nature shirt

I won a giveaway on Made for a shirt from Little Lark.  I was so excited to get a shirt for Hudson.  Of course I had to get the wolf shirt for him.  Got to start him young with his love for nature shirts.

quiet

He will take great delight in you,

he will quiet you with his love,

he will rejoice over you with singing
-Zephaniah 3:17

I have learned what it means to quiet with love.  4 teeth in 6 weeks has taught me what it means to quiet with love.  I have held a screaming baby close to my chest and whispered sweet words of comfort.  I have kissed the top of a head full of pain.  I have gently patted a rigid back.  I have softly sung words to calm hurting cries.  I have kissed cheeks wet with tears.  My eyes have been full of tears as screams ring out from a little boy who doesn't understand.  My heart has been desperate to take away the pain from this baby.  I have longed to take his place.  I have quieted with love.

This verse has always been a loud verse.  And it is.  It is a verse of joy and protection.  It is a verse of praise for a God who loves and redeems.  But it is also a verse of quiet.  It is a verse that speaks of a Father who would give anything to take my place.  A Father who wipes away tears.  A Father who sings loudly but also a Father who sings softly.  A Father, who wishes like my mama heart, that growing came without pain.

And so I am thankful that he rejoices and sings over me.  But it is the quieting that I am most in need of.  When I am overwhelmed, tired, angry....I need him to quiet me.  When I am hurting and broken....I need him to quiet me.  Abba Father, quiet me.

skirt

Made myself a skirt. I used a mock turtle neck on clearance from target for the brown and some fabric I had leftover for the floral print. I didn't follow a pattern, I just used a skirt that I own and patterned it after that. I think my favorite part is the waistband. I used the sleaves and turned it into a yoga style waistband. It's super comfy. There will be more skirt making in my future for sure.

It's ok if your clothes match your sewing machine cover, right?

which came first...

organic whole chickens from whole foods

wonderful husband breaking them down

farm fresh eggs from Peyton

chickens

Just finished reading the book Made From Scratch by Jenna Woginrich.  It was one of those books that popped up on Amazon when I was searching for another book and the library had it.  She's a blogger who moved to Oregon (I think) and rents a farm and tries to live a little bit off the grid.  The book is divided into chapters of different things you can do to be self-sustaining.  The chapter on chickens made me want to get chickens for our backyard someday.  Sadie would probably end up eating them so I think I'll settle for getting farm fresh eggs.
The chapter on bee keeping did not make me want to get bees.  She didn't really sell me on that one.  It was a pretty good read and quick too.  I kept it in the car for when Hudson would fall asleep and I would be stuck in the car for a little while.
I do think it's funny how all these bloggers are getting book deals now.  It makes sense because they already have a following of people.  Hmmm, what can I write about that would get me a book deal.... :)

revitalizing

I'm not a devotional girl.  Especially marriage devotionals.  We've tried them in the past and we usually give up because they seem cheesy or they don't apply.  We decided to try to go through Love and War Devotional for Couples by John and Stasi Eldredge this year to see if it was any good.
I have loved it so far.  I knew we were too busy with a baby to try and read the book but reading 2-3 pages before bed seemed manageable.  There are still cheesy parts, like the written prayers, but written prayers are just kind of cheesy sometimes.  The book has made us talk about things we don't normally talk about.  At the end of each week there is a challenge for you as a couple and those have been great.  I actually wish there were more of those throughout the book.
Perhaps the best part of the book so far was the week on "Your spouse is not your enemy."  Reading through that week has made both of us more quick to apologize and made me realize that when I'm getting frustrated or angry at Mike, it usually isn't actually something he's doing but me listening to lies Satan is whispering. 
We still have a few more weeks to read, but I'm excited to see where this book takes our marriage.  I think this will be one of those books we come back to every few years.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review

