Fasting Tips

Yes, I know we're only halfway through the 21 days of prayer and fasting, so this does not make me some sort of expert. However, there have been a few things that we've done well and a few things that we have not done well so far, so I thought I would share what we've learned so far. As a disclosure, this post is only about the food-discipline part of the fast and not about the spiritual part, so if you are fasting from particular foods or doing a Daniel fast, some of this may be helpful. If not, it might just be interesting... who knows. Here is what our household is doing to help make the "What can I eat?" part of this process easier:

• Ease into it. If you choose to make a major dietary change during your fast, make sure you start slow. I had read this and thought that I didn't need to do it. I figured, I don't drink that much coffee or caffiene and my diet isn't that bad. Boy was I wrong! By the end of only the second day I was shaky, nauseous, and ended up with a migraine. I felt the headache coming on all day and should've listened to my body and just had a cup of coffee but I thought I was being "tough" instead. As a mom with two young kids, I just ended up in a place where I could hardly care for myself much less them, and had to call Josh to come home and take over so I could go lay down. Yeah, I guess my diet wasn't quite as clean as I thought it was to start with! It's been pretty eye-opening actually as to what I put into my body each day.

• Making exceptions is a slippery-slope. Every year, my birthday falls right smack dab in the middle of the fast. On top of that, this year a trip to New York was also thrown in... think long hours on the road, New York food (pizza and bagels- yum!), and a retirement party and wedding thrown in. I have to be honest and say that I started off very strong. I ate a salad and drank water on the way there, and even made it through the retirement party. By the time my birthday dinner and the wedding reception rolled around, I used the logic that these were "special occassions" and that it would be okay to venture away from the fast. Granted, I do think this is okay from time to time, and the point of fasting is not to be legalistic. But, it did open a door for me to continue to make excuses... I mean, I had already broken my fast, what difference did it make now? Getting back into the swing of things ended up being harder than starting it in the first place, so just keep that in mind.

• Involve the whole family! My kids are still eating sandwiches and chicken nuggets, but their snacks are now made up of fruits and vegetables... and they are loving it! I don't think I realized how much they love produce until I started making it an option for them. To hear Jake practically beg for a carrot and to see Lil get excited when I pull celery out of the fridge has made me realize that it's just as easy as the "convenience" of Goldfish and mini muffins. Again, it's been eye-opening. I know that we'll add chicken, eggs, and a few other essentials back into our diet after this is over, but snacks are staying as is- for me, too! I want them to grow up making healthy choices, so I'm glad this is happening while they're young. For me, it's definitely been good on the waist-line, too!

• Learn to substitute. I can't tell you how many times I have read to use apple sauce in place of oil or bananas instead of butter, etc. Until now, however, I never tried any of these things and it turns out that they work! I also have been sweetening with Stevia instead of sugar, and find that I actually prefer it. For a gal who loves to bake, I think I'll be making some changes when all is said and done.

• Focus on the benefits. Any time you are craving something sweet or fatty, think about the positive changes this has had on your body. I usually have lots of belly aches, but this clean eating has really helped. Every time I want a French fry I think about how they make me feel.

• Don't forget the spiritual aspect. Fasting without praying is just going hungry. I realized when I went astray that not only did I "cheat" a lot during that time, I also barely prayed nor did I crack open my Bible. Yesterday I wanted a bite of Lilly's cookie so badly, and probably would have shared it if I did not just stop and ask God to give me some restraint. To some poeple, this may seem silly, but I honestly could not have resisted if I did not have someone to physically talk to and ask for help. Sure, I can't see God physically, but I know He's there.

• Make it fun! I am not someone who likes to cook. Bake, yes. Cook, no. But, I am finding the challenge of cooking within these parameters oddly exciting, printing off recipes from the Internet, and trying things I never thought I would (cous-cous... really?). Plus, it's really helped clear out our pantry and has made me a disciplined grocery shopper, only getting exactly what I need for recipes rather than whatever looked good at the time.

