So, this is the New Year

Unlike Death Cab's song New Year I feel great. I am excited about the new things the Lord has for the Gale family. The hubs and I went out New Year's Eve we did not make it the show that I mentioned in the previous post, but we did have dinner and dessert. The show just started too late and the older I get the more of a homebody I become. We had a great time discussing our answers to the New Year's questions, reviewing our family plan and setting some other goals for the future. And we finished watching Season 1 of Downton Abbey and if you have never heard of it it is the best show I have ever watched. Don and I love it! I wanted to share a few resolutions for myself for 2012. I won't share all of them because there are over 30. I know that seems like a lot, but some of them were not really resolutions more of reflection questions and how to change.

1. Play with these sweet faces more. Don and I both feel like we are to focus even more in on our children. Training, loving, educating and discipling them. We plan to begin weekly dates with Eden. Don is taking her out Saturday for a special breakfast and Owen and I will have some sweet time together. And then next week I will take her out while Don spends time with Owen. Owen gets home dates right now because he is a little "difficult" at times in public. He likes to be free.

2. Plan my days better. This means taking each friday afternoon while the kids sleep and plan the upcoming week. Playdates, what school time will look like, what crafts we will do, what adventures we will go on, what things we will cook together. I have to be structured with my days otherwise I tend to just want to let the kids do "whatever" so that I can "whatever".

3. Blog more. Like to try and do 3 times a week. And redo the ole blog. I am not very technical so the way my blog looks now is because it was a free template that my sweet friend Al showed me how to do. Just like to get something different that fits me a little bit better.

4. Write and mail notes to people this year.

5. Mail birthday cards to my friends and family members

6. Start our family journal. We have had it for a few years, but have never written in it. It will be a journal that just keeps up with the things our kids have done, stages they are at, ways the Lord is growing and teaching our family.

7. Have a morning devotional and prayer time with my kiddos. I want them to begin understanding that we start our day with the Lord.

8. Listening to books on CD with the kids. We have started doing this and they love it! We have listened to Mike Mulligan and the Steam Engine and we got them this collection of proverbs stories that we listen to in the car. And I really enjoy them.

9. I want to be more of an encouragement to my husband. He has a huge job leading our family and he does a wonderful job and I need to tell him that more. He started a blog. And it is so good. He is a fantastic writer. Here is the link if you want to follow him.

10. I want to memorize more Scripture this year. I want God's Word on my heart and on my lips. To be able to speak truth to myself throughout the day.

11. Be on the computer less. I realized a few weeks ago that for no reason during the day I will just be checking my email or looking at facebook or the weather, yes the weather, when I had just checked those things an hour ago. So, I decided to only open the computer when the kids are not awake. That means I can only check it before they get up in the morning, when the nap and after they go to bed. I am excited about doing this. I think it will give a lot of freedom.

Alright, those are a few of them. Again, I am so looking forward to this new year. And I know everyday will not be perfect in these things, but I think it is important to set goals for yourself and when you get off of them one week or day or month just started back on them the next day. The Lord's mercies are new every morning!!

Goodnight.

Thinking on the New Year

I love the New Year! Typically, my sweet mother keeps the kiddos so that Don and I can have the evening together. We usually go out to dinner and talk about the up-coming year, look over our family plan and just talk about things we want to do differently. And I think this year we might go see Don's friend's band play at the P&H, but it doesn't start until 10 and that is so crazy late to me! Anyway, I wanted to share some of the questions that Don and I do together. We have been doing them for a few years and I not sure where Don got them, but they have been really helpful in looking at my spiritual life.

1. What's one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God
2. What's the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do this year
3. What's the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life
4. In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress and what will you so about it
5. What is the single biggest time-waster and what will you do about it
6. For whose salvation will you pray most fervently for
7. What's the most important way you will by God's grace, try to make this year different from last
8. What's the most important need you feel burdened to meet
9. What habit would you most like to establish this year
10. Who is the person you most want to encourage
11. What's one way you could be a blessing to your pastor
12. What single blessing from God do you want to seek most earnestly
13. What skill do you most want to learn
14. What one biblical doctrine do you most want to understand better
15. What area do you most need change

Do you have any questions you ask yourself about the new year? Happy New Year!!

