The one where I challenge niece #1

I am a book worm, no shocker there. But what happens is, I get to a cycle where I will read days on end, finish whole series in a week, and then not read for a month. I've tried to pace myself, I've tried to limit my books- nothing works. So this is my reading cycle, and I accept it.

Now, I've waited patiently for my nieces and nephews to grow up and learn to read to see if any of the share my love of books. Turns out, my oldest niece does! Yay!! So, I've started sending her boxes full of books I've loved, some I've picked up just for her, and some that will challenge her.

Lately, books take up a huge chunk of our conversations, and she told me she wants to read all of the great classics. I said, well then I think you need to read Rory's list. Of course, she didn't watch Gilmore Girls (the horror, I know) and had no idea what I was talking about! This is where I get to come in and be the hero Aunt because I knew someone on Pinterest would've had this list typed out for me and Taaaa-daaa! They did!

Rory Reading Challange by Callouu Soup

This lady, Callouu Soup, has it on a post, but also on a file you can print out and make a nice little booklet with CHECK MARK BOXES! A lady after my own heart!


I was so excited about this, that I printed out two booklets! I am determined to get through this reading list and send this to Niece #1 so that we can start checking off boxes!

The one with the sunshiny days

Notice: OH!! Before I forget,  I still don't like facebook, but I couldn't stay away from instagram! Click here to follow me! 


Geez, I haven't posted a Grateful Heart with Ember Grey in a WHILE, so let's fix that, shall we?

+ Grateful for these beautiful family members God gave me. When I think about how hard life is, I couldn't imagine life without the love and support from our families. It truly is my biggest blessing.

+ Grateful for these sunshiny days! I know I said who ever complained about it being too hot this Summer wouldn't be my friend, but I take it back. I LOVE when the sun is out and everything is green, but I don't love bees, or allergies, or humid days where my face feels like it's melting off. Nope, don't love that, but I am happy in the mid 70's days where it's down right lovely outside.

+ I'm incredibly grateful for a Mr. that supports my faith, even though he may not feel the exact same way I do. It's hard sometimes to have a spiritually mismatched marriage, but I couldn't imagine my life without my soul mate, so we just do the best we can! He's my polar opposite, but it works wonderfully.

PrayerfulBloggers.Blogspot.com

                     
+ THE LIBRARYYYYY is what I'm so grateful for lately. We had a rough time a few weeks ago, and when you have a ton of folks in a high stress & high emotional situation for days on end, you need distraction. So, I took off to the library and checked out the best new movies on Bluray and DVD. I just can't get over the fact that you can wait until a movie comes out on DVD, go check it out from your library, and it's all free! I mean, I'll spend $30+ on popcorn and a movie if it something I REALLY want to see, but otherwise, I'm all about saving a few bucks!

And I'm sure there's tons of other things I'm grateful for that I could write down here, but we'll just end it with the library love.




What's the one thing you're grateful for this week?

You know those bucket lists?

A couple years ago, I wrote a list of 35 things to accomplish before 35. And honestly, I really haven't kept up with it or tried to get many crossed off. The funny thing about doing these sort of lists is- some things become unimportant as time passes.  With my birthday next month, I thought I'd do a little remodeling to the list, make it a little more.. me (the me right now).

Here is the list, with revisions in purple, accomplishments in green.

1. Run a marathon.  Not going to happen per Dr.'s orders. 
2. Visit Canada. 
3. Read at least a book a month for a year.
4. Try every single Teavana tea they have on that lovely wall. Not going to happen due to us trying to save more for retirement, maybe by the time we retire! 
5. Cut down TV time to 2 hours per day. Listen to Christian music instead for background noise.Done and done! This has been a great morale booster.
6. Learn French. At least enough to carry a full conversation. (Not Cajun French, but REAL French)
7. Be able to unplug from technology each "weekend" I have with the Husband. We really try to do this every day possible and it's helped our communication TONS!
8. Participate in a craft fair of sorts.
9. Go to a blogger conference. Not going to happen because spending hundreds of dollars for this isn't that appealing to me. 
10. Have the perfect eyebrows! Not that important anymore. 
11. Memorize at least 50 Bible scriptures that mean the most to me.
12. Raise $1000 for charity
13. Donate $1000 for charity
14. Get 1000 hits on my blog   as of 9/19/13 I have over 2100 hits! Boom!
15. Complete a one month picture challenge. 
16. Do a double digit mile hike EVERY MONTH for a year! Not going to happen because it gets wayyy too cold here! 
17. Learn how to make fresh pasta
18. Make a cookbook- for friends, not going to me a millionaire off this one! 
19. Stop drinking soda completely. Done! Not as hard as I thought.
20. Lose 20 pounds.Also done! I have more to loose, but it is slowly coming off!
21. Celebrate our 5 year anniversary.
22. Blog 4 times a week for a year. Probably not going to happen because the blog gets pushed further down my priority list. Family and friends come first.
23. Get baptized! 
24. Visit South Africa, Australia, and Argentina to see our wonderful friends! Probably not all of these will happen... again, saving for that retirement one day.
25.Spend the majority of a day in New Orleans exploring.
26.Go to an LSU game with all my family.
27. See the Northern Lights Maybe one day, but it's not a "Must".
28.Get my theology degree, Working on this one
29.See Chicago like a tourist DONE! Click here to see.
30.Have a fruitful garden (even if it's only a container garden) This may not happen until we get our own place... one day.
31.Get a dog, or cat Adopted sweet Ginny 9/7/13!
32.Visit New York City. Maybe one day, but it's not a "Must".
33.Find our perfect weekly restaurant and go to it for a year.
34. Perfect my Gumbo recipe
35.Make a fabulous bottle of sangria.New meds means no more drinking, so this one is out by default. 

