Blessings Through Raindrops

I was sitting on the examination table wearing one of those sterile hospital gowns they give you looking at him across the room. He was nicely dressed, sitting cross-legged next to my husband when he looks at me and says, "you have cancer." In one moment my heart began to race and a huge lump formed in my throat. The tears began to fall as he proceeded to explain the most "aggressive" treatment options and research facts on prognosis. The doctor kept saying in his smooth Indian accent, "you understand, right?" But all I could do was nod my head and try and swallow what was now a HUGE lump in my throat.

He left the room and my husband I were alone. I was baffled. I couldn't even say the word. My mind was racing in a million directions, what stage was I in, what about Addison, if I died who would mother her? That was the the worst thought of them all. My girl, without me, me without her? My husband, without me? WHY God why? The tears just fell and fell as we made our way to the doctors office to discuss treatment further. He said, "full hysterectomy and another major surgery." I was only 3 weeks out from my first surgery! How can this be? I'm only 35. Why? No more children. Adding to my already mounted feeling of hurt and loss over not being able to have children thus far.

The next few weeks were some of the hardest weeks of my life. At first I didn't want to talk to anyone because of how wrecked I was. I was broken, scared, unsure, discouraged. I didn't want to hear those pat answers people always give, "I'm praying for you." Although I do appreciate and understand the power of prayer. I was mad. Too mad to hear it. Gently over time my sister's loving words of support eased my pain and anger. Only then did I open myself up to talk with other family members, including my poor mom who had been waiting days to talk to me about my results.

We proceeded to seek out council and got another oncologists opinion. We felt more comfortable with him and decided to go with him and his recommendations. Scared, but trusting God had the greater plan for my life, I prepped for my second surgery.

After weeks of waiting, tests, CAT scans, poke and prods, my doctor came to me 3 days after surgery with a smile on his face. He said "there is no cancer, we didn't find anything else." He was smiling and so was I. I cheered the best I could for a girl who was lying in a hospital bed. :)

There were no reasons why. Cancer does not discriminate, no one is exempt. It exists because of sin in our world. It has nothing to do with our gracious and generous God. He is always loving, forgiving, caring, & protective. Sometimes the rain falls and falls but He is always there. Always. He never changes. One song that helped me through my dark days was Steven Curtis Chapman's song Be Still And Know. I can't tell you how many times I meditated on this song (a practice encouraged by my loving brother) and cried and cried. Be still and know...He IS God. Meditation proved to be super helpful during my trial.

This blog is about thankfulness; giving God the glory for what He's done for me. Like my husband reminded our congregation yesterday, if we don't praise Him, the rocks will cry out!

Psalms 118:1: "Give thanks to The Lord, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting."

Psalms 30:11-12: "Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing; Thou hast loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness; That my soul may sing praise to Thee, and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to thee forever."

My blessings have come through raindrops. I look around and see that God is good, so very good.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Plan to Eat Night # 2

Yesterday was a very busy day! My sister-in-law and brother-in-law were down visiting from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for a few days. My sister-in-law, Mo, wanted to show me around Ann Arbor (University of Michigan area) for the day, since I'm new to living in Michigan. Wow, it's a beautiful town! Thanks Mo! Mo treated me to lunch at Zingerman's (http://www.zingermansbakehouse.com/). I had a grilled tuna fish sandwich, which was fantastic. It was nice to be with her as we don't get to spend much time together since we live about 12 hours away from each other. It was a fun day filled with visits to her favorite places like Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, A kids Consignment Boutique, a most delicious bagel spot and more. I cherish the time I get to spend with her.

Since I knew we would be gone all day, I decided to use a crock pot recipe for dinner last night. It only took me 10 minutes or less to prep and throw all the ingredients in the pot before we left in the morning. It's always nice to come home to food cooking in the crock pot or oven...it's the feeling of warmth and home...ahh.

Anyways, so I made crock pot chicken fajitas. I got the idea off Pinterest and while we liked how they turned out, we didn't love them. Here's the link to the recipe if you want to try it yourself: http://eatathomecooks.com/2012/12/easy-crockpot-chicken-fajitas.html

The recipe wasn't "clean" as I didn't make my own fajita spice mix and I used store bought tortillas. But it was still nice to come home to dinner already cooked, all I had to do was shred some cheddar cheese~! Perfecto!

Plan to Eat Night #1

For the first night of our Plan To Eat week I made:

~Bunless grilled burgers

~Sweet Potato Hash with

red bell pepper, onions, and 

seasoned with thyme, rosemary

and crushed red pepper

~Steamed green beans

The sweet potato hash was a huge hit in our house!  The entire dinner took about an hour to cook/grill. Not too bad for a meal that was completely homemade and clean~! I don't have any recipes for this meal, I created them from scratch (my own ideas). If you'd like the recipe for the hash, let me know! I can create it based on what I did tonight. 

Night one, a success!

Plan To Eat!

So many times after a long day or meetings at church, my husband and I look at each other and say, "boy am I tired, can we just pick something up for dinner?" Or we just pop that frozen pizza we had stowed away in our freezer into the oven for a quick dinner.

This is not always our dinner story but at least once or twice a week we are eating out and we want to start minimizing that if at all possible for the sake of our waistlines and pocketbook! Being that I stay home and my husband is a Pastor, we live on a tight budget as it is.

