52 Date Nights- Week 4- Deal or No Deal

We are at week 4 of our 52 stay-at-home date nights! This week I got the date idea from The Dating Divas. This is a wonderful resource for all kinds of dating ideas (at home, group dates, anniversary, out of the house, and about, etc.)

We played "Deal or No Deal". If you seen the tv show it is set up very similar to that. If not, here is the basic premise of the tv show. There are about 30 briefcases with prizes raging in value (from very small amount to a very high amount). The contestant chooses a briefcase hoping that inside that briefcase he or she has chosen the biggest prize. Each round he or she chose's more briefcases and the amount or prize that is inside is revealed. The Banker than offers him or her a deal. The contestant can decide if they want that deal or to keep playing in hopes of getting the best prize.

The Dating Divas has their own version of this game intended for the bedroom! The prizes range from "High Five to Just do it". I did lament the game pieces so it can be played again in the future. Jadae selected the briefcase that he hoped had the ultimate prize. Than we played very similar to the tv show, with me being the banker making offers.

I will not disclose what briefcase hubby opened as his final deal but we had fun playing this game. It made him nervous each time he selected a new briefcase. We will definitely be playing this one again.

Here is our finished art work!

52 Date Nights in 52 Weeks
Getting out of a rut- The post that explains why I started this journey

1. Week One- (movie) The Bucket List
2. Week Two- (game) Post Cards from North America
3. Week Three- Art Night!

52 Date Nights- Week 3 - Art Night

I am a bit of a perfectionist. Which is odd because I am also a pack rat and messy. But when it comes to certain things I want it to be just right. I sometimes struggle with this because I know it is okay to not be perfect or to have the perfect house.

I have attended a couple of art nights similar to cork and easel classes (but without the cork). I have done one with a bunch of other women and one as a couple (where we each have our own canvas and do one half of the picture). And I would get a little obsessed with making my canvas look just like the instructor's.

(Jadae and I with our finished product at couple's paint class. Lots of fun!)

When I take pictures of my children I try to angle the camera just right, so that the mess in the background is not there. Even today I did this when I was taking pictures of Smile opening his birthday presents and eating cake.

I know that I am not perfect, that no one here on earth is. This is something that I need to work on. To be vulnerable with. To show my mistakes and messes, not just material ones, but also ones that are internal. To ask for help, to let others know that I have struggles, that my kids also have their own issues. That as much as I wished so, I do not have it all put together.

When I was preparing the 52 date night ideas I came across an art night that I loved. As a bonus I realized that it would help me overcome some of my perfectionist tendencies. I saw the idea on Pinterest. Even though the example I looked at came from a classroom, I knew that Jadae and I could take it on. I think it was named something like, "Remixed Masterpiece"

With Jadae's help we chose an art piece and I made 3 copies of it. I then divided the piece up (1-4 across the top and A-C along the side) and cut it into pieces. We divided the pieces up so that we each had every other. The medium we used was oil pastels. I used those a lot in middle school; Jadae has not used them much. And we got to work.

We decided on a sunset island piece of art as inspiration for our upcoming cruise next month! We had fun and it was interesting to see how our pieces fit together at the end. I also did not allow my perfectionist side to take over!

Here is a copy of the original (on the left) and my copy of it (on the right)

Here is our finished art work!

52 Date Nights in 52 Weeks
Getting out of a rut- The post that explains why I started this journey

1. Week One- (movie) The Bucket List
2. Week Two- (game) Post Cards from North America

Battling the Unseen- taking back your prayer life

I had recently watched War Room with my husband. It is a fantastic movie! It really encouraged me that I need to be fighting more. More in my prayer life against things that are trying to come in between my husband and I, our marriage, our children. Our Joy. But how? I know praying is the obvious answer. I use to have a better prayer life and really fought the unseen battles. But I had lost that and the fire and passion. How do I get back on track? I recently ordered a new journaling Bible which does not get released until the beginning of Feb. I have hopes that it will help my attention span while praying and meditating on God's Word.

