Category: Uncategorized

Photo by: Kate Love Photography

We are well on our way into 2019 (definitely typed 2018 in the title of this post – still in that transitional phase of writing a nine instead of an eight!) and I have set my annual goals (on my third year with PowerSheets and still absolutely love them), filled out my calendar for the month, and have given some time and thought to my word of the year. This will be my 6th year to adopt a word of the year and I love the focus it gives to my goal setting and perspective on a fresh calendar year.

I shared last week about my forgotten words from 2018 – I’m hoping to have the mentality shaped from those words stick with me through this year and I’m looking forward to how they help form my perspective on this new word. Typically as I am filling out my goals for the next year I take the time to pray and search for a word in my writing that keeps repeating itself. I figure if it’s a word that keeps popping up in my subconscious enough to make it’s way into my written words then it must be worth focusing on! This year I couldn’t really find any particular word pop up in my writing and reflections so I decided to go for Jennifer Fulwiler’s word of the year generator and while I was at it, her saint of the year generator too! I happened to love both the word and the saint that were given to me so I’m going with it.

Word of the year: Try

Sweet, simple, to the point. I immediately connected with this word when it appeared on the screen. As we embark on 2019 we have a lot of change coming to our family. A new baby due in February and our oldest starting kindergarten in the fall among other changes and challenges to come our way that we don’t even know of yet!

So often I talk myself out of doing things and trying new things. Putting myself out there. Just because I’m afraid to try for fear of what people will think or say about me. While it’s never easy to step outside of my comfort zone I’m hoping the peace and joy cultivated over 2018 will help me to see new opportunities with a fresh perspective – realizing it is all going to be ok. I will regret what I don’t do, but will I ever regret what I do? I don’t think so.

I also think that any time there is a new baby in the family just trying to get out the door, trying to maintain some semblance of sanity, trying to create balance is all it really takes. Trying, one day at a time.

Saint of the year: St. Andre Bessette

I actually didn’t know of this saint when his name appeared on my screen but in my reading about him I feel like he is going to be a good patron to lean on this year. St. Andre was a simple man, raised in a working class family, who struggled with his health throughout his life.

St. Andre had a strong devotion to Saint Joseph – my kind of man. In college I started to develop a devotion to Saint Joseph and have always found comfort in his care of my prayers. St. Andre built a chapel in devotion to St. Joseph that was met with its fair share of pushback from his superiors. He was a quiet man with a strong will and devoted heart – I feel like this saint paired with my word of the year are a great match. A man who tried with all his heart to live the best life he could live in honor of Saint Joseph for the love of God and His people – that’s got New Year’s inspiration written all over it!

I hope all of you have had a great start to your new year! Are you a goal setter? Do you choose a word of the year? If you are or you aren’t I would love to hear from you in the comments!  

Past word of the year posts:

2014
2015
2016
2017
2018

Photo by: Kate Love Photography

As I began typing my word of the year post for 2019 I realized I never actually blogged about my word(s) from 2018. This is a practice that I have been doing for several years now so I wanted give them a post of their own since they ended up teaching me quite a bit over the past twelve months. (I plan to share my 2019 word of the year (and saint of the year!) later this week.)

The words: peace & joy.

I mentioned in my 2018 inventory post that the year started off a little rocky with the loss of a close relative. While it was a chance to bring extended family together it was still an absolutely heartbreaking experience. My uncle was young, active, and a vibrant personality lost too soon from my humble and human perspective. December 2017 and January 2018 were dark months, spent wrestling with God and my ongoing questioning of why do we have to lose the ones we love? My spirit had not felt that sort of conflicted energy for quite some time and as I sat down last year to pray and think about my word of the year the words peace and joy kept popping up in my writing and in my mind. At the time I laughed at the thought of those words becoming my mission through the year because I was in such a state of mourning mixed with frustration and a good bit of anger.

