Tagged

Monica tagged me to complete this meme - here goes:

A One-Word Meme (which is really more like a one-phrase meme):

You’re feeling: joyful because my hubby got home safely this morning from Colorado
To your left: vaseline, a box of Kleenex, a bag of peach tea, and my work phone & headset
On your mind: what I need to do to finish setting up my craft room
Last meal included: Kashi "Go Lean Crunch", banana, skim milk, and orange juice
You sometimes find it hard to: relax and go with the flow when my plans get changed
The weather: is glorious...I love the sunshine and wish I had a window in my office
Something you have a collection of: dirty clothes? j/k! I don't really collect stuff, but I guess you could say 20 pumpkin centerpieces from our wedding or silver photo frames
A smell that cheers you up: Mexican food
A smell that can ruin your mood: fresh manure

How long since you last shaved: 3 days
The current state of your hair: in the process of growing it out again, but as far as style it's curly and twisted and pinned up off my neck
The largest item on your desk/workspace (not computer): photo printer
Your skill with chopsticks: I confess that I eat my Asian food with a fork, knife, and spoon, that way my food actually ends up in my mouth and not on the floor
Which section you head for first in a bookstore: usually the travel books or the craft books
Something you’re craving: a tan and a more fit physique
Your general thoughts on the presidential race: I enjoy politics a lot (makes sense seeing how I'm a political wife myself) and I find the whole process interesting, but at the same time scary about the perspective candidates. I agree with Monica in terms of praying for a revival in our nation.
How many times have you been hospitalized this year: none...I've actually never been hospitalized unless you count the time I passed out in the delivery room when I was the labor coach for a friend and they wheeled me to the ER for an hour. Don't worry, though, I was back in time to see that baby be born!

Favorite place to go for a quiet moment: anyplace I can put my feet up and read a good book or hiking at 7 Bridges in Colorado Springs
You’ve always secretly thought you’d be a good: first lady or home-ec teacher
Something that freaks you out a little: bird poop...I really, really dislike it a lot
Something you’ve eaten too much of lately: Twizzlers - I sure wish the vending machine guy would stop loading them in the machine!
You have never: gotten a tatoo
You never want to: jump out of an airplane

Now - I will tag Beth, Heather and Emily.

(P.S. Emily's son, Ayden, is the one who I was the labor coach for...he turned 5 yesterday...hard to believe!)

Back to the Farm I go

Well, everyone besides me is going to be out of town these next four days (and in my home state of Colorado...no fair!) so I get the privileged duty of feeding all the animals again. This time my charges include: 6 Black Angus heifers (yes, that is the proper term for a full-grown, female cow), 2 of whom are still pregnant, 7 calves, 2 cats, and a large Great Pyrenees. This morning hubby gave me the new run-down on how to feed because we have some hungry mommas with all that nursing they're doing.

I just want to share that out of the 4 heifers who've already given birth this year, 3 of them have had twins! This might not sound unusual to most of you, but you see, cows normally only have one baby per delivery and the chances of twins are about 1 in 1000. I see it as a blessing in disguise because we only keep the females for the purpose of having more cows and the rest we sell at market or convert in to...cover your ears if you're a vegetarian...DINNER! So, the fact that we've had 3 sets of twins and only 2 females born so far is a huge blessing because we have double the number of cows we were expecting and a large number are destined to be sold.

In addition to keeping the animals alive, I'm also hoping to accomplish the following while everyone is gone:

1. Finish painting the trim in my craft room (hubby's old room)

2. Refinish the built-in oak dresser in my craft room

3. Laundry

4. Sort through our closets for clothes to give to the clothing drive at church

5. Finish cleaning out my car (inside and out) now that I got it back from the shop..woohoo!

6. Finish moving hubby's clothes from his old room to our new room*

7. Bake some banana bread

8. Grocery shop

9. Workout

10. Beading projects

11. Finish my book I've been trying to read for 4 weeks

Whew...that's a long list, but I've been procrastinating on a lot of it and I need to bite the bullet and get it done.

Now, as for that (*) I placed after number 6. Does anybody have good suggestions on how to covertly get rid of a certain someone's clothes that he doesn't wear? He has a TON of clothes (more than I do!), but only wears about 1/4 of them. He tells me that he wears them all, especially when he works on the farm, but I'm telling you people, some of these clothes he hasn't worn the entire 5-1/2 years I've known him!!! If you have any good suggestions I'd love to hear them.

Hope your weekends are as eventfully as mine's promising to be!

Blackberries, Strawberries & Wine...Oh My!

