2011 September — Discovering Jubilee

Weekly Spending Days

September 30, 2011 By JulieBastuk Leave a Comment

I was doing my weekly blog hopping the other day when I stumbled upon a post that really grabbed my interest. Missy, from Graceful Little Honeybee wrote a post on taking a spending fast. Her goal was to get her spending priorities back on track by going on a four day spending fast. It seemed like a great idea to me, but I’m thinking about taking it one step further.

I’m certainly not a shopaholic, but I am a sucker for advertising. I’m one of those people who goes into a store intending to buy one thing, but I tend to veer off course when I see my favorite colors, or things that promise to make housekeeping easier, or books….BOOKS…they are my downfall! And then there are the frivolous spends, like that cup of coffee to caffeinate me while I’m running errands, or the snack I pick up for the boys to tide them over for a little longer….

All these little purchases add up quickly, and before I know it, I’ve shot my budget on non-essentials.

So, I’ve decided to try and limit my spending each week to certain days. I think it will force me to plan better and curb those passing cravings for things. Monday through Thursday are days for housework, hanging at home with the boys, and a few other things that really don’t require any money. My goal is to avoid spending any money on those four days as much as possible, and plan ahead so that the bulk of my spending occurs on Friday through Sunday. I’ll have to reject the temptation to buy pizza for dinner during the week, or run those errands that aren’t really necessary but get me out of the house for a bit (and money still seems to get spent).

Another perk to limiting my spending to three days is it will make uploading receipts and purchase amounts into my mobile/web budget tracker much easier. I’ll have more expenses to upload at once, rather than multiple spread out over the week that I’ll most likely forget to take care of. Hopefully, it will help me keep closer tabs on how much we’ve spent and where our money is going.

So, we’ll see how it goes, and I’ll update in a month with an estimate of how much money was saved each week by clumping up my spending into three days.

Have you ever tried a spending fast? How did it go?

Seeking to fully live,

Filed Under: Homemaking, Uncategorized Tagged With: budget, money

The Small Little Ways Motherhood Has Changed Me

September 28, 2011 By JulieBastuk 2 Comments

1. When taking phone messages I am much more likely to use a crayon than a pen.

2. Pee and poop are daily topics of conversation in my house.

3. These days, when a song gets stuck in my head, it’s usually from The Wiggles or Bob the Builder.

4. I use baby wipes to clean everything, mainly because I have a pack of them from Sam’s Club in every room of my house from chasing toddlers around to change diapers.

5. I’ve got amazing strength in my arms, from frequently carrying two kids up the stairs at the same time.

6. I’ve got amazing strength in my legs from just chasing kids up and down the stairs so many times a day.

7. I never buy any article of clothing (except for jeans) that is over $20 because it’ll have spaghetti sauce or spit up on it by the end of the day.

8. I actually enjoy driving a minivan…it’s just so much easier to cram diaper bags and strollers for three kids into it than the CRV I used to have.

9. Some how the five second rule for food has become a five minute rule.

10. I have deep discussions with my oldest son about things he asks, like whether or not God is sitting on the piece of cheese on the table.

11. I’ve gotten used to my car frequently reeking because of someone dropping their sippy cup and me not being able to find it.

12. I’ve learned that one doesn’t really need much space to sleep. It is actually possible to fit two adults and three little guys in a queen sized bed.

13. I’ve become an extreme multi-tasker. If I hadn’t, with three little boys, nothing around the house would ever get done.

14. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that my life and house will never be calm and quiet again, at least not until I’m an empty nester.

15. Sometimes I think that going back to work would be a vacation.

16. I’m forced to lean on God SO much more! Kids don’t come with instruction manuals and for some reason God didn’t find it necessary to have us fill out a resume to determine if we’d at least cared for a gerbil sometime in our pre-parenting life. Without him being so willing to guide and teach, I’d be dazed and confused for sure!

17. Finally, by being a mom I’ve learned how much I love it. During my college years and shortly thereafter, I didn’t have a burning desire to have kids, but now I know that I was being stupid and being a mom is the greatest thing ever.

Seeking to fully live,

I’m participating in:

Filed Under: Homemaking, Parenting Tagged With: motherhood

Embraceable You

September 26, 2011 By JulieBastuk 2 Comments

A friend of mine recently had to fill out some paperwork for a new job. She encountered the following question:

“Which gender do you most closely identify with?” The obvious choices of Male and Female were offered to her, along with the option of “Other”.

