Quote for Today...

 “I believe with all my heart the secret is in our attitude.
Life’s circumstances don’t improve by being anxious or angry or upset.
But God calls us to rise above our circumstances, and that starts first in our attitudes.” 

Rejoice, Karen Kingsbury pp 241

This is a hard season and joy is hard fought. Little things can completely derail me for days. 

Today is gloomy and dark, but I feel a spark deep in my heart. I'm trying to fan into a flame.  Of joy, or contentment, of peace. Knowing I can rest in God's promises. That He sees my heart and hears my prayers.  That He will answer. 💗

I am praying for you today, whatever you are facing, whatever you are feeling that His peace and joy would seep into your soul this holiday season. Until next time sweet friends. 

grumble, grumble

I'm fighting frustration and anxiety today.  I feel tired and discouraged.  My quiet time feels meh and flat.  My home feels cluttered and overwhelming. My job feels long and pointless.

My devotions this morning spoke of praise- of birds singing after the storm.  Seeming praising their creator. I  made a note at the bottom of the page. Stop Grumbling.  Be thankful.

I went on to read a bit more in The Great Divorce by CS Lewis.  He spoke of a woman, so caught up in her grumbling and complaining she had become a grumble herself. Unable to see Heaven and goodness and light right in front of her.  Only misery. I do not want to be that woman.  I don't want to be tired, angry, frustrated, sad. 

I don't have to be. There is always a choice. 

As I sat contemplating I remembered the speaker, Kay Dekalb Smith, from the first ladies retreat I ever went to.  The one thing that really stuck with me all these years was her talking about being humbly grateful not grumbly hateful.

Oh. Some days. It is a struggle.  This world can be dark and hard and the devil wants nothing more than to take you down, me down. I'm not going without a fight. In fact- I am not going down at all.  

I am victorious. I am a daughter of the King. I am joy. I am light. I am strong. I am thankful.

“I wish I had never been born," she said. "What are we born for?"
"For infinite happiness," said the Spirit. "You can step out into it at any moment...”
― C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

Light always overcomes

Today I am fighting sadness. Tiredness. A dash of discouragement.

But do I need to sit here and wallow or can I acknowledge yet still choose to dwell on JOY. Thinking about things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, excellent or praiseworthy. (Philippians 4:8)

Things that make me feel peaceful and happy. Like sitting in the peaceful glow of the Christmas tree with my pup.

And immersing myself in God's Word and prayer.

another day . . .

It's Wednesday. I couldn't believe it when my alarm went off and it was morning! I was still so sleepy.  I felt like grumbling and complaining...I tried to stick to my resolve to not complain.  I went through the motions of packing lunches and making coffee and then slipped into my little sanctuary.  Where God refreshed and renewed my spirit.

Just because...


New read. I have been thinking about buying this book for a while.  This morning I noticed it was on Hoopla and borrowed it from my local library. =)


I have debating on not looking at my memories for a while. I want to block out last fall. I want to forget it ever happened. I want to look at where we are now.  I want to look forward to believe its only getting better from here.

But then I see this and I remember- there was always good. Just focus on it...



We are kinda going into baking withdrawal around here... Ryan complains every night there is no dessert. (Hopefully though our oven will be fixed this weekend!) In the mean time... I made this chocolate chip cookie in the Microwave Pasta Cooker last night. It did the trick.



Our Beef and Mushroom Sliders were a success. =) I'm loving this season's recipe collection. We did a live demo- you can check it out over at Amy's Pampered Kitchen

I'm trying to get myself back on track- there's a challenge group I really want to join but I can't bring myself to pay the $$$$ for the challenge pack.  So I'm trying to motivate myself with memory of how good I felt last year when I was eating right and exercising...

• I had a greek yogurt smoothie for breakfast
• Keeping track of my water and trying to drink more
• I will not visit the snack box in the work fridge
• I will prep my lunch tonight 
• go for run and yoga tonight
• be more mindful of what I put in my mouth

Honestly I have been feeling pretty discouraged. I have fallen off the training band wagon. Its dark now in the mornings and darker earlier in the evening. Making it harder (not impossible mind you) to get my butt out the door. I don't really know what to do about it. Be more brave I guess.

In an effort not to loose my J O Y today...

• Rhett was home for supper last night
• he's feeling better 
• my kitchen table <3
• crockpots
• sunshine and colored leaves

What are your gifts today?  Happy Wednesday. Keep that chin up.

pizza and swings...

Why are emotions so fragile? I am in such a crummy mood. All the more irritating because I was in a really great, almost giddy mood and then all of the sudden bam! 😒

I have no reason to be so grumpy and I am seriously trying to pull myself out of it.  Part of it is I'm hungry. Trying to make healthier choices, sigh. Being healthy is hard.

But we went running this morning. It felt amazing.

This book. I love.  Its my favorite one this year so far. I listened to the audio version but decided it was one I needed to own in print. I've have been reading through it in my devotional time. =)


We didn't have Girl Scouts so we arranged to have pizza night with friends <3  We also indulged in some swinging and a nice walk. I say again- who needs therapy when you can go walking with your best friend. If only we could do it everyday!

More good...

