Archives for April 2012

Guess What

April 8, 2012 by Jules 3 Comments

This pat weekend we continued out crazy month of travel and had an amazing trip to Birmingham!!!! We built deeper relationships with students, learned big truths at "Secret Church" {radical.com or secret church.org}, and even got a chance to practice living in Christ when 'suffering'.

Insert blank

where you return readers would expect a picture

We we're headed home and stopped at a gas station. We all headed in to use the restroom and failed to lock all the doors to the church van. Someone stole 2 laptops, an iPod, and my purse which had the added bonus of carrying my iPhone and beloved camera {as well as all the other random stuff one carries in a purse: drivers license, sunglasses,a medicine, Chapstick, etc}?

If someone could come into my home and steal 3 of my most important Things, those would have been it: the phone I talk to people one and take pictures, the camera you obviously know I document our entire life on, and the laptop where I store all of those pictures and the other things/documents that keep our family running smoothly.

I am not being sarcastic facetious when I say that this Entire trip brought me Peace! Peace about how He has called us to minister her through building relationships and discipline students. Peace about His truth and where He is leading us next. And Peace about His sovereignty over everything! He was not surprised when I found my laptop bag and purse missing. he gave me an odd peace deep down in my gut. There was never a moment of panic, uneasiness, or fear. He peace she'd over me through the entire {very new experience} of filing a police report.?

Just wanted to let everyone know that updates, pictures, and blogging may be down for a bit while I enjoy the technology FREE life.

Thanks for your prayers. But i would like to ask, Please don't pray for my Stuff though. It's just stuff. Please pray for those who took it. We are commanded to love each other! Love our "enemies" and Pray for them. Not necessarily that they would bring junk back. Pray those thing bring as much joy to them as they did me. Pray that God would protect them. Pray for soften hearts to His gospel! This is an amazing story of Gods sovereignty and I'm blessed to be a tiny part in it.

Side note: I hope to open up the fire hose of Biblical truth I've learned this weekend SoOn! Get ready- I will be borrowing Matt book since my was divinely left in my laptop bag ;0)

sorry there are not more fun details and I'm sure there are LOTS of type-os...it's super hard trying to type one m hubby's iPad ;0)

Filed Under: The Ones about Jules Life {Randomness}

Be A Part

April 5, 2012 by Jules Leave a Comment

A friend lead me to this song today and I've fallen in love with the message!

Change my heart oh God, make it ever true. Change my heart oh God, may I be like you!

Are you being intentional about "being a part of someone else's story?

Filed Under: The Ones about Jules Life {Randomness}

How-to Make Your Own Playdough Mats {Thoughful Thursday}

April 5, 2012 by Jules 6 Comments

I found these awesome FREE printables on Pinterest {duh} and my kids LOVE them!

You print them out, LAMINATE them, and then have fun.

I like them because they help my children learn to be more creative with Playdough rather than rolling it into "snacks" over and over again then tasting it.

For my older one, it gave her something for her brain to work on as well as her hands. My second child is a more physical learner so when we start working on numbers this will encourage her to pick it up quicker. I think I may make my own giant letters to laminate so she can work on learning those quicker as well!

If you don't have a laminator I would highly recommend getting one. I have the cheapest i could find and it works Great for all the things I want to use it for. It's a "Scott" brand and I found it at Wal-Mart. The refill laminating sheets are {relatively} cheap as well.

Do you have any fun things you do with your kids and their Playdough that encourage creativity and/or learning?
Do you have a laminator? If so, any tips or recommendations?

Sorry, my link-up is messed up and I haven't had time to fix it yet but I'd LOVE to have links to your thoughfulness! Add a link in the comment section below. Thanks!!!

Every 24 Hours…

April 4, 2012 by Jules 6 Comments

EVERY 24 HOURS…

17, 297 students get suspended from school
7,883 students are reported abused or neglected
4, 248 students get arrested
2,861 students drop out of school
1,329 babies are born to teen moms
367 student are arrested for drug abuse
180 students are arrested for violent crimes
9 students are victims of homicide
5 students commit suicide
1 student dies of HIV infection

*based on calculations per school day (180 days of seven hours each) C Children’s Defense Fund
via Barry St. Clair’s “Jesus focused youth ministry”.

