Joy Follows

It has been a month since I took the Dare!
Only a month since I began my journey to One Thousand Gifts. 
In this one short month I have counted my way to 75. I feel like my eyes have been opened. I am abundantly blessed. In the daily moments of life, in the here and now, in moments I have counted these gifts and given thanks. 
That is really what it comes down to...giving thanks. Thanking Jesus for the gifts. Recognizing that even the small things are a gift of His love!


 Creamer for coffee
Family snuggles in our bed giving extra minutes of sleep
Hand holding on the couch
 Dinner with my sister & our boys

We only enter into the full life if our faith gives thanks. 
Thanksgiving is necessary to live well, whole, fullest life. 
 (One Thousand Gifts...p.39)

 Afternoon dates with Jason
 Boy whispers of "your the best mommy"
 Spring weather in the middle of February
 Hearing Jake sing God's word from the back seat

Gratitude in the small things will help to appreciate each day and moment. Look to find the joy. (One Thousand Gifts)

Now that I see all these gifts around me it is hard to turn off. I am always looking, always listening, and searching. Keeping notes of what I am seeing and silently giving thanks as I note each gift. Looking at these moments as a "gift" is joy itself. 

To feel the joy. You can't help but be joyful when you are counting so many gifts along the way.
Find the grace, give thanks, and joy will follow...

It may seem finding the gift is difficult.  We can feel so overwhelmed with life and can't imagine where we would see these things. And even more times we wonder where the joy will come from. It really is a simple formula. All you have to do is take the Dare just begin writing down what you see throughout your day. By writing it down we are giving thanks to Him and before you know it joy will follow.

Ann says she writes her list in a normal spiral notebook and others use pretty journals. Whatever you use it should be small and portable. Take it with you so you can jot down no matter where you are...trust me once you start you will see these gifts everywhere. I am using my phone to keep my list. It is almost always with me. I have the cozi calendar app on my phone which has a journal section. It is so easy for me to pull it out no matter where I am and easily type in what I see. I tried earlier to use a notebook. But I found if it was open on my counter I would forget to grab it on my way out the door. Then I would see something and forget to write it when I got home. Or I would scribble it on a scrap piece of paper, but my scraps never made it to one list. I am sure most of us take our phone with us everywhere...this has worked for me.

 Running outside
 Talking dreams with Jason
Rocks becoming Dino teeth
 Fresh scent of a little boy after bath
Spinach in eggs to make them green
 Sunny yellow of fresh blooms glistening in the rain

The proof is in the list 75 and still counting to One Thousand Gifts.
The Joy is the hunt. His list of love toward me. (Ann Voskamp)

Seussical Celebration

We had so much fun celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday on March 2nd. We enjoyed reading several Dr. Seuss' books throughout the day. This really wasn't that unusual...Jake loves Dr. Seuss and often picks these books to read.

We made a Cat in the Hat hat for Jake to wear.I got the idea from this link and then added a few things. One side of the hat Jake painted red stripes and the other side he cut red stripes from paper and glued.

 We then turned to science as we used spinach to turn eggs green. Jake thought it was so funny we were putting "salad" (what he calls all lettuce) in the blender with the eggs. We kept adding handfuls until the eggs were the color we wanted them to be.

And enjoyed a delicious lunch of green eggs and ham with Cat in the Hat toast.
The green eggs & ham were eggs blended with spinach and milk then mixed with diced ham and mozzarella cheese. Pour into a casserole dish and bake. The toast was made striped with butter & strawberry jelly.

Of course a birthday wouldn't be a birthday without a yummy dessert. I took Jake to the Publix bakery where he chose a huge chocolate chip m & m cookie.

Did you do anything to celebrate Dr. Seuss?

Public or Not?

I never imagined I would ever consider homeschooling. I always knew when I had children I would be a stay at home mom. But then I would send my children to school. I would be the room mom, going on field trips, & volunteering at school.

Growing up I didn't know anyone who was homeschooled.  It was almost unheard of. But as an adult I know almost as many people who home school as public school.



Then I had Jake...my goodness how a child can change your thinking.

I just can't imagine Jake being away from me for so many hours a day. So homeschooling becomes a thought.

Then last week Jake said he wanted to go to school. I said, "you know going to school means you will be away from mommy?" He then said to me, "yea, mommy you can leave me and then come back and get me. I will color pictures and cut and then go home." All I could think was how does he know anything about what school will be like.

And instantly anxiety & tons of questions arose.

I know schooling is a personal choice for every family. I also know that it doesn't have to be a permanent choice and can vary by child and year. I also know that only through prayer will we know what is right for our family. We have a couple years before we have to make an actual decision.

We have decided we won't be doing preschool. Even though every other day someone is asking me what we plan to do with Jake in the fall. The answer is he will be home with me and I am so thankful we at least have a couple more years of him being with me. Did you put your children in preschool?

Daily Moments (2/20-2/26)

Another fun week in the Nunnally house. And to make it even better another week of beautiful weather. I could live with this weather forever. And I will definitely take this over cold any day. Love it. We have been outside most days all day long.

Monday February 21st-We had lunch at Chili's today and Jake loved the corn on the cob...so cute

 Tuesday-February 22nd- I was chosne by house party once again to host a party. This time it is a Zatarain's Fat Tuesday Mardi Gras party. Looking forward to having friends over to share a yummy Zatarain's meal.

