Still making lunches......

Someone messaged me and asked if I was still making Jacob lunches. The answer is yes! We have out grown our food allergies but his lunches are still pretty interesting. :)

My lunch packing advice:

1. keep it simple! yes, cutting food into shapes is cute but can you make that happen is 3 minutes! That is my timeline for lunches.....3 minutes is my max for how long it should take.

2. Don't worry if they are always eating the same things.

3. There is nothing wrong with the school lunch. Just want to put that out there, I am sure most assume I make his lunch because I hate the school lunch. Totally not true, allergies as a kid meant he couldn't eat the school lunch and now he has a specific taste (notice I didn't use picky) LOL!

4. Follow food safety! if it is hot, keep it hot. If it is cold, keep it cold.

5. Picture: the yumbox (we have had it i think for 2-3 years now, the same one), these ice packs are awesome, pottery barn for lunch bag.

6. It isn't quantity, it is quality. I stick to protein, vegetable, fruit, little candy, and almond milk or water. Yes, this is plenty for a kid and my kid is kind of huge. Think nutrient rich.

7. Our lunch regulars are: hot dog, pepperoni, peas, corn, carrots, broccoli, apple, blueberries, strawberries, grapes, raisins and a little bit of candy. I just combine these items every day and bam a lunch is made. It would include a sandwich but my kid refuses to eat a sandwich. A sandwich will fit where the peas are located.

This lunch is simple truth frozen peas (still frozen), applegate hot dog (cold), Raisins and candy corn with almondmilk in the thermos.

Hope this helps! Most importantly, do what works best for your family!

Sometimes I just need to say a few things....

WoW! So I am obviously not very good at blogging but sometimes I just need to say a few things. :)

Stevie and I are first year students at Victory School of Supernatural Ministry. Every Tuesday night we spend 3-1/2 hours having our hearts rocked by God and other students!

Anyways, one question from our homework was:

Why does God choose not to control us?

I think sometimes we secretly long to be controled. For the Lord, to tell us exactly what we should do, when we should do it and who we should do it for. Or maybe that is just me.

So, why does God not control us because love creates FREEDOM! Freedom to make our own choices, to be our own people. God is not afraid of your mistakes and He is not afraid to offer you freedom.

I am currently listening to this teaching series, Loving your kids on purpose by Danny Silk that is rocking my mom world. And it made me change the above question to this:

Why does Jessica choose not to control Jacob?

Because just to be really real, I am such a controlling mom. To the point, I am the cause of Jacob's anxiety and I was clueless! CLUELESS! OK, OK , OK! No one needs to say how I am a great mother, I know that, I am an awesome mom! An awesome mom that can receive conviction from the Lord, repent, and make the choice to love in a way that creates freedom.

Anyways, so I love Jacob so much that I have given him freedom to manage himself even if that means he is going to make mistakes. Why? Because I love him and I don't want to control him by the fear of him making a mistake but by the consequence.

So, can I tell a difference in Jacob? ABSOLUTELY! He like actually shares with me now. His dreams and worries. He is 80% more open with me then he ever was. We have a relationship now where he manages himself and I manage myself by not being a control freak. (Disclaimer: I thought I was going to have a heartattack the other day, sometimes it is a little hard for me to keep by mouth shut. I am sure that suprises most of you.) Love creates freedom which give us the freedom to be intimate, to have a real relationship.

So all that to say! God doesn't control you, he loves you, dream and live in Freedom!

God created you to be you, not to control and form you into something you are not!
BE YOU! BE FREE! DREAM BIG!

jess

Family of.......

Tonight Steve and I attended an informational meeting in regards to foster/adoption. WOW! 

Those that know us know that we got married and never wanted kids. The Lord totally changed our hearts and we had JW. I guess I have never been certain we would always be a family of three but I was certain we would not have anymore biological children. So we trusted The Lord and committed to raising an only child. The Lord had individually readied our hearts for adoption. I remember Steve and I talking about it on the way to Easter service at LSCC. I was so excited but trying to not freak Steve out by my excitement. I'm going to say after the meeting tonight we are pretty certain this is the way The Lord is leading us to grow our family. 

I suppose one of the greatest things about walking with The Lord and trusting him is that life just tends to unfold before you and The Lord enables you to keep walking. 

So.....adoption. I'm terrified yet eager. I'm willing yet hesitant. I get tearful just thinking about it and I don't really know why. I'm excited! All of a sudden my heart longs for a big family! Holy Spirit you are beyond amazing. 

What will this look like for us? Only God really knows!  But in order to look back and see a year from now what we thought I'll jot it down. What we are initially thinking/feeling is 1-3 kiddos, all boys would be great, ages 2-4, race doesn't matte, domestic adoption. It will be cool to read this in a year and see how The Lord grew our family. 

First step is filling out application with Buckner international. 

I'm going to try to record our process, books we read, and how we are preparing JW. 

The Lord never fails!

Simple, it's just who I am.

I've always known I'm simple, not really into fancy things not really into style or decorating but really into keeping it simple.

