Caleb and I have a very sweet, very lovable, very energetic dog named Cooper. Cooper is so high-strung that one of our friends gave him the nickname "Shenanigans", because he always seems to be getting into trouble. One of the ways Cooper likes to get into trouble is by running. There's not a lot that can stop him. He has lived in three different houses (with us, of course) and has found was to escape from all three of them. The current house we live in makes it too easy for Cooper to escape. Our backyard is on a little bit of a slope and the fence in the back corner is subsequently easily jumped over. The way we deal with this is by taking him out on a leash. 

   The other morning, I was getting ready to take our herd of wild dogs outside while trying to coax my lollygagging two year old to come down the hallway and join me in taking the dogs outside. I was so wrapped up in trying to make sure that O was walking down the hall towards me instead of getting into trouble, that I put a leash on a dog without paying much attention to what I was doing. 
 
   Once O finally joined us at the back door, I let the dogs out. Cooper took off like a shot and I quickly realized that I had put the leash on the wrong dog. Cooper finds ways to escape fairly regularly, so we have gotten pretty good at retrieving him. However, most of the time when this happens, Caleb is home and he can go get the dog while I watch O. This time, I was home alone with O. I was still in my pajamas and O was just in a diaper. 

   I knew we had to get ready as quick as possible if we wanted to be able to get Cooper so I quickly dressed O and myself in the first outfits I could find. I grabbed Cooper's leash and a piece of bread to lure him to me when I found him and we headed out the door. 

   In the garage before opening the door, I said a quick prayer. I simply said "God help me get Cooper." I was worried about how chasing Cooper was going to work with O. I'd never had to do it before. I couldn't leave her in the car to get out and get the dog and I was pretty sure that he wouldn't run up and jump in my car, so if we were going to get him back, we were going to need some help. 

   When the garage door opened, I saw Cooper in our neighbor's yard. I called to him and showed him the bread I had brought him. He ran right up to me and I was able to clip the leash on him without ever having to get in the car. I am so grateful for how smoothly it all transpired. I didn't expect to see Cooper out my front door since he escaped from the back. I certainly didn't expect him to run right up to me, despite having bread, and I most definitely did not expect him to not try and evade my grasp once I reached out for his collar. I know that there's no way I could have made that recovery on my own and I thank God for bringing my Cooper home to me safe and sound yet again. 

Last year, I mentioned my "Fourteen Days of Caleb". However, I don't think I ended up blogging about all that I did for "Fourteen Days of Caleb" or even remember what I did, for that matter. I do remember that I had one idea that Caleb loved that I wanted to share, but never got around to it. Since Valentine's Day is quickly approaching, I thought I would share it with you now. 

Last year, I decided I would make Caleb some Scratch Off tickets. I picked three things that I thought Caleb might like (time to play an online game undisturbed, a movie or tv show of his choosing, and a back rub). I then found clip art that I thought represented the prize it stood for well, and placed them inside a grid I had made of little hearts. 


When I had printed them off, I covered them with packing tape (I would have preferred to use contact paper, but I was out). I then mixed together some white school glue and some silver acrylic paint and painted it over top of the hearts. I had to do several layers to make it so that you couldn't see what was underneath.  At the bottom, I told him that if he only got one of a kind, his prize was nothing. Two of a kind meant he got a small prize pertaining to the picture (e.g. he would get to pick a TV show, have a 10 minute back rub, 30 minutes uninterrupted game time). However, if he hit the Jackpot and got three of a kind, he would get a large prize pertaining to the picture (e.g. he would get to pick a movie, have a 20 minute back rub, or an hour of uninterrupted game time.) 

 I think I ended up making him six tickets in all and I think he even got a Jackpot on one of them! He seemed to really like this idea, and it was a good way for me to spoil him, even past Valentine's Day.

This post is way overdue. 

In fact, seeing as how it's about New Year's resolutions, I'd say it's about 5 weeks overdue. I thought about just skipping it or possibly even saving it for next year, but for some reason it just keeps nagging at the back of my mind, waiting to come out.

