Cities4Life

Sooooo totally didn't mean to skip March but times have been crazy busy. I've been almost wearing myself out doing life: family, church, traveling, building a business, getting ready for my craft/yard sale, AND growing another baby! A nap sounds really nice right now, but I MUST blog! :) Here are some cute pictures of Michael and John going on a joy-ride on the lawnmower. He's outside AND with Daddy, so John is a happy little boy. 

 Yesterday, I had my 2nd and last ultrasound done at this really amazing place: My friend Debbie and I were volunteering our baby-bellies to help train nurses to use the sonogram equipment so that they could go out and offer free ultrasounds to pregnant ladies considering abortions. My ultrasound was done in their portable ultrasound RV that they park in the parking lots of abortion clinics in the Charlotte area. They are saving lives and people are being brought into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and the great love He has for them and their unborn child. It was a neat experience. 

Here are some pictures to give you a better idea of what it looked like:

"Buckle up Ladies!"

Debbie's sweet daughter, Eleanor. Debbie in the background with the nurses.

yeah, I'm a blogger. Take our picture! :) 

The ministry that provides this life-saving service is called Cities4Life. (www.cities4life.org)

"Cities4Life is not simply an event or a ministry; it is a culture. We exist to create a culture of Life in every city where the death of unborn children exists. We seek to transform the culture of death brought about by the abortion industry, to a culture of LIFE in our cities as we work to mobilize the body of Christ to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. This is accomplished by uniting and supporting grassroots, Gospel-centered ministries dedicated to proclaiming the Truth of Jesus Christ, exposing the deeds of darkness and providing tangible support to abortion-minded mothers at local abortion clinics. 

So the question is... what can you do? PROCLAIM. PROVIDE. PRAY."

-Cities4Life brochure.

I encourage all of you reading this to first and foremost, stop what you're doing, and pray for revival in America. The hearts of the mothers and the fathers need to be turned to their children again. 

"Behold I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse." Malachi 4:5,6

Secondly, while you're praying, ask God what He would have you do to stand with Him and His Church for the lives of the innocent children that are killed every day in our nation. 

We need a heart-change and then we need to MOVE where the Spirit leads. 

Give us Your love, Father, and the boldness to live it out!

If you have any questions about Cities4Life, you can contact Jenny Starnes at--- jenny@jeremiahscall.org

Giving Love & Receiving Grace

This might be a long one- I've got a lot to say. The last few weeks have been really good. Challenging but good. Father God has been faithfully speaking a lot of good stuff to me lately. Thus, I'm writing this post so as to share and so I don't forget it! :) The first revelation in this string of revelations came on a morning where I was barely functioning. So tired. A little bit at my wits end. And ya know, when your mind is out of the way because it's not quite there, God's voice is able to come in a lot clearer! Get my own thoughts out of the way so His thoughts can come right on in.

Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone had a great holiday season. This year me and Michael stayed home and had our very own Christmas morning! We had John's presents set out on the floor so he could find them easier. I put away all his other toys so he wouldn't be tempted to just grab his favorite ball and do his normal thing. He was so cute. Michael helped him open his presents and then we opened ours. We had a sweet morning despite me feeling a little sick. I was coughing a lot and my eyes were hurting really bad. Thankfully, God healed my eye later that morning! :) Michael made Cranberry-Orange muffins from scratch! They were so delicious. John took an almost 3 hour nap that morning and then we headed out to church (a little late due to the long nap) where we celebrated our Savior and King, the Son of God who came to us in the unlikely form as a humble baby.

Christmas Day I was so grateful for my life. So many of my friends were going through some very hard times. I spent most of my day praying for them and thanking God or what I had been given. I am so blessed to have my healthy and super-spunky child, and a sweet husband who loves me despite all my issues. 

After church, we spent the rest of the day with Michael's parents and sister, Hannah. I am also so blessed to have them as in-laws! They are so fun and I really enjoy spending time with them. I got to Skype with my family later that evening. It was a complete and satisfying Christmas :)

Roseman family tradition: Hannukah Game Championship!