So it is my personal challenge this week to make all five of our dinner meals (lunch & breakfast too) at home this week. Also I plan on not using anything processed. I will be using items such as organic canned black beans but I think that is just fine. All five of these recipes are new to me so this should be an adventure! And hey, who doesn't like to try new things or ideas~?


I will be having surgery next week so I also want to take the time to cook for my family, sit down and enjoy leisurely dinners since I will be pretty much out of commission for 6 weeks! I'm sure during some of that time my husband and daughter will eat out or pop in a pizza but I know that it's just temporary and then we'll be back on track towards eating more clean.

I'm excited! I hope you'll join me this week as I'll be posting each night as to what we ate and what recipe I used. :)

Strawberry Muffins

Strawberries are on sale this week at Meijer for only $1. When I saw the sign, I was like, "say what?!" Whoop, whoop! 10 for $10 or you could mix and match items in the store that were labeled 10 for $10 as well. I was one happy girl, 'cause most people know I adore strawberries-they're my favorite fruit. So I picked up 3 packages of them and decided to try a new recipe with some of the strawberries.

I have been baking a lot lately with Addison; we've been making a lot of banana muffins and breads. So I thought why not try and make some strawberry muffins this week. I've never made them or tasted any before. I found a good sounding recipe and off we went to the kitchen to bake our little hearts out.

These muffins turned out great! So great they were blog worthy. I was thinking, "I must share this recipe with my friends!" So here it is girls, I hope you enjoy them as much as we did. We ate a few and packaged all the rest up for friends and delivered them fresh out of the oven.

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/strawberry-muffins-3

On another cooking note...I'm been contemplating offering cooking classes in my home. A few friends said they would be interested in attending...it's just a thought for now...but its an exciting one at that. ;)

Top 5!

Busy, busy, busy! Too busy to exercise, too busy to help out with the PTA, too busy to make that new mom a meal, too busy to play with my daughter, too busy to make a healthy dinner at home, too busy to pray, too busy to read my Bible. Just too busy!

Oh dear, how many times have I heard people say "I'm just so busy!" I so understand. I really do. But man oh man, why do we make it more complicated for ourselves than it needs to be? Including me.

I recently started to form a new habit that has changed the shape of my stay-at-home mom life! I love being home with our little 3 year old and truly thank God as I see it a pure blessing.

Some days I sit at the end of the day (usually at 10 pm!) thinking over all the things I didn't get done that day. The extra load or two of laundry, the card I wanted to send to that person who is discouraged, the bread I wanted to bake for my neighbor who just had a baby, or even my devotions for the day! I often feel defeated and frustrated at all I wasn't able to get done. And some days, I just plain don't get much done.

My dear friend over at thedomesticremedy.blogspot.com has sure helped me in feeling more empowered to take charge of my schedule.

So this is is actually her tip but I just had to share it with you because in a way it has somewhat transformed my days.

Every evening before I go to bed I make a list of the top 5 things I'd like to get done the next day. I simply use my ipad to make the list as I have an app that does it for me. ;) I set it to remind me by 10 am (I'm not a morning person. lol!). After I complete each item I get to check it off!! Woo hoo! I know, I know, so what, a checkmark...who cares, right? But no! It's glorious. It feels SO good to check that task off the list. So good! Such a feeling of accomplishement.

Here is what my list looks like on a given morning.




So you say, what do you do if you can't accomplish it all in one day. Well then, it just flows over to the next day or until you get it done. Silly as it seems I know, but this has helped me stay so much more organized and it has helped me stay on task and get things done that I really wanted to do or needed to do. I don't get overwhelmed as easily and I sleep better because all those tasks/ideas on what I need to do are written down (or typed down) and I won't forget them. It's somewhat peaceful. lol. :)

Here is a picture of my completed list. Ahh...love looking at this.





Life is good. Being organized is fun and it's exciting to see what I can get done. I feel like things are moving forward and I'm accomplishing so much more than I used to. With more time, I can serve The Lord more richly. And I love that. I know He does too.

This blog post is dedicated to Jenny, my best girl and inspiration. <3 br="">- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

A Little Perspective

Honestly, some days I feel stuck. As sad as that sounds, it's the honest truth. My goal this year is to be more honest with myself regarding my feelings. Being a parent is one of life's greatest joys. I feel absolutely honored to be Addison's mommy! She's the brightest, sweetest, active, and most imaginative little girl around. God's most precious gift to me besides my salvation.

There are those days though, where I feel frazzled, worn down, tired, bored, lonely, and downright trapped in my own house! Crazy? I know, right?! It's not how I feel about her but it's how I feel sometimes...honesty.

But today as I was driving to Lansing (one of my new favorite places), I had the radio on and 10,000 Reasons came on, and I had a moment of ahh. My narrow perspective on life is all about those feeling I have from time to time... but those are just feelings. Normal or abnormal they may be, I can't base my life's perspective on feelings.

I love my family, and I wouldn't trade them or being a stay-at-home mommy for ANYTHING in this world. It's a sweet gift. But sometimes I think my view from the kitchen window gets foggy or "floggy" as my daughter says. When I simply focus on the mundane tasks of the day and don't take time to slow down, savor life and all it's sweet blessings, I tend to get clouded in my view.

Sometimes all I need is my car & some Starbucks to gain a little perspective on life.



Life is good. So very good. Even though it's cloudy today, I see the sun. The SONshine as He smiles down on me, saying, "it's ok, remember to look for me on those cloudy days, I'm right here."


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad