I iz down in da dumps...

As much as I want to say I am all sunshine and lollipops, the truth is:

 I iz down in da dumps...

The past month has been a little rough on this household and I need to vent.

7 reasons I iz down in da dumps...

1) Dr. Hubs is halfway through teaching Summer 1.  He has 2 weeks left and was hoping he wouldn't have to teach Summer 2 so that he could really work hard on his dissertation, but it looks as though he has to.  When he signed up to teach this summer, he had no idea how time consuming teaching summer classes was going to be.  The class is only 2 hours long, but the preparation, and the grading, and the office hours and insane number of emails coming from his students...he is one super busy guy!  We are thankful for the opportunity though because this is certainly giving him a chance to grow in his soon to be profession.  Why does that put me in the dumps though?  I miss my husband.  I'm still feeling like a phd widow.  I know it will pass, and it will eventually get better, especially after he gets his career settled.  But I miss him right now...alot :(  And he misses me.  A husband and wife need time to spend with each other, to talk, to dream, to plan, to just be.  And with work, and a toddler, and household duties, etc, it's been hard to find lately.  We are currently working on a plan to fix this.  We have a devotional called Nightlight that we have started up.  We also are focusing on praying together more often.  Now we just need to find some time to just be together- to play a game, to sit outside and visit over a glass of wine, to dream about our future...just time to be together!

2) I am literally going loco. I am content in my life, but I just might be going crazy! I seriously feel like all I do is laundry, dishes, vacuum, sweep and pick up toys.  Every.day.  And with Dr Hubs having to work so much, I pretty much run the household on my own, and I don't mind doing it, but it is exhausting!  I love being a stay at home mom, truly.  Being a mom is the MOST AMAZING, rewarding, exciting adventure of my life.  And I am so blessed that God entrusted me and Cory with Little E.  But without Mothers Day Out to break up my week, summer is making me loco.  Thankfully, our church offers alot of different children's activities that we get to participate in.  And we also have some really great friends to play with.  But I need to come up with a way to structure my days of the week, so that I do not feel like I am living in a loophole.  I need structure.  I need plans.  I need to-do lists with projects.  I was telling my mom about this this morning and she tells me what I am feeling is very normal.  Most moms feel this way at some point and that I will work through it and come up with something that works for me. I am really looking forward to Mom getting off work later today, because I told her this morning on her way to work " I need some Mom therapy.  Call me later!"  Right now, I am in the process of getting these things figured out and hopefully my amazing Mom will open my eyes to something that will help me (as she always does!  So thankful for my amazing mom!).  But until that phonecall, I will continue going loco.

3)  I still have headaches.  I will be posting an update at the end of the week on my most recent chiropractic x-rays. There is a good reason for all these headaches and Dr. P assures me that it will be getting better.  I really hope that comes sooner rather than later though!

4)  Eli is teething.  He has been one cranky little boy the past few weeks.  And I would be too if I had 6 little white teeth rearing their pearly heads through my gums all at the same time.  I really could do without the whole teething stage.  If you have experienced a teething toddler, then you can understand.  I am crazy jealous of those of you whose children popped their teeth right through the gums with no problem.

5) Summer of 7 has not gone well this past 2 weeks (which stresses me out! When is stress week again?), although I was able to tackle my small craft room and come up with 1 giant huggies box full of donations (success!)  With all the crisis-i (yes, that is crisis plural in my world), a sick baby, a sick doggie, half a million appointments and just keeping up with the day to day, I have not been able to focus on clothes week and possessions week, which were 2 weeks I was really looking forward to, as I am in super purge mode. I am going to talk to Dr. Hubs and we will come up with a gameplan.  Our summer of 7 schedule will be revised, as I want to revisit clothes week and possessions and we want to do this together.

6) I am about to embark on a 850 mile roadtrip with a husky and a toddler, by myself.  Pray for me.  Please.

7) And the biggest reason I iz down in da dumps: We lost a sweet member of our family this past week.

