Praying for guidance and direction

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Matthew 6:33

I tend to be a worrier by nature. But honestly, I don't "worry" about things in the typical sense of the word, but its more about planning things and over thinking things. I don't truly worry because I  know in my heart that "in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). So I know I don't have to stress about something as long as I'm involving God in my decision. God is in control and will bless me and whatever my situation is ACCORDING TO HIS WILL. And that is one of the hardest things to understand sometimes because God doesn't say bad things won't happen to us, but He will work them to glorify His name and we must trust that HE is in control and will see us through the storm. It is our responsibility to keep a positive, trusting attitude through the storm.
All of that to say that I have had a big decision weighing on my mind for a few months now. It has kind of turned in this direction and that direction and I have prayed for God's direction and clarity through every twist and turn it has taken. I THOUGHT I was ready to make a decision a little while back and then God really convicted me to wait on HIS timing. (That is where my worrying/planning comes in. I sometimes have a problem being patient and waiting.) So I went back to praying and waiting and praying and waiting. I really wanted this decision to be in accordance with God's will for my life because it could either greatly benefit our family and bless our lives or be a major burden for our family.
As of yesterday I still hadn't received the confirmation and clarity and I was waiting on God to give me. Last night though I received some exciting news about this "potential" opportunity and immediately I started praying again. This morning I opened my devotional, Jesus Calling by Sarah Young, and it said "You gain confidence through knowing that I am with you-that you face nothing alone. Anxiety stems from asking the wrong question: 'If such and such happens, can I handle it?' The true question is not whether you can cope with whatever happens, but whether you and I together can handle anything that occurs. It is this you-and-I-together factor that gives you confidence to face the day cheerfully." Wow! Did I need that or what? And then on top of that one of the verses it gave was Philippians 4:13 which says, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." I am so thankful for these reassuring words. Because of this I know that as long as I am seeking God and walking with Him I can take this opportunity in confidence. I thank Him for this opportunity and will continue to pray for guidance and direction each and every new step I take. I have spent the whole morning today cleaning (yuck!) while listening to the Chris Tomlin station on Pandora (yay!) and through these worship songs I have felt a true peace about this decision and with my husbands blessing I am so excited to take part in this new venture. I can't wait to share it with you soon!!
And if you are looking for a GREAT devotional, I highly recommend Jesus Calling by Sarah Young.

I got mine on Amazon here for about $8.

My new favorite workout

Since running my half marathon back in January, I have kind of taken a break from the strict running schedule. Honestly, I got a little burnt out by the time I finished all of my long training runs and the actual 13.1 mile race. I still like to work some runs into my workout schedule, but its usually because I'm too sore to go to this class:

This class is my new obsession! It is a great weightlifting/strengthening class that totally works your whole body. The website says "BODYPUMP™ is one of the world's fastest ways to get in shape as it challenges all of your major muscle groups while you squat, press, lift and curl." It really will get you some rockin' muscles pretty quickly! I try to attend the class at my local YMCA twice a week and then add in a day of running. I took last week off to help my parents move and yesterday I went back to my BODYPUMP class. Let me just say that I'm feeling it today!! It's hard to sit down and when my daughter jumps up in my lap it kills my leg muscles. I'm feeling it in my legs, back and arms the most. But I know that means its doing some great things to sculpt my body. Just thought I'd share my newest favorite workout. If you have one of these classes at your gym, I highly suggest you try it!

Here's to new memories!

I still don't think it has hit me that my parents have moved. Friday we moved them out of my childhood house to Texas. I am so excited they will now be 10 minutes "down the road" from us, but it still seems a little surreal that I will not be going back to the house I grew up in.

We worked HARD for several days packing, cleaning and loading the moving truck.

My super hardworking, packing extraordinaire Dad:

My beautiful, super organized Mom doing her thing:

Even the girls got in on the packing fun!

Saturday we drove 9 hours from Alabama to Texas. We went straight to their storage unit (because they don't close on their house in Texas until the end of July) and unloaded the trailer we had attached to the SUPER LARGE UHaul. Talk about a long, exhausting day!!

The next day we unloaded their UHaul truck into their THREE storage units!! Whew! Another long, exhausting day! I ended up taking an hour and a half nap yesterday and had no problem falling asleep last night. Usually if I nap long I can't sleep that night, but apparently I needed that nap. So now we're waiting until the end of July for them to close so that we can finally move (again) everything into their new house!! I can't wait for all of the new memories and traditions for our family in Texas. (Did I mention we just moved my sister and her family here about 2 weeks ago?!?! Thankfully they had movers who did most of the work for them)

So here is to a new memories, traditions and lots of love here in Texas!