Let me just say this...YUM!!!

Today was another birthday party at work and because I'm trying to be healthy, I decided to make a fruit based dessert instead of the plain ol' cupcake.

I took a box of angel food cake mix and used that to make 18 cupcakes and 1 9" loaf pan. To go with that, I found this recipe here (I also borrowed their picture because the guys at work ate it too quickly to snap my own):


3 c. fresh blackberries
3 c. fresh sliced strawberries
1 c. dry red wine (I used an Australian Cabernet-Merlot blend)
9 T. sugar (I only used 7)
9 grinds of black pepper

Place the washed berries in a large bowl. Mix together the remaining ingredients and pour on top of the berries. Cover and refrigerate for 20 minutes to meld the flavors together (I let mine soak overnight). Serve the berries on top of the angel food cake with a dollop of whipped cream. Makes 12 generous servings.

I am not a big fan of red wine, and the pepper sounded really wierd to me, but I think I'm going to make all of my berries for shortcakes and pound cakes like this from now on it was that good!

A Blessing in Disguise

Well, yesterday after work I was on my way to the gym to continue in my fitness challenge. I had just turned into the parking lot entrance when all of a sudden, my car died. It just stopped. No warning whatsoever. Thankfully, I was far enough over to the right that cars were still able to get around on the other side of me or I would have really been in a pickle.

I tried restarting it a few times, and it would turn on and start up, but the moment you went to push the gas, it would sputter out and die again. I called hubby even though I knew he wouldn't be able to help because he was in Indianapolis for the day on business. I tried calling the in-laws, but they weren't home, nor did they answer their cell (which is no surprise because they're notorious for carrying their phone, but always having it turned off!).

So, what do I do now? It was really frustrating being so close to my gym, but not being able to go in and workout. I mean, I can't just leave my car parked in the middle of the driveway while I go off on a run! Thus, my best option was to get out, put the car in neutral, and try to push it, high heels and all, in to one of the parking spots on my right. Any normal person would have probably just walked over to the army recruiting office and asked one of the strong men to come help, or walk across the lawn to the mechanic shop next door, but I'm not a normal person. I'm STUBBORN to the core and I wanted to prove to myself that I was capable of pushing my own car in high heels. I was doing pretty good and about half way there when a man pulled in the driveway and finished pushing it in for me.

Until I figured out how I was going to get home (my options were looking like: 1. walk the 10 miles carrying my laptop, purse, and gym bag; 2. wait until the in-laws finally get home or decided to turn on their cell; 3. wait until hubby gets home at midnight to come get me) I decided my time would be better spent going in and getting my workout done. At least that way I could cross one thing of my long list of to-dos for the evening - grocery shop, bake a cake for somebody's birthday at work, work from home for my boss, clean our room before hubs came home, return the movies, etc.

Thankfully, 2 hours later my father-in-law had gotten the message and came to pick me up. He thinks it's a problem with the fuel pump so we left the car there and he and hubby will look at it today.

So, what were the blessings in disguise?

1. My car could have died in the middle of the very busy intersection I just went through instead of in the parking lot of my gym.

2. I had something to do with my time while waiting...got to love working up a sweat!

3. The room didn't get cleaned, but I did get my "homeless car" cleaned out. Hubby calls it that because for the past month (perhaps three months) my four-seater car has only fit a driver because it's served as my own personal PODS until I find room to store it at the in-laws. I was able to narrow a lot of it down to junk that needed to be tossed, and the rest I was able to consolidated in to half of my trunk until I get the car back home.

Yes, the Lord was watching over me. Thank you, God, for the blessings.

These Shoes Are Made For Walking

I was taking inventory of my shoes the other day and realized all I have are high heels (and lots of them), a dirty pair of faux suede clogs, flip flops, and running shoes. None of these would do for walking around NYC in spring time while still looking fashionable and most importantly COMFORTABLE. So, off to Target I went and came home with these:

Never would I have thought I'd buy something that looks so "tacky", but in real life they're actually pretty cute and very comfortable once you break them in for a few days with moleskin on your heels. Now, if only my trousers were hemmed so they wouldn't drag on the ground I'd be all set for my day in the city on Saturday.

Happy Anniversary!

Hubby and I celebrated our 6 month anniversary yesterday. It's hard to believe that it's already been that long...we've had such a great time and are thoroughly enjoying married life. We decided to go to church on Saturday night so that Sunday we could sleep in and recoop even more from the early morning we had on Saturday driving home from LaGuardia. I snuck out early, though, to head to my favorite grocery store to pick up a few items to make him a delicious breakfast.

