Adventures of the A-Team: Christmas Kindness in Action

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by Mindi Artherton

Please know I am not shaming or bashing my kids. I am just sharing a little insight and a struggle I have right now. My kids are such a blessing, but I do want them to grow up to be the BEST they can be!

Man! Please tell me I am not the only one that struggles with this. It seems like lately, more than ever, my kiddos have been “huffing and puffing,” stomping their feet and even throw in an occasional eye roll when I ask them to do something they don’t want to do. Or worse, when things aren’t going their way, they give me some major attitude!

Needless to say, this lovely ‘tude is not settling well with me and their dad. However, the reality is, it is partly our fault. We are constantly going out of our way to make sure all is well in their lives. They are OUR LIVES and we want them to be happy and know they are loved more than anything. BUT, more importantly, we want them to be kind and thankful and we want them to grow up to share this love and kindness that Jesus has poured out for them.

So… what do we do? How do we try to stop this little fit throwing (they are 7 and 4) before it becomes too much of a habit for our little ones?

One strategy we are using this holiday season is an advent activity calendar, beginning December 1, that is geared at helping others. We picked up an adorable countdown at Hobby Lobby (half off of course) and plan to start this week.

Here is the list of activities that we plan to use to teach this lesson (we also threw in a little fun as well!):

  • Write a letter to Santa
  • Hold the door open for people all day
  • Family game night
  • Make a bag of candy to donate to the church nursery
  • Do a chore for somebody else
  • Silver Dollar City family date
  • Have a dance party with Christmas music
  • Take $5 of your own money and purchase something for Share your Christmas
  • Watch a Christmas movie together
  • Do a random act of kindness this week! You decide what it will be, do it, then tell us all about it on Wednesday evening.
  • Make a Christmas card for Grandma, Nonnie and Gramps and Mimi and Big Papi
  • Take a donation to the food pantry and ask Janet if you can help her
  • Write a thank you note to your teacher
  • Take a candy cane to everyone in your class
  • Make a Christmas treat and share with a neighbor
  • Try your hardest today at the Christmas program!
  • Mail a Christmas card to a friend or family member
  • Go look at Christmas lights
  • Write Christmas messages on the sidewalk
  • Briley and Rhett sleepover in front of the Christmas tree
  • Do something kind for somebody in your family today. You decide!
  • Call somebody you don’t see very often and wish them a Merry Christmas!
  • Bake cookies and listen to Christmas music
  • Attend the church Christmas Eve service and remember Jesus was born on Christmas day!

I know kids will be kids and we are not going to see a change overnight. Honestly, I know the best thing I can do is pray and set a great example for them, and believe me, I am guilty of having a bad attitude at times too. Hopefully this little activity will help all of us remember to be kind!

 

Adventures of the A-Team: remembering a special dad

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By Kelli Artherton and Mindi Artherton

It has been almost a year. While at times it seems like it is has been a looooong year, on the other hand, we can still remember your goofy jokes like we heard them just yesterday. Now, when we visit your house, we fully expect you to bust through the door any moment covered in swimming pool plaster. It has been nearly a year since our father-in-law went to heaven.

While Robert wasn’t our dad, he was one of the most important men in our lives. He poured his caring heart, sense of humor and work ethic into his sons (and daughters too, but today is all about the men!) and as a result shaped and molded our husbands into fantastic fathers and caring husbands.

No, Robert was not our dad, but he taught us a lot about life. After reflecting on this past year without him, we now know, more than ever, the impact his life had on ours–two of his daughter-in-laws. We learned 5 very important lessons from our full of life, silly, gray-haired, joke tellin’ father-in-law:

5.) Make time for Jesus: While all three of us (Robert, Mindi and Kelli) come from very different religious backgrounds, we could all agree on one very important thing–LOVE JESUS! We did not see eye-to-eye on the details that religion has created, but we can all agree that Jesus is real, He loves us and we need to spend time with Him. Robert loved his church and rarely missed a chance to attend a worship service. That practice is important and Robert set a great example.

4.) Make time to laugh: If you knew our father-in-law or even just ran into him on the street, he was bound to say something to make you laugh. While at the time, we usually reacted to his silliness with a semi-forced laugh and maybe an eye-roll to another family member in the room, his laughter and jolliness was contagious. Even in his final hours when he knew the end was very near, he had the entire family laughing with his remarks and silly facial expressions. Robert taught us life is too short to be serious all the time–laugh–even if it seems ridiculous.

