Guest Post: Kelly Stewart talks about FAMILY NIGHTS

By jamieivey on April 30, 2012

Today’s guest post is from my friend, Kelly Stewart, who lives in Tennessee with her husband, Jason, and their four kids.  She is a great FAMILY NIGHT planner, so I wanted you to hear from a mom that does FAMILY NIGHT’S well!

 

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I am so very excited to share about family nights and how they have impacted our family over the past three years. As a family, we were accustomed to spending time with one another, but as our children, Parker, Emery and Bradley were growing, we felt a conviction that we needed to be more intentional about teaching them Scripture and what it meant to live a Christ centered life.  We wanted to be strategic and intentional about teaching them God’s Word in a fresh and fun way! We began to have family nights that were centered around a theme that involved a meal, a game, a craft and a devotional.  There are countless ideas out there and I quickly learned I did not have to come up with every idea from scratch, I just needed to take a little time to bring it all together. They have been such a huge blessing in our home and have become one of the most favorite things we do as a family. We have had Luau night, Backwards Night, Bowling Night and even Earth Day Night, and some have been better than others, but the point is that we did them!!  My husband, Jason and I, also felt led to begin a website, Family Muscle, that provides pre-planned family nights, to take away the stress of planning a themed night with your family!

Here are some easy steps to begin having a family night:
•    Set a goal of how many family nights you want to have a month:
Taking the time once a week to disconnect from the world and engage your family is essential is developing a strong foundation of trust and faith. Not every family night has to be planned to the minute! We encourage you to look at your schedules and set a goal for how many family nights you would like to have a month. We suggest at least 2 a month.
•    Pick a night:  Having a set night each week to have a family night that will become sacred for your family. Putting family nights on the calendar makes planning smoother and gives you a chance to create anticipation for your children.
•    Pick a Theme: Choosing a theme is the easy part! You can base if off of the season of the year, a holiday, what you have on hand, or even what you find on sale at a store.  We had a Luau night after finding décor at a local dollar store. Always be on the lookout for what can be easily used for a family night! If you have friends who are also having themed family nights, be willing to share your décor, also!
•    Enjoy your family! Being intentional in your family night requires some extra work, some planning and with that sometimes stress! Remember that it is about being with your family, connecting with each other over food, fun and focusing on a truth from Scripture.

I am so thankful for all the nights we have spent together as a family, making fun memories, but more importantly, studying Scripture. We have been able to tie fun games and even food into a truth from God’s Word that makes it come alive for our kids.  I highly encourage you to try it. Our children are worth every minute of planning and preparation and you will never regret the nights you spent having fun, making memories and creating an environment, in your home, where Scripture is lived out.

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Thank you Kelly!  I love her take on making family nights about studying God’s word together.  This month we had great times as family, but not every time we got to the scripture part and I love how Kelly makes this the most important part of these nights.  Intentionally studying scripture together.  Love this!  Thanks Kelly!

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My messy desk.

By jamieivey on April 26, 2012

I find it very ironic that I’m sitting here reading a blog on organization and my desk looks like this:

 

Maybe I should quit reading how to organize and just do it.  There’s a thought for the day! 

How messy is your desk?  Worse than this?  I dare you to say yes.

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CAMPING: family night

By jamieivey on April 25, 2012

 

The camping night snuck up on me big time.  It was one of those things where you know it’s coming and you know you need to plan, but other things come up and by the time you know it, it’s here and you weren’t ready!  I literally was in the grocery store at 5pm still getting stuff for our “camp out”!

Here’s the funny thing about me doing a “camping night” for my kids.  I have NEVER  been camping!  I know, that’s crazy and unheard of, but my idea of camping is Motel 6 instead of Marriot.  Crazy.

 

Aaron made some of the most wonderful grilled cheese sandwiches on his grill that I might have ever tasted.  I imagine that if we were really camping they couldn’t possibly taste this good, but they did.

 

 

Since I was still frantically at the grocery store at 5pm I decided to pick up a little something for each of my kids to make up for my lateness to this party.  They each got a special new cup to drink out of that night.  Isn’t it funny how the little things in life mean so much to kids.  They loved these cups and you would have thought I’d given them each $100 to spend however they wanted!  Momma was happy she stopped to get them on the dollar aisle!

