5 Things Friday-5 Favorite Desserts

Jean Stockdale is hosting 5 Things Friday on her blog and today's topic is 5 Favorite desserts. Here are my favorites.



1) Dark Chocolate-Just a square or two or three or well, maybe a chunk. I love a good smooth piece of melt in your mouth dark chocolate after a meal. A perfect way to satisfy my sweet tooth.
2) Brownies-So clearly I'm a bit of a chocoholic and brownies are always a treat.
3) Cheesecake-I love the smooth, creaminess of a good New York cheesecake.
4) Hot Fudge Cake-Again with the chocolate. Chocolate cake, soft serve ice cream, hot fudge and whip cream. I indulge in these rarely although had one twice at my favorite ice cream place back home when I was visiting in July.
5) Apple Pie a la mode- I love a good apple pie. And ice cream always kicks it up a notch.

Through The Lens Thursday #7

This week I'm sharing a couple of pictures from our day yesterday.

Sister is a voracious reader. She's always reading a book. In fact, she spent time each morning this summer in bed reading before she would join us. She is currently obsesssed with reading The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. Her teacher is making the kids read outside their favorite genre's this school year and she was hard pressed to find a book in her room yesterday that fit the current genre required that she actually wanted to read. In the end she decided to revisit her Junie B. Jones collection. I adore Junie B.


When my family came up to visit this past weekend, my dad brought me a bunch of tomatoes from his garden. Yum! I love fresh tomatoes from the garden. I am a tomato snob and cannot stand the flavorless store bought ones. Corn and tomatoes-I could live off them in the summer. And thanks to my abundance of yummy tomatoes, this is what I had for dinner last night. It was a flavor explosion!


Each Thursday I share a photo or photos giving a glimpse at life through the lens. If you would like to join me, please leave a comment and link to your blog.

Wordless Wednesday: The Gap

It was a big weekend for Baby Girl. She turned 6 on Saturday and lost her first tooth on Sunday. Now she's sporting a cute little gap. Love that!



For more Wordless Wednesday, stop by 5 Minutes for Mom.

It's Party Time

Baby Girl turned 6 this weekend! She's getting so big. I still look at her and see my little baby. I guess I always will. But she really is changing and losing that baby-ness. She continues to be my silly little love bug. I don't know what I'll do when she doesn't want to snuggle up with mommy anymore.

My parents and grandma came up to celebrate with us. The Man couldn't be with us since he's training so it was nice to have other family here to make the day special. We had a lot of fun. As always, Baby Girl picked her favorite play place as her celebration destination. Thankfully the food is good there and you have a lot more options than pizza to eat. It's a little more adult friendly than that cheesy rat place. She decided to give the Eurobungy a go this time and loved it!!!



She wanted a Butterfly cake for her birthday. We affectionately nicknamed it the "bleeding butterfly cake" a la Steel Magnolias since she wanted Red Velvet Cake with Chocolate Frosting. That's my Baby Girl!



And a picture of Baby Girl with her cake.



She was absolutely partied out by the end of the day. It was a great start to being 6!

In other news, our house went on the market yesterday. We had our first showing this morning. I've been obsessively cleaning and organizing so all the little details are just right. I have some painting to do but I can work on that in the days to come. I'm feeling okay about this and just trusting that God will provide the right buyers at the right time.

Life is certainly full speed ahead these days. But not too fast to take the time to enjoy family and special moments. One day at a time.

Friday Faves-Favorite Music In My Car

It's time for Friday Faves over at It's Almost Naptime!! and Missy is asking for our favorite music to listen to in the car.

Most of the time I'm listening to KLOVE when I'm in my car. I love listening to praise and worship music while I'm driving. I drive the girls to school so we spend our drive to school worshipping through song. After the mad dash to the car, this gives us a great chance to refocus ourselves as we begin the day.

"God Of This City" by Bluetree is one of my favorite songs. Greater things have yet to come. Praise God!

If you don't know the story behind this song, take a moment to listen.

And I love Free To Be Me by Francesca Battistelli. It took me a long time to really get it but I finally am at a place in my life where I truly understand and enjoy my freedom through Christ despite the rips and dents.

As a mom of two young girls, the song More Beautiful You by Johnny Diaz goes straight to my heart. I want to raise my girls to understand that their true beauty is within and that they were created perfectly by God.

Natalie Grant is one of my favorite artists. When I listen to her songs I always feel like she's been right where I've been in her life. While I am getting better as this, I am guilty at times of putting up a front and not always letting other's in on my struggles. I feel I need to be strong and just deal with the challenges I'm facing instead of trusting God to take care of things. Her song Perfect People is a great reminder to allow myself to be real and know I can't do it on my own. I may not be perfect but I can be changed by a perfect God.

On long trips in the car I can't always pick up KLOVE. If the girls are with me we'll usually listen to one of their CDs which means we listen to a lot of High School Musical 1, 2 & 3. This song usually gets a lot of play.