I love New Year's resolutions. Which is kind of ironic, seeing as how I'm not the biggest fan of New Year's Eve celebrations. I have nothing against them, per se, just prefer to be at home in my pajamas at midnight rather than out all dressed up somewhere. Now, if my friends wanted to come to my house and have a low key "Ring in the New Year in our Pajamas while Eating Cookie Dough and Popcorn and Watching Cheesy Movies Party"....that's the kind of celebration I could get on board with. 

Anyway, back to the resolutions. I LOVE them. In my head, I know that a change can be made in a person's life at anytime. It doesn't have to be at the beginning of the year, but I love the whole symbolism of leaving behind the past year, of having a fresh start. I love the feeling of hope and of newness. (I also have these feelings to a lesser degree at the beginning of each month and surprisingly, Mondays.) So as January 1st gets closer each year, I start to take inventory of the past year. I look at what worked and what didn't. I look at who I am and who I'd like to be. I look at the things I've accomplished and the things I haven't. Then, I look forward to the coming year. Which parts of me do I want following me into the new year? Which parts definitely need to go? Which parts of me are mostly good, but need some tweaking?

As I was pondering all these things and trying to come up with some good resolutions, I was having some luck, but overall, I had so many areas I wanted to work on that all my resolutions felt cumbersome. (I want to start eating better, I want to be a better housewife, I want to lose weight etc.) I knew that if I tried to focus on all these things, especially at once, I would get discouraged and, most likely, give up. 

I had put my resolutions on the back burner for awhile when I got an email from a radio station about resolutions. It suggested that rather than go through the process of making all these resolutions that you might not be able to keep, why not consider a one word resolution that can then more or less become your mantra for the coming year, and you can use it to measure all the aspects of your life against. (Here is a link to the article:  http://www.klove.com/news/2014/12/30/for-the-new-year-consider-just-one-word.aspx) The more I thought about that, the more I loved that idea, but had trouble coming up with one word that encompassed all the things I wanted to accomplish this year. I mean, what do going to church more often, eating better and being a better housewife all have to do with each other? 

New Year's Eve rolled around and Hubby & I spent a quiet evening at home after Gooby was asleep. We had done some grocery shopping that day, so we spent some time putting away groceries, reorganizing the pantry and the freezer, and other grocery day activities. When we were done with that, Hubby sat at the table working on some things and I cleaned more in the kitchen. The time ticked away and I realized that that's what i was going to be doing at midnight- cleaning. That's when it hit me. My resolution. My one word. Clean. Everything I want to do this year, it all comes back to clean. I wanted to be better about eating healthier and being more aware of where my food was coming from and what was in it. Clean eating. I wanted to be a better housewife, better at keeping up with laundry and dishes, with vacuuming and dusting. I wanted less clutter in our house. I wanted our home to be clean. I wanted to be better about going to church, I wanted my relationship with my Savior to improve, I wanted to rid my life of things I knew that were keeping from where I should be. I wanted a clean heart. 

I will admit, that it's not always easy keeping up with that. I'm in the middle of a class and sometimes it's hard to want to put forth the extra effort to put a wholesome dinner on the table or to make it to church when we didn't sleep well the night before. And I'm not gonna lie, that nasty cold that seems to be going around hit our house hard the past two weeks and my house is in complete disarray. Yet, I look around me and while it would be easy to be discouraged, I can't help but see hope. So many times my life is like my front living room. I am SO good about keeping it picked up. Then something happens and it's a mess. The mess can be embarrassing and discouraging, but in the end, all that I have to do is throw away the trash, put the toys back where they belong and vacuum and it's good as new again. It's clean. 

And that's the great thing, about our lives. We don't have to stay entrenched in our filth forever. We can get rid of those things in our lives that are keeping us from being clean, that are holding us back. And, as my mom would say, it's a whole lot easier keeping something clean than it is trying to start from scratch every time. 

