They're Finally Here!

There is not a problem that can't be solved with Girl Scout Cookie therapy.

Trust me.

Baby Shower #2

This was a crazy, busy weekend that was kicked off by a shower at work on Friday afternoon for Brent and me. It was truly awesome! We were overwhelmed with the generosity -- and creativity -- of the people we work with. The theme was "Mismatch," and they had some adorable sock animals and lots of colors! Wow! We also played this really fun game where they had video taped Brent answering some questions (about our baby, babies in general, etc.), and then I had to try to match my answer to what I thought he would say. It was hilarious! We were so blessed by everyone.


The party table!

Three big gifts, many other gifts not pictured!

Adorable Diaper Cake!

Banner for Breanna

Delicious animal cracker favors!

Invitation (framed!) and flowers!

Delicious cupcakes!

A few more gifts, still others not pictured!

Cute baby pictures of me and Brent!

God is good!

Try Me!

It's not that I don't like Starbucks ... I do. I just can't afford it. When I started getting cravings for their Carmel Apple Spice, I had to find a solution. Being the "age of information" it was all too easy to Google the recipe Starbucks uses. Turns out, it's completely simple. And cheap.

Here's what you need:

Whipped Topping, Apple Juice, Cinnamon Syrup (sometimes I use Cinnamon and just whisk it into the apple juice on the stove), and Caramel Drizzle.
Heat apple juice and cinnamon on the stove, stir often. Pour into glasses, and top with whipped cream and then caramel drizzle. Easy Peasy.
Here's what you get:

A delicious, homemade version of my Starbucks favorite!

Community through Cooking

For the past few weeks, I've been feeling lonely. It's a busy season for people, and my family is far away. I love spending time with my husband, but we both agree that sometimes it feels nice to have a girl call and want to hang out (we all need girl time and boy time).

After sharing with a few friends that I was having a rough day, I got a really sweet email from a friend in my Bible study. She was very encouraging, and she asked me to spend the day with her. After some mall walking and lunch, we went to her house.

She had a really great idea that ended up being super fun! We made a full cake together, and then we split it and each took half of it home for dessert that night. We did the same with dinner. We made a huge batch of soup, and split it in half. It was a great experience because we had fun talking and cooking, but then I had dinner and dessert for that night already made!

So - taking her cue - this week I was planning to make stuffed shells. The process is fairly long, but it makes a ton. So I called another friend. We made the shells together, and divided them up. Again, we had time to talk and encourage each other, and then we both had dinner prepared for that night.

Two birds. One stone.

I have heard of meal sharing, and it's really beneficial! However, the process is more about making the food on your own and then splitting it up. The reason I enjoyed this was that I was getting a great meal while spending time with a friend.

I feel like community is built in so many different ways. This is just one way to do it that God recently revealed to me, and I have really enjoyed it.

Willing to Wash Feet

"It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love." (John 13:1)

You may think what follows is His crucifixion because that would seemingly be how He would show us the "full extent of His love," but this verse is actually the first verse of chapter 13 - the part of the story where Jesus washes the disciples feet.

What's amazing is that Jesus's time is coming to a close, and the last thing He wants to do for His disciples is to wash their feet. This passage, to me, so exemplifies how God wants us to live:

Love Him supremely -- love others sacrificially.

The act of washing their feet would have traditionally been something a slave or "house servant" did. But Jesus wanted His disciples to realize a couple of things: 1. He was washing their feet (an act of sacrifice and humility) and 2. He was washing EVERYONE'S feet (EVEN JUDAS - whom He already knew would betray Him). Don't miss that. The very person who betrayed Jesus was receiving this very loving act from Him.

I'm trying to apply this to my own life in thinking how can I show others the full extent of my love? How aware am I of how I can be serving others? Something Brent and I constantly strive to do is to be available. We enjoy the opportunity to serve others and help people. The problem we consistently find ourselves running into is that people don't usually feel comfortable asking. It's very hard to serve others when the world, in general, portrays vulnerability as weakness - which it clearly is not. People, all too often, keep problems or needs to themselves because Satan tells us no will care, people are too busy for us, and we should be able to handle things on our own.

But Satan is a liar. And I intend to prove him wrong.

I want to do more than pray for people. I want to get in there and get my hands dirty washing their feet. I'm just waiting on God to lead ...

February Favorite Things

Oprah always has these things that she can't live without, so I thought it would be fun to list a couple each month that I can't live without! When I thought about it, these two things popped into my mind instantly because they are probably the most useful things I've ever owned.


