On Being a Mess

There are some days that I'd rather not admit that my chosen profession is writing. 

After all, I studied writing in college. I teach writing classes. I write homeschool curriculum.

Still, sometimes I forget to write on my blog for weeks in a row. I frequently make spelling mistakes on the board in front of my students. I submit drafts of my books only to find out that I made a bajillion grammar mistakes. 

My life is a lot like that, too. 

I make an awful lot of mistakes. There are some days that my temper is short, my attitude is negative, and I just want to be selfish. I've made more than my fair share of bad decisions.

On those days, I would rather not admit that I am a Christ Follower.

Thankfully, being a Christ Follower doesn't mean that I have to be perfect 100% of the time... Being a Christ Follower means that I am forgiven.

When I make mistakes, when I react too quickly out of my frustrations and anger, and when I make poor decisions... His forgiveness is always there. All I have to do is admit that I need Him and ask his forgiveness and healing. How beautiful is that?

But honestly, friends, that's not the best part. The best part is that God takes those broken and messy places and after he heals them, he uses them for His Glory. 

Romans 8:28 says "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose."* I especially love the way that it is written in The Message: "we can be sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good."

Or, as Lysa TerKeurst states in What Happens When Women Say Yes to God, "a MESS, when touched by the MESSIAH, can become a beautiful MESSAGE."

Can I get an AMEN?!

I am so thankful that God doesn't give up on me. I am so thankful for God's mercy and forgiveness. But most of all, I am so thankful that He doesn't let a single moment of my life go to waste.

Lord, I make so many mistakes! I am so thankful for your amazing forgiveness, mercy, and grace. Thank you for your promise that you will take the broken and messy places in my life, touch them, and turn them around to be used for your glory. Help me to be a shining light for you, even in my messy moments. Amen.

*English Standard Version

Easy Cashew Chicken

I must confess, I'm not much of a fan of Chinese food. I much prefer Thai or Japanese cuisine! However, Prince Charming is a big fan of Chinese food, and in general, pretty much anything "outside the ordinary." So, when I stumbled across a recipe for cashew chicken that I could prepare with a few ingredients I already had, plus the aid of my slow cooker and my trusty kitchen sidekick, the rice cooker, I was in. :)

Ingredients:

1 lb (approx.) Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
1 Can Campbell's Golden Mushroom Soup
3 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1 1/2 Tsp Ground Ginger
1 Small Jar (4 oz) Sliced Mushrooms
1 Bag Asian Style Frozen Veggies

Directions:

1. Place the chicken breasts in your slow cooker, and top with soy sauce, ground ginger, and golden mushroom soup.

2. Cook on high until chicken is fully cooked (4-6 hours)

3. Add in your bag of frozen vegetables, stir, and cook on low for 1 more hour. (For faster prep, you can cook the vegetables in the microwave or on the stove, then stir them in before serving!)

4. Serve over rice, with cashews sprinkled on top.

5. Enjoy!

Monday Makeover: Mini Makeover Edition

Sometimes in the midst of major home makeovers, you have to stop and work on some smaller tasks to keep yourself from going crazy.

... Or, at least I do!

I thought I'd dedicate today's blog to two of the mini-makeovers I've worked on over the last couple of weeks. These were relatively simple afternoon projects I completed that had a tremendous impact on the way I feel about my house. Hopefully they will inspire you to do the same.

The first project I worked on was my laundry room. I'm fortunate to have a large laundry room, but to be honest, it used to end up being a "junk room" that I tossed things into when company came over. Those days are OVER now! 

The shelf you see in the picture was a white shelf that used to be in my apartment's entryway. It had seen better days, so when we moved into this house, I relegated it to the laundry room. On a rainy afternoon, I shelf-papered the shelves with cute chevron striped paper I found on clearance (thank you T.J. Maxx) and added some Sterilite plastic drawers to serve as junk drawers. I try to keep the drawers relatively organized by giving each of them a "theme" (i.e. kitchen, office, craft, first aid, etc.) 

Once the bulk of the work was done, I bought some inexpensive decorations and a few bargain priced baskets at Hobby Lobby to finish the look! I also threw a large gray bathmat (found on clearance at Target) onto the floor to keep my feet "comfy" while doing laundry. 

