Full Heart.....Full Home

Frugal Picture Collages Made Easy

2012-10-19T14:48:00.001-07:00

How I Made my Picture Collage on a Super Tight Budget

So it didn't take me very long to get obsessed with the picture collages that you see on every home makeover blog and splashed everywhere on Pinterest. I love the look of them. Problem was, I was on a really tight budget. Like...zero extra spending dollars after Abbie was born. So my natural born love to shop was smothered and I had to find a new way to enjoy shopping.... aka not doing it!

The thing that has been so awesome in the last 18 months of Abbie's life, is that God has taught me so much about being a better steward with my money, and though I have so far to go, he has taught me to stretch my dollar farther with our grocery budget. He has shown me how to make something out of nothing, and I (I'm about to say something I never thought I would say EVER!) have actually become appalled at spending full price on something now. I better have a coupon, free shipping code, promotional code, or clearance price tag now to even consider purchasing things. I used to hate sale racks. I am learning to like them. I don't love them yet. I still get confused and overwhelmed by their lack of organization, but it's a working relationship. I think in time we will learn to be good friends :)

So as I was walking through my house today I realized that I used the same tactics for my picture collage wall that I made over a year ago now. I hardly spent anything to make it. You really can make the project as expensive or as cheap as you want to. For my own frugal purposes here is what I used:

Materials:

Several picture frames of various sizes, and even different shapes if you want (None of the frames even need to match. Re purpose your own, buy them on a garage sale, or from thrift stores...they always have picture frames!) I just re purposed mine.
Spray paint- choose one color for cheapest option, or a few colors that coordinate. I chose black.
White computer paper/coordinating scrapbook paper colors
Scotch tape
Your favorite pictures

Total Project Cost:

If you re purpose your own frames, already own scotch tape, and computer paper it could be as cheap as the cost of a can of spray paint and printing the pictures. I mostly used pictures I already owned and if not printed them off for like 10 cents each at Walgreens. Spray paint is around $3 so I can confidently say you can do this project for about $5 if you want to be super cheap!

Instructions:

Select the frames you want to use. I laid mine out on a flat surface and rearranged them until I liked what the arrangement looked like. Then I laid out my pictures in the frames to see what pictures I liked where. Don't go print pictures until you know what your frame arrangement is cause you may change your mind about which pictures you want and the size you want them in.

Once you have decided on the arrangement take a picture of it. This will come in handy later when you are reassembling everything.

Take the frames apart so the glass and back are no longer in them and spray paint them your desired colors. I typically use an old cardboard box under these when spray painting unless you want your grass painted some random color.

Wait for the paint to dry and paint a 2nd coat if you need to.

Now for cheapness purposes I just used computer paper as my fake version of a picture frame matte cause I didn't want to spend money on picture frame mattes or card stock. Since computer paper is 8.5 x 11 you will need to cut it down to fit your size frame. Scrapbook paper would have to be cut down as well and I'm sure you can find it for cheap at Hobby Lobby or something when its 50% off if you wanted a more decorative option.

Now I'm sure the picture frame matting world will yell at me for doing this so I am going to caution you to not use pictures you spent a ton of money to get printed for this project (Ex photos you bought from a professional....many photographers sell cd rights to you now though so you can choose whatever photo printing options you want....reason being? I put tape on the back of my photos single sided or double sided to stick my pictures in place to the fake paper matte. It's never damaged my photos as long as I only put the tape on the back of the photo. I'm just warning you cause I don't want you to ruin something on accident. I just put tape on the back of the photo, center it and stick it down to my fake cheap paper matte and reassemble the frame.

Now just get out the prearrangement picture you took and hang up your collage.

So easy. So cheap. And honestly doesn't take long at all.

The finished project:

Happy picture wall collaging on a super frugal budget!!!!

Blessings,

Bridget

Pumpkin Patch

2012-10-07T18:42:00.000-07:00

Our lives have been so busy and so full lately. I find myself in a time of transition. Waiting. Sorting thoughts. Praying. Anxiously awaiting. Then praying against the being anxious part :) God is so good and faithful. Though we do not know all of his ways, my heart rests securely in the promise of His word from

Romans 8:28

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose."

Though I don't understand the "whys" now. I know good things are coming and I know that even though I don't understand, right now is still good. Good news coming soon to share with you all. I can't wait :) Hopefully this week...if I get back to blog again this week!

For now, I figured I would leave you with a few pictures of what we've been up to lately....

We visited a local pumpkin farm yesterday. I grew up just a few miles down the road from a pumpkin patch. It was a huge part of my life as a kid....my siblings and I all at one point in time worked there in someway shape or form so going to pumpkin patches in the fall is a no brainer in my opinion. We will go....doesn't matter how cold or rainy it is. All things fall and pumpkin make my heart smile! So...we made the trek yesterday. Just to one a few miles away. It was pretty cold outside and I think Abbie was having a hard time with that. She really didn't want to have anything to do with well...anything! Nevertheless this mama ain't happy if she doesn't get at least a picture so here is our day in pictures.

At least she isn't crying in this one :)

She kind of liked the kids village play area

She hated the petting zoo

Dangit I will get a family picture of us to remember the "fond" memory of Abbie's 1st Trip to the Pumpkin Patch....(let's be honest, she hated it!)

Finally in the car on the way home...eating. Maybe that was what was wrong the whole time. She was hungry? I just fed her lunch and gave her a nap before we went though so who knows! She was a happy girl once we left :)

What is your favorite part about fall? I'd love to hear....besides pumpkin patches my other favs are: hoodies and jeans, bonfires, chili, and pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks or anything pumpkin flavored for that matter!

Until next time,

Bridget

Acts of Service

2012-08-13T12:52:00.000-07:00

Acts of Service

I've been thinking a lot in the last few weeks of how my family can serve others.

Ephesians 6:7 tells us:

"Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people"

and Matthew 20:28 says:

"Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

I don't know about you, but the older I get, the more mature I become in Christ, the more I want to look like Him and though I have a long way to go, the most important part is that I am continuing to let Him chisel away at the selfish calluses of my own heart and entrusting my heart to Him to be softened and refined, and become beautiful like His.

Jesus loved. Jesus served again and again and again He served. In ridicule, He served. In ridicule He loved. We are to do the same. That He would be glorified through out own acts of service. That our motivation here on earth would not be to receive honor and glory and praise, but that our Savior would be honored, glorified, and praised through our service.

Picture from aboutjesuschrist.org

So what does that mean? What does serving look like in our families, with our friends, and in our community?

I am still activeley praying and thinking about what this looks like for our family but I do know a few things. First, how can my husband and I teach our children to serve others if we aren't an example to them? Second, you have to start somewhere. You can't go from doing nothing to doing everything overnight. Pray about what God wants for your family. Pray about the specific passions He has put on your heart and them be obedient to those things. Currently I am thinking about doing one thing monthly outside of our home somehow. I find that in the fall it's easy to start thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas and serving others but what about the rest of the year? I desire for our family to be serving others all year long whether it be a service project outside of our home or sponsoring a child oversees every month...there are tons of things we can do to help others and teach our children the value in doing so!

I've found that often times we associate the word serving with serving people outside of our homes, but in reflection this past week I am realizing how important it is to serve our own families well so we can then serve others well. So here are some ideas to get you started with serving as a family in your own home!

How can we serve our husbands?

Ask your husband what he loves to have done for him around the house? What drives him crazy when he comes home from work and sees that "thing" still sitting out, still left undone, whatever it is....make sure that "thing" is done for him. Teach your children how much it honors their father, when they make sure this is taken care of before dad gets home.

In our home my husband really appreciates it when:

the laundry is done- not left sitting in a laundry basket, shirts put away the way he likes them, things are ironed, and that the undone laundry is left in hampers and kept at bay. (Now we all know there are seasons in life where this is impossible- but when I can do this, I know how much it honors him and so I strive to do it as much as I can.)
The refrigerator isn't overflowing and disorganized (he's a chef....so if you really want to go the extra mile to put a smile on his face then label everything and date it :)

A few more ideas for how to serve your husband:

Pack his lunch for him
Make his favorite meal on the menu this week
Do his least favorite chore for him
Run an errand for him
Bake his favorite dessert
Give him time alone from the kids or you to do something he wants to do for once instead of hearing the never ending "honey do list"

How can we serve our children?

Let them "help"- show them you value them just by letting them be your mini me- in the kitchen, etc.
Bake their favorite dessert
Make their favorite meal
Sometimes, just like your spouse, remember that they probably didn't intentionally forget to put their underwear in the hamper again...and just put it in the hamper for them. Don't tell them about it. Don't hold it against them. Just do it.
Do one of their chores for them
Stop what you are doing off of your own list and just spend time with them- play with them, watch a movie with them, play a video game with them.
Pack their lunch for them.
Make a special breakfast for them.
Give them a special privilege
Do something you normally wouldn't do- spend a little bit more money to do a fun activity with your kids, or let them stay up a little past their bedtime on a weekend night.

How can we serve our friends?

Send them an encouraging note (by mail, email, facebook, or even a text)
Call them or leave an encouraging voicemail if they aren't there
Ask to go out to coffee and buy their drink
Offer to babysit their kids so they can have a date night
Take them a meal
Bake them something (make sure you make an extra large batch so your family can enjoy too!)
Just listen....sometimes we girls talk to much. Start practicing your listening skills
Don't judge....I've realized over time how many times I have been a horrible friend in my life because I have judged too much. My closest friends are the ones who have chosen to love me even in my most horrible moments.

How can we serve others in our community/world/etc?

Participate in food pantries- if you are good at couponing you can even get a lot of stuff for free to give away and it won't break your budget
Sponsor a child through a place like Compassion International, World Vision, and so many more!
Donate!- Start researching places in your community and praying about what God puts on your heart and challenges you to give to. Give to missionaries, causes, etc. Just be obedient to what God calls you to. He will bless you through it! Here is one to get you started though I am a bit biased because these are actual friends of ours whom we love dearly: The Ucherek Family
Ring the bell for the Salvation Army during the holiday season
Serve a meal as a family at a food pantry
Participate in Habitat for Humanity
Operation Christmas Child is a program where you fill up a shoebox full of goodies (small toys, candy, crayons, coloring books etc to send to a needy child oversees.
Angel Tree is something we have at our local churches during the holidays where you choose a specific child and give them things they need off of their list....toys can be included as well so that they also can have a christmas.
Offer to get an elderly persons groceries for them so they don't have to drive on their own.
Our local prolife pregnancy center is currently having people fill up baby bottles with loose change to help them raise money so we just picked up one at church yesterday.
Collect school supplies for families in need.