I'm looking forward to being completely over this cold so I can re-embrace my New Year's resolution with abandon. I'm ready to be clean.

Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart. -Pslam 24:3-4 (Inspired Version) 

I'm not entirely sure where it came from, but all afternoon I had a craving for some homemade tomato soup. Every time I have attempted to make homemade tomato soup in the past, it has not turned out well and I'm not completely sure why, so I'm not sure what possessed me to try my hand at it again tonight. That being said, I'm so glad that I did, because I ended up with a delicious soup that Caleb gave two thumbs up. 

I did cheat a little bit, because even though it's tomato season, I had absolutely no desire to blanch and peel fresh tomatoes to make my soup, so I just used canned tomatoes I had on hand. 

I also made little crostini for garnishes. So. Good. 

Tomato-Basil Soup

Ingredients:

-about 1/2 T. olive oil
-1 small yellow onion
-1 heaping teaspoon minced garlic
-2 C. chicken stock
-2 14.5 oz. cans diced tomatoes (undrained)
-1 T. sugar
-the leaves of 3 small-medium sprigs of fresh basil
  (approx. 1 1/2 T. fresh basil)
-dash of cayenne pepper
-salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onions and garlic and cook until the onions are soft and translucent.  Add the chicken stock, canned tomatoes and sugar. Heat to a simmer. Add fresh basil, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper. Lower the heat to low and allow to simmer 15-20 minutes. After 15-20 minutes, check the flavor of your soup. Make adjustments as needed. If you add any more spices, allow to simmer an additional 5-10 minutes to infuse the flavors. If you make no changes, turn off the heat and allow to cool just briefly. When the soup has cooled a bit, blend with an immersion blender. If you don't have an immersion blender, allow to cool even more and then blend in batches in a regular blender. Serve warm. 


Crostini

Ingredients:
-slices of bread (such as Italian bread or a baguette. I used a whole wheat baguette I made)
-olive oil
-garlic salt
-mozzarella cheese

Heat up a small or medium pan. Place slices of bread on a cookie sheet and drizzle both sides with olive oil. Place slices of bread in the pan, do this in batches if you are wanting to make more crostini than will fit in your pan. Cook for 3-5 minutes on the first side, until the crostini are golden brown and crispy. Flip them over and cook the other side. Sprinkle with a little garlic salt and top with a pinch of mozzarella cheese. Cover your pan with a lid, if you have one, and continue to cook another 3-5 minutes, until the second side is browned and crispy and the cheese is melted.

I hope you guys enjoy these recipes, let me know how you like them!  

       It never ceases to amaze me when God does something to show just how much he cares about me and the things going on in my life-- even the small things. 

       Two weeks ago I was super stressed out. I was struggling with our budget, feeling like I was doing everything I could to be cutting corners and trimming waste (especially for our grocery budget) and yet still feeling like it wasn't enough. I was struggling with an online class I was taking, trying to find time for the countless chapters I had to read and homework assignments I had to do. I was struggling with having a super needy, super fussy teething baby who wouldn't let me get anything done around the house. 

       During this time I had been spending a lot of time in prayer, asking God to help me take better care of the things that we own and to help me be a better steward over the money that we have as well. I really wanted to do better. 

       When my husband's payday rolled around, it was like the perfect storm of stress. I had spent the better portion of the week before trying to figure out how people make and follow grocery budgets, what good prices for things were, how to price match, and looking for coupons. When I wasn't doing that or trying to attempt my reading and homework, I was taking care of a baby who was very clingy and so, so fussy. I knew that grocery shopping with her like that wasn't going to be any fun, but I also knew that it needed to be done.

       We went to the first store and got some baby food and while I was there I decided that I really needed to pick up some shoes for the baby. She can't walk very well yet, but she likes to get down and stand up by herself and kind of walk around her daddy's or my legs while we're out and I don't really like her to have her bare feet on public floors.  It wasn't something I had budgeted for, but it was something that she needed. So, we picked out a couple pairs and we checked out. When we got to the car, I put one pair of her new shoes on, and we headed to the next store. 