I hope that you find this encouraging as you go into the second-half of this fast. Twenty-one days does not seem like a long time, nor does it seem like it would be difficult, until you're actually in it. And believe me, it's a long time when you want some chocolate! So if you're like me and need something sweet, I'll share a sweet-treat recipe. Tonight I'm also making flat-bread and soup, so if either of those turn out good, I'll share them, too!

Taken with an iPhone. Excuse the quality!

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

• 1 1/2 cups whole grain oats

• 2 ripe bananas (I actually used ones that were almost green because they're sweeter)
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• Cinnamon to taste
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans (optional)
• 1/4 cup unsweetened flaked coconut (optional)

Mix everything together, spoon out into cookie-sized portions on a baking sheet, and bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

Enjoy!

FIVE

Even pastors have pastors... have you ever thought about that? And one of my husband's favorite pastors did a sermon series years ago that has always stuck with him. So much, in fact, that he decided to start 2013 by teaching the principles from it to our church. If you're a person who sets goals or makes new year's resolutions, I think these would apply to you. If you're a person who doesn't, I honestly think it still applies to you.

The idea is simple: in order to make your life better and achieve big things, you just have to do five things everyday. You don't have to do them all day; just everyday.  The literal example that he gave was about chopping down a tree. Sure, you can hack and hack at it all day long until you pass out, or you can just take five swings at it everyday, and eventually it will fall. If you chopped at it all day, you'd hate it. If you chopped at it a little bit everyday, you still have the joy of seeing it fall down, and the process of making it happen was not something that was terrible. In this world of instant gratification this is a hard concept to wrap our heads around. People quit diet plans two weeks in because they have not lost any weight. YET. So often we don't do something long enough to get to the YET.

Soooo... in an effort to make my list of five, I first thought about what I would want to have accomplished by the end of 2013... my big goals if you will, so certainly not my everyday five things. Here's my list:

• Read more. I'd like to get through 13 books in 2013. That doesn't sound like much to most people, but I am a ridiculously slow reader and do not make it a priority.
• Learn scripture. I knew many key verses, but I want to add to add to it.
• Run 13 races, including a marathon. The more I say that last part out loud, the more committed I become to it. With this, I'm hoping just to be in better shape overall and finish the year thinner and more fit than I started it.
• Play a key role in building and growing our women's ministry at TurningPoint Church. Our retreat was just the start, and there is so much more that can be done!

Granted, there may be more, but that's all I have off the top of my head. After thinking about these big goals, and just my priorities in general, I was able to see the small everyday things that I could do to work toward them, and a better life in general. So without further ado, these are my FIVE for 2013:

• Daily quiet time for reading, studying the Bible, and praying. This works toward #1 and #2 listed above, but it also just improves my mood when I do it. Being consistent is where I faulter.
• Dedicated time with my kids and husband everyday for at least an hour. This may seem odd since my kdis are home with me most of the time, but that's where the word dedicated comes in. I want to spend more time with them without checking my phone, my email, or while I'm distracted with housework or cooking dinner. They'll only be little for so long. I don't want to miss it. Same goes for Josh. We need to ditch the phones more often when we are hanging out.
• Exercise everyday. This could mean a run or even just some sit-ups while watching TV if I didn't get in a workout that day. And without this, I'll never accomplish the 13 in 13, and certainly not a 26.2 mile race!
• Encourage, pour into, or serve one person everyday. I know some incredibly encouraging and giving people in this world, and I admire them greatly. Even if it's just a text message or a phone call to tell someone I'm thinking about them that day, I think it will help me think of myself less and think of others more. 
• No Facebook or blog browsing during the workday. I'm not sure if a rule like this really goes into the five, but this is essential for me. I get into cyclical bad habits with how much blogs and the Internet suck me in, and right now it's back to a level that I'm not happy with. I do enjoy both things, but they can wait. I often complain that I don't have enough time to blog, work on our long overdue photo books, read (see #1), etc., but when I look back on my day I had logged plenty of time perusing the Internet. I just need to get back to managing my time better like I used to. It's all a matter of habit.

