helper journals

i love journaling...that's not to say that i do it consistently, but i love the idea of it! at one time i kept a journal consistently for about 2 years...it was almost like something had not really happened in my life until i wrote in my journal. and as silly as i sounded at times, it is kind of nice to go back a read those journals, it reminds me that i have grown up a little bit =)

a few years ago, i gave my friend kim a journal that had some pointers in it as to what to write each day. i thought that was a great idea, but had never seen them again, until this christmas when my aunt juanita gave me this: it's a prayer journal...i love it! this is a sample page. i think if you click on the picture you will be able to see it better.

i have been using it pretty consistently since i got it, and while i don't fill in every section everyday, i do think about each of those things, which is helps me be more reflective.

i was browsing their website the other day and found this book journal:

i thought this would be neat to have because i am always trying to remember what books by a certain author i have read...this is a sample page:

they also have mini (pocket/purse-sized) journals that were cute, and only about $6...the big ones are almost $20. check out all of the titles...they might inspire you!!

i got my christmas cards for this year!

yes, you read correctly...i have my christmas cards for 2010 already!

for the past few years i have told myself i will send out some kind of picture christmas card with a picture of me and my cat, maggie, or just a cool picture...but that hasn't happened. so, each year i scramble at the last minute to find cards that i like and that don't cost an arm and a leg!!so, when i was perusing the very few things left in the christmas aisle at kroger the other night i saw a few boxes of cards. there were four boxes that i liked (and a few i didn't), so i snagged them up .

here you can see how much i saved...msrp was $50 (which i never would have paid), kroger had them originally for $24 (which i might have paid if they were great cards and i was in a rush), and I got them for a total of $6 plus tax!! i love saving money!! by the way, that's $.08 for each card.

i know you will be anxious to get your cheap (but thoughtful and well meaning nonetheless) christmas card come december!! if i can find them, that is!

beans

until this past week, i had never made "a pot of beans". it's not that i don't like beans, it's just that it never really occurred to me to make them. my mom makes them and my grandmother makes them, i just never really thought about it.

a couple of months ago, while at the grocery store with my mom, i mentioned that i thought beans would be a good meal for the plan i was on (the same one i am trying to be on now). they count as a protein and a vegetable (i have a hard time fulfilling my required veggie servings every day).

so we got some 15 bean soup...while not completely healthful (adding bacon or ham hock to things tends to make them less healthy!!) i thought it would be perfect for a cold winter night!!

i must have read the directions 15 times...the first thing was that you needed ham hock....ok, i know that is a pretty standard thing in most southern households, but i do not believe i have ever had ham hock in my house...so i always stopped there. then the other day i remembered i had a pack of bacon in my freezer...that's kind of like ham hock, right? i went with it, and it wasn't too bad!!

this is the beans soaking - i thought they were so bright and colorful!! who knew beans could be so beautiful!

i let them soak overnight, drained them and put them in the crock pot the next morning....with some bacon, some frozen chopped onions and some other seasonings.
this is while they were cooking...and making my house smell wonderful!!

yum, yum! unfortunately they were not near as bright and beautiful by the time they got done cooking, but they sure tasted good! i may have to try this again.

i'm still here!

i have not given up on the blog...i just haven't been inspired to update it. i think i feel like i need to have something profound to say or show on here, and i guess i haven't felt like i've anything all that important to say!!

i don't think anyone reads this who does not know me personally (and would therefore know what i've been up to), but i will just list a few things that have filled my time the last half of 2009 (with a few pics for your enjoyment!!)...

• acteens started back up in the fall, and i began my 7th year as a leader of that group. we have had a great "core" group of girls for the past several years and the oldest one in that group, katie, graduates this year...it will not be the same without her!!



• i became a part of a new sunday school class at our church. the goal of the class is to welcome newcomers and visitors, and to help them feel like they have a place they belong until they get plugged in to the most fitting class for them. i have really enjoyed getting to know the other folks in the class and our teachers, and of course welcoming people to our church.
  
• work has been good, i guess...just rolling with the flow of that and trying to adjust some structural changes and responsibility shifts...pretty much just thankful to have a job!!
  
