This is Why

Today is my baby boy’s 13th Birthday. That is so hard to say. To make things even more ironic I went yesterday to visit a friend that just had a beautiful baby girl, in the same room I delivered Eli in. It was so surreal to think that 13 years ago I was in this exact same place about to start the biggest journey of my life.

Being this boy’s Momma has not always been easy, it hasn’t always been fun, but it has been worth it. I love the little person he is. He seems to be able to read me like a book. He knows when im not feeling his silliness and when I am not playing. Sometimes I feel like I could sell him on the black market, but not for real.

Eli’s whole life people have told me that I need to have another child. They have said that having another child would build his character and it wasn’t fair to make him be so alone in the world. My response has always been the same. I have been determined that I was going to raise him to love, show kindness, and serve the Lord and that God would take care of the rest. Well today my philosophy was proved true to form.

li decided that he was going to spend his birthday at DNOW. It’s an event that our church holds each year where the teens and preteens have a two night, three day slumber party, complete with church and today they did community service. Being that he wasn’t going to be here on his birthday, the Mommy in me took it to heart. I was proud that he make such a selfless choice, but I sure missed waking him up on his birthday. Low and behold I had nothing to worry about bc God did take care of the rest. A sweet lady at church knew how sad I was that I would not get to spend his birthday with him, so she organized a little birthday party for him during DNOW. It was such a sweet thing!! She sent me a video but I couldn’t get it to load on here so Ill just share these cute pics with you guys! I am so blessed to call this child my son!! I Love you!!!

Praying For My Husband’s Head

This is my husband, Tj and I. He is the love of my life. There are so many things I could tell you about him. Good and bad. But today I choose to focus on how I can be a better help mate for him. Sometimes we can’t fix things that we think need lots of attention. So, instead of nagging and fussing and holding resentful feelings toward him, i’m going to start lifting him up in Prayer more specifically and much more often.

A good friend of mine gave me a little cheat sheet on what it looks like to Pray for your husband from the top of his head, to the bottom of his feet. As simple a concept as that sounds, it can be challenging on some days. So here goes part 1 of Praying For Tj. I hope it inspires some of you to pray for your mate more intentionally. Feel free to take some notes, and make this about your husband/wife. Most of this is paraphrased and I just added Tj’s name where is generically had the word Husband. Make it as personal as you feel comfortable doing.

May the God of peace Himself make my husband entirely pure and devoted to God; and may His spirit, soul, and body be kept strong and blameless until that day when our Lord Jesus Christ comes back again. (1 Thes. 5:23)

Lord, I pray these scripture based prayers will challenge me and help me in my most important duty as a wife, praying for Tj. Because I understand that I am one flesh with him, no one else stands in as strong a position in my prayers for him as I do. Help me to make Tj my prayer priority. Show me how to pray diligently every day for him. I plead for your mercy on him. I thank you for all you are doing for him.

Thank you Father for giving me Tj. You are his head. Help me to allow him to be my head., as you are head of the church. Thank you for being head over all Your perfect plans for our home. We love you so much!!

Love, LaBranda

The closer we are to Jesus, the closer we will be to each other.

Summing it up!

It has for sure been a very busy last few days on my home front. Saturday I went and helped some old bosses of mine do a ministry out reach for some of the foster families in our area. These two ladies are onto something big. They are working on putting together a retreat called Hope Ranch which will be a place where foster children of Houston County can go and enjoy some free time. More on this development later.

Sunday I cleaned my house and worked on laundry. That night we went to a friend’s house and watched that boring Super Bowl. 😴

Monday was definitely a manic Monday!! My class was wild and we got very little accomplished as a group.

Some of my little cuties!!!

Tuesday was our 100th day of school!! Some of the kids dressed up like they were 100 years old. We celebrated by making 100 pink and red construction paper links, which we hung around the classroom. They will be used as decorations for our Valentine’s party next week. 💟 We also made 100 days of schools crowns and had 100 fruit loops for snack. The best thing is that means we only have 87 more school days left!! YES!! I can see the light! FYI we have 38 more work days till Spring Break!!!

Notice my twins??????

Today might has well been a Monday. I woke up some time in the middle of the night to discover that my FitBit arm band had broken. I quickly ordered me a new one but ive felt so naked all day. Thankfully it should be here by Friday. This time I ordered a set of three different ones. I am so glad that didn’t happen during the day or I would have lost the whole thing and been so sad.

On top of that, the screen on my phone has been messing up and today it finally bit the dust. So ive been frustrated about that as well.

My soon to be 13 year old has had problems with getting his chores done around the house lately. I don’t know if its bc baseball season has started again or what but last night I had had enough. For the past 3 weeks I have paid him $10 if he completes his chore chart by Friday night. Last week I gave him until Sunday night since he didnt feel well on Friday or Saturday. Sunday he was here all day and played around and only got a few things marked off of his list. So guess who hasn’t gotten paid? Well last night I cooked a nice dinner even though I was exhausted. I asked him 4 times before I went to bed to please wash up those few dishes in the sink before he went to bed. He kept telling me he would. Low and behold I wake up this morning and nothing I asked him to do was done. So I informed him as he was walking to the bathroom when he first woke up that bc he failed to do his job that he was grounded and that he need not even worry about taking his phone to school today. No tv, no game and no phone until he can start showing me he is ready for that responsibility. I really don’t know what kind of mother he thinks I am. Some days I feel like i’m too hard on him. He is an only child but at the same time I want to teach him responsibility and how to take care of himself. I don’t want him to ever have to rely on ANYONE to take care of him. He honestly would not have survived in my childhood days!!

Well I’m about to have dinner, (he cooked), lol and relax the rest of the night. I am so ready for Friday!!!!

Love, LaBranda