We found out this afternoon that our offer on the house with 14 acres has been accepted. It’s been a crazy emotional day. I’m just beginning to thaw out from being numb all day. It helped being around so many wonderful friends tonight. We still must have our financing approved, home inspection and all that jazz. The Lord has many more details for us to watch him be HUGE in. We are so appreciative to the couple who has agreed upon our offer. And hope that He blesses them spiritually beyond their imagination.
Always IN HIM,
Julie
He is Huge! (The House Part 2)
Be Huge God (The House part 1)
“Be Huge God”
That is the biggest thing I learned in my Beth Moore study Believing God. I’m learning more and more to believe He is who He says He is, He’ll do what He says He can do, I am who He says I am, I can do all things through Him, and that His Word is alive and active in me.
For any of you who have done the study you know what an impact these 5 statements have made on Beth’s life. And they are continually making a huge impact on my life.
God has been moving in strange ways here lately. He’s had me looking at land. And yes, land has always been in my heart, He knows that. But affording land and a house, now that’s a different story. Moving with four kids? Different story. Moving without my husband’s company paying for it all? Different story.
He led me to this house less than a week ago. And out of obedience we have done what He has asked us to do up to this point. It’s scary.
And He knows that. This morning my husband called me to tell me he had something he believed the Lord wanted me to know. It’s verses out of Joshua, chapter one.
And in all this I’ve thought so much about how we limit God. Do I allow Him to be huge in my life? Do I allow Him to be huge in my finances, in my kid’s lives, in my marriage, in my relationship with Him??
We are following in what we believe to be obedience to Him, the one we serve. The one who cares for me more than I could ever imagine. The one who hung the stars and the moon and called the sun into existance.
I’m not ready to tell the whole story yet but I hope to be able to tell you of his love, his grace, and his glory more and more in the coming days.
“Be Huge God”
Julie
Beach 2007 – Part 2
I promised more beach photos. This certainly was the most amazing beach trip for us. In part it was due to having awesome friends with us, using their wisdom of everyone having their own house, and the fact that Harbor Island is teaming with wildlife and sealife.
Hunting Island island is just a minute down the road towards Fripp Island and is a State Park. The deer pictured below is a buck I took from the front seat of our car. It was wonderful to see them running all around as we drove through the island at dusk.
On one side of the island is ocean and the other side is marshlands. Here’s a photo of the marsh…
There are the normal SC coastal birds:
The Great Egret
The Blue Heron
The Pelican
All can be viewed at the link above. I did get a photo of the egret but the herons and pelicans never seemed to cooperate.
This little guy couldn’t decide if he wanted to live in my car or on the tree beside it. With my windows rolled down he seemed to like the shade inside the car.
Then there crabs and hermit crabs and live sand dollars and sharks and sting ray (skates) and flounder and mullet and on and on!!!
It was truly amazing. The seagulls were different because they would not let us feed them. At the NC coast where we normally visit they flock anytime they see the smallest speck of food. Here they were scared of us and would fly away if we even began to approach them.
One of the hermit crabs who occupied one of the the zillions of conk shells on the island.
One of the sand crabs my youngest chased down.
One of the many deer we saw on Hunting Island
The mullet we caught with a cast net and fished with each day.
My oldest son caught a little flounder in his casting attempts.
And the boys made "aquariums" for the bait fish until we were ready to chop them up for bait.
Here some of the boys are crabbing. We used chicken on a string and caught probably 50 crabs.
The bait fish provided little sharks…
and some bigger ones…(nope, that’s not me but a friend of mine)
as well as some stingrays. Here is the one my oldest son caught.
So you can see for a family who is accustomed to seagulls and a few crabs this trip was amazingly different. It was like a homeschool lesson and vacation all wrapped up into one!!
IN HIM,
Julie
Anybody wonder where I've been….
Well, ‘twould be here…
Harbor Island, SC
A wonderful place and our first beach trip there with lots of friends from church. Most of them had been there for many years together but this was our first. We all had our own house but spent day after day together fishing, clamming, crabbing and playing on the beach. Here’s the whole gang…all 24 of us!
We began our trip last Saturday with everyone in tow…
even the dog…
This is our house we rented. It was spectacular!!
And this was the first sunset on the beach the night we got there…
Needless to say it’s very hard to be back home in the reality of life. Yuck! And the week flew by. For the next couple of days I’ll be sharing pictures of our trip. Hope you will feel like you’ve been too.
IN HIM,
julie
Saying Goodbye
The Lord has blessed us with many wonderful sitters. Last night we said good bye to another wonderful "daughter" for that is what they become. She is graduating and taking a job in Colorado. Sounds like fun huh?? Here we are last night meeting her family for the first time. They have done an excellent job of raising her and she is a wonderful young lady. We are going to miss her terribly.
Bye Caroline…..We love you….
Julie
My Stay at Home Wife Story
I saw this on another blog here and thought it was really cool so I decided to share my story.
When my husband and I got married in 1996 we purposed for me to be a stay at home mom and wife. Of course we didn’t have any children then but we knew we wanted to become used to one income. I had worked corporately up until just a few months before we got engaged. Two corporate jobs just didn’t sound like they would equal one big happy family for us.
