june goals

I haven't done monthly goals since March. And let's face it.. I totally failed on pretty much all of those goals. I didn't think I even achieved any of them, but there are a couple I did do. They just took me a few extra months to do them. :)

I got a bump update finished - and now I'm super behind again. Another post will come soon!

And I tried a few new recipes. I will share those on here soon! One new recipe I did try but will not be sharing is Pad Thai.. and oh my stars - what a horrible mess up. Have y'all ever heard of fish sauce? Well if a recipe ever calls for it.. use it SO super sparingly! Unless fishy-ness is what you're all about. It was bad.. and I felt horrible having to dump it all but my attempt at fixing it didn't work either.

But June is here! It's finally summer and I'm officially in the 'nesting' stages of this pregnancy. Today marks 31 weeks. Which means in 9 short weeks (give or take) we will have a sweet daughter in tow and learning all about what parenthood is like! This also means I have a LOT of things I'm hoping to get done in these next 2ish months. I'm linking up with Hayley to share my goals!

I'm keeping them all focused around things that will benefit us once our little lady arrives:

June Goals

1. Create an atmosphere where our house becomes more our home. I want to put artwork on the walls, finish up some little projects (like putting knobs and pulls on all our cabinetry)

2. Start and finish Natural Hospital Birth

3. Make a trip to IKEA - I know, this one seems fairly easy to do. But with my exhaustion and a 6 hour round trip drive on top of being there.. I'd say it's a pretty big goal to accomplish 

4. Pray regularly for our daughter. Often times I find the days going by so fast and I realize I haven't spent adequate time in prayer over our daughter. I want her to know our love for her, but most importantly - the love our Father has for her. I want to pray over her daily

5. Drink at least 60oz of water a day and do regular prenatal exercises. Every time I go in for a check up; which is now bi-weekly, my midwife says I need to be drinking more water. I never thought that would be tough. It is! And I want to make sure I'm doing my pelvic tilts, kegels, tailored sitting and squats to help when labor time comes!

So there they are! I feel good about these goals - and I know there is always grace for the days I miss.



What are some things you're sure you want to accomplish this month?

march goals

Can y'all believe it's March already? We are almost a quarter of the way through 2014. Crazy! I want to be real with y'all and share that this winter has been rough. Talk about some major winter blues around here.. which is sad because I shared with y'all our super exciting news.. but I feel that I haven't been able to fully enjoy and embrace this new season because there is so much other yuck going on in life. I don't want to stay here either.. so this month I am going to be intentional and make choices based on how I want to feel.

This month there are some things I really want to hone in on and give special attention to:

I have so much catching up to do on posting and even sharing the small little baby bump that is finally made it's appearance! I'm hoping to have the last almost 19 weeks caught up on here by the end of the month! I feel writing this all out will help bring reality and a special something to myself about our first pregnancy.

In March I want to focus less on electronics: TV, phone, computer and spend more time reading in the evenings. I started this book last month and I still haven't finished it. It's my hope to finish it and also read another one! Any suggestions/recommendations?

Since this winter has been so hard on me physically and emotionally, I have decided I want to create to bring inspiration back before spring. And this dress will be perfect to start wearing once all the snow melts and sun shines more! I've heard it's a super simple design for beginners (that's me!)

I love cooking. It brings joy to see the creative meals to be made and I feel better knowing how it's been prepared. There has been lots of new and exciting recipes pinned to my cuisine Pinterest board. I want to make sure I continue to make healthy choices during this pregnancy so I'm looking forward to trying one new recipe per week this month!

This one might not sound like a challenge.. but for me, it totally is. I've never been one to work out regularly so I'm really trying to get that into my schedule as a regular habit. Since it's really hard for me to actually want and enjoy exercise.. I need to start small. Once a week I want to do yoga, pilates, take a walk outside. I've already been experiencing pain in this pregnancy and it's super early.. so making sure I stay active is important! Any good pregnancy work out suggestions?

I'm looking forward to improving my health and wellbeing this month! It's been a long time coming with this crazy, cold, long winter. I feel these goals will benefit my big goal for 2014!

Linking up with Hayley

What are you hoping to do in March?

influence link up!