A Shark Steam Mop ... the world's best mop. This thing is awesome. It steams your floors with no chemicals and no cleaning solutions to buy. Just pour in some water, wait 45 seconds until hot, and steam away! It's awesome. You can even do hardwood floors if they are finished! Come to my house anytime for a demonstration.


An Ove Glove ... God's gift to baking. This thing is the best gift ever given to us. We use it all the time - for lots of different things. I've never been burned by a pan or pot! It's the ugliest thing in the world - for sure - but I love it. I wish I had two - one for each hand.

Baby Shower #1

Here are some pictures from the beautiful shower Brent's family threw for Bree and me. It was a lot of fun, and she got a lot of great things!




The BEST cupcakes I have ever eaten.




Fun chocolate-covered pretzel favors


Opening some fun gifts!

Raising a Daughter

After reading this article, I have a greater anxiety of our culture and its effect on little girls.

My heart's desire is to raise a little girl who is secure, confident, smart, and a follower of Christ. But how do I accomplish that when I have my own issues with being a girl? How do you raise a daughter to make better choices than you did? Hopefully, with God's strength and guidance, Brent and I will do exactly that.

Here are a few ideas I gleaned from this - and other - articles on the topic:

More daughter of a King, less Princess

A lot of people don't see any harm in the princess culture. I think it's a personal decision, and you have to do what works for your family. The whole princess phenomenon does not work for us. There is a difference in teaching your daughter that her Father in Heaven is the King and buying her all the princess stuff and dressing/treating her like a princess. The latter is not for me.

Pitch the Pink

Not to say she won't wear pink. I think pink is adorable in moderation. But as she gets older, I want her to experience all the colors. The reason I love the "mismatched" look so much is that it incorporates every color - and each is beautiful and fun! When I worked in the preschool, all the kids always said, "Pink is for girls. Blue is for boys." Every day. I promise.

Why?

I love blue. My eyes are blue. I feel beautiful in blue. Blue is not just for boys.

Play up the Positives

We have a say in interests she develops. No, we can't force her to like certain things, but we can try to show her things that are good and hope she enjoys them. Brent and I talked about things like sports, art, music, Veggie Tales, Little House on the Prairie, kid's devotional Bibles/stories, and American Girls (sans the doll market - just the books). Those are things that if she DOES like them -- GREAT! We can let her run wild with that. If not, we keep looking.

Watching your Words

Little girls listen very early. I have to be especially careful about the things I say about myself. We all have those fat days, bad hair days, no cute clothes days, etc. But I want to try extremely hard to never let my daughter hear me talk about myself or my body in a way that makes her think I don't love how God made me. Even though I will probably continue to feel those things, I want to be careful about how it is presented to her and at what age. There's a time to start talking about those insecurities (like when she gets called a name at school).

A Day with Daddy

I have often told Brent that I think he will be the most influential person in our daughter's life. I know I will have a special bond with my daughter, but there is nothing like the relationship between a father and his daughter. It's where she first learns her value, her worth, her beauty. He teaches her how she should be treated, how she should be loved, why she should be loved. He gives her the first glance into all her future relationships. I will pray for their relationship every day.

Keep Praying!

When Brent and I talk to anyone about this, we always get the same response: "just wait until you have the kid" implying that we'll never be able to hinder these things or have this kind of impression. I choose to believe that with prayer and guidance, we will be able to accomplish exactly what God desires for our family.

Budget Bonanza!

I shared in my last post about some time management tips, and I had a request from my lovely sister over at BLESSED SIMPLICITY to share some specific budgeting advice (which I only touched on previously).

A Basic Outline

The first thing you need is a skeleton to help guide you through the budgeting process. I really like Crown Financial Ministries website. 1. It's a Christian perspective on budgeting - so they talk about the responsibility to tithe and such. 2. They offer a lot of free downloads HERE. I recently revised our budget using the Family of Four (which actually includes a family of three) since we've found out we're expecting.

Putting in the Details

Now that you have a basic outline of what percentage should be in each area, you can plug in your own numbers to get a dollar amount that you should allocate to each area. You can - of course - make your own changes and adjustments. For instance, we don't really have debt so we use that money elsewhere.

Excel Excellence

The next step for me was making an Excel spreadsheet because, let's face it, I LOVE Excel. You can ask my boss. I start with what we should be spending in the first columns, and then I add a new column each month and put in what we actually spend. I do this by putting every receipt/bill/etc. into the spreadsheet. I utilize the comment function to make notes to myself (for instance when we pay car insurance bills I always put which car that bill is for so we know for later).