Sometimes I hear a gentle prodding that encourages me, even when my husband leaves his shoes out for the millionth time....it's a soft voice but it's there...."Put them away for him and don't remind him that he left them out again." Oh how I cringe to hear my Savior whisper that into my ear sometimes, but how right He is! How much better can we serve our husbands when we choose to respect them and exhibit love and grace in our actions. How much better do we serve our children by showing them these small acts of service to the most important man in their life?

I've had many spiritual attacks over the years as Satan tried to prevent me from carrying out an act of service that God asked me to do (including a screaming baby while trying to put out a grease fire in my kitchen which contained the meal for the family who just brought home a newborn....ha! True story I swear :)
It's the times that I feel the most resistance and attack from Satan that I've found it's typically the most important time to press onward and carry on. My friend Ellie told me that once and it's so true!

Never forget the ultimate act of service that our Savior exhibited on the cross. He died so that we might live! What an amazing testimony that is! Do you think Jesus didn't experience spiritual attack? Of course He did but He knew what God asked Him to do. He even begged "Father if you are willing take this cup from me, yet not my will but yours be done." (Luke 22:42). What Jesus did was more than hard. It was pure agony and yet He did it anyway.

Picture from http://hiscrivener.wordpress.com/tag/jesus-saves/

So what now?

Pray. Pray with your husband. Pray with your children and ask God what He wants your family to do to serve Him more. This doesn't mean you over commit yourself. This doesn't mean you should feel guilty because a family you know gives $300 a month to their missionary and you can only give $5. All God asks is that we are obedient to what He asks of us and friends what He asks of you will probably not be the same as your best friend, your neighbor, or your church leaders. Just be obedient to what He puts on your hearts and don't look back. Now go and be His hands and feet!

There are so many more things you can do to serve others so please feel free to comment and share more ideas with me and others!!

Blessings from my home to yours!

Bridget

How did I not know this?

2012-07-31T05:15:00.000-07:00

So random, non serious, side note from my normal blog posts....did you know that July is National Ice Cream month? How in the world did I not know this? Or maybe a past me knew it and choose to bury the information deep down because my waistline would scream at me in anger if I took advantage of such a thing.....nevertheless today is July 31st....and its 7AM here. I have approximately 17 more hours to enjoy the joy of a month that is all about ice cream! Pardon me....I have work to do!

Happy Tuesday ladies!

(Photo courtesy of pespkypippi.com)

Thank you God for Trials

2012-07-30T03:00:00.000-07:00

Photo credit: http://liftjesuscross.wordpress.com/

A few days ago I was reading in Philippians and my eyes stopped on the words in Philippians 1:12 " I want you to know brothers that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel" and in verse 14 "most of my brothers having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment are much more bold to speak the word without fear."

A little context for the verses (according to Matthew Henry's bible commentary), Paul was now a prisoner in Rome, and He didn't want his current sufferings to be a discouragement to those who had come to know the gospel through his ministry.

As I allowed myself to mull over these words, my heart softened and I found myself writing a list of all the things I have found to be "sufferings" in my life. The list got longer and longer, and I realized no matter how hard that circumstance was at the time, and how much healing had to be done after, that this new mindset of looking at my trials as a joy because they helped to advance the gospel was healing in and of itself. Yes, these were hard times in my life, but they've grown me. I do my best now to use their story for God's glory, to focus on His sovereignty.

How about you? What trials have you come through? What trials do you feel you are still in? Take sometime to write your own list of trials and allow God to heal you through his words and bring you new joy that as we daily submit ourselves to Him, regardless of what roads He takes us down, He is still sovereign, and that if the tasks He asks of us help to advance the gospel than it is worth it. The tears and heartache still make it worth it. He has big plans for you as you find new confidence and hope even in the hardest of times!

Jeremiah 29:11

¹¹For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

My Journey to She Speaks Part III

2012-07-27T02:30:00.000-07:00

Journey to She Speaks Part III: What's Next

(Please read Part I and Part II of my story first before continuing on...)

Now one of the things I heard from several speakers throughout the weekend was looking for your niche in speaking and writing. Doing so out of your brokenness and what you are passionate about. We could choose to speak on anything, but really where God tends to use us most is in areas He has brought us through. I am currently still praying about this but I believe my passion for the verses in Titus 2 has something to do with this. I have always loved teaching women about home management, marriage advice, parenting stuff....even none spiritual things like cloth diapering advice, breastfeeding advice, etc....I just love helping other women understand more so that they too can succeed at what they set out for their hearts to do. I first started wondering if this wasn't what He was putting on my heart back in early spring when I found my friend Su's blog The Intentional Home. Su is amazing and was also a first time She Speaks attender! She teaches women life skills, marriage advice, couponing, freezer stocking, etc. I love it! She challenged me through her blog, as well as one of the speakers, that we are to be servants of God's word in our homes first, than in our outside obligations with speaking to other women etc. So I think I need to just keep learning. Submitting to God in my role as a wife, mother, and home manager and just become a good student of those things. Growing everyday, and sharing my knowledge with other women with the skills God is equipping me with.

Some other things I am praying about right now that I am passionate about are:

healthy body image (I struggled with a borderline eating disorder)
the compassion I have to moms of all types (there is so much judgement in the mom world sometimes...working mom vs stay at home mom, natural birth vs epidural/csection, breastfeeding vs bottle feeding, cloth diapering vs disposable, attachment parenting vs letting your baby cry it out, its all unnecessary judgement, and God has changed my heart so much and broken off so much of that judgement by having me be a part time working mom that I am forever greatful that he has asked this of me right now. For if he had let me stay at home right away I never would have learned it and I praise him for contining to refine and grow me.
Marriage- a theme I kept hearing spoken to my heart throughout the weekend was about how our marriage is a witnessing opportunity. Dave and I are currently praying about what this means for us as a couple. How could God use our marriage in small and big ways for His glory?

After my quiet time that day I walked out of my hotel room, bursting and alive again, only to see Stephanie, my prayer girl walking out of hers at the same time. Turns out, we were neighbors, and I could read it all over her face. She had just done the same thing I had. Her smile, just as big as mine. Her heart was overflowing and she shared. I shared, and we cried. Her heart is so genuine and I know God will do big things in her life. I was so blessed to have that moment to sit down with her and just listen to her heart and what God had just spoken to her. Because of my new friendship with her, she introduced me to another mom who was very burdened for the working mom world. Many times as a working mom I have felt segregated. Some of it was assumed by me. I don't think many people do it on purpose, but its hard to feel like you belong as a working mom. Mom's groups are all during the day when....the working moms are working. I have heard some very judgemental things about working moms be said to me even before I had kids that have haunted me ever since. Overall we are just that...moms. The same purpose, the same God given roles, equally loved by our creator. I cried that night when I shared my passion about the judgement moms had sometimes on each other to my new friends heart, and I knew, that maybe God was onto something after all as he broke down the walls in my heart over the last year and a half of teaching me to work at the same time as being a mother and a wife.

Sunday morning the message was amazing. The time was too short, but what surprised me most about this weekend was how real and genuine everyone was. Lysa Terkeurst (the founder and president of Proverbs 31 ministeries- pictured below) herself was so normal. Just a normal mom trying to be with her family as much as she could, balancing ministry with being a mother and a wife, the same body image struggles we've all had, and there she was...normal, real, genuine. It was not something I expected. These women were some of the most humble people I have ever met in my life. One of the other woman from Proverbs 31 shared something about Lysa that I will never forget, she said that all of the money from the purchases of Lysa's books goes back into the ministry. Not a dime goes to her from any of them. She is on the New York Time's Best Seller List and yet she hasn't gotten a penny from all of her hard work in writing those. Wow! I was blown away and humbled by that. Now I know Lysa would never share this about herself, but it meant a lot to me to hear that. To put into perspective that these ladies are far from selfish. These ladies are just doing what the rest of us are striving to do, big or small, choosing to say yes to God and be obedient to whatever He asks of them. No matter how scary. No matter how hard. To just say yes to God. Does this mean I will ever be the President of an amazing ministry like Proverbs 31...of course not! It could mean for the rest of my life I am just intentional about sharing what God puts on my heart with people- could be bigger like mom's groups, could be just being real in a bible study, or sharing my heart with a new friend during story hour at the library....whatever I do that my to do list is held up to God daily to trust Him with the divine appointments He has for me that day.

Lysa Terkeurst and I at She Speaks 2012

My flights home were funny as I quickly realized miraculously my friend Kelly and I were seated next to each other on the same flight and even on my flight back home, on a tiny plane, another She Speaks sister was waiting in the seat next to me. God is good. He knows our needs. He calls us to this very moment and the beauty of it all, is that all I have to do is keep saying yes God, and let Him remind me time and time again that He is Worth it!

Samantha, me, and Kelly at She Speaks 2012

My Journey to She Speaks Part II

2012-07-26T03:00:00.000-07:00

Journey to She Speaks Part II: A Teachable Heart

(If you haven't checked out Part I of this series please visit yesterdays post here first.)

Friday July 20th 5:45AM

Dave's parents came to our house to pick me up and take me to the airport. I had insisted it wasn't necessary. Our airport is so small that I knew since I'd already checked in online that they would literally be dropping me off and I would almost immediately be walking through security, and at that point they wouldn't be able to come anyway. Abbie happened to be awake cause she heard me getting ready so she got to come too and in hindsight I do admit...it was nice having someone take me. Less lonely. Less scary.

