I Won a Copy of The Nesting Place!

You may have heard recently, but the Nester just released her new book last weekend! In the weeks leading up to the book’s release date the Nester has been giving away copies on various blogs around the blogosphere. I’ve entered a few of the giveaways in hopes of scoring a copy. One such blog is The Inspired Room, a blog I have enjoyed following immensely over the past few years.

I WON!!! Can you believe it?! I can’t wait to read the Nester’s book and have Caveman read it too!!

Last night I told him about winning the book, Nester’s journey in writing the book, their family’s story of moving so many times, where they are now and her vision for their new place. I’m so happy he’s interested to reading it too, even with me. I told him about her principle, It Doesn’t have to Be Perfect to Be Beautiful (#idhtbptbb) and how I want to incorporate this principle, together with him, in our home. Caveman agrees and is completely on board.

After a little over 10 years together, we’ve gotten better at communicating in general lol, but also communicating our dreams and desires for our home and lives together. Or maybe it’s that we’ve gotten better at actually listening to each other, either way I’m embracing it. I thank God every day for our family, our lives together and for the growing up I’ve certainly done in those years.

While we haven’t moved since we bought our home 10 years ago this May, we have remodeled it in different phases throughout that time. Our poor hall bath has been repainted twice so far and needs another paint job now. As Caveman said just this morning you can only pause for so long on home improvement projects before something else needs to be done or redone! My style and tastes in design have evolved and changed to such a degree that I would love to repaint the entire house now, but especially our master bedroom. Maybe this year? I hope so, but if not that’s ok too. Right now while Caveboy is little I’m trying to stay focused on this phase of our lives because he’s already 4 1/2! How does this happen? It seems like just a few months ago I was bringing him home from the hospital!

ETA: Today’s Joy Dare prompt is 3 gifts about your home for which you are thankful! How fitting!!

1.) Our home offers us protection and shelter from the elements.

2.) Our home has come a long way from the day we moved in, but I know it’s not as good as I hope we can make it!

3.) It’s small, so that just means we have to make conscious decisions about what we put in it and purge often!

What are 3 gifts about your home you are thankful?

Once I receive my copy, I’ll be sure to post a full review of the book here. I’m sure it’s going to be awesome though, I mean I’ve read her blog for years and completely love it so this book is pretty much guaranteed to be a hit too!

Goodbye March?

It seems all I’m able to come up with lately is one, maybe two posts a month! Thank you for you comments on my last post. I’m looking into web-hosting, new designs, etc. I really appreciate all the advice.

So life lately has been…busy! When is it ever not though really. Last week was Spring Break for Caveboy and I, so I was able to take off Friday and have a date with my little guy! We had some maintence done on my Kia, visited Daddy at work, went to a few Thrift Stores and finally made it to our local library for the first time! Whew, what a day!

Here are a few finds from our thrifting adventures!

Golfbag for Caveman!

Always looking for anything nautical! These nautical prints were beautiful!

No, I didn’t purchase either of these, just some spring/summer clothes for Caveboy!

Actually I’ve been on a purge of our house lately. It seems that we are bursting at the seams in our little 1300 sq ft rancher. I’ve been waiting to have a yard sale for a few years. I even attempted it a few times last year only to have something come up each time. Well this is my yard-sale year, no matter what! I will be off school (between semesters) during the month of May so I’m hoping to pick a weekend and clear the place out! Either that or it’s all getting hauled off to a Thrift Store near you for someone else’s enjoyment!

In addition to housewares, I have a ton of Caveboy’s clothes waiting for me to sell in the yard-sale, although…

Grace over at CampPatton.com recently posted about a new company called Kidizen that I would love to try out but alas I haven’t made the jump to an iPhone yet. *sigh* (Although they are working on an Android app to be released soon!) But here’s what Grace said about the new company!

“Their inventory truly runs the gamut of legitimate vintage and brands I would never dream of buying firsthand and one of my favorite things about Kidizen is that the prices INCLUDE SHIPPING. Genius. So genius.

It’s super easy to snap photos on your phone, upload them on the app, and list them to sell as well. I have a really hard time getting rid of the kids clothing but the nesting bug is getting antsy and I’ll be all over this one of these pre due date weeks.”

I’ve already used Once Upon a Child a few times too. They are usually pretty great to buy back clothes from me and a great resource to find clothes for Caveboy.

I’ll be back again soon with a few more posts about our Springtime adventures and more thoughts on redesigning our home to better work for us.

 

What February?

