Family Vacation 2015 ~ Seaside, FL

Two weeks ago, we made the long drive to Seaside, FL with some of our family. There ended up being 22 people there, spread out over 4 condos (ours was a teeny tiny one..more on this later). It took us around 16 hours each way, with lots of bathroom breaks, gas stations, snacks, movies and sleeping, but we made it! We drove our Tahoe and fit 7 people in it including 1 carseat and 1 booster seat, a full size icechest, luggage for all of us, pillows, stuffed animals, cameras, purses, hats, a diaper bag. Needless to say, we were scrunched in there like sardines!

Last year, we stayed in a 3 story condo on the beach, with plenty of space for all of us to spread out and have some alone time if we wanted. This year, well let's say, we had some quality bonding time. I booked our place and found that across the street we could stay for a third of the price as last year, and since there were 3 less people staying with us, I figured it was a no-brainer. We walked into a 1 room studio with a pull-out couch, a murphy bed and 2 kid size bunk beds. OH and the best part..1 bathroom for 7 people! We had to take shifts on taking showers, getting ready, even going the bathroom in the middle of the night.

BUT, these things make the BEST memories!!! I left there after our 7 days so relaxed and feeling more blessed than ever that God gave me such an amazing family. We got to spend time each day with family that we don't get to see as much as we would like and it was SO nice! I would sleep in a sandy murphy bed every night if it meant that I could walk next door and get icecream, go play in the sand and ocean with them, and beat them at Nerts ;) whenever we wanted.

Addison even got to share a special birthday party with her cousin, Cohen who turned 3 just a few days before Addi turned 9. Since we left on her birthday and we had to postpone her party because of the flooding in OK, we threw a small family party for them and had sloppy joes, cake, cookies and presents!

 

Addison LOVED the ocean! She spent all of her time there either on a raft floating, kyaking with her dad, looking for seashells or just playing in the sand.

 

Teagan took a few days to warm up to the ocean, but loved playing in the sand and of course the pool! She had so much fun with her 2 cousins, Aisling and Cohen, because they are all around the same age and don't get to see eachother that often.

Austin, I was a little concerned about since she was only 6 months old when we came last year, but she took right to it! She would be covered in sand head to toe and still having a great time. She probably ate a pound of sand in a week and it didn't phase her a bit.

Everyone who has taken kiddos to the beach knows that it is not an easy task. Hauling children, towels, sunscreen, snacks, hats, buckets and shovels and every other beach toy imaginable, but through all the work, we had a BLAST! Nothing beats watching your kids having fun and loving life!

Family is EVERYTHING! I pray that I cherish each memory that we make together and spend our time doing things that truly matter. My love for these people is deep!

Kristi

 

 

 

 

Are you living, or just not dying? There is a difference.

Last year before our 16 hour trip to Florida, we invested in a dvd system for my Tahoe and it has been a life-saver. At the time, only 2 of our girls were old enough to need headphones and so we only purchased 2. Now that Austin is old enough to want to watch too, most of the time it gets played through the car so that we ALL get to enjoy it...OH BOY! The movie they have been stuck on lately is The Croods. I have never seen whole movie, but I have got to listen to it several days in a row now. Well this one sentence jumped out at me and I can not seem to shake it. The teenage daughter is talking to her dad and says “That wasn’t living!  That was just …. ‘not dying!’  There’s a difference.”  

Ever since I heard that phrase, it keeps resonating in my spirit. Am I living, REALLY LIVING? or am I just not dying?

I feel like I am just not dying.

 I WANT to live, really live, but I'm not. I catch myself living for tomorrow, next week, next year, but not today. I get caught up in the BIG PICTURE of my life that I don't live for what is going on right now.

I am reading the book, Experiencing God by Blackaby/King and it is talking about really living in God's will day by day. All of us ask these questions at some time in our life.. Why am I here? What is your will for my life? Where am I supposed to be? What am I supposed to be doing? But we wait...and wait..and wait..and let each day pass us by waiting to see the big picture. It's like we won't move until we see everything He wants us to do, God doesn't always work like that. So many times in the Bible, all He told His servants was to "Follow me". He didn't give them a map with directions and an itinerary. He simply said Come and they came.

John 14:6 " I am the way, the truth, and the life".

Matthew 6:33-34 " But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness , and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

Sometimes we make things that are so simple, so complicated. To follow God's will for your life, all you have to do is take it one day at a time and listen to His voice. He will never mislead you. He knows where and when and who and why, but He won't always tell you, because then we take things in our hands and screw things up inevitably. Take the story of Abram; all He told him was "Get out of your country.. to a land I will show you". Would you go with that little direction? Or would you wait for months and years until you knew the whole plan before you moved?

