Young Life Ministry and Wrestling with Life Change

Lately my life has been consumed with work and pregnancy and moving, with little time for breathing or anything else. I wanted to show you a glimpse of the job that I love but that really runs my life. I work for Young Life, and am the area director (in charge person) for a small area in the middle of Dallas. Jed volunteers with the high school ministry and we have a lot of fun doing ministry together. Pictured above are our high school friends at Young Life club, which happens every Monday night. We have a great group of kids that come, and we are always meeting new kids. The ministry is fun, heartbreaking, amazing, exhausting, and an incredible thing to be a part of. I love seeing the volunteers I work with build relationships with kids and share the Gospel with them through those friendships. I didn't realize how difficult the job I've loved for 10 years would be become while pregnant. My first trimester was really hard, not as hard as others I'm sure, but difficult all the same. I am so thankful for the child growing in my body and the ministry that the Lord has called me to, but the combination of the 2 has been life changing.
WyldLife is the middle school portion of the ministry, and that club meets every 3 weeks on Friday nights. It is wild and high energy and perfect for middle schoolers. The photo above is from the WyldLife Bus Tour this year. Bus Tour was a rude awakening for me. It is an all night middle school adventure that takes bus loads of us all over Dallas to a Mavs game, and many other events. It goes from 6 pm to 6 am, and ours happened to take place on the night of the time change. Yikes. I really thought I could make it through the event even though I was about 11 weeks pregnant and sick 24/7. I had Jed on call in case I needed to be rescued. I thought I might make it to 2 am. Nope. I made it to 11 pm, barely. I spent the whole 4th quarter in the bathroom vomiting. Good times. I thought I could tough it out, but the baby said, "No way, Mama." The trickiest part of the whole night is getting our group (50 kids) from one of the American Airlines Center to the other through the massive crowd, down to the court to shoot free throws, and then out to the bus. I forced myself to make it through that part, and then had Jed pick me up at our next stop. Thankfully I had awesome volunteer leaders with me to take over. It was really hard for me to realize that I couldn't do everything I used to do. I know my life will change a million times more once the baby arrives, but it has already changed more than I ever imagined.
YoungLives is for pregnant and parenting teen girls. These are some of our lovely girls and their babies. We pair them with mentors who hang out with them and walk through life with them. It is a new and growing part of Young Life worldwide, as we figure out how to reach out to parenting teens. Over the last year this special ministry has grown really close to my heart. I don't know if the Lord is working me because of the way my life is changing. I know He is changing my heart as He changes my body and makes me ready for motherhood. I am wrestling with how to balance my job and my family. I'll be thinking and praying about this a lot over the next few months. I hope that the Lord will give me a clear picture of what He wants me to do. If that means working full time and figuring out day care, or working part time, or staying home full time, I hope that He gives me clarity and peace about it.

How did you decide to keep working or stay at home? If you don't have kids, what do you think you will do when the time comes and why?

The Lakewood Young Life Christmas Card for 2010

Merry Dots Christmas

Make a statement with Shutterfly Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Verse of the Week - 1 Chronicles 16:34

"Give thanks to God—he is good

and his love never quits."

- 1 Chronicles 16:34 (The Message)

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays because it serves to remind us of what we should be doing all year round - thanking God for our lives and all that is good in them. Every year I make a list of things I'm thankful for with my Young Life girls, and it is so fun to find those lists years later and be reminded of how the Lord has worked in my life. I've made my list for the year and will share it later on this week.

What are you thanking the Lord for this year?

Etsy Jingle Bash Finds

I wouldn't say the Jingle Bash was fun, exactly. It was a mad house and could best be described as a craft mosh pit. There were so many people that it was hard to walk. They had a dj and 2 bars, so it felt like a really crowded party. There were some great booths and some weird booths, like any craft fair. I found 2 treasures that I am in love with for our little Bun. The Harrilu folks were there with their super cute designs for friends of all ages, and I bought their Honey Bunny onesie in yellow. I couldn't find a good pic of it on their site, and Jed has my camera, so I'll just describe it for now. It has a sketch of a bunny screen printed in black on the front, and is a super soft American Apparel onesie. I am currently snuggling it. Don't judge. I also found a limited edition print for the nursery that I had to have. The seller is called Bee Things, and all of their stuff is super cute. The print is called "Frog, Dog, Hog, Log, Bog" and is perfect for my woodland pond nursery theme. Plus, it has a weiner dog on it! Amazing. All in all, it was worth battling the crafty mosh pit for a few choice finds. Supporting handmade goods is good for us all, and gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling inside.

Did you find anything fun this weekend?

Handmade Christmas Shopping!