Another month has begun and despite my best intentions February slipped by without a blog post. I might blame it on February being the shortest month of the year, or the big day of LOVE earlier this month or celebrating Caveman’s birthday or the crazy weather (snow one day, 70 degrees the next!) or even my first of two mid-terms but really I just haven’t made the time to sit down and compose anything. I think I’m enjoying our relaxed schedules this winter, soon to be spring.

Here’s a few of February’s Instagram photos for your viewing pleasure!

I have been thinking about blog posts though. Namely holding myself accountable to my goal/word of being more AVAILABLE  this year, so I’ll address that item first. The very next day after my last post I failed miserably and felt even worse. Achieving this goal has been more of a roller coaster than anything else. Some days (more like moments throughout the day) I’m on top of my game and other days I’m completely and utterly failing again. Only when I completely submit to God and allow Him to work through me do I actually succeed. As we all know this is easier said than done.

Earlier this week Ann Voskamp wrote, “A lack of doxology leads to depravity.” and “Our fall is always first a failure to give thanks.” I could go on and on quoting from her post, but please take the time to go examine it for yourself. In the times I’ve just gone through the motions or I’m completely gone a full day without giving thanks to God, I have fallen the hardest. Ann writes, “But refuse to give God thanks? God lets our very lives become refuse. Our thinking becomes futile and God on High lets us live low.” That is what Buchanan discovers in Scripture, right there in Romans:

“The heart of wickedness and godlessness is that: a refusal to glorify God. It’s the refusal to thank Him.“

I usually come to my senses down in the pit, looking up and wondering how I ever got back here and I hear the whisper, “Have you acknowledged Me today? Have you thanked Me today?“, and down on my knees I fall because the honest answer is “No! No I have not and I’m so ashamed“. I typically don’t even know I’m not surrendering my all until I realize I’m trying to hold it all together and God is patiently waiting until I wear myself out. I am not the only one who suffers though, my wonderful family are the real sufferers. There is a song by Jamie Grace called, “Beautiful Day!” Every one of the words in this song, resonates with me. Caveboy and I listen to it every morning as we start our day! I encourage you to check out the lyrics here. As long as I wake up with thanksgiving on my lips and keep it there throughout the day I am a happier person, better wife, more loving Mother and overall live a joyous life.

I have been tossing around the idea for a few years of changing my blog name/address, going .com and everything.  But honestly I am afraid to do it. I have no idea why because the new name is more in line with who/what I am and want to move towards. I think I would like to add sponsors too but I have no idea how to go about this, which is sad because I’ve been blogging for a number of years! I was talking it over with Caveman the other day and he says go for it if that’s what I want. I love my man! So if anyone out there has any advice or can point me to a highly recommended web designer and/or hosting services I would really appreciate the help. Of course this would mean more posting on my part but I’ve really been wanting to post more anyway. Opinions, let me know what you think in the comments!

Gratefulness in the Everyday…

It all began in November….

Thanksgiving is of course the time when we annually list all of the things we’re thankful. Since Caveboy is 4 this year and can grasp the concepts of thankfulness and gratefulness a little better, I wanted to begin a family tradition for our family. I found these cute little thankful tags from Emily’s Jones Design Company, that just happen to be free printables on her site and printed off the ones I liked best.

 

All of the tags are blank for you to use however you want, but Emily also provided (Thank you Emily!) a wonderful list of scripture verses centered around thankfulness. I copied my favorite verses on half the Fox tags because they are bigger and then used the skinnier “I AM thankful FOR” tags to write out the things we are thankful for at the end of each day. I would typically write something I was thankful for and then have Caveboy do the same.

Emily suggested making a Thankful Tree, but for us I knew that just wouldn’t work.

So I used a length of Jute twine and simply taped each thankful tag to it. I spaced the Fox tags (somewhat) evenly along the twine, leaving spaces for us to add our skinnier thankful tags. Caveboy and I also cut out fall leaves and acorns to embellish our Thankful Banner. He loved it and we even carried our nightly ritual into mid-December.

I knew I didn’t want to just simply pack our Thankful Banner away but remember it throughout December and keep our focus on the real reason for CHRISTmas. I had grand visions of us getting a real tree (I’ve had these for decades, but it only comes into reality once every Blue Moon) but it rained so much we were never able to get one. So we made the best of it and used our simple 3′ Christmas tree on a table instead. I really wanted to put the banner on the tree but Caveman suggested we lay it around the bottom so we could continue to read it. I would love to tell you we read it every night and that I never lost my focus during the Christmas season, but that would be a lie and I don’t lie. We did look at it sometimes but God has a way of bring me around without my even knowing it.

Our Tree 2013: You can see the banner lying on the table under the tree. And Caveboy trying to redecorate the tree yet again….

