Blessed

Over and over again the Lord continues to remind me, when you do what He has called you to do, you will never be without. Since I am a stay at home mom, I obviously am not bringing in a consistent income into our home. I used to always be so concerned about not having enough money. I learned about tithing early on in life and I have been a consitent tither since I had my first job. Whenever I make money I always tithe on it. I believe we have never been without anything because we have always been faithful to tithe. Sometimes it seems like so much to give that ten percent that the Lord asks, but time and time again I have received so much more in return. I have waay too many examples, but lately I have just been so blessed by the Lord. He has revealed himself to me in so many ways, but a big way is with our finances. The people I had been nannying for last month told me that they were getting divorced and were not sure how often they would need me. Hair jobs were slow and I was worried about having money to buy the "extras". By extras I mean things that are not neccessarily in our monthly budget to use with Josh's income. Essentially being anything other than our monthly bills and gas... I began to get overwhelmed and torn because as previously mentioned in other posts, Josh and I both feel very strongly about the mom being home with the kids. In those financial crunch times its easy to think, well I could have my mom watch him so that I can get those new shoes I have been wanting or that new pair of jeans. But because I have been called to be Josiah's mom for now, I put my wants behind me. Can I just tell you that this month I have made more money than I have in over a year! Suddenly, I got busy with hair clients, got a couple days of babysitting in,and photographed a beach wedding! I also have plans to start nannying a little boy right in my home starting the first week of May. The Lord continues to show me constantly who is in charge and when you do things His way, even when they don't seem in the cards for you, He ALWAYS makes things great. " His mercies are new every morning, GREAT is His Faithfulness" I feel so priviledged to be a follower of Jesus and to know that He has my best interest at heart. How awesome is that!

7 months old!

Josiah is now 7 months old and still as sweet as can be. We celebrated his 7 month birthday by taking a day to go to the beach, which turned out to be not too nice of a day so we decided to just go for a walk on the beach and boardwalk. Josiah received his first tooth popping through his gums on his 7 month birthday, tried some chicken for the first time and attempted a little crawling. He is still not a crawler yet but he won't be long! I am still making all of his baby food, but I have to tell you now that he is on stage 2 foods, it is getting a little harder. I decided I am going to take one day out of the week to prepare Josiah's food for the whole week. I have been doing it just at his dinner time which also is the time that I have to make dinner for Josh and I so it has been getting a little overwhelming trying to make Josiah's dinner, our dinner and feed Josiah all at the same time. In order to make dinner time less hectic I am going to make his just one day a week.

Also, our time of separation anxiety seems to be gone now. Josiah has been putting himself to sleep again at night and doing the same now for most of his naps. Occasionally I have to rock him sometimes at nap time but I don't mind :) His behavior has just totally confirmed Josh and my beliefs that you should not leave your baby to cry it out. It seems to be really popular lately and I know everyone has their own way of doing things, we just feel like it is wrong. I always aim to comfort Josiah in his time of need and I have never felt he has cried just to cry, there has always been a reason even if I didn't see one at the time. I know a lot of people let their babies cry when they go through the separation anxiety thing, but isn't that going to make them feel even more insecure to be left crying? I read a statement in our bible study book that we were going through at church. It is on marriage and family... It basically said that age 0-5 is the MOST critical and influential time in a child's life. WOW! Josh and I always want to be parents that are there for our children unconditionally. No matter how tired or emotionally spent we are. I feel so honored that the Lord has entrusted me with the responsibility of raising a child to give Him glory.

On another note the weather here in the deep south has been absolutely BEAUTIFUL! Josiah and I have been taking a lot of walks lately which has been great or we will just sit outside on a blanket with some toys. He already loves the outdoors which I am so thankful for. I am also super excited for this weekend. Josh is taking me to dinner at one of my favorite places, Indochine, for some Thai food. Tomorrow I have a hair client and friends coming over for dinner, and Josh has off Monday so I think we are going to go strawberry picking :) I have been really busy this month with a bunch of different things: mostly hair, some photography, and a little nannying as well. Thank you God for your continued blessings!