Now Hiring: Dishwasher

Woman of the House seeks Dishwasher: No experience necessary. Must be willing to stand in position for 20-30 minute increments. Required to hand wash pots/pans and non-dishwasher safe items. Able to load, run, empty dishwasher in a timely manner. Do not be alarmed or discouraged when more dishes, glasses, silverware suddenly appear after you have completed the above cycle; this is normal. Also fill soap dispensers, wash/dry/store hand towels, wipe down table and counters. This position will last for the rest of your life until the end of time.

Salary: $50,000. Can start anytime.

Disclaimer: This is a joke, I can't hire someone to wash dishes. I wish I could but I can not. Just day-dreaming.

Young DoTK Leads.

I just received this picture last night and my heart swooned over this precious little cutie patootie!  This young DoTK is wearing one of the first tshirt designs for girls from the DoTK tshirts.

I know this cutie personally and one of the things I absolutely love in her young personality is that she's already secure in who she is - pure DoTK.  She can say 'No thank you' without second guessing herself and continue walking without looking back.  I LOVE that about her personality and pray it never changes.

How about us grown women get a good dose of that and walk with some of that kind confidence?  How about we let our 'No' be No, our 'Yes' be Yes and maybe, just maybe we practice 'Let me think about it' when its appropriate.
This sweet little girl is leading the charge and if she can do it, we can too. 

DoTK,
Julia

So Long School!

This is our customary end of school picture of Nathan with all of his schoolwork, which does not include his homework papers.

The difference in this year's caption is that I don't have a breakdown between language, math, writing, papers.

Because I can't. I just can not. I don't have time to count this endless pile of papers nor do I even want to. I have 30 other things to do and counting these papers is not even at the bottom of my list. So there goes that fun & ridiculous tradition. 

I'll just summarize by saying 'Nathan worked really hard this year and he made good grades.' The end.
So long 3rd grade!

Peace out.

Mother's Day

There he is, the very reason I get the privilege and responsibility of Motherhood. And there is more than enough reason in that little 4 foot, 70 lb person to love and laugh and fear and fret and risk and sacrifice like I never have over anything else in this life.
Happy Mother's Day to all of you who know exactly what I'm talking about!

Messages in the Messes.

 

"It's like the game Jenga but with dishes."

This is the picture and caption I posted on my feed.  To be fair, I had a number of those pots and pans already in the dish drainer but I had more to wash so I just kept stacking the dishes, instead of putting the dry ones away. 

Like many women, I spend a lot of time standing at that sink either  loading the dishwasher or hand washing what doesn't get loaded.  I am the chief dish washer in my house.  And to be very honest, I resent it most every day.  This is not intended for shock value...I don't enjoy and love washing dishes. I'm not giddy every time I see dirty dishes laughing at me, mocking my free time.  When I'm washing dishes I'd rather be doing anything else. Except cleaning a bathroom.  I would not rather be cleaning a bathroom.  

All that said, I'm aware there is another way I could look at the daily oppression of washing dishes. When I was in high school I lived a couple of years with a family who provided a home for me. My job in their house was Washing Dishes, it's how I earned my keep. (If they had only known, my real talent is organizing closets, tsk tsk such a shame!)  I'm acutely aware that my perspective can be easily skewed by the past. Or hormones.  Or the snack I ate at 10 PM.  So I consistently pray God will help me to see things from his perspective instead of my own and this morning, a God glimpse came.

I stood in my son's room and stared at the Legos, all-over-everywhere, resisting the urge to immediately organize pieces by size and color.  Does this picture look familiar?  Perhaps you also have offspring that is comfortable in this type of chaos and mayhem. 

As I stared at this mess, a message emerged; this is his creative space.  Just the day before, I had tested him by giving him 45 seconds to run to his room to get a specific minifigure.  Two different times, with plenty of seconds to spare, he knew exactly where Ultron and Deadpool were located.  It's certainly a mess but the message is; he has a place to create and build and imagine.  That is a good thing.

