The Bullocks

The Bullocks

Thursday, February 25, 2010

"Weather" we like it or not

As I was thinking about what we would be doing today, I was thinking about the weather. It's too cold to be outside too much right now. That led my thinking to all of the status updates I've read lately of people complaining about the weather where they live (and I've done it too!).

This made me realize that we are never happy with the weather for more than a day or two, if that. It's always either too hot, too cold, too rainy, not enough rain, too much snow, no snow, too windy... There is always something we could find that does not particularly suit us that day.

Then I began thinking that God is in control of the weather. It is part of His handiwork, how He makes the world work with the seasons, life cycles of plants and animals, and all of what we need to survive. Yes, there are "natural disasters" that we do not understand, but we, as Christians, know that God is still in control.

This got me to thinking "how would I like it if I had to listen to people complain all the time about something I was in control of?" I'm pretty sure I would not like it at all. Now I know God is MUCH more patient and forgiving than I am (obviously), but I also know that it can't make Him happy to have to listen to us complain all the time.

These are my thoughts today...I'm going to try to complain less and just be thankful that God has given me another day to live and enjoy my life with my family and friends!

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Boys!

Here is just a glimpse at my boys, although there are no pictures.

Tyler:
Last night...between 4:30 and 5:30, this is what Tyler, my 6 year old ate: 2 girl scout cookies, 2 1/2 cherry poptarts, an entire can of mini raviolis, then 2 more girl scout cookies! I don't see how he does it! Although, he was doing a lot of exercising with the Wii Fit Plus - before school and after.

Tucker:
Also last night, Tucker, the 3 year old, insists on wearing a Spiderman costume up to church for Lifegroup, mask and all! I didn't try to stop him. He was in full Spiderman mode, thinking everyone believed he was the REAL Spiderman, shooting webs at anyone who spoke to him (sound effects and everything). Then again this morning, he decided to be Robin (Batman's sidekick) to take Tyler to school. Luckily we don't get out of the truck when we drop him off.

Our life is interesting - and fun!

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Growing Old with Jeremy

I know the title sounds like we're old already. Although some days, more frequently now, I feel like I am old already, I know we have a long way to go before we are old. We still have our children to keep us young, right? Or is it the children that cause us to feel old?

Whatever the case may be, I am loving and looking forward to growing old with Jeremy, my wonderfully loving husband! My devotion this morning was asking the question, "Is your spouse your best friend?" I already believe he is, obviously in a different capacity than my sisters or a couple of other close friends that I talk to. He is the one I go to for pretty much everything. I talk to him more than anyone else. I'd rather be with him than anyone else. And I rely on his advice and value his opinion more than anyone else, as long as he'll give it to me!

The author of today's devotion, Melanie Chitwood, said, "I want to grow old relishing my friendship with my husband, a friendship forged over years of sharing interests and making each other a priority." I honestly try to do this. Obviously with small children and their many pressing needs, this can be difficult at this stage in our life. But the time that we do have together is very special to me. She also suggests that if you do not have a hobby or interest of some sort that you both share and can do together, that you find one. If you don't, when you are old, you'll be like "the old couple sitting in a restaurant, eating their entire meal in silence." I don't want to have nothing to talk about with him once our children are grown and no longer our central focus.

Although sitting for an entire meal in silence may seem enticing right now, since there is barely a silent moment in the house with 2 little boys, I see her point. Jeremy and I both tend to be on the quiet side, which is why we have a hard time understanding how we have such talkative children (at least at home), and why there are a lot of times that we do sit in silence. The beauty of that is that it is not an awkward silence. There is no pressure to say something all the time. We enjoy the silence, and still enjoy each other's company. Yet there are things that we talk about and that we are both interested in too. But now I feel challenged to find something, an activity, that Jeremy and I could both enjoy that we could do on a consistent basis (besides watching TV!) that will help nourish our friendship.

Only time will tell if we are the old couple sitting in a restaurant without saying a word. I hope not!

