Isnt it crazy...

...If you had told me 18 months ago what my life would look like now I would laugh. Bitterly. In disbelief. 18 months ago my heart was shattered. But God heals.  He redeems. He can make anything new.

Today my heart is overwhelmed with thankfulness. My marriage restored. My family is whole, healthy, beautiful. We have the most amazing new home. This weekend I got a fancy new ride.

Our Easter pictures just make me so, so Happy!

 The kids were away on a retreat with our youth group.  So Rhett and I were able to go out to dinner after picking up the Jeep and before he had to head out to work.   Saturday morning we went out for breakfast. The quality time felt amazing. 

Meet Stella

I think I love her. 💖

 Friday night was the first time I have really been home alone since we moved to the new house.  I snuggled up with Chance, my bookclub read and a cup of tea.

 Saturday afternoon I had a Fajitas and Margaritas Pampered Chef Party! So fun!  I have always shied away from lettuce wraps thinking I wouldn't like it for some reason but actually it was pretty tasty.  We made salsa chicken in the quick quicker which is ridiculously easy and delicious.

Sunday I made these insanely good pork chops in the quick cooker after church. Seriously so delicious- I wanted to eat the gravy with a spoon.

Picture from Pinterest

Pinned: This Week's Menu although it will be soon moved to my Tried and True Board

Source: https://whatsinthepan.com/instant-pot-pork-chops-in-creamy-wine-sauce/

And can I just end with this right here. I saw this on Facebook this morning and I love it. Whatever you're facing and there is a battle. Believe me I know it. But prayer is powerful and effective, and Jesus is there, and he's got your back. If you let him.

Chance. Bruce & Irises

Bliss

I was wiped out last night and curled up for a while with this guy. 

Last night Bruce and I whipped up a yummy dinner.  This recipe is definitely a keeper.  Chicken Lo Mein; I served it with green beans and eggrolls (from the freezer section). 

I basically followed the recipe- I just used regular linguine in place of the lomein noodles and used coleslaw mix instead of carrots and cabbage.

Now that its spring...it's been interesting to see what's popping up in our flower beds. I've been told these are mostly likely irises... I'm anxious to see what color they turn out to be.  We also have some tulips about to bloom in the back yard.

Happy Easter!

We had a spectacular Easter. My heart is so full and thankful this morning.

We were all able to go to Church together and I was actually able to sit with my husband in the worship service- which is a complete rarity. Hannah and I sang with the choir which was actually pretty fun- one of the songs has been stuck in my head since yesterday. :-P

We hosted our first family dinner and it was wonderful!  We borrowed a table/benches and folding chairs from my parents and siblings.

Don't we have beautiful children! 💖❤💖

This is my other favorite family picture :-D We were all trying to cajole Chance to sit on the step. He was really confused by the whole picture taking thing.

Two nights this weekend we have just sat around the table at night talking and laughing and it was great.  Last night we (well, mostly Rhett) were looking for a place to go camping this summer.  It as been eons since we have gone on a family camping trip! I can not wait.  A whole week with no work, outside by the lake, all my children and my mister.  And hopefully the puppers. The only question is- how many books should I bring? 😏

April Mid month check in ~

I woke up with that familiar sense of grumpiness and blah today. Why is each day a struggle?

I sat at the table for a good half hour to the brink of impossibility debating on going for a run. Looking at my watch, calculating how much time I had left...Finally at all most the last possible second- deciding I would be disappointed in myself all day if I did not - I did.

Why do I over think everything... I had every intention of going for a run at Green Lakes last night- some how over the course of the day I talked myself out of it.  This morning I was victorious.

Chance of course saw me walk by Mikayla's room (where he was asleep on her bed) in running gear and bounded after me.  He's been limping pretty bad lately on that bum knee. But to appease him I walked him to the end of the street and back.  He was happy, happy until he saw me head back out the door without him. I miss my running buddy. :-( He seemed to have forgiven me by the time I returned 2 miles later...

A few thankfuls from the past couple days...

extra hour of sleep

morning kisses

freezer meals

reading! read whole book The One today- guilty pleasure- this is the third in a series I had been waiting for weeks to get from the library! I devoured it.

Aimee dropped off MK

getting off my butt to do some yoga

going for a run despite my reluctance

daffodils by the road 

Sarah's banana muffins

Mik is coming HOME today! (cue confetti)

 

Monday was the 15th... meaning April is (more than) half over already! I feel like time is going too, too fast. Easter is this week, have I got anything at all for Easter? Pretty much nope. And bonus we are hosting Easter dinner at our house! AHHH!  No- actually I am excited about this and I know things will work out- its just stressful when you realize you will have 11 for dinner and 18 for dessert and your literally own FOUR chairs!

So far the only April goal I have accomplished is putting Grandma's dishes in the china cabinet.  But that's something right??

I have run 10 miles (of 50 goal) and read 4 books (on target for my goal) 29 overall this year.

Things I still have to accomplish (tick, tock) t-minus 13 days to complete this list

• Set up my PC office/Hang vision board
• Finish my W.I.P.s- I did start machine quilting Mikayla's graduation quilt so there's that. (Yes I am that behind!)
• Run 50 miles... we'll see
• Journal more--> it helps you process... yeah yeah
• create a healthy eats plan... AND follow it... ugh being healthy is so hard!

PLUS- finish Pilgram's Progress... slowly getting through it- I am about 43% right now.  