Yes, we know these are horrible stats but what are we going to do about it. We don’t need more programs. We don’t need more punishments. We need more relationships; Relationships that mean something; Relationships that are not manipulative but intentional; Relationships that lead to THE relationship with Christ. Not just to change behavior but to change the belief systems that affect actions. We don’t need a better acting world. We need a world transformed by the love of Christ fleshed out in His followers who trust His guidelines for a healthier, safer, fulfilling life.

What are you doing with your 24 hours?

Filed Under: The Ones about Jules Life {Randomness}, The Ones about...Stuff

“We love snow! We love snow!”

April 3, 2012 by Jules 5 Comments

Have you ever heard the phrase, "Those kids are too quiet...what are they in to?"

My hubs and I were finally at home with our entire family! Not traveling. Everyone wake {a rarity with 3 kids different nap schedules}. Resting {hear the sarcasm?}.

Jamin, our 1-year-old was playing in the playroom and the girls, our 2 and 3-year-old were playing "house" in the kitchen pantry. We could hear them giggling and singing. Singing Loudly! This was the song they were singing:

{well, singing as well as a 2 and 3-year-old can}

Jamin attempted to join the party a few times but was turned away. Guess his name wasn't on the list. The little tikes car however was invited and shoved right inside our walk-in pantry. Giggles and singing continued until we heard Jamin screeching with disappointment for being rejected yet again. Matt headed in there to make sure he hadn't got his fingers smashed by the eager double duo. Not, no fingers smashed!

Matt yelled from across the house in a frantic yet snarky voice, "Julie! Come see this..." To which I of course replied, "...I don't want to..." as I slowly rose from my chair with hesitance to go "see". Matt replied, "Yeah ya do! ...bring your camera!" I literally snorted as I quickly turned around to grab my camera behind me. This was gonna be good. Matt knows I LOVE tracking my kids childhood via photos {who am I kidding...I take pictures of Everything}.

THIS is what I found:

~~~ "We love snow. We love snow!" ~~~

{note the toddler "Vanna White"ing their project/game/discovery/mess}

They were still dancing in it and showing us how they were playing.
Matt and I hadn't really made it clear that this had been a "bad choice", we were too busing trying not to laugh.

Gross! It was head/hair to toe, LITERALLY!

It was at least 1/4 inch thick.

What is that, you ask?

I'm sure you've figured it out by now: Sugar. Substitute sugar to be exact.

An entire canister of off brand Splenda was a good 15 min or more of Awesome summer fun indoors. Pretending it was snow was genius! Light fluffy snow. Joyfully enjoying childhood in a tiny 4x5 pantry with a canister of sugar and your sister. What bliss! Great science experiment! Good sensory lesson! Wish I'd been invited to the party...maybe Next time! I saved the nasty sugar to use again- for play!

I'm thinking in a more controlled environment I would at least be prepared to spend my Entire morning cleaning it up. Their poor sweaty feet made the entire pantry floor sticky, as well as any where they tracked it before we began the quarantine.

The pantry has no quarter round around the baseboard. Guess where the excess sugar remains?

Matt did bath duty while I swept, swept some more, shook things out, swept pantry, swept the kitchen, swept the dinning room, picked everything off the floors and mopped. Although, if you ever find yourself in this exact situation, don't mop right away!

Remember the photo with the dirty specks on the lens? Yeah, the air was filled with a sweet aroma! Matt mentioned his nose burning when I 1st came into the kitchen but he can't smell {for real} so I didn't think much of it.

I closed the door during my 1st round of sweeping to try to keep Jamin out of the fluffy mess. I soon realized that there was a cloud arising from the pile. THIS is what was disturbing Matt's nose. I quickly found myself unconsciously licking my lips like it was some sort of twitch. Each lick was yummy! My face was covered in sugar dust. My nose was so stopped up from the thick cloud I began to sniff and swallow. Again, tasty! Oddly sweet.

This is why I suggest letting that dust settle before giving it a fresh wet surface to plant it's stickiness down upon.

I love my children and their creativity. They are how ever not allowed to enter the pantry again without permission from a parent ;O)