 

In my craziness of the day I thought we needed a tent to play/eat in.  I mean how can you have a camping night without a tent.  The only problem is that we have never camped, therefore we don’t own a tent or anything that might resemble a tent.  My friends Kim & Philip pulled through and we loved this!  I found the kids telling “scary” stories in the tent and by the end of the night they all had their sleeping bags in there acting like they were sleeping.  If I ever do this again, it will not be on a school night and I’ll see if any of these kids truly could sleep outside.  I’m betting none could, but you never know.

 

The night ended with a dessert that my kids LOVED!  I found this on someones blog and knew that this would be a great camping night dessert.  It’s called banana boats, and basically you open a banana peel, stuff it with all kinds of yummy goodness and wrap it in foil and then put on the grill and wha-la you have a dessert!  We had fun stuffing them with as much as we could get in, and then eating the gooey dessert was fun as well.  I recommend silver ware for this treat!

Camping night was a success and a failure for me.  Success because my kids had so much fun and failure because it was a drain on me more than it was fun.  I know, it’s for the kids and truly they had no clue it was a drain for me, but I realized that planning stuff is hard for me.  Not my strength.  Birthday parties around here come together the day before.  Making a cake for Jesus on Christmas day is usually thought of the day before and I realize I’m missing half of the supplies.  This is not my strength.

 

This is my friend Amy’s strength.  She loves to create experiences and themes and parties and frankly she is so good at them I want to throw up when she sends me pictures of fun things she does for her kids.  She is good.  She also enjoys it.  It’s not a drain for her, it’s a fill for her and that’s why it works for her.  Not this momma.  Look at her recent “camping” themed night for her son’s birthday party.  I’m serious here.  These are not from Pintrest, these are my real live friends pictures from her recent party.  Enjoy and be envious!

Do you see that cupcake?  Yes it is a campfire and yes the marshmallows are roasting.  Oh my goodness she is good at this stuff!  So, if you are wanting a camp night you can take both of our creations (which mine involve getting a tent and sitting in it) and run with it.  If you recreate this cupcake I would love to see a picture of it, because as much as I hate people that can whip this kind of stuff up, I truly love them!!!

 

 

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Interrupting my life.

By jamieivey on April 18, 2012

The other day I had one hour to spare in my day.  I could either take a nap, or meet my friend at her pool.  As much as I love the pool, this was a hard decision.  I mean how can you pass up an hour nap!

 

I got my bathing suit on (ugh!) and headed to the pool and was so excited to lay beside her and soak up some sun and good conversation.  We started by her talking about her new baby and how life has changed since she became a mom.  She said she was feeling like she wasn’t getting to work much, be creative, or do some of her normal stuff that she did before.  It was good to talk to her about this.  I’m 8 years into parenting and sometimes I still struggle with that.  :)

 

We were both talking about how much we loved being moms, but yes it is hard.  I had not been there five minutes and all we had talked about was how much kids changed your life when what do you know, but my phone rang.  Of course it was the school.  Of course a kid was sick.  Of course I only spent 5 minutes at the pool.

 

I laughed and told my friend that was exactly what we were talking about!  I love being a mom and I truly love how it has interrupted my life for the good!

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Making good choices is hard.

By jamieivey on April 13, 2012

Tonight as I tucked Amos into bed I praised him over and over again for having such a good day!  The thing that we are noticing around here is that Amos knows when he gets a bad attitude, gets pouty, refuses to do stuff, and gets sad at the whole world.  He feels it, but I honestly don’t think he knows how he got there or how to get out.  I mean I can usually tell when we’re going to have a bad day.  It’s kinda like you can smell the smoke and you know that the fire is is close by.  Usually an every day request to do a chore or help out or do homework can lead to a downward spiral.  Correction.  Discipline.  Those are triggers.  That’s where we are his parents are trying to learn what exactly brings these moments on and how we can do things to guard him of them.

 

I kissed him and praised him for not getting sad, for not refusing to do his homework, reading without complaining, helping mom pick up clothes, and for not saying mean words to mommy.  He smiled so big and gave me a big kiss.

 

I told him that I know it’s hard to make good choices, and I was super proud of him today for making SO many of them.

 

He nodded, got real serious and told me that yes it is hard, but he was going to have a great day at school tomorrow and then asked if he could have a new hot wheels car.

