whale of a tale

I had time to create a new design for Itsybitsy. I love whale things- almost as much as sheep. Check them out on my ItsyBitsy link.

storms and such

It's been a productive weekend. I have thoroughly enjoyed this past week of spring break. It was so nice to be able to do whatever we felt like, including all the fun things we never feel we have time for during the work week. 

We went on a picnic together during one of the few sunny days we had, and it was a marvelous spring day. I even had a little inchworm find it's way on my leg, I took a shot of it, it was so cute.

I also found a buttercup and put it in Jonah's ear while he was reading....

We also had a huge storm last night and I got to try out the wide angle on our awesome sky....

It's Saturday already, with Easter right around the corner! How can it be April already? Didn't we just ring in the new year? Crazy how time flies. But I'm really loving all the changes this year, they are such good changes full of guidance for the future.

visiting family

We went to visit Jonah's family overnight and while we were there his Grandma celebrated her 84 birthday. Pretty special because she is so active even in her 80's. My own Grandma only made it to her 81 I believe. She suffered those last years of her life from Alzheimer's. When she did pass it was sad because of the pain she was in and the confusion, but also relief to know she was once again whole and happy walking with Jesus in heaven. I still miss her, but as the years go by the pain of her being gone is filled with the peace that she is in Heaven, and that she is celebrating everyday.

But we had a good time visiting with family and seeing Jonah's niece and nephew again. We took some time to go for a walk with them which was so nice because we had a chance to run and play outside! We don't get to do that where we live because it's so 'urban'. We don't live in the country. I do miss the country!!! I hope someday when we settle into a house we will have a little land so we can go outside and enjoy the great outdoors, gardening, hiking, and having bonfires. Something about being outside that is exhilarating.

Here's some favorite shots from the visit.

the start of spring break

What a great monday, I was able to accomplish more today at home than I've been able to for months. I cleaned, dusted, mopped, vacuumed, laundered, ironed, organized, baked, cooked, washed and scrubbed everywhere! I'm thankful that we do not live in a big place because I'm able to do so much in one day that many people take weeks to do. Of course there is more to be done for the upcoming warm weather but I'm happy with the big chunk I did today. I know it doesn't sound very exciting to start spring break cleaning, but I literally feel more relaxed when things are clean, folded and in order because I don't get to catch up like this while we both work. I realize it only gets harder as you add family members but I am really enjoying just Jonah and I :)

But I had a great Monday cleaning away, and I now have a huge pile of stuff to lug to Goodwill, which makes me excited because I got to organize our closet including my clothes- getting rid of things I've had since college. Oh those days of buying unstylish clothes that never really fit me right I just got them at a good deal at the time. 

I also baked some strawberry muffins for one of Jonah's students that was in a car wreck over the weekend. I also picked up some groceries so I can make her dinner-her whole family was in the car and they all have injuries. Then I baked lasagna for us, mm one of my fav. meals. 

I took a couple shots of the different foods I made today and yesterday's bundt cake as well. 

We also ran a special at the teen coffee shop and I had the kids wear bunny ears to go with our pre-Easter special. The special itself did not bring that many new people over unfortunately. I am finding this shop to be a lot of work and not really being worth the effort in funds. 

Sigh. You can bring a horse to water but you can't make them drink. 

I see this so much in our church, people are so stuck in their rut of life they simply cannot break away and do something slightly different even if it means supporting others. Why are people like that? Why are their butts stuck in the pews instead of getting up and moving?

Okay I'll get off my platform. Here are some pics to enjoy. I like the one of the single cupcake the best. :)

so expensive

I was going to attempt to make those adorable little lamb pops, and I started to buy the supplies to make them and today I came to a dead end trying to find the little 'sugar pearls' called for to make the furry little wool. Without them I don't think it would be worth the effort. Overall I came to a brick wall finding them without having to order them online. And the price.....it just kept getting higher and higher:

lollipop sticks $2

cake mix $1

frosting $2

tiny hearts $3

licorice buttons $4 at least

other candy thingy's $2

white chocolate melts $3.38

styrofoam block to stick em in $3+

and of course the sugar pearls $10 or so....