  

"What is the message in the sink full of dirty dishes?"  Simply, we get to eat. Actually, we get to eat from a bountiful harvest, that we had very little to do with. Can I sidebar and mention how much respect I have for our Farmers? Utmost respect.

Sometimes, our trash cans are overflowing with the discarded food packages after preparing a meal.  I want to come unglued when our trash cans look like this. CanS-plural. We have two trash cans and they both looked like this on the same day...deep breath. The message remains the same.  We get to cook and feed our family.  Sometime we get to cook and feed our friends!  What a privilege and joy!  

My challenge to myself and for others is to continue looking for a message in the messes as we move through our days. 

^"16 “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. ¹⁷ I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but they didn’t see it. And they longed to hear what you hear, but they didn’t hear it." Matthew 13:16-17

DoTK,
Julia Hull

Get some rest. Take a nap.

As I studied Mark 4 one morning and read about Jesus calming the storm, a familiar story took a turn.

To summarize, Jesus had been pouring into a crowd of people all day. When evening came, it was time to retreat, it was time to go. As they traveled across the the Sea of Galilee, they were suddenly caught in a storm and Jesus slept.

You ever have those days/weeks/months where you have poured and poured into other people? Your family, extended family, friends, people in crisis, whoever it may be. You look back and find that you have been pouring yourself out, meeting needs, satisfying expectations, rising to the challenges of all the people around you and you haven't taken a break?

Jesus did this the entire time he walked in the flesh. He walked a lot; meeting people, talking to them, pouring love into them. Challenging them, demonstrating all the fruits, modeling the example to follow for every generation to come. What kind of experience could it be to have all the power of God but to be limited by physical needs? To find he was thirsty or hungry or in need of a nap??

There in that boat on the Sea of Galilee, after a full day of pouring into people, Jesus needed a nap. He knew that storm was coming and he still took that nap. And when he was jarred awake, he stood and spoke to the storm; with power and authority, he spoke to the storm.

I don't think the two events are a coincidence. We have to rest. We can pour and pour and pour ourselves out for those around us but we must rest. Because a storm is inevitable. Storms are a natural order of life but if we haven't taken time to rest...what energy will we have to face the next storm? What reserve will we draw from to speak to the storm with any sense of authority? If we haven't taken a moment to rest?

I have to show you this picture of this funny little one who finally passed out in a semi-upright position. We laugh at this but this is exactly what we do and what we look like as adults. This is us. We just keep going and going and going until this happens...

Jesus says "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest."

So what is the truth for today? It's ok to take rest. To pause life, take a nap. Resting is as much a part of our battle strategy as physical training. Let's not feel unnecessary guilt for taking some time for our own well-being.

Daughter of The King,

Julia

DoTK = Daughter of The King

The picture above is from the very first event I set up a booth at for DoTK.  My friend, Randi, volunteered to help me out that day and can I just say THANIK GOD for good friends?! There was no way I would have ever been able to put up that white canopy by myself. Ever.

When the Daughter of The King concept first came to me, it began as a single design with a crown and the letters DoTK.  I wanted it to be a subtle design that would invite the question 'What does DoTK stand for?'  Speaking truth can be so powerful and when we answer, 'It means Daughter of The King." we are claiming This is who I Am. There is so much that opposes the truth of who we are in Christ and God is not honored when we identify ourselves as anything less than His. 

For much to long, I identified with being unworthy, inadequate, unlovable. In fact, I repeated the phrase 'I'm a miserable failure.' so much that my fed up husband totally lost his cool one day and told me I was no longer allowed to even speak those words anymore.  I was completely taken aback at his outburst because I was totally unaware that I said it that much.

God is glorified when we speak about who we are in Him and when we announce "I Am a Daughter of the King." we are claiming our identity in Christ.  What could be more powerful than that? So this little logo was created as a means to encourage girls and women to begin seeing themselves as God does. That is the sole purpose behind DoTK.

Something I love is that one of my very first customers was this precious girl pictured below. I love that this girl was totally at ease in her own skin and completely confident with her quirky style.  She was totally rocking the DoTK spirit and I just loved it.