Wednesday-February 23rd-I have mentioned before that Jake runs beside me while I am on the treadmill. But now he has started asking to run when I am done. So while I watch him and at a speed of about 1.5 he runs on the treadmill. He loves it and this week was actually on it for 10 minutes.

Thursday-February 24th-Don't we look so cute in our hair nets(totally not intentional for me to match with it). We went and took a tour with some friends of the Mayfield dairy plant. It is a requirement that everyone on the tour wear a hair net. We had a good time and got to enjoy some ice cream at the end. Side note...how do I get Jake to look at the camera? He looks right before you take the picture and then as soon as you push the button he looks away.

Friday-February 25th-Jake has a dentist appointment coming up so we have been learning about teeth. I found a pair of vampire Halloween teeth in our dress up box and put together a tooth brushing station. Of course he gets lots of real practice on his teeth, but it was fun for him to squeeze the toothpaste onto a toothbrush and brush the fake teeth.

Saturday-February 26th- no picture...just picture a whole bunch of playing outside and beautiful sunny weather.

Mondays are Daddy days

It is no secret that Jake is a Mommy's boy. He is a little more outgoing now and loves his time with his Grandparents. But a lot of the time he is still a mommy's boy. When he was younger he always wanted mommy(which I am perfectly fine with).

As he has gotten older he has become more of a Daddy's boy. I love it and love to watch them interact together. The time they spend is precious. Jake gets so excited when Jason comes home and even when he is just talking about his Daddy. Seeing his eyes light up with his Daddy is around makes it all worth it.

Jason is usually home on Sundays and Mondays. Sunday we are all so excited to spend time together as a family, but on Monday Mommy can do nothing. Jake only wants Daddy(at least until bedtime). Jake wants his Daddy to put him in the car, get him out, hold daddy's hand when he is walking, Daddy to play with him, & anything else Jake needs/wants can only come from Daddy.

Now that the weather has been so much nicer here in Georgia Jake really loves that he gets to work in the yard with his Daddy.

I truly love the bonding time they are having and it is such a huge blessing to see them together.

Mondays are Daddy Days!!!

Daily Moments (2/13-2/19)

Would you believe I have a picture for every day this week & even some days have more then one. It was actually kind of difficult to pick which pictures I would share this week.

Sunday-February 13th-You don't see much of my extremely handsome husband. I love him!!

Monday-February 14th-Happy Valentine's Day!! This year I let Jake cut out his own heart shaped pancakes. Then Jason had strawberry jelly with whip cream on his. Jake showing off his Veggie Tales movie he got as his present.

Tuesday-February 15th-Jake loves jumping on the trampoline at Nana & Pawpaw's. He was taking a little break watching Pawpaw work in the backyard. So cute!

Wednesday-February 16th-A visit to Daddy's work. Jake loves putting cheese in the auto-cheeser. Of course he only gets to do it for his pizza(not actual customers).

Thurday-February 18th-The weather has been amazing every day this week. Jake has been outside ALL day. Today we had a fun play date at a train park.

Friday-February 19th-Cold Stone with your cousin always makes for a fun Friday. Yummy ice cream!

Saturday-February 19th-Wawa"Aunt Heather" took Caleb & Jake to a horse farm today. They were able to pet lots of horses and even got to feed one. But of course just running around on the farm and playing in the barn were favorite activities.

Faith into Action

Giving, not showing favoritism, putting our faith into action. I have recently been doing a study in the book of James. Studying a couple verses a day really helps to make time to focus on what the verses are saying. We are using the S.O.A.P method to study each of the day’s verses. Using this acronym gives specific things to look into in each verse. The A for application has brought these last couple days into light.

“In the same way faith by itself if not accompanied by action is dead.” James 2:17
When reading this verse and focusing on the application I really had to stop and think. Am I putting my faith into action? Am I actually doing things that would show my faith?

After this week I have felt so convicted. Am I not doing enough, or am I not doing as much as I could, or should be doing. Then I think where can I go & what can I do? It all seems so daunting…the world both locally around me and way farther then I will ever know there is so much need. And when seeing all this it is hard not to wonder what difference can I make?

On the Good Morning Girls blog this week, Angela   posted a video and in it she said it is not our job to  save the whole world that is up to God. But we can make a difference in one person’s life. How true this is. Even with such simple things like a kind word, or other bigger things like helping someone financially.
It is not about saving the world it is about putting our faith into action however God is calling us in our life. This realization has had me asking what it is I am supposed to be doing. But I also think I have gotten stuck in the asking instead of just acting. There it is again putting my faith into action. I know that if I just act God will make it all work for his good.

And don’t think that putting our faith into action has to cost a lot of money. I have kind of had in the back of my mind that we give as much as we can. But there are so many things we can do to just help and not have to spend so much money.

I follow the blog Give Every Day. The Sheaffer family recently sold everything they had bought an rv and left their comfy life in Arizona to travel across the US giving every day. Of course this sounds very extreme and obviously God is not calling everyone to pack it up and travel the country. But reading their blog post of what they have done that day to give has opened my eyes. Because they were doing this on such a huge scale I anticipated their daily giving to seem so impossible to the average person living their comfy lives at home. However, each day I have been pleased to see that their giving has been so doable while leaving an  impact. They have been doing things like leaving a thoughtful comment on a blog or for an author, donating a few items to a food bank, buying a small gift for a cashier & volunteering time at a local not for profit. Anyone can do these things!!

So what are you doing to put your faith into action? I would love to hear how you give or volunteer. We are taking the leap to put our faith into action. We will be actively looking for ways to give.