Food!!!

This has been a great weekend! My mom came to my rescue and kept my sweet babies friday night and most of Saturday. And I got TONS of stuff done because I was starting to feel overwhelmed with my Christmas list. I finished the super hero capes for my niece and nephews, cooked, did some good cleaning and wrapped presents. I feel so much better! And tonight we just got back from a fun time with our sweet friends the Nelsons. Finally, got to hold their sweet new baby Jonathan, so handsome :) All that to say, my hubby and I went on a date Friday night to Le Chardonnay. And I wanted to share a quick review on it. Those that know my husband and I know that we enjoy food. We love to cook, we love to eat unique and interesting foods and we greatly enjoy the dining out experience. I have heard some people say that food is "just fuel" and I disagree. Food is an experience. Granted every now and then it is just fuel, but more often it should be an enjoyable memorable experience. Even everyday family meals.
We decided on Le Chardonnay because it was one of the places that we had a Groupon for and we had eaten there once before, but only for dessert. At that time it was at a different location and it had a very romantic feel. The new location doesn't have that same feel. While it is still dimly lit and there are candles on the table the T.Vs, open kitchen and the smoking countered the whole romantic atmosphere I remembered. And yes SMOKING! I didn't think you could smoke in restaurants anymore. I would have left if we hadn't already ordered. And typically, I do not mind if the kitchen is open and you can see the chefs cooking, but they were talking loudly and one guy was on break and just leaning on the counter smoking and swearing. It was annoying.
On to the food. It was nothing great. I ordered the grilled mahi mahi sandwich. The piece of fish was very flat and not impressive. However, the remoulade was very tasty, but the sandwich was on a huge sesame bun that completely overwhelmed the fish. I felt like I was eating more bread than anything. But the fries were nice and crispy. We will not be eating there again. My husband wrote a review of the restaurant here if you want to hear his comments.

Here are just a few of our favorite restaurants in Memphis
1. Sweet Grass (we would say it is the best restaurant in Memphis)
2. Elegant Farmer
3. Boscos
4. Trolley Stop
5. 3 Angels Diner
6. It isn't Don fav, but I love Bombay House. He prefers Mayuri
7. Majestic

We both really want to try
1. Andrew Michael
2. Iris
3. Felicia Suzanne's
So, if you have ever eaten at any of those places please let me know what you thought about it.
Goodnight.

My 3 year old and modesty

I didn't think a modesty talk would come so soon between Eden and I. (she is only 3 1/2) I thought that talk would come later on in her little life. Well, it happened when she came in the room with one of her dress up dresses falling off her shoulders. She is a small girl so I just pulled them up like I usually do until she protested and told me no that it was her "Belle dress" and it was suppose to be like that. She then pulls them back off her shoulders and pulls the front down making it lower. It took me off guard for a moment and then I put it together and could see Belle from Beauty and Beast in her flowing, yellow, off-the-shoulder, low-cut dress dancing with the Beast. I didn't know what to say at first. I sat down with her and talked about what is right for girls to wear and how we are to dress modestly. (and attempted to define that word for her) I reminded her that mommy doesn't wear her clothes like that and how some parts of our bodies are not meant for other people to see. Hopefully, it doesn't sound like I am making a bigger deal about this than I should, but I just saw it as a great teaching time for my little girl and myself. I learned a few things from it. 1. For more than just this reason, but it's a big one, I need to watch and be so careful about the clothes that I wear. How much time I spend in the mirror doing my hair and make-up because I have 2 sweet little eyes that are watching me ALL the time. 2. Don't be too busy to stop for teaching moments. 3. What she watches and reads effects her thinking and world-view. Don and I talked briefly if we should continue to let her watch that movie and we concluded that we thought it was still fine for her to watch, but that we needed to be more aware of those type of messages and images in movies. We don't believe in hiding everything from our children, but at the same time we are called to guard them and teach them along the way. Thankfully, after that talk she hasn't tried to make her dresses into "Belle dresses" anymore. That is another post if she does. Oh the joys of raising a little girl!

She loves her accessories!

