How are you loving on the older generation 👴🏼👵🏼that we can’t be in community with right now?
💛Stephenie made a special gift for my grandma and my dad (both of which are self isolating due to age and health) and tonight she made them each a card and we put them in the mail box.📬
💘Tomorrow we will send some to a few other special people in our lives that we can’t be with right now.🥰
About 15 years ago, as my husband and brother in law were just leaving the nest my mother in law wrote a cookbook called, “I Want My Dinner Now.” I have always joked that her real reason for writing it was to make sure her future daughters-in-law would know how took cook her sons a good filling meal.
This book truly taught me how to cook and gave me the confidence to try new things. Today I had the opportunity to share this cookbook with Dani. Together we created the most delicious Chicken Pot Pie. I hope she always wants to cook with me.
*Fun fact- When I found out that this book would no longer be published I purchased one for each of my children and all of my nieces and nephew as future wedding/house warming gifts.
Although this book is no longer in production my Mother in Law does still have a few copies left. Check out her ETSY shop https://www.etsy.com/listing/636069244/i-want-my-dinner-nowone-pot-mealseasy
As Trevor and I navigate our new world with our oldest daughter, Shayela having her first serious boyfriend we find ourselves contemplating what makes our marriage not just work but what makes it thrive and grow.
We have talked for many years about the desire to never allow our marriage to become stagnant. We never wanted to be the couple that got married young, had a bunch of babies, and when they all grew up didn’t know who the other person was.
Let me tell you, it takes a lot of effort. It takes intentionality. It takes late night date nights. It takes trust. It takes honesty. It takes a lot of understanding.
I will probably talk about this a lot in the coming weeks and months as we continue to walk through this with Shayela. However, the first word that comes to mind when I think about what we do that might be different than a lot of people is that we simply adore each other. We have a very deep love AND respect for each other. We make sure to nurture this part of our lives, never take it for granted, and never get complacent. 
In the beginning of November I made the conscious decision to not diet until the new year. I knew that between birthdays, Thanksgiving, and Christmas parties I would drive myself crazy and have a lot of self guilt if I tried to diet and failed. I knew that for me, making the choice early would be better for my anxiety and self love than if I failed.
I didn’t over indulge and tried to keep the sweets to a minimum and I am happy to say that I have only gained back 5lbs!
Today I am starting again (Not starting over, because it was my choice to press the pause button) and I am excited to be back on the KETO wagon.
A few nights ago we had the opportunity to attend Hillspring Church’s beautiful Living Nativity. All 4 of our big kids were in the cast, our oldest daughter even had the opportunity to play Mary in the outside scene. However, this post is actually about our 3 year old daughter Stephenie.
While we were watching the inside scene it got dark and some lightning flashed, for most 3 year olds it might have been a little scary. She snuggled in close and watched intently… the curtain opened, the light was red and the mood was very solemn. I wasn’t sure that Stephenie really understood what was happening in that moment until she started quietly singing “Jesus Loves Me this I know.”
My heart almost burst as she clearly understood what was happening, maybe even more than most.
One word 2019: I have tried for the last few years to have a “word of the year.” I am not perfect at remembering to live my word but I do my best. I have used words such as love and hope but my favorite word so far has been my word from this year. Intentional.
I tried to be intentional about things such as spending money, spending time with my kids, praying, how I spent my free time etc. It made for more meaningful relationships, better spending habits, and gave me the confidence to make better decisions.
The main way that I kept my “word” in mind was by creating a cute picture with my word and using it as my screensaver on my phone. Another great way to keep reminding yourself of you word would be to title your morning alarm as your “word” so you would wake up to your word each day or you could post sticky notes around your house.
I haven’t chosen a word for 2020 yet but don’t be surprised if it has something to do with good vision 😎🤓.
What was your 2019 word? How did you remind yourself about your word throughout the year? Do you have a word picked out for 2020 yet?
Do you remember where you were? Who you were with? What you were doing? I’m sure most people over the age of 25 remember where they were on that fateful day. 
I had slept on the couch the night before, while my 2 month old baby slept in her cradle in the living room. I remember waking up to the headline flashing across the television screen “America Under Attack?” I distinctly remember thinking that it was a movie so I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. When it hit me that it was not a movie I got up just in time to see the second plane hit the World Trade Center.
I was only 16 years old and I was terrified. I woke up my family and we watched the news together until I had to go off to school. At school the news was on in every classroom. I remember the principal coming into my U.S. History class and telling my teacher to turn off the television. As soon as the principal was down the hall my teacher turned it back on. After all, it was U.S. HISTORY!
