July holds one of our family’s very favorite holidays, Independence Day. When you think of July the 4th several things come to mind like… fireworks, parades, barbeque fireworks, carnivals, fairs, picnics, fireworks, concerts, baseball games, family reunions and fireworks. I guess it should come as no surprise, since I live with 4 boys, that we like to blow some stuff up for the 4th of July.

photos courtesy of bohobella photography

Our July 4th traditions are probably very similar to yours. We usually start with some pool time. We always have time with friends. Fireworks are usually shot off at home and we also attend a local fireworks show with a patriotic playlist playing in the background on our iPod. Things around here are pretty typical.

photos courtesy of bohobella photography

It is the patriotic side of July 4th that really tugs at my heart. As you all well know, our country’s independence was declared on July the 4th, 1776. That declaration has changed our country’s history. It’s one of the major reasons we have the freedom we have today. Our forefathers left us a legacy. Legacy, what an important word for our families.

Legacy is defined as anything handed down from the past, as from an ancestor or predecessor. That definition is interesting to me because in my head I always consider legacy with a positive feel. But we all know legacy can also carry negative traits as well. Some people grow up with a legacy that involves abuse and neglect… legacy isn’t always a blessing… some consider it a curse.

Legacy is one of the things my husband and I work hardest to create with our children. Legacy is something we consider as we make big family decisions and it’s also something that’s on our mind on a daily basis in the small things. Legacy carries a lot of weight in our home. We want to leave our children with a legacy that shines with the love of Christ. We want our boys to know they were prayed for. We want our sons to love their wives with complete devotion. We want our little guys to grow into fathers who chase after God with their whole heart. I’m a mom who has been entrusted to raise three godly men and we’re doing our best to create a legacy of Christ’s love to our children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, great-great grandchildren and so on.

Creating a healthy legacy comes through prayer, laughter, good stewardship, love and intention. It comes from time spent together as a family and also investing and protecting your marriage. The legacy you create today will have generational impact. Let’s think about ways we can leave a legacy of love with our kids.

A great book to read together as a family is 100 Bible Heroes, 100 Bible Songs. This beautifully illustrated children’s Bible storybook focuses on 100 Bible Heroes. A follow-up of the best-selling book 100 Bible Stories, 100 Bible Songs, this book is designed to help children remember and learn more about their favorite Biblical heroes and their life stories.

This book contains two full-length CDs filled with over three hours of popular sing-along music produced by award-winning producer Stephen Elkins. 100 Bible Heroes, 100 Bible Songs is a wonderful way for children to read, sing, and learn about their favorite Bible heroes. Your family should check it out!

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Brandi is a wife to Pete and a mom to Jett, Gage, and Brewer. Her life is truly “Brandi & Boys.” Brandi has been a pastor’s wife for almost 15 years. She and her husband planted Cross Point Church in Nashville, Tennessee in 2002. Brandi has a heart for women in ministry and co-leads a ministry for pastors’ wives at LeadingandLovingIt.com. Brandi loves to be organized, but hates to clean and ice cream is her favorite food.

We don’t usually practice the Family Bed at our house. Call me crazy, but I don’t like being jabbed in the ribs or listening to the grinding of teeth while I sleep. But, sometimes we like to shake things up a bit and make exceptions at the Wilsons….so, when Dad travels, the kids hop into bed with Momma.

Whenever Pete heads out of town there’s no doubt that within five minutes of his departure my kids will begin claiming who’s turn it is to sleep with me. We began our Family Bed experiences about four years ago when Pete started traveling more often. I liked having everyone in the same room for safety purposes… plus it kept me from getting lonely. But the effort to keep me company came with sacrifice, having my first two boys sleep with me meant I was subject to rib-jabbing and teeth-grinding. Then when the baby was big enough to get out of his crib and join us it meant throat-choking was added into the picture. That sweet little guy would put a death grip on my neck like no-other. It was sweet for about the first 5 minutes… then I’d just become claustrophobic.

There were nights when Family Bed would start pretty gentle and peaceful like this…

And somehow during the night the peacefulness turned more into this….

I tried for a while to keep them all three in bed with me, but as my little sweet boys have started to turn into big boys I’ve given up. We now pull a couple of sleeping bags out into the floor or if Dad’s on a long trip we get fancy and move their twin mattresses. So one boy ends up sleeping with me and the other two together on the floor. Of course, due to what my eldest child has termed the “most important matter of fairness,” we rotate nightly who get the special honor of sleeping in bed with momma!

Honestly, I love putting them in my bedroom together and listening to them whisper and giggle. Oh, how I love it… unless it’s a school night and the whispering and giggling have lasted 45 minutes and has slowly turned into bickering and squabbling.