• i started working with a personal trainer sometime in october. the biggest adjustment for me was getting up and exercising before work. i have lost a little over 20 pounds (even a little over the holidays) and am now trying to get re-dedicated to food plan portion of the system.
• kim's son clinton (in the picture on the side) was diagnosed with a medulloblastoma brain tumor the week before thanksgiving and is in the process of undergoing treatments for that...it has been a roller coaster for them, and i just keep lifting them all up in prayer! if you want to read what's going on, click here
  
• christmas was great...i really enjoyed spending time with friends and family this year...not that i don't always enjoy that time, but i really tried to take note of it this year. i also really enjoyed buying and making gifts this year...i tried to put a lot of thought into each one and was really excited to give all of them, instead of just getting something to wrap up.
  

so that was 2009...now for 2010...what do i plan for 2010???

• my main focus is to get my finances under control (which is a constant battle for me!!). i have asked my mother to kind of be my accountability partner in this endeavor and will meet with her each month to share my budget and progress. if all goes as planned i will have everything paid off except my house and student loan by the end of the year!!
  
• continue working out...thanks to a generous gift from kim, i still have 4 more weeks with the trainer and thanks to my mom, i have a wii fit. with these tools i plan to continue to work out several times a week and try new activities along the way!
  
• as always, i plan to eat healthy this year.
  
• i plan to blog more and not be so hard on myself about it...i just have remind myself that there are really no rules to this, and that i don't have to have some life changing or hysterically funny post. we'll see!
  
• i plan to memorize a bible verse each week. janna wanted to do this with her family and has invited others to join, i think it's great, i mean, who doesn't need a few scriptures in their head!!


• i am making a conscious effort to spend more time in prayer this year. to purposefully pray and dialogue with God on a daily basis. my aunt gave me a great prayer journal for christmas that has really helped with this!

what i did on my summer vacation

a couple of weeks ago i took a week off of work in order to get some things done around my house. the main goal was to clean, which i did some of monday and tuesday. then wednesday night janna came over and kicked my butt into gear to get my craft room organized and cleaned out. we worked very hard and i appreciate her encouragement/berating =) more than i could ever say!! with all of the dirty work done i was able to get to stuff that i really wanted to do...the crafty things!!

painting my bedroom furniture had been on my mental "to do" list since i moved, and i finally did it. i love it!! it looks better than i imagined!
this is the dresser that i've had in my bedroom since i can remember. seriously, i remember it as early as age 4 - it's o-l-d! the "dream" was given to me as a gift by the morel's, and i love the way it looks on the black. the silver tray was also a gift, from a friend at church, and it also pops nicely on the new color!

that's original photography by kara blankenship, it's the trunk of a huge, very old tree. i've had that for a long time!!

this chest of drawers i got some time when i was in high school. it came with three more drawers, but at some point i decided i wanted a tv inside it, so i took them out and vic added the shelf in there. when i started scrapbookin i realized this was the only place i have tall enough to house my 12x12 albums, so that's what lives there now.

this vanity belonged to my grandmother. when she passed away in 2002 this was the only piece of her bedroom suit that i took. at the time it wasn't really my style, but i wanted something that was her's. i have wanted to paint it for a long time, and got really mixed reviews on doing that. i was hesitant, but i ABSOLUTELY love how this turned out. i need to touch it up, but i love it!!

this is something i visualized a few weeks ago and it just kind of came together. my craft room has been kind of a catch all room, and i really just wanted it to be cohesive and cute. now i feel like it's seriously on it's way to cute!!

these are those wooden crates that i just hung on the wall with gorilla hooks. gorilla hooks are amazing!! seriously, these two crates are full - one of paper, the other of magazines - and the gorilla hooks are not budging!!

the one with drawers needs another coat or two paint, and i'm trying to figure out a cute labeling system for them.

i was originally going to make the curtains myself, but on a recent trip to walmart, i saw this panel and decided it would be much easier to just cut it and make it fit. it has all the right colors!

