Whirlwind

Wow, have things been nuts.

Seriously, ya'll.

I think my last free weekend was in January...

the next one in site is in April.

Sigh.

This makes for much craziness

and little blogging.

For that, I'm so sorry!

I know ya'll want an adoption update!

There isn't much to tell in the ways of being closer to having a kid.

But, we have started the classes and only have 2 more to go (WOHOO!)

To make a long story short, the day before the classes started in Spaulding County, we found out about them.

Well, we have to get permission from Henry County (where we reside) in order to attend.

After many phone calls and headaches (and a heartache that we would have to wait until the summer), we found out that in fact we could attend!

The classes started at 6pm that day.

I found out at 4pm.

This was all God, ya'll. 100%

We are attending once a week and "graduate" in two weeks.

We are learning so much.

The biggest of things is the affirmation that this is what we are supposed to be doing.

I'm not going to lie. About 6 weeks ago, I got overwhelmed and almost wanted to call it quits.

But God snapped me back and told me now was the time.

Part of my thinks that the reason now is the time to start is because Henry County is a very long process and difficult (so I have been told, over and over).

Let me tell ya'll, God has been revealing to me just how long he has been preparing me for this.

Preparing my heart and mind for the wait, for the frustration.

Those closest to me know how impatient and spontaneous I am.

And especially how I used to be.

I am much more patient now.

Not as spontaneous (I was able to wait almost 2 weeks to become a redhead once I decided. 2 years ago, that would have not happened. I would have had to have had it done the next day).

He is still molding me,

But so much of how he shaped me the past few years is coming to play.

When I tell you that if we have another year to wait before we will have a child in our home,

I am not lying when I say that is 100% ok with me.

Somehow, I am having a lot of patience with this process.

Which I can only give God the credit for.

Patience is not my thing.

All that being said, I will have more on that later.

I have many great ideas for what I want to do on here, so stay tuned!

I'm pretty excited about it!

Thankful Thursday

I can't get over how blessed I am.

Yea, we could have more material things.

We are not rich, or even close.

But God has recently put such a sense a peach in me about being happy with what we do have.

I could have so much more,

but I could also have so much less.

So, I am content.

I am happy.

I don't need a brand new shiny car,

A huge house with rooms that never get used,

Those are all material things that really in the whole scheme of things do not matter.

Right now we have a kitchen table that was salvaged from an eviction from back in Jeremy's bachelor days.

It's gross.

Has to have a table cloth.

But you know what,

I'll eat dinner on our crappy kitchen table.

Holding out until I find a really good deal that I can just re-vamp and won't hurt our wallets.

I'll go to goodwill and salvation army on the regular until I find it.

And if I don't, no big deal.

I will survive.

I am thankful for having what I have.

It's enough.

I mean, when you have these adorable fur-babies, what more could you ask for?

Individual Peach Cobblers

This Thursday was our first book club with a group of friends.

We went through "The Help"

Oh, I loved that book!

I had a hard time getting into it at first,

but once I did- it was really good!

I would highly recommend it!

The first book club meeting was at my house.

(We will rotate who host each week)

So, of course I felt it necessary to do snacks based off the book.

Fried Chicken Nuggets

Jello with floating fruit

(I did not know a jello mold would not just pop right out... so this ended up a bowl of jello instead of a fancy jello mold...)

Chicken Salad

Bottled Root Beer (could NOT find bottled cokes at my Kroger!)

Sweet Tea

Chocolate Pie (if you have read the book or seen the movie, you will know why this is so funny! We giggled the entire time we ate the pie)

& individual Peach Cobblers.

The idea for the Peach Cobblers sprung from these awesome dishes that my family gave me in my wedding that I have yet to use. Individual serving dishes that are oven, microwave and dishwasher (!!!) safe.

So, I thought this was a perfect time to use them!

This will be perfect for when we are wanting a quick dessert.

Or if we have a celebration.

Or, well, just because.

And the best part is-- you can just make however many you want.

Won't be left with an entire dessert left begging for you to eat it.

Now, you will see lot of healthy recipes that I post on here.

This is not one of them.

So, if you want a healthy version, stop reading now.

Because this is not it.

I justify it because I will only have one piece.

I based this off of a peach dump cake.

This is pretty much mini dump cakes.

But peach cobblers sounds so much nicer (and it pretty much is the same thing, only easier)

You just place the peaches with some syrup into the dishes. For my dishes, it was about 3-4 peaches each. I put enough syrup to have a thin layer at the bottom.