Security literally took 5 minutes to walk through and my terminal was right on the other side of it. I am pretty sure our airport has only 10-15 terminals. I have never had to walk out onto the concrete "runaway" and walk up the stairs of the actual plane to get on before but this time I did.....I have never flown through our airport in town so I almost felt like I was breaking a law walking outside right under the plane to get on. Our plane was the smallest plane I had ever been on and I at times can be a bit claustrophobic. A big gentleman sat down next to me who I shortly found out went to one of our local catholic churches and was a very active father to 4 daughters and involved in the youth at the church. He was a nice guy and I was glad for the company to get my mind off of my claustrophobia. He was actually really encouraging since I have a daughter, giving me bits of wisdom for life down the road with a teenage girl. He and his wife had always maintained open communication with their girls, friends with them yet still parents and I liked the combination and the type of trusting relationship that he seemed to have with each of his girls. I pocketed the wisdom for much further down the road when Abbie is a teenager :)

My connecting flight arrived in Detroit about 50 minutes later and I had about an hour between flights. Perfect amount of time in my opinion. Unless you are flying through Atlanta. Then I need time to hyperventilate between trying to make sure I make the right flight while sprinting miles through each concourse. I had just enough time to grab some starbucks and get ready to board by the time I found my terminal. The flight to Charlotte was about an hour and 45 minutes and I spent most of it reading a book I had checked out from the library on writing. You see going into this conference I wasn't sure what God was calling me to do. This conference called She Speaks through Proverbs 31 Ministeries, is for Christian Women Writers and Speakers. I just knew clearly without a doubt that God was asking me to go and so I went. I had been praying about what he wanted for me to do and before I left I kind of felt like it might be more writing. It made sense to me. I have a small toddler and we hope to have more children in the future. Where in the world would I fit speaking around my already busy life? So writing just made sense to me. I was attending sessions at the conference on both writing and speaking though. One of the speakers at Proverbs 31 had encouraged me when I registered and said "Ultimately writers become speakers, and speakers become writers." Which is very true. Regardless of what God revealed to my heart, I knew there was one that would have more of a focus in my life, and the other would be there but more on the backburner.

I arrived in Charlotte North Carolina around noon EST and found the shuttle to our hotel. It was about a 25 minute drive from the airport to our hotel and I met some great women who also were going to the conference while I was on there. My sessions started shortly after arriving at the hotel. This place was nothing short of amazing. The place itself was just a normal hotel with a convention center attached but just the feeling of being surrounded by 650 women who all were there for the same reasons I was, being obedient to what God asked of them and seeking out God's will in their lives about speaking and writing was overwhelming. I had met many of the women online through a facebook group, but I had no idea how hard it would be to find those very same faces in a large group. 650 didn't sound like a huge number to me, but turns out, it was a bit overwhelming. I did the best I could to be outgoing and talkative and not hide in the shell I wanted to hide in. Turns out I realized how much I missed the confident me. The person who used to not care so much about what people thought about her. The person who didn't put so much effort into people pleasing and instead just chose to love people regardless of their brokenness. My old extroverted self started to come out and it was nice. It was nice to be real again. To know people may hurt me sometimes but that I didn't have to hide. And here, in this place, it was safe. I could be me. I could be transparent. I could be real.

Now most Christians know that when God asks you to do something, spiritual warfare is quick to follow, from the time I said yes to going, up until right before I left to go, there was spiritual attack after spiritual attack. Many others came to the conference with much different stories than mine, but still many struggles, hurt hearts, each clinging to their Savior's promise for healing. There was a special prayer room where you could go and pray quietly or have someone pray for you, and a few days before the conference started we received an email from Proverbs 31 saying that each of our names had being prayed over for months, and in the prayer room there would be scripture. Each of our names had been placed by scripture that they felt God leading it to be put on. Tears streamed down my face when I read that email. So excited to see what God put on these beautiful womens hearts about me. When I got into the prayer room the name and scripture of God they had assigned to my name was:

EL ROI

The God Who Sees Me

There are no circumstances in our lives that escape his fatherly awareness and care. God knows us and our troubles.

Genesis 16:11-14 and Psalm 139: 7-12

Truth and mercy washed over me in that moment and I knew that He knew exactly what had happened for me to be there at that conference. That I didn't have to be scared. That I didn't have to lack confidence but that He fully knew and He is good. My father cares for his children.

I got prayer in the prayer room that night. From a girl named Stephanie. Someone who would start to become far more important in my life than a random girl who prayed for me once. As I sobbed and told her my story she prayed a compassionate prayer and it was there from her that I began to notice a theme in things that God was speaking to my heart about from the weekend.

Stephanie and I at She Speaks 2012

I finally got a chance to meet my roommate that night about 10PM. Poor thing had gone through so much to get there- missing flights, being on stand by after standby, storms causing rerouting for her plane to land, and she finally had gotten to the hotel about 8PM (she was supposed to arrive around noon) that night just in time to present her speech to her evaluation group. Like I said....satan didn't stop working on tearing any of us down to get there!

Whitney (my roommate) and I at She Speaks 2012

She was such a joy to talk to. We had emailed back and forth a few times before going so we knew what the other looked like and a bit about each others lives. It was a joy to spend part of my weekend with her and get to know her better!

Saturday was filled with session after session of amazing writing and speaking material and by about 3:30 my brain couldn't take anymore. I struggled through that session to listen and grasp what I could but my brain was on overload and I was craving sometime to just go spend with God, praying, reading his word, and sorting through what He was laying on my heart. Luckily for me I had opted for free time at 4PM instead of taking another session so I had an hour and a half to go do just that.

My time with God that afternoon was much needed. I prayed about some of the things I felt him laying on my heart. I asked for wisdom on whether he was leading me to write or speak. I read new scripture and by the end of my time He had given me much insight. I wasn't really sure if he would reveal anything to me that day or if it would be a longer process of reveal but He did and I am so greatful. You see in my mind as I asked God about speaking and writing, writing just made more sense to me. I have a toddler. Writing would work better around my schedule because I could write after she goes to bed or during naptimes etc, but speaking? How do I speak when I have a toddler? I don't want to leave my family all the time to go speak somewhere, but you see God knows our hearts. He knows our needs, and my problem was, that I was looking at people who speak all the time and was getting ahead of myself. I haven't started any of it yet except blogging. God knows my exact spot in life. He knows I have a young daughter. He knows I'm married. He knows we want more children. He knows. He will never give me more than I can handle and if I just submit everyday to Him and ask Him what He specifically wants for my day, I won't miss any appointments He has for me, He will give me the strength to know how to fit marriage, and parenting in with other things He might want for me, and at the same time not to undermine my roles in my husband and children's lives...they are huge responsibilities and a major part of my God given tasks! I decided at that point in my quiet time to read through the scripture again He had laid on my heart from Isaiah 6, and also Titus 2- those verses had been on my heart even longer

Titus 2: 3-5 says:

³Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. ⁴Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, ⁵to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God."

Before leaving for the conference I was reading through Ephesians and on the next chapter I was due to read was the later part of Ephesians 6:

The Whole Armor of God

¹⁰Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. ¹¹ Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. ¹²For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.¹³Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. ¹⁴Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, ¹⁵and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. ¹⁶In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; ¹⁷and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, ¹⁸praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, ¹⁹and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.

Now what is funny about this is that our keynote speaker for Sunday morning was due to speak on The Armor of God. I found it funny that my current chapter I was reading coincided with that, but as I prayed for God's wisdom on whether or not He wanted me to focus more on speaking or writing, He used this chapter to lay it thickly on my heart. There at the end tucked into verses 19 and 20 He spoke to me clearly" and also for me that WORDS may be given to me in OPENING MY MOUTH BOLDLY TO PROCLAIM the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, AS I OUGHT TO SPEAK."

Tears fell and I knew, plain as day God was speaking to me. I knew that it wasn't that He didn't want me to write, but that He had always wanted me to speak. That to choose writing, and refusing to speak would be using writing as a crutch to hide behind.

To be continued....

My Journey to She Speaks Series

2012-07-25T11:20:00.000-07:00

Journey to She Speaks Part 1: Called to Go

This past weekend July 20-22nd I attended a conference called She Speaks hosted by Proverbs 31 Ministries based out of Concord North Carolina. This conference is for aspiring Christian women writers and speakers. I first heard about this conference a few years ago...I believe it was actually when I was pregnant maybe, or the spring before I got pregnant, and it cost quite a bit to go so I immediately told myself no, you can't go. You see, I have really enjoyed for a long time being able to encourage women. When I was in college I was a social butterfly. I was a student leader in my school's Intervarsity Christian Fellowship and a few times spoke in small ways to the group through that and really enjoyed it when I did. I remember being the MC for the group many nights and trying to make people feel welcome and wanted upon arrival. I loved that. After I got married, my roles changed a lot. My roles as a wife, and eventually as a mother consumed me, and in many ways they should, but in many ways we also can segregate ourselves from other fellowship God has for us by letting our homes be all consuming. It's about balance and also trusting that even when we aren't home with our families 247 that ultimately they are God's and we have to entrust them to His care. We need to be obedient to ways God can stretch us in our faith and what he is calling us to. I've known for along time that He had put this desire on my heart to serve women in someway shape or form and I just wasn't exactly sure what He wanted me to do.

Let me rewind just for a few moments to this past January. I was doing an online bible study on a book called A Confident Heart by Renee Swope.

Time out for a picture:

Renee Swope and I at She Speaks 2012

Renee is one of the main people helping run Proverbs 31 ministry. Her book was amazing and life changing, and really helped me sort through some things with God that I have needed to do for a long time. I knew as I was reading through this book how much I had ignored this passion he had put in my heart to serve him through serving women. As I was working through all of this stuff through the bible study I remembered the She Speaks conference and how a few years back I felt somewhat of an itch to go but had quickly stifled the desire. I had started hearing more about this conference now through Renee and on the Proverbs 31 website, and started to wonder if God wasn't continually bringing this up for a reason in my life right now. I really started to feel a strong push to go. I lacked confidence though. I didn't want to have to choose to decide to do something like that. Besides it would cost close to $1000 to go including conference cost, hotel cost, and plane ticket. We hardly had any extra money to do anything with since Abbie was born let alone being able to afford $1000 to do something like this with. The final straw came at the end of February when Jill Savage (pictured below), founder of Hearts at Home, a mom's ministry located in my town posted on

Jill Savage and I at She Speaks 2012

her blog about the She Speaks conference. I receive her blog feeds regularly. In this post she said she knew some of us were interested in speaking and writing and really encouraged us to think about attending this conference but that if we really wanted to go we should register soon because registration fills up fast.
At that point I knew I needed to really pray about it, or I was going to miss my chance. I asked many of my friends and family to pray for me- pray for affirmation in going, pray for finances to go, pray for my confidence because Lord, why in the world would you ask me, a Veterinary Technician to speak and write? I don't have a journalism degree or any sort of English anything besides English 101 and 102. God put some very specific verses on my heart during this time from Isaiah 6: 8-13

It reads:

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? ”

And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

He said, “Go and tell this people:

“‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding;

be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’

Make the heart of this people calloused;

make their ears dull

and close their eyes.^[a]

Otherwise they might see with their eyes,

hear with their ears,

understand with their hearts,

and turn and be healed.”