3.) Family is everything: Robert loved his family. His philosophy was the more family the better! While he was surrounded with family most of the time, he always took the time to make each and every person feel welcomed and loved. This was not lost on our kids! Nearly a year later, our young kids are still talking about Grandpa and are excited to see him again in Heaven.

2.) Work hard: Robert loved to work. Well, maybe he didn’t love to work, but he loved to provide for his family. But we think he did like to work too! In fact, he was late to the doctor’s appointment where he was diagnosed with a very rare form of cancer because he was out working. One thing is for sure, the Artherton kids are not afraid to put in a little hard work and that is because of the outstanding example set by their dad.

1.) Be kind to others: Nobody had a heart like Robert. He would give anything and everything he had just to help somebody else. Of course that applied to his family, but he would be happy to give the shirt off his back to a complete stranger. At times, his generosity was hard to understand because not many people are wired that way. But goodness, what a great way to be remembered! They always say you can’t “out give God.” We think Robert was sure trying to!

So this weekend, while everyone is celebrating the men in their lives, we will also be remembering and celebrating Robert. Celebrating a life well lived and thanking God for Robert and the men he has fathered. We were not prepared to miss him as much as we do, but we are grateful that his legacy remains and he has etched many life lessons on our hearts and the hearts of our family.

Adventures of the A-Team: It’s time to move

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By Kelli Artherton

It seems like there has been a lot going on with Mindi and I over the past few years. We each have had our third baby, Mindi built a house, and now I’m making a big move! Whew! Thanks for being on this journey with us.

So as with anything big that happens in our lives we document it here on SWMO Moms. I thought it would be fun to fill you in on our move and the reasoning behind it. Jake, my husband, and I have been tossing the idea of moving around for quite a few years. For those of you that don’t know, Jake works for the railroad and works a lot in Texas. So, the idea of moving to Texas came up in conversation quite often. However, it just never felt 100% right for our family. The plans just never seemed to work out.

Fast forward to the past few years we really put a lot of prayer and thought behind moving. We felt God stirring our hearts to move, but where? We were clueless. We so often looked at homes in our area of Ozark MO, but never found anything that would work for our family. Then we began to pray for God to just lay it on our hearts of where to move, how could we be used to glorify Him and where did He want us to go?

Jake, as some of you know, has a very BIG family. One of his brothers, Jason, has a very successful pool company, Neosho Pool and Spa, that Jake helps out with when he is home from the railroad. (This tidbit of info has a point 😉 ) One day Jake brought up the idea of moving to the Joplin area or even Neosho. I immediately said no, I just don’t think that was the place for us. We left that idea alone for awhile. Jake would casually mention it every so often and I still was not in love with this idea. One day I finally said, ok, lets see if we can even find a house that would work for us. Within minutes of typing Neosho MO into realtor.com We found a home that we fell in love with. It was almost too good to be true. So we went to look at it, and really did love it.

Even though we found a home, I still wasn’t sure this town or move was for us. We love our church, our friends and our life group. Everything is in Ozark that we love. The very next Sunday was Vision Sunday at James River Church and they announced they were planting a new James River Church in Joplin MO. Tears burst from my face. I knew this was an answer from God. I knew in that very moment we needed to move and why we needed to move.

We felt God calling us to move so we can help grow the new James River Church. We heard Him loud and clear and we are putting feet to our faith.

God just didn’t stop with that answer. I still had my own doubts, was this really an answer from God, was it His will for us, or my will? More doors begin to open, which again were more answers from God reassuring us that this move was exactly what we had been praying for. An unexpected, job opened up for me and they were completely willing to wait on us to make the move, even though it would be months before I could start. We got an amazing offer, pretty quickly, on our home that we couldn’t pass up. Our appraisal on the new house came back a lot higher than we bought it for. The blessings just kept pouring out, which was even more confirmation of why we needed to make this move.

It is honestly amazing to see God’s hand on this move. We truly know this is the next step for our family. So it’s goodbye to Ozark, for now, and hello to Neosho Missouri. We have made amazing memories in Ozark, but can’t wait for the new memories in our new home!

