Warning, warning

As you can see a new look has taken over the blog, which coincides with a new season in the Engelhardt household and it's going to be a WILD ride. I am giving fair warning that there will be more pictures, there will be more blogging, and there will be a different 'feel' to our new blog. Why you ask? Well, because God has been doing a work in our lives and hearts. Here's what's been happening:

1. We have had a GREAT summer! I've been to the pool, been to Colorado for a family vacation, been studying Esther, started running again, and been reactivating my LOVE for reading.

2. I am DONE, finished with just talking and posting little blog badges on the sides of the blog and not really talking about them. So, be forewarned, the TOUGH stuff WILL be talked about now, with NO sugar coating.

3. Securities and Fears - I have begun to take back my security...no one else is getting access to it anymore. Why? Well, because I have done some reading (Beth Moore's So Long Insecurity). I've also been working through the Esther: It's Tough Being a Woman Bible study with Ms. Beth. God has truly given Ms. Beth a gift to speak truth and she is using that gift in a fabulous way and God is using her to speak and work on me. (I also found on Lifeway.com that I can download the video sessions as I need them for $5 a video. Yes, it would be so much more fun to do this study with a group, but I can do it when I'm able to with my crazy schedule.)

4. Family vacation - we went on a family vacation for the 2nd time in 2 years!! This time we drove all the way to Pagosa Springs, CO. We had a BLAST!! I will get picture up as soon as I can.

5. Blog Badges/Tone/Books - here's the deal. I have been reading So Long Insecurity and we start working and discussing the book Radical by David Platt with our Missional Community group. Gabe and I both feel that we need to change our attitude and our 'American' dream is changing. As of today (July 24, 2010) we are now a one car family again. We sold Gabe's car and bought him a bicycle. We live a mile from work, why...guess what - it's getting us out of debt FASTER. We are seriously looking at whether or not we are going to buy a house anytime soon. We are waiting for God to show us that.

The blog badges that are on my blog ie: Red Letters Campaign and Hopemongers, well there's going to be more. And as much as I LOVE being creative....I am going to be using my talents to help the least of these and not promote a creative business that isn't doing very much. Will I still accept orders? ABSOLUTELY, but I'm not advertising anymore...no more Tip Junkie, no more SIS. More Children's HopeChest, Charity Water, Love146, and T4A. These guys need MY voice; however, small it is.

6. Running - I have been running a lot over the past several months. I've done a couple of 5Ks and the Muddy Buddy. I ENJOY running, I'm having fun. I've also felt God asking me to use my new love and joy to help those less fortunate. So, at least once a quarter I will be running a 1/2 marathon and having it sponsored. I will be running the Chosen Adoption 1/2 in October in Gruene, TX. This one will be sponsored, but I'm going to wait to share who's going to benefit from it.

I hope that you will continue to read my blog, and now it's going to more deep and emotional and not so superficial anymore.

I will leave you with a VERY cute picture of my kids and BEVO, because, they are always picture worthy.

Blessings,

Priceless

So, I'm behind on blogging, so sorry. But, I do want to let you know about a giveaway that's going on right now. I LOVE Tom Davis' books. I currently have Scared and Priceless on my reading wishlist. I just hope that I win this contest for the Priceless book!!! So head over to see if you can win the book and some Saints Coffee!!

Family

These are our most recent family pictures. My uncle was kind enough to meet us at The Long Center in downtown Austin for a couple of hours. He did a fabulous job and I can't wait for him to do it again. He took a TON of pictures, but these are the best in my opinion. Enjoy!!

Cleaning....

WOW!! What a start to this new year I have I had so far. I am in my 3rd week of my official status of STAY AT HOME MOM, and I LOVE it!! I love the little things that come with being a SAHM, like cleaning...never liked cleaning before now, but now I love keeping our home clean and picked up. As I was cleaning the children's bathroom, I thought to myself, "this doesn't look too dirty, it could wait one more week to be cleaned." Then God whispered to me, "Your heart doesn't always appear dirty on the outside, but I need to clean it on a regular basis so that you and I have the best relationship possible." OUCH!! This is so true and I love that in the simpleness of cleaning a bathroom God SPOKE to me. Here's how I am now preparing myself to be able to hear what He has to say:

I'm in my 3rd week of Engaging in the Scriptures as well. So far I have read the first 8 chapters of Matthew and the first 9 chapters of Psalms and Genesis. God is speaking to me in so many ways. I find it fascinating that the last two sermons from the Austin Stone have helped solidify what God has been saying to me. That when I start to read God's word and spend time with Him, he is going to reveal the problems in my heart. Guess what...He has!! My heart is full of doubt, untrust, and lack of faith. My mind knows what I need to think and believe, but my heart is 10-20 steps TOO FAR BEHIND!!

