Merry Christmas

Wow, this year went fast. We are having a blast this Christmas season and I thought I would share a photo collage of some our good times thus far. There will be more to come this week so be looking for another collage after Christmas. 
Going clockwise:
1. A family photo taken at church.  2 & 3. Haley at her Christmas dance performance (Haley is in the middle of both photos).  4. Peanut and Little Man dressed up as Mr and Mrs Clause.  5. Peanut and Little Man posing with the gingerbread house they made.  6. Peanut and Little Man sitting in a sleigh at the mall.

Follow your heart?

You know the sayings "Follow your heart" and "You can't help how you feel".  While I understand both of these quotes, I also have issues with them.
"Follow your heart". The problem with that saying it that it is based on emotions. And emotions are ever changing based on circumstances. Therefore when we follow our heart it often leads us to a place of uncontentment. Emotions and feelings can lie to us.  The devil can cause negative emotions to rise up inside of us or he can allow positive feelings to rise up, knowing we will act upon them because it feels right, even when it could be completely wrong.  Our hearts can lie to us and deceive us. (this I learned from a Beth Moore study. I found it very insightful and wanted to share it).
"You can't help how you feel". False. Our feelings and emotions are something that we have control over, we just don't often exercise that control.  We give other people the power of controlling them. We allow situations the power of controlling them. And while our feelings are important and need to be properly expressed, we need to be careful not to judge ourselves or others because of how we or they might feel.  Feelings change from moment to moment. One day I feel like going swimming, the next day I don't. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy swimming or that I should give up swimming, it just means I don't feel like going. One day I may be happy with my kids and the next day I may be furious with my kids, but it doesn't mean that I don't love them or enjoy spending time with them.

So to sum up what I am trying to say....
When it comes to major decisions, pray for wisdom and guidance from God and follow your head, not your heart.
Proverbs 14:8a The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways.
And while sometimes we need to express our feelings to others, we may not need to express EVERYTHING we are feeling. Because feelings change and you may regret tomorrow something you said today that was based on feelings.
We should give it to God and ask Him to help us control our tongue.....neither of which is an easy task and I am the most guilty of not doing this....but it is something I am giving over to God and working on.  I am not perfect by any means, but I try to learn from my mistakes and offer help and encouragement to others.  That is the purpose of this blog.

Updates and Halloween

I apologize it has been a while since I posted. School started, business started picking up and life has been crazy busy again. But that seems to be how I function best :)

Little Man is doing great in school.  I teach him at home 3 days a week and he goes to a Learning Center two days a week (Thursdays and Fridays).  Peanut goes to pre-school each day from 9-11 in the mornings and so I get those two hours with just Little Man to focus on his tougher subjects.
We do Bible Study Fellowship on Wednesday mornings.  The kids and I have been doing that the last 3 years.  We all enjoy learning more about God's word.  This year we are studying the book of Genesis.

Below are pictures of the kids.  One is of Little Man after he lost his first tooth last month.  The other is of Peanut on her first day of gymnastics a couple weeks ago.  I also included pictures of them in their Halloween costumes. They enjoyed Halloween but it was cold so they did not make it around the neighborhood very far. But their costumes were big hits.
Enjoy!

Lost his first tooth

First day of gymnastics

Peanut as Loonette the Clown from The Big Comfy Couch

Little Man as R2D2 from Star Wars

Youtube and other things

If you didn't know, I have a youtube channel where you can view videos of the kids and other things that we enjoy.  You can click on the "subscribe" button once you go to my youtube page and stay updated when new videos are posted.
Here is the link:  https://www.youtube.com/user/indymama309

Things are going ok here in Indy. I am trying to figure out how best to serve my family and still honor God in regards to me working.  Please pray about this decision.
School starts on Monday so I am sure after the first week I will have lots to update you on.  Little Man is extremely excited about starting school and I am looking forward to having a schedule again. Summers tend to be chaotic and the daily/weekly schedule gets thrown out the window.