Peace and joy were what my heart longed for but could not yet be fathomed by my brain. As the year progressed I actually forgot about those words, I wasn’t really focusing on them regularly and didn’t hear them too often in my prayers and thoughts. But as I reflected this past December on 2018 I realized, peace and joy were completely evident over the year that was 2018. I looked over this past year and saw the growth found throughout the touchstones of my life – my girls who seem to be getting bigger by the minute, my marriage that continues to grow and change and deepen, my family, my friends, our community – I found so much comfort in my surroundings and the ones that I love and through that peace and joy were cultivated more than I ever realized. I ended the year feeling at home: at home in my place in life and where I need to be to serve the ones around me right now, at home in my church and the ministries we continue to serve, at home in opportunities that have given me time and space to create, write, and share, and at home physically with the (somewhat unexpected) purchase of a new house that fits our family culture so well and we hope to spend many, many years in.

Peace and joy are possible. I hope to carry these words that have deeply rooted themselves into my soul over the next year as it is one that will surely carry with it change and new challenges. I am so thankful that God knew me better than myself, while I may have laughed at him at the start of the year – He knew, He is capable of turning our greatest sorrows and our shattered hearts into something new. If only we let Him.

Previous word of the year posts:

2014
2015
2016
2017

Towards the end of the school year last year I was talking with various mom friends about summer plans. Trips to be taken, pools to be splashed in, and camps to attend. I quickly realized that I hadn’t even thought about summer camps for my kiddos. By the time I started looking, most of our local day camps were full or past the early registrant discounts. So I took a deep breath (realizing that a summer home with my kiddos full full FULL time wasn’t going to be all that bad) and rolled up my sleeves to create a plan to save my sanity and add some structured yet fun activities to our days. I wrote about our flexible curriculum outline over at Dallas Moms Blog and guess what? We had a fantastic summer.Now our summer wasn’t all pool trips and exotic vacation – we had some significant trips planned as well as plans to move into a new house! But I knew that between packing and shifting our normal routines – we needed some predictable fun in our days. As a former elementary (with a short stint in preschool as well!) teacher it was actually pretty fun to plan out all of the units and research activities and crafts to do. I felt like I was really getting to dive into the fun side of education that I hadn’t experienced in quite a while and it was fun to show my kids my teacher side.

Now that school has started again and I have had to reflect on our summer I wanted to share the top five lessons I learned during our Summer Camp at Home days over the past few months.

1. Planning out everything with the big picture in mind way KEY.
   I formulated a plan for 12 weeks over the summer, collected ideas, and made resource lists to be well prepared. I didn’t buy everything I needed or prep materials right away – that way if we missed a week (or three as it turned out – between our family vacation and house move!) I wouldn’t kick myself for buying supplies we didn’t end up using in the end. But having the master plan in mind gave me something to always fall back on.
2. Finding age appropriate activities and crafts can be tough!
   Currently our girls are 4 and 2 and finding age appropriate activities that they could participate and engage actively in together was HARD. My 4 year old is very into science experiments and intricate art projects while my 2 year old was much more into hands-on activity games and process art. Thankfully we were usually able to find middle ground with most of our activities.  However, it was hard those first few weeks trying to figure out how to modify projects so that they both could enjoy at the same time.
   
3. The library is a glorious place to be in the afternoon!
   I feel like I have been pretty much bound to a morning schedule the past 4 years or so. Both of our girls do much better on outings and activities in the morning but it was tough to find a time to go to the library during a weekday morning that wasn’t crowded with story time goers or didn’t conflict with something else on our calendar. One week I just decided to go on a Monday afternoon and that became our summer routine! Barely anyone was at the library during the hot afternoon hours and my girls enjoyed getting to browse through the books uninterrupted. I wasn’t panicked losing them in a sea of kids and I felt like the staff was also more relaxed by the time afternoon rolled around. I also felt like I could keep our visit shorter than a morning trip but still leave feeling fulfilled.

4. Hats off to the homeschooling mamas.
   We have several friends and some family members who are pursuing homeschooling. I have a lot of thoughts and feelings on homeschooling but I’m not really sure how or when to share them (or if I want to post about them in this format). All of that to say – I really, really enjoyed our learning experiences and adventures at home AND I was also really, really, really tired. I’m not entirely sure that personality wise if homeschooling will be the route we go but I am seriously impressed with all the moms (and dads!) out there who pursue homeschooling for their families. It is a vocation in every sense of the word and you guys are rockstars.

