God's Goodness

I know it's been a while since I've last written.  It's been busy and I really haven't been in that moment to write any.  I just wanted to share some stuff that was on my heart.  Two things.  First I have struggled with bad dreams for a long time.  Ever since a really bad relationship a long time ago.  I thought I had forgiven myself and others so I didn't get why I kept having them.  Well, about a week ago it was on my heart a lot.  All day I was thinking about it and praying.  I ended up reading some stuff that I believe God led me too.  It made so much sense.  It talked about not ignoring things in your past, acting like it never happened.  Which I have been doing.  A scripture came to my mind.  Revelation 12:11 "They have overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony."
Everything clicked when I thought about that verse!  I've been ignoring my testimony.  I've been so ashamed that I just wanted it to disappear.  I'm not proud of this.  I'm ashamed to even admit that I haven't shared my true testimony.  Yeah, I've shared a short version.  But not close to the real thing.  I talked with my hubby about it and did some forgiving again.  Ever since I've made that decision that I'm willing to share my testimony I have slept like a baby!  God is so awesome!!  I think what made this time different is that I'm equipped now with how to think about things from going to counseling a while back.  My counselor is amazing and really taught me how to think about things.  Also I went to God and asked Him to show me what was going on.  Usually I try to fix it myself.  I ask others what to do or I go to the internet.  This time I didn't ask anybody but God.  It took a while.  But He showed me and set me free!  Don't take your testimony for granted.  I'm so thankful for this and excited about my new freedom!  Second thing is that we've been worrying about a few things lately.  Not going to go into detail about that one but God has totally shown up and taken care of a huge thing!  Totally out of the blue.  I was just sitting here thinking about how He always knows what's going on and He is in control of everything.  The blessing we received came from His hands.  Not ours.  We didn't make it happen.  It made me happy because He is just like an earthly father.  But a whole better. ;)  We were needing help and He came to the rescue.  Goodness!  I just love God.  Tonight is a good night!   He loves us so much!

Catching Up

Hi all!  I know I left you guys hanging the other week.  We ended up having a lot happen and I really wasn't able to blog any.  Our date night went very well.  Our Indian food was awesome!  My hubbies grandma ended up passing away so we went back to Oklahoma where our family is.  On the way we stopped where we use to live and work to attend a reconciliation service.  It was amazing!  We were blessed to watch the congregation be reunited with 4 past pastors that didn't leave on good terms.  One being our lead pastor we worked under.  They washed their feet and loved on them.  I was overwhelmed with feelings of love as we sat back and just watched.  We even were reunited with some friends we haven't spoken to in at least 2 years.  God's reconciliation is so awesome!  The next day we headed down to Oklahoma.  We drove back Wednesday and my hubby had to leave Thursday morning to go on a church event for 4 days.  My nanny came and spend some time with me though.  That was nice.  We had fun relaxing, shopping, eating and watching movies!  :)  Sunday was crazy but good.  I there all by my lonesome. Well, I had some awesome leaders there to back me up.  Ok, they did everything! ;)  They are the best!  My hubby was still gone so I was in charge of Sunday morning children's services.  It went well.  God was in control.  Otherwise I would have been a mess.  Now my hubby is back! Yay! I missed him so much.  All the craziness is over with.  I'm ready to relax with my hubby again with our normal routines.  Well, I'm off to clean the house.  I hope everyone has an awesome day today!

Date Night!

Hey all!  I hope you are having a great Thursday so far!  I woke up to a very cold morning.

I thought these temps weren't suppose to start till November?!  :)

Well, the week has been awesome so far.  Found out we were blessed awesomely and only have to pay $25 for our dental work we had done.  $1,500 worth! God is awesome!  :)  Also we've been blessed in other ways for this weekend.  I'll let you in on that in another post later on this weekend. ;)  My nanny is coming to see me in a few weekends! So excited for that!  Oh and tonight is date night! Yes!!!  We may be going to this Indian restaurant we've been wanting to check out.  There is one by the same family a few hours south of us.  We've been to that one but not the one in our part of town.  I'm so excited.  We haven't had indian food in a long time.  It always reminds me of our good friends the Lynch's.  They introduced us the this amazing food.  We love and miss them so much!  Did I tell you though!? We get to see them this weekend! Woohoo! I better not say too much.  I won't have anything to post about later on. ;)  Well, I hope you guys enjoy this beautiful day!  It should be warmed up by noon.  Happy Thursday!!