One of the things I have always loved about my husband is his creativity. Upon meeting him there were two unique differences that got my attention: his creativity and his evangelistic heart for the lost. His level of creativity is put to use everyday at his job, but it’s also something he brings into his parenting. He works hard finding creative way to show the love of Christ to our boys. Whether it’s showing them God’s goodness in nature or walking them through a family devotion and prayer he’s always looking for fun and innovative ways to help them personally connect with Jesus.

Not long after I started implementing Family Bed when Daddy travels, Daddy got a wee bit jealous. He thought it wasn’t fair I got all the sweet cuddly time of jabbing, grinding, and choking while he slept alone in a king size bed with 800 count sheets in a quiet and comfortable hotel room. Oh, the irony.

So Dad choose to execute a new addition to Family Bed by adding Pallet Night. Yep, Pallet Night… Every Friday night the boys pull out the sleeping bags and grab their pillows and head to our room. They get all situated and we settle in for a night together. Sometimes we all 5 start out with a movie in our bed and sometimes we just each grab a book, settle into our spot, and read ourselves to sleep. Our goodnight is very Walton Family style. And it’s another way my husband creativity sneaks family time into our regular routine.

I just spent a few long nights being jabbed in the ribs, choked around my throat, and listening to the grinding of teeth. I think I am due a nap. Good news is huz’s travel schedule is slowing down for a few months so I’ll be sleeping with warm-n-cuddly a lot more than rib-jabber, teeth-grinder and throat-choker.

And if any of you are looking for a good summer book to read with your tween you should considering checking out Swipe. It’s dystopian, apocalyptic fiction, which is quite the trend today for middle school aged kids. An entertaining book set during the End of Days with a strong biblical foundation and a fresh, modern perspective! A definite conversation starter for you and your child.

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Brandi is a wife to Pete and a mom to Jett, Gage, and Brewer. Her life is truly “Brandi & Boys.” Brandi has been a pastor’s wife for almost 15 years. She and her husband planted Cross Point Church in Nashville, Tennessee in 2002. Brandi has a heart for women in ministry and co-leads a ministry for pastors’ wives at LeadingandLovingIt.com. Brandi loves to be organized, but hates to clean and ice cream is her favorite food.

Summer is almost here and I, for one, am ready for it to get here! I’m ready for sleeping in, lazy mornings, road trips and lots of lounging by the pool with friends.

We’re currently in the midst of baseball season and I love the ballpark. I never knew it would be so much fun watching your kids participate in organized sports. They’re so cute in those little uniforms running bases. But as soon as baseball season ends and school let’s out we’re gonna party!

What does summer party look like for the Wilsons? Well, thanks to Pinterest I’ve got a whole list of activities to work through. A fun-filled board entitled “Kiddos” includes all things I want to do with the boys.

Our summer goal? We’ll start here…

But I’m probably most excited about this…

My biggest goal for the summer is to work in some reading time. I’m thinking 30 minutes a day where we all read together. Some days independent reading, but definitely time built in with me reading to them. I’ve recently realized that my older two boys read a lot… but I rarely read with them. When they were toddlers I read to them quite a bit but now they are independent readers and I miss not being part of their daily reading plan. (Check out some reading ideas on Tommy Nelson’s Children’s Fiction page!)

Our list will also include lots of messy fun like this…

Gage, my 8 year old, loves to cook so I’m hoping we can whip up some snacks like these…

Jett, our 11 year old, is a science buff so experiments like these will be his highlight…

And my sweet 6 year old, Brewer, he’s our creative and will love trying this…

Our main goal for summer is time together, laughter, and growing closer as a family. We’re going to be creating memories, some of those memories will be planned and some will be spontaneous, but my kids only get one childhood, one summer as 11, 8 and 6 year olds and we’re gonna live it up

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Brandi is a wife to Pete and a mom to Jett, Gage, and Brewer. Her life is truly “Brandi & Boys.” Brandi has been a pastor’s wife for almost 15 years. She and her husband planted Cross Point Church in Nashville, Tennessee in 2002. Brandi has a heart for women in ministry and co-leads a ministry for pastors’ wives at LeadingandLovingIt.com. Brandi loves to be organized, but hates to clean and ice cream is her favorite food.

If I were a season I’d, without a doubt, be Spring. I love everything about spring. The flower and trees that bloom in bright, gorgeous colors. The dazzling green color the grass turns after the first spring shower. The warmer temperature that pull us out of sweaters and scarves and into cute spring dresses, comfortable shorts and sandals that allow our toes to breath again.

And right smack is the middle of spring comes Easter, and Glory be to God I can finally pull my white pants out again… maybe that is just a southern clothing etiquette faux pas… but down south white pants can only be worn from Easter to Labor Day. White is my favorite spring/summer color. Doesn’t matter if it’s white pants, shorts or skirt, I, mother to three cute, but perpetually dirty boys, love to wear white.