We are dog lovers in this household.  We love big dogs and they are a huge part of our family.  Our dogs travel with us; they exercise with us; they love our Little E; they are so happy to see us at any given moment of the day.  I seriously don't understand how people live without a dog.  When you find the right one, they add so much love to your household.  We have 2 of the sweetest, most gentle 60 lb dogs you will ever know.  Cali, our husky is 3 and a crazy jokester.  June (aka Junebug) was our older "little" girl.  Dr Hubs has had her since his college days.  She was a stray that he found back in 2000.  He tried to find her home and posted signs saying he had her, but no one claimed her.  So she became his.  She was probably about a year old when he got her.  She has moved from College Station at A&M, to Amarillo, to St Louis, to Amarillo again, to Plainview in her 12 years.  She has been to the beach several times, gone hiking in the canyon and been on so many road trips that we've lost count.  She was the sweetest, most obedient dog and she loved her people.  Her love language was touch (she would literally lay right next to you with a paw on you at all times) and milk bones were her crack! ;)

 On Thursday, her time came as kidney disease was claiming her sweet life.  Making the choice to put your friend to sleep is a hard one, but we feel at peace about our decision as we knew it was time.  She had grown weak and her body was shutting down.  We never imagined 3 weeks ago when she was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and kidney disease that we would lose her so quickly.  We really thought we would have a few months, at least.  2 weeks ago, she was running around outside like a crazy dog, just playing and loving life.  But we are thankful for the 12 years she and Cory shared and the 7 years that I also got to enjoy her companionship.  And we are thankful for her sweet personality and how she loved Little E.

I will recover from da dumps.  I know things will perk up and get better.  Life just has its days that bring ya down sometimes.  But I am not gonna let it keep me down.  I am going to reset.  I have some conversations to have with my mom and my husband.  I'll fill ya in on my "reset" later this week.  I am thinking I may just focus on summer of 7's "stress week" for the next few weeks ;)

{7} Possessions Week

Yep.  I'm going beyond crazy!

Last week was so busy.  I hardly had a chance to breath between VBS, a sick kiddo, a sick mommy, a sick doggie, and having something to do or somewhere to be every moment of last week.  Phew! We survived!

Update on the passing out doggie: We ran a few tests and found that June has congestive heart failure and kidney failure.  With the right medications, she could be around for quite a while still.  We have her on heart medications and she was acting way better, playing without passing out, and acting like herself.  But over the past week, she has decided to go on a food strike :(  I will be taking her back to the vet today to see if it is the medicine upsetting her tummy causing her to not eat, or if her body is shutting down.  It's so hard to tell.  Otherwise, her quality of life is still great.  If she doesn't eat, it will quickly be not so great.  So we are still trying to figure out what we can do to keep her more comfortable.  We certainly don't want to put her to sleep if its a matter of getting her on the right medications that will make her feel better.  If it is her body shutting down, then, well, we haven't discussed that yet.  It's so sad to lose a pet :(

On to happy news....VBS was a huge success! We had about 270 kiddos total and many offered their lives to Christ!  How awesome!  I just love VBS! It is one of the best weeks of the summer in my books!  But it is oh so very exhausting!

Now I am playing catch up.  I totally didn't get to clean out our closets for Clothes week. So its a good thing that this week is POSSESSIONS week, because I will be purging my house and my closets.

I will focus on one of these rooms each day, with a goal in mind of getting rid of at least 7 things per room, but I can guarantee it will be waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more.  Having all this crap stuff is beginning to make me quite literally insane.  And everything is pretty dang organized...there is just so much!  Talk about excess!

Farewell crap stuff!

The Rooms

1. My office
2. Master Bedroom/Bathrooms/Closets
3. Eli's Room
4. Guest Bath/Kitchen
5. Main office
6. Living Room
7.  Garage

Today, I am working in my office and I am on purge mode.  It feels good!  I will try to report each day on my progress!

Sorry for the short post, but I have crap stuff to purge ;)

{Summer of 7} Amazing Aviation, A sick baby and a week about Clothes

Fancy title, huh?

It's only Wednesday and this week has been pure craziness.  It's VBS week at church and I LOVE it.   Our theme this year is Amazing Aviation.  This is just a piece of our kindergartner room, but check out the plane that Dr. Hubs built!