A friend had recently shared that she started reading a book called, "Fervent" by Priscilla Shirer. It is a book about prayer and battling the evil one in prayer. (this post does contain an aff. link)

I am very excited to dig into this book. I am missing out on so much because I know my walk is not where it should be. This book is specifically geared towards prayer and battling the unseen in many aspects. It focuses on things such your passions, life, family, past, fears, etc.

I had gotten in another rut. Many of my prayers were about healing and other practical things (keep us safe while we drive, bless our food, we could use a new van, etc.). And prayers of thanksgiving. But I need to be praying more against the devil's evil schemes. I need my prayers to go deeper. I need to start praying about my feelings and emotions. For my husband and the attacks of the enemy against him. For my children!

I have lots of fears that I need to be taking to God instead of distracting myself. I did take a step of faith today and started to schedule appts. for Smile's neurofibromatosis. That one scares me. But I need to remember that I can battle that fear and whatever the walk is with his disease by turning to God.

There is also a lot that the devil is trying to steal from me. One of them is my joy. Especially my joy of being a mother. I get tired, I get selfish. I lose my patience and the devil is using all of that to make me frustrated and unhappy. Not seeing the happy moments or cherishing them. The devil would love for me to just constantly be unhappy wishing that my kids behaved better and listen better. He wants me focused on how things need to change (how the house should be cleaned and organized, that my husband's health is not the greatest, etc.). The devil also wants me to focus on all the sacrifices that I make being a stay-at-home mom, and how ungrateful the job is, rather than on the joy of being home with my children. Sharing with them (my children) the joys of overcoming obstacles, learning a new skill, their childhood.

Another is peace. I allow what's going on in the world to make me a nervous wreck. When I should be remembering that there is nothing that can keep me away from God's love. 

I am taking back my prayer life! I am waging war!

52 Date Nights- Week 2 Game Night!

We had originally decided on having our date nights on Mondays after I get out of dance practice. But this week Jadae was awesome and took all 3 boys on our monthly big grocery shopping trip alone while I was at dance. By the time he got home (he went on several other errands also) he was exhausted. It didn't help that his hemoglobin was low (9) at his last iron infusion 2 weeks ago.

This week I had planned on a game night. So Jadae unwrapped his first present from the black tub. He opened Post Cards from North America (I don't know what you do with game titles, do they get capitalized? underlined? quotes?), which is a game that I picked up at the local thrift store for $2! I don't believe that I had heard of this game before but decided for $2 it was worth trying it out.

Bill Rolette invented this game and used post cards from his own travels! The goal of the game is to complete 10 postcards. You complete a post card by traveling there either across the board or flying to that destination. It is a great game to either learn or refresh your memory of America geography and to see the famous America Sites.

We enjoyed this game and to just have that one-on-one time together free from electronics, kids, and other distractions.

Here is our finished art work!

52 Date Nights in 52 Weeks
Getting out of a rut- The post that explains why I started this journey

1. Week One- (movie) The Bucket List

52 Date Nights - Week 1- Movie Night

The Bucket List

For our first date night we watched “The Bucket List” with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson.

  After the movie we made our own bucket lists. We actually had a hard time coming up with things we wanted to do before we “kicked the bucket”. We realized that we are pretty content in our life. There are things we would like to do and change but if we didn’t we would not feel like we were not successful or have not really lived.

   

     Our list in had a lot of things we hope to do together this year as a couple or as a family. Hopefully we will be able to get them done! (a few we will on our cruise! Some others on our list include visiting area attractions, short-term goals for our children (potty-training and sleeping through the night), and things that would be awesome if they ever happened.

Have you ever made a bucket list?

Getting out of a rut!

Jadae and I have been married for 10 years now! But we have had gotten in a rut. With having 3 boys 8 and under it is hard for us to get out and have one-on-one time together. So often after a long day we would sit in front of the tv and watch Netflix. I wanted us to go on more dates, keep the romance alive!