       Our next stop was our big stop. I had things I had to get from just about every section in the store and I knew I was running out of time to shop before the baby got fussy and needed to nurse or take a nap. I was hurriedly going up and down the aisles, trying to find everything we needed while at the same time trying to remember what was a good price and what wasn't. I was stressing over the ground beef and trying to decide if the good price per pound was worth having to buy the family size pack rather than spending more per pound and only getting a single pound. After awhile I decided I needed to walk away because I was getting too worked up over it, so I decided to go over and check out hot dog prices for a get-together we were having soon.  Close to the hot dogs, there was a cereal display set up. I accidentally put the cart too close to it and the next thing I know, the baby had knocked cereal boxes everywhere. I was scrambling to pick them up and I could just feel my stress rising. One of the workers came over and helped me pick up the boxes, while I apologized profusely. After all the boxes were back in their place, I decided I needed to go look at some other items in the store, items that I knew for sure which sizes and brands I needed to get, items that should require little thinking and induce little stress. As we were walking over to the cereal aisle, I look down and notice that one of the baby's brand new shoes is gone. I frantically look in the cart and in the aisle we just came down and nothing. It's gone. 

       I could feel the tears stinging my eyes. The last thing I wanted was to be that crazy person that had a meltdown in the middle of the store, so I steered our cart toward the side aisle we had come down, thinking I would see if I could see it on my way to customer service to give them my name and number in case anyone had turned it in. I made it to customer service without finding it. so I left my name, number and a description of the shoe with them. After I did that, I called my husband because I was feeling just really awful and I wanted to ask him to pray about the shoe. Talking to him later, he told me he could only understand about every fifth word I said, because by this point I was starting to lose it. After about five more minutes of searching I still hadn't found it and my baby was starting to get fussy. I thought about leaving with the stuff I had, but decided instead to nurse her and then finish my shopping. I walked back to the family restroom and as soon as I shut the door, I lost it. I was sobbing.

       As I sat there in the restroom, I poured my heart out to God. I said, "God, I know they're just shoes and they weren't that expensive, but I've really been trying to be a better steward over the things that you've given  us lately, and I really can't afford to just go buy her another pair. Can you please help me find that shoe?" 

       I waited until I was done crying to leave the restroom. The baby and I then continued to retrace our steps as well as pick up any other items we needed. I was just about ready to give up and leave when I really felt like I needed to go back over and check by the meats, even though this was the first place I looked. Sure enough, when I got back over to the meat section, someone had found her shoe and placed it on a display by one of the freezers. I immediately breathed a sigh of relief and said a little thank you prayer. Feeling a little worn out from all the emotional ups and downs of the past hour, I decided what we had in our cart was sufficient and went to check out. 

       In the car on the way home, I had turned on the local Christian radio station to help the baby sleep. I had kinda tuned it out and was lost in my thoughts. My thoughts eventually made their way to the events of that day and how God cared enough about me to help me find a tiny, inexpensive shoe because it mattered to me.  At that moment, I tuned back in to what was playing on the radio, just in time to hear a line from a song that said "not for a moment did You forsake me." It was such a perfect sentiment for my experience that morning and I was so overwhelmed with how much our Father loves us, how special we are to Him, that He can see even the tiniest problems in our lives and reach out and help us if we ask. 

At a daycare where I used to work, we used to serve grilled cheese for lunch every couple of months. We used mozzarella cheese and served it with marinara sauce for dipping. It was pretty good and easy and quick to make. I'm all about good food that's quick and easy, so I took the idea and made it my own. Here is what you will need:

2 Slices of Bread, per sandwich (I use regular whole wheat sandwich bread)
1 1/2-2 Slices Mozzarella, depending on how cheesy you like your sandwich
Butter, for the outside of the bread
Garlic Salt, to taste
Marinara Sauce for Dipping.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, Fahrenheit. Toast your bread (this helps give them a little bit more crunch). Immediately butter your toast and sprinkle with garlic salt. On a baking sheet lined with either parchment paper or aluminum foil, place one slice of bread butter side down (if you're making more than one sandwich, place half of your slices of bread butter side down on the baking sheet), place cheese slices on top of your bread and top with your remaining slice of bread with the butter side up. Place your baking sheet in the oven and let cook until the cheese has melted and the bread starts to brown a little bit, somewhere between 5-10 minutes usually. Take the sandwich(es) out of the oven. I like to cut my sandwiches into four pieces with a pizza cutter. Serve warm with marinara sauce for dipping. Enjoy! 

