Happy New Year!

We are upon a new year! Can you really believe it? I think that New Years may be one of my favorite holidays. Not only do we get to ring in a new year, but we also get to leave old things behind and embrace what is new. It is a change of seasons (literally for us this year with the weather. We have been in the 40's and 50's up to this point and next week we are going down to the 20's. Nope I am not happy about that!)

Kevin and I try to take some time during the last week of each year to get vision for the upcoming year. We decided yesterday was that day. It was so refreshing to be able to get a babysitter, go to a cafe and just talk , dream, pray and work through some heart issues from the past year. (Thank you Mama Hurst for keeping the kids for us!) In the morning we primarily focused on the business. The Lord has been blessing the business beyond what we could have thought or imagined. It has been a fun season, but a crazy season as well. Kevin hired two more guys (We now have five employees) that are going to begin working next week. We had to get vision, we had to get fresh perspective or we would have drowned.

In the afternoon, Kevin went out on the job for a bit while I came home to be with the children. I was enjoying this time with the Lord of praying and asking for fresh vision and perspective that I continued it for me personally in the afternoon. I wanted vision for my children and parenting. I wanted vision for my marriage. I asked the Lord for new goals in diet and exercise. It was a great time of getting perspective, journaling and writing down very practical goals for the next year.

Its not scary or clique to do this. This is a very natural time of year to do this. It's a change of seasons, a change of calendar year, and the change of business's fiscal year. :) It's actually very life giving and recharges my battery.

Do you have goals for the new year? Are you asking the Lord for new perspective for a new year...a new season. Yes, dream and journal about what is on your heart, but ask the Lord what is on his heart for your new year as well. He might open your eyes to some exciting vision and have some surprises for you!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Holiday Joy?

As I was walking around the mall the other day I decided to people watch. I am not sure how many of you do this, but it can actually be quite entertaining. However, this time was not as entertaining. It was just a few days ago...a few days before Christmas. Honestly, I am not sure that I saw one smile, laugh or joke on a person's face. It made me sad. All I saw was a few couples fighting, frowned faces, and a few looking down at the ground borrowing ahead as fast as they could.

It made me think again about what I want for Kevin and I...as well as our children. Am I ushering in peace, love, and joy into our house? Is my heart reflecting contentment and joy...or anger and strife? Am I being patient with those around me and taking extra time and care with my children?

Yes, during the holidays life can get overwhelming and crazy. However, what are you going to choose today? Are you going to walk in a place peace and rest in order to bless those around you?

I know this is the heart posture I would like to have this holiday season!

Furnace Bay Weekend

Kevin and I go away with the other members of our house church once a year to the Chesapeake Bay. This past weekend was that time and once again the Lord showed up. Kevin and I walked away with a refreshed spirit and fresh vision and passion for life.

As many of you know, I have played the cello since fourth grade. I started learning because I wanted to play a "differen"t instrument that people were not use to. However, throughout grade school, middle school and high school I have learned to play, but not a "natural" player. That is that I never had to learn to play by ear...only able to read the notes on the page and follow the conductor. So, now I get into my adult years, still with the ability to play. So, when a couple friends of mine asked me to play for their wedding it confronted something in my heart. Do I really want to use the gift that the Lord gave me as a young child to play this instrument for his glory or not? Do I want to reteach myself how to play by ear and basically relearn everything that I do know? It has been seven years since I really played. Do I really want to apply myself enough to learn to play in a worship setting for one wedding...or so I thought? So, I said "yes" to the one wedding, decided to rise to the challenge of learning to play music again as well as learning to play by ear. Man, was it hard, but I rose to the challenge and learned to play for the "one wedding". Well, I guess the Lord wasn't done and is pretty serious about me using this gift for him. I have since been playing more for worship settings...including this weekend. When I was asked to play this weekend at the Bay, incredible insecurity rose up to the point that I almost chose to just let it go. I can tend to be a perfectionist and if I am not "perfect" at something it is hard for me to walk in a place of security. However, I chose to talk about it with a few people, and work through it. Them I decided to get over myself and realize that I am not perfect...but it is ok. I am glad I pushed through the fear and insecurity because I actually had a blast playing and ultimately know the Lord was glorified...not only because I played cello again, but because I chose to walk in a place of seccurity with Him.

Elijah has been quite the "ham" lately. He told me the other day..."Mom, I put too much jello in my hair, the wrong way. It was an actually." What? :)

Caleb has been walking around like a little tornado more than ever. I find him in the dvd cabinet, pulling everything out. I clean it up. While I am cleaning that up I find him playing with the Christmas tree. I discipline him, hang the ornaments back up...while he is walking to the kitchen to pull the tupperware out. I clean up the tupperware while he is pulling the playdoh stuff off the shelf. By this point I am feeling defeated and decide to just walk around disciplining him and clean up EVERYTHING when he goes down for his nap. However, he has learned how to go up and down the steps, so that is nice to know we are past the gate stage of life...at least for now. :)

Michayla has been growing up. She is just simply so fun to be with right now. Her heart is coming alive and I actually get to watch it happen. Truly a privilege to be her mom.