Complete with seating and windows!

And it was deemed "awesome" by all the kiddos!

We had 19 kindergartners in our class on Monday and 24 yesterday!  Pure craziness (especially after snack time-chocolate + 5 year olds + bible story time = alot of patience from the teachers!) LOL!  But sooo incredibly awesome at the same time.  It is a blessing to be able to teach these young ones about the love of Jesus!

When I haven't been at VBS, its been one crisis after another at home.  The most current crisis: A sick baby.

You know you don't feel good when you are passing out during dinner time.

He was diagnosed with bronchitis on June 1.  Yesterday, after VBS, we got home and he wasn't acting like his normal happy self.  He had a temp of nearly 102.  Typically, I wait a few days when he gets a temp before I take him to the doctor (unless its some ungodly temperature-which we haven't experienced yet and pray we never do).  But since we have bronchitis, off we went, just to make sure we weren't getting pnuemonia.  Chest x-rays are fine.  So on top of the bronchitis that we STILL have, he also has phyarngitis- which is just a fancy way of saying "sore throat due to bacterial infection or a virus." So we are missing VBS today :( Which is really sad because 1) I love it and 2) this is Eli's first year to participate in VBS and he too was loving it.  Once we are fever free for 24 hours we are safe to go back to VBS.

So it is Wednesday, day 4 of CLOTHES week.  I meant to post earlier this week about our guidelines for ourselves, but this is the first day I have been able to sit down and work on my computer!

****

So I know most everyone is choosing 7 clothing items to wear for a week.  But I am not doing that.  I think I just heard everyone gasp.

I have been on a weight loss journey since January 2011 and went from 190 at my biggest to my current weight 124.  That is pretty much the reason this blog came to be in the first place.  And really in the past 6 months, I have super revved up that part of my life with a couple more rounds of turbofire, Insanity and now training for a 1/2 marathon.

If you asked me 30 lbs ago if I had an excess of clothes, I would say heck yes, because I hung out around 150 lbs for several years.    And I still have alot of those clothes (in storage bins- which I plan to use as maternity clothes later lol)  But a 30 lb loss later, I have limited clothing options.  So while I have alot of clothes, I don't really have alot clothes.  It's like I buy some jeans or a cute shirt, and 1 month later, it doesn't fit.  I am close to my goal weight, but the inches apparently keep falling off. (yay!) There came a time a few months back where I seriously had like 6 shirts to my name that fit me, and zero pairs of jeans that fit.  And I kept wearing the jeans that didn't fit, and my friends would call me "droopy drawers!"  I just recently got back in that boat again.  I need some jeans that my booty will fit into...again!  I say, Farewell booty!!!

So rather than limit myself to 7 items, we have decided to take 7 actions.  The 7 actions are:

1) Clean out Dr. Hub's closet.  He has a stupid amount of t-shirts, some of which are at least 10 years old!  Maybe I can finally get him to get rid of them!

2) Clean out my closet.  I do have t-shirts that I never wear. And I am sure there is more that doesn't fit me. (such a terrible problem to get to small for your clothes!) That's a problem I never had before, but I am grateful to have that problem ;)

3) Clean out E's closet.  I did this just a few weekends ago, but I do have a box of clothes that I will be giving to a friend with a little boy a couple months younger than E.  I am going to go through his clothing again just to see if there is anything I can add to that box!  I am so lucky that so many of my friends have boys!  It works out great.  My friend Courtney has 2 boys.  She gives her clothes to Emilee (whose little boy is 3 months older than E), Emilee gives them to me, and when E is done with them I pass them on to Melissa!  And we all take really good care of the clothes so they are in great condition!  I have never really spent much on clothes for E because I have amazing friends!

4) I will donate any excess shoes that I don't regularly wear.

5) Dr Hubs will donate any excess shoes that he doesn't regularly wear.  Although he doesn't quite have the shoe excess that I do.  He wears his shoes out til his toes are just nearly poking through!

6)  Clean out linen closet.  I know that's not clothes, but we have many blankets/sheets/comforters that we never use.  They just take up space.  They could be keeping someone else warm.