Then I said, “For how long, Lord?”

And he answered:

“Until the cities lie ruined

and without inhabitant,

until the houses are left deserted

and the fields ruined and ravaged,

until the Lord has sent everyone far away

and the land is utterly forsaken.

And though a tenth remains in the land,

it will again be laid waste.

But as the terebinth and oak

leave stumps when they are cut down,

so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.”

Many tears came upon reading those verses and just hearing God speak it to my heart. He asked so I shall go and how long Lord do you want me to do this.....for as long as you live. After seeking out wise counsel, much prayer and without a doubt, affirmation from God I said alright God I will go. I have no idea what you are doing God but I know without a doubt you want me to go. He doesn't always ask the person with the most credentials, he often times uses us in our brokenness, all He really asks is for us to have a willing obedient heart. So I registered and less than 72 hours later, the conference was paid for by some really generous people who also believed God was asking me to go.

To Be continued....

Delicious dinner recipe, Abbie's first sentence, and Abbie's 15 month picture!!

2012-07-18T20:40:00.000-07:00

Dave had to work tonight but Abbie and I enjoyed some one on one time in the kitchen. She loves to help and it melts my heart to see her so excited about getting to do what I'm doing.

Our menu tonight:
Baked Trout with a lemon butter glaze topped with mango salsa, cilantro lime brown rice, and a spinach salad drizzled in raspberry vinaigrette with dried cranberries and apple slices.

Trout fillet (or other white fish)
Glaze:

Melt 1/2 tbsp butter (depending on how many fillets you are cooking. I was baking 4 small trout fillets and I don't like to add more calories if I don't have to).
Add 1Tbsp lemon juice to the melted butter.
Drizzle or brush this over the uncooked fillets.
Sprinkle salt, pepper, thyme, parsley, and garlic powder (or minced garlic) onto the fillets.
Bake at around 400F for 15 minutes or until firm to touch.

Mango Salsa

Cut up one mango. See this tutorial for how to cut up a mango here
Cut up one jalapeno. See this tutorial for how to safely cut up a jalapeno here
Cut up one bunch of cilantro, minus the stems.
Mix all of the above together in a bowl (save a little cilantro for your rice though!) and add a splash of fresh lime juice.

Cilantro Lime Brown Rice

In my kitchen I always have rice made up ahead of time. I cook a big batch and freeze it in bulk. So for this particular dish you would either cook your rice and then add the seasonings, or in my case I would thaw my frozen rice and then recook and season it.
Place cooked rice in heated sautee pan with just a little olive oil or butter.
Add a splash of lime juice, salt, and pepper.
Stir in the remaining cilantro.
Once heated thoroughly serve.

Spinach Salad with dried cranberries and apples

Mix spinach greens thoroughly with vinaigrette after washing and drying (just enough to lightly coat leaves)
Sprinkle on dried cranberries and add apple slices.
Walnuts or almonds would be good with this salad as well, I was all out tonight but I have used them in the past and it tastes delicious!

Abbie was cracking me up when I was cutting up the mango. She kept stealing all the mango and I finally said "If you keep eating all the mango we aren't going to have enough to make the salsa for our fish."

She didn't seem to care and proceeded to try and crawl up onto the counter : )

Oh and other random side note just so its documented...Abbie said her first sentence. That might be over exaggerated a bit but I think its fair game....she has been signing different words for awhile now. "More" and "please" being two words she uses on a regular basis. She can say both of the words but sometimes prefers to sign them over saying them. Well tonight I could tell she was trying with all of her might to communicate rapid fire to me that she wanted more apples and she looked at me and signed but also said it "Mow peez"....she got it! She is starting to understand that you can put words together to make sentences and though she has no idea what a sentence means she is starting to understand that please doesn't just mean you automatically get food and that saying more doesn't meant you automatically get food, but that mom and dad insist that you ask for such things nicely. I was dumbstruck. It won't be long before she gets that you should say "More apples please." She is making more and more connections with how things work on a daily basis and it just amazes me the way their little minds work and makes me realize how much I take for granted that I forgot I had to learn on my own once upon a time as well.

And one more thing before I forget, I finally sucked it up and took her somewhere to get her pictures taken. Up until she was about 11 months old I took them myself with my DSLR and they turned out great. Problem now is....that I am mom. Mom is the photographer and when mom is the one trying to take pictures of the subject that just wants mom to hold her...well you get a bunch of pictures of a toddler walking towards the camera rapid fire with arms held out looking like Frankenstein. So I gave in and had them taken at Portrait Innovations. They did a really nice job and I was proud of myself for not giving into their spiel and only purchasing my favorite pose to get the price special. I paid less than $11 for 1- 11x13, 2- 8x10, 4- 5x7, 4- 3x5, and 24 wallets. That is a lot of pictures for $11 and it actually wasn't as hard to pick my favorite pose as I thought it would be. So I am going to share the picture with you. I am really strongly against pirating, stealing anyone's work be it photography, movies, music, etc so no, I will not be printing this off cause I scanned it in, I just wanted to be able to share it with all of you so you could see it too (besides did you not just read that they gave me a buttload of pictures for only $11...I don't need anymore anyway :)

I think it turned out well! It's a perfect 15 month photo of her and is already being proudly displayed in our house.

I am leaving for the Proverbs 31 She Speaks conference Friday morning at 6:40AM (well that is what time my plane is supposed to leave anyway!), so this is most likely my last post until sometime next week (hopefully!) Please be praying for me and the other woman there. I have been able to chat with many of them over facebook, and have already gotten to know my roomie a bit through email. I am so excited to meet them all. I can already tell they are such a loving group of woman who just want to build up each other as the body of Christ in order to glorify Him more.
Prayer requests for me specifically: that I would be patient with God's timing and will in this conference and let Him orchestrate His plan for me, not me for Him (I always mess it up when I try to do it instead of letting Him!), for confidence and boldness in being myself around a group of 650 strangers, and most importantly that I would be able to press into Him and seek out His will for me in this. To trust Him regardless of what He asks of me to do.

Have a fantastic weekend!!!
God Bless!!

Bridget

6 years!!!

2012-07-17T19:22:00.000-07:00

Just a few weeks ago on July 8th, 2012 Dave and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. To some 6 doesn't sound like a lot. To others it sounds like an eternity, but to me, to me I stand back in awe at how fast the time has gone by. How much has been accomplished. How many mistakes were made. The joys, and the sorrows that 6 years can bring, and I just feel incrediblely blessed to know that Dave chose me to spend His life with. That God brought us together in the way that He did for His glory. I pray that the next 6 years, and hopefully the next 60-70 years will be spent doing just that....glorifying God in all that we do. Thank you Jesus for what a blessing this man is in my life and so many others!!

July 8th, 2006

July 2012

To celebrate we had a night out to ourselves, baby in tow to grandma and grandpa's to have a slumber party, while we went out and had the most relaxing time I think we have had since Abbie was born. No baby, no food thrown on the floor, no focusing on meeting the ever pressing needs of a toddler, just me, my hubby some amazing food and a bottle of wine (of which I think I had too much of so I had to stop :) Since Abbie's birth I feel like all we've done is worry about the bills getting paid, and her needs...finally we just stopped, relaxed, and treated ourselves. Neither one of us cared what the bill was. Not that I recommend doing that very often, but it was nice to just enjoy each others company without life stresses! We rarely ever order an appetizer or dessert, let alone a bottle of wine, and we let ourselves have all of the above. Calamari, Dave had a rack of lamb, I had an amazing white fish called Doversole that was encrusted with almonds and pecans and garnished with a roasted red pepper sauce, our wine paired perfectly and for dessert....well I had to have the carrot cake...it was part of Dave's proposal to me, but he didn't want it...no the chef wanted creme brulee...go figure :) But you know what...I enjoyed my piece of cake to its entirety...no sense wasting a perfectly good piece of carrot cake on someone who is lusting after creme brulee :) Afterwards we walked through our downtown cause we were so stuffed and needed to walk a little bit in order to not just roll onto the couch when we got home. Then we went home and watched Lost....our current show of choice that we always watch together. We are trying to make it through all the seasons. At the rate we are going it will probably be our 25th anniversary before we finish them all.
In all it was a wonderful anniversary spent exactly the way we like to....with each other, just being us, and that makes it just perfect!

Zucchini Bread

2012-06-27T14:44:00.000-07:00

Abbie and I had a fun afternoon today making a healthy alternative to an American favorite...Zucchini bread! It's off of one of my favorite blogs: 100 Days of Real Food. If you haven't checked out her blog you should head over there. I love her stuff and will probably share several of her recipes in the future. We are trying to eat more whole, less processed foods around here and these. They aren't completely sugar free but close :) I did modify her recipe a bit and added those into the recipe you'll see listed below. Are they your typical bakery fresh oozing with butter, sugary goodness muffin? Of course not! But my taste tester husband the chef approved!

Here is the finished product:

Zucchini Bread

3 cups whole-wheat flour (I used King Arthur’s white whole-wheat flour)
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
¼ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
¾ cup oil (I used olive oil and actually used a 50:50 ratio of applesauce to oil
¾ cup honey (used a 50:50 ratio of honey to sugar...I'm cheap and didn't want to use all my honey :)
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups grated zucchini
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F for small loaf pans or 325 degrees F for large loaf pan or muffins.
Blend the dry ingredients.
Make a well (or hole) in the center and pour in the eggs, oil, honey and vanilla. Stir just until mixed – do not overmix.
Fold in the grated zucchini and chopped nuts if using. Pour batter into greased loaf pan(s) or muffin holders and bake until a toothpick comes clean in the top/center of the loaf or muffin.