Over Christmas, as we inched ever closer to the New Year, I began praying more earnestly and God answered. My prayer was to become a better wife and mother, as you may have picked up on in my previous post. Of course this has been my prayer for years, but this time it was different. This time my heart was different. My heart was broken if you will, ready to submit my will fully to God and open my arms wide to receive God fully, His Grace fully, His gift of the Holy Spirit. I’m still figuring this one out, second by second, of each day.

It was around this time that I actually picked up and started reading the book that has been on my dresser for over a year, “Forgotten God“. Our Sunday School class read this book a year ago but I missed most of the classes because I was with Caveboy. I love this book so far. I’ll do a full review once I’m done.

And it was also at this time that, while perusing Instagram before church last week I found the #JoyDare by Ann Voskamp and began counting my #1000Gifts for 2014! Though her website I was also drawn to this year’s #MemoryProject2014, Scripture Memorization for the Rest of Us: The #JesusProject. I’ve never been good at scripture memorization and as Ann to eloquently put it, “Christ’s weapon against Satan in the desert was memorized Scripture. And if you aren’t memorizing Scripture — what IS your weapon in your battle?”  Good point! I encourage you to hop over and read her entire post, multiple times. It’s life changing each time you do. I’ve been going back through the years on her blog and sort of starting at the beginning. The more I read and learn, the more intrigued I become… I want to know Ann more, but more importantly to know Jesus as she does!

The Scripture Memorization for 2014 is the year to Fly and I’m so going to do it too! “For centuries …. Because Jesus was beautiful to God’s people — His Word was beautiful to God’s people.” 

I’ve read lots of other people’s words or phrases for the upcoming year. This year I think my word for the year is going to be  JOY.  I want to live a JOY filled life, giving thanks to God each and every day. “Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shot JOYfully to Him with psalms.” Psalms 95:2  As we give our thanks to God we receive JOY from God. That is what I need.

I’m not exactly sure I clearly stated this through my ramblings thus far, but hopefully you can see how God has been leading me, guiding me over these past few months into living a life of thanksgiving. As I stated in my previous post, 2014 has a great, awesome, huge, spectacular, exciting, amazing feel to it. God is going to move mountains this year, not only in my personal life but in everyone’s life just wait and see.

October!! Already!!

Between school for both Caveboy and I, his being preschool two days a week and mine being university life every.single.day. I don’t have much time for anything but the absolute necessities. So to say life has been crazy lately is the biggest understatement EVER! I just thought I’d pop in with a few quick & random things though…and play along with Five Favorites again today!

First off… I’m so, so glad fall is here! Not only does fall bring spectacular colors, crisp mornings and evenings but it also brings pumpkins and loads of fun festivals. I do so hope we can squeeze in a couple this year despite my crazy schedule.

Second, have you guys signed up for Everlane yet? I love silk blouses and I really want to try one from Everlane. Corilynn showed her’s off today and it is gorgeous! I think I’d like one in the cream or olive!

What’s been happening in our little corner of the world besides school? Well Caveboy turned 4 earlier this month & I made up some super cute Save The Date Invitations for the kids.

I downloaded the blank dinosaur printables from here (& I would love to be able to use these somewhere!) and then tweaked my information in Photoshop using some Dinosaur fonts (Dinosaur Jr, Prehistoric, Jurassic Park, You Are Loved – to name a few). I downloaded this Dinosaur Party Pack from Tip Junkie and tweaked them some in Photoshop to better match the colors I was using and to create water bottle labels.

Caveman texted me the other day and asked if we could start the Paleo diet? Of course I was on board, but neither of us was prepared for the amazing results that would follow. Within 24 hours (cause we kinda jumped in cold turkey and all) Caveman and I both felt fabulous. As in I was waking up earlier without joint pain due to inflammation, dido for Caveman. He’s been having so stomach pains and thought originally it was an ulcer, that has completely cleared up! We are both down by 10 lbs within a week and a half of going Paleo, so I’m not seeing any grains in our diets for a very long time… as in ever! We are both hooked and (because we needed an AND) Caveboy loves eating this way too. In fact, he’s actually eating his Paleo lunches I send with him to school, where as he hadn’t been eating the grain filled lunches before. Winning!

Thanks for continuing to stop by and check in on the little blog, but I have to warn you now that blogging might be a little sparse for a while longer. I’ve wanted to post a few times recently and even took some outfit photos last month, but they looked terrible and I simply haven’t had time since. I have been on Pinterest lately though so you can catch me there too.

Until next time… Happy Fall Y’all!