Happy Weekend

Today has been one heck of a day. Well, not really, but it's been very busy for me as a homemaker. I got up somewhere around 7:30, and I feel like I just now sat down to give myself a second to catch my breath. I drank my breakfast, read my devo, got ready for the day, baked double chocolate avocado cookies (which were super amazing and melted in my mouth; taking the rest of the batch home to my family tonight - I hope they enjoy them!), made a total messing making southwestern bean rolls up and they totally SUCKED (big, big fail), vacuumed, sat down for about an hour to finish watching Atlantis with my hubby, tidied up the house a bit, and just now I'm sitting down to get some more energy to drive about an hour or so to my parents house when Josh gets home from school.

So, I'll leave you with some things I've been enjoying recently. Check em' out:

+Last week I watched What To Expect When You're Expecting and oh my goodness I laughed out loud almost the entire time! It's got it's fair share of seriousness and laughter. It was so so good.

+I ordered this shirt a few days ago and I can't wait for it to arrive so I can wear it! If you're a Walking Dead fan, check it out. I have been looking for a non-gory Walking Dead shirt and I finally found one.

+Have you seen the Lego movie? We went out to see it for Valentine's Day and I LOVED it. Seriously thought I would hate it, but I can't wait for it to come out on DVD and I really really really want the xbox 360 game to play with J :)

+Psalm 91. I love this Psalm. It comforts me so much.

+22 Books You Should Read Now, Based On Your Childhood Favorites. I cannot wait to check some of these out from the library!

Have a happy weekend! Go do something wonderful!

Coupon Queen

Wow. I really need to get better at this blogging thing. I want to really excel at this whole blogging deal, but I haven't blogged in nearly a month! If you have any tips on how to be a better blogger, please let me know.

Okay, well anyway... Recently, like in the past two weeks, I have taken up the hobby of couponing and let me tell you, I am absolutely 100% hardcore hooked. I had been wanting to start couponing for a while now, but I went to the library almost two weeks ago and picked up a book called How To Shop For Free by Kathy Spencer. It has been such a HUGE help with trying to figure out how this whole coupon game works. If you want to start couponing I encourage you to go pick yourself up a copy of this book. Also, I've dedicated my entire bloglovin food to nothing but coupon blogs that post deals, tips, freebies, etc. The coupon sites are also an enormous amount of help because they post the deals that you can get free or cheap and they already match up the coupons that go along with the deal so all you have to do is locate the coupon from the Sunday newspapers or print out the coupon. It is GREAT.

I went on my first couponing adventure last week and it seriously gave me such a high. I got all this for four dollars and eighty five cents! Amazing, I know! I don't have a picture of my other two couponing trips, but I went to Target two different times this weekend to do some couponing as well. The first trip I got three pasta sauces, four boxes of pasta noodles, a three cans of cat food for like maybe 4 dollars. The second trip to Target I got two bottles of fish oil, three cans of cat food, one 3 pack of kcups, and a bottle of hyrdrogen peroxide for around 6 bucks AND I got back a 5 dollar gift card. I found four dollars in my wallet so I think this weekend I'm going to go back to Target and find a coupon deal where I can get a 5 dollar gift card back and spend under 4 dollars! Making money, baby!

If you are thinking about giving couponing a try I strongly encourage you to pick up the book I mentioned, How To Shop For Free, and dedicate one of your blog feeds to only coupon sites.

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!