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31 Days of Openness (Combined 2 into 1)

Yesterday I didn’t post. Why? Because I slept all day. I was up to help with school, go to the dr., run an errand or two but otherwise I was in bed.

About once a month my body completely shuts down. I know a lot of women who push through it but I have learned to listen to my body. If I’m tired, I’m tired. So I sleep. It’s amazing what the next day is like when I listen to what my body is telling me. I’m usually refreshed and energized and feel so much better.

It’s taken me a long time to listen to myself instead of the world. Do I get caught up in the world sometimes? Of course. But I’m getting better at listening to the Holy Spirit inside of me. He certainly knows what is best for me.

How about you? Do you hear that still, small voice? Do you listen to what your body is telling you? I’m interested to know how other women approach their lives, their stress and their day to day struggles.

Sometimes a warm blanket cures all! (See all the other 31 dayers here)

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Posted: October 7, 2011 by Julie |Category: God Breathed | Tags: 31 days of real, God, listening to the Holy Spirit, listening to your body, taking care of you

31 Days of Openness (Day 5) My Office

My husband has no idea how I operate but I do. I’m a random thinker and organizer so I’ll let you in on my attempt to clean my office desk of all it’s clutter.

Hold on to your seats ladies…..

As you can see the piles that have made sense are out of the floor where you can not see them. Now I’m left with the piles that I can’t make sense out of.

“Baby, when ya coming home?”

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Posted: October 5, 2011 by Julie |Category: Our Family, Our Lives | Tags:

31 Days of Reality (Day 4) GRATITUDE

What is more real that Jesus?

The author, the perfecter……

I wanted to share a recent God moment with you.

When we moved to Florida the first year and a half was hard. Difficult. Exhausting. Sometimes Miserable.

It’s because of that year and a half that my heart is filled with such gratitude now that we are in our own house. All our furniture has been moved in. And we’ve found wonderful people to help with the struggles my kids were having. These are the people at LearningRx. I blogged about them earlier.

Here are my two masterminds hard at work. They work for 1 hour and 15 minutes 4 times a day and the results are AMAZING. Their cognitive thinking skills are going thru the roof. Yippee!

Part of my gratitude comes from the journey to LearningRx. We began with counseling, then the psychologist, psychological testing, ADHD diagnosis, recommendation for me to send my oldest to school. Then a friend told me about LearningRx and the leaps and bounds her son was making there. For $49 testing I was all in. I learned more from that $49 test than the $800 psychological evaluation! Yea, I beat myself up about spending that money but I rested in “it was part of the journey” and heaped it into my gratitude pile instead.

Each time I drive up to our home that I fully believe God has given us my heart feels with gratitude. We have a beautiful home, hand-picked by the Maker himself.

Gratitude.

It changes a life.

31 Days of Openness (Day 3)

Coaching is hard. Parenting is hard.

We try to teach our kids in the best way we know how to love Jesus, serve Him and be overall wonderful citizens. But it’s a tough job we can not do alone. God leads us through the valleys and mountaintops of parenting as if we were the children. And in fact, we are. Older children leading younger children.

I am so thankful for his guidance and covering over our family and our lives. KLOVE, our local Christian radio station, had an entire day of praise today. People from all over called in with stories of deliverance, healing, thankfulness, and gratitude for what my Jesus has done in their lives. It’s been a wonderful day just listening to all He does for those who love him.

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Posted: October 4, 2011 by Julie |Category: Other Happenings | Our Family, Our Lives | Tags:

31 Days of Life – Day 2

When I’m too lazy to unload the dishwasher or fuss with the kids about doing it I hand wash dishes and allow them to dry here.

It’s old. It’s worn out (see the edges), but it works for me.

Check one off for lazy. I HATE unloading the dishwasher.

31 Days of Reality

Scooper is trying to help us keep it real over in her bloggy land!

Here’s my contribution for today…

I dress in PJs and a cup of coffee to take my kid to school.