Blog Inspiration

I love reading blogs. Especially uplifting, informational, or positive blogs. I probably know I spend too much time on my computer, phone or ipad (Just going to call myself out there) but when I do I want it to be beneficial for me, my family or my walk with Christ. A lot of times it isn't, but last week I found this blog and fell in love. I saw a link someone had posted on Facebook about "Being a Godly Wife" (you can see her blog post here) and although I don't usually click on those links I felt like it was maybe something worth reading. I now know God led me to her blog, Butler, Party of 2 because not only is she beautiful and just had a sweet baby boy, but she blogs lots of uplifting, informational and positive information. She is a strong Christian disciple (make sure you check out her post about that here), health nut (I say that lovingly because she has some great ideas and information about making your body the best body God made it to be and makes me want to be in the best health/shape I can be) and is pretty funny too. (After re-reading that I realize it sounds like I have a new crush---and honestly, I kind of do! She is pretty cool!)

I ended up reading her blog for pretty much the whole 8 hour trip we took to Alabama last week! She has inspired me to eat healthy, work out more, be bold in my faith, love my husband as Christ has instructed us to, be a better friend, mom, wife, daughter, sister and person, and sparked my desire even more to walk closer with Christ each and every day. She has also made me want to blog more. I want to document my life better and share my faith more. I ended up going back to the beginning of her blog and back tracking through her blog posts. Its so neat to see how her faith has grown, the path God has led her down and how she has gone from being engaged when she first started blogging to now having a newborn son.

So all of that to say, hold me accountable for more blog posts and I hope that I can provide just an ounce of the inspiration and motivation to one person that she has given me.

Megan

 

Saying Goodbye

Change is hard. But change can lead to bigger, better things.

Tonight I sit here my parents house that our family moved to over 16 years ago when I was just 14 years old. But tonight will be the last night I get to "spend the night" here. My parents are moving to Texas! Just 10 minutes down the road from us. I can not describe how excited I am that they will be just down the road from us after living 8 hours apart for the past 5 years. But tonight it just hit me that it will be the last night I'm in this house that holds so many memories for me.

This is the house where I got to decorate my own bedroom with a beautiful sage green color on the walls (a color that I now have in my own house because I love it so much). The house I remember my parents pulling up in my first ever car when I was 16 years old. The house where Matt use to pick me up from for our dates. Where we use to watch movies and CMT for hours while we were in high school. This is the house where I remember posing, taking pictures and putting on Matt's corsage for our first homecoming dance together. This is the house where my whole family stayed as they came to celebrate my graduation from High School. And then where they stayed to celebrate mine and Matt's marriage. This is also the house my first born child use to stay at 6 years ago so that my parents could watch her while I worked. This is the house where my girls love to swing on Gigi and Pampaw's red swing together. This is the house I remember my daughter flying down the driveway on her bicycle and making my heart nearly jump out of my chest as I saw her heading straight towards the neighbor's mailbox. This is the house where so much love, memories and happiness has been.
It is hard to imagine my parents anywhere else. It is hard for me to think about my children one day not remembering this house. It is hard for me to imagine not coming back to this house. That I won't be pulling up the driveway from a long trip from Texas to find my parents running out of the house to greet us immediately. But you know what? I am so excited for all of the new memories that we will be making in Texas. That my parents will be able to attend all of my children's school functions, pick them up from school for an ice cream date and help me out when I'm feeling overwhelmed.
So as we finish loading up the moving truck tomorrow and say goodbye to one season of life I know I will be sad, but I feel so blessed and thankful that God has allowed my parents the opportunity to move just 10 minutes down the road from us and can't wait for all of the new memories we will be making. Goodbye Alabama, hello Texas!

Kindergarten Finale

I can't believe Kindergarten is almost over. It has been an amazing year and the progress I've seen over the year is unbelievable. L went from reading on a level 3 at the first of the year to now reading at a LEVEL 20!! She has grown so much personally, mentally and academically. It has been amazing to see her turn into a "little person."

Over the past couple of weeks she has had numerous things going on at school. I wanted to share 2 videos from school functions she has been involved in. The first is from her Kindergarten musical night. They sang lots of fun songs and L got picked to sing a solo at the beginning of one of them. They dressed up like different professions and she was a teacher.

Then today she was selected to participate in the talent show. She chose to perform part of her tap dance from dance class this year.

She did great and I am so proud of how outgoing she has become over the year. 2 1/2 more days of school and we will have a FIRST GRADER!!

Teacher Appreciation Projects

For those of you who have kids in school, you know that this week was teacher appreciation week. My oldest is in Kindergarten so we had to step up our game a little more this year. Not that I didn't want to shower her teacher in gifts because she is just flat out A-MAZING, but we also wanted to give a little something to her art teacher, music teacher, technology teacher, and PE teacher to say "THANK YOU" for all that you do. If you add that up that makes 5 teachers! So I wanted to do something creative, inexpensive and yummy (because frankly, who doesn't like a good sweet treat!)

Here is what we decided on:

 Here is how you make them:
1. Make a cake as instructed on the box or from scratch. You want the cake baked through and not 
    gooey. (I used a Pillsbury Traditional Yellow Cake Mix)
2. Let the cake cool completely
3. Use a food processor or a fork and break the cake up into tiny crumbs.

