Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Meal Planning 101: Week 44

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Monday: 


Leftover Crockpot Salsa Peach Chicken, Lime Rice, and Roasted Broccoli

Tuesday: 


Salsa Peach Nachos

Wednesday: 


Missional Community Meal

Thursday: 


Leftovers

Friday: 


Salsa Peach Soft Tacos, Smashed Beans, and Avocado Salad

Saturday: 


Leftovers

Sunday: 


Chicken and Kale Pasta Bake and Roasted Green Beans


What are you eating this week? Post your weekly meal plan in the comment section below! You can also link your meal plan up over at Organizing Junkie and see even more people who are meal planning. 


Monday, January 20, 2014

Meal Planning 101: Week 43

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Short and sweet! I'm hooked on the Kroger app, adds, and finding coupons now. Last grocery visit for two weeks worth of groceries I saved $24.47 plus some extra in manager's special labels!


Monday: 


Pulled Pork Salad (using leftover Crock Pot Pulled Pork)

Tuesday: 


OWLs Dinner - bringing Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Wednesday: 


Church Meal - bringing Sopapilla Cheesecake

Thursday: 


French Onion Meatballs, Pasta, and English Peas

Friday: 


Leftover Meatballs

Saturday: 


Take Out

Sunday: 


Crock Pot Peach Salsa Chicken, Rice, and Parmesan Broccoli


What are you eating this week? Post your weekly meal plan in the comment section below! You can also link your meal plan up over at Organizing Junkie and see even more people who are meal planning. 


Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Giving Thanks - Part 1

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Yes, I'm aware that it's not Thanksgiving anymore, I'm not that crazy, promise! However, during the Thanksgiving season my DNA (disciple - nurture - accountability) group challenged one another to come up with 50 things a week that we were thankful for. We also started reading 1000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp. Well, confession. They started reading it, I bought it. At the moment (and always) I was hooked on reading She Reads Truth and didn't have time during the holiday season to add pleasure reading. Now I'm hooked on Love Does for pleasure reading. BUT, I am going to read 1000 Gifts, really! But despite my lack of reading, the act of giving thanks, being thankful, and living in a place where I look for ways to be thankful for everything sunk in deep with me. My "Type A" list loving self love this challenge. I've fallen back a bit, but still constantly looking for small, big, average, and spectacular things in my life to be thankful for. I decided why not share?! And we'll just call it a series. Once a week I'm going to share 20 of the things I collected and will continue collecting. 50 seemed like a few too many for you guys to actually read. And I want you to read them! Because I want to brag or want you to know me better? No! But because I actually believe in this big time now. It's helped change the way I see my days. Also, keep in mind I wrote many of the first 150-200 ish during the holiday season, sooo they might be seasonal (like pumpkin poptarts and peppermint mochas). So, I apologize in advance if I make you want something you can't have until next fall/winter. Oops!


Two of my favorite synonyms for thankful are please and relieved. My favorite definition of thankfulness is warm friendly feelings of gratitude. These things please me. They make me feel relieved about life. They give me warm feelings. What does that for you? Will you join me in being thankful?

1. My DNA group* 
2. Arise Church
3. Worship music
4. Starbucks tables
5. She Reads Truth
6. Pumpkin Pop-Tarts
7. Leopard print
8. Owl journals
9. Felt pens
10. Cooler days
11. Leaves to crunch
12. Unconditional love
13. The brick streets
14. The OWLs*
15. A God that heals
16. Glitter nail polish
17. Glitter
18. Coffee
19. The Starbucks morning regulars
20. Good Starbucks baristas

*DNA groups are small 3-5 accountability groups through Arise church, as stated above, stand for disciple - nurture - accountability. 
*OWLs stands for Older Wiser Ladies. It's a group of women who meet for dinner once a week who are single-ish, 28-31, and surrounded by college students who are 10 years younger than us. 


Monday, January 13, 2014

Meal Planning 101: Week 42

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Hey guess what? I still do that meal planning thing! Time to start sharing again. :) Holidays are hectic and usually involve more parties, celebrations, and leftovers than meal plans, so this is actually my first full week meal plan since Thanksgiving probably. Giving you a few extra days too since there were meals and since I won't be in town and cooking this weekend. Also... of course after I wrote out my meal plan, it changed due to more leftovers that anticipated! So it will be a little different than pictured. :) Also! I majorly scored at the grocery store this week. I got two weeks worth of groceries for $80!! I saved over $30 in coupons and managers special labels!