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Posted: October 1, 2011 by Julie |Category: Other Happenings | Tags:

LearningRX – Training the Brain

We have found the most amazing center to help our kids. It is called LeaarningRx.

They are located in many cities across the US (74 Nationwide). I could try to tell you the science behind it all but I’d fail miserably. So click on the link, watch the video, read the testimonials and then come back and read what I have to say about this answer from God for our family.

I can tell you the progress I’ve seen in my own children.

My 11 (almost 12) year old and my 7 year old are attending now. We go for 1 hour and fifteen minutes 4 days a week. In just 4 weeks I’ve seen my oldest son find school easier, concentration less of a problem and his focus laser sharp (at times). Remember, we are still in process.

We are attending for 12 to 24 weeks. My son recently took a Math Test that in the past would take him about 2 hours to finish and he completed it in about 15 minutes. His grade? 100!!! I was so proud of him and I could tell he was proud of himself. Yesterday when I got up at 6:45 he had already finished his school work. He had gotten up at 5:45 for some reason. Thank you God!!!!!

Yesterday my daughter decided to do “double school work”. We call days the kids can’t concentrate and double up the next day “double school work days.” She read 5 pages from her “My First Bible” to me in the car yesterday and whizzed through 4 pages of Math. She has struggled in the past with adding quarters and dimes, nickels and pennies to find the sum of the coins. Yesterday she wouldn’t even let me help her and did it all on her own getting all of them right. Mama June would be so proud!!! (that’s grandma!)

So what is LearningRX?

From a mom’s perspective it’s an hour+ of having wonderful trainers exercise my children’s brains. They play games, time themselves and then try to beat those times. Each day, each minute is a success for them. Both of my children can now say their presidents forwards and backwards. It’s amazing. My daughter was taught to remember her phone number by making up a funny story with words that rhyme with the numbers (one is sun, zero is hero). They make up these nonsense stories all by themselves and magically (to moms anyway) the numbers stick.

Everyone here at the Jacksonville, FL LEARNINGRX has been super wonderful. They have taught me a lot about cognitive thinking skills and teaching the brain to process information faster, hold on to information longer and how every child can succeed. They work with people who have had brain injuries, early dementia, ADHD, ADD, Dyslexia and kids (and parents who just want to remember grocery lists) or want to use that wonderful muscle called a brain God has given us. So go ahead …. pick up the phone and call. The testing is less than $100 compared to the $800 I spent at the psychologist where I got no help in “what to do next”.

I am thankful for the path that has led us to Learning RX. It’s made me even more thankful for the progress I see in my children.

What can I say…..I love you guys man!!!

(Check out Perfecting Parenthood’s blog here)

To read more LearningRx reviews and stories from other parents visit: http://www.learningrx-reviews.com/

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Posted: September 30, 2011 by Julie |Category: God Breathed | Homeschooling | LearningRx | Tags: brain training, cognitive thinking skills, Learning Rx reviews, LearningRX, LearningRx review, LearningRx works, self esteem

Art for $0?

I ran into this wonderful idea today after roaming around Scooper’s blog.

A Soft Place To Land has the greatest blog!

She had this idea for cork board art.

Being the great copy cat I am I remembered saving paintings the kids did this year because I love the colors in them. Buying a frame for each one seemed totally unreasonable so this was an idea that hit me square between the eyes.

Here’s one of the kids paintings…

Great color, huh?

I had the this tall cork board and started putting two and two together and came out with this.

Now I liked this okay but realized I loved the white frame at A Soft Place to Land. So…..

It still needs another coat and isn’t as fancy as the frame I copied but I just love it. Cost? $0.00. Had the board and the paint!!! I’m happy

Of Mice and Men…

What does this title have to do with my post today?

Nothing.