Quick and CHEAP! (My second favorite word, right after FREE!)

I'm not even sure if this next project technically counts as a makeover, since it was so easy, but I'm still claiming it! Here's one important principle I've discovered in home decor:

When you get bored with a room, mix it up! 

Seriously, what's the fun in furniture if you don't rearrange it once in a while?!

The wall above used to house my computer on a high "pub" table. It looked lovely for a while, but I noticed that it was catching a lot of clutter and wasn't the style I was going for anymore. Because I use my laptop more often, I moved the desktop computer to my desk in the "guest" bedroom, and asked Prince Charming and my Dad to move the table into our "bonus" room for use in a future makeover. Then, we slid my piano over a few feet into it's new home! I pulled in a lamp from across the room, and gathered a few pictures from around the house to spruce the area up. This was an easy fix and changed the entire room - my living room feels so much larger now!

So there you have it - makeovers don't have to be major and time consuming. Mix up your furniture, artwork, and trinkets once in a while. Little changes can make a big difference!

5 Tips for Vacation Survival!

I've never considered myself much of a traveler, and I don't frequently find myself struck with wanderlust. However, after our May trip to Seattle, I've been bitten by the travel bug! Over the weekend, we took a short road trip to the not-so-distant city of St. Augustine, and on the way home, I put together these 5 quick tips that I learned this summer. Hopefully they'll be of help to you, too!

1. Check Groupon for deals and steals on local attractions.
This tip never dawned on me, until I made a quick little purchase on Groupon a few weeks before our trip to Seattle. I started searching Groupon Seattle on a weekly basis to see what I could find and scored some half-price tour tickets! I did the same for our trip to St. Augustine and was able to get some discounted museum tickets. You never know what you'll find!

2. Make a travel itinerary, but don't be afraid to ditch it.
I hate to say it, but my Prince Charming and I are some of the most indecisive people I know. A few days before our trip, we sat down and picked out 1-2 museums or tours to do each day... and then ditched most of them when we got to our destination in favor of more exciting adventures! Pre-planning was vital, though. If we hadn't chosen anything, we most likely would have spent half the day in our hotel room trying to decide what to do!

3. Find hotels you're comfy with, and stick with them.
If you're an adventurous traveler, you can go ahead and ditch this tip - but for me, it's key! If you aren't comfortable in your hotel room, you aren't going to get good sleep... and if you don't get good sleep, it's gonna be a rough trip! To be entirely honest, I'm a fancy resort kinda gal, but that's just not practical most of the time. I've never been dissatisfied with a Courtyard Marriott or La Quinta, so I usually try to seek those out!

4. Stay hydrated!
Travel adds a lot of extra stress to your body, so combat some of it by staying hydrated! When we travel by car, we usually grab a case of bottled water on our way out of town. When traveling by plane, you can either pick one up once you arrive at your destination, or use our preferred method, which is to carry one of these awesome Brita soft-sided water bottles that contain a handy filter!

5. Eat well!
I used to be a "stick with the chains" girl, but where's the fun in that?! Ask around and find out some of the popular places, remembering that your tour guides, the front desk staff at your hotel, etc. are all locals! I've discovered, though, that you may have to ask twice! Listen to the places that they are forced to recommend due to partnerships, etc... and then ask where THEY would go for a nice meal. I usually take these results and filter them through websites like Urban Spoon, Zagat, or Trip Advisor. After all of this feedback, you're bound to end up someplace great!

Now it's your turn! I'd love to hear some of your tried and true vacation tips. Share them in the comments, or leave a link to your blog! :)

Master Bedroom Makeover

When we purchased our house in December, we knew that it would need a little (read: a lot) of love. While the previous owners had done a relatively good job of keeping it up, it was looking pretty dated! Unfortunately, some of the big projects that we wanted to do, like gutting the kitchen, were - and still are - not in the budget. So we went to the metaphorical drawing board!

December 21, 2012 - Right after closing! Note the plants in the front flowerbed.