God is All-Knowing, we aren't. And thank goodness for that! All He asks us to do is to trust Him and be obedient. He will take care of the rest if we let Him.

Philippians 2:13 "It is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure".

This is my new daily prayer: Lord, I will do anything hat your kingdom requires of me. Wherever you want me to be, I'll go. Whatever the circumstances, I'm willing to follow. If you want to meet a need through my life, I am your servant; and I will do whatever is required.

God Bless,
Kristi

2015 ~ The best is yet to come!

I love everything about coming into a new year! It's the feeling of getting to start over, try again, creating a new story despite the past year. I love making new years resolutions for me and for the first time this year - for my family. I don't make them too hard, but I do try and be specific, so that we can truly measure when we accomplish our goal.

My resolutions this year:

1. Get fit!

2. Speak declarations over my family daily.

3. Put down my phone when I'm around people. Be intentional in my presence.

4. Send notes of encouragement to people.

 My sister talked about making goals a few years ago and one thing she said has always stuck with me. She said "A goal without a plan is just a dream". This hit me deep. So many times we make a goal: to read my bible through in a year, to lose 10lbs, to have a better relationship with my spouse, but we never make a plan to accomplish this goal, so it just becomes a dream, a distant dream. Make a plan to accomplish the things you have set out to do in 2015. If you want to read the bible through, then you need to determine how many chapters you need to read a day to accomplish this goal and stick with it. If you want to lose 10lbs, then you need to have a workout routine that you can stick with and hold yourself accountable. Make a plan and make your goals a vision instead of a dream!

My tribe has made a few for us a whole:

1. Be on time

2. Pray together more

3. Have people in our house once a month

4. Spend more quality time with loved ones.

In order for us to accomplish these, we have to plan. Being on time does not come easy to me, especially when I have 3 girlies to get ready as well as myself. All of my goals have to be planned out and I have to be intentional in everything I do. I hope that with this new year, you will make a plan to accomplish everything you have set in your mind and heart to get done this year. Live it one day at a time...live intentionally in everything you do and have your end goal in mind. I pray that as you end 2015, you can look back and be fulfilled with how you lived this year.

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." ~ Philippians 4:13

Love and prayers, 

Kristi 

Family Update!

We decided it was time to take family pictures since adding our third daughter, Austin Jentry last November (I am horrible about taking pictures of our family). This is our complete family, yes we are done and not trying for a boy! Leith is determined we would end up with twin girls, so he said 3 is enough :)

Addison, 8, is in 3rd grade this year and just got accepted into the GT (Gifted and Talented Program). We are SO proud of her! She was referred last year as well, but didn't make it; they have to score a 97% or higher to be accepted. She also brought home a letter yesterday that she was asked to be a part of the Honor Choir (which she had to try out for). She is a ROCKSTAR!! Along with being amazing at school, she is also doing tumbling exclusively this year at Oklahoma Twisters, playing fall ball (machine pitch) on Monday & Tuesday nights, playing basketball, and trying volleyball for the first time! She definitely keeps us busy! She has a heart as BIG as can be and loves people, especially kids and the kids flock to her! She already has told us she wants to be a Labor & Delivery Nurse when she grows up!

Teagan, 3 1/2, is our HAM! While watching The Voice last night, I looked at Leith and said Teagan will be on tv one day and we will have to send them all of our videos of her singing and dancing on stage, in our living room, in the car and every where else she performs, so they can play them and say she has been doing this for as long as she has been alive! I'm not sure what God has in store for this little fire ball of ours, but I know it is BIG! As well as being outgoing, spirited, and creative, she also has a heart of gold and a sweet, sweet, spirit! She is our prayer warrior and prays all the time! We are teaching them the 10 commandments song and will have a video up soon!

Austin, 10 months, is going to be an ornery little thang! She has started a new screaming thing where she yells when she doesn't get her way. She also started arching her back when we try and put her in her carseat....it is great :) She is also so independent and has exceeded all the milestones earlier than the other 2. I am so excited to start seeing more and more of her personality shine through and learn who she is and what she is all about!

God has blessed Leith and I abundantly with 3 amazingly smart, beautiful, talented, well-behaved daughters and we couldn't be more proud of them! We try our best every day to raise them to love God, themselves, and His people! What an honor to be able to raise these 3 little girls; we enjoy every day together!