     Some time during the week before the Super Bowl, Caleb told me about a conversation that he had with one of his coworkers. 
     Every year, this coworker and his family play Super Bowl bingo to keep his wife and daughters entertained during the game. Knowing that I am not the biggest fan of football, Caleb suggested that we do the same thing, and that there be prizes for the winner(s). 
     So I created four bingo cards, two for each of us, and made a list of about 47 football and commercial related things that we could put on the cards. Caleb was tasked with coming up with prizes. In retrospect, perhaps it should have been the other way around, since in the end most of the squares ended up being commercial related rather than football related, but hey, isn't that really what the Super Bowl is all about? :) 
     I had a lot of fun playing Super Bowl bingo. It made the game go by very quickly and Caleb and I always love playing games. In the end, Caleb had the first bingo so he won the first place prize (choosing a game to play together) and I had the second and third place prizes (choosing a restaurant to eat at, and choosing a movie to watch) and I can't wait to cash in my prizes! 

     For Valentine's day this year, I decided to do "Fourteen days of Caleb". Basically, it's fourteen days of little gifts, special notes in his laptop bag, and all of his favorite delicious dinners. 
     Knowing that the Super Bowl was coming up, I kicked things off with a gift certificate for a "Super Bowl Snuggle". 

     I'm not a huge fan of watching football. It's alright, but definitely not one of my favorite things to do. However, I know that Caleb really likes to watch football, so I figured watching football with him would be a way that I could show him I loved him without having to spend much money or getting him a gift. 
     The actual certificate entitles him to watching the Super Bowl (with me, of course) and to his choice of any of the listed snacks or any other snacks that he wanted. Caleb thought this was awesome and says that this is his favorite part of "Fourteen Days of Caleb"  (even though we are only four days in).  I'm glad "Fourteen Days of Caleb" is off to such a great start! 

     For as long as I can remember, every Sunday night my family had "Snack Night".  Sometimes, it would be something like bean dip and tortilla chips.  More frequently though, it would be air-popped popcorn, apples and crackers with cheese. 
     As an adult, I have carried on this tradition within my own family. There's not much that I enjoy more than curling up on a Sunday night with a big bowl of air-popped popcorn, especially on a windy, chilly night like tonight. 
     A couple of weeks ago when I was in the store, I picked up a couple of popcorn toppings. Tonight felt like a good night to try them out. Our air popper met with an unfortunate incident several months ago, so I had to pop it on the stove. I had never popped it this was before and actually really enjoyed doing so. 
     After the popcorn was all popped, I divided it up into five bowls. I topped two with the commercial popcorn toppings I had purchased (bacon cheddar and chocolate carmel), two with toppings I had made myself (parmesan garlic and cinnamon sugar) and I topped the final one with our go to salt and butter, just in case we didn't dig any of the flavors we were trying. I'm not sure why I was worried-- Hubby will eat just about anything! 
     It turned out that we enjoyed all the flavors we tried. My husband, in particular, loved the two toppings I created, so I thought I would share them with you. 

                                 PARMESAN-GARLIC POPCORN TOPPING
                                         1/4 C. Grated Parmesan Cheese
                                                           1 T. Garlic Salt
                                      Combine both ingredients in a bowl. 
                                                   Sprinkle onto popcorn.