Over the last 3 weeks God has been working on me, revealing to me through both the scriptures I have read AND the messages at The Austin Stone, that I NEED to be INTOXICATED with God and spending time with him, a lot like the way I felt when Gabe and I were dating and first married. That my lack of faith, doubt, and untrust is an unbelief in God. Because of my NOT trusting and lack of faith that He WILL provide for us financially, I don't believe that HE IS GOD! This stung to the core when God revealed this to me last week. This week He reminded me that as I learn to read and spend time with Him, then He is going to work on the stuff that is causing me to NOT have the best relationship with Him. And that is EXACTLY what God is doing right now.

God is reminding me on a DAILY basis that I MUST and need to rely on Him every minute of every day.

I feel like the following clip from "Facing the Giants".




God is preparing our family for the next season in our lives and now we must wait on His timing. He is preparing my heart to be ok with whatever is next for our family. Right now, I must prepare for all possibilities and be ok with HIS timing, not mine. I can't wait to find out what/when it is, but until then, I will continue to pray, study, and spend time with Him daily!!

Christmas 2009

I apologize for not getting our blog updated since school started. It's been a crazy 4 months. Here's what's been going on in our neck of the woods!!

Perryn is still doing quite well in kindergarten, she can read, but doesn't like to take the challenge to read on her own without lots of encouragement. It seems like she doesn't have confidence in herself that she knows the words in her brain and they can appear ANYWHERE and she will still know them. We both absolutely love Mrs. Gunn her teacher and she is doing a PHENOMENAL job!!!

Teagan is doing well. He is really trying recognize his name, so anything that he sees that starts with the letter T is his name even if it's the word 'the', it's his name!! He is still very big into trains and cars. In fact, we all pitched in (grandparents) and got him a second hand Thomas the train set and table!!
Gabe is still doing well at Scott and White!! We moved at the beginning of Decemeber and we now live 3 minutes from the hospital!! In my opinion it's the best move we made next to moving back to the Austin area. We get to spend more time with him before he goes to work and he often gets to go get Perryn from school with us and we all take him to work!! His shoulder has been healing from his surgery that happened over the summer, but he is having to deal with some painful scar tissue that has broken off or something..this is making his shoulder very tight and painful.

I'm doing well too. My best Christmas present from Gabe was allowing me the opportunity to quit my job and come back home to spend time with Teagan. God has provided what we need in order for me to do that. I am looking forward to getting back into my card business and expanding to do more of my cakes. I MISS my students terribly, but have already made promises with lots of them to be able to have play dates frequently!!
Our Christmas this year was grand. We focused on Jesus's birthday and even sang to him and had made him a giant cookie cake for the celebration. We did get to do stockings and even got to have breakfast with Santa.
We got to participate in an old tradition at Gabe's grandmother's house of decorating cookies for the first time this year. It was a BLAST!! Perryn (especially) and Teagan really loved getting to decorate the cookies that Omie had made for them. Then the best part was they got to pick some of decorated cookies out to bring home with them to eat...they loved it all around.

We once again gave our annual handmade Christmas ornaments to our families, but we went a step further this year and gave money on their behalf to help orphans and the least of these over in Africa. We have some friends that started the Hopemongers Cooperative so that we can help fund some of the needs in Africa with a little bit of money...meaning we got give what we could afford and see exactly where it was going. We got to choose who we were helping and often see it be delivered before they Hopemongers team left Ethiopia!! That was the COOLEST part ever!! Here's where we helped this year on the behalf of our family:



We got to help give a diaper shower for 35 babies at the Kebebtshey orphanage in Ethiopia.

We helped with hair care and staff supplies at the Kebebetshey orphanage as well.

We also got to help fund a nice Christmas dinner at the Leper Colony.

And...we got to help fund getting mosquito nets for the orphans at Emmanuel orphanage in Ethiopia.

Each of our families got a card and a picture of where we donated, so that they could see exactly where our gift for them was. I am hoping that God will allow me to team up my card business with the Hopemongers team so that if/when people donate and they want to do it as a gift for someone, I can help with a card and a picture.

Please pray that God will continue to bless our family in 2010 and that He will bless my little creations business as well. I would love for it to take off and it be able to fund little things like adopting our next child. Enjoy the end of 2009 and may God bless your family immensely in 2010!!