i bought this shelf at the thrift store for $10 about 6 or 7 years ago. i love the color, but it made me nuts to be able to see all of the crafting clutter that i was storing on it. the curtain works great. i might repaint this so the shade of green is closer to whats in the curtain, but we'll see.

every thing is hidden!!

this is my little bistro set that's outside, last summer i painted it a bright aqua, which i really liked, but everytime i saw it from outside i just thought "that doesn't go", so for the cost of three cans of spray paint and 3/4 a yard of fabric, it's all new!! and goes much better with the inside of my house.

that hook came from my dad's house and i found the star lantern at home goods (i love that place!)

i saw in a magazine or a blog somewhere some one had put a bunch of their initials on the mantel. well, my mantel is not that big, and is pretty much already full, so i decided two was enough. i love the color that they add (on the other side of my mantle is my willow tree nativity scene which has really muted colors).

i bought the letters at joann, and decoupaged them with strips of scrapbook paper.

these little ditties "blossomed" from something i saw in the anthroplogie catalog. there's was much simpler (small silver buckets with little numbers on the front with grass in them). these were the smallest number i could find at joann, i couldn't find any grass that i liked, and i was going to sit them in my front window, but you couldn't see them from the outside. so big numbers with sunflowers on the shelf inside the front door it is!! i like the way they
turned out!

update

i have been doing really well with food this week. i think the thing that works for me best is writing things down, so i have a little journal that i write everything i eat in. my daily calorie goal is 1600, which is not crazy, and i am eating 5-6 times per day. my goal per meal is:
breakfast 300-350
lunch 350-400
dinner 400-450
snacks 450-500 (spread throughout the day)

i got these numbers from a book called calorie queens which talks about eucalorics and how many calories you should eat each day to maintain your goal body weight. i think the equation is the weight x 12 = calories. they go into a lot more detail in the book , but that is the basic formula.

i am trying to cook more, eat out less, and eat at least one salad each day. salad greens (lettuce, spring mix, spinach) are really the only green vegatables i like, so i try to get one in each day. cooking sometimes seems like too much trouble, but i did buy a bunch of different kinds of food at the grocery the last couple of weeks to mix things up, so maybe it will be easier.

drinking water is not hard for me...i like water, sometimes i just decide i like cokes or tea better, but i've been doing really well with that. i try to keep track of how much i drink, but i forget a lot! all i know is that i have been going to the bathroom non-stop!!

i also wanted to start moving more, and in an effort to do that i ordered this:
and started the work out this morning. it is a set of 2 dvd's with alternating workouts that you do for 6 days then rest for 1 day and start all over. it came with this cool tracking calendar that i have posted up in my living room. i'm going to get up every morning and do the 40 minute workout and see what happens! this morning was alright - i am terribly out of shape and could not keep up the whole time, but i did keep moving, and went at my own pace. there were not many moves that were terribly complicated, but there were several that i just couldn't do...but i will get there!

flowers on my fence

i saw this project in a diy magazine a couple of weeks ago and loved it! i have a very small back "yard" and since i live in a condo there's not really much i can do back there, so i loved the thought of decorating the fence. i got these pots from my dad's house (the previous owner left them) and cleaned them up and spray painted them this morning. then mom and i went to lowe's and she helped my pick out the plants. i love the bright colors and the fact that all of these should hang over the pots in a while. i put the hangers up and mom and i potted the plants, and voila! i LOVE how this turned out...i can't wait until the rain stops and i'm able to sit out there and enjoy them!!

mother's day and getting it in gear

i love mother's day. why? first because i love my mother, and i love spending the day with her, doing what we do. second, i love my grandmother and spending time with her. these two ladies make me laugh, make me think, make me mad, make me strong, make me smarter, make me better, and make me who i am. God has given me who i need to have. my mom is a smart, independant woman, and some days i wonder how she puts up with me. my mema is amazing to me. she has lived a long life, and continues to live by herself, keep a garden, go to church every sunday, and excercises every single day. she is a very straight forward woman who says what she thinks (even when we don't always agree), she has survived some pretty bad stuff and is all the better for it. i lived with her for about 8 months a few years back and i swear i learned more in those 8 months than i have since =)

every year for mother's day we take a picture of the three of us, but we usually forget to do it until we already have our "play clothes" on, but this year i remembered to do it right after we got home from church...

