Wait, I have a blog?!

Sigh. I still haven't gotten the hang of posting on this thing consistently. Maybe one day, but for now, I can handle so many things at once. And let me tell you, people, I've got a few big things to handle right now : ) good things. The beard and I have some big things a brewin'. But you can't know yet! Soon though. Hopefully, VERY soon!

Anyway, this week has been an awesome week in the spring goals area of my life. I've been to VOA several times this past week and walked/jogged about 3.5 to 4 miles or so each time. Mostly just walking at a fast pace, but I'm pretty proud of myself for setting jogging goals and accomplishing them. Maybe I'll work my way back to running soon : ) The only downfall is the achy muscles. I can't wait to be over that! I've been getting more disciplined in having a quiet time, too. It's funny, I can tell a difference after only a few days of making sure I'm reading and praying consistently! I feel so much more joyous. And then my days feel off if I miss, so that's been awesome. I also got this bedding with bday money this week, and I am loving it.

On top of all that, spring has finally sprung in the buckeye state. Helloooo! So beautiful. Even when it's raining. I like the thunderstorms we get in spring time. It forces me to rest and take it easy. And that's never a bad thing!

What have you been up to lately?

music monday: guster

Guster is so fun. Today is an upbeat song kind of day, and I love the lyrics in this. So sweet!!

birthdays

This Sunday is my 26th birthday, and the beard got me tickets to see The Civil Wars as one of my gifts. They're easily in my top 5 favorite bands, probably top 3, and they're show was probably the best I've been to. They are SO good. SO SO SO good. I don't think I blinked once. I was just in awe of them. Before we went to the show we went to High Five Salon in O'bryanville so Christine could trim my hair. If you live in Cincinnati or NKY, You should go to High Five. It's not your typical salon experience. I always leave that place feeling like I'm one of the best people in the world. Everyone makes you feel gorgeous and loved and comfy. And Christine can rock out some awesome haircuts. I just love her. Plus everyone who works there is like the coolest person I've ever seen. I love that place. Do yourself a fave and go to High Five and get a haircut from Christine. You won't regret it! After that we went to dinner at PF Changs. MMMMMMMM. Lettuce Wraps. Steamed Dumplings. Kung Pao Chicken. MMMMMMMMM. That's all I can say. THEN we had dessert at Aglamesis bros. We both think they're better than Graeters. They are SOOOO yummy. We used to live a block away from them in Oakley and eating there brings back lots of memories of walking home on a HOT night eating butterscotch ice cream on a sugar cone from Aglamesis. They cooled down many a brutally humid Cincinnati evening last year. After we finished our ice cream we walked across the street to the 20th Century Theater where the show was. As we're walking in, we look up and what do ya know; there walking next to us is John Paul White ( 1/2 of The Civil Wars), and he held the door open for me. And I said I was really excited to see them play. And he said thanks. Awesome. It was such a good night. We are celebrating again Sunday starting with lunch in Oxford with my mama and then dinner at Teak with some of our closest friends. I'm so excited.

Here are some pictures from last night!

















hope your weekend is as grand as mine will be : ) xoxo.

week in photos

This week wasn't a particularly active one. The last part of the month keeps Matt at work more often, so there was a lot of cuddling and fetch playing with me and Harlem Jones. But it was a good week :) Here a few random moments from it in picture form.

I had cookies and milk for breakfast.....again. You should know by now that I have a serious cookie weakness.



I made a delicious chili. I found the original recipe on Kristens blog, and modified it just a tad.


Hung out backstage with hubby's band, The Waking Point, before their show on Saturday.




and, like I said, played lots of fetch with Harlem. We play fetch inside when it's cold out, because Harlem will not stand for the idea of not playing fetch at all for even one day. Here she is taking a quick break from our game of living room fetch...



and here she is 30 seconds later, done with break and ready to go.




