My flesh may fail...

But my God You never will.

Today's been one of those days. The kind where it kind of just sucks. I let my flesh get the best of me. I must admit it was ugly. I've been struggling with anxiety daily, but today I let my fleshliness take over... right in the middle of Walmart. It was embarrassing. It was brutal. And it resulted in a silent car ride all the way home with my husband. I apologized when I got home and headed to the bedroom for some alone time. During my thinking time, I read Colossians 3 in the Message bible, and Lord have mercy, did it convict and speak to me. I encourage you greatly to go read it in the Message bible. It's beautiful and has so much truth and wisdom for our lives as Christ followers. I also spent a good amount of time on Ann Voskamp's blog soaking some brilliant posts in. I took an entire page of notes. That woman can write and has such a heart for God. She truly inspires and encourages me so much.

I hope everyone is having a blessed Tuesday and continuing to put God first in this New Year!

Weekend Rewind

This weekend went by way too quickly, yet I felt like I really got to relish in every moment of it. We got to my parent's house around 6:30 on Friday, and I was quite tired so I just relaxed a bit & caught up on some shows with my mom (Duck Dynasty & Honey Boo Boo in case you were wondering) & hit the sack pretty early. Saturday was good. My sister & I practiced (I played the piano, she sang) for a YouTube video we plan on uploading this upcoming weekend (that is, if I can finish learning the piece on the piano). The photo above shows that we apparently sing and play the piano on our tippy toes! Haha. My mom snapped this picture and I just loved it. Saturday afternoon, my sister & I hit up TJMaxx & Target and came home to play the newest Sims 3 games we bought (yes, we're nerds). Sunday I stayed home from church to get a few more hours in with my family. My mom cooked a delicious homemade meal. It was fantastic! Overall, my weekend was pretty great!

Contentment & Loneliness.

Since the end of December, I've been struck with loneliness. The kind that absolutely sucks and makes ya wanna cry and just sleep all the time because you are just so dang lonely. Does that happen to anyone else or am I just crazy? In December, J & I moved further away from our (now just his) college campus - we previously lived only five minutes away and now we live about fifteen to twenty minutes away depending on traffic & the weather. We had our friends over quite often and could just venture out to see them whenever. Now being so far away makes it difficult. I have a whooping one close girlfriend who lives in the same area as I do, but her apartment is still about twenty minutes from our home. M, W, & F Josh has classes from 8 to 4:30 so that leaves me quite a bit of time with me & ole' Ry. I'm trying to make the best out of my loneliness. We drive back to our hometown on Fridays and come back to our house on Sundays. I love love love spending time with all my family when we are back "home" on the weekends - it gives my heart such joy. I know that somehow this season of feeling lonely is teaching me how to be content with circumstances that just don't seem ideal. Loneliness turns my anxiety up to the highest notch, but Psalm 91 is giving me so much comfort. 

So if you are reading this, please send a prayer to the big man upstairs to help ease my loneliness and how I am to spend this season of life. It is much appreciated. Thanks so much :)

I hope you are having a blessed week so far & continue to have one!

Housewifery appliance review.

I have been hardcore needing a new vacuum for quite a while now. We (I) made the mistake of not reading reviews before I registered for a vacuum, so we ended up with a not so great vacuum. It flat out sucked. I decided enough was enough with the crappy vacuum and headed out to Walmart with my husband's credit card and a $50 spending limit. Prior to my Walmart vacuum shopping trip, a $25 dollar Eureka vacuum cleaner caught my eye due to a wide selection of nice colors. Even though I had a limit of spending fifty dollars, I purchased the twenty-five dollar eureka vacuum and boy I am so glad I did! That little thing works like a BEAST! It vacuumed all the miscellaneous junk right off of our rug and vacuumed all the dirtiness off of our hardwood floor. It has two settings - one for floor and one for carpet. Oh, and did I mention you can transform it to a handheld vacuum in just seconds? Which is super lovely for me because having a dog means his hair gets all over everything. It's super lightweight and easy to move around. The Eureka vacuum gets a ten from me!

Here is what the vacuum looks like - I got one in light blue! They have lots of colors to choose from!

Weekend Review

I absolutely love how Oak & Oats does her weekend reviews, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Snapshots:

1. This is the little girl that I used to nanny regularly. Girlfriend is serious about her Chinese fried rice.

2. I love when Ryland sleeps like this - tongue sticking out & his teeth showing. It's so cute!
3. I meant to post this when I went to go see it, but never got around to it - J & I went to go see Frozen a couple weeks ago and it was by far one of the best Disney movies I have seen. If you haven't seen it yet, go do yourself a favor & go see it!!

4. Jose, the little boy I sponsor through Food for the Hungry, sent me a letter recently! It is the absolute sweetest! He told me about his cow named Anaconda & how he likes to take care of her. So sweet :)

Other Favorites:
-Having an extra day to visit with my family
-Buying a new vacuum
-Thrift store run with my mom & sister
-Late nights with my family

-Buying Sims 3 to play with my sister

Good finds:

An adoption story that made the tears run down my face

How marijuana saved a three year old little boy from cancer

5 hurtful phrases to remove from your marriage vocabulary

An adorable hooded sweater I'm gonna have to beg my husband to buy me

Happy MLK Day, friends! I hope it's a great one & you find yourself in the midst of lots of love & laughter!

The Circle: Coffee Shop Date

I love a good coffee shop. I love the hole-in-wall type coffee shops where all the musicians and writers go to find peace at. Being from Nashville, home of Music City, we have coffee shops on every corner. I need to make it a mission to visit them all. There are one or two coffee shops where I am currently living, about an hour and a half from Nashville. I'm thinking I need to take a trip to them soon :) I'm joining The Circle for their coffee shop date so here it goes.

1. Where are you seated (near the counter, near the window, near the door, against the wall, etc.)? I like to look at things that are going on around me outside. I tend to gravitate towards the window in any place, so the coffee shop is no exception. I like to look out the window at birds flying, squirrels chasing each other, people going about their daily lives.

2. What are you sipping/munching on? It highly depends on the season and the weather outside. During fall and Christmastime, I am most definitely sipping on something that's peppermint, pumpkin, gingerbread, apple, or any of the fall and Christmastime flavors. After Christmas, I usually go for anything I'm in the mood for - hot, cold, it doesn't matter. Summer is when I like to try different flavor teas. You can find me munching on cookies, cake pops, anything they offer.

3. What do you want to get off your chest first (can be as deep as you want)? I'd want to talk about how I'm battling anxiety, how I'm trying my hardest to give it all to God and trust Him. I'd want to share with you my dreams of adopting two or three kids and having two or three kids of my own, traveling the world and going on adventures with my family, and my dream of living off the land complete with a bountiful garden, chickens, cows, and anything else that makes a good farm.

4. If you could choose anyone (besides us of course) who would you have a coffee with? Jennifer Lawrence. Sister is awesome.

 
5. What is inspiring you lately? Looking at home magazines such as Better Homes & Gardens, Family Circle, and Southern Living. Also, beautiful tumblr blogs that post such captivating photos. As well as this blog. I always find great inspiration there from traveling to date ideas for J and I.

6. What are your plans after coffee? Go home, put on sweats and a tshirt, and spend the evening watching Netflix with J and Ry cuddled up with blankets with the sun peaking through our big window in the living room.

WFMW: eMeals.

I walked into marriage knowing not how to cook hardly a thing. I could make spaghetti and warm up a hot pocket. That was about it. After four months or so of struggling of what and how to cook, I decided I was going to take on meal planning. eMeals has seriously helped this newly married college girl cook for her and her husband. You can choose from thirteen different meal plan options ranging from gluten free to classic to natural & organic. We are currently using classic, but we've used low carb as well. You can change your meal plan option once a month which I love. I don't like to keep some things routine, so being able to change my options once a month is fantastic. It only does plan for dinners though, but you can add lunch meal plans for an extra 4 dollars a month. Not having a meal plan for lunch didn't really affect us though because we both just graze on foods all day till dinner. If you sign up for 12 months, it comes out to only 5 dollars a month which is even affordable for us as college students. Click here to go sign up for eMeals! I highly recommend it.

Refinement.

My heart just gets too full, too heavy sometimes. I don't know what to do with it all. How does one go through life being sensitive, so delicate? I read a quote that said the hardest years are between eighteen and twenty-eight - that it's time to be an adult, yet you're just not ready. I feel like that's me right now. Married for almost 7 months, went to college for a semester yet just not getting my feel of it all yet. But I know that this is just a season in my life of it being overwhelming at times. This is my season of being refined, broken down to be built up anew again. God holds me in His hands.

