my blessed life

Well, this probably won't be a true review, but I'm trying to talk about the books that I read as I cross them off my Spring Reading List. This past week Vince and I finished up Prince Caspian , by C.S. Lewis. We did it *old school* style: I read it aloud to us. I've been a fan of The Chronicles of Narnia since 4th grade when my teacher started reading them aloud to us. I could've listened for absolutely hours! My husband didn't have that great experience though and only became familiar with them when the first movie came out. It's been a while since I've read them myself and I wanted to refresh my memory before the next movie comes out. So I thought it might be fun to read them aloud so he could experience them, too. He loved it! I would read us a chapter (sometimes two) each night in bed. So now we're all ready for the movie--and we'll know what they've left out or embellished! And Vince enjoyed the experience so much he wanted to read another...

While on our trip this past weekend, I did lots of reading. It was so nice! On the way I finished up My Cousin Rachel by Daphen Du Maurier. It was a very good read and kept me interested until the very end. It was not a truly dark story (as the author can be known for since several of her works have been made into Hitchcock films), but rather had an underlying sense of impending doom even though all seemed right. It's that underlying sense of doom building and building that I love! I would definitely recommend this as a good read if you like classic stories set in the English countryside. Here's what the cover of the book says in summary: A young Englishman, Philip Ashley, becomes obsessed with Rachel, the mysterious widow of his older cousin Ambrose, even though he suspects she may have murdered her husband. When cousin Rachel Coryn Ashley, half-English and half-Italian, arrives at the house Philip has inheirited, he is prepared to hate her. Instead, he falls irrationally and...

OK, since you twisted my arm, I'll show you what I did with all those treasures I scooped up! First, here are the shelves along with the bronze pot which I stuffed some pretty green "plants" in. I don't know why it looks like my wall is bowed out--it's really a flat wall! I promise:) Here's a close-up--I just love how they turned out! Here are the bird prints. I had first thought of a different place for them, but decided that I really loved them with my *welcome* sign. This is one of the little "plants" I potted. The container once held a poured candle. I thought it was too pretty to toss after the candle burned down, so I've been hanging onto it. I love the way it looks! And, lastly, this is one more small "plant" in yet another saved pot from a long-ago arrangement. I think I got it sometime around the time of my daughter's birth (5 years ago!). I guess I'm a sort of pack rat :) It's fun adding new decor to the house e...

You may have read where I mentioned some fun shopping last weekend in Arkansas. I didn't have a lot of time to shop, but I was able to squeeze in a few places and find a few treasures. My first stop was to a wonderful shop called Coming Home. It's owned by a mother/daughter team who are very talented with home decor and antiques. I actually worked there with them for five years--until my first child was born. I loved it: all of the wonderful *pretties* to work with, doing displays, helping customers (at least the nice ones-ha!). Of course, all the *girls* that I worked with made it so much fun! So....I always have to pop in when I'm in town to say "hi" and check out all of the awesome stuff! This time I found: 1. These really cool black leather wall "L" shelves in the clearance room. They were just what I needed for a certain spot in our family room. Wait till you see how they turned out! (just ignore the mess in the background--I was more excited ab...

According to Wikipedia , April 22nd marks the anniversary of the beginning of the modern environmental movement. I don't know how long it's been celebrated, although I've heard of it before I really always forget about it. However, lately I'm thinking more about taking responsibility for how I treat the environment--and setting an example for my family. Some things I'm doing are: recycling all my plastic shopping bags recycling plastic storage bags (like Ziplocs) changing all light bulbs to the compact fluorescent ones buying more organic foods switching to *green* cleaners My next thing is to start taking my own bags to the store with me. I was getting ready to invest in some of those canvas bags that you can get at Hobby Lobby or Wal-Mart for 3/$5.85--then I found this awesome project. Being involved in student ministry insures that I have more t-shirts that I could ever possibly wear, so I'm making them into resuable shopping bags! Well, to be honest, I'...

Well, we got home late last night--which is why I haven't posted all day! I've been dealing with the usual *trip aftermath* all day. That's the worst part of a trip, in my opinion; having to un pack the suitcases and deal with all of the laundry. But that's one of the (many) perks of staying at my parents' house--my mom sends us all home with suitcases full of clean clothes! She's such a June Cleaver! I love her! It really was a great weekend. We were in need of refreshing and I feel like our little getaway did just the trick!....Plus there was some good shopping involved (more on that later!) We visited my grandma in her new digs. Since I saw her last (at Thanksgiving) the family has moved her into an assisted-living facility. She has Alzheimer's and is slowly going away from us in her mind. She was having a good day though and was so glad to see us, especially the kiddos. The kiddos with their Great-Grandma On Saturday we decided to take the kids the Nat...

Happy Thursday! I am ( getting ready to be ) busy packing our bags for a few days' trip this weekend. Our 11th wedding anniversary is this weekend and we wanted a little getaway out-of-town. After considering all of our options we decided to pack the kiddos and head to Arkansas to visit my family. That way we all get to have some fun: visiting with family, a couple of days in our old hometown, plus free childcare for our *date night* and free lodging:) Can't beat that! We're all looking forward to it very much. The Princess has been counting the days--literally! So, I'm off to get our clothes together and ( most importantly ) the road trip activities and snacks for the kiddos. I got them some lap trays yesterday, so they have them all packed with fun stuff for the car. Of course, I'll have access to a computer there, so hopefully I'll get a chance to post while I'm gone. If not, then I'll be back in a few days. Meanwhile, have a GREAT weekend!! The kiddo...