Thinking about which project would make the biggest impact on the "comfort level" of our house, without making the biggest dent in our budget led us to remodeling the master bedroom. Naively, we expected the project to be quick and easy. Gorgeous, easy-to-install, laminate flooring, a couple of coats of "Thin Ice" colored paint, and the replacement of some flimsy closet doors and discolored blinds. Sounds simple, right?

Wrong.

Step one was to take out the flimsy old closet doors. No problem!

Step two involved us ripping up the old laminate flooring. Actually, it involved my DAD ripping up the old laminate flooring, with a little assistance from my Prince Charming (henceforth referred to as PC). This is where we made a "lovely" discovery. Shocking to all of us, there were little tiny roots from the plants GROWING THROUGH THE CONCRETE BLOCK WALL to soak up moisture, which had seeped into the concrete because the soil level in the flowerbed was higher than the foundation of the house.

Beautiful, yes? Cellphone photo courtesy of PC.

Thankfully, my PC has an uncle who has worked in the construction business for many years. After some conferring between PC's uncle and my Dad, they determined that the best course of action was to rip out the garden, relocate all of the excess dirt, and replace the bed with rocks. You might be surprised to find out that I was all for it! Replacing the bushes with a container garden was already on my list of "Things To Do Someday!"

While front garden demolition was in progress, we had time to repaint the bedroom with the help of PC's dad and replace all of the blinds. Immediately after that, the new flooring was purchased and installed by my Dad. (He's great! I'm so thankful that he lives around the corner and is willing to help with projects that Dustin and I aren't handy enough to do ourselves.)

From Instagram: Toby enjoying (holding down?) our new flooring!

It's taken a few months (and several trips to IKEA) to get everything arranged "just so," but I couldn't be happier with the final result.

Behold, our master bedroom!

June 9, 2013 - Finished at long last!

More projects to come soon, but for now, it's time for a little nap on my comfy bed in our beautiful new room!

Friday Freebie: Printable Chalk Art

I've been experimenting with creating chalkboard art on my computer this week, since I love the style, but can't stand the thought of actual, real-for-real chalk. This is one of the neat little quotes that I've fancied up this week, and seeing as though Thanksgiving is on THURSDAY (can you believe it?) I thought I'd share.

To download (Instructions for PC Users):

- Right click on the image and select "Open in New Tab" from the menu.
- In the new tab, right click on the image again and click "Save Image As"
- Save and print!

I usually send mine to Walgreens or CVS and have it printed as an 8x10 for my subway art frame, but you could definitely print it at home or at the photo printer of your choice. :)

Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Printable {Round-Up}

November has arrived! Can you believe that the Holiday season is upon us? 

Since Prince Charming was at our church's men's retreat, sis and I spent the entire weekend lounged in my living room watching the Hallmark Channel's Christmas preview weekend. (In other words, we watched at least half a dozen super cheesy Christmas movies and stuffed ourselves silly with junk food while surfing Pinterest.)

ANYWAY. 

Thanksgiving is a mere 2 1/2 weeks away! I've been searching the internet for some sweet [free] swag to use for my Thanksgiving morning "brunch and parade viewing mini-party" with my family... and seeing as though this is the season of sharing, I thought you might like to enjoy some of the cuteness I've rounded up.

Below you'll find a dozen links to some of the best*Thanksgiving printables on the web.

Enjoy! :)

1. HUGE Thanksgiving Party Printable Set by DimplePrints

2. Weswen Design's Thanksgiving Menu Printable

3. Gorgeous Victorian Printables by B.Nute Productions

4. Thanksgiving Planner Pages by Life Your Way

5. Blessing Mix Favor Tag by Jen Carver

6. Pieces for Fall Crafts at Jess Gordon Design 

7. Sweet Placemat, Straw Flags, Etc. at Paper Glitter

8. Kind Over Matter's Thanksgiving Fortune "Cookies"

9. "Turkey Talk" Conversation Cards at Happy Home Fairy

10. With A Grateful Heart Print on Landee See, Landee Do

11. Blessings Printable by Rebecca of Somewhat Simple

12. Printable Toothpick Flags by Rebecca of Somewhat Simple

*I will admit that I'm a bit biased about these being the best, seeing as though I picked them all out!