Something smells weird...

Happy Saturday everyone! It is still beautiful down here, and Adam, Jackson, and I are loving it. For the past two days our little family has been out and about eating at the new Five Guys place (thank you Sharps!), buying me some $3 dollar red pointy toe heels from the Rescue Mission:

Not sure what I'll wear them with yet, and closed-toe shoe season is about over, but I love them, and they were $3 dollars!

And getting little man some new summer shirts. In fact, we didn't have to spend a dime! There is a consignment shop in town that I sold some clothes to awhile back. The lady who owns it let Adam and I pick out some shirts for Jackson, and she said as my clothes sell, she will just keep the money until we are even. How awesome is that!? I love family-owned, small-town businesses. 

BUT, the weekend so far, hasn't all been fun and games. Jackson and I both had our moments.

I pointed to his boo boo in case you couldn't find it amidst the cuteness in the photo :)

Jackson was playing in his toy box when he pulled on one side too hard, and the other side of the box came up and smacked in square in the face. He cried. I cried. It was not pretty! 

And then, his momma made an oops. A major oops. The kind of oops where in .25 seconds your house could become nothing but ashes...

You would think for someone who loves to cook as much as I do, I wouldn't burn so many things. Oh, but I do. I like to consider myself a sort of Babe Ruth of the kitchen. I may hit quite a few dishes out of the park, but I also strike out...or burn to smithereens....quite a few as well. But hey, let's just focus on the home-runs ok?

Anyway, I was boiling water in the above pot, and steaming a sweet potato above it, and forgot that I was doing so.  Needless to say, immediately I remembered when I started to smell something weird. Oops. Did you know that boiling water left alone will eventually boil right out of the pot!? Our house still smells like burned potato...

Ok, I think that wraps things up for now. My sweet husband just walked in with a box of thin mints that I must devour. 

Keep praying through your fears!

Blessings,

Monica

Conquering Fear

Hello! Hope today's post finds you enjoying the weather! Well, I guess that depends on where you live uh?! Down here it is sunny, breezy and beautiful! Thank you Jesus. 


The past week or so I have had some intense conversations with some dear friends of mine. And the pervasive theme in each conversation was fear, both on my end and their ends of the conversation.


Fear of failure
Fear of the unknown
Fear of death
Fear of loneliness
Fear of sickness


You may not think that you actually struggle with "fear". But the truth is, fear is deceptive. It masks itself as "worry" or "concern".  And most of us struggle with it. Most of us don't outright admit that we are fearful. We like to tell ourselves that we are just being realistic about the situation, or we are just being overly cautious. But the truth is, we are fearful.


Friends, I have some great news for you today. Your Father in Heaven, did NOT give you a sprit of fear (2 Timothy 1:7). And God does NOT desire you to live in fear today, tomorrow, or ever.


A few months ago I was fearful of traveling with my son by myself. At first I told myself that it was just natural apprehension. But the truth was, I was fearful of something happening, and me being alone, of my son having a break down and me not being able to get to him etc.  I  was pretty private about this fear because, honestly, it just felt embarrassing to talk about. But at a bible study one day, I mentioned that I wanted some prayer since I would be traveling by myself the following weekend. After the bible study, a friend of mine spoke to me about the request. She talked with me about not being fearful. About how I needed to know what God's word says, and claim those truths. And then she said something profound.


"Monica. You can't just conquer 'this specific fear'. If you don't deal with the spirit of fear in your life as a whole, it will manifest itself in other areas. " 


Profound right?!


So how do we conquer the spirit of fear in our lives? 


It is a slow process. It involves identifying fears we have, knowing what God's word says about those fears, protecting our eyes and ears from things that provoke our fears, and prayer, lots and lots of prayer. BUT we can conquer the spirit of fear in our lives. 

I encourage you to do some soul searching and identify any fears that you may have. Really ask yourself if the sprit of fear has shown up in your life. Then find what God's word has to say about those fears. 