If using smaller pans bake for 30 – 40 minutes. I was able to fill four of my small loaf pans.
For one larger loaf pan bake for 50 – 60 minutes.
For muffins bake for 15 – 20 minutes.

Enjoy and don’t forget to freeze the leftovers!

Here's a picture of Abbie enjoying one of her new goodies. I wish I had captured a picture of the process. She had flour everywhere! We had a lot of fun though so picture or not....I have the memories!

All Good Things Must Come To An End

2012-06-26T18:03:00.002-07:00

I don't regret it. Not a single moment. Even though the first 3 months we struggled to keep you successfully breastfeeding Abigail, I don't regret any of it. I remember when your daddy and I used to have to fight you cause you would get so upset with it and we would be patient, and try, and try, and try again until I had tears streaming down my face seeing you so upset, but we got through it. You and me....we did it.
Your entire first year there was this fear in the back of my mind that I wouldn't be able to produce enough milk, that my body wouldn't provide what you needed, and somewhere in that mindset came this determination to not fail. Though I wouldn't have been a failure had I quit, or had my body not been able to produce enough, I am so glad I tried as hard as I did. I am so glad I was as adamant as I was.
I wouldn't have gotten through it if it weren't for other successful breastfeeding moms and lactation consultants. You were my biggest cheerleaders and I thank you for that! I thank my husband for continuing to encourage me even in the moments I hated it.

Breastfeeding is one of the hardest things I've ever done. The first few weeks to months of toe curling pain, thrush, plugged ducts, mastitis, engorgement, pumping at work, plugged duct after plugged duct after plugged duct. Did I mention I got plugged ducts frequently? :) It's hard. It takes work and breastfeeding is definitely not for the faint hearted. I remember moments of looking at a mom with a bottle of formula in her hand wishing I could do that. Wishing I could just mix it up, shake it and give it to you but my determination got the better of me and I kept on. I remember counting down the months until I got to stop. Just wanting to make it to a year and then we could quit and slowly overtime that went away. Somewhere around months 3 and 4 I started to enjoy it and then month 6 right when I thought my milk supply wasn't enough for you we started solids and it was always just enough and then finally we hit that benchmark. 1 year! I did it! We did it! But then I knew we weren't done yet. You still enjoyed it, I still enjoyed it, and I knew as long as I didn't have to pump at work anymore that I could handle doing this longer and so we did.

I've come to see you at daycare almost everyday I worked since you were 8 weeks old and nursed you at lunch time. Those moments were my joy to get through the day when I had to work. You were my light on those days Abigail!

You've always been independent. A personality trait that I sometimes fault you for, but I am trying to focus on the blessing that it is. Far too many women today fall prey to peer pressures pushes and don't know what they want and don't have the determination to work hard for it. I pray your independence will be a blessing in your life and so many others. I pray that you use this trait to glorify God in all that He has for your life Miss Abigail, and so because of this trait alone it should be of no surprise to me that you chose to stop nursing the way you did. No questions asked just up and one day decided you didn't want to anymore. I wish I had cherished that last time you nursed more. I had no idea it would be your last at the time but I'll remember forever how hard we worked together to get here. I'll cherish the memories of all the moments I got to cuddle you and no one else did because I was the one that fed you and if you weren't being fed then the word cuddle didn't exist in your vocabulary. I'll forever remember how every morning when you woke up your daddy would bring you into me to nurse and sometimes if I was lucky you'd fall back asleep in my arms and I'd get to snuggle you. Breathe in the sweet smell of your hair and cherish that rare moment.

Thank you Abigail for almost 15 months of blessing me with something I had so much doubt that I would even be able to do, and thank you God for blessing me for each and every moment of it!

Taken of me and Abbie when she was about 9 months old

My 1st Guest Post!!

2012-05-01T20:52:00.000-07:00

So my noble attempt at blogging more isn't going so well. My hubby and I have had a lot on our minds and our hearts lately and within those things I've known it was more important to press into God during this time so forgive me that blogging hasn't been something I've focused on in the last week or so.

I did however want to share with you that I'm being featured today over at my friend Callie's blog. She asked awhile back if I would be interested and of course I obliged. Callie is such a sweet girl. I love her heart and she is passionate about many of the same things I am....God, our husbands, motherhood, and overall just doing our best in this crazy world to seek out God's heart for our lives. Head on over and check it out! While you are there you might just be intrigued to stay awhile and hear more of Callie's beautiful heart!

I promise I'll be back sometime (hopefully) soon! We'll be going on vacation soon for a couple of weeks and right now more than anything in our lives we need rest and rejuvenation. Pray for my heart friends that neither I nor my husband miss all that God has for us even in this.

Blessings!!

Bridget

Abbie's 1st Birthday: A Week of Celebrating!

2012-04-16T18:10:00.020-07:00

I am the mother of a toddler....woah! That is the first time I've actually said that too myself. Are you kidding me? She is still so much baby to me, but at the same time....more of a little girl than she is baby anymore. It's sad, and its amazing all at the same time and I've found myself wondering a little bit about #2 a little bit lately...eek! Did I just openly admit that to all ya'll? I will emphasize the "little bit" of that last statement. Not wanting yet, not trying (for a long while!) but still...for the thought to cross my mind is an accomplishment in and of itself. I didn't even have one of those horribly painful, rip you in 2 type of labors either, nor was my pregnancy that horrible. Although I was nauseous almost the entire nine months it was tolerable....so I am really not sure why my brain didn't turn to instant baby mush like a lot of women's do shortly after their baby isn't a newborn anymore. Anyway....back to focusing on this whole "toddler" thing.....Abbie is a toddler! I can't believe how fast this year has gone by. She is turning into one heck of an amazing little girl! Her birthday was wonderful....everything I thought it would be. How can one really plan the birthday party that their 1 year old child would want when they can't really express what they want yet? So like all parents, you do the best you can....and I did...and it turned out wonderful, and at the end of it all my heart was happy and joyful for this precious life that God blessed us with!

The week started out with a surprise on our back patio 2 days before her birthday. Grandma and Grandpa B had a new playhouse waiting for her when we came home from my parents Anniversary Party! She loves this thing and makes it possible for me to work in my container garden a little bit while she is playing and not putting dirt in her mouth :)

Here she is the morning of her birthday...so sleepy still. It was like 6:30 AM and she was leaving with Dave to go to daycare. Dave brought home this super cute dress the night before her birthday (She so has him wrapped around his finger!). I actually asked him to go to the store to get milk and what's he come home with....this adorable dress, and no milk! Ha!

That night after work we took her to get her 1st real ice cream cone at our favorite local ice cream place. I shared with her of course but she did a really good job. It was all over her, me and our clothes but I don't care....sweet chocolate and vanilla kisses are my favorite :)

Dave made this cookie cake for her to share with her friends at daycare. So cute!

Here is us at her little daycare party. I am lucky enough to work super close and so I get to go and nurse her over my lunch hour. On her birthday though I took a long lunch to get to hang out with these two cuties!

Her little daycare friends :)

The Saturday after her birthday we had her party. Dave and I both wanted to do something super small and my nickname for her for quite awhile now has been "Love Bug" so that is the theme we chose (lots of spring colors- butterflies, caterpillars, dragonflies, bumblebees, and ladybugs.)

The cake table:

Her birthday cake that I made....I practiced with fondant and cut out all the decor by hand....to say it wasn't hard would be a lie. Many times I cursed myself for not just buying the darn thing, but in the end I am glad I stuck it out. She loves bananas so I made it a banana cake with buttercream frosting. It was seriously so good!

Abbie's smash cake:

The banner I made featured in this tutorial:

Most of the party guests (Dave's parents, us, and my parents)

Abbie with her presents:

Blowing out the candle

She didn't do half bad!

Such an amazing day with amazing people. My heart is full and so is my stomach!

From God's Heart to Mine: James Chapter 3

2012-04-09T19:58:00.000-07:00

Sometimes its hard to see past myself. I get so caught up in my own life, my own struggles, my own hardships, my own busy-ness, that I forget about everyone but me, myself, and I.

I had one of those days the other day. Satan was planting little seeds of doubt, greed, and selfishness in my mind and I in turn was letting these untamed thoughts run rampant in my head instead of taking them to God the moment they started.

You know the thoughts I'm talking about. We've all had them. They start with things like:

"I am just too busy right now to help out my friend (insert name here). Doesn't she know I have a million things to do too?"

or maybe

"Well no one helped me when I went through the same thing, so why should I give up my time to help them?"

(ugh that last one just gets me....and really shows how many lies fill our head when we don't continually give the stuff satan tries to fill our heads with, to God)

Do you recognize either of those? Maybe you have your own selfish thoughts in your head that will require a little clean up?

As I struggled through these thoughts and tried to justify my way of thinking, I finally reached for my bible (which I should have done in the first place) and opened up the book of James.

James 3:13-18 says:

^{^"13Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. ¹⁴But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. ¹⁵This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. ¹⁶For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. ¹⁷But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. ¹⁸And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace."

To hear the words earthly, unspiritual, and demonic being used to describe my current state of mind was a slap in the face. Each are things I strive to run from, not toward. It was only in that moment that I reached for the word of God and he let me face the cold hard truth in his loving and gentle way that I finally felt my insides give a bit and realize how wrong my bitterness and selfishness really were. That none of my feelings were justified at all. That these feelings, according to this passage are never justified.

So how about you? Do you struggle with these same feelings sometimes? Friends we must run this race together and spur one another on to not let these feelings overtake us, but again and again take them to the cross and lay them at Jesus feet where they belong. His desire is for our hearts to look more and more like his, and he cannot do a good work in us if we continue to let Satan distract us from His will. He will give you strength, just ask him...

Philippians 1:6
^"6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

One of the hardest things to understand sometimes in life is that God doesn't promise comfort. Some people mistake lack of comfort for lack of God's presence. I can tell you that God has asked me to do many uncomfortable things. The last 10 months being one of the hardest of them all in my entire life, and yet I know, standing here on the other side that He called me to this. That had he not brought me through the refining process of the hardships of the last 10 months, that I wouldn't have learned half of the stuff He taught me had I gotten to skip it and it is in that alone that I sing His praise. He is a good God. He is faithful and he alone will sustain me forever and ever.