happy half birthday to me

Since I am half way through the year, I thought it would be a good idea to see how I'm doing on my goals.
1. go on 6 day trips in Colorado-gone on two. Once it get's warmer we'll get out of the house more. Just have to figure out where to go.
2. grow something and cook with it-I'm thinking I'm going to try to grow some herbs when it gets a bit warmer
3. read my bible everyday-this is an epic fail right now. The 20 minute naps my kid takes certainly don't help
4. make cheese-have the kit. waiting until we finish all the Wisconsin Cheese we have.
5. write a childrens book for Hudson-I had an idea at some point but now I have no idea what it was
6. sew something I can wear-I've been sewing lots of baby things. I have the stuff to make a skirt I just need to do it
7. see Dennison Witmer in concert-concert got canceled. hopefully it will get rescheduled.
8. take Hudson to a pro sports game-probably a rockies game this summer
9. sit on the porch swing once a week (Nov-March excluded unless the weather is nice)-doing fine on this goal when it's not winter
10. go 3 months without library fines-I need to pay them off and then remember to return the books.
11. camp with Hudson-probably will go for his birthday
12. finish induction-done and I've got my professional license now!!!
13. get 8 hours of sleep in a row-10/29-I miss those days of 8 hours in a row.
14. make a baby book for Hudson-I write on his calendar every day but haven't started a baby book yet
15. give up tv for a week-maybe sometime over lent?
16. make wine with Mike-lots of beer has been made but no wine yet
17. can something-sometime this summer
18. learn how to make a vanilla latte at home-I need to get on this one to save some money
19. find a budget system that works & stick to it for 6 months-we've switched to the cash envelope system this month. so far I'm loving it.
20. eat local for one week-summer time when we have farmers markets
21. run a 5K-winter is not a good time to decide to become a runner.
22. wear a skirt or dress once a week-I always forget. Maybe I'll start doing this on Sundays.
23. learn how to take pictures-I've certainly taken a lot of pictures and am getting more comfortable with the camera.
24. read the Anne of Green Gables series (hello 6th grade)-haven't started yet
25. read one non-fiction book a month-doing great with this one
26. read two fiction books a month-doing great with this one
27. bake something from scratch once a week-this has been a yummy goal
Looks like I have a lot to do this spring and summer. Bring on the warm weather!!!

finished the series, now what

I finished reading Catching Fire and Mockingjay this week.  They were both really good.  I think the first book in the series was probably my favorite but I did enjoy reading the other two.  I'm excited that they are making the first book into a movie.  I'm curious who they will end up casting as the main characters.  I did think the love triangle was a little bit like Twilight but not too bad.  Now I have to figure out what to read next since these were so good.

books i've been reading

I've been reading a bunch in the last few weeks.  Not because I've had a ton of extra time (super needy teething boy in the house) but because I didn't start reading my book club book until 1 week before and it was over 400 pages.  I didn't get it finished in time for the meeting, but finished that night.
Our book club book was Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.  She is the author of Seabiscuit.  This certainly was not a book I would have normally picked up but I really enjoyed it.  It seemed more like a "boy" book or something my dad would read.  It's about Olympian Louis Zamperini and what happens when his plane is shot down during WWII and his struggles in a Japanese POW camp.  Parts of it were really hard to read but it is such a story of triumph. 

The other book I just finished was Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.  I wasn't sure I would like it and had heard a lot of hype about it, but I couldn't put it down the last two days.  It reminded me a lot of The Giver, which was one of my favorite books from elementary school.  It's just a little bit more twisted.  It is written so well that I was captivated from page one.  I haven't heard the best reviews of the next two books but I'm still going to read them to finish out the series.

February 1

Here's my verse for the first half of February in honor of Valentine's Day coming up. 

A heart at peace gives life to the body.” Proverbs 14:30
NIV

I forgot to post my verse from Jan. 15th.  

The Lord rules over the floodwaters.

The Lord reigns as king forever. 

Psalm 29:10 NLT