I then cut the peaches in half, so they will be more bite-able.

Is that a word? ehhh.

Now, you're gonna sprinkle some yellow cake mix over top of the peaches. Just enough to cover them.

You wanna put a little bit of butter on each one. I just cut thin slices and put two, divided up, on each one.

Sprinkle some brown sugar on top.

Yummmmmmmmm

Now, top it with some nuts. You can put however many or little you want. This is up to you.

Now pop those suckers in the oven at 350 degrees for about 40-50 minutes.

Ohhhh-weeeee, sooo good!

This is after it had cooled.

We put a scoop of vanilla icecream on top, & viola!

This was so tasty, and there are so many versions of "dump cakes" that this could be done with!

Now, we just need a reason to celebrate...

AKA, reason for me to make another round...

Individual Peach Cobblers (dump cake style)

• Large can of peaches in light syrup
• Box of yellow cake mix
• Stick of butter
• Brown sugar
• Chopped nuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place peaches with some syrup in each dish. You want to syrup to be about 1/4"-1/8" deep. Enough to cover the bottoms of the peaches and dish.
3. Sprinkle some cake batter over each one. A thin layer to cover the peaches.
4. Slice thin slices of butter, divide in half, and place them evenly over peaches. (I used two thin slices for each dish)
5. Sprinkle lightly with brown sugar.
6. Sprinkle with nuts.
7. Cook for about 40-50 minutes, until a nice golden brown color.
8. Enjoy!

Thankful Thursday

Sometimes we all have those moments of complete failures.

Those moments where we know we have failed.

Forgot to pick up an ingredient for a planned meal.

Burnt dinner.

Accidentally left laundry in the washer for over 24 hours.

Forgot to make an important call.

I could go on for days.

But it's in those mistakes that we learn.

Forgetting an ingredient means I have to get creative.

Think outside my comfort zone.

That although dinner is now going to be barely edible, that's ok.

I have a healthy husband who won't tell me how bad it is.

Even though I have to run those clothes again, that's ok.

I have other clothes I can wear until they are done.

Sometimes we have to make mistakes in order to learn.

In order to grow.

The next time I make that chicken,

It won't be burnt (ok, maybe just not AS burnt...)

I have come up with a system to not forget laundry in the washer.

I make mistakes.

I learn from them.

I improve myself.

Which makes me wonder,

if I hadn't made all the mistakes that I have over the years...

Would I have gotten to this point in my life?

I don't think so.

My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever

Psalm 73:26

Guess What?!!

**I have set this to auto post, since I will be at work today :) But I couldn't wait to share!**

So,

We have some very exciting news!

Every time we announce that we have exciting news, they think I am pregnant.

No, I am not pregnant.

However, I think this is just as exciting...

We are starting the process of adoption!

Those who know me well know I have wanted to adopt for as long as I can remember.

We are ecstatic and really feel that God is telling us now is the time for us to begin.

That being said, we anticipate it will be at least a year before we have a child in our home.

& that's is totally fine.

God is preparing out hearts, mind, and souls for this.

We have chosen to go through the DFCS foster care system.

This is going to be a long, hair pulling, screaming journey- but we feel this is where God is pointing us and wants us to be.

So, we are ready.

Ready for heartache.

Ready for heaps of patience to be taught.

Ready for sleepless nights with a new child in an unfamiliar environment.

Ready for God to prepare us for this journey.

Most of all, ready to give a child a chance who previously had none.

We have already attended our county's orientation and are waiting to be invited to the next step-20 hours of IMPACT training classes (Adoption classes we must complete).

We know this will be a long road.

That there will be challenges.

Bringing a new child into our home will be difficult.

But we know this is what God wants.

So, we are ready.

We are asking for prayers during this time.

For wisdom of knowing the right decisions to make.

For wisdom in ensuring this is the right time for us.

For guidance in raising our future child.

For our future child. Born or unborn at this point.

We are so excited to see what the future holds for us!

**Ok, I know ya'll have questions-- so here ya go**

Adopting before having a kid?

Yup, and we are really excited about it! No, this is not an infertility issue. I am currently on a form of birth control. We honestly have no idea if I have any infertility issues since, well, we have never tried.

So, why are you adopting first?

This one is a toughie to explain, and I have tried to think and think on my answer. There is only one real answer I can give-- We truly feel this is what God wants for us right now. Plain and simple as that.

So, what about having your own?