Wanna see more Friday Faves or join in? Stop by It's Almost Naptime!!

Through The Lens Thursday #6

When I think of summer at my parents' farm I think of corn. My dad always has a big garden and shares the harvest with family and friends. One of my favorite things from the garden is daddy's corn. Whether creamed or on the cob it is the best!




Each Thursday I share a glimpse at my life through the lens. If you'd like to join in, leave a link to your blog post below. Please keep all links family friendly.

Wordless Wednesday: Cousins #2

Sister and my nephew during our recent trip to Alabama. Sister was born 9 1/2 months after my nephew. It has been so fun to watch them grow up together.



For more Wordless Wendnesday stop by 5 Minutes For Mom.

Consider The Lilies

So, things are moving forward around here. The Man left Sunday morning headed to Florida to begin his training. He's two days in now and seems quite happy with this new opportunity. He said tonight that it felt like the right place for him, whereas the last job never did. We spent last week preparing for his departure as well as a huge yard sale. We purged and purged in an attempt to minimize what we have to move. The fewer boxes to load and unload the better. Despite a mid-morning rain shower, the sale was a huge success. I'd say 90% or more of what we put out was bought. The rest was picked up by a local non-profit agency for an upcoming fundraiser.

Saturday after the yard sale, we met with our realtor to begin the process of preparing to sell the house. Let me be honest here, selling a house in this economy is the pits!

Sunday morning was somewhat overwhelming. I was feeling rather stressed after meeting with the realtor the day before and then having to say goodbye to The Man....well, it was just a bit much. After he left, the girls and I got ready for church and I was just praying for some peace in my heart because I sure didn't have it right then. I was not expecting that peace to come from a Bible lesson for children. Am I that much of a child, Lord? Apparently so. I've been helping in the Kindergarten Sunday School class and the lesson that day was about trusting God and not worrying. And when the teacher began to read these verses, I couldn't help but smile.
Matthew 6:25-34
25 "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
27And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
28And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,
29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'
32For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
33But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34 "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

What a loving and caring God that would remind me of these words in the moment I most needed to hear them. The peace was immediate. The anxiety of the morning just melted away. After this last year, you would think I had already learned that God would take care of us and not to spend my time fretting over the future and yet I still manage to do it. I try to take His power away and do something about the situation by worrying. Oh me of little faith! Of course God will take care of us. I can trust Him with the details of my life and live one day at a time. I can look forward to what lies ahead instead of worrying about it. And if I feel that anxiety creeping in, I will stop and consider the lilies.

Friday Faves-Websites

This week I'm joining in this fun Friday Faves blog carnival over at It's Almost Naptime!!

I'm guilty as a blogger of spending a lot of my computer time reading other blogs. A lot of websites have fallen off the list as places I regularly visit since I started blogging because, lets face it, there is only so much time you can spend online and still live your life and get things done.

I still visit my mommy board pretty much daily. And I pop into facebook to check in on all my lovley friends at least once or twice a day. One site I visit often to look for all the lastest deals is Slickdeals. It's a large community of deal finders and a great resource if you're a bargain shopper like me. I have found Sojourners to be a source of interesting, thought provoking reading for years now. And I always check in with Dave Ramsey when I need a little financial inspiration. Also, I'm a Today show junkie, so I often have to check in here if I want to reference some information I saw on there or see a story I missed.

Want to join the fun, just stop by It's Almost Naptime!! and leave your link.

Through The Lens Thursday #5

Before the kids headed back to school, we decided to take one more fun outing. They had received coupons for free admission to the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory through a reading program offered at the library this summer. Since we hadn't had a chance to visit there yet, we decided that would be a fun way to spend our Monday morning. It was really amazing to see how the bats are made. Bats made for the pro players take all of 40 seconds to be carved. A regular bat, 30 seconds. Really amazing! To be perfectly honest, I think The Man enjoyed this outing more than the rest of us but it was a lot of fun for us all. And really, you can't beat those nifty little souvenir bats they give to everyone at the end of the factory tour.

The first picture has nothing to do with the museum itself, however, it was parked across from the museum so I had to take a picture of it.


Outside the museum


Giant Mobile of Bats


The Gang


Louisville


Each Thursday I share a photo or photos offering a glimpse at my world through the lens. I hope you will join me. If you would like to be a part of Through The Lens Thursday, leave your link below. Please link directly to your post and not to your homepage. Also, please link to Life In Focus in your post. Please keep links family friendly. Thank you. I look forward to seeing your photos and sharing life through the lens.

Excuse The Dust

I'm changing the template here. It may take me a day or two to get everything all pretty again. Bear with me. Thanks!

Wordless Wednesday: First Day

The girls started school today. Baby Girl is in first grade and Sister is in fourth grade. Wowwy, Wow, Wow! I find Sister being a fourth grader especially shocking. These years go by so fast. I wish I could keep them little longer but it's also exciting to watch them grow and change and become these fabulous people. The girls were excited to get back to school although Baby Girl admitted to being a little nervous. I'm looking forward to them arriving home this afternoon and hearing all about their first day.