Take one pot, some floral foam, some hot glue, a silk plant and some moss. ~Cut the foam to size ~Hot glue it down ~Stick the plant into the foam ~Arrange the moss around the base of plant Voila! One pretty plant for a bathroom corner!

I hope that you're having a great weekend! Mine has been good. Friday night my hubby was out-of-town on a college ministry trip to Nashville. I had originally planned to go with the kiddos, but at the last minute decided that it wouldn't be wise. So instead I tucked the kiddos into bed at their usual early hour and got busy cleaning out some files and cleaning my desk (MAJOR paper clutter). I worked on it most of the evening, but it felt sooooo good to have it all finished. Here are a couple of pics that I took: my desk *before* my desk *after* (sorry this picture is dark, but notice how all the paper piles are gone!!) Then I treated myself to these little goodies (although I cheated and used the refrigerated, break-apart kind): wouldn't you like one? go ahead, take one! Then Saturday came. Vince got home early in the day and we decided to go to the park for some fun with the Princess and Mr. B. There's this great local park that not only has a playground, a waterfall,...

Yes, it's late, very late, but I can sleep well tonight knowing that our tax return has been filed and our refund is on it's way. Hallellujah!! So here's my six word memoir: THRILLED TO HAVE MY TAXES FINISHED! I was tagged by Betsy at My Five Men to play. Rules:1. Write your own six-word memoir. 2. Post it on your blog (include a visual illustration if you’d like). 3. Link to the person who tagged you in your post. 4. Tag five more blogs with links. 5. Leave comment on the tagged blogs with invitation to play. I’m tagging these five bloggers: Kari at logorrhea Nancy at Chocolate Ink Donna at Chantico Song at The Corner of Song & Lee Jamie at Purposeful Pursuit

This month completes our first year in this house. It's my favorite house of the three that we've owned. The couple who lived here before us were here for almost 40 years! They took such great care of the house and the yard--they apparently worked in the yard all the time according to the neighbors. In the previous houses we've owned we've had to do EVERYTHING to the yard. Here we've pretty much done nothing, except maintenance. They planted zoysia grass in the front AND the back, dogwood trees, Japanese maples, large oaks and maples (and a couple of trees that I don't know their names), hostas, azaleas, a fig tree, blueberry bushes, a snowball bush, a holly tree, roses (climbing and miniature), creeping flox, hydrangeas, crepe myrtles....the list goes on but I don't know the names of all the others. Please don't think I'm bragging since we didn't do anything except buy the house. It's all such a blessing! I'm trying to learn how to care ...

Today has been ...a day. It had it's ups and then it had it's downs. The ups included getting some of my house really cleaned and almost getting caught up on laundry. More ups were hanging out with the girls in the high school small group that I lead. We spent the first half of our time together picking up trash on a road that our student ministry has *adopted*. That was cool, and they were so glad to do it! Then we came back to my house and made our own pizzas. I just bought refrigerated dough and then let the girls top it with their fave toppings. They loved it! They are really great girls and I enjoy spending time with them a lot! Then came the down...Vince had taken the kiddos to Chuck E. Cheese while I was doing the small group thing. While they were throwing back some pizza and winning at skiball his truck was broken into in the parking lot. *They* broke out his passenger side window and stole his laptop (which was hidden underneath some clothes, but not well enough appar...

Well, it's been a couple of weeks since I've made a week's worth of menus. All the company followed by the flu, kind of threw off my groove. I really missed having a plan, too! Not to mention that we'd eaten practically everything in the house during those couple of weeks. So this weekend I sat down and wrote out a fresh week of menus and went grocery shopping. It was a good day! Before I get to this week's menu plans though, I've got to share a yummy recipe with you that I made us for dinner Saturday night. If any of you have ever been to Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO, you may have had this. They whip it up in those larger-than-life iron skillets. It's pretty amazing! One day a while back I got to craving it and tried to find the recipe online. I didn't find the actual recipe, but I did find the cookbook that has it--so I ordered it, of course. It's called Taste of the Midwest (by Midwest Living). It's a really fun cookbook! The editor of t...

Here in the past week or so, I've updated my *blogs I enjoy* on my sidebar. I just thought I'd highlight them in case you haven't had the chance to visit these fun blogs yet. Chantico: another friend in real life, she has a fun lighthearted blog that makes you wish you were standing in front of Tiffany's eating a doughnut (of course, I always think of Holly Golightly when I think of Tiffany's!). Kicking it in Crazyville : a fun new blog I discovered during the blog party hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom. This blog is by two friends who live on different continents. ' My Five Men : a beautiful blog by Betsy. I love her thoughts and the photography she uses on her blog. Paris Daily Photo : I've enjoyed this blog for a long time now. Vince and I honeymooned in Paris and I love looking at the beautiful photos and dreaming of a second honeymoon there. The House in Marrakesh: a lovely blog about living in Morroco. I've been fascinated with going to Morroco since ...

What with having her birthday on Easter, all the visiting relatives, and then the immediately following flu, the Princess didn't have a chance to celebrate with her friends. And, believe me, she just didn't feel like her birthday was complete without having *the girlfriends* over! So yesterday afternoon we invited several of her friends over for some fun. And fun it was: cupcakes, ice cream, gifts, and much princess play (ie: dress up!). blowing out *5* candles gettin' sugared-up! a Cinderella play set: Prince included! She had a great time, Mr. B enjoyed terrorizing all the girls (I can still hear the screams!) and I was totally ready for a nap after so much celebrating! Thank the Lord that we're feeling so much better and beginning to get our energy back. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On another note: I just have to share how good God is! Lately my husband and I (along with our whole church) are going through a very stressful and discouraging situat...