Now back to Easter… what a beautiful holiday we have the opportunity to celebrate. Growing up we always celebrated Easter with a service at our church then traveled to my grandparents house for a delicious (my grandma could cook) ham lunch with all the aunts and uncles followed by an Easter egg hunt with all the cousins in her yard, which was peppered with gooseberry bushes.

Here I am just a few years later with a family of my own. I always imagined we’d have the traditional Easter celebration with our family… but I didn’t foresee marrying a pastor. In a pastor’s home Easter looks a little different. First off, Dad is doing 9 services on Easter weekend so to say he’s a little checked out on Sunday afternoon would be an understatement. He’s “stick a fork in him, he’s done” done by Sunday evening.

Before we had children, it really wasn’t a big deal, but we all know once kids come in the picture things change a bit. Once our kids grew old enough to enjoy Easter celebrations we, as parents, made a conscious effort to do all of our discussion of Easter and read the crucifixion and resurrection story from our children’s bible all before Easter weekend actually happens. It builds excitement for the whole family knowing that we’re part of a church leading people to celebrate the greatest gift they’ll ever receive. Plus we want to share our excitement of celebrating Easter with our kids before we share it with anyone else. We want to make sure we’re at the top of our game when we tell them the truth of Christ’s resurrection. We want to make sure they’re not getting our leftovers.

And no worries, we fit in the traditional lunch and follow it with an Easter egg hunt in the yard…we just make sure we take care of the really important stuff as a family while Dad is still at the top of his game.

Our kids will have Easter memories and they’ll look a little different than the memories I have of childhood Easters. But that’s okay, because our true focus in making sure they know why we have chosen to dedicate our lives to sharing the most precious story of all time.

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Brandi is a wife to Pete and a mom to Jett, Gage, and Brewer. Her life is truly “Brandi & Boys.” Brandi has been a pastor’s wife for almost 15 years. She and her husband planted Cross Point Church in Nashville, Tennessee in 2002. Brandi has a heart for women in ministry and co-leads a ministry for pastors’ wives at LeadingandLovingIt.com. Brandi loves to be organized, but hates to clean and ice cream is her favorite food.

Winter is my least favorite season. I’m, personally, so happy to know spring is just around the corner that I’m about to bust. Maybe it’s because my family loves to be out doors and winter gives us a bit of cabin fever. And believe me, cabin fever with three boys equals chaos. There are only so many movies you can watch and video games you can play. When the wiggles get bad enough we can even tolerate mediocre weather for some time outside.

Just a few weeks ago we were stuck inside with some rainy, chilly weather. Weather that makes you just want to curl up under a blanket… unless you’re a kid, then it’s the kind of weather that starts to make them antsy, so out we went, we headed straight into the woods without a toy or video game in site, just the great outdoors.

It was only a matter of minutes until the boys found some vines hanging off of trees. They spent the next two hours doing their best Tarzan impersonations.

Their imaginations were in overdrive.

They were dodging arrows.

They were swinging over boiling lava and man eating crocodiles.

They rescued a few princesses.

They fought a few bad guys.

It was a good day. And they didn’t fight with one another one single time.

I think the reason it’s so natural for Pete and I to head outside with our children is because creation is our worship pathway. For me creation has always been my direct pathway to God. It just takes one short walk outside to connect with my heart, to really center myself back with Him. One gorgeous sunset to leave me in awe of His power. Stress and tension can fade into the background. It allows me to “Be Still” and allow myself to rest in His presence.

Worship, for me, is a very close second. I love music that fuses my spirit closer to God. Music expresses the desires of my heart. So a good run on a hiking trail with my worship playlist in my earbuds is awful close to heaven on earth for me!

I have a girlfriend who experiences God best through serving. She loves jumping in and helping when she sees a need. Her heart is full after she’s served God to the best of her ability. We have a staff spouse who’s direct connect to God is through missions. She finds herself experiencing God most while taking care of those who can’t take care of themselves.

It’s so important to know your pathway to God. To know what draws you to him with an intensity you can’t define. Knowing when you feel far away what can align you back into His presence. Your pathway can attune you to hear His voice with a clearness that brings comfort.

Will my boys develop creation as their worship pathway? That’s yet to be seen. But I love that they can combat cabin fever in a place that brings their dad and I peace. My boys don’t know it yet, but they’ll never forget that day. As time moves on and the pressures of life build, their mind will effortlessly drift to that place, to that moment, for a brief but life giving escape.

Kids. They’re a gift. Cherish every moment.

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Brandi is a wife to Pete and a mom to Jett, Gage, and Brewer. Her life is truly “Brandi & Boys.” Brandi has been a pastor’s wife for almost 15 years. She and her husband planted Cross Point Church in Nashville, Tennessee in 2002. Brandi has a heart for women in ministry and co-leads a ministry for pastors’ wives at LeadingandLovingIt.com. Brandi loves to be organized, but hates to clean and ice cream is her favorite food.