Kevin is SWAMPED with work. Last week he got two months of work and this week he got another two weeks. That puts him booked out till the end of January. He has one employee right now, but we are praying in a second one that would be a good fit.

I begin training today with a personal trainer. I am so excited but nervous. I have never needed "help" in this area. Again another area I am not perfect that the Lord is helping me to get over my insecurities. However, I have a lot of personal fitness goals that I am excited to reach. More on this topic later...

Gotta run...the kiddos are waking up. :)

Rediscovering our love...

Some of you may know this, but Kevin and I have been in counseling for about 7 months now. It has been one of the best decisions we have ever made. Coming from such different backgrounds and wanting to be able to understand eachother has been such a mystery for so long. However, after a few counseling sessions and lots of time and hard work, we are growing in our love for eachother like never before. Someone asked me the other day what a couple of key things we have taken away from the sessions and this is what I told him... Kevin and I have learned a TON over the course of the last seven months through the counseling sessions we have been going to. Hard...yes, but awesome...definetly. One major thing I think we would both agree has been a key to our marriage is focusing on ourselves. Yes, me focusing on me and Kevin focusing on himself. Sounds kind of crazy, but in the middle of a fight we have to choose to take our eyes off the other person and figure out what is going on in our own heart in order to get to the bottom of why that "thing" is bothering us about the other person. It has dissolved so many disagreements between us in the last few months. When we have chosen to walk this out we typically find that either the thing that is bothering us is not really the issue. We typically find that it is something from the outside that we are allowing to put pressure on our marriage or it is something that bothered us about our parents that we are recognizing in our spouse "that we never thought they would ever be like that".The second big thing we have taken away from counseling (and this might sound selfish coming from me, so maybe you should talk to Kevin about this) is that Kevin focuses on me and not so much on the children. But if you think about it, this totally makes sense. As a husband focuses on his wife, she feels loved and at rest. Therefore, she is able to pour into her children in a real and at rest way and then the children feel loved and at rest. As Kevin brings love, peace and rest to me, our children feel it flowing down to them from me. Not that he doesn't take any time with our kids of course, but he has switched more of his focus on me, which totally enables me to be a better mother to our children.There is WAY more that we have taken away from counseling, but these are two of the MAJOR adjustments we have made in our house...and it has brought way more rest and peace. We are loving eachother and loving life. :)

Declaration

October Snow

Yes, that's right...it did snow all day on Saturday. I mean all day. We got about 4-5 inches where we live. Not too bad...it could have been way worse. However, there were tons of trees down and power outages right around us. It was such a heavy snow...which was really fun for my kids. Michayla and Elijah were able to build a really big snowman with Daddy's help. Yep, Caleb and I stayed inside. :)
Due to the snow we had such a fun weekend. The Lums and Mylins were able to come and chill with us on Saturday evening. We went to the mall as a family on Sunday afternoon and then we went to Kevin's brothers house on Sunday evening. It was a great weekend of hanging out with friends and family.
Here's to another week...It is the beginning of a new (and one of my personal favorite) month. I love November. All the leaves have changed to bright beautiful colors, its a great month for baking and a month of thankfulness. Who are you thankful for? What are you thankful for?

Boy Time and Date Nights

I love time with my boys when Michayla is at preschool. I feel like Elijah just comes to life having mommy all to himself without his sister stealing some of my attention...even if its just for a couple hours. Today I needed to run errands while Michayla was at preschool (which is what I typically do when she is in school). The whole time we were in the van and even when we were in the stores Elijah just talked and talked. He asks so many questions right now and I love it. "Mom, what's a sidewalk?" "Mom, what's a filter?" Mom, what's a...?" Anthing Kevin and I are talking about and he picks up on he asks what it is. Yes, it's a lot of questions, but I love seeing "the wheels" spinning in his little mind.
Then we pick Michayla up and she is always SO EXCITED to tell me all about her day. She loves sharing with me about her classmates, what she learned and what new thing she did that day. She has been making new friends and learning so many new things. She knows how to write her name, which is a huge relief for me because I was not sure she would be able to with how long it is. I always enjoy hearing all about her school day.
Tonight is DATE NIGHT. As much as I love talking and sharing with my children, I enjoy alone time with Kevin even more. I am not sure what we are doing tonight, but really does it matter when you get to have two hours of alone time with your spouse? I used to get so uptight with always having a plan and I had to know exactly where we were going to be every minute of the date. Now, it just doesn't matter as long as I have Kevin to myself. :) With three young kids, these nights are few and far between, so we cherish the time we have together!
Really, a prediction of 6-10 inches of SNOW tomorrow. I have a HUGE bone to pick with the creator of the snow. Him and I...yeah we need to have a talk. My kids love it...I really dislike it. Here's hoping the storm just misses us...

Kids...

