Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Knoxville Moms Blog

Hey guys! Just a quick post to let you know I am now a contributor over at Knoxville Moms Blog - a fantastic group of local moms. You can get tons of great info about Knoxville, and also read very honest, gritty, helpful, and funny posts that cover any and everything about being a mom, wife, woman.  The list goes on! I have written two posts so far, one about Colon Cancer Awareness that you can read here Let's Talk About Poop, Baby! And be sure the catch this one, For the Love of Soup! for three of my favorite soup recipes! Fall is the season for hearty soups, and I picked three delicious and easy ones for my first recipe post.  Enjoy!

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Changes


Sorry to be so quiet for 7+ months. Just busy, mostly with good things! I have been working hard to grow my Young Living Essential Oils business, and it is growing, albeit slowly. But I am in love with Young Living and all of their products, not just essential oils.  Young Living has truly changed how I do everything in my home daily. From cleaning products to essential oils, and even nutrition, I just love all of their products. This is a company I trust with my family, and I love the way they do everything!

Billie will be starting high school in just a few short weeks! Talk about change! I can't believe my baby is going to high school! We have been house hunting since May and I will share some info on that as soon as I can, so hopefully in the fall I will have news to share with you about that. But you can be in prayer for us in the mean time, because we are looking at lots of change within our family, and some of it is going to be painful. I always think I like change, until it is upon me, and then I realize I actually hate change. But to live is to change, and I don't want to remain stagnant in my spiritual life, my family life, my work life, and even my home life. So change it is! Change is good. I will just keep saying that until I believe it.

Harper is doing well, too. She is as stubborn as they come, and is fighting me tooth and nail on the potty training front.  I am pretty sure I will give up before she does, so pray for me that I don't.  I won't go into details so as not to embarrass her later in life, we all know what we put on the Internet is there to stay until the end of time. I will just say she is all on board for number one, but number two is a bear of struggle.  If she doesn't get on board with this before the school year starts she will not be going to preschool. Now, I will home school her so she will not get behind her peers as far as that goes, but the real problem is that she will not be interacting with her peers. I am just afraid she will fall further behind, because we got to see how great she did being in preschool just one day last year. She was actually in a room down from her age, because she wasn't potty trained, but we can't do that this year because her room down from her age also has to be potty trained now. There's no way she can go two rooms down, even though size wise she fits it, her verbal skills are just amazing now so it just wouldn't work. She is still tiny, 35 inches tall and 23 pounds! But she is growing; she grew about half an inch since April-I'll take it! I will take all your prayers where this is concerned; I am at a loss except for prayer. Really, I have tried EVERYTHING. My next stop will be at the gastroenterologist to see if there is something medically wrong that is preventing her from getting past this milestone. Her pediatrician says to not worry about it, she will not go to kindergarten in diapers, but I am starting to wonder!

You all know how much I hate July. I still hate July. Today is the anniversary of Michael's death- 11 years it has been.  My father-in-law put it perfectly today saying, "In some ways it seems like forever ago. And in some ways it seems like yesterday." On one hand, my heart still just aches from the loss. But on the other hand, I am so blessed and so loved by so many and Billie and I are thriving-living. Only the good die young-there might be nothing more true. Angelique sent me this picture today to help lighten the mood. It sure did.

The boys’ birthday was last week; they would be 7. I feel their loss every day, too. This year I didn't make a dinner, or bake a cake, or even go to the cemetery. I just couldn't. But I still got a blessing and felt close to them through Billie and Harper.  Harper is very afraid of storms, and I was busy working in the house and Billie and Harper were hanging out. It was storming. Billie told her that storms are just God bowling with Joshua and Caleb, unbeknownst to me, and Harper came into the kitchen and said to me "Momma, do you know what funder is? It's Joshua and Caleb bowling in heaven." Precious. I really have the two best daughters in the world.

