Apparently having a December baby made my mind blank out on several of the other things I was hoping to accomplish around the holidays. Sadly, most of those had to do with this blog. Soooo, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I have TWO awesome giveaways for you!

Operation Christmas Child:
A Story of a Simple Gift

This is a book full of how Operation Christmas Child began and it also has tons of awesome stories that happened along the way.

What's in the Bible Vol 10

This is THE best kids series I know of that teach them about the basics of the bible in a way they can understand. Although this is vol 10, where better to start than with JESUS!?!

How to enter?

*Like the as Jules is going Facebook page 😀 When the page reaches 350 likes, I will choose 2 random "likers" as the winners! Go ahead and like, tweet, pin, and share your hearts out so I can get these bad boys in the mail!!!

LIKE HERE!

Okay, I was in 6th grade. It was reading time. I had my feet up on the desk. Everyone was silent.

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I tooted.

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The chubby, unpopular, nerdy, quirky boy sitting next to me pipes up and says, "excuse me." and goes back to reading.

I didn't know what to do. How was I to react?

He. Claimed. MY. Toot.

I did nothing to deserve it. I didn't ask him to. There was no reward to be had. He could have scorched me, taunted, laughed, mocked, snarled his nose up, and taken me Down!

But he didn't. This meek, innocent, awkward tween slid in and took any punishment coming my way as the 6th grade farter.

THAT is Christ in my life. Redeemer of my gas.

2013 has been memorable to say the least. I've always dreamed of living an adventurous life but I never imagined a single year that included all that we experienced this year.

We sold, borrowed, and bought a home. This was stressful and fun at different times. Having commuted both a long and short distance, we were more than ecstatic to finally find a new home to settle into.

We launched a church. We called ourselves "lifers" in youth ministry and didn't think we even liked adults but God changed our hearts in a huge way and started a new passion for chasing down the dechurched.

We survived all kind of family adventures. Satan attacked in physical realms including a family-wide stomach bug. We had lots of fun aspects like bowling, living near a farm, visiting the zoo and the wonder place, and then there's always the random excuses to dress-up and eat some Chick-fil-a or have parties with our valley family. Through flat tires, sickness, travel, trips, and so much more, we've grown even closer than we already were- we are a stronger team!

I crafted! You all know that crafting, redoing furniture, and decorating a home has been a huge part of this past year because I've been sharing all the fun. I was disappointed with myself for a while because I'd gotten away from sharing stories of real life and things God was teaching me. I'd begun to share nothing but how-tos. I thought I'd commit to "getting back to my routes" in 2014 but God has taught me that I can honor Him in all I do, including crafting, and I can still do both in this space. Hopefully in the near future I can make it easier to navigate and find specific things you're looking for.

We attempted to start "real school" {aka Kindergarten}. I tried to start with a big bang but have ended up just doing the basics from our HIPPY program. Again, trying to rid myself of the mom-guilt, I am okay with having a simple school year while we focus on establishing a new rhythm in a new home, town, church, and with a new baby. Maybe this semester...or next year will look more like my ideal.

I attended an awesome bloggers' conference. God used some amazing Godly ladies at Allume to show me that blogging can be part of my life and I don't have to feel guilty about it. I can use it like anything else to help disciple my children as well as use it to keep me accountable for doing fun stuff with my littles.

We closed out the year with adding sweet Elizabeth Rae to our family. We have always planned to 'have' four kids so this felt like completing our family with Ellie's arrival. We'd LOVE to be able to adopt in the future and experience the fullness of what it means to be adopted into Christ's family.

So, what does this year hold? What are my goals/resolutions? What plans do I have for my family, church, blog? What's my 'word for the year'?

I don't know. Last year, my 'word' was purposeful. I had an ideal vision of what that looked like and didn't quite accomplish that although Christ redeems everything, even the seemingly insignificant things like a word of the year. He has shown me that even when I don't feel purposeful, HE can give it purpose. He can make it count as something. Worth something.

Although I wasn't as strategic as I'd hoped in nearly ever area of my life, God taught me its okay to not have a detailed plan. It's okay to be loved on and rest in certain seasons. It's alright. We're not perfect. We're all a mess that's been washed clean by Jesus and I'm going to rest in that in 2014. I can't wait to see what kind of adventure our family will journey through this year.

We all know its been said,

a pastor and his family will rarely if ever have
close relationships.

Why is this phrase actually quite true?

I'm talking about this very topic over at A Common Bond today. Come join the conversation!