Romans 8:28
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

So what about your heart? Are there sometimes seeds of ungodly selfishness and bitterness harboring there? Take them to the cross and let God's grace wash them away. Use these moments even in the busy-ness of your own life to set yourself aside and be used by God to serve another.}

Happy 1st Birthday to My Sweet Abbie Girl!!

2012-04-03T02:00:00.000-07:00

Can today really be the day? One year from the first moment I laid eyes on you. One year from the first time I held you, touched you, nursed you, kissed your sweet cheeks....

This next one is my most cherished picture of us. It was our first family picture. I had dreamed about "the first family picture" for months before you were born. I had it all planned out in my mind. It would be of you on my chest with your daddy trying to squeeze in next to us as best as he could. I wanted that moment captured on film to treasure for forever as our first moments with you. So this....this photo is my most treasured because I didn't get "that moment," the one I dreamed about. You came out blue, not moving, not breathing, but I won't get into your birth story. No, today is about celebrating, and for your mama....I at least deserve a few moments to mourn.

To mourn what? To mourn the fact that you my sweet girl, are more girl than you are baby anymore, but at the same time to celebrate your sweet personality that is developing. I love hearing your sweet voice say the words you know. That squeal of laughter you have...oh how it melts my heart!

To mourn all the lost moments that I spent worrying too much about housework and selfish things, and knowing that never again will you sit as still in my arms as you did as a newborn. No, you are all about "going" now. Crawling at record speeds, trying to walk, walking around furniture as fast as you possibly can, exploring and getting into everything you possibly could and shouldn't be into, but yet again celebrating. Celebrating your excitement for life. Celebrating the joy that you bring to so many of those around you. It doesn't matter where we go, but you always make a friend. You befriend people in the grocery store, on walks, at the library, at restaurants....your smile is captivating and contagious. Don't lose that sweet girl. People in this world need to be loved on, not judged. I pray that that personality trait just blossoms in you more and more. I think you might even teach your mom a thing or two from the way you already love others.

I mourn the fact that I can't control this, and again its just one more way God is teaching me to trust Him. I like controlling things. I like overseeing them. It's scary to think how fast this year flew by. I know the rest won't be any slower and someday, if God allows we will have more children, your brothers and sisters, and time will get even faster. Yet I celebrate how precious of a gift you are. I pray that I cherish each moment that God gives me.

We named you after Abigail (King David's wife) in the bible. The name Abigail means joy, and that you are baby girl. You truly are a joy!

This year has been one of sweat, tears, and sacrifice, but always over flowing within all of that was the joy of you! Though our lives right now don't look at all like I thought they would 5 years ago, I wouldn't have changed what God asked us to do in the last 12 months for anything. He's grown us in so many ways through everything He has asked us in the last year.

So without further ado sweet girl, here it is...your last year in pictures. My goodness how you've changed!!!

Dear Abigail,

Thank you so much for letting me be your mama. You overflow my heart again and again every time you look at me with your beautiful smile! We pushed through so much together this first year, and we still came out on the other side unscathed. Thank you for being such an incredible daughter. You bring both your daddy and I so much joy, and I have to admit, I love seeing the softness that comes out in him when you melt him with one of your smiles or your overly ecstatic greetings when he arrives home. I keep praying that God will show me how to raise you, that he'll change my heart to be better at this parenting thing. That he'll strengthen our marriage that you'll be able to see a growing example of Christ's love for you. I pray for your own heart that you would see how amazing Jesus is from your daddy and I's example. After you arrived my heart became so much fuller....I didn't even know I had more room to love until you arrived. It made me wonder why we waited so long to start a family. Thank you for being our first born. Thank you for making me laugh and smile endlessly at you. Thanks for being one of my best friends at a time when life sometimes feels so incredibly lonely. Your night time snuggles sometimes were all that helped keep the smile on my face. We love you so much Love Bug and can't wait to see what the next year of each of our lives brings!!!

Love you forever and ever,

Mommy

2012-03-28T19:01:00.004-07:00

I can hardly believe that I get to post this on my blog wall.....

Ahhh!!!! I am so excited about going to this years She Speaks Conference. God is just blessing my socks off right now as he provides affirmation after affirmation to me confirming that He so wants me there.

Satan is trying his hardest to implant doubt and fear in my mind and stomp on my confidence.

Here is just a little part of my story that I sent out to some friends requesting their prayers and support:

So I am pretty much forcing myself to ask for prayer on this because I am really nervous, scared, excited, fearful of what people will think, and fearful of not being good enough, or not doing the right thing...blah blah blah etc
So for a long time now I have been pretty passionate about ministering to women in general. Some of you may not know that, some of you may....for years I have been hiding behind a part of me that really isn't very recognizable as a woman who would want something like that, but the real me....the real me somewhere along the line tossed aside a huge part of who I am. It's funny because I really am an extroverted person but I've become way more introverted only because of fear, doubt, shame, but its not really who I am at all.

Starting back in high school after I became a christian I had some opportunities to speak about my faith in front of others- a few times in high school to my peers in a few different situations, to my youth group, helping be a core student leader on my college campus' Intervarsity Christian Fellowship and speaking in front of that group as well as at some of our annual retreats with students from other chapters. I've since written a few things and all along the way I can now remember looking back and many times I would hear from people...wow you should be a writer, or a speaker, or you should write a book etc. Some of my strongest spiritual gifts are in administration/shepherding, and wisdom, being very closely followed by encouragement and one or two others but those are my main ones.
Since college I have not pursued much with women's ministry. It's always been close to my heart, but because of various circumstances I kept closing my heart off to it- I was in a huge church for awhile where it was hard to become a part of anything, and my current church doesn't have a women's ministry. I've listened to so many lies that Satan has told me "Your story isn't very profound...who would want to hear it" You don't have any training why do you think anyone would listen?" and the list goes on....
I write this now because a few years ago I learned about a conference held in North Carolina every year through Proverbs 31 ministries. At the time I thought about going but it's a lot of money and I just felt like it was too much for me to justify it. Well over the past few months I have grown so much through a bible study I have been doing and have just felt speaking and writing being on my heart again, and even again this morning someone randomly mentioning something about this conference on their blog and they aren't even a part of Proverbs 31 ministries. I can't help but wonder if I missed something....so long ago. If I had really stopped to pay attention would I have seen something, but on the other hand, if the past few years hadn't of happened God wouldn't have been able to grow me like he did.

My prayer requests are the following:

#1 Is this even something God wants for me/us? That God would make it clear whether He wants me to pursue this or not, and then to be confident and bold to follow his prompting

#2 That he would reveal specifics to my heart in his timing- that doing things for his kingdom are both big and small....whether this would be helping train and mold me to speak into women's lives in a small way, or in a bigger way with speaking and writing....its all important to him and all he asks of me is to be obedient to him.

#3 Cost
I need to make a decision quickly before the conference is sold out and cost is going to be about $1000 for hotel, conference fee, and plane tickets. They recommend trying to raise money for support, and we don't have a lot of money right now but in order to secure my spot we would have to pay the fee for registration. Proverbs 31 ministries recommends trying to get people to sponsor you- kind of like when people ask for short term missions support

#4 For my heart- for so long I have felt Satan lie to me again and again and again and I believed him. For so long he held me back from being usable by God for his glory and his kingdom because I listened to what he was telling my heart. Would you pray for continued strength to push forward by God's strength alone to finally be free of the chains Satan tries to hold me back with.

Thanks so much for taking the time to listen! I so badly desire your prayers! Also, I know I need to rely on God alone but I am a words of affirmation person....if anyone has anything encouraging to say to me that would help get rid of the lies Satan is trying to tell me to hold me back then please send me a message! I would love to hear anything God puts on your heart!

In Him,
Bridget

And then today I updated them all on things that had happened in the last 48 hours since sending them the above message:

So excited to share some updates- after much prayer, I know God is asking me to go. So I am going! I am so excited! My heart was in so much turmoil- so much fear, doubt, flooding my mind and I continued to get one affirmation after another in addition to all of your kinds words- including a personal email from one of the speakers who will be at the conference saying if I did end up coming that she would take me under he wing and introduce me to lots of people (cause I shared with her how scared I was, how inexperienced I was, and wondered what God could possibly want with me...plain ole Bridget Bareither at a conference where there will be hundreds of successful christian authors and speakers...some of which I am already shaking from knowing that I will be able to shake their hands!, and also confirmation in the form of an anonymous donation. I still need more to go but it was such a blessing from God to be given anything in the first place. I am so at peace with this decision. The last time I felt this peaceful about something was when Dave and I felt God asking us to trust Him with starting a family and a month later, we found out we were expecting Abbie.
Thank you all so much for your encouraging words! They mean so much to me. Please keep praying as I do feel like the enemy is definitely trying to burden my heart with doubt and fear about going.
I am just waiting on an email back from one of the women at Proverbs 31 so I can process my registration and then I'll need to focus on booking my plane ticket.
Keep praying!
In Him!
Bridget

Since then.....I am officially registered and purchased my plane tickets. Still praying for more financial support to help cover these costs!!

So pumped and in awe of what God's done so far. I can't imagine what he has in store for me at the conference!!!

Mission Minded

2012-03-07T10:58:00.005-08:00

Time has not been very existent in our house lately. I think everyone's lives are like that and some seasons are busier than others. I haven't been appearing as much on my blog as I would like. I have so much to share with all of you! I've been busy in the kitchen making homemade whole wheat tortillas, sour dough starters, whole wheat baguettes, reading a book on consuming more whole foods and less processed foods, reading an amazing book written by a Godly woman that is changing my life, chasing after an almost 1 year old, planning a birthday party, working on a home management binder, a recipe book specific to our household, DIY household product recipes including some insanely hippie body products :),meal planning, natural childbirth info, breastfeeding advice, baby product recommendations, and fitness and nutrition info... I want to share all of my tips with all of you! The more time I spend tweaking them the more my life is actually getting easier and I want to bring that to you....in due time I suppose. I have to have time to write all the blog entries first!

