A Teenage Saga

My dear mother and I are beginning the writing process of our new E-book. One year at a women's retreat I sang at, a woman came up to me [now, a close friend] and asked, "What did your mom do to make you the way you are?" And I replied, "She prayed for me." 

She prayed for me. 

She prayed for her. 

She prayed for my dad. 

She prayed for my brothers and sisters.

She prayed that we might sharpen and fashion one another to become who we were intended to be.

My mom isn't perfectly perfect. She doesn't have it all together. But she is perfectly imperfect. She knows she cannot do this life on her own. And like the rest of us, she had to learn the hard way. 

I'm way excited for this book because it will be a healing process for me and for her as we solidify our relationship but also we share our own deepest pains of adolescents. When I was a teen, I never in a million years took the time to imagine what life was like for my mom as a teen. I never in a million years even considered that she had been a teen. My mom was once a teenage a girl! What was she like? What did she do? Who did she date? What did her and her friends do for fun?

As I start to think about the idea of motherhood [no, we're not preggo], it's like I've discovered a whole new level sheer panic. How on earth am I going to raise a teenage girl...especially if she's anything like me!? 

So actually, I'm writing this e-book for me. haha. So I can re-read my mother's wisdom and my experience in about 20 years. I don't want to forget these crucial years full of emotion and 20/20 insight. 

But...

We're gonna need some input from you:

To Mothers: What do you wish you knew about raising a teen daughter? What glaring issues are your facing head on right now? 

To Girls: What do you wish your mother new about you? What glaring issues do you wish your mom would and wouldn't talk to you about?

To Dads [yes, you're a big deal in this too!]: What do you wish you knew about raising your girl? What subjects do you wish you could find a "how-to" manual on? 

Please please please leave some comment love or email me @ juliannamorlet@gmail.com. We want to give you something you'll use. 

::Sigh:: Ok, time to sing. 

Love,

Saturday Obsessions: Bets+Sushi+Creating

Creating

It's like something in my mind cracked open. Ever since this course I started, I've been wanting to dress up, dress down, color on, and paint everything that crosses my path! I like it. I made journals for all my voice students. Just covered composition books with clippings, scrapbook paper and marker. They turned out pretty cute if I do say so for myself :) 

Sushi

Second time out and I still love it. Although, Tyson tried to get me to eat sashimi and I'm pretty sure I would gagged and embarrassed him in that restaurant. No thank you. 

Making Bets with Ty

We can't help it. Whenever we disagree the automatic words that come out are "You wanna make a bet" and because we're both so stubborn, we do. haha. In the last 2 days I've won 1 dress and 1 $30 shopping trip. Yesterday I posted on my FB status asking if any other married couples made bets with each other and I got like 12 responses to the positive.  Marriage is fun. 

Lastly, I want to say a big giant huge Thank You to all of you who have donate for our birthdays. We're up to $1036!! So thank you thank you thank you! 


*To stay updated on the progress of the fundraiser, go here and bookmark the page*


Happy Saturday. Go soak up some sun! [If you're in Cali ;)]


Love,

Give a Coffee's Worth.

I told myself I would never do this.

Everyone does it.

I thought it was a shame tactic.

Now I'm doing it. But not as a shame tactic.

I'm doing it because I was sorely convicted. 

I'm doing it because, because I'm guilty.

This is my fetish. This is my obsession.

In November I'm pretty sure I had a Gingerbread latte at least every other day.

**This is not to say that buying coffee is bad. On the contrary, buying coffee is good because it stimulates the economy. Plus, Starbucks is for fair trade coffee. So that's good.**

But I am asking you for just this month, or even this week, or even just today, spare the coffee and give these girls the chance to be free.

A chance to live free of fear.

A chance to live free of abuse.

A chance to live free of torment.

A chance to live free, full of hope, and new love.

Our Goal is $3000 and we need $2789 left.

Give a coffee's worth.

Love,

Love Shoes.

My New Shoes.

Love Always Protects

Love Always Defends

Love Always Restores

Love Always Empowers

Love,

Giving Hope + Love + Freedom.

This is what your birthday presents will do.

Heal my heart and make me clean

Open up my eyes to the things unseen

Show me how to love like you have loved me

Break my heart for what breaks yours

Everything I am for your kingdom cause

As I walk from earth into eternity

Give your gift here.

Love,

40 Days to Celebrate.

::Special announcement from the Morlet Household::

There are exactly 40 days between Tyson's birthday and my birthday. His being January 11 and mine being February 21. This last year of marriage has been an amazing time of revelation for us. We feel that our hearts have been urged to take make a bigger dent in our finances, resources, and platforms for charity organizations. 