We are enjoying watching the Summer 2012 Olympics.  The kids have even gotten into it.  After that we will welcome the start of a new NFL season and cheer on our new Colts team.

That's about it for now. Take care and God bless.

Fun Times with Opa

So Steve's dad just came for a short visit.  It was good to see him. The kids were so excited to pick him up from the airport and kept asking or droppies the entire time.  We all enjoyed our time with him and wish it could have lasted longer.
During his stay we ate at a couple of our favorite restaurants (Olive Garden for one), visited The Children's Museum, went shopping at Greenwood Park Mall, and went swimming in Opa's hotel pool.  Below is a link to my youtube channel where you can watch the kids swimming with Steve in the hotel pool (plus a few other videos of the kids). Enjoy!

Click here to watch the swimming video

Little Man Swimming

Steve has been working with Little Man on swimming.  This is a short video of his second time practicing.  Once Steve introduced him to the snorkel he swam non-stop the rest of the afternoon.

Family Photos

It had been 3 years since our last family photo session, so we figured it was time.  The lovely Jessica Limeberry of Lemongrass Photography was such a sweetheart and did an amazing job.  I highly recommend her.  Check out some of our favorites below. (photos are copyright protected. If you would like any prints, please let us know)

Memorial weekend

Greetings to everyone reading this. I wrote this on Monday, Memorial Day (observed for everyone in the US) so I apologize I am just now publishing the post.
"Our family was separated most of the weekend, however we each had our own bit of fun. Peanut went to Anderson to have a weekend sleep over with her cousins. We have to pick her up today. Haley spent the weekend with her Dad. Little Man stayed home with Mom for most of the weekend. On Friday night after I spent a long day at the track for Carb Day (Indy lights race followed by a concert) in 90 degree weather, we went to see the Avengers. Unfortunately, Little Man fell asleep after 40 mins. It was a great movie, and I imagine we will take him to see it during the day when it comes to the dollar theater. On Sunday, Mom and Little Man went to God's House and worshiped, I got up at 5:00 am to be out at the track for 7 am for RACE DAY!! I got there a little late, 7:21 due to traffic. After church, Mom and Little Man went to a church friend's house to swim and cookout. The weather was a scorching 95 degrees with the heat index at 103. What a great day to swim! The temp was 84 degrees at 9:30, when we had to be in our fire retardant suits, and we stayed in them until approx. 6pm. The race was awesome! 34 lead changes by 10 different drivers (which is a track record) because of the new DW12 chassis and engines. I have a few pics to share our weekend with you. Hope yours was just as exciting!! Have a good week everyone!     -Steve"

Playing Dress Up

My little peanut is such a little princess.  She loves getting dressed up and having mommy do her hair.  We had a girly day recently and I curled her hair and even put a smidgen of makeup on her.  I thought I would share a couple of the pictures with you.

Easter Celebration

We had a fabulous Easter, celebrating with extended family at a nearby park with pictures, an egg hunt for the kids, and a picnic.  

Sunday morning we had a wonderful Easter service at church as we remembered Christ's sacrifice on the cross, but more importantly, His resurrection and ascension into heaven.  

Praise be to our Lord and Savior from whom ALL blessings come. 

If you would like to have copies of any of these pictures, just right click on it and save image to your computer.  Enjoy!

 

Peanut, on the hunt

Always willing to share

Happy boy

Showing off her goods

Happy Easter from the Indy Schenks

My mom and step dad with 9 of the 11 grandkids

My sister and her beautiful family

Peanut and Uncle B

Me and my big sis

Me and my big bro being goofy

Me and Peanut

My brother and his beautiful family

Nicknames

So apparently E-Man doesn't like his nickname and  

he wants me to change it.

He wants to be called Lightning.  I am taking a poll:

What do you think of Lightning as a nickname? 

 What other suggestions do you have?