Running Slow

Good morning!  Late morning. :)  I have no motivation today. I feel blah!  I'm sure everyone has those days huh?  Well, first off this morning I have to tell you about an awesome thing my friend made the other day!  We called them Homemade Oat Bars! :)

Don't they look so yummy!?  I have to give her props.  This was her first time at trying to make them.  I think she nailed it!  They tasted so great!  Here is the recipe if you guys want to try it. :)

Homemade Oat Bars

1/2 Cup Oats
1/2 Cup Rice Krispies
1/4 Cup Peanut Butter
1/4 Cup Almonds (run through processor)
1/4 Cup Walnuts (run through processor)
2 Tbsp Honey
1/4 Cup Craisins (or any kind of dried fruit)
2 Tbsp Milk (or milk substitute or water)
You can add granola too if you would like.

Mix it all up. Press in a baking pan with wax paper and set in fridge for about an hour.  Voila! So easy! :)

On to the other things.  I'm really running slow this morning.  As I mentioned above I have no motivation.  I've been like this since Tuesday.  I'm thinking it was the weather.  Tuesday was chilly and misty outside.  I really need to tackle the kitchen and get the apartment vacuumed.  Oh and exercise.  ;) I've been slacking on exercising really bad.  This week has been busy.  Still have stuff to do tonight and Saturday and then Sunday is church.  So Friday is our only free day that we will have.  It's starting a busy time in our lives!  Only this month though.  Hope everyone has a great day today!  It's beautiful outside here!  Enjoy it!

Pinterest Recipe Success!

Good evening!  Ok so I have to brag about my pinterest recipe success!  I wasn't sure of it but it turned out pretty good.  It's really simple too!  I wouldn't eat it this way all the time because of the brown sugar, but it's a good once in a while recipe.

Mmmmm good.
Here is the link to the recipe. Baked Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken

I used :
1 chicken breast split in half
2 Tbsp EVOO
2 garlic cloves
2 Tbsp brown sugar

Saute the garlic in EVOO then stir in brown sugar.  Pour over chicken.  Baked at 375 for 25 minutes. Simple! :) Enjoy!

Busy Day!

Good morning everyone!  I thought I would post a little bit this morning.  Nothing too interesting, but I wanted to keep posting so I don't fall off the wagon again. :)

For breakfast, my favorite cereal ever!!
Great Grains Cereal, Raisins Dates & Pecans.  Mmmmm good!  It's healthy for you and tastes good!  Go ahead, try it.  You'll see. :)

Today will be a busy day!  It's my cleaning day!  I've found the secret to a stress free weak.  Well, stress free concerning the apartment being clean. :)  I bust my but on Monday, deep cleaning everything and then the rest of the week I just maintain and clean up the little messes.  I tried the doing something everyday but that just didn't fly with me.  So after a little bit of quiet time with Jesus I'm going to get to work!

I hope you all are having a great Monday so far!

It's Been Forever!

Hi everyone! Wow! It's been forever since I've posted on here.  I thought I would catch you up on a really important thing that happened this month.  Our 4 year anniversary!!! :)

Jason thought I was going to shove the cake in his face. ;)  I was nice and didn't do it though.
September 6th we were married 4 years!  We had a wonderful week and anniversary dinner.  It's felt like we've been together for years but also like we've only been married just a little while.  I love being married to my best friend! It's the best! :)

I've started exercising again and trying to fix healthy meals for me and Jason.  We've been bad lately though.  Oops.  :)  I like eating healthy but sometimes I want to cook new healthy things and don't know where to go to get some good recipes.

Oh! I must tell you guys about a Teavana tea we just tried last night.  Made me sleep like a baby!
Tranquil Dream Herbal Tea
Oh was it good!  

So, I'm going to attempt to post a few times a week!  Wish me luck! Hope you all have a wonderful Saturday night!

Sometimes It's Not About You

Ok so this is an update from my earlier post this morning.  Just In Time

I was struggling really bad this morning with negative thoughts and feelings.  Now usually when we are in this spot we think there is something wrong with us (I was thinking that!).  Or what do I need to do to fix me.  Well, I just realized it wasn't about me.  Well, it was, but even more it was also about a  good friend.  They were struggling with some stuff too and if I had still been in that negative mindset I wouldn't have been able to let God work through me to pray for them and help them.  So just remember when you are going through some junk, it may just be our enemy trying to keep us from hearing from God to help someone else or for Him to speak to us.  I had to share this with you all!  I'm just on cloud 9 that God would let me help Him in speaking to someone and that He would show me what was going on this morning. :)