                                             CINNAMON SUGAR TOPPING 
                                                    3:1 Sugar to Cinnamon 
                                                 (3 T. Sugar  1 T. Cinnamon)
                                                       Combine in a bowl. 
                                                    Sprinkle onto popcorn. 
                                                       (Or toast. Or cereal.)
     
     There you have it. Easy-peasy and SUPER delicious. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. I am definitely looking forward to inventing and trying many more flavors. 

    There is so much pressure put on us, as women, to be perfect. It's everywhere we look. The invention and spread of social media has been a wonderful tool in communicating to friends and family near and far, but it has also become one of the biggest weapons women use against themselves and against other women. We see the blogs of the Super Mom, the Pinterest boards of the Craft Queen and we expect ourselves to measure up to these extraordinarily high standards that have been set.

  Four and a half weeks ago, I gave birth to the most beautiful, wonderful little girl and the pressure to be perfect quadrupled. Everybody has an opinion about the right way to raise a baby and they are all very passionate about what they believe is the best thing for a baby. Being a new mom is vastly overwhelming, especially since you've been told that the only way a baby should EVER sleep is on their back in a bassinet or crib, but the ONLY way your baby will ACTUALLY sleep is when she's curled up on you. You begin to beat yourself up because not only can't you get your baby to sleep correctly, but you're finding it's impossible to keep up with the Super Moms that find the time (and energy) to cook and clean and do the laundry with a newborn.

    Saturday I decided that we had been away from church for way too long and that the following day, we would be at church. I picked out my outfit and the outfit for our little Bean the night before and laid it all out so it would be one less thing that took up time in the morning, because one thing I've learned these past four weeks: it is IMPOSSIBLE to get anywhere on time with a newborn, and I desperately wanted to make it to church the next day. Sunday morning came, and I actually woke up on time. Everything was going smoothly until it came time to get dressed. I had picked out a skirt and shirt combination that I thought would be conducive to nursing, should Bean get hungry during the service. Unfortunately, when I went to put it on I just didn't feel comfortable in wearing it to church, leaving jeans as my only other clothing option. Now, I would just like to say, there is absolutely nothing wrong with wearing jeans to church, however, I had been raised that when Sunday came around, you got dressed up and put on your Sunday best, which in my house did not include jeans. So, I struggled. Was it better to go to church in my jeans than to not show up at all? Eventually I decided that God would just be happy that I was in church and that even though it may not have been what I wanted, that day jeans were my best and it was all I could give.

    Once I finally got over my internal struggle about my clothing, it was time to dress the Bean. I had picked out a darling newborn sized dress that I was so excited for her to wear. I put it on and it didn't fit. I couldn't even get the buttons on the back to close! I was so distraught, because newborn onesies and pajamas still fit great, so I couldn't believe that this dress didn't fit. In the end, she ended up wearing a dress that was definitely a little to big, but again, I figured it was better that we were in church in jeans and clothes that were too big than not at all.

    Needless to say, the stress of the morning got to me and more than once I snapped at my poor husband, who was just trying to help. I was just so frustrated feeling like nothing was going right, or going the way I had planned it. So, as hubby finished getting ready, I went out to the car and fed the Bean. In the quiet of the car, I began to pray, asking God for a "reset" and apologizing for being so cranky. As I was sitting there, I remember thinking "This is so not how today was supposed to go. I just wanted everything to be..." and I paused, trying to figure out what it was that I had wanted everything to be. At that moment, it was like God filled in the blank and said "Perfect?" and it hit me. I had been trying to make everything in my life perfect. I had been avoiding going to church, cause I didn't have the right clothes, or because I was uncomfortable with breastfeeding in public, or because I didn't want to be late or disrupt people by coming in late or having a fussy baby... and in that moment, I was chastised and reminded that God doesn't want us to wait until we're perfect to come to Him. He wants us to come to Him, mess and all, and to give it all to Him.  In this world that pushes perfection, it is such a relief to know that right now, this second, I am enough for my God. Yes, He does call me to be perfect, but He knows it's a gradual process and He certainly doesn't expect me to do it alone.