~A Little Summer Break

 I am going to be taking a little time away from my blog for the summer.  I will return to blogging sometime in August.  God bless you and I hope you have a nice summer.  Hugs to you.  ~Juli

~A Peek Into Our Weeks

Justin, our youngest son graduated from Highschool!  It was such a happy time for our family.  We are so proud of Justin and we love him so very much.

Megan treated Justin to a massage with hot stones for his birthday!  It just makes my heart so happy when I see how much our children love each other.

Here is my desk, I have let go of some of my more worldly décor and it just gives a nicer feel to my room.

I put my spring and summer candles out front of my no burn Yankee candle collection.

This is a drawer in my room where I keep special things.  The little prayer book belonged to my great great grandma, then my great grandma, then my grandma and then my mom and now it is mine.  This is so dear to my heart.

Here is my summer melting basket.  I don't need to purchase very much wax these days, because I still have a large stash.  I couldn't really smell for a few years,(after having long term Covid) so I couldn't melt wax.  I am so thankful I have my sense of smell back.

Here is my vender wax drawer.  I love being able to choose a scent and see how pretty it all looks.  It reminds me of my childhood candy collection.  

Here is a drawer where I keep items I use during and after a bath.  

Here is a little place in my room where I honor my grandparents memory.  I was very blessed to have these dear people in my life.  I still miss them every day, but I know I will see them in Heaven some day and that makes me so very happy.

I want to thank you for stopping by my blog.  God bless you and keep you in His holy care.  Hugs to you.  ~Juli
 

A Peek Into Our Weeks

My daughter Lauren and her husband Victor are having another precious baby.  What a wonderful blessing for our family.  Children are a gift from God.  I have been doing a junk journal in a composition notebook and this is the spread I did for Mia.

I redecorated this area of my bedroom.  It has been a blessing to my heart as it gives a softer feel to my room.  I mostly just used items that I already had other than a few little things I found at a thrift shop for less than ten dollars.  

I truly feel blessed to be the keeper of our little home.  My goal is to make a God centered home with an old fashioned feel.  It is our place of rest when the hardships of the world are harsh.  I thank the Lord for the little house he has provided for our family.

This is our little guest room.  I like having a place where our loved ones can come and enjoy.  My daughter Lauren enjoys some down time when she and Leo visit.  My daughter Megan enjoys it when she visits from Oklahoma.  

These are the devotionals I read most days, in addition to reading my Bible, these are a blessing to my life.

 I have been taking a little time to turn inward these past few weeks.  This time away from my normal technology usage has been a way for me to focus on our family and time with the Lord.  I have not taken a full technology break, but I have cut my normal usage and it has blessed my life.

I want to thank you for taking time to stop by my blog.  God bless you and keep you in His loving care.  Hugs to you.  ~Juli

~Happy Easter

 As we approach Easter Sunday, my heart reflects on the gift Jesus gave to us on the cross.  He bore the full weight of the sins of the world so that we  could be saved.  This is something we should really ponder upon and not just think of it in passing.  His love for us was so great that despite the torture he endured, He still asked the Father to forgive them because they know not what they do.  Jesus loves each of us so very much and He wants all of us to turn to Him and be saved.  

It is so important that we have a personal relationship with Him.  Jesus should be so close to our hearts that we wouldn't think of making a choice without prayer to ask for His guidance and to illuminate our path.  When we pray, we should always ask for God's holy will to be done.  Sometimes what we want and God's will may not be the same.  When this happens we should trust in Him because He knows the entire picture and knows far more than we do.  Also we should trust in His love for us and that He will never leave us even in our hardest trials. This world is full of hardships and sufferings, but those of us who truly know Jesus will not be left to endure them alone.  God may not choose to remove the hardships, but he allows the peace of Jesus to help us endure what we must in this life.  This world is not our home, our true home is in Heaven.  So I believe it is important to have an eternal mindset when looking upon things that happen in this world.  Those who have accepted Jesus as their Lord and savior, and have a true and close relationship with Him understand that eternity is a lot longer than this life.  This life is but a drop of water in the ocean that is eternity.  So it is important to take heart when dealing with life's trials and keep the big picture in mind.  Our hardships (for those who love the Lord) help to shape our character and God cares more about our character than our suffering.  

Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life and no one comes to the father except through me.  So today if you do not have Jesus as your Lord and savior, simply ask with a humble heart for Him to save you.  We are all sinners and we all need Him as our savior.  So this Easter ponder on the gift that Jesus gave to those who will call upon His name and live for Him and what it truly means to be His and know that our souls will go to Heaven when we take our last breath on this Earth.  

