Saturday, April 30, 2011

Mommy's turn to play...

***yes, that's me driving. nothing too impressive but SO much fun!***

Just another day at the Cullen/Culver compound. Hanging with Joe Jonas, of the Jonas Brother's, motorcycle riding, hiking, bike riding, rally car, bbq, tire swing,  shooting guns and good company. Fun day!  

Friday, April 29, 2011

Seriously....

...I think that parents need to let their kid's dress themselves more often. I mean, c'mon, aquasocks and a tutu??  haha this girl's got style... haha maybe if I let her think it's really cool, she'll keep dressing like this in highschool!!! =)

Friday, April 22, 2011

***love these 3***
***tonight this little cutie covered our carpet with purple moonsand***
***but she sure makes me laugh like no other***
***enjoying my devan time while tay is at school***
***highly recommend doing this with your kids***
***they send you 5 caterpillars in the mail***

***you get to watch them turn in to butterflies***
***trying to give this girl some needed extra attention***
***trying to get more pics of me with my girls. i'm always behind the lense(or iphone)***

Monday, April 18, 2011

Francis Chan, Empowering the Urban Poor (Full Sermon) from World Impact on Vimeo.


I don't really need to write much about this. I would just encourage you to take the time to watch it. It is a little long, but it's worth it.

Lately I've been greatly convicted in many areas of my life. We have been struggling with Taylor "wanting" and not being grateful for the SOOOOO many things that she has. She wants this, she wants that, someone else has this, she wants it. I get so frustrated with her, yet it's my fault. I'm the one who just gives, gives, gives. Or I give her too many options, leaving her to feel in control and entitled to certain things. We've been watching Human Planet on Discovery channel and its convicted me also because we have it SO easy. You forget just HOW easy we have it. It's ridiculous. We walked to school the other day and Taylor started complaining how tired she was after walking for 5 minutes. I had just watched an episode of Human Planet where this family lived in Tibet where they get snowed in and their only way for their children to get an education is to walk 50 miles in the snow down this life threatening river. It takes them 6 days to get there and the kids stay at school for 6 months. So of course the second Taylor got home from school that day I sat her in front of the tv and made her watch it. You can bet she's never complained about walking to school since! I was sick to my stomach the other day when I looked in the girls closets. How many different jackets does one person need??!! Then you walk in to my closet. No wonder why my house overwhelmes me! We have SO much stuff!! Simplifying. That is the motto at the Nausha household these days. I am going through closet's, drawers, cabinets, email inbox's, our garage, the kid's toys, my makeup bag, my cleaning supplies, everywhere, and simplifying. We are also prioritizing our time. We all made list's, even Devan, of the top 4 or 5 things that were most important or valuable to us. It was pretty neat, because all of our lists were pretty much the same. Family. We don't really care what we do, as long as we are doing it together. Life can get SO busy and you can SO easily get caught up in it all. We have a Food Pantry at our church that I've been wanting to get involved with for ahwile now. I thought it would be a neat opportunity that we could do together as a family to serve others and to teach the girls and let them be a part of something like that. But have we started yet? No! The weeks fly by and before you know, it's been months since I initially wanted to get involved. We just have to do it. We have to make it a priority. I want to teach my kids to be self-less and to serve others. To give to people who have nothing. I want them to know how fortunate and how good they have it.
"Don't store treasures for yourselves here on earth. Moths and rust will destroy treasures here on earth. And thieves can break into your house and steal the things you have. So store your treasure in heaven. The treasures in heaven cannot be destroyed by moths or rust. And thieves cannot break in and steal that treasure. Your heart will be where your treasure is."
Matthew 6:19-21

"The thing you should want most is God's kingdom and doing what God wants. Then all these other things you need will be given to you. So don't worry about tomorrow. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Tomorrow will have its own worries."
Matthew 6:33-34

I am in no way trying to preach to anyone or make anyone feel guilty. I'm simply sharing what the Lord has been doing in our lives. He has been very clearly showing me how much excess we have. Even down to the way I grocery shop. I am now trying to buy just what we NEED. I had over 800 emails in my inbox. I get so many emails every single day for "buy this!" "sale here" The other great thing about all of this is how much money we are going to be saving now too! =)

***a great book I've been reading also is called "Growing Grateful Kids" by Susie Larson***