5. I would do it again.
   All in all – meltdowns, unpreparedness, activity mishaps, not to mention everything related to pregnancy, moving, and packing – I would still do it again and have already had thoughts about next summer. It was really fun and a special experience to dig in deep with my kids and it helped to have structure in our days. We were left with a lot of fun memories and crafts and my kids were ultimately happy which is what matters the most. One a side note: we decided to not sign up our kiddos for Religious Education at our church this year and I have already started working on some RE at home lesson plans that I am really excited about!If you missed my original post for Dallas Moms Blog be sure to check it out. Let me know if you joined in on the Summer Camp at Home fun – I would love to hear about your experiences! I know that at home art projects and activities is everyone’s parental cup of tea but I really encourage you to try and connect with your children somehow through learning – whether that be taking a class together, reading thematic books from the library, or tackling an art project. Learning adventures together are truly a bonding experience!

Why hello there…I feel like I have done many a blog post like this before. The type of post where you go months and months (or maybe like a year, but who is counting) without writing and then… you suddenly have the creative urge to pursue your passions and do all the things again! Well here I am, doing one of these blog posts yet again.

Life has been busy. Full of excitement, babies, changes, transitions, but we are living it and loving it and we couldn’t ask for more. I could use all of our life happenings as an excuse for my lack of writing but really I think the root cause of my absence has to do with the evil temptation for self comparison. I love writing. I love sharing. I love creating. But who doesn’t love those things and honestly who ISN’T doing those things right now? More aptly – who isn’t doing those things BETTER than me? These are the thoughts that have been plaguing my mind over the past several months and keeping me from this space.

Well, then something happened. Back in February I applied to become a monthly contributor for our local city moms blog and lo and behold… they accepted my application. I did it on a whim not expecting to be accepted but to just try and put myself out there and see if this outlet of creativity is truly something I’m decent enough at that I should pursue. I have been loving my opportunities with this new venue and have adored getting back into the creative practice of writing and producing.

Along with this opportunity I have realized my desire to keep writing, keep sharing, and continue putting myself out there in this space. I hope you’ll join me. I can’t promise amazing consistency or daily posts. But I can promise that when I do post – my heart will be in it and not my tendency toward the negative and comparative. I’ve missed this space in my life and I’m so happy to be back.  

Happy New Year!

I was chatting with a friend the other night, reflecting over the past year and I couldn’t believe how much life was wrapped up in 2016 and how FAST everything happened. But I, along with so many others, am ready for a fresh start. Now I am not saying that this past year was significantly bad in any way, we had a whole lot of good come from 2016 (new job opportunities and a brand new sweet baby are at the top of the list) but there have been a handful of moments that have left me feeling a little tired and worn. There has been growth from those moments though, the rough patches are behind the motivation for a better new year ahead and I know that there is light to be found in the next 365 days.

I’ve picked another word to focus on for the upcoming year (here are my past words for 2014, 2015, and 2016) and that word is RELEASE. While I was listing out all of my grand plans for the year ahead (using this awesome tool to goal plan this year and really pleased with the inspiration it has given me thus far) the phrase “let it go” and the word release kept popping up in what I was writing. So I took that as a sign to really delve into that word and how it can change me over the course of this year.

I feel like I have been stuck in this rut for the past few years where I wasted a lot of time and energy on my insecurities and self-consciousness. Always wondering what people think of me or how I may be (or most likely not) being judged. Let it go. 

There are commitments in my life that I’m not sure are giving me fulfillment in the best ways possible. Adding more frustration and taking away precious time that could be spent elsewhere in my life. Let it go. 

Before the holidays I was finding myself getting aggravated with my children more often than not and over the tiniest of tiny things. Not appreciating my time spent with them and feeling burned out and ungrateful. Let it go.

I am really hard on myself. High standards are good but constantly nit-picking and over analyzing is again, something that is eating up at my time that I could be using for more important and creative endeavors. Let it go. 

I feel like it’s time to release myself from the weight of these worries, fears, and uncertainty. I’m ready to become more comfortable with this person I’m turning into as I get older. I’m ready to discover some new things about myself (good and bad) and to appreciate what God is calling me to in this life no matter how big or little that calling may be. I’m ready to get rid of some baggage, give my soul a good deep clean, and start living a brighter life filled with light and love. These changes won’t take place over the first few weeks of the new year. I can’t check them off my to do list immediately. Which I suppose is good because I want to accept the process of change and challenging oneself as more of a lifestyle change rather than a definitive resolution with an end goal.