Here's the recipe for that delicious chili, made in the crock pot : )

{ Brown Sugar Chili }
Crock pot: high 2 hours

1 lb extra-lean ground beef
½ c brown sugar
2 Tbsp prepared mustard
1 med-size onion, chopped
(2) 14 oz cans kidney beans, drained
1 pint low-sodium tomato juice
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper
3 tsp chili powder
frozen corn or drained can of corn
about a tbsp honey (I use raw honey)

Brown lean ground beef & onion in a nonstick skillet over med heat.
Stir brown sugar & mustard into beef.

Combine all ingredients into slow cooker.

Cover. Cook on high 2 hours. If convenient, stir several times during cooking.



next time I think I might add some crushed red pepper or more chili powder to add a little more heat. But it was SO good. Matt said it was some the best chili he's ever had!



xoxo

Music Monday: Landon Pigg

Todays music is "Falling in Love at a Coffee Shop" by Landon Pigg. This song is several years old, but I just saw the video for it a couple months ago. Is it not the sweetest video you've ever seen?!?! Swoon. I could watch it over and over. I love the concept, the tone, everything. I also want to paint my nails all different colors after seeing it on the girl in the video! Prepare to have your heart melted : )

spring goals part deux

I'm trying really hard to stick to my spring goals list. So far the things I'm doing best at are writing plans down and exercising 3 times a week. I got that little planner at Target, but then a couple weeks later I got an iphone, and I've been using the calendar on that to keep all my plans and stuff in. It's working out really well because it's always in my bag, whereas I might not always have a paper calendar with me and then forget to write stuff down. Also I think to look at my calendar on my phone everyday, whereas with the one I got from Target would sit on my dresser untouched sometimes for a couple days. It also has a little reminder alarm go off an hour or 2 before everything I schedule, so I can't forget. It's really nice. I feel a lot less scattered and unorganized now that I'm keeping my schedule.

As far as exercising, I've been mostly taking Harlem out and doing the walk/jog thing, and also I've found 2 dvd's that I really like. One is the Gaiam yoga conditioning for weight loss and the other is Jillian Michaels 30 day Shred. I like the yoga one because it focuses on the health aspects of yoga and how it helps your body. I tried to do a yoga video once and the first thing they said when it got started was to invite the sprits of whatever into my soul or something. Obvi not my thing, so I promptly said "pass" and turned it off. THIS yoga video, however, is only interested in helping you get healthier and more in tune with your body, which I'm all about. She explains why certain moves are beneficial while you're doing them, which I really like. For example, I never knew that twisting your torso helped to flush toxins out of your body. I think that's pretty cool! It's challenging but relaxing at the same time. I really feel good after I finish it. The 30 day shred is HARD. Like, I thought it was highly possible that I would keel over half way through, but I like it because 1) she doesn't say stupid crap like " you look great!" When she clearly has no idea how I look because she not here to see me. She says stuff like " If you want results, you have to fight for them." and "I know you want to quit, but don't. You can do this." and "There is no shame in doing the modified version, don't hurt yourself." And TRUST me when I say, I am doing the modified version. She also breaks everything down into 30-60 second circuits, and I really like that a lot. She goes from cardio to strength to abs and back again over and over for 20 minutes, but it doesn't feel repetitive or boring. And it's REALLY challenging, but I feel good after doing it.


I also THINK I'm doing good at being encouraging and wifely to Matt, but that I can always get better at : ) I have some ideas for crafty things, so hopefully I can do some fun stuff soon. My biggest struggle has been quiet times. I schedule them in every day, but the problem is actually doing it even when I see it on my schedule. It's so easy to get distracted. But I'm working hard on it!

As far as finding specific ministries, As I've prayed about it I've realized that the one thing I've been really heartbroken over and interested in for like a year is human trafficking and modern day slavery, so I've been getting involved with organizations and activities to help fight it. I'm walking in a 5k in April where all the proceeds go toward fighting human trafficking. I'm really excited to be a part of it and to Learn other ways that I can be a part of the fight. I'm praying that God opens doors for me to be make more of a difference in the lives of enslaved women and children in the forced prostitution industry, and in the lives of forced slaves all over the world.