I love Etsy and can't wait to go shop at the Jingle Bash this afternoon. Hopefully I can knock out a little Christmas shopping and maybe get a few things for the little bun in my oven. Yesterday I shopped around in the Bishop Arts District in Dallas while waiting on a meeting to start, and found the cutest felted mistletoe that had to come home with me. Jed has my camera, so I'll share pics when he gets back. Have a great weekend!

Moving While Pregnant

You might think that moving while pregnant would be a terrible ordeal. Turns out it isn't so bad. I've felt so crummy the last few weeks that I really escaped all manual labor involved in the move and mostly just directed traffic. Jed did all the work and was such a trooper. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband. Some of his Young Life guys came to help him, and they knocked it out. We are officially in our new house (YAY!) even though we had to pay rent on the old one for an extra 2 weeks (BOO!). Thanks jerkface landlady.

This has been the most drawn out move I've ever experienced. We moved .9 miles away from our old house, and our new (awesome) landlord let us move in for 3 weeks that weren't paying rent. How generous is that?! I think the time frame made us a little lazy and disorganized, but we still made it happen. There are a few things left at the old house, but all the big stuff is here. Most of my clothes are still in the old closet, but they don't exactly fit right now so it doesn't really matter. I guess the good thing about paying rent through the end of the month is that we have a long time to clean up so we can hopefully get our deposit back. Oh, the joys of renting!

Our living room is set up for the most part, so I have a place to sit/blog, and we are slowly working through the rest of it. My goal tomorrow is to get my craft table set up. I haven't been able to make anything for over a month, and I have so many ideas in my head. I'm so ready to have a space to create that doesn't make my living room look like a hoarder house. We now have have a great back bedroom that will double as a guest room and baby's room. The guest room part is all set up, and I can't wait to get the baby's room set up. I don't really have anything yet, just a few cloth diapers and a bouncer I've won through other blogs. I'm sure I will start buying/making things soon. I have to get that craft table set up...

I was thinking about how many times I've moved over the years, and am a little shocked by the numbers. I moved once as a child, but since age 18 I have moved 14 times, 3 times since I married Jed (2.7 years ago). Yikes. That is out of control. Hopefully we can stay settled here for a while.

How many times have you moved over the years?

Christmas is coming... it is time to pick out cards to send!

I love the Christmas season, and all that comes with it. I love decorating my house, even though we spend weeks away visiting family during the Christmas season. I wait to decorate until right after Thanksgiving, but I start other preparations early. I've already started shopping to find the best deals, and I've started working on my Christmas cards. I'm sending out a card for the Lakewood Young Life donors, and a personal family card. That's a lot of cards, so I have to look for the best deals. Shopping on popular holiday card sites has been discouraging because I love many of the designs, but am not loving the prices. Cards on some of the sites I've checked out start at $1.29-$1.59 per card. Yikes. In years' past I have tried lots of different options to save money on cards. I've printed photos and stuffed them into lame generic envelope cards. I've printed photos and glued them onto hand cut fancy paper, which was a major pain. Last year when I was neck deep in cards and crying from frustration I made Jed promise that I could do professionally printed ones this year. I found some great designs and the best deals on Shutterfly, where the cards start at .32 cents a piece. That is so in the budget. The giving and receiving of photo Christmas cards is one of my favorite parts of the season, so I chose a few from the Shutterfly gallery for your enjoyment.

Check them out below and vote for your favorite in the comment section.

#1

This is simple and fun, but I'm not 100% sold on it yet.

#2

I love the simplicity of this one too. It also reminds me of one of my favorite Christmas songs, "Pretty Paper" by Willie Nelson. It speaks of "pretty paper, pretty ribbons of blue" and I love the blue and red ribbons criss-crossing this card.

#3

This one is just festive all around.

#4

This one is festive as well, and a little funky and fun.

Which one do you like the best?

Now the question is... should I make calendars for the family? I think it could be a fun way to see each other all year round across the miles. I'm just not sure if I have enough calendar worthy pics to do a whole year. They are $14.39 each, so I might have to work on this little project.

Ladies, we have a winner!

The lucky winner of the Nature Made Prenatal Vitamins + DHA Giveaway is....

Entry #4: Jessica from The Pelkey's Place

She is an Arkansas girl, too!

Congratulations Jessica!

I'll email you details soon.

Thanks so much to everyone who entered.

Can I make my unborn baby smarter? Or more stupid?

I am learning that there is all kinds of crazy information out there targeted at expecting moms telling us how we could be screwing our baby up for life. I found a great article that helped calm a lot of my fears. It says that all of the products out there that advertise making a baby smarter in the womb have no proof to back them up. They are basically preying on us hormonal pregos who will do anything to feel like we're doing this right. Here's a portion of the article from MomLogic explaining 4 points expecting moms should be aware of:

"1) In the first half of pregnancy, babies mostly want to be left alone. Medina writes, "From the baby's point of view, the best feature of life in the womb it its relative lack of stimulation." This is the time the embryo's pre-brain is very active, pumping out neurons at an amazing rate of 500,000 cells a minute. To do this, a peaceful, non-interactive environment is just what the baby needs.

