It's time for a change!

In case you haven't noticed, the posts on this blog have pretty much come to a dead halt!
And that is because I have decided it is time to stop messing around with the "blogging" thing and really put more time and effort into it. So if you feel so inclined, I invite you to check out my new blog which will be launching tonight at 7pm (Sept 1, 2016)

www.proverbs31potential.com

love your body

Today’s post is going to be a little raw. The topic has been on my mind for a few days as I wrestled with it in my own life and have finally come to terms.

When do you plan on being happy with your body?

I’m serious.

When is your body going to be where you want it to be?

Do you need to lose weight? Get some muscle tone? Maybe you need to gain a few pounds? Or perhaps there is some kind of feature you have thought about surgically removing or enhancing?

When are you going to love your body for what it is?

I know that for years I have dwelled on the various imperfections and at times been hung up by them. There have always been things I wanted to change. And I know I am not the only one.

Thankfully, there is a new trend happening. This new fad of “real women” gracing magazine covers, and celebrities revealing untouched photos. It’s a wonderful change, and it got me thinking…

You see, in our apartment the bathroom mirrors are HUGE and when you are getting into the shower, you can see it all. Every imperfection, jiggle, and dimple. It had become my least favorite part of the day because I didn’t like many aspects of my body.

Each day I would tell myself, “Maybe if you work out harder, you will notice a change at the end of the month and be happier with what you see.” And that is all fine and good, I should increase my workouts and strive to see changes in my body, but what about this moment?

This picture was taken at
our family lake day, you can't
see my thighs super well, but
I still was hung up about this
picture of me, but NOT
anymore!

Why do I have to be insecure about different parts of my body now? Everyone on this planet has a body issue, something they would change or alter if given the chance. But that takes away from this moment. It steals a little bit of your joy by not enjoying where you are at.

So I changed up how I see my body. Instead of focusing on the imperfections, (for me it’s cellulite and stretch marks on my thighs), I have decided to praise my body for where it’s at.

 My body is strong. There is nothing I need to accomplish, or want to, that my body cannot handle. And that for me is enough. I won’t stop working out or pushing to see changes, but I refuse to hate on my body anymore.

I’m not going to beat myself up when I eat too much pizza and am a little bloated. I’m not going to feel like a failure if I take a day off from working out. I am not going to avoid wearing a bathing suit because I’m insecure about my thighs.

I am going to love my body exactly the way it is. Because for each imperfection I see, there are millions of other reasons to love it. And it was designed specifically for me by God. So I refuse to waste another day not loving my body, and I invite you to do the same.

Insurance Nightmare

Ok, today was a totally mess. I contemplated not even doing a post because I would much rather call it a day and pop open a bottle of wine to relax. But then I realized what I went through today is something worth talking about because not enough people pay close attention to what is going on in their finances and bills.

To make a long and horribly frustrating story short, Josh and I had a terrible experience with our IL insurance agent.

Ok, that may be too vague… Here is the short version of the saga that has (hopefully) concluded today. When Josh and I got married we took out life insurance policies, a new auto policy for our car, and jewelry insurance. One may think, that’s easy, just take out the policies and make your payments and things will be great. You would be wrong. Our life insurance policies cancelled and reinstated multiple times causing us to be constantly fixing the problem, until we got fed up in March and switched life insurance providers. Then we moved to WI and had to transfer our auto policy. That should have been finalized in May, it is now August 1^st and we are still getting bills for the IL policy. In my quest to get that policy officially cancelled we learned my car has a policy in IL and WI. And we learned that our life insurance policies were never cancelled correctly so we never got our reimbursements.

3 hours, 5 emails, and 10 phone calls later, we MAY finally have it in the works of being sorted out.

So I tell you this story (sparing so many frustrating details) to encourage you to be on top of your finances, insurances, and bills. Don’t just toss letters for things you have on auto-pay or ignore your monthly bank statements. You work hard for your money and should be conscious of where it is going at all times. And anyone that you hire to do a service (insurance, auto care, housekeeping, ANYTHING), should be willing to work with you and solve problems. But always make sure you get confirmation of things being accomplished and SAVE receipts, emails, letters, any correspondence as proof so that you can fight charges you don’t deserve.

Don’t be lazy about your money or allow yourself to be taken advantage of. 

Quality Time

Family time is incredibly important. Even if it’s just you and your spouse right now, taking time to be together has a really positive impact on your marriage and life together.