That's just a quick update, and I feel a little better just getting my hurts out instead of

Thursday, January 8, 2015

2015 Goals

I have been thinking (and praying) of my goals for this year for about three months, and I am still struggling to come up with good ones- ridiculous! I can, of course, rattle off the same things everyone always wants to change, but I don't want this to be resolutions that start off strong and fizzle out.  I want to set goals and achieve them and then make new goals to strive for. I want to change me, change my family, change my relationships, serve the Lord, and serve His people.  I want to grow stronger in my faith, stronger in my good habits. I want to make a difference in my life and those around me. I want to make a difference to someone who needs it- maybe someone I have never even met before. I want to discover my God-given gifts and use them to serve my church, my family, my friends, my community. I want to strengthen those gifts I have already discovered and put them to better use, too. I want my businesses to grow and be successful. I want to be organized in my personal daily life, and I want to carry that through into my home. I want to clean up my habits and lead a healthier daily life, physically and emotionally. I want to discover the Lord's will for my life, and His word for my heart. I want to write daily and make writing a habit, practicing and strengthening my craft. I don't want much, right? Most of these things mean I have some work to do. I have some real work to do. I am up for it, it is time to roll up my sleeves, make some lists, some plans, and put it all into action daily. As my dear cousin Greg says, "Plan your work, and work your plan." I am hoping to get my list finished this week and I will post it here for you all to see-and I hope comment on.  I am open to your advise and I love your support, love, and prayers. I love sharing with you, thank you for letting me continue this with you.

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Happy New Year

Happy New Year from the Rosecrances! We have had a wonderful holiday season! We went to Snowshoe, WV for a 10 day ski trip through Christmas and New Year's! It was truly the best vacation we have ever had.  Harper Grace learned to SKI!! For real, with her daddy's help, but she loves it.  I think she is only in it for the trail lift ride back up, and the M&M she gets at the bottom of the slope! HA! Whatever works, right? Now if we could just figure out how to translate that into potty training.  She can ski before she is potty trained, that is terrible.  I know she is perfectly capable of using the potty, she just likes to be in control of EVERYTHING! So I try not to push her, and just ask her daily if she would like to use the potty. The answer is always "NO!" but maybe one day she will change her mind and her answer.  I can hope, right? So here are a few pictures from our trip:









I thought I would share a little article I was asked to write for the church news letter this month (two birds/one stone): 

A Challenge That Will Give You Life
By: Crystal Rosecrance



January is a great time to set goals (ahem...resolutions) and reconnect our mind, body, and spirit to God. I have always enjoyed reading, but I have struggled with actually reading the Bible. I’ve struggled with my prayer life, too, for various reasons, but today I am concentrating on Scripture. I am no expert-wait; maybe I am an expert in trying and failing. We all fall short of the Glory of God, and I am no exception. But I have a deep desire to learn the promises of God and to let His will shape and mold my life every day. I know that being in Scripture daily
is the best way to walk closely with the Lord, but keeping that up is often hard for me to do.I try to set aside time every day to read scripture, pray, and commit my
day to walking with the Lord. Year after year I have set goals to read my
Bible every day, or read through the Bible in a year. The goals change but
the end result has always been the same: I do it for days weeks or even
months only to stop and become disappointed with myself. I usually
pick it back up at some point and the cycle repeats.

Early in 2014, I stumbled on a wonderful idea. It was a 30-day challenge.
It went something like this: pick something that you are putting before
God that is hindering your relationship with Him, instead of doing that
thing, pick up your Bible or pray. So for me that thing was social media. I
found myself with my phone in my hand all of the time, and I would open
up Facebook or Instagram almost like second nature, scroll through any
new updates, and then click off. I don’t know how many times a day I did
this, but it was a lot and I knew I had to make some changes. I decided
that when I found myself wanting to peek at social media, I would
instead use that few minutes to read through some of the Old Testament
books that I usually find boring. I finished Job in 2 days. Shameful, I know,
but eye opening and I was so blessed by this experience. On that first
30-day challenge, I managed to read through several books in the Old
Testament, and to my surprise, I found myself looking forward to my
Bible time and my prayer time. By the end of the 30 days, I would reach
for my Bible instead of my phone and I was learning so much about God,
His word, and myself.

Since that first challenge, I have found other challenges to do. Some from
other sources, some I made up for myself, but each were great to hold
me accountable and get me into some wonderful habits that I know I
will be able to continue going forward. All I really did was trade one habit
for another. January is a great time to start. Just take it 30 days at a time
and let a bad habit remind you to reconnect with God.


I am working on my New Year's Goals and I will share them with you later this month along with a report on how I did on last year's goals!  Happy New Year to you all!