2) Don't waste your money on products claiming to improve a fetus' IQ, temperament or personality. None of them have been proven to work. Some books published in the '90s (and earlier) falsely advertised things such as, "Teach your baby to spell in the womb," "Teach your child a second language before birth" and "Increase your baby's IQ by as much as 30 points." According to Medina, no commercial product has ever been shown to do anything to improve the brain performance of a developing fetus.

3) In the second half of pregnancy, babies begin to perceive and process a great deal of sensory information. Their sense of smell becomes heightened to the point that they can smell the perfume you wear, the garlic on the pizza you just ate and even the amniotic fluid they're living in. Medina says your baby may actually prefer these comforting smells after birth; it's called "olfactory labeling." He has this advice for moms who have just given birth: Immediately after your baby is born, rub her with her own amniotic fluid before washing her with soap and water. Studies show it will calm the baby down.

4) A mother-to-be can boost her baby's brain development with four things: proper weight gain, a balanced diet, moderate exercise and stress reduction. These have all been scientifically proven to help a fetus' brain develop to its optimal level. Medina also says there are two supplements that are known to influence brain development in utero. One is folic acid; he advises women to take it around the time of conception. The other is omega-3 fatty acids, which are essential components of neurons. Humans have a hard time making omega-3s, so the best way to get them is either by eating fish or taking a supplement. Researchers recommend that pregnant women eat fish that has low concentrations of mercury, such as salmon, cod, sardines and canned white tuna."

Read more: http://www.momlogic.com/2010/11/can_you_create_a_smarter_baby.php#ixzz14i1CqDjR

I'm not planning on saving amniotic fluid to calm my baby, but it does make me feel better that the best thing I can do for my baby's brain is to take care of myself during this pregnancy. I'm sure I'll play music and read to my wee one later on in the pregnancy, which may or may not do a thing for him/her. It will be fun for me.

I love hearing from y'all, so...

What have you done/heard you could do to make babies smarter? It can be totally normal or crazy, no judgement here. Share in the comments section.

CSN Review coming soon...

I am so excited to review more great stuff from CSN Stores! They have everything under the sun with free shipping on most items. Check out their collections and find whatever you might need from cloth diapers to drop leaf tables to strollers to running shoes. Seriously, they have it all. What I am going to review? I haven't decided yet. I'm leaning towards something for the baby's nursery. I love the collection shown in the photo above. I'm thinking of using it as a base for the nursery design. Come back soon to see what I choose, and check out CSN Stores for yourself!

Just like Newlyweds...

I saw this Newly Wed game on Miss Madison's Charmed Life. I thought it would be fun to get Jed involved with the blog action. I had him answer all the questions about me, without asking me for help. He did pretty well.

His answers are first, with my follow up in red.

1. She’s sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen?
Project Runway or Say Yes to the Dress

Probably true. I've given up Law and Order for the most part because it started giving me nightmares.

2. You’re out to eat, what kind of dressing does she get on her salad?
Light Italian

Not so much. I love balsamic vinaigrette and honey mustard.

3. What’s one food she doesn't like?
Pepperoni

So true. Not sure why.

4. You go out to eat and have a drink, what does she order?
Diet Coke

or water... depending on my mood.

5. What shirt size does she wear?
M
The baby may change this, we'll have to wait and see.

6. What shoe size does she wear?
8

or 8.5, but pretty close.

7. What’s her favorite type of sandwich?
BLT

Yummy! + avocado

8. What would she eat everyday if she could?
Seafood/shrimp

Totally.

9. What is her favorite cereal?
Special K

I'm so glad he thinks so well of me. My secret fav is Lucky Charms.

10. What would she never wear?
Fur

It is just mean, can't do it.

11. What is her favorite sports team?
Arkansas Razorbacks

Go Hogs!

14. What is something she does that you wish she wouldn’t do?
Put her freezing cold hands on me when she is cold.

He really hates it, but is also a human space heater. What would you do?

15. What is her heritage?
Irish

also English and Scandinavian

16. You bake her a cake, what kind of cake?
Cupcakes. Red velvet with cream cheese icing

Yes, please!

17. Did she play sports in high school?
So she claims...

He may not believe me, but I played soccer and softball, danced, and was the captain of the canoe racing team. In your face, Jed.

18. What could she spend hours doing?
Reading/blogging

True.

19. What is the unique talent that she has?
Loving the unlovable

So sweet...

20. What is her type of coffee?

Dunkin Donuts with a little hazelnut or french vanilla cream, no sugar.

So good...

It was fun to see how he answered all the questions. How would your significant other do?