About Me and "He Fills My Cup"

I'm going to use this first post as an opportunity to introduce who I am and what this blog is about. I am a lay-it-all-out-there kind of person. A straight shooter. So, for this first post, I'm going to do what I do best: Lay it all out there.

About Me: 

My name is Autumn Jones, and I am 30 (very soon to be 31) years old. My husband and I got married almost 11 years ago on my 20th birthday. (I may post about that wedding one day, because it was not anything like a typical wedding, and the number of things that God worked out on our behalf was nothing short of incredible. Anyone that knows the story of that day knows that the fact that it happened to be my birthday is actually the least interesting thing about it. Which I kind of love.) We are very blessed to have boy/girl twins who just turned 6.

We homeschool and love it. We use Sonlight curriculum, which we also love, although I do supplement with other things, mostly because it's fun. I am also the coordinator of children's ministries at my church for grades K-6, a ministry known as "Kids of Grace." We go to a non-denominational church that is part of the New Frontiers family of churches. (You can find out more about New Frontiers here.) I love my church because it places a lot of emphasis on the grace of God and the freedom and power of the Holy Spirit. I love worship and hope to one day play the guitar well enough to lead worship for a very small group of women in my home, or even for the kids at Kids of Grace. Although playing the guitar this well would admittedly require that I at least occasionally practice, so at the current rate I will not be meeting this goal anytime soon... (sheepish look). 

I am a stay-at-home mom most of the year, but for about 8 weeks every summer I am a manager and executive administrator for a fireworks warehouse that sells wholesale fireworks to fireworks retailers. I have worked here every summer (except one) since I was 15 years old, and it is actually where my husband and I met. The hours are long, but I have a great staff, and the job allows me to stay at home the other 44 weeks a year, which kinda' rocks. 

I love reading, writing, and creating. I do not love cooking, but I am getting better at being consistent about doing it. I am not the best at keeping my house cleaned or even picked up, although I am getting better at that, too. Waste really bothers me, and I recycle everything I can. Because I love to create AND I hate waste, I absolutely love to remake and repurpose things, or make something I need using something I already have. Not only does this keep things out of a landfill, it saves me money, which I also love. 

We have taken Dave Ramsey's "Financial Peace" course and don't believe in credit. We do have some debt (a mortgage, a lot of student loans, and some doctor bills), but zero credit cards, and no lines of credit anywhere. No auto loans. We do not follow Dave Ramsey's plan nearly as well as we should, but we are miles ahead of where we were before we took the course. (To learn more about Dave Ramsey, how to get out of debt, or where to find a "Financial Peace" course, go here.)

In our family, we love Jesus and serve Him with all our hearts, souls, and minds. I asked Him into my heart as a child, and have been following Him ever since. I haven't always gotten it right, but He has never left me alone. I believe that being a Christian involves having a personal relationship with Him. I have had real encounters with Him, and I hear His voice when I am willing to lay my life down and listen. I believe the Holy Spirit is still active and powerful in the church today, and I was filled with the Holy Spirit at kids camp when I was in in my tweens. I can speak in tongues, and at present God is cultivating in me teaching and prophetic giftings.

I also believe that God still does miracles and is very interested and active in our daily lives. I myself am evidence of this. I was born with epilepsy, and the doctors told my mother I would never live a normal life, and that, even with medication, by the time I was a teenager I would be severely mentally retarded. God healed me when I was 2, and I have never had an epileptic seizure since. I am married with kids and have a bachelor's degree, all things the doctor told my mother I would never do. I am for doctors, but one thing I know is that doctors are still people. They do not hold your life or the lives of your loved ones in the palm of their hand, and they will NEVER be the ones to have the last word! God is able, and nothing is impossible for Him! (Mt. 19:26, Mk. 10:27)

About This Blog: 

He Fills My Cup is about God's grace in our lives as women. I will be writing about things I think will be helpful to other women like me: women after God's own heart. Some of the posts will be prophetic in nature, speaking exactly what God lays on my heart to say. Others will be more practical. Here is a list of topics I will be writing about, along with a sampling of titles of posts I will be writing for each topic:

• Faith 
• He Fills My Cup
• The Power of Your Words
• Give a Little Grace
• Finding Your Place in the Body of Christ
• Fasting

• Family
• Respecting and Honoring Your Husband
• Setting the Tone
• Your Child's Love Language

• Frugal Living
• Use What You Have...
• How to Get Books for Cheap (or Even Free!)
• The Open Hand Policy
• How to Get Stuff for Free