There ya go! In 6 months, I'll do another update to this list, cleaning it up a bit, perhaps adding more to it but this is where we are now. 

Have you ever tried to do a list like this with any success?

The one with the awesome books

So, I took a bit of time off of the blog and my Etsy store to be with family. And, for those of you who blessed us with your prayers and thoughts, I thank you so very much. It meant the world to us.

Now, I feel that our life is settling down a tiny bit- so I'm going to crank out posts while things are quiet, mmmkayyy?

First things first, I have beaucoup book reviews that I NEED to get published ASAP or the publishing houses may send me dreaded reminder emails. Blah.  Also, ** I received these books complimentary in exchange for my honest opinion.**

Here we go:


From BookLookBloggers.com

Soul Friends by Leslie Parrott

This book is a great reminder of how God wants you to share your life with your community. Dr. Leslie Parrott explains that you need to open up to people God brings in your life. You never know how He will use that person to help you in your daily Christian walk. Even if you tend to be very guarded and not always welcoming people to your inner circle, Dr. Leslie Parrott explains why this is important as you travel through your four stages of spiritual growth- quest, calling, crisis and communion. This book is perfect when you find yourself in a friendship dry spell, or it would be excellent as a gift to a friend!

Jesus, Bread, & Chocolate John Joseph Thompson

Great book, lots of colorful stories infused with, as the title suggests, Jesus, bread, and chocolate. John J. Thompson also sprinkles faith based messages in with his passion of music. It is an easy but astounding read; always looping back and tying in the message of Jesus with his stories, which I love and believe many will resonate with.  This book really makes me stop and think about how I approach my faith- is it an authentic approach because it's what I want, or is it a mass-marketed approach because it's what I've absorbed from watching TV, or hearing others speak. Basically, it forces you to think about how you want to be in daily life and your walk with Christ, do you want to conform to this world or do you want to do this life in your own, authentic way?

From Blogging for Books- Infuse

                        

This book was visually appealing. The recipes seem to be fairly easy, and many follow along the "Why didn't I think of that?" train of thought. I love that they also include recipes for how to use the finished infused product.  I think this book may be geared more towards someone who has a lot of time to prepare the infusions. Where as I tend to just go out and buy them. Photography is superb.  The book is a tad bit heavy which brings me to my only gripe about this book- I believe it would be better with a hardback.


And finally, from Tyndale Publishers- 

                                   

Vince Antonucci is an artist. He takes people's stories, weaves them throughout the book, and all the while, you start to get a picture in your mind's eye that God truly loves you. If he loves all these people in the stories, he's bound to love you. It doesn't matter where you are in life, if you're on the top- your life is perfect, or if you've hit rock bottom and think there is no way you can pick yourself up again. God is with you and loves you. And this book makes sure you know it by showing you God's love in real stories and examples. This is one of those books that you save on your bookshelf, because you know at some point in your life, you're going to need to read it again to be reminded just how much God loves you.


Whew! Now I'm all caught up on book reviews, and I can get to my fun book- I'm reading How to Kill a Mockingbird again so I can dive into Go Set a Watchman.


What are you reading now?

Yay for Pluto!

How amazingly awesome is this?

SNEAK PEEK of gorgeous Pluto! The dwarf planet has sent a love note back to Earth via our New Horizons spacecraft, which has traveled more than 9 years and 3+ billion miles. This is the last and most detailed image of Pluto sent to Earth before the moment of closest approach - 7:49 a.m. EDT today. This same image will be released and discussed at 8 a.m. EDT today. Watch our briefing live on NASA Television at: http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv The high res pic will be posted on the web at: http://www.nasa.gov. This stunning image of the dwarf planet was captured from New Horizons at about 4 p.m. EDT on July 13, about 16 hours before the moment of closest approach. The spacecraft was 476,000 miles (766,000 kilometers) from the surface. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #pluto #plutoflyby #newhorizons #solarsystem #nasabeyond #science

A photo posted by NASA (@nasa) on Jul 14, 2015 at 4:00am PDT

I've been watching the live stream from NASA.com this morning and I'm just geeking out over here! I can't wait until additional images come in! Poor Pluto! We demote it and THEN get the closest images ever.