I'll trust in You, Lord.

Get it, girl.

Everyone has been choosing words to live out for 2014. I was interested in doing that for myself as well, but no certain word really pulled at my heart strings, but last night I read a about Megan's word (or phrase) for 2014 and I LOVED it.

So here is my phrase for 2014. I can't wait to see how it plays out for me this year :)

New Goals for the New Year

Well, I finally got my 2014 goals written down. My husband isn't too crazy about New Year's goals as I have come to discover, but that is ay-okay :) I shared in my last post my two 2014 bible verses: "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ." -Colossians 3:23-24 and  "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." - 1st Corinthians 10:31. 

Five New Year's Goals for the New Year:

1. Read the bible at dinner every night with Josh - we started this tonight and, ohmyword, how it did a wonder for my weary soul. I found a chronological bible reading plan for a year and we read Genesis 1-3 in The Voice translation. It was beautiful. Josh also got the entire Lego version of the whole bible today and we read from that as well. It was fantastic.

2. Limit sodas, sugars, and junk food - really, I need to make no diet sodas my goal, but I know I'll want to splurge on one every once in a blue moon. I want to totally rid my body of sugars and nasty junk food. It does me no good to consume that.

3. Simplify and organize - I've come to realize that I will be a lot less stressed when my home and life is simplified and organized. So this is a BIG one I'm going to really work at. Thank you Pinterest in advance for helping me out with this!

4. Read atleast one book a month - I big fat heart LOVE to read... but I have a problem with finishing an entire book. So my goal is to read and finish atleast one book per month. Right now I am reading Glimpses of Grace by Gloria Furman and it is oh so good. Go pick you up a copy. The next book on the list is A Little Salty to Cut the Sweet by Sophie Hudson. I've been wanting to read this one for a while now and the reviews are really good.

5. Do more activities with Josh [plan them out, be intentional] -I'm just going to say it. I suck at dating my husband. I've come to realize that I need to plan out activities and dates for us or else they will just fall through.

And while I'm at it, here are some rad finds for the first three days of the New Year:

-It came a big ole' snow pouring last night. It was glorious. The first snow at our new home!

-Josh and I went to TJMaxx today, and Josh saw this dog toy. He seriously fell in love with it and pretty much begged to buy it for Ryland. We got it for only 25 bucks and it's 56 dollars on Amazon! Sweeet!

-Sexy "Christianity". I know it was posted a while ago, but just go read it. Some people have said bad things about the blog post, but it personally did me good to read it and convicted me a little. Stalking God is the response to it.

-Oh my heart. Just go read this story. Lord, use me like you have used this family all for Your glory.

Have a great and blessed weekend!

Shine bright, 2014, shine bright.

2013 has came and went. I welcomed it in at a New Year's Eve concert in Alabama with family and friends, and it went out with me laying in my sister's bed at my parent's house sleeping and being awoken to the New Year with a kiss from my husband. It was peaceful and calm, just what I needed. Lately, I have been such a frazzled mess with moving right at Christmastime (which I strongly advise not to do) and just being so overwhelmed at Christmas. It did my heart good, though, as strange as it sounds. I had to rely on God to get me through. Although my heart is still frazzled and I'm prone to worry, I know God is right there beside me cheering me along to make it through.

Today, I plan on getting a few minor things done before Josh and I head back to our home tomorrow morning. It's always bittersweet to leave the familiarity of our families, even when we only live an hour and a half away from them and visit them every weekend as much as possible.

I found a goal setting worksheet for couples that I am hoping Josh and I can get accomplished today. I wasn't really planning on sitting down and doing a goal worksheet together, but The Dating Diva's shared a January LOVE calendar and the activity for January 1st was to come up with your New Year's Marriage Resolution's together so I thought the little worksheet was perfect.

If all goes as planned, I'll try to update tomorrow with our goals and resolutions we came up with for 2014! In the mean time, here are my TWO 2014 bible verses that I want to really live out and focus on this year:

"Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ." -Colossians 3:23-24

"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." - 1st Corinthians 10:31

Happy New Year!