R•E•S•P•E•C•T

What comes to mind when you hear the word respect. A little Aretha Franklin? You children being obedient? How about where your husband is concerned? How do you show him respect? 

In Sunday School we have been doing a series on "Shalom at Home". The section we are discussing now are the needs of a woman vs a man. Women want to feel loved, be shown affection, have a sense of security. Men want to be sexually fulfilled, shown respect, and I can't remember what else (oops, better pay more attention). I can't tell you how to meet your husbands needs on the first one but I can give you a couple tips on showing some respect.

I like to keep my house company ready. Not perfect but tidy enough that I can welcome a friend in to have a cup of coffee or tea with out having to worry about {the mess}. My husband also likes a picked up house. Not just the rooms that company will see but all the rooms. I tend to let my laundry pile up-clean-folded-stacked in my closet which is not shared with him and in a different room. This drives him bonkers!!! He is willing to do the dishes, vacuum, whatever he needs to do in order for me to put away my clothes. Out of respect for him, I really should make this a priority. The same goes for taking care of other little things he has asked me to do. He knows that I am busy keeping up with our 1yr old so if he makes a point of asking me to complete something then I know that it is important to him. By not doing the task is a form of disrespect to him. I don't always get to everything and honestly I forget things easily. He understands that I can get distracted but there are no excuses for me saying numerous times that I would call our insurance company and it takes me 3 weeks to call. He would rather me say that I had too much going on, etc. 

Don't husband bash!!! There are times that I believe it is ok to ask for prayer or advice regarding your husband but I don't run to them and say "can you believe what that...blah, blah, blah" For one, it will turn your friends against him. Even if you forget what it was that he did, chances are that your friend won't and will remind you of it later down the road. Second, it will not make you feel better and will only hurt your relationship with him. Are you saying something that you would say directly to him? Even then, really evaluate whether you want to share that with anyone or keep it private. 

Pray, pray, pray! If you find that you are struggling to respect him-pray about it. Ask God to give you opportunities to show him respect. Ask your husband how you can show him more respect. I am sure he will be shocked you asked then gladly give you some ideas.

There are situations where a husband can take advantage. If this is you- first pray about it by yourself then lovingly go to your husband and discuss your concerns. There are times when marriage is harder that digging a ditch by hand but it's worth it. 

What are some ways that you show respect to your husband?

~Jac



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Co-sleeping

What our co-sleeping sometimes looks like!

We co-sleep -- I can't say I love it all the time but it has its benefits. This particular night I was able to get some much needed rest for our busy weekend without getting up several times {put a bink back in, nurse, comfort him because his shared wall with his sister got kicked}. Most nights he sleeps in his room but I cherish the times he is snuggled up to me and gladly welcome him into our bed as needed :) 

Poor Birthday Boy

I was excited leading up to the days that my busy little man turned 1! I had a fun day planned of a special breakfast, decorating, eating lunch with Daddy, a birthday dessert just for our little family. When he awoke with a whine, I scooped him up to cuddle in our bed. Daddy wished him a happy birthday and kissed him goodbye. Big sister Hail yelled a birthday wish to him as she was scrambling to get ready for school. He just laid beside me with a somber look on his face, eyes wide open. He sat up and started to lean towards me with what I thought was a sweet kiss. Instead puke welcomed my face. Hails rushed to bring me a towel and I tried to contain the mess that was all over me, Gunz, and my freshly changed sheets. After stripping everything down, it happened again. {Oh no} I said to myself...my little birthday boy was sick. Never has he had a stomach bug and I think he has only had 1 1/2 colds. I just couldn't believe that out of no where he was sick :( I continued on with the morning but his special breakfast was toast (see photo to the left). We were able to eat lunch with Daddy but that was the extent of the day. He laid on the living room floor sleeping for hours while we prepared stuff for his party the next night. He missed dinner and birthday brownies. It was not the day I had planned but it was the day that was supposed to happen.

We will always remember these events and I can totally laugh at the "puke in the face" incident :)  Moving forward into the next year.

What do you remember about your little ones first birthdays?
 

Monday Makes {baby legs}

I first saw baby legs several years ago and I fell in love. I knew that when we were blessed with more babies- boys or girls-they would be sporting some of these cute little things.

When I found out that I was expecting they went on the list of wants. I had a couple problems 1) they are not the most budget friendly 2) I like to go to stores and buys things-I haven't jumped on the online shopping bandwagon and where we live they don't just sell them in stores. Being a craft lovin' Mama, I set out to find a way to make them. After some internet searching I found that they are SUPER easy to make! Enter in the {knee high sock}. If you are making these for a girl then you will have a HUGE selection to choose from. I was having a boy. It was hard enough to convince the man of the house to let his son where these. I had to do some searching for ones that were masculine enough for our little boy. Target had several that stacked up with color and pattern.