So here we go 2017, I hope by this time next year my life looks a bit cleaner – less of the unnecessary, more of that good stuff.

I hope you all are having a motivated start to your new year!

Something I have always enjoyed is cooking with kids. In my high school babysitting days and college nannying days I loved nothing more than whipping up a batch of brownies or decorating some cookies with the kiddos in my care. It was a fun, non-screen centered activity where we could chit chat about life and enjoy a sweet treat together. I’ve always known that baking and cooking would be something that I would want to do with my own kids some day. A few weeks ago I introduced my two year old to the wonderful world that is creating in the kitchen and it. was. AWESOME. We baked my back pocket banana bread muffins and she was so engaged and so excited the entire time. It made my mama heart explode with absolute joy.

On labor day we were planning on going to a friend’s cookout later in the day and I wanted to bring something to share for dessert that wasn’t too heavy and easy to snack on. I found this vanilla shortbread cookie recipe and they seemed like the perfect addition to our festivities. Only being a handful of ingredients was also helpful because the fewer the ingredients = the easier the recipe is to whip up with my new tiny little sous chef. I ended up modifying the recipe a tad – using my beloved vanilla bean paste vs. vanilla extract and adding some nutmeg as well as a bit of almond extract.

These cookies are definitely becoming a dessert staple around our house. Everyone loves them and they are so easy to make + so easy to eat.

Vanilla Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients: 

• 2 sticks of softened salted butter
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla bean paste (I swear by this brand)
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 2 cups all purpose flour

Instructions: 

1. Soften butter in the microwave for about 30 seconds. You don’t want it to be completely melted. Just soft enough to mix it easily with a hand mixer/stand mixer.
2. Add vanilla bean paste + almond extract + nutmeg and combine with butter.
3. Add powdered sugar and completely combine until smooth.
4. Add flour 1/2 cup at a time until completely combined and smooth.
5. Chill cookie dough in fridge for 10-15 minutes.
6. Once cookie dough is chilled scoop onto a lined cookie sheet about 1.5-2 inches apart, then flatten dough until 1/2 inch thick
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 11 minutes – right before edges start to get golden brown. Let cool completely and then transfer to a cooling rack.

Happy eating!

It’s been a while hasn’t it?

The past six months have thrown me for a serious loop and this little space has been pretty neglected. Between being super pregnant, having a baby, traveling for a family wedding, hosting family for this sweet new baby’s baptism, capping the summer off with yet another road trip to see family and oh yeah and you know…getting used to having two kids and being a family of four – this summer has been way crazier than I expected.

So let’s catch up a bit.

First things first since I last blogged… I had a baby! Her birth can best be described as a truly healing experience. Aside from being overdue by a week + a few days – my pregnancy, labor, and delivery were all healthy, normal, and great which is all I could ever really ask for. I can only hope that any other kiddos we might have will come into the world in such a calm/non-traumatizing way! Since having our sweet little Genevieve, she have proven herself to be the most smiliest little babe I have ever met and much chunkier than her sister ever was as a baby. I could seriously eat all of her arm rolls.

So we had a baby and a bunch of family in town to meet her new sweet self. What was next… we traveled down to NOLA for a two week visit where we saw friends, relaxed, and married off my brother-in-law. It was a great wedding and considering we were almost all involved (Eric = best man, M = flower girl, me = bridesmaid) I was pleasantly surprised with how smoothly things ran for our family that day. It really could not have been done without the help of a couple really great friends who flew down for the wedding weekend to help out with the kids. Friends that travel just to hang out with your kids while you get to be involved in wedding stuff? Theeee best.

Then we came back to Dallas and prepped for G’s baptism! Our NOLA family came up to us, as well as my sister and her husband and we had a nice little weekend celebrating the newest Catholic in our family. I felt like after this event we really started our summer and somewhat “new normal” as a family of four. Up to this point we had been in and out of town and in and out of the hospital having a baby. M took swimming lessons for the second year in a row, we attended our local library’s toddler story time with a friend and we enjoyed some seriously lazy days watching the Olympics and figuring out our new family dynamic (side note: I should say we are STILL trying to figure it out. It’s definitely a daily process, but so far so good).