7) Take all donated items to a local charity organization.  I love Salvation Army and Goodwill and I donate to them quite often.  But I would rather these items be given away as free, like at a homeless shelter. I have asked some of the women in the Women's Ministry and they suggest either the Crisis Center or the Dare to Believe Ministry, both of which reach out to the needy in Hale County.  I will be looking into both and taking our donations early next week!

Engrave your Name on your Husband's Heart

Engrave your Name on your Husband’s Heart

This weekend, I celebrated my 5 year wedding anniversary with the man of my dreams, my best friend, my soulmate.  I remember that day perfectly.  I remember the moment I vowed to love this man forever.  And he vowed to love me forever in return.  I have never once doubted this marriage. 

I know that God has chosen this man for me!

They say the first few years of marriage are the most difficult.  I say the first few years of marriage are the easiest.  Those first few years are full of romantic love, puppydog love, or extreme “squishiness” as we like to call it.  But as you get to know your spouse, as careers are in full swing, as you begin to grow your family; the romance may dissipate as a predictable routine begins to take place and the storms of life blow in.  We hear so many stories of people falling “out of love” and marriages ending in divorce.  Why?  The greatest challenge in the world of marriage is transitioning from romantic love to mature love.  If couples plan only to survive on romantic love, they will feel overwhelmed when that “puppy dog love” begins to fade. That is when people “fall out of love.”  But if we can learn to make the transition to mature love, a love that is unconditional; a love that draws meaning, purpose and fulfillment;  a love that grows in service, obedience, and character; then we can have the most amazing marriage that God designed for us.......

Want to read more? I am guest posting for my friend Viviene at The Journey of A Woman and you can read the rest of the story here.  <---CLICK THAT!!!!

Viviene is awesome and I love her blog! I know you will too! Be sure to check out her facebook page and subscribe to her blog! And leave her some comment love!

{Summer of 7} Food Week in Review

You may have heard me talking about the Summer of 7 experiment, in which I hopped on the crazy train of living on less and doing it to grow closer to Him, allowing him to change my heart.

So here is my journal from through out the week, as we dealt with the excess in the area of FOOD.  Next week, I will post mid week and at the end of the week, to save you from having a giant post to read ;)  Sorry about that.  So here ya go! 

Oh and as a reminder, these are the rules we made for ourselves for FOOD week.

1)  We will be boycotting (mostly- that's explained in rule 2) the grocery store and restaurants this week.  I was due to go to the store this week, however, we still have alot of food and my meal planning will be based off of what we already have.  Poor Hubby.  No Freebirds Mondays :(  And meal planning is going to be interesting...

2) I say mostly boycotting because I still have a toddler to feed!  I am not going to deny him milk just because we run out so we may have to go to the store to get him milk.  But other than that if we need any food, it will be from the local farmers market only.  I sure hope they have eggs, considering I only have 6 eggs left!

3)  Drink only water. 

4) We want each week to have a task of giving.  So for this week, we are going to contact a local food bank and ask what types of foods they are in need of and go through our pantry to match what they need.

Day 2

Day 1 went well.  Although when I said we were boycotting the grocery store, I didn’t realize I had like 8 oz of milk and 6 eggs left!   I sure hope the farmers market has eggs!  And we are out of low-fat ranch…I love ranch.  I see food as a means of transportation for condiments!  This is going to be harder than I thought! Yes, ranch is that important to me...

Day 3

Wow.  I'm feel stupid right about now.  By now, I would have gone to the grocery store and loaded up on groceries.  Groceries that I didn’t even need.  Last night, we had chicken parmesan on a small bed of pasta with mashed potatoes.  Tonight, I made zucchini enchiladas.  Both dishes were AWESOME.  They were so yummy and would ya believe, I didn’t go to the store for those items.  I already had them, even though I was “due” to go to the grocery store.  How much money have I been wasting going to the store when I already had so much of it here?  Gah!   I admit I am one that has to occasionally toss food because it gets forgotten, or the menu plan has to change due to schedule changes.  I had to toss 1 banana away today.  I felt even more guilty then I normally do.  And Dr Hubs usually keeps sandwich makings at work.  He had to toss a few pieces of bread.  He felt bad too.  L  Who are we to have such an abundance of food that we can just throw away food because its “replaceable?”  Ugh.   I use to feel guilty because I was wasting my money by throwing out food.  But I feel my heart stirring.  Now I feel guilty because there are so many that don’t know when their next meal will be.  What I am throwing in the trash could be their next meal.  That makes me ill.  That someone has to dig in the trash to find food.  No one should have to do that.  When I was reading Alene’s post about the homeless, my heart sank.  It just plain sank.  My heart hurts for them.  What can I do?  I am asking the same question as many of us that have lost our minds enough to tackle 7.  What is my part?  I’m still trying to figure that out and I’m praying that God will reveal it to me.

