Friday, February 22, 2013

Pin-sanity!

Pinterest is ingenius. You can bookmark all your favorite things on the internet onto one organized site. Pinterest is inspiring. I never knew it was so easy to make your own cleaners and chalkboard paint.  Pinterest is helpful. My cleaning schedule is organized and my fitted sheets folded perfectly.
Pinterest is addicting. You can spend hours finding new ways to help you clean your refrigerator. But at some point you actually have to do or buy these things you pin or it just becomes a giant black hole. (I'm pretty sure that's in the user agreement...) So here are the top five things I've found on Pinterest and how they've worked for me.

5. Anything on this blog. Ok, to be honest, I didn't find this blog on Pinterest.  Jillian is my friend and brilliant cook. BUT I do pin almost all of her recipes. You will not be sorry for checking it out. She brought us this cheesy chicken and wild rice casserole when Harper was born and Jake still raves about it almost a year (...what!?!) later.

4.  My cleaning list.  I love this tool. For the most part, this helps me stay on top of my whole house. Sometimes I tweak it (read: skip tasks and do them later...). I found it here. I use the reminder app on my sweet iphone and my calendar looks something like this:

Daily
Make beds
Empty dishwasher (morning)
A load of laundry (most days)
Wipe down kitchen
Load dishwasher (night)
Pick up
Chore of the day

Chores of the Day 
Monday: Dust
Tuesday: Swing Day
Wednesday: Vacuum
Thursday: Sweep/mop the whole house (sweeping usually happens more frequently)
Friday: Clean bathrooms
Saturday: Makeup day (anything I might have neglected on the other days)
Sunday: Sabbath

Swing Day
1: Clean baseboards/walls/doors
2: Change sheets
3: Clean showers/microwave/refrigerator
4: Deep clean/organize one area

3.  French bread pizza.  I make this about once a month.  It takes about 10 minutes, we all love it and it has leftovers. Perfection.

2. Folding fitted sheets. I'm pretty much on my way to becoming Martha. And having really toned arms, because I'm short and it still takes me a few tries to get it right, so I end up holding the sheets for a while. It's a win-win, really.

1. By far, the most praise and non-stop raving I've gotten from Jake for a Pinterest recipe was this granola. I use whatever I have on hand for the dry ingredients and it always comes out delicious.  Throw this on some greek yogurt, which is otherwise impossible to eat, and you have a tasty and somewhat healthy breakfast.  And a happy husband.

And uhhh... follow me... if you want to. :)

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Can I get a witness?

Awesome things are happening in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  God is building the church, strengthening our family, and they are building a Pei Wei (hallelujah!). We are constantly blown away at the faithfulness of God.  So here is the story in pictures of our journey thus far as a church.  Enjoy!


It started simply in our living room in August, with people gathering on Sunday nights at 5:30. We worshipped, learned what church should be and had dinner together.

Living in Baton Rouge means tailgating on game days.  

We learned a lot about what church is and is not.  It is not four walls or a preacher, it is community and sharing Jesus wherever you are.

We continued to fill our living room, growing a little wider and deeper each week.

In November, we had our first baptism service in the bed of a truck! People were stirred as these girls shared how Jesus had changed their lives!

Our lifegroups grew (and had lots of fun!)
Young adult on top, college on bottom.


And then this happened. 120 people in every imaginable space in our living room. We were blown away! This also happened to be the last week in our house.

Our first week in the Radisson hotel, with room to grow!

Even the littles are getting in on the action. The children's ministry is a girl party right now, but we love our time with them!

As of today we have four lifegroups, 130-150 people coming on Sundays, countless volunteers, and 9  very thank-full hearts (our staff, of course)! We almost cannot believe how incredible God is.  We are expectant and excited about the next few months. I wonder what the next chapter will look like? To be continued...