Before we were married, Tyson began sponsoring kids with World Vision. His heart was to see every kid have clean water, food, and be able to learn. After we got married, my heart broke when I was exposed to Love146 and the tragedies of child sex-trafficking [read that story here and here]. There are things happening [or not happening] in our world that we are just not ok with. 


So with all this we've decided that for our birthdays we want to invite you to celebrate our 28 [Ty] and 23 [Me] years of freedom, health, and life by giving others a chance to have the same. 


We are asking You, our friends, family, and readers to help us raise $3000 by donating $28 or $23 [or whatever amount you are able to] to Love146 on behalf of our birthday gifts. We want nothing more. [Want more info on this cause: go here]

Celebrate with us. 

You can donate by clicking the button below or the birthday message under my header [It'll be there for the 40 days :)]. 

We thank you ahead of time for your gifts and are ecstatic that you are in this endeavor with us!


**Feel free to 
re-tweet
re-post
re-email
re-facebook
and whatever other "re"s there are now.


*If you have any questions please feel free to email!


Love,

You are for Me.

Today was a crazy day. Alot of good things but not enough time. Nothing bad. Just busy. It's days like this when I think, What if I'm doing this all wrong? But I dont know how to change it. Do you ever feel like that? And if so, what do you do?


I talked to God alot today. I told that I'm a little frustrated at Him. A little hurt. But I still trust Him. I told him that I felt like He stopped speaking to me. That ever since I got married, He stopped communicating with me like He use to. I still learn because He has revealed Himself through the Bible and I still love Him because He has changed my life. But I'm just a little butt-hurt.


And...I know what He's doing. 


He's testing me.


You see, before I was married, I only had to depend on God. I made decisions based on what I thought He was telling me. I was independent. And if I questioned anything I thought He was telling me or any move He was calling me to make, I could reason out my doubt with, He's God. Sovereign God. Who am I to doubt His plan? It just seemed silly to doubt God Almighty.


But now, now I have man, a wonderful man at that, but still a man, that is biblically supposed to take the position of my leader. My decision maker. Not in a chauvinistic way. He is very humble when he puts his foot down and takes the lead. However, now my pride, self-sufficiancy, and refusal to obey has been revealed. Exposed. Illuminated for my husband to see and I am having a hard time with it. 


It was one thing to doubt my trust in God. It was a silly notion. 
It's a whole other story to trust that my human being husband is getting his orders from God.


It's a lot harder and I confessed and asked Tyson's forgiveness a couple weeks ago because I wasn't trusting that God's goodness was guiding Him. I was questioning everything under the sun. I couldn't just be. I couldn't just rest. I couldn't trust. 


So this has been my anthem song. It's written by Kari Jobe and has pierced my heart to its core. So I declare this to myself and if you're in that place of brokenness with me, I encourage you to declare it to yourself as well.  


God,
I know that you are faithful. I know that you are so constant and so true, so powerful in all you do. You see me, you fill me, you love for me to sing to you. I know that you are for me, I know that you are for me, I know that you will never forsake me in my weaknesses. I know that you have come down, even if to write upon my heart to remind me who are. 


Love, JM

Come On In.

Welcome to the newness of JM. 

I have to admit, the finishing of this re-working process has refreshed my passion for this blog. My excitement level is equivalent to unwrapping that little box on Christmas morning [because we all know the best things come in little packages].


This page is the product of hours of work, dozens of opinions, fun creating times, and a whole lotta research. Take a look around and make sure to let me know what you think! 


Comment below if you see something that doesn't quite fit, something I should think about adding, or confusing navigations. 


With that, here are my 2011 New Year Resolutions:

-Finish the first draft of my book.

-Write @ least 1 of 3 e-books.

-Lose the wedding weight. :)

-Start our creative workshops.

-Finish writing my new album.

-Learn to like sushi.

For some of us this year is our Ctrl + Alt + Del button. 

For some of us, this year is the continuation of the best year of our life. 

For some of us this year will bring great joys and greater triumphs.

For some of us this year will bring such sorrow and utter disappointment.

For some of us this year will fly by just like the rest.

For some of us this year will drone on into what seems like an eternity.

For some of us this year will be one of significant discovery.

For some of us this year will be one of significant loss.

But for everyone, this year will be another year added to the timeline of our seasoned lives. And when we look back we'll see how invaluable this year was to the making of who we became. 

Happy New Year dear friends & family. Happy sweet New Year. 

Love,