Enough

You are enough. You out there, reading this. You are enough. Whoever you are, whatever your circumstances, whatever your desires, dreams, goals...You are enough.

The other night I was thinking about all of the things I wish I had gotten done off my to-do list, all of the fun crafts/activities I wish I had accomplished with my kids and I just had a moment where I felt like the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, "Enough. Stop 'doing' and just sit in my presence and realize YOU are enough".

My deepest desire for my kids and those around me is for them to feel valued, to know they are enough. For those I encounter on a daily basis to feel loved, noticed, and important. God has been working on me for years in ways that all point to the importance of people, of relationships, of hospitality, of taking time to have conversations with people, of recognizing the impact of a listening ear, showing up, and taking time to notice people's mannerisms/needs. Through trials of my own, I get frustrated with the lack of connection, lack of people taking time for one another, the lack of people's ability to slow down and be available, even for people they love. With my frustrations, have come my prayers for community and God has been so faithful in answering those prayers. I also am extremely blessed with a family that's MO is "show up". My husband jokes that we are like Everybody Loves Raymond accept no one is annoying - ha! Needless to say, my expectations were set high for what I wanted in my friendships, but I also didn't always want to show up for those I didn't know. Seriously, what is wrong with me? I want people to show up for me, but yet I lack the desire to take effort when I don't know the person as well as I think I should. I have needed to learn how to get over myself....it's still a struggle. For those that I've hurt, I hope you can forgive me. For those that I fell short in listening, caring, loving, and showing up for, please forgive me.

I've prayed. I've been on my knees and weeped over my desire to see God in my daily life. Cried out to feel the Holy Spirit in me. To stop doubting. I specifically remember in moments of doubt thinking, 'How do I expect my child to be confident in who Christ is, if I'm doubting Him?' God showed up for weeks after that prayer, in ways that can only be explained by the presence of the Holy Spirit. I have story after story from the month after I prayed for God to show up in my life. I'll have to write about those later.

I fail. I fail a lot. But what a beautiful thing is grace. What a beautiful thing is God's mercy. His love. His desire to love us even as we/I continue to make mistake, after mistake, after mistake. God is so good. I hope you hear that through my words. I hope you see that through my writing. I hope you know you are enough. You are doing enough. God doesn't care about your to-do list....or maybe He does, but I've found more often then not he's telling me to sit back and just know I can come as I am, with wet hear, pajamas on, sitting in a room that is in dire need of a cleaning lady and be fully, completely loved because God is more than enough for me. And I am, as I am, enough.

Nudge Me Not

I like to journal. I guess that is no surprise as I enjoy words. I like to write, I like to take notes, I like to make lists, and I like to put my prayers on paper. I've noticed a theme with my words as I look at my written prayer requests and think about my desires of not being so focused on my to-do list, and I thought I'd share.

I don't like to be busy. I LOVE to get out of the house each day but nothing stresses me out more than having a full calendar when I don't have at least one night where I know my whole family will be able to enjoy each others company. I know this about myself, and I joke that I have a fear of commitment because I hate booking things. When the day comes for said commitment all I want to do is sit and watch Netflix with my husband, or go on a walk with my kids. Clearly, I have issues. That 'maybe' button on electronic RSVP's was made for people like me. "Are you coming to the party?""maybe" if I feel like it that day or something better doesn't come up - seriously, what is wrong with me?

My desire to have community conflicts with that desire to get things done. But God has been teaching me slowly I've been learning slowly that God has been there the whole time trying to drill into my head to stop focusing on what needs to get done. Be Mary (read more about Mary and Martha Here), take the time to be in relationships instead of doing, doing, doing.

What is SO cool about this, is when you pray and ask God to help you see the needs around you He delivers. So I recently prayed (like I have in the past) to be nudged, for the Holy Spirit to help me see where I can be helping those around me. Help me prioritize, if you will, what really needs to get done. Can I just say, when you listen to those nudges, VERY rarely do things go wrong? In my experience I am yet to be nothing but overwhelmed. Overwhelmed by how God is working all around me.

My mom read an excerpt from a book and I know I'm going to misquote it but it said something along this:

Listen to your nudges. Say you are nudged to make a pound cake for a friend. Make it. What if you make that pound cake and deliver it to your friend and she isn't have a rough day after all?

And THEN your friend tells you she is no longer eating sugar. 
You can sit in your car and laugh with God about it and enjoy every bite of that pound cake. No reason to fret if things don't go as planned.

What if YOU don't listen to those nudges though friends? The majority of the time I have listened, something miraculous has happened. I've had a few flops, where I just had to sit back and laugh. But nothing feels worse then not listening to 'the nudge' and wondering 'what if?'