Saturday: 


Leftover Crock Pot Chicken and Dumplings (recipe coming soon)

Sunday: 


Cobb Salad with Garlic Cheese Toast (recipes coming soon)

Monday: 


Leftover Cobb Salad

Tuesday: 


OWLs Dinner - bringing Double Chocolate Bread Pudding (recipe coming soon IF it turns out well)

Wednesday: 


Church Meal 

Thursday: 


Crock Pot BBQ Pork Loin, Sauteed Bacon Kale, and Spiced Carrots

Friday: 


TWU Retreat - bringing Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies and Double Chocolate Brownies

Saturday: 


TWU Retreat

Sunday: 


Fancy Sandwiches and Crudities with Cucumber Dip

What are you eating this week? Post your weekly meal plan in the comment section below! You can also link your meal plan up over at Organizing Junkie and see even more people who are meal planning. 


Sunday, January 5, 2014

2014: New Year, New Goals, New Resolve

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Last year I publicly declared that New Years Days was my new favorite holiday. I still agree with myself. Good job self! To borrow words from my year ago self - "It's the second fifth (so I was a little slower this year) day of a new year. A year full of motivation, hope, and inspiration. Oh how I'm in desperate need of all those things and so excited about them. " Last year when I wrote that, it was after an unintentional 3 month blog break because of the loss of my dad. I gave a somewhat sad update on the happenings up until that moment to catch you up, shared my reasons for restored hope, and share my goals for 2013. This year, surprise surprise, I took another unintentional break (just two-ish months this time). I'll update you, but it won't be sad this time!

Can we all just agree that November and December are insanely busy and a really hard time to make time for things you love doing like blogging? I now know November and December will always be hard for me to blog in. It's just a busy season. In November I had two huge catering orders, two of my biggest, not to mention the things I had to bake and cook for holiday celebrations. I intentionally remembered the year mark of my dad no longer being on earth. I celebrated Thanksgiving three times. December was also just as full, baking, Christmas shopping, Christmas celebrations, visiting friends and family. All good updates!

Having a church family to celebrate this round of holidays with was more beautiful than I ever could have imagined. From the very first time we met in June, many of us strangers, especially me, our goal was to become a family, a group of people who are becoming disciples together, genuinely loving one another, who long to live on mission, genuinely loving our neighbors, so we can make disciples who make disciples. Most of these people, I've know for just 7 months, and I already can't imagine my life without them. Last year I was terrified of three weeks off of work and wanted to get out of my town as quick as possible so I didn't have to be alone. This year I wanted to be in my town because I knew I wouldn't be alone. I wanted to share holidays with them. I still had sad moments where I missed my dad a lot, but it was survivable because I wasn't alone. I had my Arise Church family. I had my loving, amazing friends. On my worst day of the year, the day I remember every moment of the day instead of random unexpected moments, that my dad isn't here, I wanted to be with them. And they wanted to be with me. It was beautiful. Oh, and I had a wreck and am currently without a vehicle.

 So to borrow words from my self again:  "And now it's January. I have officially changed my favorite holiday to New Years. I reaffirm that New Years is my favorite holiday. It's so full of hope, motivation, inspiration, and renewal. It truly is a breath of fresh air. Of course I know I'll still have sad break down moments [and downs mixed in with the ups like being vehicle-less], but January and a new year feel like the sun coming out after a big scary tornado warning or hurricane landfall."

I did look back at last year's resolutions. Some of them were accomplished, some of them changed, some of them didn't happen. BUT, that isn't going to stop me from making a new set of goals for this year. Some synonyms of resolution are resolve, intent, intention, aim, and plan. My intent in resolving to make resolutions for 2014 is to be intentional and aim for my planned goals this year (like what I did there?). So without further blabbering ado (I wanted to say this but realized I didn't know what it meant exactly, ado - hubbub, bustle, flurry, fuss), my goals for 2014.


  1. Take accountability deeper. 
  2. Pay attention to food intake. 
  3. Work out more. 
  4. Read more - blogs and books. 
  5. Connect more: A. In person, initiate hang outs with friends, text, call, respond more, and put away my phone when I'm with people. B. In the world wide web. Comment on blogs I read regularly. Be active in blog forums. Make blog friend connections. 
  6. Write more - blogging and journal. 
  7. Spend time with Jesus and don't stop. 
  8. Pray for my friends, family, and future (job, husband, calling, dreams, etc). 
  9. Wear makeup more regularly. 
  10. Buy less. 
  11. Tithe more. 
  12. Live UP so I can be thankful for the living IN that increases more and more and be more motivated and prepared to live OUT. 
  13. I prefer even numbers, but if 13 is good enough for Taylor Swift, it's good enough for me! Believe that I have enough of God's grace and the ability to call on the Holy Spirit to make this (being trained to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live a more self-controlled, upright, and godly life) happen: 


What are your goals? Share them with me! I'm a goal person, I love hearing about other people's goals. 



Friday, January 3, 2014

Calendar Journaling

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I briefly posted about this Calendar Journaling concept once on a Five Things Friday post. I didn't go in depth, but now that I completed a whole year and bragged on the results, it seems like an appropriate time to talk a little more about it! On January 1st, I posted this picture with the following caption on Instagram and Facebook.


"A year ago today I started a calendar journal in an attempt to really pursue Jesus and feel connected to Him. I was committing to the smaller commitment of a tiny box vs daunting pages and pages of a journal. Today I finished it. Every box filled, all 365 of them. As a result of starting this practice, I also filled 1 and 1/2 regular sized journals with prayers. I'm hooked! Because of the calendar journal I've been able to discover so much about my patterns, sin and emotional. Knowing your patterns leads to planning for times you know will be harder. Which results in a more consistent walk with Jesus, less self condemnation, being motivated to seek purity and holiness by Jesus' love for me and not being "motivated" by shame and "trying" not to sin because the Bible says not to. When we're motivated by Jesus' love, we want to sin less and less. Not just because we're not supposed to sin, but because we don't want to because of love! All that to say... If you want to feel closer to Jesus this year and wish you'd be more consistent, give this a try! Go buy a calendar right now."


Last January, in a final cry out to cope with the grief of losing my dad right before the holidays and going through the holidays without him, I told Jesus I'd spend time with Him every day for two weeks, but that I didn't believe that even He could make this better. Boy was I wrong. I am a OCD list-y type of person. I'm also an all or nothing type of person. I've attempted to journal many times before in my life, and always failed. Never consistent, no follow through. The daunting pages and pages of an empty journal both inspired and discouraged me. If I'd miss a day or a week, I'd want to go back and write for each one of those days, but know I couldn't, so I just didn't write at all. But, I also knew journaling had value. I knew especially now, if I was going to really give Jesus a chance, I needed to be able to write things down to see if He actually was changing things. I ran across a calendar journal idea on Pinterest. It was more complicated and beautiful than this, but I didn't have time for crafty things, it was a new year and I wanted to start asap because I knew myself well enough to know if I didn't start right then, I wouldn't. (The pinterest pin inspiration - http://www.pinterest.com/pin/79094537178172576/).


So basically, just go buy a journal! My first year I opted for a simple one. Notebook size for bigger squares, but no weekly schedule or days, each month took up two full size pages. This year I upgraded and am doing a monthly/weekly one. I'll hit one word highlights in the month squares, and then write a little more on big squares. This isn't your planner, it's just a journal! Sure, you can use it as a planner too, it's all up to you! It's about you and what helps and works for you. Many things added up together helped transform my time with Jesus and my way more consistent relationship with him, but this by far was the biggest.

I'll share what I do, but you can totally make it you and yours in any and every way possible! I like colors, so I write in a different color every day. I also get excited about a new month because I do a little monthly doodle at the top of each page that corresponds with the month's theme. I write the significant things of the day. Example: "Starbucks Jesus time. Good work day. DNA group. Good convo with Britt." Example: "Overslept. No Jesus time. Blah work. Sin struggles. Grief moment." Example: "Arise. Love my church. Nap. Worked out."  See, basic? I mean I fill up those squares, but it's not a huge recap of each day. It's hitting points and patterns I want to track and things I want to remember. I do miss days sometimes, at least one or two a week, but because of the format, it's easy to remember the highlights of those days. This has helped me understand so much about my patterns! I know I struggle more with grief and sin on the weekends when I'm not around as many people. I know I have a horrible attitude about things when I miss spending time with Jesus in the mornings. I know that on Wednesdays when I have free afternoons and don't make a plan for how I'll use that free afternoon that I struggle with sin. I also was able to figure out some significant patterns to talk to my girl doctor about and realized I should be on medicine.

And guess what else? The sense of consistency and accomplishment calendaring journaling gave me, lead me to start writing prayers down in a real journal too. Never in my 30 years of life have a I finished a journal. Last year I finished a calendar journal, all 365 squares, and filled 1 and 1/2 regular journals with prayers. My Jesus time pattern is as follows: find a place (usually a table at Starbucks, but sometimes home), acquire coffee, pull out journals, Bible, pens, and/or book(s) and organize them, put in ear phones and play worship playlist on shuffle, fill out calendar journal for day before (and any missed days), start new day, pray by writing in prayer journal prayers of forgiveness and focus, read God's word (usually along with She Reads Truth), pray for other things the Holy Spirit prompts.

So there you go, simple, nothing special, but life changing for me. If you are disappointed in your consistency and wish you spent more time with Jesus, give this a try.