 

Love that kid.  It’s days like this that I see his sweet heart and I know that he’s happy here and is trying so hard.

 

When the hardness of tomorrow comes, I will remember today.

 

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LUAU family night.

By jamieivey on April 12, 2012

I did it.  A themed family night.  And I survived!

 

We went with the luau theme because quite frankly someone had already done the work for me and honestly it was super easy!  I got the idea from the website FAMILY MUSCLE and they listed out a whole idea for the luau and even have a pdf that you can download.  Isn’t that easy!  It lists food ideas, activities and even has a devotional for your family to do together.  **Fail for us was that I forgot the whole devotional part!!!

 

I had the kids get on their best luau outfits and they were pumped to play outside in their swimsuits and play in the water!  It’s the little things in life that make kids so happy!

 

I made the kids some pina-colada’s that they thought were super-duper cool!  I hate pina colada’s so I was happy to give them all of it!  We picked up some funky straws that made their drinks even more fun!

Then we got to the eating part!  We went with salmon on the grill and some Hawaiian rice that we found a recipe for online.  The kids were a little weirded out by the pineapple in the rice.  Next was dessert and it was super fun!  I got this idea from the FAMILY MUSCLE lua suggestion page.  We had fruit and marshmallows skewers that the kids made themselves and of course Aaron had to take it next level by melting some really good chocolate that we poured on top of the skewers.

 

And of course, what is a luau without a good ole game of limbo!  My kids loved this and of course Deacon won every single time.  I tried to explain to my kids that I used to do limbo on skates when I was a little kid.  They thought that was hilarious!  You guys remember those days?  Limbo at the skating rink?!

 

We had such a fun night!  I even had “Hawaiian music” playing from Pandora.  The kids loved it and I think you’ll enjoy this video of them.  I’m pretty certain that the next day at school my kids told their teachers they had margaritas with their dinner!  Oh kids …..

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I am AMOS.

By jamieivey on April 11, 2012

Recently I went away for about 28 hours and spent time praying, reading the bible, reading magazines, resting my body, resting my brain and doing just about nothing.  It was AH-MAZING.  So wonderful for me and seemed to come at a perfect time for me as a mom.

 

Although I love to talk about adoption on here, there are obviously some things that don’t get shared because let’s be honest, one day all my kids will read this and I for sure don’t want them thinking all I did was talk bad about them on here!  There’s such a thin line between sharing your life to help and encourage others and sharing too much about your life and kids when they don’t have a say in what you write.  You see my conflict here.

 

Anyhow, lately Amos’ behavior has gotten so much better in some areas, but so much worse in others.  I would say he’s more compliant most of the time, but when he’s not he is blatantly disobedient.  Not caring what you think, not caring if he’s in trouble.  Just plain not caring.  This drives me insane.  I literally want to scream at him DO YOU SEE HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU?  I WOULD WALK THROUGH FIRE FOR YOU.  I WOULD JUMP IN FRONT OF A CAR FOR YOU. I LOVE YOU SO SO SO MUCH!

 

As I sat at the pool reading and praying I started to think about the relationship that Amos and I have and how that compares to the relationship that I have with my heavenly Father.  You see, we’re alike in more ways than I want to believe, Amos & I.  We both have parents that love us deeply.  God loves me so much that I’m certain there are times he wants to scream at me I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!  I SENT MY SON FOR YOU.  I HAVE PLANS FOR YOU.  I AM HERE FOR YOU.  I’m sure during those times I’m non-responsive and mad at the world.  I’m sure during those times I would rather be alone than with people that truly love me, and I’m pretty certain that during those times I’m having a hard time figuring out why God loves me when I’ve screwed up so much.

 

You see, Amos has a hard time realizing how much I love him.  I can scream it at him all day long, and before you email me, no I don’t literally scream this at him, although I really want to some days, but sometimes he just can’t truly “hear” me.  I’m sure he hears my voice, like the teacher on Charlie Brown, but does he truly hear my words, I’m just not sure.

 

Amos loves me when things are well, but when things aren’t going his way, he’s not too loving.  Amos loves me when the plans go as he thinks they are supposed to go, but when things get sidetracked, or don’t happen, or go a different way, then he is not happy and can’t control his emotions.   Amos can love well, on his own terms, but not on mine.

 

I was laying there by the pool when the tears started coming.