Arbonne

I stated in my last blog that I would post a blog explaining about Arbonne....so here it, straight from the website.

A personal care product line developed in Switzerland in 1975, when one man, Petter Mørck, together with a group of leading bio-chemists, biologists and herbalists, fulfilled his vision and founded Arbonne.

Arbonne's skin care products, based on botanical principles, became a reality in the United States in 1980 and are now shared throughout the world through Arbonne's network of Independent Consultants. Building on these same founding principles, Arbonne's product line has since grown to include both inner and outer health and beauty products that are unparalleled in quality, safety, value, benefits and results!
The wonderful thing about Arbonne is that it's not just about great products, it's also about great people. The Arbonne family is made up of thousands of individuals working to make their dreams come true. Through sales incentives and rewards, travel opportunities, a generous SuccessPlan and great products, Arbonne offers a unique opportunity that can help make anyone's vision for the future a reality.

I am very excited to be sharing these products with people. I love that they are all natural, gluten free, and vegan certified.  I LOVE their nutrition line and will probably use and sell that the most.

You can go to the website to view their products and learn more.....and should you decide you want to order something use Consultant Referral ID 19851097 when checking out. There is a 45 Day guarantee on all products.   www.arbonne.com

New Adventures

So, many of you know that things have been a little tight for Steve and I financially.  We have cut as many expenses and paid off as much debt as we can.  I am proud to say that other than the house and cars, we are debt free!!!  However, with me still wanting to be home with the kids and the rising costs of living, we have barely been making it.
I started going full steam ahead with my hair business back in October and God is blessing my efforts. My hair business is starting to pick up and I have several weddings on the calendar for this year. But it needs to pick up more. In the mean time He has also brought a few wonderful part time childcare children into my home.

Now, in regards to the title of this blog........
It is amazing how God works.  I will try and keep this long story short and to the point.
Back in December I met a super cool girl named Kristina.  Since we met we have realized just how much we have in common. It's crazy actually how much alike we are.  We are both in business for ourselves, we are both outgoing and friendly, we are the same age, have kids the same age, share the same Christian faith and even have the same passions and interests.  Kristina sells Arbonne as well as helps her husband run a personal training gym.  When I found out she sold Arbonne I was super excited because I had used their products in the past and had loved them.  I wanted to host a show so I could earn some more for free.  Little did I know that God was bringing this into my life to make yet another way to provide for our family financially.
I am proud to announce that as of last night I am a new Arbonne International Independent Consultant.  I am really excited about this opportunity. I am excited to build my team as well as my client base.  I will post a blog in a few days explaining what Arbonne is along with a link to the website. Right now I just wanted to share the news.

Many of you know also that I went back to school a couple years ago to pursue a degree in Hospitality.  I took some time off to evaluate if this is what I really wanted to do.  After much soul searching and talking with my husband I decided that dietetics was a huge passion of mine.  The problem was no colleges around here offered it through distance education, and being a stay at home mom I can't very well leave and go to college.  I am blessed to have found an online school that offers a one year certificate program in Holistic Nutrition.  I talk to a rep today to get enrolled. And seeing how Arbonne is a company dedicated to nutrition and health, it will go right along with my job as a health and wellness coach (once I complete the program).



God is so good and I am so excited about these new adventures. Please be praying for me and our family that God will continue to open doors and lead us through when it fits into His plan and that He will shut doors and give us peace when it is not His plan.

Superbowl

So our city is hosting the Superbowl tomorrow.  This past week thousands of visitors have flooded into Indianapolis.  Downtown has been completely transformed and the host committee is doing an AMAZING job putting this on.  There have been many events and activities surrounding the Superbowl. Many, many celebrities have come into town. I have been watching all the festivities at home on tv.  It is so cool.  I took the kids downtown to Superbowl Village on Wednesday and took lots of cool pictures (which you'll see below).  It is so neat and I truly hope we are able to host another one in the future.  What a fabulous thing for our city.