I can’t wait to see how God is going to bless the Joplin area with His church. I can’t wait to recruit for Jesus and I can’t wait to see what else He has in store. The best is yet to come!

To find more information about the new Joplin campus click here.

 

Adventures of the A-Team: not so traditional Easter tradition

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easter a team sliderby Mindi Artherton

Several years ago, my mom was faced with a question. A question probably many of you have dealt with or are currently dealing with.

Besides the church service and a big meal, how do I continue to make Easter memories with my grown children?

She tried filling our childhood Easter baskets with our favorite candy and gift cards to our favorite places. Don’t get me wrong, we appreciated the gifts and her thoughtfulness, but we would each take a couple of minutes to look through our goodies then we would all go back to texting our friends or laying around on the couch and watching TV.

She decided she was tired of the Easter baskets filled with stuff we would never use and candy we didn’t need. She wanted more than a lazy Easter afternoon on the couch or everyone heading home after we had our bellies full.

IMG_8588My mom’s answer to this question: Easter games!

Ten plus years ago, my creative and energetic momma wanted to try something different. She came up with 6-8 silly games and after grumbling and rolling our eyes, we all agreed to give it a try. Needless to say, this tradition stuck!

My now adult brothers, husband and myself have turned her Easter game idea into an all out, smack-talking, favorite family tradition. We look forward to giving each other a hard time and running around the yard like kids all while competing for prizes! We may only be competing for a $5 bill, a gift card for a drink at Sonic or a Cadberry egg, but it’s the Superbowl of holiday traditions at our house!

IMG_6937Some of our favorite games include:

  • egg toss
  • hula hoop contest
  • sack races
  • several Minute-to-Win-it type games
  • Easter themed word searches and cross word puzzles
  • spoon races
  • three legged race

Although we never know what games she will have up her sleeve, we always end the day with an adult only egg hunt. We all have our Walmart plastic bags, because we have determined our baskets don’t hold enough eggs, and we run around the yard searching for plastic eggs. There is always a prize for the person who finds the most eggs, the silver egg and the grand-prize goes to the lucky person that finds the golden egg!

games collageYears (and years!) and two kids later, it is safe to say, Easter games is a tradition that isn’t going anywhere. If your looking for something different to do with your kiddos–give it a try! They will probably be like we were at first and grumble, but it just may turn into a favorite family tradition!

Adventures of the A-Team: Home Sweet (messy & dusty & chaotic) home

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by Mindi Artherton

Ya’ll… I really struggled if I should write this post or not. When Kelli and I started this fun little site, our biggest fear was that we would somehow portray this false sense of “perfectness” in our homes and our lives. Or that we were telling other women how to parent… That is absolutely NOT what we want to do! We are both a hot-mess most of the time–just surviving on coffee and grace! =)

As you all know, we just finished building our home and while I am excited to share photos, please know my house is RARELY clean and I totally just moved all the clutter out of the way for each picture!

Nonetheless, I know it is fun to take a peak inside, so I wanted to share with you all!

We still have some decorating to do (excuse the bare walls and shelves), but you get the idea!

My favorite thing about the kitchen/dining area is that back-splash! Shout-out to my hard working husband for making that happen for me!

Side-note: while an island seems like a good idea, it has become the “catch-all” for paperwork, toys, gadgets, computers… everything! Anybody else have this problem?! It is driving me crazy!

If ya’ll think I am going to take a photo inside my bedrooms or bathrooms right now, you’re crazy! It is still a big mess and besides, my kids are currently napping. Yes! Let’s blame it on the fact the kids are currently asleep!

The last thing I wanted to share was this tile we used in our mudroom and laundry area. If you look at Pinterest right now, the large hexagon tile is all over the place.

I loved that look, however, (like most things on Pinterest), it was just not in my budget. Robbie found this very similar tile on sale at Home Depot and while it isn’t the hex tile I had my heart set on,I really love it. Just wanted to share in case somebody out there was disappointed when they found out the sticker price on the trendy hexagon tile–there are other great options out there that are much more affordable!

Thanks for taking a look around! We have officially been moved in for two weeks, but we are slowly turning this project into our home! We can’t wait to make many memories in this space for years and years to come!