So I think that this about sums it up... sounds easy enough, right? Hopefully I can post periodically throughout the year about how it's going and hopefully those posts will be positive. If you choose to try this method as well, here are some tips that can help after you find your five:

• Prioritize Your Five - put it on your calendar or into your daily schedule!
• Enjoy Your Five - remember, doing a little everyday will help you not get burnt out. You don't have to do your five all day, just a little bit everyday.
• Fight For Your Five - be intentional about keeping your "appointments." If you have daily quiet time scheduled during your kids' nap time and a friend calls to chat right then, just ask if you can call later. Surely you can get back to him or her when you're in the car later or after the kids have gone to bed. 
• Evaluate Your Five - every few weeks, revisit your list and see how you're doing. If you aren't doing some or all of them everyday, don't stress out... just start anew! If you have started some or all of them everyday, track your progress and celebrate the wins! It's all about baby steps.

As soon as the message from this weekend is on the Internet I'll add it, too, since it was absolutely fantastic and worth watching at the start of this new year. Hopefully it will help you accomplish those bigger goals, too!

Ohhhh... dancin' in September!

Random title, I know.  It's just that every September I can't seem to get Earth, Wind, and Fire out of my head, so I thought I'd get it stuck in your head today, too!  At the start of this month, I was convinced that I was going to be a great blogger because so much has been going on!  What I didn't account for is that since so much has been going on, I don't find a whole heck of time to blog!  Not to mention that I've been working my tail off to try and wrap things up with work before maternity leave.  So alas, although my intentions were good, here is everything (well, not everything... but close enough) wrapped up into one blog post.  Here's what we've been up to this month so far:

We've been having more fun times with the family... Jake is loving all of the fun with cousin Adam!

 Enjoying the last days of summer... although it already feels like fall (and we're loving it)!

Crafting!  A few weeks ago Josh took Jake down to Georgia for a couple of nights to help his dad move up here (hooray for having more family in town!) so I drove up to Cincinnati to stay with Mindy and Adam for a couple of days, since her hubby was on a trip, too.  We stayed up way late one day working on some fun projects with my friend from my UT days, Laura.  Together they made this beautiful cushion for the bench in our entryway:

And here it is up close.  We almost didn't have enough fabric (HA!) but it came out beautifully and I love it!  It makes such a difference since the bench was just boring and plain before.  Now our shoes have a place to live!

While they worked on that, I had a project of my own.  Since Jake has his name spelled out in his room (remember this?):

Well, they actually don't hang like that in his new room, but you get the picture.  I knew that Miss Lillian needed letters of her own, so while I originally just planned on painting them white, Mindy and Laura had ideas of their own and introduced me to the (very messy) art of Mod Podge (which I had never even heard of!).  So we started with plain wooden letters, scrapbook paper, Mod Podge glue, and a paint brush...

And after a few hours of (extremely) tedious and messy work, ended up with these beauties:

And yes, that is my belly peeking into the picture!  We used 3 different combinations of the paper... here they are up close:

I love the outcome despite the meticulous work they required.  The project itself was actually pretty easy- a lot like paper mache actually- but my one word of advice is to avoid doing this to anything with any grooves or beveled edges.  These letters had both, which slowed me down a bit.  Oh, and we did spray paint them white first, just in case we didn't get paper on every part.  My sister is already looking for something new to Mod Podge.  Me?  I'm taking a break for awhile, although I'm sure I'll do it again in the future to a picture frame or something to match her room.

Speaking of arts and crafts, our son is very into Crayons lately.  Here is his latest artwork:

Jake's Pawpaw was watching him when he got away with this!  The funny part of the story is that when we got home and asked Jake, "who did this?" he said "Pawpaw!"  What a stinker!  Luckily I had a spare can of wall paint to cover it up again and we're now working on, "Jake, where do we color?"  "On paper!"  The message still has not sunk in.