 

so.. the conference is two weeks away from today!

two.weeks.!!

 

2 things i will have packed and 2 things i am looking forward to.

 

2 things i will have packed:

- a notebook and pen. even though i will have my computer.. i would much rather take notes and doodle and dream on paper with a pen.

- dry shampoo and a bright lip color. both are mandatory!

 

2 things i am looking forward to:

- friendships. real friendships. i love this community and am passionate about relationships. so i am looking forward to connecting with old and new friends.

- worship. i am so excited to worship. and.. what better way to end a conference?

 

 

will you be joining us?

 

 

 

where our identity is.

into the word wednesday.
well - since i've been a complete failure at the latest and greatest she reads truth series. i am not able to talk on that.
but what i can share with you today is this week's memory verse we've been memorizing with some wonderful ladies :)

'but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." 1 peter 2:9

so let's look at this in two sections..

look at these truths:
- you are a chosen race. the Lord has chose you to be part of his family line. i need this reminder to sink in deep for me.
he. chose. me. [and you :)]
- a royal priesthood. our riches are not found here on earth. our riches will be great reward in heaven. we have been given the ultimate royalties of knowing Christ and the promise of the life to come.
- a holy nation. Christ's death on the cross allows our heavenly father to see us as he sees Christ. yes, we are still sinners by nature, but our Father in heaven no longer sees this in us. to him, we are holy. this is the beauty of the great exchange friends. and believe me - it's beautiful. if you want to know more information on it - [here] is an article from a pastor mr. b and i respect.
- a people for his own possession. we belong to him. he treasures us and it's almost as if we are his precious jewels. God puts so much value on us, even MORE precious than jewels could ever be. oh the love he has for us!

all these blessings are from God. they are all because of the first truth that we have been chosen. since we have been chosen, we are given freely the things to follow. how amazing is it to know that the Lord of the entire universe wants us to be a part of his purpose, plan and life. this continues to go deep for me. it's so humbling and leaves me awestruck.

now.. for the second part of this verse... here is the reason why.

"...that we may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."

the word that is what shows me the list above is connected to the statement below.

since we experience those truths of being chosen, royal, holy and his possession in God's eyes - are we proclaiming this goodness to others? i can't help but ask myself... am i sharing this beauty i've been given with others so they can experience it too? do i even realize how vast this excellence of Jesus is?

he called me out of darkness.
darkness is the absence of light.
in darkness there is sin, the world, hell, no hope, no life.

he called me out of that into his marvelous light.
his light is the brightest, friends. it's the best light we can experience!

so am i proclaiming it?
i can tell you that i'm not doing it enough..
i saw something yesterday that said 'if you knew you only had 6 months to live.. what would you do?'
i needed to really look inside myself and see.. what would i want to do with those six months? would i want to spend them selfishly? or would i use those last 6 months here proclaiming his light?

honestly, friends..

i would proclaim.

i would travel to far places and proclaim the news of Jesus Christ.

i would proclaim that he is my Savior and longs to be yours too.

i would proclaim that God is so madly in love with his people and wants to experience a relationship with them.

i would proclaim that with the evil and sin in the world... being in a relationship with our heavenly Father is not possible. we have eternal separation from him.

i would proclaim that yes, it's ugly.. but it's not the end!

i would proclaim that he loves us so deeply that he sent his one and only biological son to live and die a horrendous death for us so that we CAN be in that relationship with him and have eternal life!
i would proclaim and remind you that he did it for you and me! he did it for us! not for himself!

i would proclaim that after dying and being buried for three days he rose!

i would proclaim that he then appeared to his friends in his actual physical body with scars of his beatings.

i would proclaim that after a while we went to be with his Father in heaven.

i would proclaim that that is not the end. he is coming back, friends! he is coming back!!

this is the gospel. the good news of Jesus.

as much as seeing all of europe before my life is over sounds so wonderful..

i would proclaim the gospel.

this is a photo i took yesterday.. it shows the memory verse i wrote out on the right and on the left is a note one of my dearest friends brought me when she surprised me at work. if you look... they are the same verse! she was praying for the Lord to reveal scripture to encourage me in.. and the Lord showed her the same verse i had already been dwelling on.

how good is he?

honey pecan salmon salad.