Day 5

Didn’t get a chance to write yesterday.   On a funny note, things are getting interesting around here.  While we still have a ridonkulous amount of food in our pantries, we have run out of cheese, lunch meat, milk, sour cream and fresh veggies. Dang farmers market getting rained out!  And we have 4 eggs left.  When cooking from scratch, you kind of need eggs often.  Hmm…. We are also rationing the bread.  We have like 4 slices left.  I think tomorrow I will see if I can figure out how the heck to use the bread machine.   Dinner was interesting tonight.  We wanted to make Mexican food and we didn’t have any refried beans.  So we squished some ranch style beans until they looked like refried beans.  Eh, it worked.  But I really missed having sprinkly cheese and sour cream for the tacos/tostados we made.    Oh and I accidently cheated today.  I had some cereal for lunch, because we are down to slim pickings for lunch type foods.  I didn’t even think about the whole “only water” thing because I was technically making a meal of it…not pouring a glass of milk.  Ooooops.  I really didn’t think about it.  Now my husband is calling me a cheater!

 On a more serious note, I am still struggling with trying to figure out what my “part” is.  I can’t fix the problem.  I can’t cure world hunger.  What is my small donation compared to when you look at the big picture?  I reflected on that a bit today after discussing the Summer of 7 with a few friends while decorating for VBS.  It dawned on me that sometimes it is the small things that make a world of a difference.  If everyone did a “small thing,” how much could this world change?  Gonna chew on that thought for a little bit.

Day 6

Today I called FISH (Faith in Sharing House), a local food bank.  I was slightly uncomfortable calling.  I’m unsure why.  I guess maybe because I have never called a food bank before, and I wasn’t exactly sure what to say. 

“Umm, hi. Ya, I’ve taken a mutiny against excess, and so I would like to donate my excess.”

Ok, that’s not what I said.  I guess it was just out of my comfort zone, but sometimes that what God calls us to do, right?

Here’s how the convo actually went.

Lady on the phone: Hi, thanks for calling Faith in Sharing House.  How can I help you?
Me:  Hi, yes, I have a question for you.  I was curious what items yall are in need of at this time.

Lady: Oh, are you donating as part of a Sunday school or a church organization?

Me:  No.  Just my family.  My family and I would like to donate.

Lady: *long pause*  Really??

Me:  Yes really!

Lady:  Wow!  That’s wonderful! That’s incredible! Thank you so much!

And she proceeded to tell me what items they are in need of.   And all the items they need, we do not have in excess!  So we decided to purchase the items that the food bank needs, and take that out of our personal food budget.  It made my heart warm and fuzzy when the lady on the phone was so grateful for my family wanting to donate.  But it also made me a little sad.  Most of their donations must come from larger organizations or groups (which is great!).  But it also means very few, if any, individual families donate, without being prompted.   You heard me going on in yesterday’s entry about finding my “part.”  Perhaps donating to the food bank each month is “my part.”  It will decrease my excess at home, and it will bless others.

  

Day 7

Today was our anniversary.  And it was AMAZING.  It deserves its own blogpost ;) Which will be coming soon.

Take Away

So what are we taking away from the first week of 7?   