My kids have been giving me a run for my money lately. I believe they are still adjusting to Michayla being in preschool, but oh man it has been rough around here. Elijah just turned three and from my experience, the threes are worse then the twos. I am not sure where they got the terrible twos from, but around here, it is the terrible threes. He is forever bothering her sister. I am always telling Michayla to "outsmart" him and not let him bother her, but that doesn't work. She whines, he loves it, so he doesn't again. A very vicious cycle for mom.
Then there is Caleb...oh Caleb. He is walking EVERYWHERE. I think we are going to need to get more gates because he either ignores our little spanks for when he tries to go up the steps, or he cries and goes right back at it. (You would think falling down the steps twice would have got his attention, but apparently not.) He is into the wine rack, the tupperware, the pantry...you name it, he is into it. I think Target might be calling my name to get more childproof items around here. On another note, he is semi sleeping through the night. Yes, he is almost a year old and is still not quite there. It is partially my fault because I really have catered to his every need through the night, but he also just really likes to nurse. I mean more than any of my other children. So, as I have started to wean him from nursing, he is crying more and more through the night...but he just gets ignored. Poor little dude...but mama needs sleep BIG time!
So today, I decided that I have one of the funniest little boys ever. Elijah makes me laugh all the time. He is so random. Tonight we were having family time and Kevin was talking to the kids. He was trying to get them to talk about why they are acting out and not listening to mommy through the day. Well, I am sure you can picture how it goes with a three and four year old when you are trying to have such a serious conversation, but today Elijah was just over the top funny that I was crying. If you have never experienced the jolly Elijah laugh...you should. You will cry it will be so funny!

Sundays

Sundays are a day of rest for our family. I can't tell you how much I look forward to this day of the week because of how much time we get as a family. Family time seems to be few and far between right now, but we are continuing to make it more of a priority...especially on Sundays. I look forward to going to house church and seeing our "family", going to our traditional lunch spot (Smiley's) and picking up Subs to eat for lunch, coming home and watching football with Kevin, cutting coupons for grocery shopping that week and then just hanging out with my husband and kids for the evening.
A new thing in my life is ZUMBA. Oh my gosh! For any of you that know me, I am a pretty avid workout junky. I have been my whole life (except when I am prego) and I have never experienced a workout quite like this one. Naomi, our instructor and now a part of our house church, gave me a run for my money for sure. She has offered to instruct the girls from the house church twice a week through the end of the year. Wow I am looking forward to this for sure! Not only the fact that it gives me a really good workout, but also being able to workout with friends. Sometimes I get lonely working out by myself at home all the time, so the switch up will be really good for me.
Just a little prayer request...Kevin and I have two buildings on the market right now. We would really like them to sell for various different reasons. It would be really freeing financially to us if they would both sell. I have a lot of faith that it is on the Lords heart for them to sell as well. I know the Lord can bring the right buyer. Please pray that the Lord would continue to work in our hearts and that we would see His heart for us through this process. Please pray they would sell quickly in order to free us up financially.

October 21, 2011

As times go on, I will be updating on many events that have taken place over the course of the last few years. However, I want to journal what is happening now in our lives as well. There is always a lot going on and I don't want to forget about anything. This morning I chose to wake up earlier than normal (with my amazing husband who has faithfully been waking up early to go to work) to spend time with Kevin as well as to spend time with the Lord and to journal. I miss morning times, sometimes quiet, sometimes not. As many of you know, we have early risers in our house, so since we have had children it has been hard for me to get up an earlier than them. However, I am enjoying this morning...although I have a little girl watching her morning cartoons already.
Kevin has been so blessed in the business. Yesterday he came home and said he received a few more phone calls with work totaling about another week and a half. He is pulling in sub-contractors just to knock some of this work out. It is great being busy, but he doesn't enjoy being overwhelmed. When he is overwhelmed, I get overwhelmed. And then it is just a snowball effect on us and our family. We are continually learning how to work together with the business. I am learning how I can be a help to him as well as what my role is.
Sometimes it is still hard for me to trust the Lord that He is going to continue to provide for our business and our family. Why I still struggle trusting? I am not sure, but I know that I want to continue to grow in my trust of the Lord. I know that His heart is to be SO faithful to us...and He has more than proven himself in this area. His heart is so gentle towards us and He is so patient with me.
Today is my work day, so for now I need to get going. Life gets crazy around here about 7am. Kids are waking up, I have to get breakfasts ready, lunches packed for everyone (my kids go to Kelley's house on my work days) kids changed into their clothes, Michayla ready for school with everything in her backpack and the other two ready for the babysitter. Yes, its crazy...but it's my world, my journey and I wouldn't trade it for ANYTHING!

New Beginnings

This is a new blog to record new beginnings. Over the course of the last five and a half years I have lost touch of a huge part of my heart which is journaling and recording the events that take place. Journaling is a very vulnerable issue for me because it lets people in on the desires, pains, joys, longings and all that life brings to not just me, but my family as well. I have also always believed the lie that I am not good at journaling. I am starting to recognize this is a lie and not only that, but believe this is a gift the Lord has given me. I want to use it to glorify him as well as minister to my children. I know I want to record things that have taken place as well as things that will happen in the future for Kevin, me and our children. I want to record not just for myself, but for the sake of my children. I don't want to be telling them stories from many years ago. I want them to be able to read about them from the time they were recorded. So I invite you to follow along as I try to recap the past five years of our lives, as well as try to capture the day to day events of the Hurst family.