my uncle caught salmon and gave it to us. well there was a lot and for those people who don't know.. fish doesn't stay good very long if it's fresh. you either have to eat it or freeze it. well the last thing we needed to do was put more stuff in our freezer so we end up forgetting about it and then it gets freezer burnt.

i made sure we made a couple different meals out of it while it was fresh to eat it up quickly.

here is one of the tasty meals we made [and just for the record.. i am NOT a fan of honey... but i really enjoyed this] i put it on a salad and it was delicious! the tomatoes and some of the lettuce are from our garden too!! it's so fun to use the fresh veggies we've been growing :)

honey pecan salmon
found: pinterest [cuisine board]
makes: 4 servings
time: at least 35 minutes [depends on how long you marinate the fish]

1/4 cup honey
4 tsp finely chopped pecans
1 tbs soy sauce
24oz. fresh salmon
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

1. preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. combine the honey, soy sauce and pecans in a gallon zip lock bag.
3. sprinkle salt and pepper on salmon and add to the bag.
4. let marinate in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes [i did for an hour to get more flavor]
5. once done marinating, place salmon into an oven safe dish. make sure to leave some of the marinate to put on while it's baking.
6. bake in the oven for about 15 minutes or until the pink is gone in the middle. half way through, add the rest of the marinate on the fish and finish baking.
7. while it's baking, prepare your salad or pasta - whatever you would like to enjoy it with! :)

come link up and enjoy awsome recipes! :)

as last time, the same requests are there this time :)

to link up, please make sure you link the post back or take a button and use it on your post.

please follow my blog.

visit other recipes too! :)

thanks!

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memorization.

memories are a beautiful thing aren't they?

they are so helpful in those times you want to look back on life.

to remember the special moments with special people.

to see where you've been.

and where you've come.

our memories can hold so much information.

yet, they can't hold everything.

there are two different sections we have for our memory.

some things are placed in our short term section to remember just for a moment.

while others are place in the long term section to last hopefully a lifetime.

i am getting back into the habit of memorizing scripture.

this is helpful in times of hurt.

times of encouragement.

times of sadness and grieving.

times of praise.

any time of need. it's good.

a sweet sweet bloggie friend put out an email asking if anyone would want to join in on memorizing scripture.
i of course was all about that!
if you're interested, [here] is her blog and i'm sure she would love to have you join just as much as i would!
there is a new verse every week.
the verse we've been working on memorizing this last week is

philippians 4:8

'finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.'

true: being in accordance with the actual state or conditions; conforming to reality or fact; not false

honorable: in accordance with or characterized by principles of honor; upright

just: guided by truth, reason, justice, and fairness

pure: free from anything of a different, inferior, or contaminating kind; free from extraneous matter

lovely: charmingly or exquisitely beautiful

commendable: worthy of praise

this verse has been doing amazing things in me.

i wrote it down on a piece of paper and set it up underneath one of my computer monitors at work. every time i look at my computer i see it.

it's there to help me remember.

it's helped me to think positive thoughts throughout my day.

it's helped me to be kind with the words i speak.

it's helped me to look up when i'm struggling.

it's helped me from gossiping.

it's helped me from captivating negative thoughts and lies the enemy tries to feed me.

the bottom line.

it's helped me.

this is what memorizing scripture does! it's so helpful!

it's not something i will ever look back on life and think..

man i wish i didn't fill my mind with so much scripture.

there are many things you can choose to fill your memory with.

is scripture one of them?

rainy friday.

what a week. it felt so long, yet so short. so many things happened this week - but it was a good week.