Needless to say, we got a good laugh out of this question….only in modern America.

Once I stopped chuckling, I began to reflect on the underlying causes for inserting a question like this. In reality, the issue of gender identification isn’t funny, it very often is rather tragic.

We are each created in the image of God, having been planned for lovingly, wonderfully formed, with great purpose set before each of us. But instead of hearing the tender whispers of our Father, we hear the brutal lies of Satan encouraging us, daring us to reject our authentic selves….to blame God for perceived imperfections….to believe at our core that who we are is inherently flawed.

We can be cruel to those who want to change gender, to finally feel comfortable in their skin. Still, don’t we strive to change so many things about ourselves, subtle or obvious, so that we can “fit in”, feel less alone, be accepted, or try and cover up the shame and scars that cripple us emotionally?

I’ve been guilty of this for sure.

I’ve accused God of making me wrong…..why do I have a ginormous mole on my face? have nystagmus, making my eyes wiggle incessantly which has caused me so much grief as a child? allow me to suffer desperately from depression and terrifying panic attacks?

I’ve believed the lies of Satan…..Julie is inherently worthless…..Julie must prove herself constantly in order to be loved….Julie is insignificant and expendable…..abuse and pain Julie suffered will define her for the rest of her life.

I’ve tried to change and be what I thought others would want, I’ve hidden behind facades, I’ve been inauthentic, I’ve retreated out of fear, I’ve lashed out in hurt…..I’ve done it all.

But despite it all grace broke in. The same grace followers of Jesus should constantly be extending outwardly to others. Jesus tore away my false self, exposed Satan’s lies, took on my shame, and is loving away all of my fear.

Jesus has validated who I am…my gender, my personality, my looks, my desires….it was all given to me with a purpose, just as he has made everyone else completely on purpose and with delight.

He showed me that I am beautiful in his eyes….never alone…..non-expendable….significant….loved…..embraceable.

And so are YOU.

Embrace YOURSELF!

Filed Under: Christian Living, Depression/Anxiety Tagged With: grace, shame

Life is For Living Now

September 20, 2011 By JulieBastuk 1 Comment

A family member of mine, bless her heart, (you can say anything about a person as long as you add “bless your heart” – just kidding) has a thing with her fine china and silver that drives me absolutely nuts. I’ve hardly seen the china except for at Thanksgiving, and the silver has only come out occasionally to be polished. The reason? She wants to save all of the good stuff for when she lives in a nicer house and is able to entertain more.

Now, 33 years after her wedding, the good stuff is still packed away, waiting to be used.

I’ve never understood this way of thinking. Why can’t you use the dishes any time you want? Why do the circumstances have to be right for the elegance to appear?

I have also known people who own multiple cars. There is the clunker that they drive everyday, and the new one sitting virtually untouched in the garage and is only pulled out when the clunker finally dies. This again makes no sense to me. Why buy a new car just to let it sit and be in less than optimal shape when you finally start driving it?

OK, OK, there is a point to my rambling. In truth, I have my own areas where I put off things to the future that I could totally be doing now. But what seriously concerns me is the spiritual procrastination and cynicism that pervades Christendom. I know so many people who really seem to believe that Christianity is about getting saved and then just hanging on until Jesus returns or until they get to heaven. If they can just make it in, then they’ll have eternal life, abundant life.

Jesus came so that we could have real, abundant, joyful life NOW. He doesn’t want us to settle for being broken down, helpless, pessimistic, victimized people until we die, or hermits and stoics who separate themselves or their emotions from people to avoid encountering more pain. Just like with the china and silver, why should we save God’s wedding presents to us until we get to heaven? Why should we not take part in our inheritance and the benefits of being his children until years down the road when they are free for the taking now?

If we are indeed seated with Christ in the heavenlies, as Ephesians so wonderfully tells us, then why don’t we take hold of all that is given us with reckless abandonment, with joy and gratitude, and enjoy those things? Why do we insist on trying to work out our problems on our own for a while and then in desperation go to God when we could have saved ourselves so much stress?