I did read a chunk of Take the Stairs last night. I can finish it this month no prob.  Then I will tackle The Happiness Project again and start Sense and Sensibility once I finish Pilgrim's Progress. I so want to love Jane Austen. So many bookish people do.

Well, there you have it... I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter! Let's see what the last two weeks of April hold and how many more miles I can squeeze in. =)

For Today {Monday, April 15, 2019}

Looking out my window its grey and gloomy but its not snowing so there's that

I am thinking about Easter dinner. This will be our first big family dinner at our new house!

I am thankful for my beautiful eldest daughter who continually inspires and encourages me.  My best friend who totally gets all my weird issues.  For Coffee and Jesus!

One of my favorite things Lately I am on a bit of a tea kick. I decided to try a sips by box I heard about on a podcast.  So fun! I love it! We weren't crazy about the jasmine tea- too flowery but I loved the other 3.  The Tea Kitten one was my fav.

I am wearing 

I am reading I started this on Saturday and spent a good chunk of yesterday afternoon alternately reading and napping ;-)  The Trial of Lizzie Borden- I heard about it on the He Read She Read podcast.  It is their April buddy read and they will discuss it on the April 23 podcast.

My library stack this week- 

I also came across this cookbook on Hoopla- I read pretty much the whole thing last week and have flagged a few recipes to try out with Mikayla this weekend.  I really have no interest in becoming a vegan myself but I do love cooking and eating with my girl- so I'd love to find some recipes we both love.  If we like the recipes- its a book I would like to add to my collection. Plant Powered Families

I am learning about the armor of God and spiritual warfare. Loving this new study we are doing at Mom's Connect.

In my kitchen I made one of the freezer meals I had on hand Saturday night... It was a hit! It was also awesome to have a meal ready to go because I hadn't planned dinner- I was supposed to be at a pampered chef party.  I'm thinking I will do another batch of freezer meals in the next couple weeks.

In my garden

Board room

pinned: Coffee

Post Script This weekend one of my best friend's sister lost everything in a house fire.  Thankfully she and her son are safe!  What a scary scary thing.  The fire broke out around 3 am.  This is the go fund me page my friend set up to benefit her sister-

https://www.gofundme.com/f/bethany-renees-fire-recovery-fund

A moment from my day Saturday I did the Good Samaritan run with my siblings 💖  It was positively gorgeous sunny day!

 Treated myself to a blueberry crisp iced latte on the way home.

Tuesday things...

I'm in a mood today... but I'm working on it.  Do you ever have those days? Where everything feels hard, where you feel over scheduled and overwrought.

Read this in my devotional time this morning...


Anyway... this weekend was great!

Saturday I finished this book-> Unexpected Grace I picked this book solely because there was a dog on the cover and the word grace in the title.  It was a fairly predictable yet heart warming tale. A very enjoyable read.  I will say I had more affection for Grace, the golden retriever than I did for Lila, the main character.  I found Lila a little annoying but she grows on you I guess.


I took Chance for a little walk and then went for a little run myself. I ran hills I usually walk and that made me happy.  Baby steps.

Rhett put up the basketball hoop and we had a friendly family game of C H A N C E.  (Instead of HORSE).

Saturday night we went to Monster Jam. My sister and her husband joined us and we had a great time! This was my first Monster Jam experience.

This is Wildflower- she was my fav

ah this feeling.... I love cooking!

Preferred Registration opened today for the Syracuse Half! I promptly signed up within the first hour! ;-)

And this just warms my heart 💖

April Goals

So this morning I woke up to this... after the warm 60 degrees on Saturday this felt like a cruel joke. 

 But I am holding on to spring in my heart and with my wardrobe choices today.  I was told I look stylish today and that made happy.

How's April looking... I'm looking forward to sunshine and warmer weather. {Hopefully soon} 

My focus in April is going to be Pampered Chef, cooking and meal planning.  I'm building up some momentum and I want to continue. I recently remembered how happy Pampered Chef and cooking make me. <3

My parents are renovating their kitchen.  Demo started this weekend. Mom was getting rid of her china cabinet so it found a home at our house. =) Now I can unpack Grandma's dishes!

My other goal this week is to set up my pampered chef "office" and get organized.  I also need to get my craft room organized so I can sew.  That is where the majority of the overflow of unpacked tubs are. And mainly its crap from our old basement so I don't really know what to do with it :P

I have one race on the calendar in a couple weeks- The Good Samaritan 10K on the 13th. Here's to racking up the miles in April- I set a goal to run 50 in April...  Also work on doing yoga on a regular basis.

I also need to work on the gratitude thing.  I read as part of my devotions today in Only Love Today, talking about how important gratitude is in our perspective on things. Also in Mom's Connect we are going to start a study on The Armor if God which I am really excited about!

April TBR-

• finish Pilgrim's Progress
• Take the Stairs
• The Happiness Project (reread)
• start Pride and Prejudice
• one Marriage book TBD any recommendations?

The weekend- Friday night Hannah and I took Chance for a good walk and then Saturday morning Chancers and I went again.  It made him so happy. And me too. =)

Unfortunately after that I came down with a headache for the majority of the weekend. I took a couple good naps which helped a little.  But it still kept flaring up.  Thankfully I think its gone now, and its the first one I have had that bad in quite sometime.

Hannah and I went to see Mamma Mia at the High School.  They did an awesome job!

Mikayla had her Gala at school.