And I am doing everything I can to NOT go in there and wake the Mr. so he can see this! He's a space lover, too. He shouldn't be that aggravated I wake him 3 hours early, right?


Are you as excited as I am? Comment below!

So, I'm going to take a little break, not forever.... just for right now. I will return with lots of book reviews and updates for my life.

Somethings in life are more important that the blogosphere.

 "Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 

and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.Do you believe this?"  John 11:25-26

The one with a little Hello Kitty and a dash of migraines

I love when a fellow blogger lets you into their personal lives, even if it's just a little bit. You really feel like you're getting to know them. So, when I saw Charlene link up with Helene about a "Things you don't know about me" post, I wanted to jump in so you guys could get to know me a bit!

So, here we go... things you probably don't know about me...

+ We sponsor a child from Indonesia through Compassion.com  During the Rend concert, they spoke about Compassion during the concert so after, we checked out their table set up in the hallway of the church. I've always wanted to "Sponsor" a child, but I was very skeptical about how much really gets to the child & if they just use the same children over & over. This company is legit, y'all! Our little guy is so adorable! I wish I could scoop him up for reals! If you have ever had this on your heart, please check out this company, they are awesome!

+ I am in love with everything Japanese.  My friends say I should've been born Japanese. I love Hello Kitty like a 5 year old girl. I can eat a ton of sushi, so can my Mr. Good thing I learned how to make and roll sushi at home! I mean this list could go on & on, but I'm such a sucker for anything Japanese!

+ I have an endless amount of love.  The Mr. and I were just talking about this, I knew I always felt strongly about things, and he says I have an endless amount of love to give everyone. OK, so maybe I do. If you're close to me, you know what I'm talking about! It kinda goes back to the whole "Circle of Friends" post I wrote about here. 

+ Funny people are my favorite! I think Jennifer Lawrence, Karl Plinkerton (An Idiot Abroad show), Chris Pratt, and Sue Sylvester ( Cheer coach from Glee) need to be my real life BFFs! It may take a while for someone to get to know me, but once I open up to you, I tend to make people laugh... sometimes even when I don't realize something I said is funny!

+ I am OBSESSED with safety! I would rather drive than ride with someone just because I know I'm in control of the vehicle. And the only arguments the Mr. & I have is when I side seat drive and fuss when he's speeding or doing something wrong (in my opinion). Not that he's a horrible driver, but I drive like a Grandma, and I don't wanna die! I'm also very well equipped if a thief or intruder were to come in the house, because let's face it, Ginny MAY love them to death, but she certainly isn't a guard dog!

+ Migraines per month: sometimes 4+. Yes, the kinda migraines that knock you on your butt, it hurts to exist and you're sick all day, but then they last for days at a time? Yeah, that type of migraine visits me 4 or more times a month and it's the WORST!

+ I'm 5'8".  Which is kinda tall!

+ I'm extremely claustrophobic. Small spaces? Nope. Cool old volcano tubes? Nope. Caves? No way! Y'all, it's so bad that I make the Mr. roll over at night if we end up facing the same way because I feel like he's taking my air and I will suffocate. Yes, it's that bad. I will even go outside during a get together because I feel like the room is too small and there are too many people taking all the air out of the room. And let's face it, I'm a bit of an introvert, so a few minutes of quiet time away from folks is always a must for me.

There you have it! A few random things about me that you probably never wanted to know but ya got them anyway!

Anything else you've always wondered? Comment below!

Spring-ish cleaning

NO secret that if you have a chronic illness, your going to not have the energy or good days as normal folk. And it's also no secret after hibernating in Chiberia all Winter, your house is screaming for a good spring cleaning.

Those two do not go together! But I have such determination, that my Spring cleaning has been delayed due to lack of energy & good days. So it's more like Spring-ish through Summer-ish cleaning! It's taking for-evvv-errrrr  But that's not going to stop me!

And to make it so I remember what I've done, and what I need to do, I scoured pinterest for a specific cleaning list... and y'all, it's awesome!

Click here to download it from LittleBooBoo.com

This gal made me so happy! Ashley, you're awesome!

I am plotting & planning on what I'm going to do on what days, and I can't wait to have a freshly deep cleaned house... ya know, whenever my body allows it, OR whenever the Mr. is able to help me, ahemmmm hint ahemmmm!


Do you Spring clean? Does it help you keep a tidy house? Give me all your tips & tricks to save time & energy!