Not a Christmas entry

So this not going to be anything about Christmas, although I love reading all the Christmas posts lately. My Christmas entry will come later. Today is a sick day for this mommy. I've actually been sick for going on 2 days now. It's nothing horrible just a faucet for a nose, headache, tired, little bit of body aches. I've heard this saying a million times and it's so true about how mom's don't get sick days. Whenever that goes through my head when I am sick I tend to fell sorry for myself. But the hardest thing for me when I am sick is how quickly I get frustrated at my children. I tend to be irritated easily and lose my patience oh so fast! On days like today I try to just take it easy and not be as concerned about housework. I am not as strict about movie time, but at the same time try to have them doing fun things since they are in the house all day. Like today we baked Christmas ornaments and then painted them and I finished my "winter" wreath. (pics will come soon!). (I have no idea how I had the energy to those things.) The biggest thing that struck me today is that even in my sickness I am still called to love and care for my family well. Thankfully there is grace for those frustrating moments, but I am want to try in those moments to not let my sickness and mood cause me to sin against my children. Hopefully, in the morning I will be a millions times better :)

I'm thankful for...

We are mostly packed and ready to head to Martin tomorrow morning for what I know will be a wonderful Thanksgiving. We are SO thankful that Paula (my wonderful mother-in-law) finished up her last round of radiation today and is moving back home! I wanted to reflect and list some of the things I am thankful for during this season. (this list is not necessarily in order)

1. My salvation. That Christ died on the cross and bore the wrath that I deserved.
2. My husband. That he loves me, that he provides for our family, that he leads our family, that he can cook, that we laugh together and that he is my best friend
3. Eden. that she such a delight that loves to read, that she is caring and loves helping mommy.
4. Owen. That he is loving and loves to cuddle. That he smiles all the time and laughs.
5. As I just mentioned that Paula has finished up her treatment and can move back home!
6. For my loving mother and father
7. For my sweet sister and her family
8. For my interesting and super smart brother
9. For my wonderful sister-in-law
10. The rest of my aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. So blessed by family!
11. Sweet friends that keep me accountable
12. For our home.
13. Centerpoint church family. Thankful for their support in our transition
14. New church family at Audubon Park
15. How the Lord is shaping my parenting and character
16. Our call and desire for missions
17. That I get to stay home everyday with my sweet children
18. For my husband's job that allows me to stay home
19. For the neighbor that the Lord has placed us in
20. Sweet surprises that my husband does for me
21. Friendships that my children have
22. That we are all healthy
23. That I have more than I could ever dream about. I should never complain
24. Our books
25. That my children sleep well and Don and I get full night's rest (typically)
26. Heat (you have no idea how cold natured I am)
27. freedom from religious persecution
28. my loving father-in-law
29. 3 meals and 2 snacks everyday
30. My children laughing

I could go on and on. Here are a few pictures

The amazing family the Lord has blessed me with


Going to Turkey with my sweetie (even though my eyes are closed)

brother and momma

Grandma last Christmas

Aunt Sara and Grandpa

sweet friends for my children

little buddies

It was one of those days...

Last Thursday I had a pretty rotten day. It was one of those days that I was counting down the minutes until Don walked through the door. It was a day (mainly an afternoon) full of crying, fits and extremely whiny attitudes. And no matter how hard Mommy tried I could not make my little children happy. I informed my sweet husband how the day had been so he could be ready when he arrived home. Didn't want him to think he was going to walk into a calm household. When he got home I just vented and told him all about the day, how I had gotten angry with our children and how I hadn't instructed and disciplined them in the way of the Lord. I felt like I had blown it. Ever have days like that? At the end of all that I became more grateful for the Lord's grace and my husband's love. Grace that the Lord wasn't going to hold my sins over my head and remind me of them over and over. Grace for a new day and fresh start with my children. I was thankful that my husband didn't just tell me the way I should have handled things (although we did talk through them) but he listened, bought me a cupcake from Muddy's, took time with the kids so that I could sew and then watched a movie with me (which is rare in our house). I wanted to share that experience because I know we all have bad days and days when we feel like we have blown it. It could be at work, at school, with friends or our children. A beautiful part about walking with the Lord is that there is grace for those days those moments and that He wants us to rest in those and to give him our burdens and the heavy things of our heart. I am more grateful now than I was last Thursday morning for the grace of the Lord in my life.