dear rain - boy oh boy did we need you! you've been around almost all week, but you sure make it hard to get out of bed.. i love staying all snuggled up and warm with my new fuzzy blanket hearing you outside. you're my reason i was late to work 3 days this week. [whoops...] dear mr. b - happy 11 months!!! it's been the biggest joy being married to you and i can't wait to celebrate our one year anniversary next month! :) and i can't wait for many many more years too!!! thank you for so much love and encouragement this week. you are simply the best! now.. if you could just work on picking up after yourself... ;) you have to admit.. i've been doing a darn good job at it!! dear latest obsession - oh boy.. you are quite time consuming and getting me all excited with hopes and dreams. i do pray that things will work out within time, and i just love, love, love figuring you out and getting plans, designs, and layouts of you together. but i need to slow down with you a little.. you're getting my hopes up too fast. please don't let me down. dear photos - where are you? why have you not captured yourself? why do you always depend on me? i mean.. i do really enjoy capturing those special moments - but every time? my camera is big and bulky... guess i just need to get used to carrying her everywhere i go or remember to bust out my iphone. dear Lord - thank you for answered prayers. thank you for comfort. thank you for showing me my worth and identity in you. thank you for blessing me with one amazing husband and for the privilege of being married to him for 11 wonderful months today!

xoxo.

me lately.

so - i have a fabulous friend here in the bloggie world. she is doing a link up, so i thought i would join in! and these little 'if you really knew me...' things are fun and easy way to get to know each other more!

if you really knew me.. you would know...

- my plate is too full and i need to adjust some things around and re-examine what i'm doing with my time.
+ i am addicted to looking at vacant land and dreaming of building our future home someday.
+ i am trusting in the Lord to do big things with our lives here on earth.
- but i struggle with trusting his timing and plan for everything to come about.
+ i have a project i'm working on every night right now until it's completed. i am always dedicated to my crafts when i enjoy them!!
+ i love love love snail mail. that means others love it too - so i want to send some love to some wonderful people in my life soon.
+ i don't like to start something and then not finish it. it bugs me majorly to have something sitting there waiting to be completed. and then i get stressed.
- i have been a complete failure at waking up early enough to get everything i need done before i head out the door to work.
- i try to please people more than myself. i do this too often. it usually ends up making upset that i can't please everyone. i need to work on not being a people pleaser.
+ i am falling more deeply, madly and passionately in love with mr. b every day. every day i get with him is a blessing.
- i long to have a Godly woman in my life to pour into me. praying for this prayer to be answered soon.

first friday in august.

oh my oh my! the first friday in august! lots of good things about today and august.. one. i get paid ;) two. it's almost fall. three. it's closer to the big one year anniversary for mr. b and me. four. friday letter's! five.. eh, we'll stop at four. :)

dear project - please oh please can you just work with me. i am super excited to get you finished and you're making me take steps backwards! i know it's a learning process, but back to the beginning..? really? let's start moving forward again. dear polyurethane and lacquer - you guys need to become better friends. you are messing me up and it makes me angry! how was i supposed to know you don't like each other? from now on, i will have to choose one of you. no more double duty for me. dear mr. b - you've got talent! i am SO impressed with all of your wonderful handyman abilities! it's also a blast doing projects together! :) so excited that you are my partner for life! be prepared ;) dear evening runs - holy cow i'm so proud of myself! you about killed me and i think my heart rate was beating a little too fast for comfort, but boy oh boy it was good to experience you again. let's see if you'll stick around. keep bugging me and you will have a better of staying :) dear heavenly father - thank you for your grace, forgiveness and mercy. your goodness is a blessing and i am so undeserving. i praise you for loving me anyways. dear weekend - you're going to be another fun one! i'm super excited for my cousin to get married saturday!! :) how fun!

xoxo

ps.. dear rain - can you please come early or hold off until after saturday evening? the ceremony is outside and a lot of us would really appreciate it if you didn't interrupt her special day. thanks :)

MENU monday. link up!

happy monday everyone!

i am SO excited to do this new link up! i am totally new to it.. so i hope i'm doing it right. :) if not.. someone please tell me so i can get it fixed a-sap.

i decided to do this link-up after wonderful feedback that others would link up and enjoy it too!

here is my heart behind it..

i love love love sharing new recipes with you. and i figured - i LOVE getting other peoples recipes too. but sometimes hard get recipes from other blogs and remember which blogs i found them at when the time comes to make them. well, with this fun link up - we will have every one's recipes in one location AND we can refer back to them even months later! :) also - everything i make isn't something everyone else is always interested in.. sometimes there are people with food allergies, others that are vegetarians, or vegans.. so different recipes will be helpful for different people. fun stuff huh? AND we can do this all while meeting new wonderful people! i'm excited!