 

I am Amos.

 

I treat God this way.  When things are good, I’m happy and love God abundantly.  When things are bad, I’m weary and think God has left me.  When plans are as I planned, then I think God’s on my side.  When plans don’t go like I planned I think God is not for me, but against me.

 

I also realized that I sometimes don’t treat Amos like God treats me during these times.  God has never left me.  He’s never forsaken me.  He’s never thought I was a lost cause.  He’s never told me I had my limit of doubt and he was done with me.  He’s never not been able to take my doubt or insecurities.  He’s just keeps lavishing love on me.  He keeps whispering his promises in my heart.  He keeps leading my paths.  He keeps … He keeps … He keeps.

 

God keeps loving.

 

Of course I’ve never abandoned Amos or told him he was at his limit of doubt, but let’s be honest, my sinful heart makes it hard to continue to love and love someone that doesn’t always reciprocate that love back to you.  There are days that my heart is weary for him.  There are days that my soul feels too heavy to intercede for him.  There are days that my ability to take another dirty look is low.  I’m human.

 

BUT oh how my heart was reminded of how I’m to treat my son as I lay by that pool and relished in the love that my Father has for me.  He never left me, but yet he pursued me.  He has taken my harsh words, looks and thoughts and continues to pour out his love and grace and mercy on me.   I was challenged that day to view my son as the Father views me.  I was challenged that day to see Amos through a different lens.  Yes he may try to hurt me with his words or his looks, but he is my son and I will fight for him.  I will defend him.  I will love him. I will hold him.  I will serve him. I will show grace to him.

 

I’m so wonderfully honored to be Amos’ mommy and I love this kid so much.  I’m grateful that God chose me out of all the women in the world to raise him, and love him.  I’m honored.  I know that God has big plans for this kid and I believe that our God is truly the only one that can change Amos’ heart. I believe that God will rock his world and he’s gonna be a world changer.  I pray that he will rise up and be a man that loves God and changes his home country of Haiti.  That’s my prayer for my sweet Amos.  God is big like that.  He can do it, you know?!

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Weekend trip to my parents!

By jamieivey on April 10, 2012

One of the things that I love about being back in Texas is that we get to see my parents, my brother and his wife, their kids, and Aaron’s parents more than we did when we lived in TN.  Now that we’re in Texas, Aaron’s brother, Tim, & his wife, Joanna, have moved to TN with their two girls.  We miss them!

Recently the kids and I headed to my parents house for the weekend.  It is always worth it for me to go there, because even though we’re out of our element and away from our home, it is restful for me because my mom does all the work.  She cooks for us and will get up early with the kids and let me sleep.  Now, I’m always tired when I get home because who sleeps that good when you aren’t in your own bed, and who sleeps that good with two kids in your room?!?  Not me.

 

When we are at my parents we drive around the camp in the back of my dad’s truck and I yell “sit on your bottom” the whole entire time and try to not stress myself out to much!  I’m so scared someones going to fall out and bust their skull open, even though dad’s driving a snail’s pace and mom and I are back there and they are all on their bottom for fear of mom/aunt losing her mind right there in the back of the truck.

How cute are these kids?  I can tell that Porter thinks that Cayden is hilarious and Deacon is trying to tell Lilly to look at the camera and of course Story’s in her own world sticking her tongue out.  Amos didn’t make the picture because he was refusing to be in it, so I told him he didn’t have to.  When he’s 15 and asks why he isn’t in some pictures I’ll have to tell him what a stinker he was some times when we were taking pictures!  He’ll love me for sure!

 

There we go!  All the cousins on the Beakley side of the family are there.  So stinking cute!

Play time at the park:

*this might be my most favorite picture of Story in the past few weeks!*

Do you see what a miracle it is that all six of these kids are looking at the camera at the same time?!?!  Beautiful!  Love them all so much!

Nothing beats playing in the sprinklers at Nana & Pops house!

How precious is this face?

Cayden’s new favorite trick with his long hair!

Deacon played football with Uncle Jordan all afternoon.

Speaking of Deacon …. is he not the cutest thing you have ever seen???

We welcomed Jordan & Kristen into the 30′s!  I hear they are the new 20′s!

Nothing says small town more than a CATFISH FRY and of course we went to one on our way out of town!  Funny thing is that Aaron and I went with my mom to this same fish fry nine years ago and had ZERO kids and now I’m back with FOUR!  Oh what nine years can do to you!