Now it’s September. This month is actually our busiest month yet this year. We are celebrating THREE weddings within the next two weeks, I am helping host a baby shower, and we have family coming in town the rest of the month. It is sure to be a busy beautiful time!

I have slowly but surely making my way back into the kitchen. As we were after Madeline’s birth – we were blessed with fantastic family and friends who cooked for us after G was brought home. I’m finally feeling up to meal planning, cooking, and creating new yummy things for my family to eat and I hope to throw up some new recipes soon.

I’ve been missing this space so much. I so wish I could figure out a consistent posting routine and make this creative outlet a bigger part of my life. Until I do, enjoy the random post here and there and happy eating!

(images via Little Flower Studio) 

Well, I finally think that some sort of nesting bug has hit me. With my first pregnancy I felt like I started the whole nesting business at twenty weeks. This time around my depleted energy levels and daily workout consisting of chasing around a very rambunctious toddler has gotten the best of me and I have had NO desire to ready our home for a new baby who is due to make her arrival at the end of April or beginning of May.

This week I had a freezer meal swap with some mamas from my bootcamp group. This is the second time I have participated in this swap and I was really satisfied with the variety and abundance of meals we got last time. We were able to parse out last round’s meals so that they lasted until last month and it was always a welcome reprieve from the regular dinner grind when I pulled out one of those delicious, pre-prepared meals, made with love from my freezer. So I knew that I wanted to be a part of another swap – especially with the impending arrival of this sweet sister! Even though I know we will be gifted with meals and provided for in other ways I feel I need my freezer stocked and ready to go so my little family doesn’t have a night of empty bellies.

When I was preparing for Miss M’s arrival almost two years ago (!?!?) I spend the entirety of my Spring Break to stock out freezer full with a variety of meals that would be easy for my husband to pop in the oven or microwave without having to use much brain function. I knew that most likely we would both be surviving on very little sleep and that making things as easy as possible before baby was key. Making all of those meals though… it took a lot of time, energy, multiple trips to the grocery store… you get the idea. With this freezer meal swap I have been a part of we all make a certain number of one meal and then trade off dishes as well as exchanging recipes. It is such a fun thing to be involved in and if you haven’t ever taken part in such an exchange I would highly recommend it! You get a freezer full of new and interesting meal ideas that you may not have thought of yourself AND you didn’t have to go out and buy all of the different individual ingredients.

This month I made breakfast burritos. If I’m being completely honest they were a selfish choice for me to make since I knew I would want a stash in my freezer when baby comes!  They ended up being a huge hit and I fully intend on making more once our current supply runs out. I could see these being a great quick breakfast/snack to have on hand especially when I will only have one hand to eat while feeding a newborn. (Also, just wanted to apologize for the poor quality of pictures. I honestly wasn’t planning on posting this recipe but it was such a success that I wanted to document it and keep it in mind for future reference!:)

Freezer Meal: Mini Breakfast Burritos

Ingredients: 

• 6 eggs
• 1/2 lb mild breakfast sausage
• 1/2 c shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 large russet potato skinned and diced OR half a small bag (~8 oz) of microwaveable hash browns
• 1 pack of fajita sized flour tortillas
• salt/pepper/any other seasonings to taste

Instructions: 

1. Scramble eggs until fully cooked through then put into a large mixing bowl to cool.
2. Cook breakfast sausage – breaking apart with spatula into true tiniest pieces that you can while cooking. Put in same bowl as eggs and mix together – setting aside to cool again.
3. Potatoes: you can either skin and dice a russet potato to boil/cook through on the stove or you can get a bag of microwaveable hash browns and use that as your potato component. Again, add to mixing bowl and let cool.
4. Once all of your warm ingredients have completely cooled add shredded cheese to that mixture.
5. Put one large heaping spoonful into the middle of a tortilla and roll up like a burrito!
6. Wrap each burrito in foil and freeze (can be frozen for 6-8 weeks.
7. To reheat – remove foil completely, wrap desired amount of burritos in a damp paper towel and microwave in 30 second increments until desired temperature is reached.

With the mini burrito style I would say one burrito is a serving size for a kiddo and two for an adult.

Happy eating!