Tonight is the last night of Hannukah and I am down 5-2! This means war!

Winners:

2008 Michael

2009 Me and Michael tied

2010 Me!! 

(He might've let me win since I was hugely pregnant)

2011 yet to be decided... it's not looking positive for me.

John and Michael sitting on the couch watching Despicable Me. Michael got it this Christmas from my sister and her hubby. Had to capture this moment: John is sitting on Michael's shoulders while gnawing on his teething toy. I love these guys! I just noticed this morning that we have another tooth that has cut its way through! Up to 5 teeth now!

"What do I do with this thing?"

Cranberry-Orange Muffins with Orange Glaze. I posted the recipe on the "From the Kitchen" page. Enjoy!

May everyone have a safe and Happy New Year! Our days of watching the ball drop are over for a little while. 

Sleep is kinda more important :)

Thanksgiving and such

 Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We did! We had the "traditional" Thanksgiving breakfast at Michael's grandparents house with the whole family. Homemade waffles, fresh coffee, and deer sausage. It is always the BEST! And then later on we had dinner with our very good friends, basically family, Don and Brenda, and their two kids, and our other friends/family Jeremy and Jessica Vess:

Here's a video of all of us (The Roseman's and Vess') during a warm-up  We ended up having to put Michael in the back of the room during the recording because his voice carries so well.
He's a human-trumpet in so many ways. :)

Anywho, we all hung out and watched the Thanksgiving Charlie Brown Special, which I had never seen! It was pretty great. It was so nice to be around my closest friends again. I have kinda lived in a hole since John was born. But for crying out loud, he's going to be a year old later this month! AHHH! Time for me to get out of the freakin' house! :) I'm workin' on it

In other news, the Jar Buddy is officially patent-pending! We are now in the process of marketing to different companies. Hopefully somebody will be interested within the year. A year from now, we have to front a bunch of money to get it actually patented. But, it's all in God's fully-capable hands, so I'm not sweatin' it.

Here's a few shots of Michael's homecoming (from work) yesterday evening.
And a couple from Thanksgiving, too :)
Enjoy! Thanks for stopping by!

Daddy's Home!

Hi Dad!

John's loves his Daddy

John actually wasn't interested in Thanksgiving food!

Me and my sister-friend Brenda Sue! She is due at the end of January :)

through the fire

Here's what we've been up to:

Michael is waiting on an interview with the City of Charlotte for a job that would help our family A TON. And it would be doing what he enjoys and is good at (well, he's good at pretty much anything he does... besides putting up his clothes in his closet.. :) .. besides that... )  But he seems to be enjoying his new and improved "steady" job batching together chemicals to make creams and lotions at a lab close-by. I say "steady" because he gets 40+ hours a week which is GOOD, a vast improvement from the other contractor type job. But he's been pulling 12 hour days a lot lately. It's a good job... but it would be really nice to get that job in Charlotte. Pray that he'll hear something this week.


 I have been hanging out with John-John and I've also been reading Lord of the Rings in my spare time. And yes, with just one child, I still have some time to spare :) I was always daunted by the size of the LOTR, but I'm totally hooked now.  It's a reeeaallllyy good read! Puts Twilight to shame, even though I have to admit that I really enjoyed reading those books too. It was like Teenie-bopper soap opera in book form. But LOTR is infinitely better written. I'm kinda at a good pausing point in the book though. I think this week I will spend more time going over "The Healing Path" by Robin Pasley. Isn't that a grand idea?? Inner healing vs. leisure reading... I know, it's a no-brainer.

Lastly, John burnt his hand on Saturday!! We built a fire. (photos below)  I was making breakfast when we heard a scream that I would rather not hear again. He had climbed up on the hearth and placed his hand on the glass. Thankfully, we had only just closed the doors so the glass wasn't hot enough to cause more than a minor burn, probably less than the heat of an iron. He only has a couple red spots on his hand. I freaked out though (in a not good way, at Michael, who said he would watch him... we have two slightly different parenting styles, we are finding out.... this whole parenting thing is a hard learning process. It has definitely put our marriage through the fire) So anyway, John is fine. He took a nap later that morning and he woke up and seemed to not even remember anything.

