Happy Birthday My Isabelle!!

My oldest daughter Isabelle is four today!!! She has been such a blessing (and a challenge;) to my life!! The beautiful thing about Isabelle is that she is passionate and caring in a way that I only imagine to be. She is determined and focused. She is growing into a beautiful little girl, inside and out. Someone told me the other day, "wow she has energy!" but then they looked at me and said "imagine tunneling all that in a way that glorifies God?" As her mom I dream of helping her learn to use the gifts God has blessed her with for His glory. She is a leader and creative! I feel so blessed to have her in my life and Isabelle as I wrote to you when you weren't even out of my tummy yet... "may you learn to seek God and pursue Him, no matter the cost!" Glorifying Christ with your life is the most important thing you can do. I pray that God uses your life in mighty ways for Him!! Remember always who's image you were created in!! Happy Birthday sweet Isabelle!!!

These are a few of my favorite things...

In honor of another week I thought I would post a few of my favorite things!! These are just a few newer things i have discovered lately that I really like!!!!

An apple and one tablespoon of peanut butter, is one of my favorite snacks!! Plus it is under 200 calories!!! Delicious!!
Another new thing i have learned to love is sweet potatoes!! I eat a baked sweet potato twice a week for lunch!! sooo yummmyyy!!!

This little treasure I found at walmart and I absolutely LOVE it!! It is just a refillable water bottle, but something about the shape just says "drink me!!!" so it helps with consuming my eighty ounces a day!!!

This post is just about enjoying the simple things in life!!! Here is to another week...

A Change in Perspective....

Grocery shopping to me used to be this dreaded act of having to plan a menu, right out a shopping list from that menu, taking the girls to grocery shop (which is not really the funnest thing for a one and three year old) getting home unloading the girls and then the groceries, then putting all the groceries up....it really filled up half a day very quickly.
Then one day as I started my normal planning and making list, I realized that the fact that we had money to go grocery shopping was a blessing...not a curse I had made it out to be. So then the whole attitude behind the process changed. My perspective changed, and with that perspective change came an attitude change. Now when it is time to go shopping I check my heart and my attitude because this is a blessing that we have food!!

From the trunk....

...to the house

now all put away!!!

Simply Wise

Have you ever bought something you just thought 'you could NOT ever live without?" An outfit (that turns out to not look as good on you as you thought) , an appliance (that ends up getting dusty), a pair of shoes (you wore once), a book (you never read), or a hair/makeup (product that sits in your cabinet)?? I have...all of the above. Summer and I had a garage sell last spring and we ended up laughing so hard because we were with each other as we bought a lot of the things we were now selling...to de-clutter our house and because we just did not use or need them anymore. The fact is we probably did not need them in the first place, I mean after all they ended up being sold in a garage sell for dollar...seriously.
So after the above being said and in honor of going to a Dave Ramsey seminar yesterday, I want to encourage us to really be wise in spending. I know it is easy to justify spending on a super-cute outfit for your kids (believe me I know this feeling well I have two girls), but the question is simple...do they really need it?? Will they even care?? The even bigger question is this do we need it?? Here is to spending wisely and in doing that we reach simplicity.....

A new day!!!

Have you ever had a day planned but then when you woke up and got your day going you are very harshly hit by reality that anything you thought you were going to do, your not. Let's take my day today as an example. I had grand plans of spending time outside with my daughters and being super productive getting things done inside, but then 1:30 am came and Isabelle comes down the stairs and says "mom, if I change can I sleep with you and dad?" I thought oh great she peed the bed, which she never does, but then I sleepily reply, "why Isabelle?" She says because I threw up everywhere. So we give her a bath get new jams on and all get tucked in. 2:08 Kimberlin wakes up crying. 2:23 Isabelle throws up again. 2:54 Kimberlin wakes up...this goes on and on until about 7:30 at which we finally all woke up and cuddled up on the couch. Then Isabelle throws up all over the blankets then Kimberlin throws up too.
So needless to say I am up to my neck in sheets and blankets to be washed and I have two babies that just want to be as close to me as possible...so that is what our "new day" looks like today!! I will grab some good books and embrace my day on the couch loving on my daughters, and hold their hair as the vomit. In these moments I realize this, they wont always want to be this way with me when they are sick...so we will enjoy the moments together!!
Vomit, laundry, baths and all....

Happy Heart Day!!

I am usually a little anti-valentines day...but this year was amazing!!! I received 24 roses, of which I had to share four so all of Jon's girls could have some so Isabelle got three and Kimberlin got 1!! So technically I got 20 roses!!! Monday night we had small group at our house and it was so awesome!! It was a good day!!! Thanks Jon for making it sooo special!!

Boy has candy necklace...

Girl wants candy necklace!!!

So sweet!!! Happy belated Heart Day!!!

Being pushed to give...

Have you ever had someone do something nice for you and you thought "wow, you are an amazing person and I couldn't love you more?" Then pretty soon that same person screws up? It seems like the great acts (no matter how many they have built up) are very quickly forgotten because they hurt you in one act??
Why is that when someone does one bad thing, that we forget all the joy they bring to our life?
Why is it we choose to be so quick to forget? To forget the good and love them through the bad.
I have found in good relationships that harm/hurt (damage to the relationship) is usually not done on purpose. You see it is the act of choosing to love them in spite of the hurt that makes us push deeper. Deeper into knowing them and who God created them to be, and understanding more why God brought them into your life.
Can I find grace and love to give them?
Can I be the one to do the good act of kindness towards them??
In the 27 years I have been alive (and mainly the last 8) I realize how much relationships push you to constantly give. Give your heart, your love, your forgiveness and yourself. That is what Christ did the whole time He journeyed on the earth, here as a human, He gave constantly, His heart, His Love, His forgiveness and Himself.
He left us a perfect example, are we following it?