We had homemade cherry-cheese danishes, scrambled eggs, bacon, and fresh pineapple (thanks to my $1.99/pineapple find at the veggie store on Saturday). Not the most healthy breakfast, but we had planned on just eating that and a healthy dinner mid-afternoon, so I didn't feel quite so bad. I found the recipe for the danishes here, but modified it by cutting the amount of sugar to 1/3 cup in each place it called for it and using reduced fat cream cheese and crescent rolls. The whole meal was delicious!

For dinner we had home "grown" t-bone steaks (got to love being married to a rancher...you never have to buy beef!), roasted veggies (zucchini, onions, mushrooms, sweet red, yellow, and orange peppers) with olive oil and basil and oregano, baked potatoes with sea salt (Mom, yours were better), and my mandarin orange salad. For dessert I was going to make an angel food cake with raspberries, strawberries, blackberries and almonds, but our company brought a chocolate banana creme pie, so we enjoyed that instead...yum! Thankfully the rest of the meal was pretty low-cal and low-fat, so the pie didn't do our diets in too much.

This morning as I was heating up some leftover danishes for hubby, I spilled the beans that the original version of them is 395 calories each! I'm sure the version I made aren't much less than 350 and that my friends is why they are a once or twice a year occurence! I must admit, though, that I had to resist the urge to pack a leftover danish for my mid-morning snack at work and instead feel much better knowing I brought healthy food to work, and I get to begin week 2 of my 24 week fitness challenge today...woohoo!!

He's Home!

Well, hubby made it home safely to LaGuardia on Saturday morning. I only got lost in downtown Manhattan for about 10 minutes so that wasn't too bad. I'm not brave enough yet to drive in NYC traffic during the actual day, 5:30am is stressful enough for me!

I was supposed to do day 6 of cardio for the week, but it never happened. After a very healthy breakfast of Dunkin Donuts on the way home (yeah, I blew my diet for the day, but isn't everybody allowed one cheat day?) hubs and I went back to sleep until 12:30pm. Then I found out that he needed me to notarize a bunch of things this weekend, and my notary stuff was at work. So, I got to make the 40 minute roundtrip trek to to work on a day off...yuck! But, I made up for it with some shopping on the way home.

First, I stopped by this fabulous fabric store to pick up some fabric to cover the bulletin board I'm making for my craft room. When I see all the gorgeous fabric it makes me drool and wish even more so that I knew how to sew. But, for now, I'll settle for being pretty handy with a staple gun!

Next, it was off to the Home Depot to pick up the paint I need to finish the trim and doors in my craft room. I'm also going to repaint some built-in oak varnished drawers the same color. Has anybody had any luck with painting over varnish? I'm trying to avoid having to strip the varnish. From what I read online, most people are saying that you can clean it with an ammonia and water based cleaner (i.e. Windex) because that "strips" the varnish and then sand it and put a coat of primer on and you should be good to go. Hopefully this works.

Finally, I stopped by the produce store to fill up on the veggies and fruits for the week. I love this store because I can walk away with four bags of groceries stuffed to the max for less than $15! Looks like we'll be trying to fill up on veggies and fruits to keep our grocery budget down.

Missing You

Dear Hubby,

I miss you a lot! Please come home safely from Texas and Colorado. I'm even willing to drive all the way to LaGuardia airport to pick you up at 6am tomorrow if you don't make the Philly flight that gets in at 5am. I just want you home my cute little "U.M." (he, he, he...inside family joke!).

Love,

Your Wifey

P.S. I lost a lb over the past few days so you might not recognize me...j/k!

My New Best Friend

It was pure delight when the FedEx man finally arrived at work yesterday. I had been waiting all morning for the delivery and kept checking the tracking number to see if my package had arrived yet. I was shocked at 1:45pm when I learned my package had been delivered and signed for at 1:30pm, but nobody bothered to bring me my new best friend. Didn't they know that I had been patiently (okay, not so much perhaps) waiting and waiting for this all morning!? After finally hunting down my special delivery, it was nothing but pure smiles as I discovered my new best friend:

Now, in all seriousness, my hubby is still my best friend and always will be, but this is my new WORKOUT best friend. You see, on Monday I started this women's fitness challenge and without some music to groove to, the six times a week cardio sessions and thrice weekly strength training sessions are going to become BORING, causing me to quit long before the 24 week program is over.