Today I want to focus on something else....some people who are so very dear to my heart. I contacted my friend Callie recently at her blog through clouded glass. She has many more blog followers than I do so I thought she would be able to get the word out more quickly for me. My friends are trying so hard to be obedient to follow after God's call for them going into missions. Would you please take a moment and head over to Callie's blog today and hear their story. Even if you can't give would you pray? Would you consider posting their story on your blog? Or maybe you know others who would want to post it on theirs? My friends covet your prayers. They are seriously one of the most amazing couples I have ever met and I love them dearly!

My hubby and I's hearts have been talking a lot more about missions lately and even more personal missions of potentially adopting or fostering children someday. My heart hurts knowing orphans don't have what Abbie has. No one to love on them and call their own. No one hugging them close and kissing their hurts away. No trust in an adult to know they are safe for forever and never to be tossed aside. They only know conditional love. Not unconditional love. My friends will be working at an orphanage and doing just that....providing these things to those children in the best way they know how.

Whether it be in the spiritual sense of being adopted into God's family, or in a physical sense of forever bringing a child into your home, the bible does promise this...

John 14:18

"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you."

May God bless your work all of your days Dan and Christi as you are obedient to God's call in your lives! I love you both and am so proud of your faithfulness!

2012-03-05T12:17:00.008-08:00

So back at the end of May I think it was, I posted my weight loss goals postpartum. Today I was finally motivated to take some new pictures of me at mypre pregnancy weight...and I think maybe minus a # or 2. I didn't retake measurements, but I was really surprised at the difference and how much my hard work has paid off. Look at your own discretion....its me with a bare belly, not showing anything that beach goers haven't already seen, but I'm sure some people would be against me showing my bare belly. I am so happy I took pictures. I was so reluctant to take them initially. So full of raw emotion about my new body. I still am learning, but today as I look at these I realize how hard I've worked. How loved I am with or without the few extra pounds, the beauty that came from my stretched out belly with its faint stretch marks from my Abbie girl...thank you God for the work you are doing in me. For the healing you are continuing to bring me for how you made my body to be. For the eating disorder that I did once struggle with to get from almost 198# in high school, to 165ish, and then God bringing me out of my eating issues to losing 10 more #s in a healthy way pre-pregnancy weight of about 157#, and now bringing me down to the 156-157ish (maybe a little less now??) that my pictures today show. Congratulations self! You deserve it!

2 months post partum:

11 months post partum:

2 months post partum

11 months post partum

2 months post partum

11 months post partum

What God's Shown me of His Heart about working moms

2012-02-26T08:05:00.005-08:00

It's been hard. No that is an understatement. Its actually pierced me to one of the deepest parts of my soul. So deep that I didn't even realize the anger, and resentment it was causing.

You see once I graduated vet tech school, and got married my goal was no longer to really be in the working world. It was to one day be a stay at home mom. I couldn't think of anything else I would rather do. So my husband and I set that as our goal. We wanted for me to be able to do that. I don't think Dave fully understood until Abbie arrived how much he wanted that, but nevertheless it was what we worked so hard for, strived for, were motivated by, and then the summer of 2010 came. We both felt God just break our hearts....to let go of this control that we had over our family of preventing children from coming until all our ducks were lined up in a row, and just trust Him, our creator with His plan for His timing...not ours. One month later we found out we were expecting. We were excited, scared, joyful, and at times during my pregnancy had moments of anger, distrust, and sadness. We prayed for me to be able to stay home. Dave applied for jobs. Got interviews he had never had at places he'd applied to for years...we thought surely this is God....you are going to find a new job before this baby comes and I will be able to stay at home.....none of those interviews yielded a new job. Instead the lack of new job brought on anger, distrust... and questioning God's sovereignty. Flash forward- Abbie arrived....still hoping that maybe something would happen while I was on maternity leave....nothing. I had my first day back at work, and now in almost March of 2012....I've been working for almost 9 months.

What's funny is, though I've had my moments of questioning God's sovereignty throughout this whole time, is that it wasn't this that pierced me to my innermost being. God is still sovereign. He always does things for His glory and my good. Though I may not get how this is good for me at the time...it is. It's his perfect plan.

No, what pierced me was the judgement. Judgement in statements that were said before I was ever even pregnant. Judgement that was said in statements when I was pregnant. Things I realize now were so wrong of me to ever agree with other woman about before....now that I understand God's heart more about me as a working mom.

I heard things like "Why would you even have children if you weren't going to raise them yourself." This one came well before I ever had children but when I faced not being able to stay at home when I had kids myself.....this statement reared its ugly head and Satan used it in every way possible to make me feel not worthy, wrong, unable to provide for our families needs. I heard things about how people thought every family could really make this decision if they wanted to, they basically are just too selfish to do it.....another thing I agreed with. Until I faced this decision myself and realized I wasn't being selfish. Although Satan filled my head with lies...telling me how selfish I am. How unworthy of a mother I am. Making me feel like I wasn't doing my part to provide by doing something out of my home etc. I heard things like "Have you done the math?" Meaning....I think you can do it, you should cut something else out. Yup. Yup I have done the math. It still doesn't work. We've tried.

I started to believe the lies. I started to believe I was judged....by everyone. I felt segregated at church cause most of those ladies are stay at home moms. I assumed they judged me. I'm sure they didn't, but I thought they were. For a person who already struggled a lot with trusting people this just made me close off my heart more. I clung to the few friendships I had that I knew were safe.

Just a few weeks ago Dave and I were talking about the future, and in my head, once I stayed home, I didn't want to go back. I was going to stay home for forever. He told me he would love to solely provide this for us, but we were going to have to periodically evaluate. It was hard to hear but I needed to hear it. I was holding on so tightly to my hope in never working again. Even now as I say it I realize how lazy that is to think. Maybe I will get to, but the point is, that our lives aren't always constant. Just when you get comfortable, something uncomfortable happens, and the main thing I need to do is do what God wants for us. He may very well ask me to work again. Maybe in a small form. Maybe not at all...I pray not full time but you never know.

The more I started to believe the lies of feeling "unworthy and wrong for being a working mom" the more God has just healed my heart. He has shown me how loved even working moms are. He has shown me that his word doesn't say working outside of the home is wrong. He has shown me that he loves me still so much and shown me that being right here, working part time is exactly where he wants me. He does give me certain jobs as a woman, wife, and mother and I am called to do those. I am called to make them a priority and not put my job first, and I believe I do that. I believe he has given me grace right here in this moment to do that well and I thank him for that. The more he blesses my heart with just realizing that I am exactly where He wants me, the more I seem to run across story after story, or meet another woman who is working outside of the home and she isn't wrong. Most of them are some of the most godly woman I have ever met. God has given them a job to do within their work that brings him more glory. That grows these woman more.

I have come to realize that me working right now in this moment is no mistake. God always does what brings him the most glory and what is best for us. He loves his children. Whether I get it now or not....this is his best plan for me, and its beautiful. My hubby and I both feel like God is blessing our path of working towards me being home. We will continue to work towards this, but me working outside of the home at certain points during our lives will never mean I am not good enough, that I am disobeying God, or not following his plans. It could mean that for some. It could mean that for us, if we are not seeking out God's provision and following hard after his will for our family. Others families will look different than ours and that is ok. If its one things that I have learned its that I shouldn't put words in God's mouth....as Paul says...if God wills it....we will be here, or we will be there, or do this or do that....only if God wills it. I could sit here and say I hope that I am able to stay at home for the rest of my life. Who knows....homeschooling is something we are strongly considering, but even in that....God may ask me to go back to school, God may ask us to go into missions, God may ask us to move to a state I don't want to move to....all because it brings him glory and its his best for us. He makes no mistakes.....I know that for sure.

It isn't my hope in writing about this to hurt someones feelings. Some people reading this may feel like they were one of the people who hurt my heart in what they said. Please remember that many of the things said were before I was ever even pregnant and I myself agreed with them at the time. I thought that's how God felt too. Until he taught my heart good things about how he really sees women. It's sad, and yet so clever that Satan took things that were said to me so long ago and turned them into lies that he used against me to tear me down, to make me focus so much on these non truths that I couldn't see God's truth through it. God is working on my heart. Realizing it is the lies of the enemy and not other woman saying these things that really hurt me. Instead it is my hope that this will open up peoples eyes to see a different perspective on the working mother topic. It is my hope to bring affirmation to those other working woman out there to know that they need to follow hard after God's plan in their own lives and in their own families...and not compare themselves to others.

Lord I pray for a more willing heart. I pray that as your people our hearts would be broken to not judge others but to love them. To love as you love.

Priorities: Balancing Family and Ministry

2012-01-30T17:38:00.000-08:00

It's hard to keep up with all the blogs these days but I came across this blog called Passionate Homemaking awhile back and really liked it. I follow it as often as I can, which sometimes might be every few weeks but tonight the entry caught my eye. It was on Balancing Family and Ministry. I must say as a mom who is still trying to figure it out it was a great reminder that we daily need to seek out God's will. To be in communication with him throughout our day everyday, not just on Sundays. Sometimes I want a quick answer. I am so structured. I need a plan. Ground rules and a to do list. God isn't like that. Doesn't mean he doesn't like order....we just need to be open to what he has for us everyday....I've been enjoying letting him be more of my day lately instead of just making it through everyday on my own. I've been trying to keep an ear open as I go about my day to day things...looking for moments to include Abbie in my day to help these typical mundane chores become teachable, quality time moments. Opening my ears up to what he has for me in helping out friends or speaking encouraging words. My cup feels more full than I've let it be in a long time. This season of my life is the busiest I have ever been, and yet letting God finally take control of it...it's given me more joy and fullness than I've had in a long time. Anyway...go check out the link. It's a good read in a good perspective!

DIY Birthday Banner Tutorial

2012-01-25T17:49:00.000-08:00

So here it is, as promised....a DIY Birthday Banner Tutorial. After searching on Pinterest and Etsy and staring at birthday banners for awhile, I knew I could tackle making one myself, and quite honestly there is something about the love that goes into homemade things that is important to me. I know that this Birthday Banner will be important to Abbie one day. It will represent so much joy of "Her Day" during the year! I wanted to make sure the Banner I made was durable enough to last for years to come so I couldn't just make it out of tissue paper.

My neighbor has sewn each of her kids a birthday banner that they hang up every year. I loved that idea....but dangit....I just really don't like sewing. I like it to a certain extent but its the machine that gets me and honestly the competitive and perfectionist side of me hates that I am mediocre at something. Sewing itself isn't that hard but every time I sew the machine does something stupid and I have convinced myself its because of user error :) I think I might take a class someday when Dave is out of school.