Wow, like I said, September has been a full month.  Last Sunday night I took my most favorite person in the world on a date night for his birthday to see Rob Schneider at the comedy club here in town and then we had a nice dinner outside.  His comedy was great... we highly recommend seeing the show if you ever have the chance!  After the show, he was nice enough to do a meet and greet with everyone there.  Josh and I decided that he has got to be one of the nicest celebrities ever!  He talked to us for a good three or four minutes, asking when the baby is due and congratulating us on her arrival.  He even rubbed my belly and told me I looked fantastic... always a nice thing to hear at nine months pregnant! 

Other than that, we've just been enjoying our last days as a family of three.  As excited as I am to have our daughter join us, there is a part of me that is a little bit sad that Jake won't be our only one... I know it sounds silly, but he's been my little buddy since day one and it's just me and him on a lot of days.  I don't worry about having enough love for the both of them considering that every parent in the world will tell you that there is more than enough, but sharing my time will be an adjustment, especially since he's a bit of a mama's boy.  But we'll get through it... every family does.  And as long as he keeps entertaining us with bits like this, it will be all smiles in Mauneyland:

The fun just doesn't stop... my Mom arrived into town last night as well as Michael, Mindy, and Adam, who will be down again next weekend in the hopes that Lilly might decide to make an appearance before or during their visit.  Tonight we are having friends over for Josh's 29th birthday celebration while we cheer on the Vols and the Cats and tomorrow Josh will be preaching again, which is what he loves to do most.  I can't wait.  And then next week, we should probably all slow down a bit (yeah, right!), take it easy, and do a lot of this in preparation for baby #2:

So that wraps up the first half of the month and I know the second half will be even more exciting as our due date approaches.  The family is here now so she has full permission to arrive anytime now!  Stay tuned...    :)

Black Friday

Black Friday: the day that all chaos ensues at retail stores all around the nation. People get mauled, trampled, and there have even been deaths all because crazed shoppers are after that one good deal. Whether it be a Tickle Me Elmo or the Wii, each year there seems to be something that everyone wants, and Black Friday is the day to go after it.

Sounds like fun, right?

In all of my 28 years of life, the idea of Black Friday never really appealed to me. My sister, Angie, was in town and mentioned that she had gone last year and found some really great deals and so this year I thought "why not?" and went with her. Then, for some unexplained reason, I got really excited about the idea of shopping the day after Thanksgiving. I wasn't after anything in particular, nor did I really have any specific ideas in mind for anyone in my family, but yet I couldn't help to look forward to the mayhem.

Seeing that we live in Small Town, USA, our pickings for retail stores are few and far between, which made mapping out a plan easy. My alarm went off at 4:38 am, but I had been awake for hours before that. I sprang out of bed (which is usually pretty difficult for a woman who is 5-months pregnant) and was dressed in no time. I bounded into the room where my sister and mom were staying and they both wondered why in the world I was so chipper. Folks, I am not a morning person, nor will I ever be. The only time I ever happily get up early are race days... marathons, half marathons, heck- even a 5K will do, but rarely is there another morning that ever sees this much energy from me. Perhaps it is because I am on a race-hiatus due to pregnancy that Black Friday excited me so much... in some weird way it may have filled a void.

We were in the car on the way to Wal-Mart before 6 o'clock. When I pulled into the parking lot, never in my life have I seen it so full. I dropped Angie off, who was after something specific, and Mom and I circled around looking for a few minutes. EVERY spot was full. I don't think I even knew that there were this many cars in this town! We finally stalked a shopper and pulled into their spot, which was possibly the farthest I have ever parked from a store.... which makes me wonder, what ever happened to the Expectant Mother parking? Granted, I think it was probably abused and those spots would have been full, too, but that was short-lived parking method that I never got to take advantage of. *Sigh*

Once inside, it was absolute MADNESS! People were everywhere, aisles were jammed with traffic, and the "hot" items were flying off of the shelves. Being new to town, we apparently missed the memo on how our local Wal-Mart does it because certain sale items were being distributed in certain areas of the store. They had Rock Band for $50 in the frozen food section and flat screen TV's in the shoe aisle... clearly these people had some sort of inside information because we constantly had to ask around for what we were looking for! In the end though, Angie found her hot deal and we all walked away with something or another, whether we had intended to buy it or not. The only downside was the check-out lines which took about 30 minutes of our valuable shopping time.