"I sought the LORD, and he answered me; 

he delivered me from all my fears. 

Those who look to him are radiant; 

   their faces are never covered with shame."

Psalm 34:4-5

We are more than conquerors friends! Now get out and enjoy the sunshine!

Blessings,

Monica

(As I am praying through my own fears, I would love to pray with you as well. If you have any specific prayer requests regarding fear, or if you need some encouragement, feel free to email me at: mroberson@rethinkgroup.org)

I love cheese. (Jackson update)

Hello. My name is Jackson, and I melt my mom's heart into a giant puddle every day.

Our little booger man (don't adam and I come up with the most endearing nicknames?), will be TEN MONTHS OLD on Sunday. Umm, excuse me? Hello! That's only 2 months away from a year old! Goodness....seriously. Does it go by this fast? Will I blink and he'll be in college?! Please tell me no!

Ok, I'm done freaking out (for now).

As I was saying, our little man is just growing too fast! I feel like I'm looking at a "real" little boy now! Not that he hasn't always been a little boy, but now he seems more like a toddler, and less like a baby. Honestly, the older he gets the more I love each stage that he enters. Right now Jackson is crawling and getting into everything. Sometimes we have to say "no," and when we do, his strong-willed personality comes out. Adam and I have been talking about how thankful we are for Jackson's determination, but we have got to make sure that we channel it the right way. I can't wait to see how God uses him.

He currently sleeps about 11-12  hours at night, with the occasional night waking. And on that note, we are beginning to wonder if Jackson has inherited his daddy's sleep talking. Sometimes he (Jackson) will wake, sit up, babble, and then go back to sleep. It's cute. :) 

He loves eating blueberries, green peas, lima beans, turkey meat (I've found some all-natural, organic deli meat at Publix, and Jackson loves it!) sweet potato, and all other fruits. His hands-down favorite food right now is cheese. He is his father's son. When Jackson sees me getting the cheese out of the fridge, he starts laughing, waving his hands, and kicking his legs. This boy LOVES him some cheese!

As far as what he will not eat, well lets just say that when he eats squash, green beans, and carrots, he gags, and it scares his momma mad. He is getting better though. I keep trying to get him to eat them. 

And for his stats....He currently weighs about 22 pounds, and is somewhere around 30 inches long, (this terrible momma can't remember how long the doctor said he was last time, oops). And he wears 12-18 month old clothes (not that you all really care the size of his clothes either).

Being a parent is just such a joy. Honestly, Jackson makes us laugh everyday, and I know that will only happen more and more the older he gets. He's started trying to wave to us, but instead of waving with his hand open, he closes his fist, and waves his fist up and down. It's hysterical.  Also, when he sees a toy he wants, he starts grunting and smiling and crawling really fast to get to it. His new favorite thing to do is to go through anything like a basket, or bag, or drawer, and remove every item piece by piece. The other day he was "helping" me put away his laundry, and before I knew it, he had taken every item of clothing out of his bottom drawer. All I could do was laugh. When he had finished, he smiled like he had accomplished something major. And he had, I guess, in a "I'm only 10 months and this is huge that I just emptied out my drawer" kind of way. :) 

Anyway, I guess that sums things up for now. Please pray that I don't have a melt-down when it sinks in that he's only got 17 years and 2 months left at home.  

Night friends!

Monica

In honor of the love day

Oh goodness! I love him so much.

And here are a few (of many, many, many) reasons why:

1.  He has the biggest heart of anyone I know. Only he would: 

• give away his laptop to a preacher who needed it
•  spend his time cleaning toilets (of a church he were not asked to clean but did because it needed it)
• wake up earlier than the sun, to meet with a young guy he is discipling

2. He makes a ton of crazy faces that somehow always make it on the camera. Case in point:

3. I love how he is a big dreamer, and several conversations we have start with, "Monica, you know where we should go?"

4. I love him for his unbridled excitement over food and sleep. To which before both, he does two fists pumps in the air and smiles and says, "Ahhh, yes!" 