We fully intend on having our own kid one day, God willing. Just not right now.

Don't you realize how hard this is going to be?

Yup. Again, there is a reason God is telling us to do this. He will never give you more than you can handle (although I'm pretty sure I will be second guessing that at first-- just kidding ;) I have wanted to adopt for a very long time. I have been looking into this, reading blogs of fellow mommies of adopted children, and most of all God has been preparing our hearts for this journey. Yes it will be hard. But, it will be 150% worth it.

So, what kind of kid ya want?

We are leaving that completely up to God. Boy, girl- doesn't matter. We figure we don't want to put limitations on God. Allow him to lead us to the right child for us.

Age range?

Once we go through classes and learn more, we will make a formal decision on this. However, in our initial discussions we talked about a child between 1-2yrs old. Again, we want to simply give the child a home that God wants us to. So, we are letting God take the reigns.

So, there ya have it. If you have anymore questions-- feel free to ask me!

Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.

James 1:27

Lemon Ooey-Gooey cake

Oh, the wonders of Pinterest.

I stumbled across this beauty on a random post and thought it was too good to be true.

A delicious lemon cake that is not bad for you!?

& with only 3 ingredients?!

SOLD.

I had my family over for lunch this past Sunday and I wanted to whip up a dessert that was cheap, easy and not bad for you.

So, I thought I would give it a try.

I didn't realize the middle would be gooey, but it was still very tasty!

Just 3 ingredients:

Box of lemon cake

20 ounces (2 1/2 cups) of Diet 7up

Light Cool whip

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the cake mix and 20 ounces of Diet 7UP together in a bowl

At first this was difficult as the fizzes went down. I found a whisk worked far better than a spoon.

Pour into a 9x13 pan.

The blurb I found on pinterest stated to cook it for 30 minutes.

In my oven it was just barely brown and still VERY gooey in the middle.

So I cooked it for another 5-10 minutes until the cake was brown and "cracking" on top. This made for a crunchier outside and gooey middle. Which was very tasty.

I don't have any more pictures because I was busy cooking a lasagna among other things and completely forgot. Oops!

When cool, frost your cake with your cool whip.

**Wait for your cake to 100% cool!

This was the mistake that I made, and the cake absorbed the cool whip and I had to use another container I happened to have.

I thought it was all the way cool, but obviously I was wrong.

My family loved the cake and even asked for some to take home.

I have seen more and more cakes pop up like this that contain a box and soda.

Do you have a recipe like this that you love?

Thankful Thursday

*First, off--I know, I know... it has been too long since I have been blogging... but I promise to be better!*

God has been revealing to me lately just how incredibly blessed I am.

Awesome job.

Amazing Husband that proves God knows just what he is doing. I am pretty sure that guy was created especially for me.

Fantastic Family.

My pups.

So much to be thankful for.

But I want these Thankful Thursdays to be of the not-so-obvious kind.

The kind that make me think.

Put me outside my comfort zone.

Be thankful for things I don't give second thought to.

This week I am going to be thankful for the hardships.

Don't get me wrong, hardships suck.

But they also created me into who I am today.

& especially who Jeremy and I are as a married couple.

I heard it said over and over that the first year of marriage is the hardest.

I dismissed that considering we had been together almost 9 years when we got married.

But I shouldn't have.

It was hard.

Getting to know each other on a whole new level is difficult in and of itself.

Throw in the mix what stresses we went through last year (trying to sell his home & not having our own place until mid 2011, being just one item), it was rough.

Don't misunderstand me... there was way more good than bad.

But the fights hurt.

The mean words to each other devastated.

All because we were stressed.

We were learning to communicate.

Learning to be one.

Fast forward to now...

We are stronger than ever.

I can honestly say we are more in love and closer than we have ever been.

More so than I ever thought possible.

If God had not forced us to STOP and look at ourselves,

We would not have gotten here.

I am glad we went through those hardships.

I didn't understand why it was so hard at the time.

But now, it makes sense.

There is SO much you learn about each other and SO much you need to learn about yourself to make yourself work as a married couple- as one.

There isn't really much that can prepare you for that but prayer and God.

Now, all that being said...

There are a lot of hardships that simply do not make sense to me.

But I just know this,

you have to make the best of whatever situation God has given you.

Learn from it.

Grow from it.

Allow it to teach you what God is wanting to teach you.

Hardships can be turned to good, if you allow them.

& remember, God NEVER leaves you.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6)