Oh, Exercise, my exercise

I am on a diet. Not a bingeing, crazy diet. Just a counting calories, making healthier choices and exercising like crazy kind of diet. Although I prefer the term 'lifestyle change' to diet. I am not dieting, losing weight, trying to get uber-skinny, and then gaining it back again. I am trying to give myself a little food perspective and get healthy. It's not even about numbers, although I have a couple in mind. :)

After the first week I lost 11 pounds (I know *that won't last) and an inch all over. Trust. Me. I was *not trying to lose 11 pounds in a week! I am still getting in the swing of my calorie counting and exercising thing. I didn't even eat that well last week, so imagine how good I'd be feeling if I had! I am super excited about it, but sore pretty much all over. Which is an excellent feeling, really. I'm looking forward to more energy, better sleep, and a healthier me. :)

Love in Him,

Taiya

Easter

We've had a fantastic Easter! Church was amazing this morning! We went to the 9am service so that we could be back in time to get dinner ready. Our guests got here around 2 and we ate at a little after 3, so we were still strapped a little tight for time! We did dinner, had an easter egg hunt, decorated sugar cookies and went for a 2.5 mile walk as a family just now. I am exhausted! I dragged my butt out of bed at 6 to exercise because I knew that I would be eating less healthy than I should. :) Worked out well!

Now I just need to unload a lot of cake and sugar cookies on someone else so that they are out of my house!

Sugar cookie decorations. :) I'll try to get a picture of the finished product for next time! 

It was a fantastic Easter! I think that we are all exhausted (except Eeq who slept in the stroller while the rest of us walked) and ready for bed. Praise the Lord for such a glorious day as this, and the reason for it!  Remember, Jesus said " I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."! I hope you have a week filled with life, and in abundance! 

Love in Him!

Taiya

Scrambled

I am scrambling around the house getting last minute things done for Easter! A lot of it is stuff that *shouldn't have been last minute, but I procrastinated. Like ironing the girls' dresses. I did manage to get the deviled eggs made and the sugar cookie dough in the fridge (the kids are going to decorate spring/easter shaped sugar cookies tomorrow). Tomorrow will be the ham, asparagus gratin, broccoli, cake, sweet potatoes, and so on. Lots to do! :) I love having people over and cooking for them, though, so it's not a hardship in the least. We have been steadily organizing and cleaning the house up, so it hasn't been too bad to clean. Always a blessing, since I tend to get overwhelmed when I am looking at a whole house to clean, floor to ceiling. 

I don't have much to show you at the moment, but I thought I'd post a photo of the sign I started the other day. I haven't figured out what to put on it otherwise, so, umm.. it's blank.

The sign started out as this. It's okay, but not really the kind of thing I like. It's very... store bought, I guess. Anyway, I wanted to redo it, so I tried fabric, but didn't like it. I tried plain scrapbooking paper, didn't like it. Then I tried ripping and mod podging the paper and loved it! Now i just need to figure out what to put on it!

My parents took Little Missy today, so when I went to pick her up I borrowed my mom's craft room to cut out some hearts for a new project that I'll, hopefully, be working on tomorrow! :) I have never appliqued, but I am going to try. If all else fails I'll be mod podging fabric to some re-purposed canvas! lol!

On that note, I am off to bed. It's midnight and I need to be up at 6 to exercise and start the day!

Love in Him,

Taiya

In Him Pt.2

At our church we've been talking about what God wants for us, and the fact that he sees us as his children, equal to Jesus. Whoa. How is that even possible? Well, that comes in the next verse that I highlighted, also. As His children God wants to see us happy, see us prospering (Jeremiah 29:11). The way I feel about my children, the love, the joy, the hope I feel in them and for them is magnified so much more from God, which is a hard hard concept to grasp. I can't even imagine myself being equal to Jesus. Could God possibly love so much and care so much for me? He gave up his Son for me, and he also loves me, and with that, I(we- I am just putting "I" to grasp the concept more!) get the promise of 'of course, hello!, are you paying attention, Taiya?! how will he not also graciously give you all things?!' (I might have paraphrased a little. Jesus said, "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." (John 10:10)"abundantly". What a term! It amazes me that God wants to graciously give me all things, and he wants to do so abundantly. Above the norm. More than. And graciously. He doesn't want to hassle with me over it. He doesn't want to punish me with his good things, "Do this, or you won't get that." He literally just wants to give me good things, for loving in him, believing in him. I know that it isn't all going to be easy. There will be no instant fix to the sins of the world and what that brings: trials and tribulation, but the fact is that while I will have trials, God has also given to me, graciously and abundantly, the tools to deal with them. Although what he gives is so much more than just the ability to deal with trials and tribulation. It is a fascinating verse and one I am definitely standing on this week, and for weeks to come! 