Be blessed,
Kristi

I am imperfectly perfect!

Sometimes you just need to write your feelings out, to get them off your chest, out in the open. It is such a freeing feeling. I always feel a release after I put pen to paper, or in this case my fingers to the keyboard. I have been dealing with lots of feelings/thoughts/emotions lately that I can't express to anyone except my hubby, but sometimes he gets tired of me talking :) (he has never told me that but I can see it in his eyes). Where to start???

About a year ago I had a few people (close to me) tell me things about me that were hurtful, cutting deep into my spirit. These were things about my personality, the person that I am and the way that God made me. I was broken after this. I didn't know how to deal with people telling me I was an awful person straight to my face. I cried, I spoke back, I moved on, but the hurt is still there sometimes (tears flow as I remember). I put walls up. I shut down. I didn't talk to them or around them anymore. I wasn't sure who they wanted me to be and didn't feel like I could be myself. This is not the first time this has happened. Almost every job I've ever had, I've had someone tell me that I am difficult to work with, I have a bad personality, I'm not friendly, etc. I always thought they were crazy until this last time, then I realized that the common denominator in all these occurrences is ME! What do I do with this?? I can't change who I am. I don't want to. But I do want to be able to get along with people, have friends, etc.

I admit, I am not perfect. I never have been and I never will be. But I am ME! I like me and there are a few other people that do to. And being a people pleaser is not easy when it comes to a situation like this...I can't make everyone like me, it is IMPOSSIBLE and very time consuming, so I guess I will do me and whoever can deal with me, will deal with me. Me and my family seem to always blame it on being a Vanderburg, with our harsh looks, overwhelming sarcasm,  bad sense of humor, etc, but I don't think we are THAT bad. :)

God made me the way I am for a reason. I have a BIG heart and LOVE people. I pray every day that His will is done in my life and I make a difference in someone's life. I might not be the most outgoing person, the friendliest, the one always smiling, but I am REAL. I laugh, I cry, I get mad, I love deeply, but I am never just what someone wants me to be, I am always me.

I pray that you will always be you, no matter what people say. God made you the way you are for a reason and no one should ever make you feel bad about that. We are made in God's image, so to him we are perfect!

Poppyseeds - Meaning behind the name

The name of my store is Poppyseeds. It wasn't one of those things that I always knew what I would name it if and when I finally decided to step out in faith and open it. I had already claimed the name Ties 'n Tutus, but it just didn't sit right with me. I wanted something catchy and something that had meaning. I didn't want to just settle for any old name that I could throw on a business card or make a cute sign out of.

But first a backstory of how the store became...

I had been working for a company for over a year and a half, making better money that I ever have and promoted as far as I could go. I wasn't satisfied. I wasn't happy where I was, I knew there was more. I have always (since college) had an entrepreneur's mindset (I got from my dad..he was the same way) and had thought of 10 businesses I could start/open. The time wasn't right..until now. I started praying about opening a consignment shop (my first real job at of high school) and asked Leith to pray about it also (knowing I couldn't do it without him right by my side). About 3 months later I decided to take the chance. God is a God of taking chances. He is a God of provision and guidance and dreams. He doesn't plant these things inside of us to let them stir up passions and desires, to just let them set and go stale. He put these dreams and visions inside of us to stir us up and allow us to pursue them with everything we have. He made us this way. He wants us to have the desires of our hearts, but he will not make you pursue them. He gives us the tools we need, but we have to take a step of faith and go after them on our own. This was the hardest part putting in my notice and knowing that I wouldn't be receiving a paycheck until who knows when (now going on 6 1/2 months). It's sad that money is usually what holds us back from pursuing our passion, but money makes the world go round and unfortunately it keep people from doing what they really want to do.

So once I took the step of writing my resignation letter, sending it to my boss, the pieces of the puzzle started coming together. I started looking at commercial real estate and found 3 that I set appointments to visit. After drawing out my blue prints of what I wanted it to look like, we walked into the 3rd spot and it was already framed to the almost exact picture I had drawn...amazing! We went home, prayed about it, made offers and counter offers and came to an agreement with the real estate lady and it was settled. Then reality started kicking in...we are really going to do this. Eeeekkk!

To make a long story shorter...everything worked out and I now have a great store that I am very proud of.

The name...so when it became real and I put in my resignation letter, I was standing at church one Sunday morning during worship praying to God about the changes happening, because I knew I couldn't do any of this without Him! All the sudden, Poppyseeds came into my head. I knew it was a God thing, because I have been thinking about a name for awhile and couldn't think of any 1 word name that had a ring to it. This was it! THEN our preacher got up to speak and and talked about my dad (whom my oldest daughter and started calling Poppy a few months before he passed away in 2012) and how he carried money in his wallet to sow into peoples lives that he came in contact with (seed money). HELLO?? God you are so GOOD! You care about even the little things in our hearts and answer with such clarity sometimes! And now that he is no longer with us, me and my family are his seed that he left to carry out our inheritance...to show the love of God in every aspect of our lives.

And this was the beginning of Poppyseeds. I know that my dad is beyond ecstatic to see me fulfilling a dream that he helped me birth a long time ago. And I hope that I bring glory to God while doing it.

Kristi

Since 3 years ago....a lot has changed!

The last time I wrote we only had 1 child, now we have 3! Wow..what have I been doing for the last 3 years? Oh yeah...having babies and raising them! Well I actually stumbled across my blog when I was searching Google for things about our family and this came up and then I remembered that I had created it as one of my New Years resolutions to blog every week. Let's just say....FAIL! And since I only have 3 followers, I'm sure they have been so disappointed in not knowing the every move of the Steely clan. Yes I consider us a clan now that there are 5 of us :)

Let's see, where to begin....Well I am sitting in my own business writing this, so I'll start here. I started a consignment store for children's and maternity clothing here in Norman off of 12th and Lindsey street. I named it Poppyseeds after my dad (i'll blog about that later). I have only been open for 11 days and so far it is going ok. A little slow, but that is to be expected with any new business. I joined the Chamber of Commerce, so we are going to do a Grand Opening on April 16th and have a ribbon cutting ceremony and presentation of my first dollar, cookies, punch and face-painting for the kids, so I am looking forward to that. I already have 26 consignors and about 2200 pieces of inventory. Hoping that I have lots of shoppers to come buy up all of this stuff because I get more in every day.

Leith is still working at Tri-State and has been promoted to an Account Manager. He is still selling, but is also managing people underneath him. He is very busy right now, but also makes time to take customers golfing or out to lunch every now and then. He works up in Edmond, so he has to drive about 45 minutes when he goes to the office, but he has a lot of freedom to work from home or out of his truck also. He is still a volunteer at Cedar Country fire department and has been on 2 fires in the last 2 weeks. It is dry here in OK, so when we have a fire, it likes to spread fast, so they are asking for all firemen that can to respond and of course he loves to go, so he jumps up and rushes out the door at the sound of the alarm.

Addison is 7, will be 8 in May and is attending Hubbard, where her teacher is Mrs. Grayson. She is in class with some of her good friends that she plays basketball and softball with. We just finished our basketball season where they played great! Such a step up from last year. And now we are practicing machine pitch softball 3 days a week. This is new for us since we have only played teeball for 3 years, but the girls are really picking up on it quickly. They can also steal and bunt and Brandon is teaching them signs to know what to do...lots more involved this year then teeball was. She is also still in gymnastics on Friday afternoons and still enjoys it very much. She is so smart (straight A's every year) and loves to learn. She is reading above her grade level and has started chapter books. Learning comes so easy to her and I'm glad because I've been out of school for way too long (15 years), so even the thought of teaching 2nd grade anything scares the water out of me!

Teagan Kate was born in Feb. 2011 and hasn't stopped moving since the day of conception. We tease that she is our boy because of how outgoing and rambunctious she is. She is fearless, tougher than nails and sassy all at the same time. She is definitely our entertainer. I just know she is either going to be a singer, actress or comedian. She loves to get on stage after church, with the microphone and serenade the entire crowd with her versions of anything! We tease that she sings remixes because she likes to combine different songs into one. She is amazing! So smart and fun. She also started gymnastics like big sister and goes on Tues. mornings, she LOVES IT!

Austin Jentry (aka AJ, bug, or poppy pants (that's what Teagan calls her))..our baby! She was born November 30, 2013, which makes her 4 months in 2 days. She is precious, just perfect. She is such a good baby, just like her sisters. She sleeps in her own bed and all night 90 percent of the time. She only cries when she is hungry and thinks her sisters are hysterical! She rolled over from her tummy to her back about a month ago and can stand up when you hold her hangs. We are fixing to start her on rice cereal this week and I am looking forward to trying to make my own baby food this time.

Well I hope you enjoyed catching up with us, all 3 of you. Hopefully I will get better at this since I have free time on my hands now.

Kristi