So that's the scoop! Later Taters!

and the journey began

I'm up and at 'em before 6am and I don't care. John has been sleeping like a champ the last few nights and I have finally had time for myself. It's a wondrous thing. I even got to see Michael off to work this morning. It's always nice to have a few minutes alone together (contradiction in terms? eh.) in the morning. Somethin' about it really rejuvenates our marriage... It's the little things, I guess.
My coffee this morning is half.caf with pumpkin pie spices added to the brew basket. It's pretty yummy.
Since last week, God has really started me on a journey of self-discovery and inner healing.

mercy triumphs!

I've got the afternoon off!
My wonderful mother-in-law has whisked away my child for a few hours and I am loving it!
I had a Melaleuca party and now I'm just sitting at the computer, the windows are open (it's a BEAUTIFUL Fall day!) and my heart is humming with excitement and gratitude of what the Lord is doing in my life.

Firstly, any time I am getting ready for my parties, I get so excited about Melaleuca products! I know it sounds totally lame, but this stuff is seriously awesome. [ notice the new page for my business partners! ] And then the actual party comes and I get to talk about how this stuff totally rocks... It's not a bad part-time gig. :)

Secondly, I am really grateful that God is working in me and changing me.

Birthday fun!!

Here's the scoop:

Our beloved "Afro-bushes" are getting a MUCH needed trim/hacking! One down, one to go! :) Thanks Michael!!

John turned 8 months old on the 18th! I can't believe how fast time flies by!! He's graduated to climbing the stairs and feeding himself (not altogether successfully... but he wields the spoon like a champion spoon-fighter, often lifting it up in determination and triumph)

Tomorrow is a big day!

Pickles!

Mine and Michael's first attempt at making pickles! John spent most of the time asleep on my back in our Boba carrier. So! It was a family effort!

Don't cook me! I'm too cute to eat!!

Movin' on up!

Well, the time has come for our little John to have his own room. We rearranged our rooms yesterday and last night wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I still had to get up and check on him a few times but from 3-6 there were a few times I heard him fuss and I just waited a few minutes and he was quiet again. So all in all... I think it was a good call. He had gotten to the point where he would wake up and see us laying there, he'd stand up and wait for us (me) to come "play" with him. :) It was very cute... but we all need some sleep! So now, he's got his own room and Michael and I are upstairs in our loft. I didn't take pictures of THAT because it's not very cute right now. :)

Salisbury Saturday

We spent most of our day today in Salisbury. It was a beautiful day! We started out going by Tastebuds Coffee, because sister-friend here needed some coffee! Even if it was decaf, it seemed to help wake me up! :) And then, we were off to the Farmer's Market!

Our spoils! Challah bread, Whole Wheat bread from nice Mennonite people, Banana Bread (okay, we like bread...) Maple Almond granola, Zucchini relish, and Inferno Salsa! Yummmm!

Michael sportin' our new Boba Carrier! We love it!

Cutie-pie... he loves being outside and being around fun happenings! So many things to see!

I love this lady! She is my good friend, Neta Monroe. She makes cute bags and homemade laundry soaps. She's also got lots of cute chickens and super cute gardens. In case you missed it, she's just cute!!!

She gave me one of her bags for free! Yeah! Should I say it? It's super CUTE!

I'll say it again.... I love this lady! We had lunch with her and her husband, Rob.

I got these at an antique store. Vintage children's books for 50% off! Sweet!! I'm gonna make children's artwork hopefully with these and maybe rent a booth of my own at the market. Maybe in the fall. I'll keep y'all posted :)

Then we came home and crashed! Family naptimes are so sweet. :)

**update on baby bunny- he likes living here and he's popping around quite a bit as I write this blog. So cute! He's grown a little but he's still super little. I'll try to get a picture of him :)

We live in a Disney movie.