then i took several pics of mema's new cat, who doesn't have a tail. she says that's the sign of a good hunter...i don't know. his name is "bobbit", i kid you not....i don't think it has any connection to john bobbit, but she's a shard lady, so it very well could!!

after lunch my uncle and aunt (larry and judy) came down and judy and i went a cut some of mema's peonies...they are so beautiful and smell so nice in my house!! i forgot to take pictures =(

speaking of my house, i am starting to get that in gear...i am having a party in june and my goal is to have the house good and clean and do a few projects before then. i am working on the cleaning this week, and this weekend hope to get busy on two of my projects.

first i am putting some flower pots on the fence in the back of my house...i got some from my dad's house that were left when they moved in, so i am going to clean them up and paint them, then i'll hang them with these things. I ordered them yesterday and I can't wait to see how this turns out!! i am also going to re-paint the patio table and chairs i painted last year to match the chairs i bought from walmart last week.

second i am painting two dressers and the vanity in my bedroom. i have been "gonna do this" since i moved in, and it is just time!!

third, i am re-doing my craft room. this area has been a hodge podge of leftover furniture and things, and i am just ready for it to me usable and cute!! i have a plan, i just have to get in there and get everything organized and cleaned out.

well...

i think i'm going to do this. yes...i am. i am putting this out there for all (2 or 3 folks who read this) to see.

for more years than i care to think about I have needed and wanted to lose weight. i have done most every diet program or pill you could name. some of them have worked for me. and some of them didn't. i'm sure that most of them work for if you work them, but for whatever reason (probably my lack of dedication at the point i tried them) the haven't worked for me. i have read book after book (although most not all the way through) and the ones that really hit home with me are the straight to the point ones that say if you eat less and move more you will lose weight. so that's what i am aimig for.

don't get me wrong, i do not want to lose weight to be happy...i know that i can be happy at any size and unhappy at any size, and i don't want to lose weight because nobody likes me...i think i have the best friends and family in the world, at this point in my life i NEED to lose weight. i NEED to be healthier. i wake up most mornings with hurting feet, i wake up every morning with hurting knees and lately with a very painful back. It is time!!

i am putting all this out there to help motivate me. i am walking some, and hope to do that more consistantly. i am working on cooking more and eating out less. i got a bunch of cooking for 2 magazines and am looking through those to get some ideas. it's just hard sometimes to cook for just me, but i guess i need to look at it like i am doing something for myself. but if you'd like to come over for dinner anytime, just let me know!!

so ask me how i'm doing, ask me if i'm walking, and i will update here, too.

inspired

so it's been forever since i've felt like i had anything to write, but i wanted to share something. i'm sure i've already told most of the folks who read this, but at least putting it here i will be able to look back at it later.

the past few weeks i have really felt convicted to take care of some financial issues i have had. as most people who know me well know, i am not known for my sound financial decisions. it's just not one of my strong points. but this year i have been trying slowly to change that. last week i had a bit of a "come apart" because it seemed like i was taking one step forward and two steps back. so i talked to my mom and with her help was able to get current with several things that i was behind on. so on friday, having only one check out that had not cleared, i had an additional $1.31 in the bank. i was ok with that knowing that i was to get paid from the skate center this week, and that nothing else was due. well, over the weekend a service charge for something came out of my account that was $6.95. now, since the check had not cleared, there was money in the account, but i knew that if the check cleared it would bounce. my first thought was to borrow a few bucks from someone, but then i just felt like i needed to take the consequences of this...so i had resigned to pay the service charge if the check came through before i got paid. well, yesterday morning i was looking at an explanation of benefits from my insurance company, and there was a $20 check attached to it!! GOD is SO GOOD!!! seriously...i could bot have been more excited if that was a $1,000 check!

i am so thankful to serve a God that is so faithful. He blesses me over and over again. this is just one example of the many blessings...my cup runneth over!