• We had more food in our pantry than I thought.
• We spend way more $ on groceries when in reality, I can make a lot of it homemade with stuff that I already have.
• I'm capable of making homemade goods! I made bread, roasted butternut squash and even baked a homemade cake!!  I even made homemade biscuits this week! No scary can that you have to pop open! Go me!
• We can get creative when the food is running out.
• We don’t need to eat out all the time to enjoy ourselves.  Our anniversary was amazing and it didn’t involve a fancy dinner!
•  Most importantly, we discovered that our part, however small, can still have a big impact.  God calls us to bless others.  After all, everything that we have, everything that we have been given, is ultimately His.  And this excess that we have can be used for a greater good.  We need to share this excess to bless others!

{Made 2 Crave} Think it Over!

You know the song...

"Stop! In the name of love.  Before you break my heart.  Think it ooooooover."

Think it over.


Sometimes we can muster up the gumption to think it over on our own and avoid the slippery slope of compromise.  But more often than not, we need measures of accountability. -Made to Crave Devo

Do you have anyone or anything that keeps you accountable?  Accountable in your journey of physical fitness and accountable in your journey of growing in your faith?

I created this blog for accountability.  That was the whole purpose behind this thing.  And it worked for me.  I love knowing I have friends and family that read this blog.  And for those of you I don't know personally, I really appreciate you taking the time to read this blog.  It means so much to me!  And you, the readers, are my accountability partners.   Since starting this blog, I have lost over 50  lbs, grown closer to God and changed things about myself that I never thought I could change.  It has done wonders for me! And I continue to grow!

What keeps you accountable?  Your friends?  Your spouse?  Your parents?  A journal?

Ask someone to be your accountability partner. But remember, accountability and responsibility go hand in hand.   Set your goals and share them with that person.  And then take action!  Do what it takes to achieve your goals.  Report in to your accountability partner and encourage one another!

I strongly encourage you to find someone or something to keep you accountable for the goals you have for yourself in life.  It is 10,000 times easier to have someone taking the journey with you.

I have 2 new accountability partners.  My friend Taryn (we've known each other for like 15 years! My goodness we are old!)  and my friend Tyler from nursing school.  And both whom live very far away from me, but they are still keeping me accountable!   For what you may ask???

That's right.  I haven't even run an official 5k yet (although I can unofficially run one.  Clocked 3.5 miles on Tuesday and 3.2 on Thursday!)  But here I am... training for a half marathon.  A little cray-cray I think.  And I get shin splints just thinking about running that far.  They better have like 5 bottles of wine waiting at the finish line for me.  Something about running through the Disney parks at night and having some post-run wine makes running that far seem a little more bearable.

When I called Taryn to visit on the phone about our upcoming Color Run 5k, she somehow convinced me to run 13.1 miles, when I wasn't even sure I could run 3.1 miles comfortably! She is terribly persuasive, that girl! And now I am nervous, scared, and anxious about this upcoming race.  But also SUPER crazy excited.  Running a half marathon is on my bucket list, after all.  It's just one I never thought I would mark off ;)

And let me tell you about Tyler. He's happily offered to be my "personal trainer!"  He is currently training for an Ironman.  And he is the most fit person I know.  So I know I am in good hands!  And I am incredibly thankful for him!

I have 2 very awesome accountability partners.  And without them, I don't think I could do this!

Those accountability partners are going to help me achieve a dream I never even thought possible!!

So, go get yourself an accountability partner and make your dream a reality!

What is something you need an accountability partner for?  Do you have one?  Share it in the comments!

{Listable Life} 5 Things I do Every Week

I couldn't hardly decide what to include in this weeks Listable Life- 5 Things I do Every Week.  Considering I do 8,904,785 things a week, I really had to narrow it done, otherwise this blogpost would take an eternity to read.  So here are ....