Hope you're having a great weekend!

Weekend in Photos

This was a fun weekend. I saw lots of people that I love and ate good food. Can't beat that! Friday night we went to a Chinese Buffet. Buffets are another thing I took a solemn vow against long ago but I've recently decided that foreign ones are less dirty and yummy, so I'm making a compromise : ) Matt loves dessert at buffets, so he got a little of everything


Saturday, I went to a human trafficking awareness event at my old church, Fairfield First Baptist. It was hosted by my bestie and Stop Traffick Fashion was there sellling fair trade goods. Learning about and supporting the fight against modern day slavery has become close to my heart this year, and I'm really proud of Sarah for getting it together. This church and the people in it are so special to me. I love them so much. I was so glad to spend some time with them! Here is one of the tables set up from Stop Traffick Fashion...


and sweet Camille was there munching on some pound cake, I love her SOOOOOO much!



Then I visited with my grandma for a little bit while I waited for the beard to get off work. We went home and played with this pretty girl



On Sunday, we had breakfast at Red Squirrel. Look at that stud.





And then went to Fairfield First for the ground breaking of The Rock Community Center. They've been wanting to build this since I was there, and that was 3 years ago that I left to go to Crossroads with Matt. It's so exciting to see it finally happening!



Then we went to the antique mall with Sarah, but my phone was dying so I couldn't take it in for pics. I was so bummed! But it was a wondrous weekend! How was yours?!

the day I became an iphone junkie.

I would say how I feel about St. Patricks Day, but I think Abbi pretty much summed it up for me. I'm much more interested in the fact that today was the day that I joined the iphone club. And within an hour of having it I'd already tweeted twice. This may not seem like a big deal to many of you, but about a year ago I took a firm and solemn vow not to tweet because of something about narcissism and America. I don't know. Matt even created a twitter for beardedlady and I wouldn't use it. Apparently all it takes for me to become a narcissist and start tweeting like a madman is the iphone. But what I'm really excited about is the pictures!! I always wish I'd brought a camera with me almost everywhere so that I can catch little moments and have memories, but I never really want to carry a bulky camera, and the camera on my old phone Sucked with a capitol SSSSS. So needless to say I am all over the instagram and photo apps. Tonight we did some fun stuff so I got to break myself in. The huz and I had a little date at Johnny Rockets. Gosh I love cheeseburgers. It's almost embarrassing how much I love cheeseburgers. Then we met our friends Nate and Emmy and walked from their house in Pleasant Ridge to Molly Molones... but that's it. We literally walked there, saw the amount of people and heard that is was 5 bucks just to go in, and turned around and walked back. We opted instead to have some drinks on their deck and then go to yagoot with their super awesome dog, Zach. Zach loves strawberry yagoot. I got the italian cocoa and banana flavors swirled together with some granola. YUMSVILLE!!! I didn't get a pic of that because I was too busy devouring it. Anyway, here's some pics from the evening. Hope your's was just as swell : )







xoxo

A Wednesday.

Tonight we are doing pretty much nothing except what this picture would suggest...




except for I am also looking for pretty iphone cases, because mama's gettin' an iphone 4 tomorrow. What. Up.


Happy Wednesday.

Siren Magazine/Promise Tangeman

I just read an interview with Promise Tangeman over on Siren Magazine's website. Awesome interview. I adore Promise Tangeman. She is SOOOO inspiring to me. Everything she does is super. I love the points she makes about creativity and the church. I think she hit the nail on the head!! I'm also at this moment obsessing over simplygrove.com, which she recommends in the interview. You should hop on over to Siren's website and read the interview! It's pretty neato! If you want to go straight to the interview, click here.