the other great thing about this is for meal planning [shout out to all my organized planner people out there! woot woot!!!]. how fun is it to be able to have lots of new recipes so we can start meal planning and prepare those grocery lists of the items we'll need.

syncing my meal planning and grocery shopping is one thing i've started doing since married and let me tell you - it's glorious! i never end up screwed in the middle of a craving to make something and not have the correct ingredients on hand. and it helps me out because mr. b can see what we're having each day and start prepping some of it before i get home! [let's give that another woot woot!!]

alright, alright - enough blabbering. come link up your recipes, share the link up with others and let's start cooking! :)

ps.. i'm still deciding if i will do a link up each week or every other week.. feel free to share your opinions :) [i will still have my MENU monday. each monday even if there isn't a link up]

here is my MENU monday recipe. i'm excited to see yours too! :)

cold italian pasta salad

found: made up as i went from memory of classic recipe

makes: 2 lbs

time: 20 minutes

1 green pepper

1 small red onion

1 cucumber

3 green onions

1 package of grape tomatoes

1 can of black olives sliced

1 box of cooked rigatoni pasta

3/4 bottle of italian dressing [you could make this homemade too, but i didn't have time :)]

1 cup pepperoni [you can use more you less depending on how you like it :)]

1 cup parmesan cheese and romano cheese combined.

1. put a pot of water on the stove and bring to a boil. once boiling, add in pasta.

2. cut up the green pepper, red onion, cucumber, pepperoni, green onions and tomatoes into pieces. put all in a large bowl.

3. drain the black olives and add to the bowl.

4. drain pasta and put into bowl. mix everything together.

5. put italian dressing and cheese in bowl and mix everything together

6. cool in refrigerator before serving.

before you link up - i have a few requests

- please follow my blog

- link up your just your blog post, not your entire blog.

- make sure you grab a button or link back to this post so if people are coming from your blog they can see everyone else's link up's here too.

i am also considering have co-hosts at some point! if you're interested, email me for more info at onefourthreeblog[at]gmail[dot]com.!

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friday.. you're uaully my favorite, not today.

wahhooo for another friday! i just love friday's - except... this friday isn't the greatest, only because i have to work tomorrow. boo. we work saturdays in rotations.. and this one happens to be mine. bummer dude. i worked two satrudays this month. oh well. it's still allllmost the weekend!

dear weekend - i am sad you're not a true weekend for me. working on saturday's is no fun.. i am literally driving on the road for almost the amount of time i'm at work. lame sauce for sure. so now i'm going to miss out on lots of you. dear target - man you've been awesome! i am digging my new shoes you gave me. i would also appreciate it if you could give me a couple new sweet swimsuits at low cost :) it's almost the end of the season.. you must have some clearance items now, right?

dear Jesus - i love you! i was blown away this weekend when i read john 17 and you affirmed that you pray for me. how amazing is that? thank you for being a prayer warrior of mine! :)

dear blog design - be prepared to be changed and to become awesome! i am so excited to put a little investment into you and make you more beautiful than ever! i'm still trying to figure out what 'style' i want to make you.. but i know you'll thank me when i'm all done!! dear garden - wow! you are bearing veggies and fruit like you wouldn't believe! i love the tomatoes so much i eat them before i get back in the house! and your peppers.. i have a feeling they're going to be too hot for me, but mr. b will be in heaven! now only if you would produce the squash.. i'm still waiting for that.

dear mr. b - thank you for all your sweet words and encouragement this week. you are so kind to me and you make me fall more in love with you each day! i do appreciate you sharing your heart with me at night while laying in bed, but please oh please.. can we talk at like.. dinner about this. cause those late nights are killing me in the morning! literally.

happy friday all!

xoxo

freedom friday.

i am so excited it's friday. to be honest, yesterday sucked. it was horrible and i am SO thankful for new days and refreshing starts!

i had the day off of work.. so i treated myself to some delicious coffee - usually we make it at home, but today i needed to spoil myself :)

i don't usually even go to starbucks - a couple years ago they made me really mad for quote they produced on a cup, but that's another story.. i actually prefer a coffee shop that started in the state i live in. it's starting to spread to other states now.. and next month there is a location opening in my city!!! i am SO excited!! :)

i had today off work because i'm getting ready for a mini weekend vacation with mr. b and some fabulous friends! :) don't worry though.. i have a wonderful lady to introduce you all to tomorrow - so even though i'm not here.. you'll still want to meet her, i promise!