• prayer
• puppy snuggles
• tea
• payday $$
• walk and talk with Jess
• potential trip to Grammy's
• good-bye kisses and I love yous
• hug from Hannah
• being outside
• pizza with Basile's <3
• swinging
• oh that sky!

Tonight's dinner... So I saw this on Hungry Runner Girl's blog  (my favorite blogger) this week. It looked super yummy.  Her family LOVED it. I am going to give it a try tonight with a few tweaks. The mister is going no-carb so I am going to try it with zoodles. I'm really excited to try it!

An apple and some perspective and I'm feeling a little better...

4.23

This weekend was beautiful.  Chance and I went on a little 3 mile run on Saturday.


So nice to see blue skies and sunshine again! Boy has it been a long winter.

Saturday evening the mister and I visited a local brewery.  It was fantastic. We also had spicy pork pizza that was phenomenal.


Sunday afternoon Hannah and I took Chance for a little walk. Then I sat out on the deck to read our chapter for Mom's Connect. I just can't get over how good it is to see the sun again!


I also made Chocolate Pull Apart Bread to take to Mom's Connect. It was delicious. Below is the link to the LIVE video we did.

https://www.facebook.com/amyspamperedkitchen/videos/1675886585859218/

April

Monday I realized it was April. April. As in a quarter of the year has already passed me by. Sigh. I thought back to the awesome list of goals I made with all the best of intentions at the beginning of March...All excited to be headed into my 38th year.  Well- I have had a hard time pulling myself out of my funk. I had some good days, some mostly good days and a whole lotta days where I wallowed far more than I should have.

My mantra as of late has been Oh, well. Tomorrow's another day. Which it is but it also has become an excuse to eat all the jelly beans, not exercise and basically blow off anything I should be doing that's too overwhelming in the moment.

My new mantra... Little things. Little things add up to big things. One little step at a time. Just keep moving forward.

So my goal for Monday was simply get back to drinking more water.  Which I did. Yay me. Adding fruits to my water this week helped a lot.

I also dusted off my bullet journal, which has been neglected since February.  I penned in my goals and my habit tracker.


I ordered new running shoes with my birthday money. =D And earbuds, 2 pair actually since I can't seem to keep my kids from swiping them, or they broken or lost... today's run was quiet :P

This- from the Loving God Greatly study on Fear and Anxiety.  I am not happy with some of the circumstances of my life ie my job a lot of the time.  But right now its where I am and where I need to be. Yes, I want to make strides to be happier, and better over all. But I also need to learn to be content with those things I can not change right now.



 I am working to be content and to commit all my work to the Lord. For whatever reason he has me here...and to do it cheerfully 😊

Yesterday I was bemoaning how I was feel physically and my own lack of motivation.  This popped up in my facebook memories. Reminding me that my body is the Lord's temple.  I should be taking better care of it. Yes, I am worth it.

This morning we went for a run. It was plan B not plan A... but also turns out probably the better one anyway. ;-)

Chance making sure I don't leave without him.


I was super proud of him when we encountered a loose little dog.  Her tie out had come loose from the ground she ran out into the road when we got close.  He was the perfect gentleman, even when she snarled at him. (How rude!)  We went up to the house to let the owner know her pup was loose.

Trying hard to not dwell on the negative.  And to recognize the good things.


And lastly happy Easter! So thankful for the holiday weekend and having my girl home.

April Goals- in no particular order...

• Choose J O Y!
• meal plan
• Run 2-3 x's a week
• clean kitchen before bed 
• read at least on marriage and/or otherwise edifying book
• book an April Pampered Chef party to stay active
• Date <3
• read at least as many books as March (7)
• run MORE miles (20ish I think in March)

the struggle is real...

But there is always H O P E.

Yesterday I felt wonderful. Today its a struggle again.  I vented (complained) to my sister-in-law and my best friend. I got to work and sat down at my desk. Tears. Welling.  I had just left my kitchen table where I soaked in God's word- all about taking thoughts captive. Not being ruled by my thoughts, feelings and emotions. Sometimes I feel like life is a test I am failing.

So I resolved to try and snap myself out of it.  I made a cup of tea. I turned on KLOVE. I started thinking about the GOOD. I smiled. I took those thoughts captive. I am not a victim and I can be victorious.

Here is some amazing good from this weekend. We went to Houghton of Saturday to see Mikayla in Oklahoma!

 I reveled in all of us being there together. Overcome with thankfulness every time I glanced my husband's way.

The show was fantastic!

She's so beautiful.  So proud of our talented girl.

Sunday after we got home- Chance and I got in a couple more miles.  It feels good to be running again.


More good:

• My cousin had a healthy baby boy last week
• my co-worker's great grand-baby who was born premature got to go home this weekend! She weighs a whopping 4 lbs 2 oz now. So tiny. So precious.
• tomorrow is PAYDAY
• I have Friday off for my birthday...so does the Mr. <3 ;-)
• Saturday is my BIRTHDAY
• Hannah and I spent last night with a Daisy troop helping them earn their "Be A Sister to Every Girl Scout" petal.  Hannah regaled them with tales of some of her girl scouty adventures.
• Its the first day of Spring- even though it doesn't feel like it.
• Time with my husband.