Well, yesterday I gave it a whirl and let me tell you, this little thing is magic! It made the hour and a half at the gym fly by and I actually can't wait to get to the gym today so I can listen to more of my favorite tunes.

Oh, when I said this "little" thing, I wasn't joking. The whole thing weighs less than 0.3 ounces and is only 1" x 1.5" big with a little clip that attaches to my pants or shirt. But, don't let its size fool you...this thing can hold up to 250 songs. Plus, it comes in one of my favorite colors for clothes...teal! All this for the bargain price of less than $50. We sure have come a long way from the days of walkmans, or carrying big boom boxes on your shoulder for that matter!

Thanks hubs for my new best friend!! Don't worry, though, I'll always love you more. Now you'll just have a more fit wifey!

More Pics from Colorado Trip

Braden LOVED having his picture taken...whenever I pulled out my camera, he'd have to stop and turn and smile or do some other sort of face. I tried to get a photo of him with every family member. Unfortunately, I can't post the one of him with my hubby or the one of hubs and I in bunny ears and easter bonnets because he asked me to not disclose his name or photo on this blog (due to political reasons...less fuel for the fire of those who would like to get him out of politics), but trust me...he makes one cute uncle and will be a great dad someday!

Aunt Brie & Braden (I think I'm his favorite!)

Mommy (aka Chelsea) & Braden

Our little Easter Bunny who had a just eaten squash...can you tell?

Here's my own Easter bunny who I got a kiss from a few years ago:

A Visit to Colorado

My dad's birthday was on March 14th and while it wasn't any special year (i.e. one ending in a zero or five), we decided that it'd still be fun to surprise him. So, I convinced my sister to fly in from Seattle with her 6 month old (I must confess that part of my reason for dreaming up this birthday surprise was so that I'd have a convincing reason to get her to come so I could see my nephew for the 2nd time!), and my hubby and I flew in from the East Coast. Our brother is currently living at home for the year so that worked out great. All I can say is thank goodness my mom works for the airlines so that we can all fly very cheaply and frequently!

My sister, nephew and I arrived in to Denver on Thursday night where Mom picked us up. The next day, Dad's birthday, we had a fun girls day shopping for an Easter dress for my Chelsea and just enjoying Braden time. He's the first grandchild/nephew in the family, so he is spoiled BIG time! Dad was flying in from Nashville that evening to the Colorado Springs airport, so the whole clan decided to meet him at the airport with balloons and a sign to surprise him, and boy was he surprised!!! We had all called him at different times throughout the day so that he wouldn't get suspicious and it worked. I'm sure Brock just loved hanging out with all us crazy girls, but hey wherever our family goes there's sure to be a lot of chatter and laughter to follow.

My hubby wasn't actually able to fly in until Saturday so we waited for him to celebrate Dad's birthday, but we had an awesome steak dinner with excellent baked potatoes and roasted veggies and of course we all had to enjoy Mom's tablescape (she LOVES setting different tablescapes so anybody needing an idea of a gift for her, there you go). Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture because I was preoccupied snapping photos of Braden...oops! Then, to top it all off, we indulged in a delicious peanut butter fudge cake Mom made. The rest of the day was spent watching movies (No Country for Old Men, August Rush, and The Game Plan) and NCAA basketball of course.

The following day was off to Palm Sunday service and then just relaxing until we all headed up to Denver to catch our respective flights Chelsea & Braden back to Seattle around 5pm, hubby down to Nashville for business around 8pm and me back out to the East Coast at midnight. Now, I wasn't too crazy about having to wait in the airport that long, so I was very happy to learn that the Philadelphia flight was oversold. This meant that I'd be spending the whole next day in the Denver Airport...say it with me now...yuck! So why was I happy? Well, it meant I'd get to fly to Nashville with hubs and spend the night in a comfy bed instead of on an airport floor and the day lounging around a nice hotel and then return to Philly (via Denver of course...got to love Frontier's hub being Denver) the next night with him. One more day off work...woohoo!

It was a wonderful weekend and here are the photos to prove it:

Birthday Boy (aka Dad/Grandpa/Hubby) & Braden

Grandma & Braden

Uncle Brock & Braden

Another Birthday Cake

We had another birthday at work this month and because March is the month of St. Patty's Day, I decided to make the cake I saw on the cover of the Betty Crocker magazine in my grocery store's checkout line. Here is the recipe and some photos of my cake.