5. Now would be a good time to mention how I love his middle-of-the night entertainment. Only he can sleep talk, have an entire conversation with me, and remember nothing the next morning. 

6. I love his crazy passion for Jesus, and his knowledge of scripture. And his constant selflessness in serving me.  

7. He is the most patient man I know. I love him for never complaining (and I literally mean never) when I am running late, forget to cash checks, lose something, etc. etc.

8. I love how he summersaults off the couch onto the floor to get the remote:)

9. I love how he is a great daddy, and he is/ will be a fantastic example to Jackson of what it means to love well, give of yourself, and work hard. 

10. And lastly, I love and am inspired every day by his outlook on life. He sees each day as an opportunity to serve God and love others, and he doesn't let fear, worry, anxiety, stress ever get in the way of that. He has a quiet and firm trust in God that puts me at ease, and helps me handle tough situations. 

I am a better person because of him!

Happy Love Day Babe!

curls, settlers, selflessness, and mac 'n cheese!

There was a little girl boy who had a little curl right in the middle on the side of her his forehead. 

It has happened.

Jackson's curls have made their presence known. 

The longer his hair gets, the more curls emerge. I absolutely love it. (Just thought you should know;)

Ok, on to other things. I just love weekends. I love lazy Fridays. When we are home, Adam and I do NOTHING all day. It is fantastic! And that is what we did this past Friday. Then on Saturday, during the day, we spent some time running errands in the beautiful sunshine. Saturday night consisted of the following:

Ahh...sigh..Settlers of Cataan. We love, love, love, this game. We have some really good friends who we wanted to introduce the game to, and thankfully they loved it as well. Can you tell?

We spent the night eating some grilled chicken and yummy macaroni and cheese (with spinach) that I've been wanting to make for awhile, and laughing, and eating ice cream, and laughing some more, and playing Settlers, and laughing even more. We had such a great time! Our friends have a little guy who is about the same age as Jackson, and the two of them played happily with their toys while we hung out. 

Our weekend ended with church today, and I have to share something with you that warmed my heart. We have a sweet lady whose parents are deaf, so consequently she knows sign language. She decided to use that knowledge to help others. Every Sunday she sits up front and signs the sermon to our few attenders who are hearing impaired. I've seen her sign to them before, but his morning, for whatever reason, I was overcome with thankfulness for her. Today's sermon was specifically on the gospel. That we fall short of the glory of God. We are all in need of a Savior, and because of Jesus, we have a right standing with God. Without that lady, that important message would not have been communicated to our hearing impaired.  My heart was touched. She doesn't have to give of her time and do that. And who knows the eternal impact she might have had today. I left so thankful for the people who serve at Wiregrass. Man, I love our church!

Anyway, hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well! I'll leave you with that spinach macaroni and cheese recipe. It was yummy!

Baked Mac and Cheese with Spinach

Blessings,

Monica

Taking every thought captive

I am downing the coffee today. 

Why? Because I am SO tired. Why am I so tired? I was up at 3 am.


No, not because Jackson needed me. And no, not because my husband was sleep talking (He's been known to yell humorous things in his sleep like "I don't want to be a Samuri."  HA! He will kill me for this when he reads this post) And no I wasn't awoken by a noisy neighbor, loud car, or helicopter flying over our house, and they do occasionally. 


I had a nightmare. Go on, you can chuckle. But in all seriousness, it was the SCARIEST DREAM I HAVE HAD IN YEARS.


It was the kind of nightmare that felt so real, that I woke up wondering if it really had happened. 


It's interesting how our minds can dream up false scenarios that illicit true emotions. I know my heart kept racing for at least an hour after the dream.  While I was lying there, I spent a good several minutes trying to think through why I would dream such a dream. (if you must know, the nightmare involved adam, a friend, a gun, and some shooting. That's all I will say). And all I could think of was the fact that there is sin in the world, and that there is sin in me, and yes, that there is sin in my mind. 


