows what kind of soil a person is, and in the end, time will tell, because true believers will abide with Christ and bear fruit (John 15:1-6). If someone eventually falls away, it's because they never truly let the Word of God take root in their heart and change them, they never truly repented.
I think another important note here is that we shouldn't assume that just because someone "prayed a prayer" that they are actually saved. God is the only one who truly knows, but if a person has turned away from God, by all means, I think we should preach the Gospel to them again!
Our CBS director said something that was encouraging to me today - she said that no "soil" is beyond hope. God can pull out those weeds. God can remove the rocks. God can break the hard ground.
He can make the soil good.
The final category:
The Good Soil - Those who hear the Word, understand it, and accept it with repentance and faith. They bear fruit, and spread the truth to those around them, leading to a greater harvest.
All that we have to do is be faithful to spread the seed of the Gospel. The true Gospel, not a incomplete, feel-good, emotional gospel; not a false, you-can-follow-God-and-keep-all-your-sin gospel. The true Gospel that we are sinners, people who broke God's law, who deserve death and Hell, but that Jesus, God Himself, came to take our punishment. He died in our place and rose again to save us from our sin. We must recognize the truth of who we truly are as sinners and what Christ has done, repent, turn our back on everything the world offers, turn our back on our sin, and follow after Christ alone, with all that we have.
The thing that I realized today is this:
It is not in my power to change the soil of someone's heart. Only God can do that.
I can't make the soil good by saying things a certain way, or following certain "strategies". If I am living out and speaking the whole truth of the Gospel, I can't mess this up. My only job is to spread the seed of the truth of God's Word to those around me. I can spread the seed, I can water it, but it is God who makes it grow.
"So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth."
1 Corinthians 3:7
I can't explain how comforting this is to me. I've lately tried to speak to people about the Gospel more, for the first time in my life really, and I've been shut down, and it breaks my heart every time. It's easy to worry that I did it all wrong. But according to this passage, I should expect rejection, I should expect that some will not truly understand. God is in charge of that, not me. I don't know how big my personal harvest will be, and I'm not in control of that anyway. I only need to be faithful to the Great Commission, to spread the seed and pray for God to prepare the ground.
And oh, the joy when some of that seed will take root in good soil.
That's what will make it all worth it.
This house will officially no longer be ours on Friday. I thought I better get a move on and show you the last couple rooms!
This is our "master" bedroom. I put "master" in quotes because it doesn't have a bathroom actually attached, but it's the biggest bedroom in the house. It's gone through a few transformations over the years, and this is what it looks like now, right before we are about to leave it.
This wall color is a good example of how a color can be scary until it's finished, just like our house color. When we painted the outside of the house gray, we were afraid we made a mistake until we added the white trim. When I painted this room "Ice Cube" by Behr, I was afraid I had made a mistake! I wanted something that could feel airy, but could also feel cozy, and when I got this color on the wall it just felt...chilly. But I persevered, and once I added all the furniture and wall decorations back in, it hit that balance of airy and cozy and colorful that I was going for.
I'll probably go with a different color in our new master bedroom, because it's much bigger and I think this color would actually feel cold in that room. But here, I've enjoyed it!
I don't have a linkup going anymore, but PLEASE comment below if decide to join in and show us your home!
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