Giving

Happy Tuesday! Yesterday Hunter got an unexpected (and much needed) day off and we went romping around in the mountains. SO wonderful! Fun pictures coming soon :) Colorado really is such a wonderful place to live and I am feeling refreshed and full of energy today!

I'm also really really excited to share some fun news with you! A few months ago I came across this sweet blog and I fell in love. Carina is so genuine and I just love reading about her 3 precious boys. She also writes about adoption which is always on my heart. I know that now isn't the time for Hunter and I, but I still have such a desire to support adoption in some way.

In the past few weeks I've been putting a lot of time and work into building my Sugar Mama online business, but I've had some stress about it. The more I pray about it the more I feel like God is telling me to be generous. I have such a desire to help our family financially, but I can hear Him telling me to trust Him with our money and give.

So... long story short: I made a new Sugar Mama cupcake kit to support Nick and Carina's adoption! Carina does this awesome thing with her kids twice a month and she calls it Bakin' it to the Streets. Basically they make something delicious and then use it to brighten someone's day. They GIVE it away! So I've added a Bakin' it to the Streets Cupcake Kit to my etsy shop. For $18 you get a gluten free/vegan cupcake mix, a frosting mix, pink cupcake wrappers (new baby is a girl :) and sprinkles. Plus is all comes in a box that will fit 12 finished cupcakes so you can give them away if you're so inclined. Best part is that every sale puts Nick & Carina $8 closer to bringing home their baby girl!

**Even better: if you buy 2 the second one ships FREE so you might as well get one for yourself and one as a gift!

Please consider buying one of these cupcake kits to support Carina and her family as they follow God's will for them to add to their family by adoption.

"Light shines in the darkness for the godly.

They are generous, compassionate, and righteous."

Psalm 112:4

Sleep

I'm thankful for a baby that sleeps. Honestly, the girl really is a champ.

One of my biggest fears when i was pregnant was that I would never sleep again. Silly, I know, but I really like sleep. I mean it's not that I just want to sleep all the time, but 8 hours a night is good, thank you.

Don't get me wrong, I haven't seen a straight 8 hours of sleep in a while. Fortunately, the Lord has changed my priorities a bit and shown me how I can in fact still function without it :)

But I know that I get more sleep than many new moms and I'm very thankful...

Yes I'm thankful Lily sleeps. I'm also thankful that she doesn't quite sleep all night yet. I don't know if I'm ready. I really really love bringing her back to our bed at 3:3o to snuggle for the rest of the night.

I like that she still can't quite make it a whole night without her mama :)

Field Trip Friday {Dreaming}

So last Friday Hunter & I had big plans to drive up to the mountains after work... again. Traffic was stupid and Lil was a mess so we settled for dinner at our fave Mexican restaurant instead :) Wonderful evening, but alas, I have no pictures. So...... for this week's field trip Friday I'll be dreaming about the field trip I really wish i was taking.

I'm going to the beach. Join me, won't you? This is my all time favorite picture of me and Hunter. It's from our honeymoon in Mexico. When I'm super stressed out and need to get away, this is where I go. The sun is shining, the water sparkles, my husband looks like a model and my legs look GOOD. I'm sorry but they do. Don't worry, that's not how they're looking 3 years and a baby later :) It's cool.

Here we are celebrating anniversary #2 last year in Seattle. PS I've been noticing how all of the bloggers I follow seem to be so fashionable... Enjoy some Greeno fashion at its finest. On Ashley: Navy hoodie with black workout shorts. Cute. And on Hunter: his very favorite Heavyweights t-shirt. I love him so much!

Now rewind almost 5 1/2 years to Long Beach, CA where Hunter and I met. Here we are out to sushi on our first date. A couple a youngsters :) Today I'm extra thankful he's in my life. Yep, I'm more thankful for Hunter than for peanut butter cookies! He's just really wonderful and the past 5 1/2 years have been really amazing.

I keep reading everyone's blog posts and facebook updates about how happy they are for fall... and don't get me wrong, I can find things to enjoy about this season (chocolate chip pumpkin bread, an extra snuggly pug and hazelnut coffee to name a few) but if I could be anywhere today I would be soaking up some sunshine on the beach in southern California.

I can't wait to take Lily to the beach for the first time. It's so awe inspiring, peaceful and calming. Being at the ocean puts everything into perspective for me. I just can't help but remember how BIG and powerful God is, and yet so creative.

So, where are you going today?

Get your craft on: dry erase board

Wahoo!! I'm so excited about this craft!!!!! I found this amazing big frame at Goodwill a few weeks ago and I was pumped to do something really great with it.


Unfortunately, I'm way to impatient to photograph the whole crafting process so my DIYs are kind of lame. More of a before/after really. Anyway, all you do is spray paint a cool frame, put fun fabric behind the glass and voila. It's a gorgeous dry erase board that makes me inspired to write down goals... Inspired to accomplish them? We shall see.


I'm mostly excited about it because I stepped out of my aqua comfort zone and went with some pretty fall colors that did not disappoint. I love that fabric!

Oktoberfast

I guess we not really fasting. I was just trying to be clever :) But we're not eating out.

We've been wasting way too much money and I needed a reason to get to cookin' so we're eating in for a month.

So far so good! I know it has only been 4 days, but still. I've made squash boats with quinoa, pulled pork & tofu stir fry is coming up tomorrow.

This gluten free, vegan macaroni and cheese is coming up too. Sooooooo good!

I've also agreed to put meat on the menu twice a week. It's a good compromise because Hunter likes it and I get that, but cooking it makes me gag... So I choose things like pulled pork because you put it straight in the crock pot and you never have to cut it or touch it raw. Hurray!

Anyway, we're hoping to save a little money and get back on the budget bandwagon.

I thought I'd announce it for accountability. If anyone has any delicious crock pot recipes, please share. I'm loving that thing lately!

Sashes to the Merchants

Proverbs 31 has been on my heart constantly lately. How can I be more like this fabulous woman of God? Her husband and children adore her. She is hard-working, productive, wise and generous. She's crafty, arguably fashionable (v22), and it seems to me she doesn't sleep.

huh.

I just seem to fall very very short of this measure. Some days I get so bummed about it too. I am definitely trying to work hard at my business and I pray that it will be a blessing to my family and to others. I stay up late... early mornings though? Time-management. What?

Anyway, when Jessi emailed me about Sashes to the Merchants, which is name after Proverbs 31, I was so so excited! She and Ellen have created this space for a community of women to "gather". I can't wait to connect with other women and moms who are trying to figure this all out too. Today is the official kickoff. Head over and check it out!

Thankful

We've been figuring some stuff out lately.

Some hard stuff. Some fun stuff. Some tricky stuff.

Sorry. I'm not feeling elaborate tonight.

But I am feeling thankful.

I just read this post and felt inspired to be more vocal with my thanksgiving.

So tonight I am thankful for cookies. Let's start simple shall we? I decided to be thankful every single day this month right along with Hannah and I'm thankful for a lot more important things, it's true. We'll get to those.

For now I just love this warm peanut butter chocolate chip cookie.

I'm thankful it's gluten free & vegan and I can enjoy every crumb of it without a stomach ache.

I'm thankful that creating it brings me so much joy.

I'm thankful that I may have an opportunity to share these cookies and support Love146, an organization that is doing amazing things to help end child sex slavery and exploitation!

What are you thankful for?