Monday, February 22, 2010

When life seems hard...

There are so many days that I am so thankful that I am a Christian. If I did not have Christ in my life, I'm certain I would be a miserable person. My feelings, emotions, and self-confidence rely so much on the people around me and how they are feeling about me at the time. I'm sure this is not entirely healthy, and I've never sought "help" to work on this, but I do not deny it. Although I know my worth is in Christ, I am an emotional woman who needs the affirmation of her husband, children, family & friends to make me feel like I am important to them.

I love God, and I am so thankful for his mercy and grace that saved me. I truly rely on Him to give me peace and joy. I think I just seek out that joy in my family & friends, or perhaps that's how He provides the joy in my life. Thankfully, I have good people in my life that love me and love God.

But, when times seem difficult... like I'm not feeling loved, appreciated, respected, or heard, I turn to God, and I know He will always see me as His. He loves, appreciates, respects, and listens to me. If I did not know this about Him, I am certain I would have problems. Thankfully, I know Him and that He loves and cares for me, and I can get through the hard times relying on His love for me!

Friday, February 19, 2010

I know...

I had to discipline Tucker tonight, as is the case quite often lately. He's 3 years old and pushing the limits as much as he can. Without going into detail about it all, a moment I wanted to share (and remember) came right after the discipline. As I finished talking to him and told him that I loved him and wanted him to learn to be good and obey, he hugged me tightly and said, "I know." And it wasn't one of those "I know, I know...just let me go." It was a sincere "I know" with a tight squeeze. It really helps the hard times of discipline to know that he really knows that I love him even while he is being punished. I pray that one day (maybe soon!) he will understand that it is because I love him so much that I must discipline him. I tell both of my boys this each time, I just hope they'll get it.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

"Whoever's on the Bible Wins"

"Whoever's on the Bible wins!" This is what Tucker proclaims to me as he is racing his batmobiles around me as I was attempting to have my "quiet" time this morning. As soon as he said it, I almost laugh at the way God is teaching me things about Him. Here I am reading a devotional, and God uses Tucker's playtime to teach me something that is sticking with me more so than what I was reading.

I guess, technically, he could have said whoever is IN the Bible wins. But, I got the point. If I am IN God's Word, studying and memorizing verses, along with spending time in prayer, I will be able to defeat the enemy and all of the things he throws at me, like complaining, grumbling, anger... (the list is long, so I'll stop there).

What is funny is that this actually goes along with what I was reading in my devotional. It was about having the right weapon to defeat our opponent. The writer was using a softball analogy about having the right bat to be an effective batter. We need to memorize God's Word so that we will have the right verse(s) in our mind as we are struggling with whatever has been thrown at us.

It is amazing and funny all at the same time how God teaches me what it is that I need to hear from Him each day. I am really enjoying the time I am getting to spend with Him in His Word, even if there are batmobiles racing around me sometimes!

Monday, February 15, 2010

Our Day Off




After the "snow day" on Friday that left Tyler out of school, staying home all day Saturday, and only getting out of the house to go to church on Sunday, we were in desperate need of an outing today. President's Day, Mardi Gras break, or whatever you want to call it, has Tyler out of school again today and tomorrow!

So, we decided to finally go see "Alvin and the Chipmunks, the Squeakquel" in the theater. Tyler decided to wear his Alvin and the Chipmunks t-shirt, and they both wanted to get a picture with the Chipmunks at the front of the theater. (And we forgot to get Tyler to take his jacket off to see his t-shirt in the picture!)

It was so good to get out of the house, hear them giggling, get a break from the housework (and the annoying dog), and have fun together. Tyler even said, "Thank you for taking us to the movie, Mom!"

Movie tickets: $21
Popcorn, candy & drink: $15 (highway robbery)
A "thank you" and giggles from my boys: PRICELESS!






Friday, February 12, 2010

"He will quiet you with His love"

Today I read a verse I would never have come across on my own, but read in my Proverbs 31 Ministries devotion. It is Zephaniah 3:17: "The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."

The devotion actually focused on the last phrase of the verse, saying that God delights in us so much that he breaks out in song to serenade us. That is a lovely thought, especially going into Valentine's weekend when many women would love to be so loved that their special someone serenades them.

But, the part of this verse that spoke to me today was "he will quiet you with his love." I have been consumed this week with the amount of stress, yelling and discipline I've been doing, and how "crazy" my children are making me. Today I want to focus on God's love for me - that it will quiet me (as in no yelling!) Ironically (or perhaps divinely?), I have gotten a sore throat, which is making it much harder to yell.

I am also seeing the correlation between how my children are making me feel and how I must make God feel when I am not listening to Him or obeying Him! I still love my boys more than they know. God still loves me. But I'm sure I frustrate Him, just as I get frustrated with my boys for their lack of obedience.

When we are trying to refocus and calm down, I try to hold and hug my boys to get them to calm down and speak softly to them. I think this is also what God wants to do with us. We should climb in His lap (go to a special, quiet place), and let Him hug us and speak to us softly through His Word. We must be quiet to hear Him! And we feel more loved and at peace again once we've done this.

Thank you, God, for speaking to me! I am amazed at what I can hear and learn when I allow you to speak to me! Now, I am going to try to go be quiet today, even if my children are not!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

My Wonderful Husband

I am very blessed to have a wonderful husband, Jeremy. He is my best friend. I don't think that I let him know enough how much I love and respect and appreciate him. He is so good to me. He often tells me how much he loves me, how beautiful I am, and how much he appreciates what I do as wife and mother in our home.

He is an excellent provider for our family. He loves his boys. He is loving and generous, firm in his discipline, fun to be with, full of wisdom and practicality. I look to him for so much. My heart jumps everyday when I hear the door opening, signaling his arrival home from work. I love that it does that. I look forward to seeing his face, his beautiful eyes, his smile, and feeling his arms around me and his gentle kiss. My world seems right when I am with him.

Granted, I breathe a sigh of relief that I have some help with the boys when he gets home. But, he doesn't even have to do anything. Just knowing that he is there, I breathe easier and usually calm down a bit in his presence. His laid-back attitude in life definitely complements my tendency to get stressed about even the smallest things. I am a better person with him.

As Christians, we know that it was God that put us together, and we thank Him often for blessing us with one another. It is also this faith that makes our marriage strong. Yes, we have our difficulties. Anyone who says they don't is just lying. But, because of our faith in God and our love for each other, we work through these times and come out of them stronger in our faith and in our marriage.

I told Jeremy yesterday that I had started a blog. He jokingly asked if I was going to complain about him on it. Of course I told him that was crazy. And as I think more about that, and things that I have read lately, I want to be sure that I absolutely do not do that. My husband wants and needs my respect. My commitment and love for him will remain, even when I am feeling mad, sad, upset, or whatever it may be. It would do nothing positive to complain about him to other people. I want to always show the love and respect for him that he deserves! He is a wonderful, godly man that I look forward to spending the rest of my life with, and I want our children to see and hear the love and respect we have for one another too.

Ephesians 5:33 says "Each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband." BOTH of these things need to be present in a marriage. It is also something that has to be done. Love and respect are action verbs here - something we are to do, not something that we should just feel. That also means that we can choose to do these things. I choose to love and respect Jeremy. And I feel that our marriage will remain strong for the rest of our life together.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

I'm Invisible

After reading my post "How I should view each day," a friend of mine sent me this email that she received from someone else. After getting her permission to share, I'm posting it here so that it will hopefully encourage others as it has me.




"I'm invisible.
It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way
one of the kids will walk into the room while I'm on the phone and ask to
be taken to the store. Inside I'm thinking, "Can't you see I'm on the
phone?" Obviously not. No one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking, or
sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no
one can see me at all. I'm invisible.

Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more: Can you fix this? Can
you tie this? Can you open this? Some days I'm not a
pair of hands; I'm not even a human being. I 'm a clock to ask, "What time
is it?" I'm a satellite guide to answer, "What number is the Disney
Channel?" I'm a car to order, "Right around 5:30 , please."

I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes
that studied history and the mind that graduated summa cum laude - but now
they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She's
going, she's going... she's gone!

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a
friend from England . Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and
she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there,
looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to
compare and feel sorry for myself as I looked down at my out-of-style
dress; it was the only thing I could find that was clean.
My unwashed hair was pulled up in a banana clip and I was afraid I could
actually smell peanut butter in it.

I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully
wrapped package, and said, "I brought you this." It was a book on the great
cathedrals of Europe . I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until
I read her inscription: "To Charlotte , with admiration for the greatness
of what you are building when no one sees."

In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. And I would
discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I
could pattern my work:

1. No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no record of their names.

2. These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished.

3. They made great sacrifices and expected no credit.

4. The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.

A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the
cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny
bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, "Why are
you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be
covered by the roof? No one will ever see it."
And the workman replied, "Because God sees."

I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost
as if I heard God whispering to me, "I see you, Charlotte. I see the
sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of
kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake you've baked, is
too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great
cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will become."

At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a disease
that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease of my own
self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride. I keep
the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the
people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on
s omething that their name will never be on.

The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever
be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to
sacrifice to that degree.

When I really think about it, I don't want my son to tell the friend he's
bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, "My mom gets up at 4 in the
morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for
three hours and presses all the linens for the table." That would mean I'd built
a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there is
anything more to say to his friend, to add, "You're gonna love it there."

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we're
doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will
marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been
added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women.


Live Simply.
Love Generously.
Care Deeply.
Speak Kindly.
Leave the rest to God"

"My Pleasure"

After Tucker and I finished up our Wal-mart trip yesterday, I was buckling him in his car seat and thanked him for being such a good boy and a good helper while we did our shopping. He smiled and attempted a wink, stuck his thumb up, and said, "My pleasure!"

How I should view each day...

Being woken up by your 6 year old saying that he just threw up can be a "typical" day for a stay-at-home mother such as myself. But, it's never how you'd like to start your day.

We are going on day 11 of illness of some sort in the Bullock house. It started with my husband having some sort of bug that kept him in bed (or bathroom) all day. He recovered from that, then my 3 year old, Tucker, begins complaining of his ear hurting. So, we head to the doctor to verify that he has an ear infection, followed by an injection, due to the fact that he refuses to take any type of medicine. That was last Wednesday. Thursday morning, my 6 year old, Tyler, wakes up and tells me he doesn't feel well. He has a fever and congestion. We head to the doctor again to check him out, as well as for Tucker's second injection for his ear infection. Tyler's stuff is still hanging on.

After all of this has been wearing me down for the past week and a half, I realized my stress level has risen significantly. In direct relation to this, I also realized I have not been spending ANY time with the Lord! We missed 2 Sundays of church, as well as our Lifegroup. And my daily devotions... Let's just say they're not as "daily" as they should be.

So, this week, I've resolved to do what it takes to spend at least a few minutes each day reconnecting with the only One who can give me the peace and strength that I need to survive each day.

And this morning, as I'm thinking "woe is me" that Tyler is home sick - again - I decide to read my devotion BEFORE posting a status update on my Facebook about how hard I have it. I will just say that GOD IS GOOD! He can use anything to get his message across to us - always when we need it! In my devotion from the Proverbs 31 Ministries, Rachel Olson writes this in the reflections section:

"How does your perspective on today change when you consider the tremendous gifts of grace, mercy, love and eternal life given you through Christ?"

Well, if that doesn't put my focus back where it should be, I don't know what will!

I'm Blogging?

Well, I guess I'm going to blog a little bit now too. These will simply be "Bullock Bits" of things I'm thinking about or going through, or just want to write down. We will see how often I actually post something. But, perhaps it will help me keep track of things I'd like to remember, like the entertaining things my boys say and do!