Just In Time

Good morning!  Well we had a good weekend.  I've been struggling with negative thinking and toxic thoughts this morning though.  My mind felt out of control.  Anybody ever feel that way?  I felt like I had not strength to fight the negative thoughts and lies that were coming into my mind.  I would pray but they would just keep coming.  I started my quiet time with Jesus this morning still struggling to pray and connect.  I put on my worship playlist I made and I started breaking through.  Listening and singing to worship music, singing God's praises is so healing.  This came just in time!  As I just listened my mind started to calm down and just focus on the words.  Then the words if God is with us what can stand against us came.  The things I was struggling with started popping in my head.  Confusion, anxiety, fear, depression, and the biggest...unrest.  There was no peace in my mind.  These things cannot stand against me...because God is with me.  He is always with me.  He is with everyone, you just have to acknowledge He's there.  It's amazing how when you start singing praises to God you start feeling stronger, you feel closer to Him and you feel that rest you've been needing.  As I'm typing I'm listening to a song that repeats a verse in the Bible.  I will remain confident in this, I will see the goodness of the Lord. Psalm 27:13 "I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living."  If  you're having a morning like I was try praying and just listening to some music that praises God.  Pour your heart out to Him.  He's listening.  This is one of my favorite songs.  It's by Kari Jobe.   http://youtu.be/YQnBvUiAGsI    Copy and paste the link into you address bar and have a listen.  :)  Thanks for letting me spill my emotions out to you guys this morning!  I'm going to read a little bit before hitting the to do's today.
Have a great day!

A Very Long But Fun Day

Hi everyone!  I know it's really late!  We usually don't stay up this late but it's my hubbies Friday today! Woohoo!!  Also date night!  I started off the afternoon today by baking up some goodies!  I tried this Zucchini Brownie recipe I read on a blog I've been enjoying recently.  http://sweettoothsweetlife.com

They look and taste yummy!!  :)

For our date we headed out to Culver's!  We haven't been there in a long time.  This trip was way overdue.

Look at us being all goofy! :)

My dinner loot! :)  Butter burger and cheese curds! Yuuuuuuum!

And this...this was soooo good.  Flavor of the day.  Coconut Cream Pie! It had boston cream stuff in it. mmmhmm.  :)  Can you believe I ate all of this!?  I can! I was ready for it!

Usually we don't splurge like that.  Usually only on date nights.  :)  Afterwards up until now it has been a night of Olympics watching and then some soccer on the xbox.  Well, it's late and the late night cravings have started.  So I'm going to jet and get some of those yummy zucchini brownies in there! :)  Have a good night and tomorrow!!

Help a sista out!

Hi everyone! Ok so I have to advertise this little thing called bodymedia fit armband!  It's awesome! I've been using it for 4 months now and I love it!  It tracks your calories even when sitting, tracks your sleep progress.  When you eat you just enter it in and it lets you know your calorie intake.  It tells you how much to eat and burn so you can lose weight or just maintain.  They now have a rewards referral program!! Woohoo!!! So you know what that means??  You guys can get 15% off and 3 months free subscription by using my link!  And I get 3 more months free! Yay!  Always nice not having to pay for something if you don't have too. :)  So to help a sista out and yourself click on the link and sign up! :)  Really this thing has brought me so much insight into how my body burns calories and why my weight wouldn't budge.  It makes it so much easier!

http://bodymedia.extole.com/a/clk/3SDwvn

Thanks everyone!

Food Recovery

Good morning! So yesterday evening I went a little overboard with the eating.  I caved to my desires to eat bad and so Jason picked up some Panda Express on the way home from work for dinner.  Usually it tastes sooooo good.  But you know what?  It wasn't that good.  I'm hoping it's my healthier eating habits making my taste buds change.  :)  I also indulged in some ice cream and chocolate syrup last night after dinner.  The ice cream wasn't bad, I believe it was the chinese that got me!  This morning I am feeling it!  I woke up bloated and feeling it too.  I think a recovery day is needed!  Oh and I gained that pound and a half back I lost the other day.  :( So sad.  I'll lose it again though!  Hopefully.  ;)

So the plan for today!  Eat a good healthy breakfast. Check!

This stuff is soooo good!  I've recently been adding fresh blueberries and it makes it even better!

Eat low sodium foods all day and a lot of fresh fruit.  Only one small dessert. :)

That means this baby is getting chopped up today! :) mmmmmmm I can't wait!
Oh and lots of water!
Along with some pilates workouts today.  I think I'm covered with the healthy day to recover my body.

Another important thing to keep healthy is your spirit.  I've been realizing that focusing on exercising and pushing through is making me better at focusing in my spiritual walk.  It's all connected.  Your spirit, mind and body.  It all works together and we need to keep it all healthy.  Especially our spirit.  So spending some time with my awesome God and Jesus this morning is first on the list.  My emotions get the best of me a lot if I don't spend some alone time with Him and gain my strength from Him.  God is truly amazing!  :)   Now I'm off to get my day started!  I hope you guys have a blessed and healthy day!

