"School Zone Party"

Our family moved to the area we are now in almost two years ago. We moved here as missionaries to start a Baptist church. The beginnings have been slow. We were able to start a youth group a year and four months ago. We rented a building for church services and started Sunday services about five months ago. God has really been blessing, and it's so exciting to see.
Last Saturday we had our first annual "School Zone Party" It was an event in which we gave out free school supplies, had lunch and snacks available, games, and sign ups for give-a-ways. A lot of planning and resources went into this three hour event, and the response has been wonderful.
The community is seeing that this new church in town really cares about them and wants to get to know them. We've been able to meet a lot of new people and have good conversations with them about important things. We are trying to meet these people where they are and show them the need for the Lord in their lives. We are in a very small community, and Sunday we were excited to see 30 people in our services. This may not seem like many to most people, but each soul is so important.
This Tuesday I am so grateful for the opportunity God gives each and every one of us!

Doterra Lemon Oil

I've recently found the doterra line of essential oils and plan on trying them out little by little when I get the chance. So far I've gotten the lemon and slim and sassy. I hope to give a more detailed opinion/review when I've had them for longer, but I want to mention something about the lemon today.
I was taking out the trash this morning, and the empty trash can smelled terrible - even after I wiped it out. I put two drops of lemon oil in a cup of water and poured that into the can. I swished it around, poured it out, and wiped it dry.
It smelled lemony fresh! I couldn't believe how powerful just two drops were.

Grateful For Thirteen Years

As I mentioned in a previous post, my husband and I celebrated an anniversary yesterday. It's been 13 years. I know everybody says this, but the time just seems to fly. And on each anniversary, I can't help but stop and feel grateful. I could go on and on about how grateful I am for him, but a few things stand out.
He is a romantic and adores me (even when I'm not adorable!)
He puts God first in our lives, our marriage, our family. He is very good at keeping an eternal perspective in our lives here on earth.
He is continually investing in me and our kids - putting forth time to create special moments in our busy schedule to show us how loved we are.
I am definitely looking forward to this next year!

The Morning After A Day Of Junk Food

Most of us have them. A day where when we eat junk all day long, because it's a special day and someone has brought a lot of junk in and we just eat it because it's there!
Yesterday was our anniversary, and my husband and I bought each other treats to celebrate. Probably too many treats. And we ate them all day long until they were gone. And then we got ice cream after our dinner out. I felt yucky!

What to do the morning after?

I've found that it doesn't take much to get back on track.
Drink water - I like to fill my glass water bottle with 20 oz. water and drink it before breakfast.
Break a sweat - I have a 30 min. 2 mile walk video by Leslie Sansone and I found it's great for getting a little movement in and breaking a sweat.
Have a good breakfast - Most mornings we have oatmeal as a base for our breakfast. We will often add smoothies, eggs, or fruit to round it out.

After doing these three things I always feel a lot better!

Anniversary On A Budget

Today is my husband's and my anniversary. In the past we've done some pretty expensive things for our anniversary. Once we went to a cabin in a beautiful wooded area for two nights. Another year we went to a pricey hotel and did lots of shopping and eating out. Other years we didn't have much money and didn't do much at all and ended up having a pretty blah anniversary day. This year, we don't have much extra money to spend either, but so far the day seems pretty special, and we are both looking forward to the rest of it.
What's the difference?

We talked about it ahead of time.

This year we started planning what we would do a couple of weeks ago. Even though it wasn't much, we've been looking forward to it for days and both have the same expectations!
We both ended up buying the other special snacks which we will enjoy while watching a redbox movie this evening. For dinner we are going to go out for an early supper with our almost one yr. old daughter (during her "happy" time) while our two older boys stay home as they are old enough to stay home alone.
These are simple things, but so special, because we talked about it ahead of time and both had the same expectations for the day.
Pretty Basic!