Top 100

I have decided to make my way through Guardian's Top 100 Books You Can't Live Without.

You can find the list here.

I had planned to go in order and start with Pride and Prejudice, but the library didn't have it so I skipped to Jane Eyre. I still plan to go somewhat in order, but may have to do a little rearranging from time to time.

I'm not very far in Jane Eyre yet, but am really liking it so far. I haven't really read many of the "classics", so I'm excited to get some of them in my repretoire.

I like this list a lot because there is a good variation of genres as well as some new books and some old.

I do plan to skip The Complete works of Shakespeare (because there are way too many and I don't know what the heck he is talking about half the time....I may take a friend's advice and read Shakespeare for Dummies as a replacement) and the Bible (because I already read it regularly).

Have you read any good books lately? Wanna join me on the journey through "the list"?

A continuation......

Matt posted this as a comment to my post yesterday, but MAN did it do a number on my heart. I just wanted to share:

We tend to think that if Jesus Christ compels us to do something and we are obedient to Him, He will lead us to great success. We should never have the thought that our dreams of success are God’s purpose for us. In fact, His purpose may be exactly the opposite. We have the idea that God is leading us toward a particular end or a desired goal, but He is not. The question of whether or not we arrive at a particular goal is of little importance, and reaching it becomes merely an episode along the way. What we see as only the process of reaching a particular end, God sees as the goal itself.

What is my vision of God’s purpose for me? Whatever it may be, His purpose is for me to depend on Him and on His power now. If I can stay calm, faithful, and unconfused while in the middle of the turmoil of life, the goal of the purpose of God is being accomplished in me. God is not working toward a particular finish— His purpose is the process itself. What He desires for me is that I see "Him walking on the sea" with no shore, no success, nor goal in sight, but simply having the absolute certainty that everything is all right because I see "Him walking on the sea" ( Mark 6:49 ). It is the process, not the outcome, that is glorifying to God.

God’s training is for now, not later. His purpose is for this very minute, not for sometime in the future. We have nothing to do with what will follow our obedience, and we are wrong to concern ourselves with it. What people call preparation, God sees as the goal itself.

God’s purpose is to enable me to see that He can walk on the storms of my life right now. If we have a further goal in mind, we are not paying enough attention to the present time. However, if we realize that moment-by-moment obedience is the goal, then each moment as it comes is precious.

TODAY'S OC

The desires of our heart

A while back I was talking with a friend about how God promises to give us the desires of our heart. Her desire was to have a baby girl (she was blessed with a boy instead). My desire is to get pregnant (I have been blessed with time to draw closer to God and wait on His perfect timing instead). I think that sometimes we read that verse and automatically think on the desires of our flesh rather than what our heart and soul actually desire. I think what God is promising is that He will satisfy us completely if we just set our hearts on Him.

Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Lovin' Summertime

Painting a puppet



My little kitty


Water park fun


Hangin' out at the zoo


Cheeeeese!

Where have you been all my life?

This morning I drank my first green monster. It seriously rocked my world! I can't believe I didn't try these before. I first came across these on Oprah when a women who was diagnosed with cancer told Dr. Oz she drank one every morning because of the huge health benefits of spinach. Looking at the drink I thought, no way on earth am I drinking something like that!! When I entered the Summer Glow boot camp I realized that the owner of the blog drank them too. I looked at the ingredients and still thought they sounded disgusting! The weird thing was, every thing I read said that you really can't taste the spinach. Yeah right, I thought.

They were right!! You seriously can not taste the spinach in the green monsters and the health benefits to eating spinach every day are out of this world!! I'm officially hooked and plan to have one every morning for breakfast. There are many different ways to make them and really you can put whatever ingredients you'd like, but here's what mine consisted of this morning:

2 handfuls of fresh spinach
1/2 cup fat free milk
1 tbsp peanut butter (for some protein)
1/2 banana

It seriously tasted like a pb banana smoothie.

Try one! I think you'll be pleasantly suprised!! :)

On the road to beautiful.....

So, I have decided that its time to get my mind, body, and spirit healthy again. When we first started trying to get pregnant I really tried hard to get my body healthy again and did pretty well. Then several months passed and I was tired of working towards a healthy body because quite frankly, I was mad that my body wasn't doing what I wanted it to - get pregnant.

I am tired of "not caring" anymore and am ready to feel beautiful inside and out because I'm worth it. :) Pastor Michael recently preached about God calling us into the roles we each have (spouse, parent, student, coworker, etc.) and that He wants us to be the very best we can at each of those roles He has called us to. I feel like in order to better serve others I need to really be working on myself.

I have joined the Summer Glow Boot Camp (SGBC) over at ohsheglows.com and am super excited to get started. Today is Day 1 and I'm off to do my exercises after I publish this post. Not only do I want my body to be healthy, but I want my mind and spirit to be as well. So, I have come up with some habits to work on this month and we'll see how it goes! :)

Mind: I have much peace of mind when things are done around the house and I have a plan set out. I am going to work on making weekly meal plans, doing daily chores - especially doing one load of laundry each day (this is a huge source of anxiety for me), and having tomorrow's activities for daycare planned out and ready to go the night before.

Body: Eating healthier -- I'm not going to count calories this month (which is what I have done in the past and its honestly really stressful to me). I'm just going to eat healthy and in moderation. We just moved into our new house and don't have much food here anyway so I will be buying only healthy food and snacks. Also...I'm going to try to drink a green monster each morning for breakfast (I will post a picture of one tomorrow...they're pretty!!)-- I never eat breakfast, so I know this will help with getting my body going early!! Exercise -- Im going to do the C25K at least 4 days a week along with doing the boot camp exercises. This doesn't sound like a lot, but I haven't been exercising at all so it will be a huge step in the right direction!

Spirit: I am going to work on going through the soapy journal each day - my quiet time has deifnitely been lacking lately, so I'm excited to get back into the Word.

I feel like by working on each of these parts of my life I will definitely be a much better wife and mommy to Justin and Chloe.

So, I'm officially on the road to beautiful....

I'm just sad.

Some days are better than others. Today has just been a sad one for me.

I'm trying to keep my eyes on Jesus, but sometimes I just get lost in the haze of my tears. Not being able to get pregnant is by far the hardest thing I have ever had to deal with/go through.

I know God is refining me.

I'm willing.

I'm trusting.

I'm just sad.