Wraps!!!!

So I tried a product some of my friends from church have been selling and promoting lately.  It's a wrap to lose inches, tighten and tone your body!  It's all natural.  I saw pictures of them and of people they know and there are huge results!!  I've been really trying to get my little pooch off my tummy for a while and so I decided to try one to kickstart the shedding the pooch process.  :)  Now after 45 minutes of wearing the wrap I bloated...because I had so much junk in my system.  It works for up to 72 hours and the total count after 72 hours is 1 inch off where your bra strap is, 1/2 inch off waist, 1/2 inch off belly and 1/4 inch off hips! I wore one wrap for just a couple of hours!  So if anyone is interested in losing a lot of weight, inches or just toning up a little bit I would so check these out! You can put them anywhere you want! Here are the links to my friends pages.   https://sheli.myitworks.com/  indybodywraps.myitworks.com  and https://courtneysnodgrass.myitworks.com/.   


I think you may have to check some out on Facebook.  Like the middle one. :)  There are so many more products than the wraps too.  I think it's a christian organization also.  Remember though, eat healthy and exercise to get your best results!  It's all about being healthy!  Have a great day everyone!

Nice Refresher

So today was different.  Jason and I actually went to a Sunday morning service!  I'm sad to say that we have not made that a priority lately.  We are usually back in the children's ministry area taking care of stuff and hanging with the kids.  While I love always being there we don't have Sunday night services or Wednesday night anymore.  So we made it a priority this morning to get to first service.  We loved it!    It was so refreshing!  The worship time was really good for me and the message was amazing!  No surprise there.  Our pastor is awesome! :)  So from now on we will be trying to make it to first service and head on back with the kids second service.  Really excited for some of our leaders too that never get to go to service either.  We have to lead by example! :)  Going to head out later and pick us some of our tomatoes from our friends garden.  They let us use a part of it.  Hope everyone is having a great Sunday afternoon!

Back On Track

Good morning!  It looks like we just may get some rain today.  I hope so!  It's very dry out!  So usually I only splurge food wise on date nights.  Well, yesterday I kind of splurged again.  :(  I ate the rest of my homemade banana blueberry bread and me and the hubby had some homemade brownie sundaes also.  Oh my goodness, such a sugar rush!  I just couldn't get full yesterday!  We took Dolce for a walk but that's about all the exercise we got yesterday.  So today I'm getting back on track.  I started off with a healthy bowl of cereal (Great Grains).  I love that cereal!  Next I'm heading into the spare bedroom to clean up so I can use the treadmill.  :)  We have a healthy new recipe to try out for dinner also tonight! Oh, and I can't forget to mention the best health tip of all, prayer.  Going to spend some alone time with God this morning too.  I can't make it through the day very well without Him!  Well, I hope everyone has a great day!  Get some exercise in today, it will make you feel good! :)

New Recipe Success

Good evening everyone!  Hope you all are having a great Friday!  Jason and I decided to try a new recipe today from Rachael Ray's Everyday Magazine.  I must say it was great!  Didn't taste like I thought it was going too.  I thought it was so good I would share it with you guys!

Chicken Salad Stuffed Tomatoes

4 Large Tomatoes
1/4 Cup Miracle Whip or Mayo (go light if you want a lighter version)
2 Cups Finely Chopped Rotisserie Chicken
1 Cup Fresh Corn Kernels (shaved right off the cob after grilling or boiling)
1/2 Cup Snipped Chives
Salt & Pepper To Taste

Core tomatoes.  Scoop flesh into strainer set over bowl to catch juice.  Mix together 1/4 cup of the tomato juice, the mayo, chicken, corn and chives; season.  Spoon into tomato shells.  All done!!

It's really easy!  Hope you enjoy!

Today's been a super relaxing day!  Feels like Saturday to us!  So tomorrow will be extra great.  Have a great weekend!!

Vacation Recap

Hi everyone!  Well, we are back from vacationing in Oklahoma.  It doesn't seem like it's been 10 days already.  I'm glad to be home.  We went to Oklahoma so Jason could be in a friends wedding but we decided to turn it into a vacation.  :)  The wedding was beautiful! So happy for the new couple! We were able to see some family while we were there.

That's my dad and step mom :)

We saw Jason's parents and grandparents and my grandparents too but we didn't get any pics of them.  

Sorry for the fuzziness on the one.  Still learning how to take pics in certain lighting.  Anyways, so we got to see some good friends too.  There were some we didn't get to see.  :(  But that's ok.  Next time!

