I spent the day asking myself where Jesus fit in my daily routine. I have been slowly but surely changing my routine so that I get up earlier and spend the first part of my day with him either studying His word or in prayer. 

But today was not one of those days. I over slept. 

So now where does He go? 

The girls were coming over for Bible Study this morning which meant it was time to unload the dishwasher, start a load of laundry, pick out clothes for everyone, eat breakfast, clean up breakfast, change out all my Scentsy warmers....you get the idea.

After Bible Study it was time for school and lesson plans. There is a lot of planning going on as we figure out what our homeschool day looks like. We're getting used to our curriculum and settling in. It's just going to take time. 

She missed her friends today (talk about breaking a momma's heart), so we took our school day outside. That seemed to be the magic ticket. Playing with the neighbors this evening was just icing on the cake.

Oh and then more planning (since Brian and I are both teaching, we sort of have to have a plan going into each day). And math prep for tomorrow needed to be done....enter index cards and dot paint.

Then there was dinner that was not going to fix itself (I actually cooked tonight!).

And the remains of our homeschool day.

and this guy and a couple of chicks.

And my office and an online team meeting, and that list of to dos for tomorrow.

And where does He go? Where does Jesus fit into all of that? Because I need Him and need Him desperately. I need His grace and His peace and all those things that only come from Him. 

If you asked my kids where Jesus fits, they would tell you that He fits in your heart. And I don't think there is a better answer. He fits right inside my heart. I don't have to make Him fit into my busy crazy day, because He is already there. 

He's there as my children sing "Oh my soul march to victory. Oh rejoice for I have been set free." {Thank you Travis Cottrell). 

He's there as those big round eyes look at me like there is no other. 

He's there as my daughter and I have a great day....no behavior problems, no power struggles. Just grace. 

And He's there in the quite conversation of the day. The whispers to Him for guidance or encouragement or a simple reminder that He is leading me. 

There are no rules to Jesus. You can find him anywhere. Once you ask Him into your heart, He does not turn from you. He never leaves you. 

He guides you. He sends you His Holy Spirit to dwell inside you. 

And I realize that it sounds like it doesn't make sense. There is thing called faith that can't really be put into words. 

The greatest part about Jesus? He doesn't care what you've done. He doesn't care what you're doing. He loves you just as you are. He died on a cross for the sins He knew you would commit. 

Loving Him isn't about following rules or escaping sin. It's about having Him walk with you. It's about carrying Him inside you. 

Where will He fit in your day? 

Anywhere and everywhere. In the mess, in the madness, in beauty of it all....He'll fit in it all. Simple as that. 

Condor and Momma Cindy and a Scheduling Nightmare

It's that time of year when everything begins to get a little crazy. We don't travel a ton in Fall, but we always go to Boise in September for Scentsy's annual SuperStar Director Summit. It's an annual gathering of Scentsy's top leaders, and we wouldn't miss it for anything. This year I was asked to teach a workshop which is exciting, but it also makes everything a bit more busy as we prepare to head out of town. 

Brian is out of town tonight tending to some family business, so I'm left here to prep all the meals and clothes and packing and my presentation for next week. Oh, and everyone's crazy schedules. Plus there is some weird smell coming from underneath the desk in my kitchen that I am going to have to hunt for as soon as I'm done here. 

So I guess we're busy. I like being busy, but I don't like being this busy. We may have slightly overbooked ourselves, but it's just for a moment, and it was sort of because of a thing Brian needed to go take care of. (More on how much I love and admire and adore my husband later.) Really, I'm a lucky gal. 

The kids and I spent some time outside with the chickens tonight. We have 11 now. Yes. We are officially those people. And it's awesome. 

Addy has the runt that we have affectionately named Condor....because, look at it. It looks like a condor. Brian got it for free with the last bunch that he bought. The other chickens were picking on it, and they weren't sure if it would make it, so we rescued it. 

And the reason I keep saying "it" is because there is no way to tell at this age if these are hens or roosters. We think we have a few roosters, but it's too soon to tell. Despite the fact that we don't know their gender (for sure), most of them have names. 

The tiniest one is Condor (or Squirt as Addy calls it). We have a Curly, a momma Cindy (named after our nanny's momma.....and there were actually 2 momma Cindys until we renamed one of them....and for the life of me, I can't remember what we re-named it.) Anyways, we also have 2 Sweeties, an Oprah, a Blue (who has blue toenails...that we painted), and then a couple new ones who don't have names yet. The one Luke is holding is a newbie with no name yet. 

Who knew? Naming chickens is fun. 

On another note, this is what my life looks like right now, and I have plans to get up at 5:30 am, so I think it's time we parted ways. More useless information to come tomorrow.......stay tuned. 

Oh and for the record, the jammies they are wearing in the above pictures, are the jammies they wore ti bed last night and all day long. When you go to church on Saturday nights, that's how Sundays roll. 

The List of Lovies

We painted a chicken's toenails blue today. You don't need to re-read it. That's what I said. Painted chicken toe nails. Yep. That's the kind of day we had. 

The chicken coop (or the chicken mansion as I have lovingly dubbed it) is almost complete. It should be 100% done tomorrow. But the chickens are sleeping in there tonight, and we got 3 new ones today! Hence, the toenail painting. 

We went to church at 1:00 today which we never do, but Brian was busy working on the coop, and the kids were helping. After church it as naps for the kids and dad and a grocery trip to Target for me, list in hand, headphones plugged in, listening to Ben Rector the whole time. Yes, I'm obsessed. 