dear weekend - i am so ready for you and you better be ready for me too! i'm all packed up, got the goodies ready, stomach prepared for unhealthy cooking, lungs ready for laughter and an attitude ready for a good time! :) dear mr. b - i am so thankful you are there to just listen and sit with me when i need to vent. i am so thankful for your wisdom and caring heart to lift me up when others knock me down. thank you for always pointing me to Christ!! i could never imagine my life without you. dear camera - i am bringing you on this trip.. but please oh please promise me you won't get wet, ruined, broke, or lost. you are my side kick and i need you to document all the fun we're about to have and then bring it home so i can show all my friends here :) dear roots family - thank you for loving me, for accepting me and for walking through scriptures with me. it's such a joy to be a part of your group and bible study :) i am so appreciative for each one of you. dear mom - please quit buying all these really cute clothes and shoes. you're making me way too jealous and you're tempting me to sneak over to your house while you're at work to steal them. if you see any of your clothes or shoes missing... it's not me ;) dear rain - thank you, thank you, thank you! you came!!! it was soooo enjoyable to have you! soon our grass wont be crispy anymore and we can have some luscious greenery back [maybe...i think we might actually need another 6 days full of you to even consider having our plants and grass come back to life]. and please don't ever leave for that long again. thanks :) dear bachelorette season finale - could you please pick my guy for the win? i'm anxious to watch you and might not make it home in time.. so if you could please remember to record yourself this time that would be fabulous as well!

xoxo

speed date round two.

alright.. so that sounds bad huh? no worries. i love mr. b dearly and don't ever, ever, EVER want to date another man. i wouldn't even want to speed date to date. this speed dating is for bloggers - safe and fun! it's a great way to meet new bloggie friends and get to know each other in a speedy time frame [although i would prefer getting to know each other over a pot cup of coffee :)]

the reason i am saying round two is because i have done this one other time already - if you wanna date me round one style - you can [here]

it was fun! so much fun i'm doing it again today!! come link up with nicole from our crazy beautiful.

but i am doing it kind of hybrid style.. i have seen these 'if you really knew me...' posts and thought - awesome! i'm totally doing that :) so here i am.. doing it. ha

if you really knew me... you would know that....

- i'm 'allergic' to anything acidic and citrus. i call it 'allergic' because i have reactions to it all.. but it doesn't stop me from enjoying all the delicious foods.

- i hate cats. like.. really, really hate cats. they creep me out. i am totally a dog person. but the more i think about it.. the more i'm okay with not having any pets. makes more room in the budget for more babies ;)

- i am OCD about having all the light switches facing the same direction when all the lights are out. i will purposely walk back to other switches just so they are all facing down.

- i have never liked my voice. i used to get teased about it in middle school because my voice is raspy and deep. school kids would tell me i should have been born a boy. and some older men told me it's sexy. i don't understand.. but i'm living with it.

- i don't wash my hair every day. it's really not good for your hair anyways.. i can usually make it 3 days before having to wash it again.. and sometimes i will use baby powder on my bangs. weird, but it works.

- i have never used or even started a lawn mower, leaf blower, weed-wacker.. or any of the sort. and if you really knew me.. you would know i never plan on learning how either. good thing mr. b loves that stuff!

- i am nervous to share my testimony tonight in front of my bible study.. it scares me to open up that much about my life to people i don't know very well.

- i am really struggling with finding other women Christ followers to build friendships with. all of my amazing and wonderful friends live 40+ minutes away and it's been really hard on me, especially during my first year of marriage.

- i am a first impression introvert, but really i am an extravert. i am really goofy and silly around people i'm super comfortable with. if i get that way around you.. feel special - because the older i get, the more shy i get.. how is this possible???

- i am full of ideas, desires and dreams, but fearful that if i pursue them i'll either get laughed at, denied, or won't be good enough at it. or that it's not what the Lord is even calling me to..