My tiny family last night, snuggled up and laughing

Josh and I are blessed to be able to spend every evening together. Most of the time it consists of eating dinner and watching that night's favorite show, but every once in a while that time becomes more than just 2 people sharing the same couch and staring at the TV.

Last night was great example of that.

I spent much of the afternoon preparing dinner so that when Josh got home the two of us could actually catch up face to face instead of it being while I prep dinner. (I made chicken strips and cheesy potato casserole, yum!) So all I had to do was pop everything in the oven and the two of us could sit down together and catch up on our days. (And update our budget, yay!).

It set a really good tone for the night, our ability to not be distracted while we caught up. The two of us were able to focus on each other and carry forward our conversations the rest of the night. Which got to be really entertaining.

On Thursday’s we catch up on Suits. (Yes, our dog is named after the main character).  But instead of tossing on a sitcom from Netflix after and watching our night tick away, Josh turned on an animal documentary. So we sat and talked about the various animals, their struggles, and often found ourselves laughing at some of the weird things they do. It was also fun because Harvey would periodically watch too.

Our night wasn’t crazy busy, or really all that thrilling, but it did break up our week night routine which was awesome. Laughing together and talking all evening sure beats listening to the same sitcom until we get bored and start scrolling our phones. (On that note, if you don’t have a set “technology free” time, I recommend it. Having to put away phones and computers takes away distractions and helps aid in spending great time together).

Great nights of quality time with your spouse don’t have to be extravagant. Just do some minor things to break up the routine and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

(I have also learned that my "Love Language" is quality time, so this is right up my alley. To find your love language you can Google search a quiz).

Couple's Bible Study Resource

It’s been a while since I posted something about marriage specifically, so today I want to share something Josh and I discovered during our weekly Bible Study and devotional time together.

Every Wednesday, Josh and I have been setting aside time just before dinner to sit together and spend time with God learning about His plan for marriage. Last year, we stumbled upon an excellent online resource that has great couples Bible Study options, Simply One in Marriage, which is a website.

You can choose from several different topics and each one includes questions to ask each other at the end, which is super helpful to further dive into the topic you covered. (Check it out for yourself: http://simplyoneinmarriage.com/couples-bible-study/)

We have used this resource numerous times and last week the study we did connected us to something they call “Couple Connect.” Which is basically a guide for your weekly time together. (http://simplyoneinmarriage.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Couple-Connect-2.pdf)

Since we are up for anything, we decided to give it a try the last two weeks and have found it to be really helpful!

It brings up topics that we weren’t originally including in our time together, like “accountability,” “decisions,” and “thankfulness.” We have been really enjoying adding this layout to our weekly time together, and it has sparked some excellent conversations.

It’s important to us to make our weekly time a priority but without having a plan, you can spend more time trying to figure out what to cover that actually doing what you set the time aside for. I know it used to be super frustrating to Josh and I when we couldn’t find a resource we both liked or that included questions afterward the lesson. We really like the website I shared, and it is added to quite frequently. Plus, there are already so many topics to choose from, you certainly won’t get bored or have a hard time finding something.

If you have been struggling to set aside devotional time with your spouse, I highly recommend checking out Simply One in Marriage and taking advantage of the Couple Connect they have created.

(I once again have not been asked to endorse this website or their various offerings, I just am sharing what I found and loved). 

Homemade Chicken Parm

It's a rainy day up here in Manitowoc, and while I can’t decide on what to make for dinner tonight, I am still thinking about what we had on Monday!

Every once in a while I will stumble upon a recipe on Pinterest for something I love and decide to give it a try and Monday was no exception. Several days prior I saw a pin for 3 cheese chicken Parmesan and couldn’t wait to whip it up. With a few tweaks of my own of course!

The “recipe” wasn’t really helpful, so I had to kind of guess what the original Pinner was trying to get across, and I think I did a decent job. So if you enjoy chicken parm, you should definitely give this a try.

First you need your ingredients:

·         1 defrosted chicken breast per person you are feeding

·         1 egg

·         A little milk (probably close to ¼ of a cup)

·         Breadcrumbs

·         Parmesan

·         Mozzarella

·         Olive Oil

·         Pasta (we used whole wheat shells, but I would recommend a different noodle, like spaghetti)

·         Sauce (I make my own)

·         Bread (if you like it as a side, I make that too)

o   If you want to copy the butter I made for the bread you will also need:

§  Fresh Basil (8 leaves)

§  1 teaspoon of garlic

§  ½ stick of butter

-          First pour some oil into a frying pan, you don’t need a lot just cover the whole bottom of the pan. Heat the oil (you know the oil is ready when you stick a wooden spoon end in and bubbles form around it).