Here is a blacked-out version of our monthly budget GOALS. I then have this with each month added next to it where I input actual spending.



Adjusting for You!

Finally, after a few months of putting in what we actually spend, Brent and I sit down and adjust our numbers if we need to. It might show us we are spending too much money in one area or that we don't spend near what we thought in another area and can move it around accordingly.

There you go! Feel free to contact me if you have any specific questions to your own budget. I'd love to help!

Budget away!

Time Management Tips

I've always been pretty good at using my time well. I'm almost organizational to a fault. I have learned to relax a little, but I enjoy things being in their place ... and feeling like I go to bed having had a productive day.

So - if there's a chance you want to ramp up your time management - here's what helps me:

♥ A Small Notepad ♥

I keep this in my purse, and it is where I keep my to-do list, my meal planning ideas, and any random thoughts or ideas (which happens A LOT).

♥ To-Do Lists ♥

I make a list each morning of things I want to accomplish by the end of the day - usually in the order I will try to do them. When I cross them off, I move on to the next task. I find it keeps me from sitting down on the couch to "think about what I should be doing," which usually leads to turning on the TV, snacking, and wasting time. If I don't cross it off, I keep it on the list for the next day. No guilt.

Today's Example To-Do List:

√ Grocery Shop
√ Laundry
√ Unload the dishwasher
√ Dinner: Chicken and lemon-basil pasta
√ Pack lunches
√ Quiet time
√ Bones on TV (8pm!) - can't leave that out
√ Work Out

♥ Meal Planning ♥

I take notes in my notepad for meal ideas for two weeks (I try to grocery shop for two weeks at a time, but you can do one ... three ... four ... whatever!). Then I have a weekly, dry-erase calendar on my fridge where I post our meals for the week. This is actually really helpful because if I know what I need for dinner, I can set it out in the morning. I found early on that if I came home tired from work and had no clue what to fix for dinner, we ate out A TON - or ate junk. It also helps because I use my two-week plan to make a grocery list. I get the stuff we need, and it cuts down a lot on wasting food and grabbing junk off the shelves because it looks good. This also helps because Brent can see when it's his turn to make dinner. I just write it on the calendar, and he knows that Friday he's making Schnitzel!

♥ Budgeting ♥

I keep an extremely detailed budget because I'm an extremely detailed person. If that's not your flavor, do something more basic! But I have found that if I know what I am spending my money on, I don't feel guilty about splurging in some areas, or I know that it's time to reign it in. For instance, when eating out money starts to near our monthly allowance, I know it's time to stop suggesting McDonald's for dinner.

♥ Cleaning/Chores ♥

I try to put one or two chores/cleaning tasks on my to-do list each day (unless I'm super busy that evening). I don't like getting up Saturday and feeling like I have to spend the whole day cleaning. I'd rather do one thing each night, and enjoy my Saturday.

♥ Prayer ♥

God is the ultimate keeper of our time. Our productivity during the day is a reflection of the things we care about. Pray for effective use of your time so that you can spend more time on the things you love: quiet time with God, your family, your friends, etc.

Happy Multi-Tasking!

Missing Out?

I had eight hours this past weekend in the car to think. I set my cruise control and let my mind wander for the duration of the trip (if you've ever driven to Indy via 70 you know it doesn't take much thought to get there).

While I was jamming to my iPOD playlist (called "That's My Jam!"), I started to think about something:

I've often been asked this question, "You devote all this time and energy to learning about God and reading your Bible and 'being a good Christian.' Well, what if you're wrong about everything? What if you die and find out there's no God? What if we all really just die, and we're gone; or we turn into dung beetles?"

What if I'm wrong?

That's a great question to pose.

Here's my answer ...

So what.

So what if I'm wrong? What did I miss out on by living my life with faith that God is real? Do people think my life is without fun and happiness because I try to live by God's standards? Because - to be honest - I can't remember the last time a day passed without Brent and me dancing around our house, singing silly songs, playing games, having good discussions, and on and on. Do we have days where we argue? Sure. Of course. But more often than not, it's resolved quickly, and we still find time to talk to each other in our many accents and make each other laugh.

So, I die. *sniff*

I find out God's not real. *sniff sniff*

Do I regret how I lived my life?

Not one bit.

I think the question I would pose to those who think I'm crazy to believe in God is, "What if I'm right?"