I have gone to church my whole life off and on, and believed my whole life (although I am not perfect and I have strayed, often and far), so this all seems new to me. I've never embraced God's word this way, and really studied it in a way that applies it to me. It always seems so impersonal "well, that doesn't apply to me", but it does! I am loving how it is opening up to me!

Love in Him,
Taiya

In Him

My husband and I have started a small group through our church, and we are loving it! We are doing curriculum (I guess that's what you'd call it?) from john Bevere. It's called Extraordinary. We have a really great group! :) We go to a rather large church, so it's nice to connect with people on a more personal level! For part of our small group we are picking 5 verses each week that we are praying over, meditating on, and resting in. We have a sheet of all the verses that are "in him" "by Christ" "with Christ" etc... There are a lot, so we are just picking 5 a week. We were instructed to take each verse and personalize it. So if it says "you", put "me" and so on.

I thought a fun way for me to focus on them would be to blog about them every week as I pick them. I am going through from the beginning and writing all of them and reading over them, but picking the ones that really hit me as i am reading for my 5. 

I love this. I have heard it/read it before, but I really love it. I love the beginning, and I love the end, but I am also coming to love the middle. It's hard for me to think about taking up His yoke and learning from him. I am a flawed being and I want so badly to go my own way! It's a struggle that I have to trust fully. I trust God, and that hasn't changed, no matter how far I have strayed, but some of his promises, his abundance, his more, is hard for me to grasp and hold on to, so I go my own way. I am working on changing that, and as I do I am loving the visual of learning from God, and taking his yoke, which comes with a promise of rest for my soul, and a light and easy burden!

What are you resting in? What part of God's word are you standing on this week?

Love in Him,

Taiya

Rusted Chain Giveaway!

Beki at Rusted Chain is doing a giveaway(and of course I am trying to get an extra entry!) for a $25 gift certificate. Well, she is doing 2, so 2 people have good chances, right? Anyway, she does awesome stuff like this:

I really want a couple (okay, so probably more) of her necklaces! I haven't purchased one, yet, but mostly that is because I am indecisive. :) Check her out, leave her a comment on her blog and get in on the chance to get something awesome!


Love in Him,
Taiya

Beads and Bunnies

We recently painted our Eeq's bedroom (it used to be brown-OCK!) I put this saying up (Hobby Lobby, $10 during a 50% off sale!), but it needed *something. I couldn't figure out what, then one day I was looking at my beads and this came to mind. For once I actually made what came to mind. :) It took 3 tries before I figured out something that I liked, but I am super happy with the end product! Some of the danglies are from old jewelry (on the far left bottom is part of an old broken charm bracelet I got at a yard sale)

I have been in the mood to create, and I *really wanted to try my hand at a bunny for one of my girls' easter baskets. I went to flickr to look at rabbit photos, drew a pattern on newspaper and hand sewed this. I *definitely need some work, but I am very pleased for my first try! Also? It's not making it to a basket because Little Missy saw it and snatched it right out of my hands as I finished it and now carries it around adoringly saying "My bunny! Thank you, Mommy! I love my bunny!"

Just a super easy, fun, toddler project. Drew an egg shape on some construction paper, cut it out, gave her paints and brushes and stamps. She *loves it, and it makes cute decorations that she can be proud of!

I have a lot more going on that I want to blog about, but I have been busy cleaning, exercising (yes, ME!), bible-studying, and playing! 

 Love in Him,

Taiya

Proof that I am slightly creative, occasionally.

I don't really think I'm creative. That's not a begging-for-affirmation that I'm awesomely creative type of comment, really. I'm not the type to fish. Anyway, I don't always feel creative. I go such long times without doing anything creative on my *own, without copying someone else. Sometimes, though, I surprise myself with extremely little amounts of authentic-ish creativity! 