GRASSHOPPER FUDGE CAKE (makes 15 servings)
1 box Betty Crocker SuperMoist white cake mix
1 1/4 cups water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons mint (not peppermint) extract
3 egg whites
12 drops green food color
2 jars (16 oz each) hot fudge topping (I only used 1 jar)
1 container (8 oz) frozen whipped toping, thawed (I used the "lite" version)
5 drops yellow food color
Andes crème de menthe chocolate candies, unwrapped and cut into pieces

1. Heat oven to 350°F for shiny metal or glass pan (or 325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Spray bottom only of 13x9-inch pan with baking spray with flour.

2. Make cake mix as directed on box, using water, oil, 1 1/2 teaspoon of the mint extract and the egg whites. Reserve 1 cup batter. Stir 3 drops of the green food color into reserved batter; set aside. Pour remaining batter into pan.

3. Drop green batter by generous tablespoonfuls randomly in 12 to 14 mounds onto batter in pan. Cut through batters with metal spatula or knife in S-shaped curves in on continuous motion. Turn pan 1/4 turn; repeat cutting for swirled design.

4. Bake 28 to 33 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Run knife around side of pan to loose cake. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

5. Carefully spread fudge topping evenly over cake. In medium bowl, stir whipped topping, remaining 1/2 teaspoon extract, remaining 9 drops green food color and the yellow food color until blended. Spread whipped topping mixture evenly over fudge. Garnish with candy pieces.
Store covered in refrigerator.

Personally, I wasn't that crazy about the cake because I'm not that big of a mint fan, but the guys at work seemed to enjoy it. I don't think I'd make it again, though.

Journey With Christ

So I know it's a little late in "Holy Week" to be posting a Scripture reading schedule for the week, but that's been the story of my life these past few days. (More to come on that in another post.)

We were out in Colorado this past weekend and my parent's church had this insert in their bulletin. Unfortunately, I just found it again yesterday as I was unpacking, so I have quite a few days to catch up on, but thought I'd share it with you all too:

The final week of Christ's life leading up to His crucifixion and resurrection has been known as "Holy Week" throughout the liturgical history of the church. This week provides a powerful opportunity for each of us to retrace Christ's steps that week...and journey with Him...and reflect on who He is and what He did...and worship.

Sunday: THE TRIUMPHAL ENTRY
Mark 11:1-9 (Matthew 21:1-9, Luke 19:28-44, John 12:12-19)

Monday: JESUS CLEANSES THE TEMPLE
Mark 11:12-19 (Matthew 21:12-17, Luke 19:45-48)

Tuesday: CHRIST'S TEACHING
Mark 11:20-13:37

Wednesday: JESUS IS ANOINTED AT BETHANY
Mark 14:1-11 (Matthew 26:6-16)

Thursday: THE UPPER ROOM SUPPER, BETRAYAL AND ARREST
Mark 14:12-72 (Matthew 27:1-61, Luke 22:66-23:56, John 18:28-42)

Friday: THE CRUCIFIXION
Mark 15:1-47 (Matthew 27:1-61, Luke 22:66-23:56, John 18:28-42)

Saturday: SECURING THE TOMB
Matthew 27:62-66 (Hebrews 10:11-25, I Corinthians 15:1-4, Romans 5:8-11)

Sunday: THE RESURRECTION!
Mark 16:1-11 (Matthew 28:1-8, Luke 24:1-10, John 20:1-31)

Beads Please

My craft interests seem to jump from here to there and back again over the course of time. I love scrapbooking, making cards, designing save the date cards, invitations, and favors, making napkin holders, making custom photo boards, designing centerpieces, and much, much more.

Eventually, I'd like to learn to sew better, but I'm intimidated by my mother and sister-in-law who both are excellent seamstresses who work (or did work) in the NYC/London fashion industry. They both made my wedding gown -- a knock-off of three different $6000 dresses that we combined in to one for less than $600! The alecon lace and silk satin fabric was luxurious and MUCH better quality than a dress I could have gotten at David's Bridal for the same price. Here's the sketch my sister-in-law made combining the three dresses (lace from one, sweetheart neckline from another, and mermaid flair from a third) and a back shot of the dress on the big day.

I think it's their old Singer sewing machine that intimidates me...I can't even figure out how to thread the thing. And then they sew on it so fast my eyes are spinning in my head. My mom is giving me her much more current sewing machine and while I know that "real" seamstresses swear by the old Singers, maybe I'll be a lot less intimidated if I can actually figure out how to thread the thing! If I knew how to sew I could have fashionable clothes at a fraction of the price as well as outfit my future home for much less. And I see all the cute things that others are sewing on their blogs and it makes me wish I could sew too. Anyways...I digress.