The next few weeks were surreal. I had never before and have never again felt so close to the other people in our country.
I still mourn for those that lost their lives in the attacks, the first responders that gave their lives saving others, those that died on Flight 93, and all the other that have died as a result of that day. I would love to hear your story. Where were you?
Picture credit
For the last month or two our family has really enjoyed fishing together. We pack up all of our fishing poles, tackle boxes, snacks and head to what my Hubby decides is THE BEST place to fish that day. It could be one of many places along the Columbia River, the Snake River, the Yakima River, or even a random pond around where we live. When we get there we set up our little fishing spot, pull out our fishing gear, and fish and fish and fish. Usually without any success. Although, Perry has been known to catch a frog or two. 
So, for the last month Trevor (Hubby) has been doing countless hours of research on different boats and rafts. He was convinced that if we just had a small boat to get out ON the water we could start catching fish. So, for our anniversary last month I surprised him with the Excursion 5 from Amazon.
Of course, with our busy schedule we weren’t able to get it on the water until yesterday. We decided to go to the local mud hole and got it all set up. We were pleasantly surprised with how much room it had. It fits 5 of us pretty easily and it’s even pretty easy to maneuver. The first time off the dock it was just Trevor and Perry rowing with Nora, Dani and Stephie as their passengers and they didn’t have any problems (We bought an extra set of oars).
After a few times around the dock, us girls left Trevor and Perry there to fish ON the water. Low and behold, about 30 minutes later I got a text with the next picture… Perry caught a fish!
We all agree that the $125 price tag on this boat was worth it! Trevor even let me name it because I bought it for him. I had several names on my list of options but finally settled on the PF-Bobber.
We anticipate many more adventures on this little boat and highly recommend one for your family if you are looking for some easy and cheap family time.
How do you spend family time? Do you like to do things on the cheap like us? I’d love some more ideas.
If you haven’t tried Color Street nail strips yet you need to! They are crazy easy to apply and look beautiful for up to two weeks!
If you have tried Color Street glitter nail strips you know that it can be a pain to remove. I have tried a couple different ways to remove mine that were a total bust.
Traditional nail polish remover and a cotton ball took me about an hour and somewhere near 25 cotton balls😬. Then I tried using a glass jar filled with sponges and nail polish remover, that didn’t take nearly as long as the traditional way but, I found the skin around my nails to be worn down and raw. I decided to try one that seemed a little less invasive and it is a WINNER!
First, take three cotton balls and tear them into 10 equalish chunks. Then, saturate 5 of the cotton chunks with nail polish remover and wrap them around the tip of your finger. Allow this to sit for 5-6 minutes (I read a book on my kindle to pass the time). 
When time is up simply rub each finger nail with the cotton chunk and the polish will come off pretty easily. When you are finished with your first hand follow the same steps to take off the polish on your second hand. If you have any small pieces of glitter remaining simply buff off with a nail file. 
The above picture is before I buffed off a couple tiny spots of glitter.
When you are finished file your nails and apply your next set of Color Street nail strips.
If you are interested in Color Street please visit my website.
This will be our first year homeschooling our twins and we are SUPER excited about it. I am not used to feeding them breakfast and lunch throughout the year because they have always eaten at school, so we sat down and came up with a cheat sheet for my menu making.
We started with the items they like to eat for breakfast and focused mostly on foods they can make themselves. Part of homeschooling for us is teaching them independence and self sufficiency. Instead of simply adding cereal I asked them for specific types, this way it will be easier when I do the grocery shopping and I will not need to guess what kinds they want.
We then added lunch items. Again, focusing on items they can make themselves. For lunch we will make a schedule and we will take turns making lunch for everyone. Doing it this way will cause less mess in the kitchen, teach them life long cooking skills, and show them how to be part of a giving family.
Last but not least we added snacks. My number 1 tip for snacks is to divide them up into snack baggies as soon as you get them home from the store. That way if someone (you included) needs a snack they can grab a bag instead of being tempted to mindlessly eat out of the box.
From this list I create a menu that is hung on the fridge each week so there are no surprises. The kids know what to expect and I am not having to stress each day about what to make.
At the end of the day when you are feeding an army the trick is to plan ahead and get input from the troops.
Here are pictures of our list and one of our menus. I would love to hear some of the items you add to your list.
Happiness Unfolding 