About a month before Christmas I was trying to figure out what to get him for Christmas. I finally decided to give him an on-going gift of date nights. At first, I planned on one date each month all pre-planned and ready to go. I was thinking about getting gift cards to restaurants, planning outings, etc. But without a guaranteed baby-sitter I knew it would be difficult to implement. So instead I planned on doing 52 date nights at home. My thought was to get the kids in bed a little early and then we will have our date. I spent hours pouring over websites, Pinterest, books, etc. researching ideas that we can do in the comforts of our home without too many movie dates.

Christmas morning I gave him a black tub filled with wrapped presents that he had to wait to open until that date. I found a poem on-line from www.cleanandscentsible.com The look on my husband’s face was awesome! He was speechless and loved it!



I look forward to the many dates that I have planned. There is one movie night a month. A lot of game nights (every 3 weeks). We both really like games but many games play so much better with 3 or more people. So I researched the best 2-player games. I brought some games from the thrift store and the rest at Amazon.com using the gift cards that I earned from swagbucks. I have 6 art nights and 6 Wii tournament game nights. The rest are odds and ends that I found from various sites including www.thedatingdivas.com (which is an amazing site filled with date ideas for all kinds of things, moods, places, etc.)

I hope to post about each one every week to help others out and to remember what we did!

Being Brave

I don’t feel brave. I am one of those people who when told bad news immediately start thinking the worst and sometimes the fear paralyzes me. I start wondering all the “what if’s”. The summer of 2014 I got to see how brave I really was and how I can face multiple health crises with God.

My husband has Crohn’s disease and has brushed death multiple times. That summer he really struggled with his hemoglobin levels. My husband always pulls through and I manage to deal with the children, the household, and the reality that he might not make it this time. Our children watch him faithfully praise God in midst of consistent immobilizing pain and seek God no matter what. I see him as being brave; a wonderful example to our 3 sons.

That summer my baby, Josiah (4 months old at the time), needed surgery for his kidneys. While I was pregnant we knew that his kidneys were not functioning correctly. After he was born, we found out that his good kidney was functioning at 80%, while his bad one was only functioning at 20%. Amazingly, I had peace about the surgery and thought we would get through this and life will get back to our normal.

Hours before we left for his surgery I got a phone call from a surgeon who removed a cyst from my underarm earlier that summer. It had been there for over a year and I showed it to multiple doctors but none of them were concerned about it. He wanted me to come in right away. I had cancer, a very rare form of skin cancer that only 300 people worldwide has been documented as having.

I was scared. Cancer took my mom the fall of 2010. Both my husband and my baby were having health problems of their own. I was suppose to be the healthy one! I had 2 other sons to raise. I needed to be able to take care of my husband and the baby and the other boys. I had this lump for well over a year. Did it spread? What kind of treatment would I need? How will I tell my children, especially my oldest who knows how my mom died and understands this all? How will we manage?

I did not have time then to try to Google what little information was available because as soon as we left the office we had to leave to head to Columbus for our Josiah’s surgery. His surgery was on a Friday and they kept him all weekend. I had a lot of time to think that weekend while in the hospital room with him. At night was the worst. That was when the fear started to creep in and made it hard to sleep. God gave me this verse, “God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). He also brought to my attention that it is not my diagnosis that will affect my children as much as how they see me handle it. This was their only childhood and I am leaving them a legacy.

What they see from me has a great impact on how they will remember me. If I run from my fears and ball up and shut down- that is what they will see. If I embrace life and seek God and show that I am scared but I do not fear because I know who controls my destiny – that is what they will see. I want them to see mom seeking God, because that is what is important. I want them to know that they can be brave despite being afraid because God is in control. Showing my emotions of being sad or upset is okay, because it shows them you can be authentic. That being brave does not mean you can’t ask for help or that you need to do it on your own. But admitting that you cannot and seeking God and asking others for what you need. Thankfully, I am now cancer free and the bravery that came from my summer’s experiences are now part of the testimony I share.