After Wal-Mart we hit up a few other stores including KMart, JC Penny's, and Bergner's. None were as crazy as the first though and I am not sure if that's due to the fact that we were there when the sales started or if that's just the best place to go in town. Regardless, the three of us racked up quite a bill at the other stores as well and I found my Christmas gift for Josh, which I cannot wait to give him! All in all it was successful, and strangely a lot of fun, but I think I'd do a few things differently next year. Here's my advice to those of you who are new to Black Friday Shopping and would like to check it out in the future:

• NEVER go alone. If you do go alone, do not get a cart. Carts are next to impossible to maneuver through the throngs of people. If you travel in 2's or 3's, however, one person can man the cart and the others can be "runners". This is what ended up working best for us. Besides, the chaos is way more fun to enjoy with others.
  
• Drop off everyone at the door and only take one person to park. Some of the "hot" items are one per person so if you need more than one of something, it's best to have multiple people with you. Otherwise you may have to wait in a line twice.
  
• Check the local ads before you go if you want something specific. As I mentioned, Wal-Mart had set up specific locations for some items and it would have saved us some time if we had known right away where these locations were.
  
• When checking-out, utilize the check-out lanes in other departments. We found one in the sporting goods section that many people hadn't yet discovered. This could save you a lot of time and keep you out of the impatient crowds.
  
• Drink coffee before you go. We just jetted out the door, but it was hours before we were home. Lucky for me, I now function without caffeine, but my sister was hurting a little!
  
• Wear comfy shoes.
  
• A cell phone is a MUST if you are shopping with friends. We got separated for quite awhile in KMart (due to no cell service, not due to forgetting our phones) and looking for each other ate up a lot of good sales time.
  
• Seriously consider going next year.... some of the deals were OUTRAGEOUS! We saw down comforters (any size) for $20.00, digital camera binoculars for $29.00, all kinds of kitchen appliances for way below market value, and so much more! In this economy, a little sale never hurt anyone.
  
• Make it fun... plan to go to breakfast afterwards or start a new annual tradition. A lady at church was telling me that she meets up with her sisters every year and they really go shop just to go out to breakfast without their kids every year.
  
• Keep your eyes peeled... you may get a glimpse of Santa! I guess he needs to Christmas shop, too!
  
• Feel free to comment with any tip you may have... I'm just a rookie so I'm sure my list will be tweaked year after year.

It's a good thing that this day comes around once a year... it was fun, but I think that's about all I could stand until 2010! Happy Christmas shopping everyone!

And just for good humor... I'm guessing that Santa was shopping for Mrs. Claus's present???

Bring on the craftiness!

For those of you who don't know, I absolutely LOVE to throw a party. Love it. My first couple of jobs involved event planning, but now that I work in sales (from home in my pajamas mind you) I get my kicks from my own personal social events. I am the type of person who finds no greater joy than to make a spreadsheets to track RSVP's and expenses even though only I will see it, using Tahoma 10 font and filling the whole page in with a white background so that it hides those ugly gridlines. Quirky? Absolutely, but I am who I am and it seems to be what I was made to do. I would much rather sit around planning parties and events for myself and for friends than just about anything else in the world.