Lately, I've really gotten into beading. Here's my first project:

I have a long way to go and I need to learn how to photograph the finished product better, but I really enjoy it and am scouring the web and craft stores for affordable, high quality beads. So far, the best website I've found is Firemountain Gems. Does anybody else know of any other high quality but affordable sites? I'm hoping to get good enough where I could sell them along with some of my other crafts but we'll see where God leads. For right now, I'm just going to enjoy the time and talent He's blessed me with as I aim to craft for His glory.

From my Bookshelf

I just finished reading this book a few days ago and LOVED every minute of it.

It's about the pro-life vs. pro-choice debate. An abortion clinic burns to the ground with the doctor inside and a 19-year-old girl (one of the Christian protesters) is accused of the arson and murder. It gives a good look at how the legal system works and how in every circumstance we are dependent on God's grace and mercy because even when we follow the letter of the law, there are still people out there ready to slander us. I highly recommend this book.

Spring is Coming

You know when you see these popping up out of the ground and being sold at the store that spring is on its way, and none to soon if you ask me!

An Overdue Thank You

For those of you who read Carrie's blog, you might recall when she had a BINGO game. Well, last week I received this cute little package that brigtened my day:

Thanks Carrie! The lotion smells so good, the notecards are very cute, and the Dutch mints are delicious and perfect for a Dutch girl!

What are you doing with your dash?

Remember this post? Well, it got me thinking about a poem my mom had sent me a little bit ago; I found it kind of ironic that I ended up being a dash and then she sent me this.

THE DASH

I read of a man who stood to speak,

at the funeral of a friend.

He referred to the dates on her tombstone

from the beginning....to the end.

He noted that first came the date of her birth

and spoke of the following date with tears,

but said that what mattered most of all

was the dash between the years.

For that dash represents all the time

that she spent alive on the earth

and now only those who loved her

knew what that little line was worth.

For it matters not, how much we own,

the cars...the house...the cash...

What matters is how we live and love...

and how we spend our dash.

So think about this long and hard;

are there things you'd like to change?

For you never know how much time is left

that can still be rearranged.

If we could just slow down enough

to consider what's true and real...

and always try to understand

the way other people feel,

And be less quick to anger

and show appreciation more

and love the people in our lives...

like we've never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect

and more often wear a smile...

remembering that this special dash

might only last a little while.

So, when your eulogy is being read...

with your life's actions to rehash...

would you be proud of the things they say...

about how you spent your dash?

Acts 24:16: "So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man."

Philippians 2:3-4: "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourself. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others."

Galatians 6:9-10: "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of God."

This is funny

First off, I want to apologize to any of you out there who may be French. This is all in jest.

As I was browsing through some blogs this morning, I came across this post on The Sparrow's Nest. After following the instructions and laughing really hard at the search result, I decided to click on the site Google recommended and came across my two favorite quotes in a long time:

"Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without an accordion. All you do is leave behind a lot of noisy baggage." Think about this now...let it sink it...picture it. It's pretty darn funny, right?

Or better still, the quote from last week's [don't know what week they're referring to] Wall Street Journal: "They're there when they need you."

This crazy thing called LIFE!

It's been almost a week since I wrote here simply because life had a way of catching up with us. We've been staying busy laying wood floors, getting on top of the rest of our unpacking from the move, planning more trips, and who knows what else.

Also, I took a little reprieve from blogging because I was fed up with how some people use blogs to slander and tarnish a person's reputation. We experienced this over the past week. As some of you may know, my husband serves as a committeeman in our town, and last year as the mayor. We've come under attack before from some of his political malcontents, but yesterday the paper thought it was more newsworthy to feature a guy with an ax to grind with my hubs bashing both him and I on the front page than covering Super Tuesday II, the Paid Family Leave Act that the state Senate approved the day before, or any other story that is actually newsworthy instead.

We prayed long and hard before my husband got involved in politics, and before each of his campaigns and elections, and we know that God is calling him to be a light in the dark (and unfortunately far too often crooked) world of politics. But, it doesn't make it any easier when his name gets dragged through the mud. Thankfully we can praise the Lord that the article seemed to backfire on the malcontent yesterday; regardless, we're going to keep on keeping on as long as God calls us to this road "for such a time as this."

Please be in prayer for our nation right now at the local, county, state, and national level. It's so important that we have godly men and women who are willing to take a stand and be true public servants instead of being in politics for personal gain.

And thanks to those of you out there who use your blogs to encourage and inspire people. If only the rest of the blogging world could be like you.