- i am a follower of Christ and my relationship with him is my top priority over all else.

link up with me here!

test.im.on...y

have you ever noticed that the word testimony spells out test-im-on but with a y on the end?

it's so amazing how each of us all have our own testimonies. our own stories. no two stories are a like. we have our 'main' testimony i will call it.. of how we met the Lord and who we were before Christ's redemption and who we are after experiencing the love and sacrifice he gave so freely for us. there are other smaller testimonies we have when we go through difficult times like losing a loved one, divorce, sin struggles, unemployment/job loss.. etc. there are even testimonies of God's faithfulness and the good things that happen.

i have been reflecting on my story this week. the story that God is writing for me. i've been looking at the big picture of who i was, where i was.. and how far i've come by the power and saving grace of Jesus. i don't reflect on this enough. sometimes it's hard to look at my past and almost 're-live' those moments i'm not proud of.. the moments of hurt, struggle, confusion, abuse, pain, loneliness, and sin.

don't get me wrong.. i still do sin, but this time it's different. i no longer sin willingly or intentionally. my sin is now backed up by conviction and frustration. my sin now isn't fun, it isn't beneficial [well.. it never was to begin with]. now.. my sin something i repent of and pray that i would no longer do. 

i pray that someday i am able to share my full story with you. and i pray that when i do.. God would be glorified and Christ's name would shine above all. he deserves all the credit for who i am today. i am not the same. i am forever changed.

i don't thank Him enough for loving me freely, living a sinless life and dying for my sinful life, and securing me to have eternal life with him forever.

so i continue to sit, reflect, pray and seek Jesus more for who i am today and saving me from the chains i was once enslaved to. 

thank you, Jesus. thank you.



i'm linking up with kelly at [the houtz house party] for into the word wednesday

friday the thirteenth.

yay for friday's! i am super excited for this friday because we have lots of fun things planned for the weekend! sometimes my boss likes to do random things.. like have hawaiian day 3 weeks in a row because we fail to dress up every time. well not this time.. it's hawaiian day today! [i totally didn't dress up for it either.. all my hawaiian grub is at my mom's house packed away somewhere with all my other fun costumes]. oh well - maybe we'll make it 4 weeks in a row :)

i am so excited for everyone that joined in with the meet and tweet yesterday! the link is still open and we are SOOOOO close to 200 people!! that is super exciting! laura at [our reflection] is going to give away a FREE large ad space to one lucky lady if we hit 200 - feel the excitement and link up my friends!

here's to you - friday the thirteenth - and friday's letters.

dear friday the thirteenth - you really don't scare me. i'm not superstitious. everyone freaks out when you show up thinking something bad will happen. if it does - it's life, bad things happen every day.. so should every day be friday the thirteenth? friday.. yes.. the thirteenth.. not so much. :) dear mr. b - you are too silly. i can't believe i was up before you this morning! then again.. yes i can.. you stayed up way too late watching your crazy 'satruday morning cartoons' and it wasn't even saturday.. and they aren't even cartoons??? i don't understand.. but they speak so much truth to you, so i'm game for your saturday morning cartoon craze. dear work commute - to simply put it.. you suck. you are 26miles and it takes me 40+ minutes AND i drive fast.. but you just don't add up. and to top things off.. you had to add another one of these??

do you realize i am now up to 18 of you? 18 is my favorite number.. but not when it comes to you! and did you also realize the first 16 are within my first 5 miles? as if you weren't bad enough.. the one thing that makes you even worse is that NONE of you are in sync. why can't you just allow traffic to go with the flow? <-- this is one of my biggest pet peves - remember how i was saying about that one time i did a vlog.. but then couldn't upload it? yup.. this was my answer to what is your biggest pet peve. dear [#shereadstruth] - i am so so so thankful i stumbled upon you. i found you just in time for your new study on prayer and it's been a blessing so far! [it's only day 2!] :) --side note plug in.. if you haven't heard of this and want to be encouraged daily by lots of other women while diving into scripture, check it out [here]!]

i have been really enjoying this study on prayer - especially because this is one of the largest areas i want to grow in with my walk - i long for a heart of prayer. dear meet and tweet hop - so much fun! i really enjoyed co-hosting you! :) it was a blast meeting SO many new people and gaining lots of new followers to connect with!

 xoxo.