-          While the oil is heating prep your chicken. Crack the egg into a bowl and add the milk. Whisk it together so that it isn’t separated (put some pepper in this too). And pour your bread crumbs into another bowl.

-          Dip each chicken piece in the egg and then dip in the bread crumbs. If your oil is heated put the chicken right into the pan. The goal here is just to brown the outside, so keep an eye on it. I had mine on each side for less than a minute.

-          Then place the chicken into your baking pan. Pour a spoonful of sauce on each piece, and top with your cheeses. Bake in a 375-degree oven for about 25 minutes, again, keep an eye on it since some chicken pieces are thicker than others.

-          While that is baking, cook your pasta and heat your sauce. Once that’s done I toss the two together.

-          If you make your own bread, follow that recipe and plan it accordingly so everything finishes at the same time.

o   For the butter, I melted the stick in the microwave, finely cut the basil leaves and mixed them in the butter along with the garlic.

o   I then put it in the fridge so it would set, pulling it out periodically to re-stir so that nothing would settle on the bottom.

-          Once the chicken is done, serve over your pasta! Done!

I was surprised by how easy the prep was for this dinner and it got great reviews from my husband who actually said it tasted like it would if you ordered it at a restaurant! I’m thinking it will be added to our meal rotations.

Niagara Falls!

Part 3!

For as long as Josh and I have known each other, we have talked about doing a road trip. But for years it didn’t happen because either the money wasn’t there, or we could get friends to actually commit to going with us. The road trip talk didn’t stop after we got married though, and after careful planning, we figured out a way to make it work.

Josh still had one more Spring Break and we knew that would be as good a time as any to make the trip happen.

Ice House Winery

We decided that our destination was going to be Niagara Falls and that we would drive up through Canada and home through the states. I was excited! I had never been to the falls or Canada and couldn’t wait. Plus, I found an awesome deal on Groupon (again, I don’t get paid to mention them, it’s just my experience) that included our hotel stay, wineries, and other various touristy things. (Yes there are SEVERAL wineries near the Falls, and they are excellent!)

Our drive began on a Monday and we knew that day one would get us all the way to Niagara Falls, Canada. The drive out wasn’t too eventful, but it was still a blast. You see, Josh and I have this crazy ability to be in the car for hours and not use the radio. After all these years together, we can still fill long car rides with endless conversations. It’s pretty awesome, especially since our music tastes don’t overlap by much.

It was gloomy and cold, but that doesn't stop us!

The Falls at night

We arrived at our hotel in the early evening, hungry and happy to be out of the car. The room we got was beautiful. We dropped our stuff off and headed out. It was FREEZING still up there so we were thrilled to have packed our winter gear. After dinner, we walked down to the Falls. They were lit up and we were able to catch our first glimpse. It was beautiful.

The next day was strictly Falls focused. We grabbed breakfast and started to walk. The Falls were breath-taking! Anything you have seen of them on TV or in photos, simply does not do it justice! You have to get there and see them for yourselves. We spent a lot of time there, staring at the water, visiting the little tourist shops, and reading up on some Falls facts in the guest building. It’s an incredible place.

But there is SO much more to do there than see the Falls, which we didn’t know. Turns out, there is tons of tourist attractions, casinos, and like I said before, wineries. So we spent the rest of our day doing those things. It was a fabulous trip. We stayed there for 2 nights/3 days, and got to experience and see so much.

The picture we have on the wall

And then, the drive home ended up being a huge part of our trip too! One of our goals as a couple is to visit all of the NFL stadiums. And since we were in our car and had the freedom to, we decided to stop by some on the way home! My favorite part was of course our drive to Pittsburgh, so I could see Heinz Field! It was just as awesome as I always imagined it would be.

Me in my happy place!

Instead of spending more time in a hotel, and partially because once you hit a certain point in Indiana that leaves you without many options, we chose to drive straight through to home. It was a long day, and LONG night, but we managed to get home around 2am. (And were lucky enough to catch Portillo’s before it closed in Schaumburg for dinner).

Road trips are awesome! And the best part is not planning it out. Sure we knew where we wanted to end up, but we had no agenda for the drives or even once we got there. It forces you to go with the flow and take things as they come. And for someone like me, I need that every once in a while. So we chose a photo we took of the Falls to be our final print in our family room, to remind us to go with the flow and always go on adventures together.