Because our future as followers of Jesus is set, and because of our great blessings and the promises of God, I say we should pursue the most joy we can everyday. Obviously I’m not talking about hedonistic pursuits, but chasing after God to grab onto the goodness of Him and the goodness of his gifts. Pull out the china and celebrate life today, not years from now! Enjoy the blessings of that car that God gave us, and trust that if it poots out, he’ll provide us with another means of transportation. Play with the kids today, you’ll have more than enough years as an empty nester to clean the house. Hand God your worries and problems TODAY and don’t procrastinate going to him…tomorrow will have more than enough troubles of it’s own in the unlikely case that God doesn’t come through for you and you want to resort to worrying and stressing. Claim your blessings as a child of God TODAY and aim to live a victorious life NOW no matter what Satan throws at you.

In some cases, it appears Satan is winning. Loved ones submit to cancer, jobs are lost, babies die, depression and anxiety seem to strangle and cripple hearts. Some people seem to lose everything. But, in the end, everything is not lost, because Satan can’t take Jesus away from us. Jesus alone is our security, the source of peace, our comfort, our promise that all will be made right, our joy. Jesus alone is REAL LIFE.

Seeking to fully live,

I’m participating in:

Filed Under: Christian Living, Healthy Living Tagged With: life

If There Wasn’t a “Me”

September 19, 2011 By JulieBastuk Leave a Comment

When I was little, I used to get seriously exasperated that I wouldn’t get to view my own funeral. Yes, I know that sounds a little warped, but it’s true! I hated the idea that when I died, I wouldn’t get a glimpse of any of it.

What was my need to see my own farewell? I think people’s first guess would be that I wanted to see how popular I was and hear people sing my praises, but I realized recently that stroking my ego wasn’t what I was really seeking.

As a little girl, and now as a grown up girl, I need to know I matter. I don’t like the feeling of being expendable, or just being decoration on God’s wall of creations. Deep down, I desperately want to know I serve a purpose. Especially when living in the relatively obscure life of a stay at home mom, its easy to listen to the lies whispered in my ear by Satan, telling me that I’m forgotten by the world, am hardly a contributing member of society, and am serving no great purpose. Of course, I know in my head that I am raising my children to become disciples of Jesus and am seeking to be a helper for my husband, but on a heart level, I am not so easily convinced.

God has been speaking to me on this subject as of late, and it has really been making all the difference. He’s been healing the torn places of my heart with the salve of Psalm 139, a psalm I’ve read numerous times, but never drank deeply of:

1 You have searched me, LORD,

and you know me.

2 You know when I sit and when I rise;

you perceive my thoughts from afar.

3 You discern my going out and my lying down;

you are familiar with all my ways.

4 Before a word is on my tongue

you, LORD, know it completely.

5 You hem me in behind and before,

and you lay your hand upon me.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,

too lofty for me to attain.

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

if I settle on the far side of the sea,

10 even there your hand will guide me,

your right hand will hold me fast.

11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me

and the light become night around me,”

12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;

the night will shine like the day,

for darkness is as light to you.

13 For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful,

I know that full well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you

when I was made in the secret place,

when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;

all the days ordained for me were written in your book

before one of them came to be.

17 How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!

How vast is the sum of them!

18 Were I to count them,

they would outnumber the grains of sand—

when I awake, I am still with you.

19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked!

Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!

20 They speak of you with evil intent;

your adversaries misuse your name.

21 Do I not hate those who hate you, LORD,

and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?

22 I have nothing but hatred for them;

I count them my enemies.

23 Search me, God, and know my heart;

test me and know my anxious thoughts.

24 See if there is any offensive way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.

God ordained all of my days before they came to be. That verse itself implies I must have a unique purpose, otherwise, why would he go to all the trouble of picking the number of days I’ll be alive. Whey did he go to the trouble of making me a Melancholy/Sanguine, a XNFJ on Myers-Briggs, allow me to be broken in specific ways and then cause me to “coincidentally” encounter numerous people who were broken in the exact same ways and didn’t know Him personally….if he didn’t have a purpose for my life?

“The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever.”

Maybe this is my ultimate purpose. Maybe I glorify God through enjoying him in unique ways that others don’t, or in such a combination of ways that are unique to me. So, for weird example purposes:

Maybe if there wasn’t a me: there wouldn’t be a “Texas raised girl who loves cows, nature, the color red, Muslims, Africa, reading and writing, Vermont, coffee, tickling her little boys, quilting, chemistry, and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese” girl out there, and things just wouldn’t be OK without that one person worshipping and enjoying him.

I think I like looking at it that way. And fortunately, God’s healed me of my neurotic obsession with my funeral. I’m thinking that when I get to be with Jesus I’ll be so thrilled that it will be a while before I realized that I died, and the funeral would have been long over and down with anyways.