5 Things I do Every Week

5.  Finances.  Whoohoo! Let me tell you how much I love being keeper of the finances....*crickets*....

     While finances may not be the highlight of my week, I have to admit I am pretty darn proud of how organized I have everything in this little binder.  We use this awesome and free budgeting template to budget each month and I also use CleanMama's bill pay kit from esty.  And I just love I heart organizing's etsy store. I have a few of her printables and I will soon buy her entire family binder! I LOVE her stuff! I also have a place for all receipts which then get entered into an ipad app called Xpense Tracker.  I tag each receipt into a category and at the end of the month can see exactly what was spent where.  It also serves as our "envelope system" and keeps us from overspending.  I also have a section in this binder for our chiropractor visits! A section for each family member-each with a calendar that has the number of the adjustment, and the amt paid.  Ya, I'm totally OCD like that.  So again, while I may not enjoy doing finances, I do love my Finance folder. ;)

4.  Blog.  I blog every week, at least 4 times a week.  Sometimes its a day by day basis.  Other days I actually have time to prepare a few days ahead of time.  Luckily, writing comes pretty easily to me so I can usually whip up a post pretty quickly and I don't actually live on my computer ;) 

3. Thank God for allowing me to be a mom! (I LOVE IT!)

 And teach my kid new things. 

 Like how to do an evil laugh.

  (don't mind the face plant at the end...)

                                                         Or  anatomy and physiology 101...

 2.  Visit with my parents.  Nearly everyday, I talk with my parents, either through iPad facetime, iPhone facetime, windows live webcam, text or good old fashioned phonecalls.  Eli actually will give his grandparents a kiss via ipad (which means he smooches my ipad leaving a big slobbery smear on the screen).  Technology has certainly made the 900 mile distance between us seem like much less.  I have the best parents! Love you guys!

1.  Love on my husband.  I seriously love this man.  He completes me.  He makes me whole.  And all the other squishy things you can say about the love of your life.  He is my best friend!!!

He really is my soulmate and I love him so much! 

       

Linking Up at MTDL and Momof6!

7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess

Last week, I wrote a post asking "are cravings chasing you? And now I know why that was on my heart.  Although that post confused me, I rationalized that it was ok for me to want these things.  And if my heart only wants these things to utilize as a creative outlet, maybe it still is ok.  I don't know.  I'm still pretty darn confused!  But one thing is for sure.  Our world (me included) lives in a world of excess. I got a message from my friend Alene at PositivelyAlene inviting me to join her and a handful of Christian bloggers in a faith related challenge.  A challenge to change our hearts in regards to this excess.

Enter 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess  (<--read that post. its amazing!)

In this book, Jen Hatmaker takes 7 months to simplify and remove the excess from her life in the following areas: Food, Clothes, Possessions, Media, Waste, Spending and Stress.

But she doesn't do this to just take on the challenge and to make it through it.  She does it because our Savior calls us to be more like Him.  More loving to those around us. More giving to those in need. 

There are so many people around the world, starving.  Yet I forgot about that produce that has to be thrown out now.  There are so many people who have so little clothes (ok, I might be one of them considering I have little that fits! Just kidding!)...so many that are happy to have the few clothing items they have, yet I have to shop at American Eagle to find jeans.  There are so many people with so little, yet I have a 3 bedroom/2 bath house with a giant yard with a stupid amount of stuff we have accumulated over the years, yet there are people living out there with so little to thier name.  There are so many people who don't even know what social media/internet/technology is and yet, I use it everyday.  Multiple times a day.  I waste.  I spend.  I stress.

"I wanted to be more like Jesus, except when I didn't"  That's what Jen Hatmaker said.  It's honest. And I say ditto.  I want to be more like Jesus except.... 


I want to be more like Jesus except  I like my many food options and that I can meal plan and go to the store for whatever the heck I need. 


 I want to be more like Jesus except I like my technology and having information at my fingertips through the internet any a moment's notice.  


I want to be more like Jesus except I like my many clothes and many shoes options. 


 I like having all the "stuff" but at the same time, I don't. 


 It's complicated.

Some of the stuff makes like easier.  Without the technology, living 900 miles away from my family would be very sad.  My son knows his grandparents thanks to the nearly daily iPad facetime we have in between actual visits.  Not all of what we have is bad, its just that we have sooooo much when others don't.

The husband is willingly joining me on this journey.  I'm such a lucky wife!  We are so blessed to have everything that we do and we are so thankful for all that we have.  But in doing this experiment, we hope our hearts will change.  That we will have a heart for those around us and those in need. And that we will be satisfied with much less.