I will say that there are SO many tutorials out there on making your own baby legs. I've tried 3 and will show you them here. If you have any questions please comment and I'll do my best to answer them :)


1) Pick out some long socks. Some are longer than others. If they are going to be for a young baby then it won't matter but the longer you get them the "longer" they will last ;)

 2) Cut off the the sock right above the heel. Now there are a few options so don't throw out he foot part just yet (more on this later).

*Now if you are lazy or don't sew you can stop here. The leggings won't fray much and if you don't care about having a finished look, the leggins will hold up just fine. I needed a pair to match an outfit and left a pair with the raw edge. I never got around to finishing so they are still like this and I don't care I don't let it bother me ;) If you are type A then proceed to the rest of the tutorial.

3) Turn the tube inside out and fold over the unfinished edge. Stitch with a zig zag stitch all the way around. Don't pay attention to the fact that I did not do a zig zag stitch. I found out that it won't stretch if you don't do one. Learn from me...not the hard way! (If you want a cuff on the bottom - don't do this step and proceed to step 5)

 4) In order for the legging to stay on the ankle and not slip onto the foot, you may want to stitch at an angle so that it's slightly tapered.

Here is a picture of a pair of real baby legs (left) and my version (right).

 *I was pleased with how they turned out but I really wanted them to have a cuff on the bottom. I also wanted them to be a little longer so I could get more wear out of them. Who wants flood baby legs-not me. Remember how I told you to save the foot portion?

5) Cut the middle of the foot section out. {Please ignore the sock change :) these pictures are many months apart!}

 6) Fold it in half-wrong sides together. Take this piece and slide it over the long piece and line up the raw edges.

7) Stitch the raw edges all the way around. Make sure to go over your starting stitch. If you want them to taper in just add a diagonal stitch. This is what it will look like after you fold it back down.

 8) Turn right side out and you now have a set of leggins with a bottom cuff.

Go-make lot's of them ;)

Banana Bread

Here is our all time favorite banana bread recipe. I have since adapted it to be a tad bit healthier. I'll post both :)

Original Recipe
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
dash of salt
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
3-4 mashed bananas

Mix dry ingredients and whisk oil and eggs. Pour oil/egg mixture into the flour mixture. Add the mashed bananas stir until just combined. Bake at 325 degrees  50 min for bundt pan - 35 min for bread pan - 20 min for 12 muffins. After cool, smear with the below frosting.

Frosting
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon butter
powder sugar
milk


I have started making the following to help cut down on our sugar. The taste isn't that different and after making it a couple times we only make this version. Directions/baking times are the same. NO frosting ;) although sometimes I really, really want it! It is also dairy free, no adaptions necessary.

Adapted Recipe
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar or 1/2 cup honey
1 teaspoon baking soda
dash of salt
1/2 cup apple sauce
2 eggs
3-4 mashed bananas

Life

Last night I sat in the chair-my husband on the couch with a computer in his lap and he said to me "you might as well give up on {Joy Comes from Within}. I check it everyday and you never post anything". OUCH! I simply told him "the dishes are done and the family is fed". That's about how I feel these days.

Example: I decided to hop on today and surprise my husband by posting something. I went to edit posts and the following was sitting in my drafts from 10/17/11. The last actual post was from May. I like to blog but I like my family more. If anything needs to be put on hold, it's the first to stop. Maybe I'll post regular, maybe I won't. In fact, I only started this blog to keep in touch with friends and family not here in NY but I don't think any of them ever read it :)

So dearest husband...this post is for you. xoxo

It's been a bit busy in the last...well let's say 7 months. Adjusting to being at home from a 40hr week 'out of the home' job, having a child in middle school, a newborn who is growing so fast. AH! I wish life would slow down-I feel like I am always trying to "catch up".


This morning I woke up {groggy} as usual and with my little man on my hip stumbled down stairs. Scooch 'the big brown dog' greeted us as always and I set the baby down hoping he would be entertained by the said dog and made a bee line to the kitchen to (can't remember where I was going with this...too long ago)

{GMG Blessings}

Monday we started our summer session with Good Morning Girls! What a blessing "meeting" with my group has been. We started off several sessions ago with I think 11, then quickly had to break into 2 larger groups (22 ladies). I don't know everyone personally but we share something in common-We love Jesus!!! We even had a lady one of us knew from over seas :) Many prayer request have been shared, we've seen a few miracles and are expecting a few more :) The GMG group is a way for us to be accountable to each other to be in God's word daily but I also look forward to gleaning from the other ladies as well. Many times my scripture for the day is dealing with the same subject as what someone else has read which reaffirms that God is using us to minister to each other. AMEN!!! 

 Julia and I at a GMG gathering (she is 8weeks behind me-a miracle)

If you struggle with being in God's word or maybe you aren't connected with a group of ladies to be a prayer warrior on your behalf please check this out. God is all you need but when you forget, it's nice to have a sister come along side you to point you back towards Him! 


Have a blessed day~Jac

Good Morning Girls 

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