Happy Easter!

This year I came across some lovely ways to use eggs for Easter celebration and have to share them with you! I am so excited to hopefully try out a couple of these this year if I have time. At the end of this post I will also share a wonderful article on fun ways to  keep Jesus the main part of Easter!

My favorite — Adorable Easter egg cupcakes! via  Cupcake Project

DIY Speckled Eggs! via Southern Living

Oh, and I can not resist some awesome neon Easter eggs! via Oh Joy!

Leaf-print Easter eggs, too! via Apartment Therapy

Loved the idea of dying eggs using muffin tins — especially if you only want partial dying! via Parent Hacks

And last but not least, I thought I would share a fun link that I found on Pinterest — Ten fun ways to keep Easter about Jesus. Which is obviously the most important one! I pray that you all have a fun and blessed Easter celebration. My favorite part this year has been teaching our Sunday school class about the meaning of Good Friday and Easter. I love hearing them understand that Christ did such a scary and painful thing because He loves us and in the end, He rose again because He is our Deliverer and is victorious! Thankful to be a part of that part of their lives.

Happy Easter!

Share/Save

Hi Friends! I have an invitation for you all to join me on Pinterest!

I have created 2 new boards which are specifically for the purpose of sharing the pins that WE have actually tried out. One board is for recipes and another is for projects. I would like to invite you to these to boards as contributors and hope we can end up with a great collection of tried and true (or terrible) recipes and projects.

The idea is to re-pin any of the pins that you have tried and include a review of sorts or even tips in the comments to help the next person out. I think that this will be especially helpful with recipes. For example:

So who is with me?!

If you are interested either send me a message on Facebook or leave a comment here with your email address so that I can add you as a contributor.

Hope you will join me — there are no expectations or commitments — just re-pin when you feel like sharing! Happy Pinning!

Share/Save

Hi Friends! I am alive and well…just been obsessed with reading the Hunger Games trilogy for the last week or so! And in the process becoming utterly excited for the movie coming out this Friday! Have you jumped on the bandwagon yet?!

If not, I highly recommend you get out and purchase them right now! Don’t just buy the first book thinking you may not want to continue on… it wont happen! You will want to keep reading even after the third book has completed the story. These books are so well written that you get drawn in instantly. You fall for characters immediately and end up in love and broken-hearted through the entire journey.

Here is a brief snippet of what the trilogy is about — I prefer not to explain it myself for fear of giving too much away with my passion guiding my words. So this is from IMDb.com

Set in a future where the Capitol selects a boy and girl from the twelve districts to fight to the death on live television, Katniss Everdeen volunteers to take her younger sister’s place for the latest match.

Yep, that is all you get! Because it is THAT good and there is no way I am ruining your reading pleasure by giving you anymore. I promise that you will thank me! As a matter of fact I am surprised you are still reading this post when you should be out getting the books! (hehe, I told you…obsessed!) If you read it for the first time, please do return and let me know your thoughts. I hope they are as exciting and touching has they have been for me.

I’m off to read the first book again. Happy reading!

Share/Save

Garrett & I off of the Santa Barbara Coast 1.2.2012; so blessed.

Just about 6 months ago, I was in excruciating pain with 4 compressed disks and pinched nerves. Today, I am still struggling to heal and keep the pain away, while still attempting to live life normally. For the past 5 years our life has been jam-packed; weekend to weekend we had parties, events, church, ministry, gatherings, chores, etc. etc. etc. And now, we plan NOTHING. Every day is different for me. Some weeks are amazing and I am able to get so much done and then the next week I am bed-ridden trying to bear the pain. So here I am, taking it one day at a time…

I thought now would be a great time to list out the blessings that have been revealed and even more amplified in my life during this time:

1. My amazing husband has stepped up in helping keep the house clean and take care of me when Im in pain. He loves me when I am defeated and encourages me when I am questioning if I will ever get better. All this while working pretty much two jobs.
2. My family who lifts me up in prayer and encourages me. Especially my mom who has helped deep clean my apartment and made it feel more like home again — priceless.
3. A workplace that while stressful is very flexible. If I need to come in late and make up hours, they are totally understanding.
4. My relationship with God has grown; I desperately need Him for strength and the reminder that He never gives me more than I can handle. He knows what is good for me and what the end result will be.
5. Control; I have had to give up complete control over my life to God and be humble in asking for help and allowing people to be a part of my life. I am a planner and I love helping others, but now I realize that I was never letting others help or bless me.
6. Sleep is huge! Some nights I just plain can not sleep due to lack of comfort or just enough pain to keep me awake. Every morning that I wake up from a full night’s rest I am praising God and feeling so great!
7. A more positive outlook; the last couple of years in my life I have been around a few people that are just plain negative and that can wear you down and even influence how you view life as well. I feel like I had gotten more negative and now I can say that God has shown me that I can be up even when I’m down. He has taught me to find blessing and greatfulness in even the smallest of things, holding on to those blessings throughout my day!
8. A praise-filled life! This sort of goes along with #7 but I can not stress more how much more praise I can give to God now that I have so little else to offer. God is the only One who gives me the strength and ability to offer anything of myself and now I see that all I can do is only because of Him. He is so praise-worthy.
9. Opportunity; God has placed ministry & learning opportunities in mine and G’s lives that have turned out to be a huge blessing to us during this time. Teaching Sunday school and actually learning more and loving God more because of it. Also studying the Word with our community has given us time to be in the Word together and grow closer together through that.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8

Thanks for letting me share. Thanks for those who have and continue to pray for and encourage me/us. Please let me know how I can help you and encourage you in turn.

Right now I am simply praying for direction on what may be next for me in this journey. What else can I do? I love and trust my doctors but still wonder if maybe this is more serious than they may think (I have only seen a chiropractor (2) and not a doctor) and possibly may be other solutions out there for me. I am already spending the money, so I want to know I am doing everything I can! After some reasearch, I am going to go get some Vitamin D supplements tomorrow and see if that will help. One day at a time…

Have a blessed day!

Share/Save

Earlier this week, I ran across this awesome Free font at Font River called Damask Dings 1. A bunch of awesome damask style images which can be made as large or small as you need to add a special touch to your projects. Highly recommend this font! Get it free while you can, you never know when it will go away. {Sample Images below}

Damask Dings 1

Now if you are wanting to try out a new Banana Bread recipe, I have a great option for you! I know that we all have the one recipe that we run to when we want some banana bread , but change is good, right?! This Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread is a fresh new spin on the regular recipe. It is not necessarily a unique recipe but it is absolutely delicious and beyond bread in my opinion. Definitely one to keep on hand. Here’s a quick shot of my finished product for your viewing pleasure.

And if you were wondering if this recipe involves sugar… as you can see below… yes. it. does. ENJOY!

Share/Save