And here we are trying to save and budget (which I was using our grocery budget to help with this) and I didn't end up getting all the things for this but I do have some so it looks like I will not be making these ridiculous little pops, even if they are sooo cute. Seriously who has the budget for those?

oh well. I am still making my yummy looking pound cake that I found online and the only extra thing I had to buy was cream cheese $1. Not bad. I am borrowing a bundt pan from a friend (the deal is I'm giving her a piece of the cake :)) but I will post the recipe if it turns out as yummy as it looks. I have never made a bundt cake because I don't have a pan. But I'm excited to see how it all turns out!

Yesterday at school I was given a gift from some of the mom's- a bakery loaf of bread. I thought it was sweet of them and didn't even notice the shape of it until a student said look it's a bunny!

How cute! Look at our bunny loaf- we don't know what to do with it though. Should we slice it? It's so cute! Now it's back in it's bag on our counter. Perhaps we will slice into it and toast it tomorrow morning. Or share it with our teens :) 

Kind of morbid but not really! Um happy Easter?

cute as a button lambs

So I occasionally click on friend bloggers lists of sites to check out some that catch my eye. This time I clicked one of my sisters links "Bakerella" and I found the cutest little yummy project. She made these adorable little sheep pops and I saw them and loved them! How cute are they???? I love sheep- I love illustrating them, photographing them and even though they are considered dumb animals their gentleness is noted.

Check out this picture of this ladies adorable little sheep pops. http://bakerella.blogspot.com/ So cute! I was inspired and decided I am going to try and make these. They are made out of cake balls which I have heard of before from a friend. I hope they aren't too hard but I will have to post my success (or failure) as I make them. I thought they would be a cute addition to our special we are running at the coffee shop at church. We'll see how they turn out this weekend! I also have my sites set on making a delicious looking bundt cake I found in my random searches online...so I'm looking forward to making several treats. The key is sharing with others because there's no way Jonah and I will eat all these sweets ourselves :)

This next week we both have off- spring break! I love working at a school and participating in all of their breaks. It's so awesome to be able to be off with Jonah this time- the past few years I worked in other jobs so I was always gone at work while he had his break. Very much looking forward to the time off, I'm hoping to catch up on ItsyBitsy as I have ideas and ideas floating in my head ready to come out on paper. I love putting my creativity towards something that I really love. It makes such a difference in your end product.

But anyways today can't go by fast enough so we can start the weekend!

Happy Friday!

Fear

Every few days I receive a devotional in my inbox that I signed up for at some point and time. Honestly I don't read it everytime I get it, sometimes I just breeze by it as I check emails. But today I took the time to stop and see what it said and part of it really caught my eye. I thought I would post a portion of it so I can remember it later when I once again get caught up in fear.

If we're afraid to try, we never will. If the enemy can keep us contained by fear, we won't be able to fulfill our potential or make a difference in the life of another. Satan knows what we are capable of with Christ. To prevent us from that realization, he poisons us with fear.

The truth is what we fear rarely comes to pass. This kind of fear that is fueled by Satan's lies can be described by this acrostic:

False
Evidence
Appearing
Real
http://proverbs31devotions.blogspot.com/

After reading this I realized again that fear is the reason I use to justify 'not doing' things that I know I am capable of. For example looking back on the mission trip my husband and I went on with our teens last summer was something I feared for several reasons.
Fear 1- flying over 3 hours on a plane (what a wimp I am)
Fear 2- sleeping with a bunch of girls in a cabin (without my husband- he was with the guys)
Fear 3- not having control of the schedule (it was planned by the Youth Pastor)
The trip was in Utah, and I had never been out west before. I can very much be a hermit in many ways so going on this trip really stretched me out of my comfort zone. I had prayed about going and I knew I felt God leading me to go, and that was scary. But I have to say once I trusted in that decision God gave me a peace and carried me through the whole trip.
My fear became joy and excitement, fun learning so many new experiences that I normally would have allowed fear to rob me of.
You never really think about the other side of the coin- the part where you jump over the fear hurtle and really experience the excitement and knowledge you learn.
A good reminder for me today. Am I fearing anything right now? Well, there's always something!