So around comes my sister's baby shower this past Sunday. Normally I would go to a cute website and order pretty pre-printed invitations, but that just didn't seem good enough this time. You see, for my bridal shower my sister created the most gorgeous hand-made invitations I have ever seen! Seriously... she should sell them. We're talking so pretty that I still plan to frame mine and hang it on the wall at our house. Unfortunately I don't have a picture or else I would definitely post it, so if you really want to see it I'll dig one up and put it up here eventually. So between that and my new goal to become more "crafty" as I mentioned on Monday (because everyone- and I mean everyone- is crafty in the Midwest... it's as if they were born with a gene that the rest of us didn't get whether it be knitting, quilting, scrapbooking, cake decorating... you name it!), I decided to return the favor and create my own invitations for her party.

Since craftiness is a fairly new thing for me, I spent a fair amount of time on Google looking at pictures of other people's creations. What in the world did we do before the Internet? I finally decided to try to make something that looked like a diaper and would act as a sleeve for the actual printed invitation. Based on my Internet findings, my first brilliant idea was to wrap the inner invitation in white felt, which I can assure you will not end up looking like a diaper at all. While a good idea in theory, it looked more like an old-fashioned nurses hat than a diaper. With this in mind, I knew it would have to be paper all the way. So without further to do, here are the steps on how to make some super-cute (and fairly easy... hey, even I could do this one!) baby shower invitations:

First, here is what you will need:

• Printable cardstock for the inner invitation (1 per 6 invitations)... I used light green since she doesn't know what she's having yet. I also used white and glued the two pieces together to make it fancier, but this is just an option
• A glue stick (if you decide to go with my method above)
• Cute printed paper (8x11) for the diaper (1 page per invitation). I found that white was just too plain so I went to a scrapbooking store and found paper with butterflies, flowers, and swirlies on it. If you know the gender of the baby, there is A LOT of cute pink and blue patterned options
• Scissors - regular and craft scissors for the details. If you have a slicer, that will save you some time, too
• A hole puncher
• A felt tipped pen
• Large safety pins- I searched for actual diaper pins but did not come across any
• Invitation envelopes
• A cute baby-themed stamp and an ink pad (optional)

To start, take a diaper pattern (which can be found here) and use it to cut out all of the "diapers" on your patterned paper. If the pattern goes one direction or the other, make sure that the flap that faces front shows the pattern right-side up. Below is the pattern I found online (left) next to one that I ended up cutting out (right)... I opted not to cut all of the frills out and used craft scissors in a later step instead to make it a little faster. Either method works.

Next, fold up the "diaper" and secure the front with a safety pin. To fold up the diaper, fold it in half vertically and then pull the side flaps in. The one shown below has been folded, and then as I mentioned earlier, I took craft scissors and cut the frillies on the leg holes.


I set that part aside and started on the inner-invitation. Using Microsoft Word or Publisher or any program really, type the information using only 1/6 of the page. The space will be limited, but the diaper sleeve ends up being about the size of your hand. You can either use one side or both sides of the paper depending on how much information you have. In our case, we put a cute little phrase on one side and then all of the information on the other. I also printed one on the green cardstock and one on the white cardstock, frilled up the edges of the white one with craft scissors, and glued them together for a bit of a fancier look. Lastly, punch a hole in the top and tie a ribbon in a bow through it to make it easier to pull out of the diaper sleeve. Below is the components of my finished product as well as one put together:

There are so many ways you can go with this. If you have cute hand-writing you could probably just hand-write them all, but I'm not there yet in my craftiness. Or you could glue the insert into the diaper sleeve since almost everyone I talked to said that they undid the safety pin and opened my invitation up, not knowing that they did not have to go through that extra step. But regardless of what you choose, I think they turn out to be super cute.

Lastly, if you're still wanting to personalize it a little more, take your stamp and the ink pad and use it somewhere on the invitation envelope. I think it adds a nice touch.

So that's about the extent of what I can share in terms of being crafty today... I'm still a work in progress, but they were a big hit! And this posting only assures me that I should never start a cooking or a how-to blog unless I plan to have REALLY LONG posts. Because honestly, I could have added WAY more details than I did, but hopefully this is more than enough to get my point enough. Happy crafting!

And PS - a post about her actual shower will soon follow, too!