This is my favorite song and it goes perfectly with Easter.  It is my prayer for myself that this Easter I may truly reflect and give praise to Jesus for saving us from our sins.  I pray that amongst the time with our loved ones this Easter we will all spend time in prayer and give thanks to our precious Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

Thank you for taking the time to stop by my blog.  God bless you this Easter and keep you in His care.  Hugs to you.  ~Juli 

~A Peek Into Our Weeks

I love this picture because it reminds me to keep my focus on Jesus through all of life's hardships.  When we are looking to the Lord for comfort, he will be with us through all we must endure in this life.

My grandson has been enjoying this beautiful spring weather.

I keep my essential oils in my nightstand.  They are such a blessing to me.  I have been interested in natural medicine for almost 30 years now.

In the evenings I enjoy looking at my no burn candle collection aglow with twinkle lights.

I enjoy learning about herbal teas and the health benefits they have to offer.  I have a little notebook where I write different herbs or oils and what they can do.  

My little grandson Leo turned three years old!  He is such a blessing to my heart and to our family.  Children are truly a gift from God.  

I have been enjoying the beautiful spring time weather.  I want to thank you for taking time to stop by my blog.  May God bless you and keep you in His loving care.  Hugs to you.  ~Juli
 

~A Thought On My Heart

 Today I want to share a thought that has been on my mind for a long while.  When I was younger, I used to think it was selfish to pray for myself.  I now know that it is very important to pray for ourselves in addition to others.  One of my main prayers for myself is, Lord please let my heart's meditations to be pleasing to you.  Help me to love others as you love them, and guard my lips.  What good are we if we try to be good for the Lord with our actions, but on the inside we are wretched.  I believe most people struggle with this, but with God's help we can change our hearts and Jesus can help us to love others as He loves them.  (Also to love our self as He loves us.)  We can be harder on our self than anyone at times.  

Another thing I pray for is that my words may be pleasing to God.  Words can hurt and cut like a knife and as God's children we should be so very careful to guard our lips.  Careless talk can do much damage.  

So don't be afraid to pray for yourself as you would another person, because  there is much in our current world that will take us far away from the Lord.  I believe our first  priority is to strive to live a life pleasing to the Lord.  It should be our first desire to live our lives for Jesus.  He gave us everything, so our life is bought at a very precious price, we should give to Him all that we can.  Remember we are not just here for ourselves.  We need to be right side up in an upside down world and point people to Jesus so that He can save them and their souls will not perish.  Remember what good is it to gain the world, but loose your soul.  This world is not all their is, and success in this world is far less important than being the hands and feet of Jesus in a world that is so very lost.

This is what has been on my heart for a while now, and I thought I would share my own personal journeys and struggles in the hopes it may be of help to someone who reads my blog.  God bless you and keep you in His loving care.  Hugs to you.  ~Juli

 Today I thought I would share something that I am working on with myself, in the hopes it may help someone else with a similar issue in their life.

My husband and I are on a debt free journey.  I have come to a point in my life where I realize that I have a shopping addiction.  I never thought it was a problem because the things I purchase are not real costly, but shopping has become an idol in my life that takes my focus off my relationship with my Lord.  When we take a good hard look at our selves, we can then see more clearly the areas we need to work on.  

Our society is set up in a way where shopping has become a hobby, a way to false happiness for many, not to mention wasting the money that God may intend us to use to help others.  It seems where ever we look someone is trying to get us to spend our money.  When we are always on the hunt for something new, (even if it is not costly and from a thrift store) we are letting this become an idol in our life.  

Shopping can truly become an addiction.  When we purchase something new our body releases dopamine and if we purchase something on line we also release dopamine when the item arrives.  This is a false sense of happiness.  God wants our contentment to come from a personal relationship with Jesus.  He wants us to seek first His kingdom, and when we do this we will have the contentment that is true and lasting that only comes from the Lord.  

I have started doing my chapel time before all else in the morning.  I read my Bible and devotionals, do my prayer journal and then do all my daily house work as to the Lord.  I find when I put God first in my life, I truly seek His kingdom above all else, and I am not longing to collect the next thing. 

None of us know what our future may hold, so it is only wise to save our dollars, because we may need them to live if times get really hard, or God may call on us to meet a need for someone else.  I try to remind myself that our money is truly given to us to be good stewards for the Lord, and all things in this life belong to Him.  In that sense we should be wise and use it as he wills for us to.  

So this is an area that I am giving myself a good hard look at how I am handling the resources that God has entrusted to me.  Like all things I will be gentle with myself as I strive to please the Lord and break my shopping addiction.  I know that I alone may not be able to break it, but we should remember that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

I hope that if someone reading this suffers from any sort of addiction that you can put it in God's hands and put Him first above all else.  I thank you for stopping by my space.  May God bless you and keep you in His loving care.  Hugs to you.  ~Juli