p52 Week #3 *~I dreamed a dream~*

Well, it turns out that I was a week behind in my weekly challenge. Oops! This week is going live tonight at midnight! Oh well. Here is the link to the page I'm doing this with if you'd like to join. I have a great photo for this week too. A couple nights ago Phil had the day off and was planning on reading to Giuliana before she went to bed. I never hesitate to grab my camera during moments like these. With his crazy schedule and long hours, she doesn't always see him every day, so when he is able to be home with us for the day, or evening, both of us soak it up! :)

This was my dream. A little baby that we could love, cherish, read books to, hold when they are scared, snuggle when they are having a hard time sleeping, kiss for no reason at all but because you have kisses to give. :). All my life, I dreamed a dream, that one day God would bless me and my future husband with children, someone that I could watch feel the love from Phil as I do.. maybe even a little girl that would run to her Daddy when he got home from work and feel the way for him as I do when I haven't seen him all day. I just wanted to be a mom. 


I remember praying over and over for my future children. That God would begin then to make me into the mom that He desired for me to be someday. 


After Phil and I got married and had decided that we were going to start trying for kids I prayed and prayed.. "please God, just give us children.... please, make me a Mommy, that's all I want..". 


It took a little while, but God heard my prayers..... He listened to my dreams... He blessed our home with thee greatest blessing either Phil or I have ever received........ and that little dream was born June 28, 2011. 


I dreamed a dream.... and it came true.. 

P52 Week #2 *~Made With Love~*

Whew! I almost missed the deadline this week. it's been a busy one. Couple extra days with Daddy (which is always a blessing), and other things, I just noticed that I am barely clipping the deadline to have #2 done, BUT I found the perfect shot to share.


For those of you that don't know, I'm taking part in a photography project.


Where there is a theme each week and we take at least one picture to represent that theme. It can be as creative as you can imagine, or as simple as this weeks. I love it so much. It's a picture that I kind of want to frame I love it so much :) Anyways.. Please click Here if you'd like to join in on my little mission that I'm taking part in! Should be a blast!


The theme of this week is "made with love". When I was thinking about this and looking through my pictures I came across something that I made a point to shoot. Giuliana had her first "big girl" bath this week and it was so sweet to see how much she enjoyed it. She wasn't so sure at first and then decided that it was pretty fun to just be able to sit up and see her toys instead of laying down in the "baby tub". She played and played, to the point that the water had begun to get chilly. :) 


After she got out I knew I had to capture her little "prune toes", and boy did she have some good ones.


Her precious little feet are one of my favorite things anyways, but all "pruney" they are even more adorable! 
This picture for the week represents a couple things. First off, her bubble bath. I know it may sound cheesy, but I knew she would love playing and splashing around in her bubble bath, so I made it for her. That's the first "made with love" tie to the picture..


The second is much more. The second is that God has given us feet. Yes, I know, you're probably going... wow... deep! ;) haha, but think about it. What would we be without feet. Our feet take us to all of the amazing experiences we have had in life. Our feet walk us to see people that we love, care about, need to comfort, need to hug, have to tell good-bye, or meet for the first time. They are truly a blessing. :) (you're probably still wondering where the deep part is coming in) ;) 
He made them out of his love for us so that we could do so much, also so that we could use them to carry His Word to people that need to hear it. 


"How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" ( Romans 10:14-15 )


May we use our feet to take us and share the good news!.... AND to made a warm bubble bath for someone you love :) <3

*~Chicken Pot Pie Soup~*

oh my lanta... this was as tasty as it sounded when I read the recipe online. Love Iowa Girl Eats.. which is where I got the link for this recipe. She made her own changes as did I. I was going to half the recipe so that I wasn't left with TONS of leftovers (recipe says it serves 9), but I decided just to make the whole recipe and was happy with the amount that we have. Phil had 2 bowls, I had 1, and there is still enough left for dinner. I'm not sure I believe it serves 9.

I decided to omit the mushrooms in mine because I didn't have any.
Also I used loose bouillon because I didn't have the cube. (1 tsp.= 1 cube)
I didn't have the mixed veggies, so I just used 1/2 steam bag of peas, 1/2 steam bag of corn, 1 carrot pealed.

Anyways... enough talk, more recipe.. here ya go!