And I thought maybe I had entertained a fearful thought that had manifested itself into this nightmarish experience for me at 3 am. 


So what do you do when you know the enemy had made it into your thoughts? (Because I believe that's what he did in mine)  


³ For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. ⁴ The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. ⁵ We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. ⁶ And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete. 2 Corinthians 10:3-6


Take your thoughts captive.


God has been teaching me over and over and over again about taking my thoughts captive. He is showing me how destructive my thoughts can/will be if I keep letting them do what they want. The enemy plants an idea in my mind and happily watches it grow. It's my job to monitor my thoughts and hold them up to the light of truth to see where they truly originate from. 

It's not an easy task to take your thoughts captive. It takes work. It takes effort and time. But not taking your thoughts captive can be incredibly destructive.  

When the sun made its appearance this morning, and I realized I had indeed fallen back asleep (thank goodness), I thought some more about my thoughts and how maybe the nightmare was indeed some sort of wake-up call. Was it fear or anxiety that I've just not dealt with, that manifested itself into this nightmare?  Maybe so. I'm working on it. 


Thank you Jesus for your word. And thank you for making me more than a conqueror. 


Are you taking your thoughts captive?


blessings,
Monica

Praying for your children

Hello friends! 


Today I want to share with you a prayer tool that I LOVE!


Before Adam and I had Jackson, we started praying for our future children. Then, when we were pregnant with Jackson, we prayed every night (literally) for our sweet little boy. I would research how and what was forming when, and we would pray over those specific things. We prayed for spiritual things as well, that he would come to know Christ at a young age, that he would love others, that he would have a passion for scripture.


I pray for Jackson every day, but I have wanted to start praying more specifically for him, and the Lord in His graciousness sent me the perfect resource. 

It's an orange plastic prayer card. Sounds simple I know, but it is fantastic! The front of the card has several short prayers and corresponding verses that you can pray over your children, and the back has specific prayers you can pray for yourself as a parent. 


I thought I would share with you the verses that are on the front of the card so you can be praying these things over your children (or grandchildren, nieces, nephews etc.) as well. 



Lord, I life my children to You today and pray, according to Your Word, that:


-they will know Christ as Savior early in life and desire a close relationship with Your throughout their childhood, teen, and adult years (Mark 10:13-16; Luke 2:52; 2 Timothy 3:15)


-they will develop the discipline of prayer and time in Your Word (Joshua 1:8; Daniel 6:10, Matthew 4:4; Philippians 4:6-7)



-You will bring into their lives godly adults and friends who will help them grow in godly living (Psalm 1:1-3; Philippians 1:27; Proverbs 27:17; 1 Corinthians 4:15).


-You will keep them pure and strengthen them against temptation (Job 17:9; Psalm 24:3-4; I Corinthians 6:18-20


-they would develop discernment, wisdom, responsibility, and a strong conscience (1 Kings 3:11-12; 1 Timothy 1:5 Daniel 6:3


-they will be caught if they wander into cheating, lies, or mischief (Psalm 119:71; Proverbs 20:30


-they will see other people as You do, treating them with love and kindness (Matthew 25:35-40; Romans 12:10; Philippians 2:1-4)


-You will protect them from emotional, physical, and spiritual danger (Psalm 28:7-9; Psalm 41; John 17:15;2 Thessalonians 3:3).


-You will prepare them to be a godly, loving, and faithful spouse or prepare them to glorify You in their singleness (1 Corinthians 7:7-8); and that you also prepare their future spouse (2 Corinthians 6:14-15; Ephesians 5:21-33)


-they would leave home with an eternal perspective and Christ-like values (Matthew 28:18-20; Galatians 2:20; Philippians 1:21)


-they will sense Your calling on their lives and their lives will count for Your kingdom (Psalm 78-1-8; 103:12-18; 2 Timothy 1:9)
.
(FamilyLife resources)




**I didn't include the content that is on the back of the card.  I'm sure the company would not appreciate me putting all of their content on the web :) I've searched the web for a place that you can buy the cards, but no luck so far. I'll keep looking!