Seeking to fully live,

Filed Under: Christian Living, Depression/Anxiety, Uncategorized Tagged With: death, purpose

Baby Steps Lead to Big Changes

September 15, 2011 By JulieBastuk Leave a Comment

I did it! Today I threw out the last of my yucky, toxic, environmentally unfriendly household cleaners.

I was hanging on to the last of them, feeling bad that I was tossing out half full bottles, but they’ve been sitting unused for the past several months. (They will soon be deposited at the appropriate recycling center). The cleaning agents of choice in my home now? Baking soda, vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, castille soap, and essential oils. It is an amazing feeling to know that if for some reason one of my kids gets ahold of a cleaner, I’m not going to have to run for the poison control phone number. The worst thing that could happen would be a bit of a belly ache. Other benefits? The lack of nose and eye burning chemicals is huge, and my kids can help me clean, which they love to do.

I’ve been taking baby steps over the last six months or so to revamp the way my household runs. While not every household product we use is homemade, they are at least environmentally friendly and not tested on animals. I’ve gotten my husband to start using castille soap instead of ordinary bath soap, the kids and I have switched over to natural toothpastes, I either use homemade or natural/environmentally friendly deodorant, dishwasher soap, dish soap, and laundry detergent.

Beyond the changes in products, I’ve finally started making the effort to recycle, and am kicking myself on not doing it before. What I thought was going to take alot of effort has been surprisingly easy, especially with curb side recycling and nearby recycling bins for items the curbside trash carriers don’t pick up. Once I did a little reading and just started paying more attention, I realized that there is really no excuse for not trying to recycle at least a little bit. The city infrastructure just makes it too easy for us.

My last baby step has been to focus on feeding my family more whole foods. Since my husband and I got married, we have eaten pretty healthy and have limited our packaged foods. However, over the last year we have made an even greater effort to make the majority of our foods from scratch, by local and organic when we can, and stop buying lab modified foods. ( I love this because it gives me a great reason to eat real butter again!)

Each of these changes may seem small on their own, but the bulk of them together has made a dramatic impact on our lives. We’ve learned to pay much more attention to what we bring into our lives, to question the value of what we purchase, the quality of the food and products we use. This would be important if it were just my husband and me, but the births of our three boys have introduced a great sense of responsibility in our minds. We don’t want to blindly raise our children, not being careful to evaluate what we put before them.

The greatest benefit of all the changes we’ve been making is the focus on simplicity in life, looking at what’s important and what is trivial, actively pursuing health instead of just hoping for it.

If you’re interested in making some changes in your household, may I suggest the following titles?

Seeking to live fully,

Filed Under: Healthy Living, Homemaking Tagged With: green living, homemaking

A Practical Reason for Submission

September 13, 2011 By JulieBastuk 2 Comments

Ephesians 5:22-33

New International Version (NIV)

²² Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. ²³ For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. ²⁴Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

Submission. I’ve had a tough time with this one. In fact, while I’ve often read this verse, the idea that it still applies to wives today and is not simply and archaic relic of Pauline theology is relatively new to me. I rarely saw true submission practiced while growing up, and the majority of the women in my life rejected this notion in practice, I assume because they believed that by submitting to their husbands they were opening themselves up to being taken advantage of and being walked upon.

I don’t like to submit, especiallywhen I’m in disagreement withy my husband. As of late, I’ve been learning just how deeply my need for control runs. Fortunately, I am also discovering the reasons behind the control freak in me and am taking steps to hand this area of my life over to Jesus.

Despite my resistance to it, I have become wholeheartedly convinced that the idea of submission is still very much a biblical concept, and is absolutely necessary for a Christ-like marriage, a healthy church, and for individuals to grow in Christ. I won’t go into details of how I reached these conclusions right now, but I want to offer up a very practical reason for submission that has encouraged my resolve to learn how to submit even more to my own husband.

Our Children.

It is quite obvious when raising children that one begins to see their children mirroring their behavior. Grown children tend towards parenting as they themselves were parented. Our parents are our primary role models that influence how we live our lives. The same is true of submission.

If my children never learn to submit to any kind of authority growing up, how will they submit to authority when they are grown? Their bosses? The law? God?