1/4 c. flour (to make gluten-free use 2 T. cornstarch instead)
2 c. water
4 c. fat free milk
1 large celery stalk, chopped
1/2 medium chopped onion (I used a red onion)-or purple as I call it ;)
8 oz. sliced baby bella mushrooms
2 chicken bouillons
fresh ground pepper
pinch of thyme
10 oz. frozen classic mixed vegetables (peas, carrots, green beens, corn)
2 potatoes, peeled and cubed small
16 oz. cooked chicken, diced small (I used 2 chicken breast, but could have used 3)
salt

*Poach chicken breasts in large pot of water until cooked (risen to top), remove and set aside.
*Make slurry of flour and 1/2 c. of cold water, whisking until combined and set aside.

*Pour remaining water (1 1/2 cups) and milk into a large pot and bring it to a boil.
*While you are waiting on the milk to boil begin chopping veggies..

*When it starts to boil, add in veggies, celery, onion, mushrooms, chicken bouillon, fresh pepper (to taste) and return to a boil.

*Partially cover and simmer on low until veggies are soft or about 20 minutes.
*Remove lid and add potatoes and cook until they are fork tender, or about 5-10 minutes.
*Add chicken and slowly whisk in slurry, stirring well as you add. Cook another 2-3 minutes, or until soup thickens.
*At this point give it a taste and see where you are with salt and pepper. I adding quite a bit of salt and pepper.
(This soup would be GREAT in a bread bowl or some homemade bread on the side)

All you have to do now, is ENJOY! :)

Let me know how you guys like this one! :) I thought it was a winner, and will for sure be making it again!

*~Little Lessons~*

Happy Weekend! Hope it's leading to lots of fun things for all of you! The crapp-O weather decided to rear its ugly head and make our friends unable to travel, so we are spending a quiet weekend at home instead. In a super clean house though!! That's always good! :)

Thought I would blog quickly and share a little something that always touches my heart but hit a different cord today.

Actually since Giuliana was born she very much likes to hold my hand (finger) very tightly. She would fumble around until she felt something familiar and grab on tight. Almost to the point where I would have to move my finger because my fingertip would turn purplish. It's precious. I love that she feels so much more secure holding on to me tightly. As she's gotten older she likes to hold her bottle more or is too sleep and wants to be lazy and just lay there and do nothing while Momma feeds her ;). That's ok, but today she did it again :).

I was feeding her and she reached around with her hand.... fumbled around a little bit because I at first didn't know what she was doing, but then I put my thumb in her sweet little palm and she grabbed on for deal life. As I sat there just sharing at her little fingers around my thumb it made me think.

How often do we reach out and cling to Christ's hand? Do we only do it when we have a major tragedy in our lives, sickness, loss of a job, heartbreak, want something... etc. etc.? Or, do we cling to Him when He provides us with another day, another blessing, the good things in life... do we cling to Him when he is feeding us spiritually? I am speaking to myself because it's easy to cling to Christ just in the hard times. It's easy to only go to Him and pray our hearts out when we NEED something... but we should do it in good times and bad.

My point with this is.. obviously Giuliana wasn't stressed out about anything..... she wasn't hurt, not scared, not angry.... not "trials".... she was simply resting in my arms, and she wanted to rest clinging to the promise that I was right there for her. If you needed me, she was already holding on and in connection with me.

I will no doubt let Giuliana down.. I'm not a perfect mother, nobody is. God however is PERFECT.

Hebrews 13:5 ".... I will never leave you or forsake you."

He will never leave us. Never let go. As long as we "fumble" around to grab His hand, He is there for our security.
M
~May we not just "fumble" around and reach out for Christ when we need Him, but hold on to Him in the sunshine and the storms.~

Peace, Love, and Clinging to the Promise.

*~Blessings from Above~*

Thursday Thursday! One more day until our friends arrive, and we can't wait!!!

I must first admit this morning I had some quiet time and then went back to bed. I didn't want to, but my tension headache was getting the best of that idea, and so to bed I went. Got to sleep another couple hours and then by around 7:30 a.m. Giuliana decided it was time to get up. :) We cuddle for a little while and then started our day.

Lots of cleaning, snuggles, cleaning, more cleaning... more snuggles.. and a little more cleaning.

Does anyone ever feel like the more you clean your house the more unclean you feel like it is. Like, until you actually dust, you don't realize how much stuff needs dusting. How until you vacuum, there is always that one more room that could use a good vacuum. Maybe this doesn't make sense, but it does to me and that's how I felt all day. Cleaning and cleaning and I still have to tell our friends not to expect a super spotless house ;). oh well. It is what it is. :) They don't mind ;)

On a totally other note: I'd like to talk a little about a blessing in my life lately. I have mentioned a little bit through my statuses, but haven't gone in depth until now. So here ya go! :) Listen up, it's a good one!