 

4. Mix the cake crumbs with a can of frosting. (You can use any kind of frosting, but I used Pillsbury 

    Creamy Supreme Cream Cheese Frosting)

5. Once mixture is thoroughly mixed put it in the freezer. Leave in there until its nice and firm. (I left 

    it in the freezer for about 1 hour)

6. Once mixture is nice and firm, roll into golf ball sized balls. Place the cake balls on wax paper or 

    tin foil lined on a cookie sheet for easy clean up.

7. Put the cake balls back into the freezer to get them firm again.

The next step is where it gets tricky. Mine started out good, but went downhill fast. Here is what I used: (Melting chocolate, food coloring and pretzel sticks) After learning the hard way that food coloring and chocolate don't mix, take my advice and buy chocolate that is already colored red. Michael's has some red candy melts.

 8. Melt your chocolate in a sauce pan on the stove or in a microwavable bowl in the microwave. It's
     important to melt it slowly to prevent it from burning.
9. Take a pretzel stick, dip it in your chocolate and insert it into the cake balls. Let them set and
    harden up for a few minutes.

10. Dip the cake balls into the melted chocolate, letting the excess chocolate drip off before placing
     back onto the cookie sheet.
11. For the leaves I colored some of my chocolate green and molded it into a leaf shape and placed on the top of the cake pop, but you could also color some icing green and use that for the leaf as well.

And this is what you get:

Our other project for Teacher Appreciation Week was a class project.

We took 2 16x20 canvases and painted the top blue and bottom green. Then added a tree trunk. Then we painted each child's hand and placed their hand prints on the canvases like leaves on the tree.

Running Family

(I usually start blogging by naming my title first. But I'm not going to this time because I'm not quite sure where this blog post is going to go so I'm going to do that part last.)

Before I started running about 3 years ago I always thought runners were a little "crazy." Not only did they enjoy running, but they always seemed like they were in some secret society. Like they were part of some brother/sisterhood. I never quite understood it until 1. I got addicted to running and 2. I completed my first half marathon in January. I think anytime a group of people work hard, push themselves and strive to achieve a common goal it automatically ties them together. And after the physical, mental and emotional exertion (that's the best word I could think of, sorry) of running a half marathon, let alone those who run a FULL marathon, I totally got it. I automatically felt like a part of that "society" that I hadn't understood before. I found myself finishing my race and going to the finish line to cheer on my fellow runners (You can read about my race here). I was proud of those that completed races after mine. I was proud to be "a half marathoner." Call me crazy, but that's just how I felt.

Fast forward to yesterday when I went on my first run on the road since my half marathon. I've been running on the treadmill at the gym, but haven't been on the pavement since January. And I must say, it felt great! But I ran with a heavy heart. I couldn't help but think of all of those runners whose either accomplishment will forever be tarnished or they never got to complete one of the hardest things they had ever trained for. My race (read about it here) was such an emotional day for me with feelings of relief (to finally be accomplishing something I had been working so hard for), of happiness as I passed by children holding up signs for their parents (including my children) and strangers cheering us on, of appreciation for my parents as I see them on the side of the road with my children holding up signs and cheering me on as well as appreciation for my husband who decided just days before the race that he would run it with me since my friend who was originally suppose to run it with me was unable to. And then there were feelings of tiredness when I got to about mile 10, and silliness as I sang out "Call Me Maybe" as it played from my ipod because it reminds me of my girls and all of the times we have sang and danced to it together. It was a day of such wide range of emotions, but one that I never had to experience was fear. Or terror. Or sadness. These are all things the runners at the Boston Marathon experienced. And one of the greatest feelings a lot of them didn't get to feel was accomplishment and sheer joy as they crossed the finish line. Because they had to run in the opposite direction of the finish line. I can't even begin to imagine what was going through their minds that day. And sadly what some of them witnessed that day.
I ended up doing a lot of praying on my run. Praying for those injured, those heroes who sacrificed their lives to protect others, those who helped out and have done and seen things unimaginable, and those whose loved one were there that day and didn't get to come home. I know God is so much greater than the evil in the world and there was so much goodness that far surpassed the evil that happened that day. I know my God will prevail. I love hearing all of the amazing stories that happened that day. And I am so thankful to be a part of that "crazy, running brother/sisterhood."

One of my favorite things about Texas

We have now lived in Texas almost 5 years. There are a lot of great things about living in Texas but one of my most favorites are the bluebonnets in the spring. They are beautiful and make AMAZING pictures!
There is a field close by that everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) goes to to take pictures. It's sometimes tricky to "crop out" everyone from your pictures but its big enough that everyone can have their own little spot without having other people in your picture.
Here is my favorite picture from last year:

And here is my favorite from this year:

I can't believe how much they have changed in one year. My babies are no longer babies! They actually had fun this year taking pictures except the sun was in their eyes and they kept squinting in most of the pictures. But I did manage to get a few good ones.

Officially a soccer mom!

I'm so proud of L. She played her first soccer game this morning and did a GREAT job! She was running the whole time and for never playing before and only having 2 practices, she looked like she knew what she was doing most of the time. And they won 5-0!
Here are a few pictures from the game:

 With her coach

 Cheering on sister

 The whole team ready to play!

 Throwing in the ball

Go Seattle Green Dragons!