Anyways....on to the tutorial....I hope that you enjoy!!!

First you will need some posterboard (as many pieces as you'll need for the size letters you want)- I needed (20) 6in X 8.5in cards for this project (HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABIGAIL...one letter per card). I bought the packet of 14in by 22in poster board and could make 4 cards out of one sheet...thus using 5 out of the 8 sheets in this packet (Cost about $2.50)

Next you'll need scrapbook paper in coordinating colors (I wanted mine to look girly but also very versatile to go with the many different themes Abbie may have for birthdays in years to come.

(Quantities you'll need for poster board and scrapbook paper vary...I wanted one letter on each card...I needed 20 letters: HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABIGAIL and mine ended up being 6inches X 8.5 inches. So you do need to do a little bit of math to figure it out but its not hard...I seriously just eyeballed it in the store. Scrapbook sheets are 12 inches square so I could fit two of my cards on them and I did buy a few extra sheets for the coordinating colors we will discuss later)- Cost 30cents each...on sale for 50% off at Hobby Lobby- I purchased 16 sheets total (Cost $4.80)

Next take two of your 6in X 8.5in poster board cards (you can make them any size you want to, I just knew I wanted them to be this big for what I wanted the end result to look like), and glue them to the backside of a piece of scrapbook paper. (I used rubber cement so I didn't get lines from the glue...you could probably use things like modge podge but I don't know much about that stuff. (Cost of Glue: $2)

Make sure all sides of the poster board are glued down really well to the scrapbook paper. Allow to dry for 5-10 minutes then cut them out. I rounded the edges of each of my poster board cards with scissors. To save time I glued all of mine at once and set each aside to allow it to dry. By the time I was done gluing the others I could start cutting apart the ones I had glued together first.

When you are done with all of your cards they should look like this. I laid mine out as a template for the order they would be in when I glued the letters onto them. Top row will eventually say HAPPY, 2nd row BIRTHDAY, and 3rd row ABIGAIL.

Next I took the extra sheets of scrapbook paper I purchased in solid colors that coordinated with my patterned sheets and cut the shapes I wanted out of them. I just cut out circles, triangles, and squares cause I don't own a fancy cricut machine and I can cut each of those out freehand :)

Then I selected a font I liked from Word and printed off HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABIGAIL. I think the font size was 250 or 300 in order to make it large enough to look good on the size of cards that I made.

Now glue your shape on the bottom 2/3 of your card. Glue the letter on top of that. Leave enough room at the bottom to make it look pretty or keep in mind if you wanted to add any extras to hang from the bottom of yours, that you will need room for those. I wanted to leave plenty of room at the top for mine because I wanted to lace ribbon through the cards to hang them.

Once I was finished applying all the shapes and letters, I punched holes in the top 1/3 of the cards, about an inch from the sides, and laced ribbon through them. I had a hard time getting the holes to be big enough for the ribbon to fold over, so I just punched holes out in a big enough circle to make the ribbon lay flat. They probably make some handy stamper that cuts this out automatically but I don't own one so that is what I did.

(Cost of Ribbon $1.99)

Tada! My birthday banner!!! It's so sturdy. The cards are very thick and I have no doubt that they will hold up for along time. I couldn't be happier with how it turned out!

You can modify your own however you'd like. If you have a girl throw on some more frilly ribbons and toule, you could even have borders or put stickers on or decals....its so customizable. This is just a template.

Total Cost was about $11.50)

Time Spent: An evening after Abbie went to bed...about 4 hours

Easy. Frugal. Most off all I'm glad I took the time out of my day even though our lives are crazy right now to make something that will mean a lot to Abbie later.

I'll be posting a DIY on how to make pinwheels soon so don't forget to check back! These will be used for her birthday as well. I was gonna just claim defeat and have someone make her cake but then I remember my mom always made our cakes every year growing up and that meant a lot to me. My cake making experience....well mostly decorating experience is minimal but you can't learn unless you try (probably should apply that thought to sewing as well....) so I am going to be giving a go at fondant in the next few weeks....I'm not doing the whole cake in fondant cause it tastes horrible, butI am going to try and make some figurines out of fondant to decorate with...we're doing a Love Bug theme, cause that's my nickname for her :) Oh and speaking of...

just when you think she can't get any cuter....BAM she does! I just love her to bits! Happy Bannering!!!

Oh no....another food challenge!

2012-01-25T07:04:00.001-08:00

So a few days I saw a post over at Keeper of the Home....go ahead. Go take a look and then come back and see my thoughts...

Dang....feeding a family of 4 on $250 a month!!?? Granted this doesn't include household/toiletry items which my budget does, but honestly 4 people....we only have 2 well 2 1/2....Abbie doesn't eat a ton but she does eat. As I looked at her list and realized we don't eat a ton of organic food in this house, nor do we really care to, but we do eat mostly unprocessed stuff (oats, brown rice, black beans, etc), it dawned on me that she did this while buying really expensive things like organic whole milk....$8.50 a gallon? Are you serious? Soo.....since I am really competitive and I don't like to lose (aka sore loser :) I think I might start to work on challenging myself to do this. It seems doable. Scary but doable. Especially since we don't buy expensive organics. We currently allow ourselves $150 every 2 weeks.....even that has been tight lately with the rising costs of groceries. But seriously....she did it for 4 people. I am getting better about being less wasteful but I could do a better job than I do. Also I think doing this will help hold me accountable to the amount of waste I have and also the amount of non necessities I actually end up purchasing!

There is a lot of media attention/marketing investment out there in the whole "organic" thing. I'm not saying some of it isn't legitimate. Since my husband is currently about to graduate with his degree in Food Science he has actually spent a fair amount of time studying some of these concepts. The actual regulations and rules applied to being able to claim something is organic vs hormone free, etc is really interesting, and marketing does play a huge part. From what I understand only a certain % of a product has to be organic to meet the requirement to label something "organic." This is why we choose not to purchase a lot of organic stuff. I'm not saying we don't ever. I do know there are a lot of different resources out there on foods that should be purchased organic etc. I am definitely interested in learning more about them and if you have any resources from reputable sources (like academic journals etc) please send them my way. I'd love to consider implementing some new staples into our household if they are indeed healthier and truly of higher nutritional value.

Anyway back to my challenge....I know I can be less wasteful and stretch things more. So I am going to see what I can do. I don't know that I can improve it much knowing that my budget includes toiletries and hers did not but I can sure as heck try! Let me know if you'd like to join my challenge. I'd love to see what everyone else does with their decreased budget!

DIY Birthday Banner!!

2012-01-22T18:12:00.000-08:00

I was so excited I had to share what I finished today....Abbie's Birthday Banner. It's durable enough to be stored and used over and over again in years to come. Yes I know...her birthday is in 2 months, but life is nuts in our house right now and I wanted to get a head start. I'll be posting "How To's" for this soon! Isn't it adorable!? I am so happy with how it turned out!

Part 3: Frugal Chicken Series- Chicken and Black Bean Quesadillas

2012-01-16T11:18:00.000-08:00

And last but not least the final part of my 3 Part Frugal Chicken Series!!!

My last recipe is Chicken and Black bean Quesadilla's!!!

I had about 1 1/4 cups of chicken leftover from my crock pot chicken so these were a quick, easy, and healthy choice to use the rest of my chicken up with!

Ingredients:

Cooked chicken

1 can black beans (or cooked dried black beans)

salsa

cheddar cheese

Tortilla shells

The amounts of each really aren't important. It really depends on personal preference for how much of each ingredient you would like.

First, I put the black beans and cooked chicken in a saute pan and placed on medium heat to warm them up.

Next, I sprinkled taco seasoning on the chicken and black beans while they were heating up (just do this to taste, no need to add water, I typically just sprinkle a light coating on them.
Next, if you buy block cheese shred some up so its easy to throw in once you start assembling your quesadilla.

Then heat up a flat griddle on medium heat or you can use a larger bottom saute pan if you don't own a griddle. Once heated (you know if its hot enough by taking a little water and sprinkling it onto the hot pan- if you hear a slight sizzle its ready, if it sizzles and crackles loudly and smokes slightly then your pan is too hot. Once your pan is the correct temperature, then add a little olive oil and spread it around the pan.

Toss your tortilla on and start adding on your chicken/black bean mixture, cheese, and salsa ingredients in the amounts you desire (aka....toddler mouths might not be able to handle much salsa if any at all, or you might have a person in your household who loves spicy salsa so use that on theirs instead). You can also throw in other ingredients here as well: corn, avocado, etc. Also keep in mind that the cheese is the glue that helps this all stick together. If you want a healthier option than use less cheese, but be aware that it maybe a bit messier.

Place a second tortilla on top of your already filled bottom tortilla shell.

Flip the tortilla over when the bottom is golden brown.
Once both sides are golden brown I transfer my quesadilla to a cutting board and cut it into 8 pieces.
Serve with guacamole, sour cream, salsa, or just by itself. I had to share a picture of Abbie's plate that her grandma got her for Christmas....my hubby is a chef, so she had to get this when she saw that it said "Sous Chef."
Here is a picture of Abbie enjoying her quesadilla. She is currently, like any baby/toddler on a carb kick....so she is enjoying the tortilla in this particular picture, but I know this will be a quick, easy, healthy staple in our household for years to come!

The best part is....I had enough extra ingredients to make more quesadillas that I already assembled and cooked and now I will just wrap them and freeze them for another night. Once we decide to eat them all I have to do is heat up a pizza stone in our oven and warm them up on there...they will be crisp and ready to eat again in no time!

So not only did I accomplish what I set out to do.... turning 1 whole chicken into 3 meals, but I actually made 4 meals out of it if you include the leftovers I was able to freeze!

I encourage you to step out of your own comfort zone and challenge yourself to do something with your own whole chicken......for about $5 you can have enough meat for 3 or 4 meals of your own (depending on the size of your family it maybe less, but I know it will be a money saver for you regardless of your family size!). If you do take on the challenge please comment or email me at the_bridge83@gmail.com and let me know what you did. I'd love to hear even more quick and healthy recipe options for what I can use my chicken for in the future!!