Most might think, we'll she works, she has a kid, a hubby to take care of and she just doesn't have time to fix her hair, put on makeup or keep up with fashion. The truth is I'm just simple not lazy, not that I don't care, I'm just simple which is not to be confused with plain :-)

Most of my friends are what I call fancy and I love them for it! Houses decorated gorgeously, makeup done pefectly and hair done well only God knows how y'all get your hair so cute!

Whether you are simple or fancy or some where in between our identity is established and maintained in Christ. Being simple or being fancy are both glorifying to God and who we are only becomes a problem when pride comes into play. 

Anything we take pride in other than The Lord will push us closer to the world and further from Him. We can drive ourselves crazy trying to get approval from the world. Be who you are in Christ!!!! Care more about what The Lord thinks about you and less what the world thinks!

Love the fancy and the simple! Be the fancy and be the simple! Let's be for The Lord!

It's taken me 33 years but I'm okay with being simple. It's me being me for Jesus!

Exposure...

Well, we went to Disney and it was awesome but that's not why I am blogging today.

I read a blog on pinterest about raising grateful children in our generation and is was awesome! I should find the link but it's on my facebook page somewhere so help yourself.

Anyways, she talked about commercials and tv and just different exposures to our kiddos, and I didn't really think much about it until today.

So we are waiting to see the doctor, oh JW has strep, and we are reading a family magazine together. I kid you not, every advertisement JW would say, I want that. Finally, I said, just because you see something doesn't mean you want it, I said you can admire or look or check something out without wanting it and he said no I want it. :) I forget he's only 3!

anyways it got me thinking and how grateful I am to Anita Koeshall for a conversation we had just before JW turned one. We were driving to mission training together and I started talking to her about television and how stevie and I were kind of thinking about cancelling cable before JW gets exposed to it. Of course, Anita's response was, oh we never had cable, we just watched videos! (which of course because they are awesome people who love the Lord and love their children enough to make that hard decision. LOVE THEM!) Anyways, stevie and I went for it! we cancelled our cable and stuck with videos and to this day we still don't have cable. It's not a money thing, it's a conviction.

So I never thought much about it because we don't have cable, JW doesn't know what cable is but once he saw those advertisements today and he's attitude of want overpowered his actual need my eyes were opened!!!

So how many parenting books have you read? articles on parenting.com, babycenter? The list for me is endless but what if the a big factor we are missing is EXPOSURE. Do we expose our kids to too much junk without even realizing it? Is your kid hitting and super aggresive.....what are they watching????? guess what kid show does not mean anything! Is your kid scared and won't sleep at night......what are they watching??? are they always wanting a new toy or a new this.....what are they watching?

My thought is am I exposing Jacob to things of the Lord or am I allowing the world to expose him to things of this world?

Exposure defined as he act or an instance of exposing, as:

a. An act of subjecting or an instance of being subjected to an action or an influence

whose and what is influencing our kids and why?

It makes my heart sick to think of all the sin I don't grieve over because I see it on the shows I watch and I'm okay with it. I've grown much too comfortable seeing adultery, murder, materialism, greed, envy, gluttony and it's all do to my exposure. Well, guess what enemy, I'm done! My heart will grieve over sin instead of be hardened by it! I'M DONE!

I'm grateful that being a parent is hard work because it makes me trust and seek you only Lord.

I apologize for my horrible grammer, ain't nobody got time to write proper :)

Day 6

Jacob has been feeling a little off with a slight fever and since we are going to Disney next week I thought I would keep him home and take a trip to the doc to make sure his ears are clear!

So I only made breakfast

Popcorn - this isn't the chemical popcorn from a bag! Once you go stove top you never go back!!! How to make it... Get a sauce pan, any size. Put 1/4 cup of oil, from experience olive oil, coconut oil and sesame oil all work. Turn stove to medium heat. Then add one kernel and then put the lid on. Wait for that one kernel to pop, once it does then the oil is ready. Pour in enough kernels to cover the bottom of the pan one kernel deep! When the popping starts slowing down remove from heat and pour in a bowl!!! Salt pepper, really anything!!!!
Kiwi - we got a box from a local co-op and the kiwi were in it so I peeled them and diced them. They tasted just a little sour so I sprinkled the tiniest amount of sugar on them, like seriously 5 grains. A Little sugar goes along way
Cranberries - the same ones I got from the bin 1-1/2 ago!

VOILA!

Oh and here's a pic of him eating it at work with me today!

Day 5

We leave for Disney in 7 days!!!! Woohoo

So my goal is to eat what we have....hopefully not easier said then done.

Breakfast
Walnuts
Yogurt covered raisins
Cutie
Cereal - cascadian farms cereal

Lunch
Hot dog - it's kind of hard to find a hotdog that doesn't have high fructose corn syrup. I found chicken hot dogs from harvest land at kroger. Jacob really likes them!
Corn
Apple
Broccoli - a new veggie....

Easy peesy!!!!