'What is my calling? What is your will for my life? Where is my community?'

Are you so focused on what you should be doing, your endless lists, comparing your life to other people's that you forget to take action?

St. Patrick's Day Activities

Saint Patrick's Day Activities

I have to admit I haven't been focusing too much on Saint Patrick's Day, but as we've done a few activities I am trying to answer questions about why/what is Saint Patrick's Day. I found a few fun facts along the way. And this was from some online searches, so some of these may not be 100% accurate but I still found it interesting.

Who? Saint Patrick - born in Britain, captured into Slavery and taken to Ireland, escaped and converted to Christianity. Moved back to Ireland to be a missionary.  After his death he was named Ireland's Patron Saint. (There are some fun books out there that if we have time I'll try and grab at the Library to explain this more in detail)

Why a Shamrock? Some say that St. Patrick used the 3 leaf clover (shamrock) to explain the Trinity.

Why Corned Beef and Cabbage? Some say that many of the Irish immigrants couldn't afford certain meals so for the holiday of St. Patrick's day, the best they could do was beef and cabbage. 

Fun things we've done the last 2 weeks:

Made Green Jello Play dough 

Made Green Slime 

(using the recipe from the link, but instead of Valentine's used green food coloring) 

This is the slime. My daughter loves to put her plastic animals in the slime and play dough. 

Made this cool rainbow craft, thanks to our local Library's story time! 

For this activity you just need thin strips of each color of paper,  and then the black paper for the pot. They had cut out the gold with a sparkly cardstock. Lucy liked this craft, but really I was assembling as she used the glue stick. 

And today I decided to cut up a green pepper to try and look like a Shamrock - thank you Pinterest!

On Pinterest I had seen something similar to this but then adding a stem with a another piece of pepper. I just wanted to throw this in with her PB&J lunch quickly for fun. I honestly don't think she cared but I liked it! 

I used the same play dough and slime recipe that I had used for Valentine's Day, I just used lime jello for the play dough and green food coloring for the slime instead of red. 

Easy Peasy Chicken Taco's

Today, Saturday, I made the easiest recipe I think I've ever attempted in my life. I can't even express how easy this was. I made chicken tacos in the crock-pot. And I used 2 ingredients. Chicken and a jar of salsa! That's it! Pick out your favorite salsa at the store, and pour it over a pound of chicken (or really however much chicken you can cover with the jar) and put your crock pot on low for 8 hours or high for 4. Easy...I need to find another synonym for easy it was that simple. 

The chicken just falls apart, I scooped the chicken out to shred and it literally fell apart in my bowl. I meant to take a picture, but was too busy eating it.

And I had zero clean up, I put one of those crock-pot liner's in my crock pot so I didn't even have to maneuver that big ceramic bowl into my sink to scrape at it. This is perfect for a weekend when you don't want to clean!

Easy Peasy Chicken Taco's

Chicken (1-3 pounds)

1 jar of your favorite salsa 

Pour salsa over chicken in a crock pot, cook on high for 8 hours or low for 4 hours. Shred the chicken and load up in your preferred shells! 

**Use a crock pot liner so you don't have to clean up! Just throw away the liner when you're done cooking. 

Toppings/Extra's

diced tomato

shredded lettuce

avocado

shredded cheese

salsa

sour cream

corn tortilla shells

flour tortillas

Comfort Food and French Crepes

Our God is a God of comfort, and as we go through life we need to be vulnerable and share our story's. God will always use our experiences to further His kingdom, and you never know how your story will influence/impact those around you! 

 2 Corinthians 1:4 says, "...who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God."

When we go through life, go through life's hard we have a God who comforts us. But as 2 Corinthians says, as he comforts us we should be comforting others. We need to be opening our hearts and homes to others and sharing our stories so we can walk along side our friends, empathize with them, and ultimately help how only WE (you) uniquely can. When we are vulnerable and share our troubles and stories, we have no idea the impact it can have on another. Someone else may be going through the exact same situation, already has, or may experience something similar in their future. What a difference WE can make for HIM with a little conversation over comfort foods...

While growing up, and even now I like to bake/cook when I am stressed. I'm not talking fancy meals or something grande; I'm talking chocolate chip cookies, pancakes, and believe it or not crepes. Can you tell I have a sweet tooth? Anyways, I remember many a Saturday mornings when garage sale season would hit and on the occasion we were hosting a sale I would pull our my mom's 1970's (it was a wedding gift) crepe pan and whip up a batch of crepe's, homemade whipped cream, and sliced strawberries and serve them to my family. No, I never attempted to sell them, I ate them and dished it out for my grandma Jeanne, who was usually around and my aunts, mom, and any relative that popped over to help or scour the sale. 