This picture, however, proves that I can be slightly, somewhat creative, occasionally. :D

Here it is: my house. My mom gave this to me for Christmas, I think. I love it, although I might need to do a lighter paint color on the outside, as it suits more. So.. I made a hanging egg decoration.... out of Starburst Jelly Beans! :) I also made a garland, out of a garland! :D See what I mean about "ish"? I took the garland, cut off all of the flowers, shortened it, reapplied the flowers and made it into a flowery vine for the house. Then I just used wire, needle-nose pliers and jelly beans for the "eggs'. :) I think it's cute.

So Gnomeo is home (What? My creativity only extends *so far, and apparently not to producing a unique name) with his cow, and the caterpillar that ate Manhattan. Little Missy made that at playgroup this week. The green construction paper thing with Jetson eyes. I love it. 

Moving on from me and my almost skills:

This is my sweet Eeq helper. :) She makes laundry fun!

We gave her the middle name Joy, but we had no idea how amazingly joyful that she would truly be.

She always wants to look out windows, pound on windows, and screech at people as they walk by.

This is the spring tablecloth I picked up at Kohl's today. I got the elusive 30% coupon, so I figured it would be a good time to get a new pair of walking shoes!

That's about it for now. I am working on a couple of other projects, borrowed from others, so I'll post about those soon. Otherwise it was pretty chilly today and I was feeling a tad sick all day, so not much to share!

Glimpses

....of my Saturday. We had a weekend as near to perfection as possible. 

The 6th of April, 2011

I am telling you, I can just feel spring coming. My hyacinths and tulips are jumping the gun a little, since it is still fairly cold outside, but I think they are just as hopeful as I am that spring is going to be here, umm.. like... tomorrow. They are trying so hard to get our of the ground, but I stunted them a little. I let that whole garden overgrow with weeds last year (remember? I had a newborn Eeq to take care of), so when they tried to grow they had to work through the weeds. They did a good job of it, though. I noticed yesterday, though and went and dug around them. 


Just a string of miscellaneous photos to run through today.:)


This is on top of my shelf in the kitchen that my hubby made for me. :) I made Strawberry Vinegar the other day, which is now safely ensconced in a dark corner of my cupboard. Otherwise I have been collecting jars and filling them with my bulk foods for easier access.

This is our favorite mexican restaurant. They have the best, home made, everything! We had their guacamole last time we were there, and it was fantastic!

The sun looked so gorgeous shining through this grass. :) It was a beautiful day, if just a little chilly.

The boat slips are all empty! It's crazy! In summer it is so full, that this looks so odd to me.

The pier. ;)

Daddy playing with his Eeq girl. :)

I tried my hand at granola, and it came out perfect! It made 2 cookie sheets full, but it's gone now. :) Guess it went over well.

I know that I am evil for this, but I was laughing hysterically! Eeq dropped this, accidentally, and it caught her shirt. Then she kept flipping her butt around on the floor and reaching. Then she'd pop her butt around to a new spot and reach. Then she'd pop her butt around to another new spot and reach, again. Cracked me up! Of course I felt bad about it later. What kind of mother do you think I am?

My sweet Eeq in Shipshewana when we were there the other day. 

We ran to the bathroom, all of us except for Pop Pop and Little Missy. We came back and we were looking for them, when I hear "HI MOMMMMEEEEEE!" from the carousel. Look at those 2 grinning faces. 

Lolly's in Shipshewana. I can't seem to get on top of any project I have and get it done, but this store always makes me wish I had more time and was getting more done.

Little Missy's new, super-cute, summer hat. We are all going to need summer hats for all of the gardening we are planning!

Playing outside last night. It was a little chilly, but warm enough to play on the play house.

We love spring around here! Play time! 

  


We ordered our seeds for our garden! I think we are a little late for the inside starting, but we are going to get going on it anyway, and we will still be earlier than last year. I will try to do another post and show you what we got for peppers and tomatoes. I just can't wait for spring to officially spring, so that we can get outside and get to work! I have been desperate enough to do some raking in the cold, but not much beyond that!