First of all, I had commented on a friend's page about how she had made baby wipes, little did I know that someone was reading my post and starting to get curious. While I had commented and gone on with my day (or probably moved to Pinterest) ;), a girl named Ashley Hinton had seen my post and thought that my name sounded familiar and that she may in fact know me. She "creeped"(don't worry, it's a joke now) ;), onto my Facebook page to see if she could figure out if she in fact did know me only to find out that she didn't.  What she did find out, changed the story forever :) She went on to message me to introduce herself. She realized that I lived in Sterling Heights, MI and that her and her husband live in Clinton Township, MI, which is about 10-15 min. from me. I messaged back all excited and introduced myself and said I would love to get to know her!

It was either the next evening or a couple nights later I got on the computer and was wondering if she would be on FB chat, but when I looked over at the list she wasn't... But then I looked at the "other friends online" (what's the point of that anyways??) and there she was! I struck up a convo and we talked until both of us could barely stay awake! Had a great talk!! She's such a sweet girl and we are super excited to hang out! Here is what I found out while we chatted more that evening::

*Her husband is in his 2nd year of med school while Phil is in his 1st year of residency.
*She loves God! (similarity)
*They GO TO OUR CHURCH!! (YAY!)
*Same service! (similarity)
AND, they are originally from Iowa!!!!!!!! :)
Not to mention that she went to TSPA (The Salon Professional Academy) like I did. (crazy!)... the list seems to go on and on.

So, to sum up the story..... I'm so incredibly excited that God sent a great christian friend into my life to get to know. I feel blessed that God has provided me with another friend to get to know and be encouraged with.
We have already talked about going to bible study together at our church! Which I'm so excited about!

Did I mention I'm excited????

Ok...... So I kind of feel like I have rambled on and on in this post... but the more I talk about it I get more overwhelmed with joy! :)

God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good! :)

I better jet for now, even though I didn't get my devos blogged about, but you get a blessing blog instead :)

*~Peace, Love, and Blessing~*

Give God the Glory, Glory!

Goooooood Morning Michigan! Yep, I said that in my head in the best morning radio broadcasting voice I could muster up at 5:30 a.m.! I think I might be crazy for getting up this early when my 6 month old is still sound asleep, but.. I'm willing to risk that.

I think I am going to start a new plan to help me stay more on top of things in our home. Phil gets up SO early. All this month he is up by around 4:30-45 every morning, only to work a super long day (yesterday he wasn't home until after 8:00 p.m.) come home, try and de-stress a little and then go to bed only to do it again the next day. Thankfully, he is getting off 1/2 days every other day, but that's besides the point. I'm so thankful for him and the hard work and long hours that he is putting in. Made me think... there never is a lack of things that I could be doing around here. Usually I just try and cram whatever I can in while Giuliana is sleeping or playing really quietly, like you saw yesterday in my picture. Why not get up when Phil does and, number one, start my day off right? With God! (yes, I know, genius idea huh?) I have been under the thought until now that I would sneak it in during one of her naps or usually before bed. Not so much.. Besides, starting my day off WITH Him is my goal for this year. Not ending it with Him.

My point in mentioning it on here is that I'm hoping to help myself stay accountable. Maybe get up, blog and spend time with the One who gave me this day. Made me think of this book that I got for Giuliana a while back. It's one of my favorite childhood songs, so you can imagine my excitement when I found this book at Family Christian! Rise and Shine and give God the glory GLORY! Rise and Shine and give God the glory GLORY, Rise and Shine and give God the glory GLORY, children of the Lord!

Now I may not get a blog done every morning, because my other point to getting up early is to get a head start on my house cleaning for the day, but I'll see. I would like to, but that part may have to wait until that evening or later in the day at least. We shall see friends, we shall see! :)

Anyways.... enough talk, and more action.

~Be a Blessing to someone today~, they'll wonder what's wrong with you! :)

Peace, Love and Giving Glory,

Linz

p52 week 1!

Hello Friends!

Well, I'm tackling two of my resolutions today in this post! Go me! :) More blogging and more pictures!

I'm taking part in p52! One of our photographers has put it together!

It's a weekly picture challenge for the year. We are given a subject and taking a picture from that week toward that subject. Interpreted however you like. Should be fun to see everyone's artistic side come out. I'm going to try it! May not be great at being creative all of the time, but I'm determined to make it as good as I can. I'm anxious to see what I'm capable of as well.