So after we got married I began a Mary Kay business that I still run today. I did work part-time at a jewelry store for a little while. I remember it did take a while for me to get used to the fact that his money was our money. But it did happen. I think that is easier with kids because I know all the work I do would earn 140,000 in the job world. In fact, I think that’s a little skimpy!!
Two years after we got married we became pregnant with the first of four children. Today we homeschool and are parents to an 8,7,5,and 3 year old.
I hate to think what working outside the home would be like today. YIKES. I’m very content with the life God has called us to. Yep, there are days I long for the privacy of my own office with no distractions but I’m learning that will happen soon enough. And then I’ll wonder where all my kids went. I just hope they give me a bunch of grandkids to play with when I’m old.
IN Christ,
Julie
God in the small things
Last night we camped out again at the farm. It is just such a blessing to have a place to go and spend the night and it feels like a vacation away from the hustle and bustle of the day. Time seems to stop there.
So this morning dawned a little chilly. At 7am I got up to turn on the heater in the camper. I thought my children had been abducted by aliens because they were so nestled down in the covers to ward off the chill. It was all I could do to get up and paddle over to the heater to click it "ON".
Here are the kids nestling down last night
After snuggling in bed for about another hour the kiddos began to awaken. The day suddenly turned from chilly to a toasty 90something degrees. And the little tiny gnats were horrible. So I looked up at the sky and said, "God we really could use a breeze here." You see these pesky things were everywhere… Can you see them in the photo below? They are crazy!
We went about washing horses, swatting flies, and dodging gnats and the next thing I know the breeze is gently blowing from the west. Wow. "Lord?" "Was that you?" Of course you know the answer…it was. And it made me smile to know that the God of the Universe, my God, cares enough about me to send the breeze to blow away the pesky gnats.
So the kids got to enjoy a homemade swimming pool we made out of a horse trough .
Thank you Jesus. For caring about the small things.
julie
God's Ways are Not Our Own
After my husband’s first week-long trip in quite a while I found myself 5 days into his absence feeling like a hole would be a wonderful place to live. A nice quiet dark hole! With no kids. Or dogs. Or cats. Just me.
It was Thursday night. The boys had a flag football game. It was cool outside. It had been raining and storms were still threatening. I was tired of cooking, trying to figure out what to feed my kids AGAIN. Fast food sounded horrible and I wanted MY mommy.
My Beth Moore Bible Study has taught me to pray, "God, Be HUGE." So as I was feeling sorry for myself and praying for God to be huge, to do something that would lift me up, change my pity party or make a steak and baked potato meal appear on the side of the highway with my name on it.
We had to go to Wal-mart after the ballgame and then headed to the farm for a night of camping in the rain and thunderstorms. As we rounded the corner headed home this is how God, indeed, choose to show me just how HUGE he is….
From one end of the world to the other there was the most giant rainbow. It seemed to stretch all the way around the world.
The other part of this story is that my youngest son has been praying to God that he would allow him to see a rainbow for about 6-8 months. And Thursday night God shifted everything in me by answering my boy’s prayer, showing me his "HUGEness" and taking my eyes off me and back onto him.
What a God, huh???
Help Needed
Hi there! I have a favor to ask. My dad is trying to sell his woodworking shop. He has some great tools for sale at a great price. I’m going to list the things he has for sale here. He wants to sell them as a lot and they need to be picked up locally so please take that into consideration. He lives in NC. Please email me if you or anyone you know may be interested in buying these tools AS A LOT from him. I have photos and a price available if you are interested. Thanks…..Julie
Craftsman Heavy Duty 10” Contractors Table Saw, 3hp motor
Heavy cast iron table w/ two C.I. table extension wings. Two table inserts. Several
10” carbide-tipped saw blades. Rip fence and miter gauge. Blade wrench. Adj.
angle miter slide. HTC heavy duty mobile base. Owners manual.
Two sided indexed cutter blades. (Easy to remove to sharpen or
replace). 15 amp motor 12-1/2” x 6” capacity. Owners manual.
Craftsman 12” Two Speed Electronic Band Saw W/Cabinet Base
27 x 23 work table; two speed; 5/8 HP motor that develops 1-1/8 HP; 23”
base cabinet with door. Several Band saw blades included. Saw uses bands
1/8” to ½” width x 80” length. Owners manual.
Woodtek 21” Scroll Saw
21” throat capacity; adj. table tilts for angle cutting; adj. dust blower keeps
cutting line free of dust and chips. Stand. Includes many assorted blades.
Rockwell 32” Radial Drill Press
Model 11-280 includes basic machine; 1/3 HP motor; Jacobs keyed chuck;
Stand; Drill press vise included. Owners manual.
Woodtek “Big Boy 80” Horizontal/Vertical Sander
Sander converts from horizontal belt to vertical edge sander; sands
bevels; 6”x 80” sanding belts several included. 2 hp motor. Owners manual.
750 cfm; two 14”x23 collection bags; two stage collector lid; several 4”
hoses and blast gates included. Owners manual.
Drill square mortises; ¼”, 5/16”, 3/8”, ½” chisels and bit sets included.
Owners manual.
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