• Homekeeping
• Cooking
• The Easiest Meal Ever - Tortilla Crusted Tilapia with Quinoa and Brown Rice 
• Fast and Easy Eggs in the Microwave
• Easy Burritos
• Menu Planning
• Organizing
• DIY Take-Out Menu Organizer
• How to Protect All Those Lego/K'Nex/Lincoln Log Instructions
• DIY Recipe Binder
• Decluttering Tips
• Use What You Have Organizing

• Homeschooling
• Why and When We Decided to Homeschool
• Homeschool Statistics
• In Your First Year of Homeschooling? What to Expect
• Why We Chose and Love Sonlight
• What a Typical Day Looks Like
• Organizing Sonlight (specifically)
• Organizing Homeschool Supplies (generally)
• Homeschool Decor/Setup
• How and Why We Supplement
• State Laws and Counting Hours
• Homeschooling FAQ
• Sonlight FAQ

• Ministry
• Doing vs. Living
• A God-Sized Holy Spirit
• Using Your Giftings
• Are You My Neighbor?

• *Repurposing and Other DIY
• Before and After Photos
• "From Junky to Funky"

*When I write repurposing posts, I will try to always put a "Use What You Have" section that includes suggestions of other materials you can use instead of what I used, along with "Other Possible Uses" with different uses you can have for the same item/project to help you think outside the box and make it work for you.

My Posts (Plagiarism): I will always give credit where credit is due. For the most part, all of my posts will be my original content. If I get an idea or photo from somewhere, I will say so and link back to the original source. If I make a project that I got from somewhere else, I will post pictures of what I did and say how I modified it, but I will still link back to the original post, and, (unless I drastically change it), instead of giving the step-by-step tutorial I will simply link back to theirs. I think this is only fair, and I have no desire or inclination to steal content from anyone else.

My Priorities:  As part of this "Let me give it to you straight" post, I would like to be upfront about how often I will be posting on here. Here are my priorities: 

1. God. If I have not taken the time to spend one-on-one time with God, reading the Word and just basking in His Presence, then I won't write until I have taken the time. How can I write a post on faith or give a prophetic word to someone if I am letting my own cup run dry? I remember watching a Passion conference dvd and seeing Beth Moore speak. She said that she couldn't go out there and speak to all those people without spending time on her face before the Lord. How could she teach them if she wasn't right with God herself? I also will be following that policy. I want my posts to have power, and if my cup is dry or if I start thinking I have strength on my own, I will fail. I can already tell that God is going to use this blog to convict me of areas that I have allowed sin or apathy to creep into my life. He's going to teach it to me before He lets me teach it to you, and I have to be sure I've given Him the time and attention necessary for me to draw closer to Him myself.
2. My Family. My husband and kids are next, and this includes strengthening and cultivating my marriage, spending time with my children, homekeeping, and homeschooling. If any of these things are lacking or in disorder, I will attend to these before writing a post. 
3. Ministry. Kids of Grace is next. Again, if this needs planning or attention, it comes before this blog.
4. Others. Friends, extended family, neighbors, and anyone else God might put on my heart to connect with. Relationships are important, and they come before writing does.
5. My summer job. My seasonal job is very, very time-demanding (meaning it can be 100+ hours per week towards the end. No kidding.) Because of this, from mid-May to the end of July every year, I will likely not be posting at all.
6. This blog. Writing is last. I enjoy writing. I like helping other people. I enjoy teaching others and giving them revelation that God has graced me with. But, I have a lot of other things I am called to as well, and those other things have to come first. So I don't really know how often I'll be writing. But if I'm not writing, at least you'll know why. Also, I will never write just to write, and will always choose quality over quantity.

Let's Talk About Ads: I did not create this blog to make money, although I am not opposed to getting income from it. If I promote a product/website, it's because it lines up with my values and is genuinely a good, helpful product/site. I will never have ads running on all sides or ads for randomly generated things that I haven't personally approved of. If I promote things, it will be because I have personal experience with it. If I haven't had personal experience with it, I will say so. (And in which case I will research it to be sure it lines up with my values.) I see this blog primarily as a ministry. If and when it makes money, I will still see it that way: a ministry first, a source of income second. My readers will always come first. (Well, ok, not 1st according to my priority list, but let's say you guys are number 6, and making money on here is number 7 :). Also, if I believe in a product/website/person and there is no way for me to make money on it, I will still promote it. (This is the case for all of the links in this post.)

That's All. Now that you've met me and know what I and "He Fills My Cup" is all about, I sincerely hope you'll join me on this journey of grace. I do understand that for some, my beliefs, personality, style of writing, fill-in-the-blank, may not be your cup of tea. And that's ok, too. :)