It was comfort food. It is comfort food even now, as I think of all of the times I would make these for French class, garage sales, friends were over, just because I was stressed and wanted to eat something fancy...So here's the recipe and hopefully you can try and make these, too! 

Crepe Recipe 

(If you don't have a crepe pan you can pour batter in a frying pan)

1 1/4 C Flour

pinch of salt

3 eggs (beaten)

1 1/2 C milk

2 Tbs melted butter

Blend in blender or using mixer until smooth. 

Use hot crepe pan and dip pan into batter and cook until lightly browned. 

If you're using a frying pan, pour a small amount of batter into a heated pan and "swirl" around to get batter around pan so you have a thin 'pancake'. You can flip if you prefer, but it's not needed. 

Fill with your desired filling (sweet or savory) 

**Nutella, cinnamon/sugar, whipped cream and strawberries, bananas and caramel

**ham/cheese, eggs, cheese, butter, 'pizza'

My mom and aunt recently introduced me to a banana caramel filling that is amazing, recipe coming soon! 

Lasagna in a Bowl

I just made this for dinner last night and as it touched my tongue I knew it was a keeper! The original recipe was found through Pinterest from this amazing blog. I of course altered the recipe a bit to fit my liking (and my pantry), but it was an instant hit and it's definitely comfort food. I'm so thankful for creative people and the endless blogs available to find recipes like this!

AND This is super easy as I only had to use one pot. Any recipe that can be made in one pot is a winner for me, but especially when it's delicious. Honestly, I think it tasted even better today as left overs.

I've always loved a good lasagna but was intimidated by the assembly of it all. This recipe is simple and hits the spot for me. I hope you all enjoy it, too! 

One Pot Lasagna Soup

1 lb ground beef

1 onion, diced

2-4 tsp minced garlic (or 4-5 cloves of garlic, minced)

1 jar favorite spaghetti sauce 

6 C chicken stock (homemade or boxed - I used both)

1 - 28 oz can crushed tomatoes

2 Tbs tomato paste

2 tsp balsamic vinegar

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried parsley

1 tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper (or red pepper flakes)

1 bay leaf

1 tsp sugar

pinch of salt

10 (or more) lasagna noodles (broken up) or whatever noodle you prefer. I used 14 manicotti noodles broken into pieces because that's what I had in my pantry. 

Heavy cream (1/4 C or more)

Mozzarella Cheese

Ricotta Cheese

Brown the ground beef with the diced onion, the onion will turn translucent. Add the garlic and spices. I did not drain the fat, but I was using a leaner ground beef and I like the added flavor from the fat. 

Add the spaghetti sauce, chicken stock, tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, and if you prefer, sugar. Stir and add noodles. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 20-30 minutes. Add heavy cream to desired taste. Stir, then add cheese. I only used mozzarella and garnished individual dishes, but you can add the cheese right to the pot.

All assembled just need to boil

This was before any cheese was added. And today the leftovers were even thicker, but fantastic!

I attempted to leave the sugar out, but because of the acidity of the tomatoes I felt it did need a little bit. 

Cookie Dough Icing

You guys if you are trying to eat really nutritious things, please don't read any further because this will ruin you. I got on my Pinterest to find a quick recipe to make something sweet. I always want something sweet later in the evening...anways so I got on and BAM, there it was, this picture of cookie dough icing in all of it's glory. It's from iambaker.net and it has other recipes as well that I am sure are just as delicious.

So I did what any mom avoiding bed-time routines would do and I made it. It was super easy, and it is fantastic. It made so much I think I need to make a cake to pair with it (yes, I made frosting and only frosting with no intention of making anything else). A spoon has worked swell so far...My husband and I can't stay out of it.

Ok so here's the simple recipe and the picture I took of it - YUM.

Cookie Dough Frosting after we'd devoured some of it 

Cookie Dough Frosting

1 1/4 C brown sugar, packed

2 sticks of butter, softened

2 1/2 C flour

2-3 tsp vanilla

pinch of salt

8-16 Tbs whole milk 

Handful of mini-chocolate chips

Beat the sugar and butter until smooth. Add flour, vanilla, salt and mix well. Slowly add milk until desired consistency. Enjoy!

 The original recipe says to add 16 Tbs of milk and to add a tablespoon at a time to make a softer/smoother texture. I didn't add as much brown sugar (I was running low) or milk (I just didn't think it needed it) and it still turned out phenomenal.