Hope the prayers and verses above help you pray for the sweet blessings in your life! 


I will leave you with  a pic of one of the sweet blessings in my life:

abundantly blessed,

Monica

Heavenly

Because I am seriously craving some chocolate.....I thought I would daydream about my absolute favorite chocolate indulgent. 


Oreo Truffles

Have you made them? Have you tried them? If you have, then you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, then I feel so sorry for you :) You are missing out! 


Here is the recipe:


Oreo Truffles

**I would suggest using a food processor to mix the oreo crumbs with the (room temp) cream cheese. You will know when the contents have combined because it will turn into one big ball of  dark "dough". 


**Also, after I made the balls, I put them on sheet pans and put the pans in my freezer. I have a large bottom drawer freezer, so I understand that not everyone can do that. It is much easier to coat the frozen oreo balls in warm chocolate than trying to coat room temperature oreo balls. (They fall apart)


**When working with bakers chocolate, you have to be careful. The chocolate dries fast. So this is what I did:  I put a bot of water on the stove and heated the water until boiling. I melted the chocolate in a pyrex bowl in the microwave. Then I set the bowl of melted chocolate in the pan of boiling water. That way the chocolate stayed nice and warm (and melted) as I dipped the oreo balls in. 


Please go make these NOW! They are amazing and cheap!  (Well cheap unless you don't have a food processor, and want one for this recipe:) )


Happy eating!


Monica

Yes. You are in the right place.

Hello! The Roberson Family Blog got a makeover. :)  If you are wondering, I'll still blog about our family, how Jackson is doing, my faith etc. I just needed new life to the blog! 


Have a great day!


Monica

Book Club

If someone asked you to join a book club, would you join? Oh how I hope you would!

For some people, the very thought of enduring anything similar to a college classroom literary experience would be nothing short of torture, but for others (namely me) it is heaven. 

I LOVE reading. I love reading great books, and having great discussions about those books. I love dissecting novels and examining them to see what I have learned about myself. In college I was an English major, and with all honesty, thoroughly enjoyed all of my literature classes.

Now that I am married and have  a small, in-to-everything- munchkin, I rarely take the time to actually read a good book. Oh I'll start several, with every intention to finish, but after a few days, our house is littered with partially finished novels. 

Because I love reading so much, and wished I would make more time for it, when my friend told me that she was trying to start a book club and asked me to join, I jumped (probably literally) at the chance to be apart. Here was my opportunity to have to read a book :)

After exchanging a few emails, our book club, we have now so aptly named "The Cougars" (don't ask us why), was a go. We meet once a month, eat delish food, and talk about the book. With as much emotion as I can convey over this blogosphere, I tell you that I have SO enjoyed this book club. It does my heart, soul, and mind well to spend a couple of hours laughing  and talking with these women. 

So far we have read:

 HIGHLY recommend this book. It was not a short read, but it was so good that I devoured it.

This book will challenge you and encourage you. Honestly, I really loved the first half, and probably could have not read the second half and still walked away having learned a great deal about myself. 

Our most controversial pic yet. For a book that so many of us were skeptical we would finish (the protagonist has an affair with a monk!) the discussion at our book club meeting was probably the best yet. As a follower of Jesus, you simply cannot read something without viewing it through the lens of Christ.With that said, there were parts of the novel that were hard to get through; however,  those very parts of the novel led to brilliant conversation that I know I was challenged by. Although I thoroughly enjoyed our discussion, I'm not sure if I would recommend this book to others. You can be the judge. 

And for next month we will be discussing:  

I can't wait!

Now that Adam and I are both in book clubs (Adam's is a bit more manly. He likes to call his a bible study where they read books:), I consider our family pretty well-rounded. Now only if we could get Jackson in a book group....

only kidding...sort of :)

Go read! Be blessed!