My first picture here was taking with my iPhone because it was at my disposal quickly and wanted to get a picture posted, but I will be taking the other ones with my "real" camera! :)

Please join if you'd like. Should be fun!! (link in above!)

Here is my picture for week #1: RESOLUTION

*~Peace, Love, and Resolution~*

-Linz

New Look for a New Year!

Hey Friends!


Well, it's that time. The time that we talk about our resolutions and how we are hoping to keep them... Or how we have failed miserably at them already. I've done a little of both.


My resolutions for the new year:

#1: Pray for my daughter and husband daily.
#2: Spend time with God first, go about my day second.
#3: Eat CLEAN.
#4: Lose 15 lbs. (yes, I know, isn't that everyone's??)
#5: Take more pictures.
#6: Declutter my house, one day at a time!
#7: Drink more water, NO SODA!


The list could go on and on, but I'm beginning to feel overwhelmed by just writing these few. 


So far the verdict isn't amazing.. one that I have kept with fully is no soda! Woohoo, go me! It's an accomplishment, let me tell ya. 1 week+ in, and I am feeling good. Already done around 5 lbs! (the 15 is on top of that!)


The first two are obvious ones.. I believe prayer should start in the home. If we can't pray for the people we love the most, how can we pray for anyone else.. and why is daily prayer time so hard? Hmmph. I'm excited to get better in this area.
Daily time with the Lord, beyond prayer is so important as well. Again, as cliché as it sounds, we should love the God the most and if we can't spend time with Him showing him our love and devotion, how can I properly show that to my family. Proverbs 31 woman... that is my goal. "We should be the type of woman that when our feet hit the ground the devil says.. 'oh crap, she's up'!" 


Eating clean. I haven't done great at this so far. With beginning the year with boy scout popcorn staring at me... plus my obsessive craving for oreos.. I'm working on this one. (can I remind you though about the soda that I HAVEN'T drank!) ;) Anyways.. Eating clean to me can have different meanings to each. My feeling about is this:
Unhealthy food seems complicated to me.. look at the label. Can you really pronounce anything in it? If people ask you what is in it, do you say.. "I don't know, but it's really good!" I've been there.. still do, but I'm trying. 
Eating Clean to me is just a matter of:
~Knowing what's in the foods that you eat,
~Eating no red meat (lots of fat!),
~Trying out new veggies that I haven't liked or haven't had before and incorporating them into our meals the best I can,
~Three simple words, (Baked not Fried)! :)
~Water, water, water!!!


I'm excited to see what new meals this year brings to us.. I am anxious to start preparing healthier meals for my family. If I can better at this blogging thing this year, I'll have to share some of my new try-out meals with you all! :)


* oh! that's another resolution. BLOG MORE! ;)
Oh, next, Lose 15 lbs...... I don't think I need to go on. Except I am thinking of trying "Insanity"...... I'll report back if I do!


Taking more pictures. I think I've taken my fair share, and I think I'm getting better, but I really want to take more pictures in general! Phil and I don't have a ton of pictures together over the past few years.. how sad is that? lol. We just don't carry a camera around with us, and if I have the camera, it's pointed at my little nugget of a daughter (WHICH is perfectly fine!), but Momma and Daddy aren't going to have any pictures to accompany all of those that she'll have. I want to take more of her too. Capturing any-and every-thing! She is already growing up so fast. 7 months already on the 28th! WHOA!. where did my newborn go?


Declutting my house. I found a great thing on Pinterest about decluttering your house in a year, 1 day at a time. It is awesome. Really breaks things down for you! Even the top of your dresser, it breaks it down in like 3 days. The left side of the dresser top one day, the middle the next and the right side the next day! crazy... but when you break it down like that you are more likely to tackle something like decluttering in general. it somehow seems less overwhelming!


Last but certainly not least.. Water. I don't love it. I craved it while I was pregnant (ICE EVEN in it, which if you know me at all, that's strange!), but now I could take it or leave it. I would much rather have the enemy (soda!). ha! BUT I'm sticking it to the can on this one! I've ventured into La Croix territory, and while I hated the first sip that I tried.. I've been adding Mio to it, and it's turning out not to be too shabby. We'll see. I'm not 100% sold yet ;)


Well.. this post is getting super long and by now you're probably wondering why you started reading this incredibly long ramble of a post in the first place. I promise you, I'll try and pull my scattered thoughts together for a future post.


Take Care Friends!!


*~Peace, Love and a New Me~* :)