When I got home, Brian and Addy headed to Guthrie to buy fresh eggs for $1 a dozen. Seriously. They have a bunch of hens laying right now and an abundance of eggs so they're selling them for $1/dozen. That's crazy. So we splurged and got 3 dozen and 3 new chickens. That's a grand total of 6 chickens. They are cute in a weird dinosaur kind of way. 

We joked about naming them things like Curry (because of them is named Curly, but when Luke says it, it sounds like Curry) and Pad Thai, and KFC. By the way, we have no plans to eat these hens....just their eggs, but we are still big chicken eaters (only the no hormone, no antibiotics kind). But it is a little weird now that we have chicken friends out there. 

Anyways, after all the chicken events of the day, we sat down for dinner and started talking about our lovies. The kids and I had talked about it earlier in the day, so we introduced daddy to the concept, and then we all guessed what his lovies were {and we were right.} 

But for the record....here is a list of our lovies. My list (which is by far the longest) is here. 

Brian's lovies {daddy} 

• cooking 
• dinner with his family 
• hunting (2 weeks in Colorado every year) 
• the mountains 
• chill time on the couch 
•  the beach 
• OU football 
• Thunder basketball 
• wings
• the kids suggested chickens and he said, they might be his lovies, but since he's been working on the coop for 12 days straight, he's not sure yet

Addy's lovies

• Art 
• reading 
• riding horses
• the mountains 
• special dates with daddy
• getting her nails done with mommy 
• flowers (picking them and having them in the house)
• dinner at a restaurant 
• ice cream!

Luke's lovies:

• sword fighting 
• wrestling (he said wrestling and sword fighting are the same since they are both fighting) 
• snuggling 
• Unpluggits (a fun paint and play kid place in our town) 
• music 
• reading (he said this is not one of his lovies, but he loves doing it) 
• special dates with mom or dad
• picking out a new toy
• ice cream

I'm looking forward to adding to these lovey lists as we all change and grow, but I'm also excited about intentionally serving and loving my family by making sure they have these things frequently. 

I think I should mention that lovies are by no means going to bring you peace and joy, only Jesus Christ can do that. But they are things of this world that we can delight in while we're here. They can make you happy and comfort you temporarily, but by no means do I want you to think that a list of lovies will make life great. It won't. The purpose of the lovey list is to know, recognize, and indulge in those things that make you happy. 

Here's to our lovey lists. How do you plan on using yours? 

Chickens and online grocery shopping and other shenanigans

So I guess we're officially chicken people. We have had and kept 3 chickens alive for over a week now. Done. Victory. 

We're all getting a little better at catching them. Well, not really. Brian and Luke are good at catching them. Addy and I are sort of wussies. I'm much better than she is, but we're still at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to catching chickens. I think Wyatt is even better than us. He has caught a few by the tail a couple times. Which is entertaining. 

I have so much great news aside from the fact that we are chicken owners. 

1. My assistant is back! 

Praise the Lord! I don't know how I ever lived without her. It was horrible while she was on maternity leave, I just didn't get to have any kind of fun. (not quite true, but almost). Yeah, yeah, and double yeah. And if you're new and want to know why I have an assistant, I promise I'm not just a SAHM with an assistant. That might be a little excessive. I think that's what nannies are for, and I sort of have one of those too. (I'm not trying to be super woman over here). Anyways, she is my assistant for our Scentsy business which is our sole source of income, so it's kind of important, but I didn't quit my teaching job to work 40 hours a week, thus, an assistant. 

2. Did you know you can grocery shop online?! 

So we have this grocery store here called Uptown, and you can grocery shop online and just go pick it up. Not kidding. I mean, it's really too good to be true. I spent 20 minutes ordering online (and I'm pretty sure it will be faster the 2nd time around because you can shop from your previous carts), paid a $9.95 fee, drove up, popped my truck, and picked up my groceries. I'm serious. I would not joke about such things. Oh, and they didn't even charge me the 9.95 since it was my first time online shopping. 

They called me twice to substitute a brand that they were out of, and you can actually mark that you'd like them to just make substitutions for you. It was almost one of the easiest things I've ever done, and is totally worth ten bucks. Especially if you have lots of kids whom you don't wish to take grocery shopping. I'm just saying. 

Plus, I think it saved me money because I didn't buy stuff that looked goo because I was hungry, and the website shows you what everything costs per unit side by side so you can quickly pick the least inexpensive item. 

I don't even know how it's worth it to them, but I'm not telling them that. I'm sold. Oh, and if you're really in a pickle, they'll deliver for $25. Seriously. We pay more than that for pizza delivery in a night. (I mean, that's with fresh pizza, but add a frozen pizza to your cart, and your groceries will come with pizza too!)  I just had to share. 

3. Dinner 

We are a dinner at the table kind of family. Every night. No TV. No phones. Sometimes music. My family is happier when we eat together. The last week, however, we have not been eating together. Brian has been working day and night building a chicken coop. Really it's a chicken house, and it got shingles today! He's almost done. 

So when he said he was taking the night off, and since I went grocery shopping and all, we made dinner for the 1st time in a few nights, and it made me so happy. And my kids were so happy. They love the attention they get at the dinner table.

Tonight was simple. Baked potatoes, chicken kabobs, and strawberries. And we like it simple like that.

After dinner we let the chickens out to roam and pillage. The kids played while Brian and I sat in the yard observing our new mole hills. Yes, we have moles. Don't know when they showed up, but I heard they are tough to get rid of.

That's really it over here. We're trying to adjust to school life again. Addy is loving her school and her teacher and her friends, so we're happy about that. 

Lastly, will you pray for my friend, Jari. Take a moment to read her story here. She is a dear friend of mine who may have to leave her home behind tonight because of a terrible wildfire near Missoula, Montana. 

Remember that you are loved! Happy Wednesday.