Here are some shots of my friends we got to see.

The first part of the week was mainly about relaxing and eating some good food!!  We were able to hit all the places we love but aren't up in Indiana.  Charlie's Chicken, Braum's and Mazzios!  Love those places!  We tried a Sushi place too in Fort Smith.  It was good for where it was at.  :)  We've been spoiled in Indy.  Here are some pics of the good southern food we partook in!

Look at that goodness!!  My body feels so crazy now!  Time for us to go back to healthy eating!  

Oh we were able to visit the spot Jason and I got engaged at! :) Take a look!

Here is my hubby in his groomsmen suite! 

Well, I think that's it!  I'll leave you with some random pics from the vacay.  Enjoy!

Oh yeah we went to a museum!! How could I forget that?!  It was very neat.  We enjoyed it.  The last pic is of my favorite piece of art there!

Have a great day!

New Idea

Hi everyone!  So I've been reading some blogs lately and have had a desire to mix mine up and post more too.  I like the concept of putting recipes up and talking about health and also just telling about my life.  So hopefully you will see more posts on here soon!  We are on vacation right now so maybe the first one will be a recap of our vacay. Hope everyone is having a fantastic day!

My Journey To Freedom

I would like to share something personal that I've been going through for a while. Hopefully it will help someone. Through 3 people in my life God showed me that I needed to be going to counseling in order to break through some of my problems I've been having since forever ago. I have been having problems with the same things over and over. I started having fears of going out to eat with my husband in a restaurant. I would rather stay home. I never wanted to go anywhere. I would be afraid when walking the dog around the apartment complex by myself. I was so nervous when being in a big crowd, even at my own church. Small group was even a problem for me. I felt so out of place anywhere I was and felt unworthy. I've felt this way since I can remember. I was going through times of depression although I had no idea because it was normal to me and I thought depression was worse than what I was experiencing. I was having a really rough time with my family. Especially my dad. He was never really what I needed in life. I always wanted love from him though and I never received it from God correctly. It bothered me he never called me or never wanted to come visit us. When I decided to go to counseling I was a nervous wreck. My counselor is amazing though. She works with all kinds of people in all kinds of serious situations and she's a pastor's wife so that helped too. The first thing I learned was that I dealt with anxiety and depression. I had no idea. I didn't know any better. I started reading about anxiety and what God says about it. After a while I started to notice when anxiety would overcome me. Progress! Noticing it! I started to read about renewing your mind. I started to take control of my thoughts and emotions through Jesus. Looking back now I can't believe I didn't recognize any of this anxiety stuff. It's so obvious now. I dug up a lot of stuff. Went through some grieving over my family and not feeling loved. My counselor helped with some positive self talk I could use to help my mind. I started to actually do it one day and it was relieving. My breakthrough came about 3 months into counseling during the Superbowl. We went downtown to the Super Bowl festivities the Friday before the game! Not something I would normally do! I felt anxiety overcome me when we got down there. I started praying and talking positive to myself. As we were walking through the sea of people it was like something lifted off of me! I started to have fun and wanted to go check out different stuff. I left feeling all hyped up. After that night I was wanting me and my husband to go out to eat and actually do things out of the house. It was like I was hyped up on something. Haha! The heaviness was gone! I wasn't worried about what was going on around me. Freedom tasted so good! Time went on and I began to use all the tools God and my counselor gave me in certain situations. Now, I have to point out that I never new how to take control over my mind. It was always weak and I never did it before. So it was so hard! Still is too. That is a big issue in overcoming anxiety and depression. I started taking our dog for walks by myself. I started to get a grip on my thoughts when Jason would leave and go somewhere and anxiety tried to take over. During my last visit to my counselor at the end of February I was told that I no longer had to come!! Success!! I now have the tools to fight this! I've tasted Jesus' freedom that He paid for already. That He wants all of us to live in. God is so good. He is our own personal counselor too. He talked to me and helped me all through this even though I went to a counselor too. Sometimes we need both. I'm still working through this. But I have claimed my freedom and can say anxiety and depression no longer control me. What is cool too is that I've been having to take sleep meds due to acting out my dreams in my sleep. Being very active. My doctor said it may be a sleep disorder and I needed to take the meds. Well I noticed the dreams decreased when I started counseling. I hardly ever have them now. I just went back to the doctor and he said I could start weaning myself off the meds! I'm believing this sleep stuff is from the anxiety I've dealt with and that with time and by God's healing I will be able to be off of it completely! God is so awesome!! I hope this helps someone. At least lets you know Jesus is there. Waiting to love on you and help and heal you. It may take some time. But it will happen for you.