Over the following weeks, We will focus on simplifying our lives in the following areas and for each of us that are participating in this blog, we are creating "rules" for ourselves that we don't ordinarily follow.  Rules that will hopefully change our hearts because we have to make dramatic changes to our current lifestyle.  Now granted, it is only for one week each. But perhaps it will create some lasting changes in our lifestyle and our hearts.


Here's the schedule. 


June 3-9 FOOD
June 10-16 CLOTHES
June 17-23 POSSESSIONS
June 24-30 SPENDING
July 1-7  STRESS
July 8-14  MEDIA
July 15- 21  WASTE


 Dr Hubs and I will discuss/create the rules as each week comes about, and each Monday I will blog about the coming week and what it entails.  I will be reading the corresponding chapter of 7 that goes with each week as well.  On Saturday, I will post the results of the week.  I am planning on keeping a short diary of sorts for each day as the week progresses and I will post that on Saturday.  And you can also find me complaining discussing my journey on twitter too! (#summerof7)


So for this week, the focus is food and here are our following rules. 


1)  We will be boycotting (mostly- that's explained in rule 2) the grocery store and restaurants this week.  I was due to go to the store this week, however, we still have alot of food and my meal planning will be based off of what we already have.  Poor Hubby.  No Freebirds Mondays :(  And meal planning is going to be interesting...


2) I say mostly boycotting because I still have a toddler to feed!  I am not going to deny him milk just because we run out so we may have to go to the store to get him milk.  But other than that if we need any food, it will be from the local farmers market only.  I sure hope they have eggs, considering I only have 6 eggs left!


3)  Drink only water. 


4) We want each week to have a task of giving.  So for this week, we are going to contact a local food bank and ask what types of foods they are in need of and go through our pantry to match what they need.


Wanna hop on the crazy train with us and join the Summer of 7?  Check out Katrina's site, The Poorganic Life for the details!  And join the Blog Hop!



  

{Guest Post} Do you have 5 minutes?

I would like to introduce you to my fellow Sits-tah Viviene from The Journey of a Woman where she blogs about faith, marriage, food and travel.  She and her husband currently live in the Philippines  (how cool is that!!??)  I feel pretty darn blessed to have someone guest posting for me from the other side of the world!!  For those of us that are married, part of being spiritually and emotionally fit includes having a healthy, loving, Christ-centered marriage. Viviene is here to share with you how just 5 minutes a day can greatly impact your marriage.  Thanks for being here Viviene!!!

Do you have 5 minutes?

Let me start by sharing with you my husband’s success story. About two years ago, he was so mentally and physically stressed at work. He had been losing some weight even though he was eating well. You have to understand that my husband is very athletic. He was into rowing and mountaineering and being thin is just so not him! He figured he had to do something. He needed to exercise and bring back his muscles. He then exercised for 5 minutes. Everyday. Let me repeat that, 5 minutes EVERYDAY. He was so into it that he would never let laziness get in the way. In months, I saw how his bumps improved. And boy, he was sexy!

Why did I tell you that story? Because I wanted to share with you the (not so) secret ingredient to a happy marriage... The 5 minute cuddle.

Yes, just 5 minutes. And I want you to do this everyday.

 For 5 minutes...
*  Don’t think about your deadlines. Turn your phone off. Forget about your blog for a while. Don’t open your Facebook account.

* Kiss him. Hug each other. Laugh. Stare at his face.

*  Make it regular. Make it part of your day. Make it a habit to connect with your spouse physically and emotionally.

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.

-Song of Songs 1:2

If there’s any area where we score highest in our married life, it would be intimacy. We invest on that on a daily basis. We have that 5 minute cuddle EVERYDAY (and mostly, multiple times a day).

Do you have 5 minutes? Are you willing to invest that 5 minutes for your marriage?

Viviene is the woman behind the blog, "The Journey of aWoman" where she shares about her faith and married life. She hopes that through her blog, she would be able to evangelize, minister and encourage single women and young wives to be more Christlike and achieve their full potential for God's glory. Apart from blogging, she is also her husband's helpmate in their business. She believes that a wife has a very significant role in the life of their husbands. 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Journey-of-a-Woman/132050793513458

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/teacher_viviene

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/viviene/