It’s just what has been on my heart this morning. I’m not sure what it means. It is Sunday. We had a busy weekend and chose to stay home this am. But my heart follows after my Maker nonetheless. I feel so thankful lately. It’s been a hard year and a half and God has brought us out of the valley towards the mountain top. I breathe a little easier. I remember the biggest lesson I’ve learned. That lesson has been TODAY. That is all we have. When I live in the now I feel Him so close…inside and out. Our new house even with the boxes still awaiting my touch I feel peaceful, not frazzled. This morning the wind is blowing and I type on my screened in back porch. Laura Story is playing on my Ipod. GRACE. I love that song. It reminds me of how tiny I am and how huge my God is. I think of my journey this past year and a half.

I would have never thought I’d live where I do…in this community, it’s beautiful. I imagined myself out of town somewhere on a couple acres with some chickens and farm fresh eggs, but I live in a country club. That blows my mind. I’m not a county club girl in any way. I’m a rule breaker. The one who goes against the grain. The green egg in a dozen brown eggs. The one that raises her hands in worship when no one else will. That’s just me. God made me that way. And it’s beautiful when it’s under the control of the Holy Spirit.

I am also in awe of where he has lead our family where school and learning is concerned. Learning RX is an amazing tool he is using in our lives to change the way my children learn. My sweet oldest child took a 24 problem math test on Friday and made a 100 on it. Six months ago that test would have taken him half the day. Friday he did it in about 15 minutes.

(Break)

Now it is Wednesday and I can not believe I started this post Sunday and haven’t finished it yet.

This morning I sit at my desktop eating the yummy, buttery muffin and a huge mug of coffee you see above. My 12 year old woke me up this morning saying, “Mommy, I’m making muffins. Do you want some coffee?”

I think I’ve died and gone to heaven!

Now he wants my computer so he can do his math. Guess I’ll be finishing my thoughts here in my next post. I’m going to try to tell you the story of meeting my birthmom as well as the story of how God led us to the house we now live in.

Ta Ta for now…

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Posted: September 21, 2011 by Julie |Category: God Breathed | Homeschooling | Our Family, Our Lives | Tags:

Saturday in Green Bay – WI

I sit here in Green Bay, WI with my birth mom. She has been battling cancer for something like 20 years. I met her 8 years ago. Our story is a wonderful one I’ve yet to write. The cancer is gaining ground and she just had several operations. I went with her to chemotherapy yesterday. The whole thing was quite an experience and made all she is going through even more real. Since we live so far apart I’m not a part of the day by day challenges of battling cancer.

She has been such a blessing in my life. She gave me life. I look like her. A nurse yesterday told me I have her laugh.

It’s a quiet day. We are still in our pajamas. The Auburn football game is on TV. WAR EAGLE!!

My sweet friend is at my house cleaning up from the movers packing my house in SC yesterday and moving it to our new house in FLA. The day after I get home from WI the truck arrives. My sweet mother-in-law is staying to help with the unpacking, unloading and decorating. I sit here in awe of how God gives us rest, provides, and takes care of things the more we (I) let go of my life.

If there is anything I have learned in this last year it is to live life one day at a time. There Jesus resides. The Holy Spirit leads and God smiles. God always works out the next day. It is not for us to solve, worry or think on.

My mom has lost most of her hair and she still looks beautiful to me. She has fought such a valiant fight. Her strength is amazing. Her attitude is quirky…sometimes sarcastic, sometimes loving, sometimes accepting, always trusting in the One who is in charge.

The last few weeks has been a whirlwind as they have moved our furniture from one house in FLA to the other. When I get home the furniture from SC is being delivered.

And in this crazy life place God has provided the needed time with my birth mom, a break from life as we move into our home He has given us, rest, and help when I return. Not to mention my mother-in-law taking care of my kids while I’m in WI and a husband who’s allowed me to come visit my sweet birth mom.

What is life like when we really let go and trust Him to handle it all?

I want to live in that place.

It’s the best.

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Posted: September 3, 2011 by Julie |Category: God Breathed | My Adoption Story | Our Family, Our Lives | Tags: adoption, cancer, family