Stop by 5 Minutes For Mom for more Wordless Wednesday.

Blogoversary Giveaways

I'm celebrating my 1 Year Blogoversary over on my other blog this month. I am hosting 7 great giveaways to celebrate and thank my readers. Be sure to stop on over there and enter. I'm posting a new giveaway each day until Friday. Two are already up. So head on over to The Money Jar now.

My Super Fantastic Awesomely Wonderful Can't Believe It Is Real Update

To say these past couple of weeks have been crazy would be an understatement. I've been sitting on an update for a couple of days now because I needed some time to wrap my head around it all and just sit and reflect on it. God is just amazing!

But before I give you the details I need to take you back a bit to early July or maybe even before that. The Man and I have wanted to move back to Alabama for awhile now. We had hoped we'd get to do it when he lost his job last year but it soon became apparent that it just wasn't the right time. So in early July we talked and decided that he would just start putting some feelers out there, try to see if there were any jobs available in any of the areas we wanted to live. He immediately found two opportunities and did phone interviews with both places. Job B was a definite no go but Job A seemed quite promising. So another phone interview was soon set up for that job. A week and half later we hadn't heard anything else from Job A so we figured it wasn't going to go anywhere. We were cool with that. The Man had a job. Things were going along just fine. We were just hoping that sometime by the summer of 2010 we'd be making our way back down South. There was plenty of time to look. So The Man goes into work on July 23rd, our 15th wedding anniversary, and as you know, he loses his job quite unexpectedly. They did not give him a real reason. We don't know if they heard that he was looking elsewhere or if there was some kind of personality conflict with one of his superiors. He'd never been reprimanded in any way and his work record was solid. There was no need to doubt his performance. We were completely shocked. But now we can look back and know without a doubt that losing his job was a God thing.

The afternoon of the 23rd he received a call from Job A requesting an in person interview the following week in south Alabama. The girls and I had already planned a trip to Alabama to visit my family that next week so we decided we'd just take a family trip down there together. The Man decided he would try to make some contacts and set up more interviews while down there if possible to use the trip to his advantage. He did manage to schedule two more phone interviews and another in person interview while we were down there. His last interview was Thursday afternoon and we left Friday morning heading to North Carolina to spend some time with his Grandmother and family. It was lovely to be able to spend 10 days with family with the bonus of getting some interviews in. On the way home Sunday, The Man got a call letting him know that Job C was a no go. We were somewhat disappointed but he had been told a decision about Job A would be reached by Monday so we should hear then. We were still hopeful.

So Monday rolls around and nothing. Tuesday....nothing again. Then Wednesday....nothing....nothing....nothing...then a call saying a decision on Job A hadn't been made yet and he was still in the running. And then Thursday afternoon the call came. And Oh My Goodness, there was a job offer. Two weeks after losing his job he had an offer! We're having to wait until the background check comes back for it to be official and to get more details but he has a job. Hooray! Thank you, Lord! And it gets even better. There are two openings so we will either be living in south Alabama or along the Florida panhandle. I have dreamed of living there my entire.adult.life. We have spent the better part of 15 years going to wherever these restaurant jobs have taken us knowing that God had a reason for us to be in each place. To be allowed after all of this time to live in a place that we have longed to live is somewhat overwhelming. I think that's why it's taken me a couple of days before I can share it here. I'm just so grateful and excited and just Wow!

I've had a couple of days to begin to see how all these little pieces are fitting together. If he hadn't been fired on the 23rd it would have been hard for him to make that in person interview on the 29th. The job loss last September and the "interim" job that he found were all pieces in bringing us to where we are now.

I've thought alot about the verse I was given the day The Man lost his job.
Jeremiah 29:11
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
I know that even if the unemployment dragged on and the money ran out that I would still have hope and a future in Jesus Christ. And I am all the more humbled by this new opportunity He's set in front of us because of that.

Before I had learned about The Man's job loss on our anniversary, I had written the words "I can't wait to see where the next 15 years take us." in his card. I had no idea that God would reveal a new adventure to us so quickly. I am so ready for the next 15 years and beyond.

Through The Lens Thursday #4

Captured this shot of the girls while we were in North Carolina visiting The Man's grandmother and cousins this past weekend.

Also, I have a question about uploading. Do I need to resize my pictures? They look so fuzzy when I upload them but they're not really. What am I doing wrong? Thanks!

Each Thursday I share a photo offering a glimpse at my world through the lens. I hope you will join me. If you would like to be a part of Through The Lens Thursday, leave your link below. Please link directly to your post and not to your homepage. Also, please link to Life In Focus in your post. Please keep links family friendly. Thank you. I look forward to seeing your photos and sharing life through the lens.

Wordless Wednesday: Spinning

I don't even know how many times my kids have spun around on this while at my parents. It never gets old.

For more Wordless Wednesday, stop by 5 Minutes For Mom.