My submitting to my husband, deferring control and my “rights” at times, is crucial in providing a tangible picture for my kids of what it looks like to submit in a gracious way to authority, and trust God to take care of us through every circumstance. If I buck up and balk against everything my husband says, simply because I can, and show him disrespect as the leader of our family, won’t that be an encouragement for my children to do the same when they are confronted by an authority figure? Won’t that teach my children to in the same way disrespect their father?

I’m jealous for the hearts of my little ones…I want them to know God and his ways, and to be able to engage in life the way they were created to be. This is all the more motivation for me to watch myself, and evalute how I am presenting myself to them on a daily basis. Because I want them to be able to submit to authority joyfully, especially that of God, I am compelled to get past mydiscomfort and fears, and better learn to follow Christ in my own submission to my husband.

And I can use all the prayer I can get for it! :)

Seeking to fully live,

I’m participating in:

Filed Under: Marriage, Parenting Tagged With: Children, submission

A Few Thoughts on “Going Green”

September 9, 2011 By JulieBastuk Leave a Comment

During the last few months I’ve climbed on the “living natural, going green, frugal living, etc.) bandwagon. Or, as my husband calls it, “crunchy granola, and just shy of tree hugging.”

I really never saw myself ever going down this road, but then again, I had never envisioned myself as a homeschooling, stay-at-home mom either. Funny what happens when you say you’re never going to do something.

Despite being teased by my husband and others for my new found appreciation for things like vinegar and baking soda, I’m having a lot of fun turning my house upside down, figuratively speaking, in an effort to clean it with safer products, serve my family whole foods, and care for my body with products made out of natural, non-lab modified products. And, there’s a plethora of great blogs out there to feed my new obsession.

However, the more I delve into this new kind of doing things, the more I’m aware of a deep seated problem that pervades every area of living “wholly” and “naturally.” It is easy to swing to extremes in the attempt to live as safely as possible, and leave as small of a carbon footprint as possible, but in the end, our world is broken, fallen, depraved. No matter how carefully we live, or how diligent we are in what we purchase, the ultimate problems in the world are not going to be fixed.

One current issue that has been of interest to me of late is that of natural gas drilling. The process, called frac-ing, uses water to bring up natural gas from deep below the surface of the earth. There are plenty of people who don’t like this method, claiming that the process pollutes water and can cause health issues, so they attempt to block the drilling. But, in situations like this, what alternative do we have? Which is better? To potentially pollute water, or to have coal miners die of black lung or mine cave-ins? Which is better, to have unsightly oil rigs spotting the horizon, or to have windmill farms that possibly create hearing issues with local residents? Which is worse, to have oil rigs in the ocean that can potentially leak massive amounts of oil, or move people out of their homes in order to flood an area, and create a reservoir for hydropower?

There’s no one good solution to these problems. The same goes with products that we use everyday. We hate those non-biodegradable, non-recyclable plastics, but the development of those very materials coincided with the production of better prosthetic limbs, various implants, safer cars, and so many of the other things that make our lives more convenient today.

Ultimately, I’ve concluded that while I need to be extremely cautious about the products that come into contact with my family, and I need to work to conserve energy, recycle, and protect the environment, there is no perfect way of living. Everything in the world is subject to futility, and only when Jesus comes again will everything be made right. Green living is good, but building relationships with people and helping to usher in God’s kingdom are of infinite value. This world will one day be gone with all of its problems, but people will remain. They are eternal.

Filed Under: Healthy Living, World Events Tagged With: green living

When You Just Need to Laugh…and Consider

September 7, 2011 By JulieBastuk Leave a Comment

The funny thing about people is that we can take ideas that we like and fads to crazy extremes, and Christians are no exceptions. I freely admit that I am prone to do this. We take good ideas and tradition, and turn them into gospel, we can overdo some good ideas so much that they no longer have any real purpose behind them, and lots of times we do things for so long that we don’t stop and think how we may look to the world.

It’s good to take a moment and look back out ourselves and our actions, programs, etc., and contemplate whether or not our “stuff” is really meaningful or not. Today I just had to list a bunch of parodies of Christian and church activities created by Christians and non Christians alike. By recognizing the above mentioned tendency of people, it’s easy to laugh at these and ourselves, but maybe also consider if they point out elements in Western Christendom that perhaps should be reevaluated.

*So, if you need a good laugh, enjoy….and please don’t be offended by my post. I obviously have my own worship and church style preferences, but recognize that those of others are equally valid.

The Porpoise Driven Life