My kids LOVED it.  I mean, who wouldn’t love catfish.  I think this was a first for all of them.  It might have been the first time some of these people had seen a white mom with black kids, but no one stared too long.  Although it could be the gigantic tattoo on my arm that the old people noticed first, I’m not too sure.

Anyways, I love supporting a local volunteer fire station and the people here were super nice to us as they served us our food!

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Happy Easter from the Ivey’s

By jamieivey on April 9, 2012

I hope that your Easter was super fun and filled with family and praising Jesus for defeating sin and rising from the dead.  Oh what hope we have in a Savior who defeats death for us!

 

We had a great Easter service at the Erwin center again this year.  Last year I served in KidStuff and so I only heard how great it was, but this year I was in the service and it was amazing!  15,000 people singing to Jesus is one amazing thing to witness.  I was super proud of Aaron and all the people in the band and the choir.  They did a wonderful job of leading us in worship, and Matt’s message was one of the best I’ve ever heard.  If you missed it, here it is:  RELIGION VS THE GOSPEL.

 

Happy Easter from our family to yours!

Cayden took a picture of my mom and I

Laura made Story’s tutu dress.  Is that not the cutest thing you have ever laid your eyes on?  Yes I know you do need one for your daughter, or for your friends daughter, or for any little girl you know!  I’ll tell you soon how you can get one!

We spent the day at the Otts house and had a blast.  Our kids played and played and played until we stayed so long that Brad had to feed them dinner.

This is my friend Melissa’s little girl Betsy.  Could you not eat her up?

Brad & Aaron love to cook and I think that’s something that made them fast friends.  Usually they are tag teaming in the kitchen, but this Easter it was all Brad!

Oh … aren’t we sweet!

And finally Veda will hate me when she’s older, but is there anything cuter than a baby taking a bath in a sink?  Nothing.  So sweet and innocent!  Don’t you wish you could crawl up in your sink and take a bath sometime?   Well, actually probably not.  We’ll leave that to cute babies that don’t mind everyone seeing the dimples in their butt!!!

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Keeping Easter about Jesus

By jamieivey on April 5, 2012

I’m afraid I’m not the biggest holiday celebrater (yes I just made that word up!).  I think I always chalk this up to me not being crafty or artsy, and therefore holiday’s don’t get celebrated very well around here.  I desire more than this, but it’s so hard!  This year I’m determined to do something with my kids for Easter.  I found a recipe for Empty Tomb Cookies that I’m going to dedicate this Saturday night to with my kids.  What fun!

 

We don’t do Santa or the Easter bunny around here and that’s okay with me.  (Jen Hatmaker talks about this on her blog much better than I ever could & in her book 7 - which I highly recommend)  For some reason I can’t muster up the strength to celebrate a man in a red suit or a bunny when it’s really about Jesus.  Here me say this loud and clear:  I DO NOT JUDGE YOU OR THINK LESS OF YOU IF YOU DO.  There I said it!  For real!  This is a decision our family made early on, and we’ve stuck to it.  It’s not that we don’t go sit on Santa’s lap and get the mandatory family picture each year, or hide eggs in our yard and hunt them, we just don’t celebrate Easter bunny and Santa when Jesus is also in the picture.

 

So, like you I’ve been searching the internet for ways to make this Easter all about Jesus and what he did for us.  Kelly over at FAITHFUL PROVISIONS listed out several Easter ideas. My favorite and the one I’m determined to try out is the EMPTY TOMB COOKIES.  I love this idea and cant’ wait to try!

 

Kristen at WE ARE THAT FAMILY blogged about 10 fun ways to keep Easter about Jesus.

 

I’m really wishing that I would have started my search for Easter ideas sooner and I would have done this COUNTDOWN TO EASTER that I found on this blog.  So fun and I just might work on this and do it all in one night.  Why not?!  It’s my Easter celebration, I can do it whenever I want, right?!?!

 

I need to know how you keep Easter about Jesus.  Send me your craft ideas, family night ideas, recipes, whatever it is I want to know!!!  If you blogged about it, send me the link so we can all go “pin” it and remember it for next year!

 

Easter 2010

Easter w/ friends 2010

sweet Easter girl

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