Memory Verses 1 & 2

Well...it's been a LONG time since my last post. I'm truly committed to making this blog thing happen. I'm starting with some memory verse cards. I'm going to follow Beth Moore's idea of learning a new scripture passage every 2 weeks. Ok, I know I'm a little behind but I'm catching up.

My first verse has to be my 2013 verse of the year...Isaiah 29:14, "Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder." That's my verse and it represents my 2013 word...WONDERSTRUCK. I want to live this year in awe and wonder of my God, my Creator...the Lover of my soul. And I want to pass along that wonder to my family, friends, and others that God brings into my path along the way. Thank you God for this Wonderful word!

My next verse idea came from a dear friend Angela. I love her blogging and sharing of herself and her family. This verse just really resonated with me so I decided to make it my 2nd memory verse. "For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him." Philippians 2:13.

Are you choosing a word to represent your year? What about memorizing scripture? Let me know and we can encourage each other along the way!

Declaration Day

I AM A WRITER!

It's that simple...i am a writer. I like to tell myself that I'm not good enough or that my words don't matter. But I'm claiming a new statement for my life, for my time, for my words. A RENEWED statement...

I am a writer! (not just period but exclamation mark)

I'm embarking on this 15 day journey which may take a little longer because of our trip to CA (here I go already making excuses...hhhmmm). Jeff Goins is a blogger that I've been following for a while now because another blogger that I follow recommended him. I can't remember who or why they did but they did. He issued a challenge several weeks ago that I promptly ignored, well, deleted actually. He's a good blogger because I kept getting email updates about this class he was offering. So finally after being hounded into submission, I decided to give it a go and see how I felt after 15 days. After all, it's 15 days...not a lifetime of writing.

So my assignment for Day 1 was to declare to my world...the world...that

I  AM A WRITER!

Sincerely,

Becki, author

31 Things - First 5 Days/Things

Since being home full-time one of the first things I realized was that I'd neglected my creative side for a long time. I looked around  to see what my friends were doing and discovered and started following several blogs. Ali Edwards is one of those blogs that I like to follow. She offers classes periodically . I'm already signed up for her One Little Word class which helps me to dig deeper into my 2012 word (RENEW). Ali is offering a new class called 31 Things. Each day I get a prompt and then a break down of this prompt in the form of questions to help me flush out how this word plays out in my daily life. I write down my thoughts and then take a picture to help conceptualize that word in my every day surroundings. I'm having so much fun with this project and keeping up with it...that's a miracle! Here's a picture of all the pages I've done so far:

First day was about Jewelry and I titled mine 2 Rings. Fancy Watch. Fisherman's Bracelet and 1 Sapphire Stud Earring.

Morning and Read were the prompts for Days 2 and 3. I enjoyed writing about my morning routine which is so different now that I'm home. I love to read so it was interesting to think about all the different things that I read and how I read them.

Days 4 and 5 got a little more complicated. We were asked to think about the word spirit for Day 4. I decided to include this scripture "For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth." John 4:24 (NLT) I liked to write about the ways that God's Spirit is evident in my daily life. I also used a download image from my friend Angela Moore's blog. Day 5 was conversation. Haha...I love to talk so this one was so much fun. I decided to take a who, what, when, where type of approach:

• Who: Maddie, Debbie, Chelsea, Emily, Greg, Nathaniel, Momma...GOD
• What: Conversation, communication, connection, guidance
• When: Any Time...I love to hear from people and about them all the time
• Where: Just about anywhere is good for a conversation: kitchen, laundry room, car, bathtub, store, even in the movies but don’t tell the kids...they hate when I text there
• How: In person, phone, texting, email, facebook, twitter...PRAYING 
• Why: For connection, for information, for help in tough situations, to vent, to laugh, to learn, to grow and be challenged, to love more and deeper.

I plan to share on my blog a bit of each of the days and the prompts that I am writing about. My hope is that through these 31 days I'll catch the blogging bug and make that a part of my new normal life...

Fill in the Blank Friday

I have a friend whose blog I love to follow. She started doing something called Fill in the Blank Friday and I really have enjoyed gaining some insight into who she is by reading these Friday posts. I want to be a more consistent blogger and believe this might really help me in this endeavor. So starting today, May 18, 2012, I'm blogging on Fridays and filling in the blanks. Here's Angela's blog if you want to follow her as well.

1.  Something that is very near and dear to my heart is reading and growing. Some days I get so absorbed in what I'm reading that I loose complete track of time. I love to read things that cause me to think and question what I understand to be true. I love to read inspiring stories or just plain old novels. I've recently started reading more material related to health and fitness and enjoy finding new exercise routines or healthy meals to prepare for my family.

2.   Today is good cause to celebrate because it's Friday and that means the weekend is finally here! And this weekend is going to be relaxing...no company, no parties, no races. Now, I love all those things but sometimes it's nice to just chill during your weekend.

3.  The most fun I ever had was really? I don't like this fill in the blank. I have fun in so many different ways that I can't really pinpoint a "most fun I ever had". I've been having fun lately thinking, planning, shopping and helping Chelsea get ready for her wedding. What a beautiful time in her life and I get to enjoy it with her!

4.  True friends are not just the ones that "like" you on Facebook. True friends are the ones that you can call in the middle of the night because you are sad and need to talk. True friends are the ones that will listen while you vent but then give you good sound advice.

5. Something that makes me terribly happy is watching my family grow and discover new things. I love this season because we are all in such different but fun new areas of growth. From the top down we are changing before our very eyes!

6. A good way to spend a sunny day is on my back patio listening to the waterfall from the pool while drinking some sweet homemade sangria. Oh man, I really need to get some of that going soon!

7.  My favorite celebratory food is a thick juicy steak with a loaded baked potato. I also love a slice of bakery style layered cake like you get at a wedding or fancy party. We had a wonderful cake at Chelsea and Chris' engagement party last weekend...dang I wish I had stashed a piece away for just this moment.

Why I Love Shakeology and My Favorite Recipes

I've never, NEVER, been a shake drinker unless they are from Dairy Queen and loaded with lots of sugar! So when I started looking into Shakeology I was definitely skeptical. However, everywhere I looked people were posting about how much they loved these shakes. So I gave it a try. Over a month later, I can't stop drinking them! In fact, some days I really wish I could just drink my shakes all day long. Other days I stand in front of the blender wondering...no debating...no arguing with myself about what recipe I will make that day lamenting that I only get 1 shake a day so it needs to be the best one.

Wondering why I think Shakeology is the best health shake I've every tried? Watch this video to learn more about the benefits...Nutrition Simplified. And then I got curious about these "super food" ingredients. Where did they come from? What here to learn about the amazing process and how drinking Shakeology is actually benefiting farmers in 3rd world countries...Where do the Shakeology ingredients come from?

I've found that each of us likes our shakes a little different so my advice is to first think about what texture you like your shakes to have. I like mine just icy enough to be think but I don't want to use a spoon to eat it. Because of this I always use a blender as opposed to a shaker cup. For me about 11/2 to 2 cups of liquid every time and plenty of ice or frozen fruit makes the best shake texture. You'll need to experiment to see what you like. My shakes are a real meal for me so I need it to have about 350-400 calories. I also LOVE peanut butter so most of my recipes have some sort of "butter"...almond, peanut...and my most recent find is pb2 or powdered peanut butter. I love this powder and it only has 45 calories for 2T!

Here are a few of my favorite recipes:

Go Nuts! (245 calories)
Ice
1 scoop Chocolate Shakeology
1TBSP dry sugar free fat free pistachio pudding mix
1 TBSP plain PB
1 cup Almond Milk
1 cup water

Chocolate Oatmeal Cookie (350 calories)

Ice
1 scoop Chocolate Shakeology
1 package lower sugar maple & brown sugar oatmeal
½ cup almond milk
1 ½ cups water

Chocolate Covered Strawberries (240 calories)
Ice
1 scoop Chocolate Shakeology
1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1 cup water
¾ cup sliced strawberries (fresh or frozen)

Mocha Frap (240 calories)
Ice
1 scoop Chocolate Shakeology
1 cup cold coffee
1 cup vanilla almond milk

Greenberry Sunrise Surprise (345 calories)
Ice
1 scoop Greenberry Shakeology
¾ cup Almond Milk
¾ cup OJ ( I like lower calorie variety)
1 TBSP PB
1 tsp Honey
1 cup mango chunks

Tropical Dream (380 calories)
Ice
1 scoop Tropical Strawberry Shakeology
1T peanut butter (I used pwdr version)
1T sugar free fat free white chocolate pudding (or cheesecake)
1/2 banana
1/4 cup nonfat vanilla greek yogurt (I used the entire small serving container)
1 1/2 cups liquid (I use a combo of water and almond milk

Oh those darn sheets!

Several weeks ago I posted some pictures on facebook of my neatly folded sheets commenting that after 20+ years I'd finally learned how to fold them. I promised then to write a blog post about how I've come to acquire this great skill. Well here it is finally...My momma brought me some extra sheets and I immediately noticed how wonderfully they were folded. She told me that our sweet J.J., the lady that helps my mom around the house, had folded them. I promptly unfolded them very carefully to see just how this miracle happened. Here's what I discovered:

So first I fold the fitted sheets like this, tucking each corner into the other corner. I find that laying the sheet out flat really helps. Fold it in so that you have a shape that looks similar to this:

Next fold one side up about a third in keeping it neat and straight.

Fold up the remaining 1/3 so you have a nice rectangle of sheets like this...

Now I fold it up by thirds and set it aside.

Next you need to fold the flat sheets in a similar fashion as the fitted ones. I've always found these to be soooo much easier to fold. What about you? I like to make a long rectangle and then fold it up almost all the way. I leave just enough room so slide the pillowcases in that left-over space.

See how nicely they fit in that space you provided.

Now for the fun part...just put those fitted sheets right on top of the pillow cases. They should be just slightly bigger than the cases but that's ok.

Fold up the flat sheets around the cases and fitted sheets:

Voila...there you have it...nice and neat and ready for the linen closet! Thanks J.J. for inadvertently teaching me how to fold sheets.

Thoughts about Lent

Wow...it's been quite a long time since I've written a post and lots has been going on in my life since then. I've been thinking about a post that would address some of those changes but this afternoon I'm more interested in sharing some of my thoughts about Lent.

Growing up I don't remember observing Lent at least not regularly. My parents may have given up things for those 40 days but I really don't remember much about it. Then in my young adult years I vaguely remember choosing things to give up that are fairly typical like chocolate, sweets in general, swearing, voicing negative thoughts/comments, fasting for one day a week. Most of these years I was simply following someone else's behavior and really didn't observe Lent the way I think God might have wanted me to. Truly, there was not a change in my behavior long term...no lasting impact. Did I feel closer to God for those 40 days? Probably, but the good accomplished didn't translate into my ongoing life after Lent was over.

So now it's 2012...I'm committed to not doing things these days that don't have long term value for me or my family. So do we observe Lent this year? And if so, what will that look like? I don't want to give up chocolate just for the sake of giving up something. I've been reading a lot about Lent to help me make a better decision. I joined a reading plan on Youversion specifically for Lent that includes a devotional which has been so helpful in this process. I'm also reading Reliving the Passion by Walter Wangerin Jr. which is a retelling of the Passion story over the 40 days of Lent. This book is challenging me to really think about the familiar story of Christ's life, death and resurrection with new eyes. Finally, I'm reading Chris Seay's newest book, A Place at the Table, which challenges me to commit to a self-examination and renewed focus on Jesus.

So what? How will I be different this year? Do I feel God asking me to give up something for Lent in 2012? If so, what? These are the questions I've been struggling with for several weeks now.

Last week God helped me to realize exactly what He wants me to focus on during this season of Lent. I'm giving up tv watching  during the day. Now I know for most of you daytime tv watching is probably not a big deal. However, God revealed to me that I've been allowing that to consume my free time during the day...in fact, it might just be a real problem. I often can't stand it when I know there's something really good waiting for me in my dvr or queued up on Hulu. It's not enough to just not watch tv though...what am I going to put in the place of tv watching? See that's what I've learned these last few weeks. It's not enough to just give up something or not do something. I need to replace that action with another action. For me this looks like studying God's Word more regularly, reading books that have been on my shelf for a long time, working on some craft projects that I've let sit for far to long and recommitting to writing in my blog.

Today is the first day of my official observance of Lent. The tv has not been turned on...not one time today. The house has been so peaceful and quiet. I'm finally picking back up this blog. And best of all...those shows that recorded last night will still be there when I'm ready to watch them!