Hats

I have to say that it is nice to have a chance blog again. This past week has been C-R-A-Z-Y! But here I am, back in front of my computer, sitting on my couch with my cup of coffee- it's a happy place.

I have a friend coming over at lunch to do a trial run of her makeup for her wedding this weekend. I love doing makeup for people, especially weddings! That to say, I should probably be getting the laundry out of the living room and stashing it away till I have time to finish folding hanging everything, but it can wait a little bit longer.

Oh! And the Moroccan grilled chicken kabobs were WONDERFUL last night! The veggies weren't a new favorite, and the couscous was ok (my cooking error that made it just 'ok') but the chicken is officially on the list of go to recipes!

Ok. Hats. I wish I could wear them. But I'm afraid that I don't really know how to truly wear a hat. I understand that it belongs on your head and that it should complete an outfit but that's about where my hat knowledge ends. Sad, I know. But if I did wear a hat then I'd wear something like this...

{please ignore the makeup and look only at the hat}

{isn't this cute?! I love the vintage look! Perfect for the winter!}

Both of these hats are classy and oh so very retro, the following are NOT things that I'd ever wear and I don't think that anyone else should either... 

{ridiculous}

{Lovely color. Hideous outfit, esp the hat}

I understand the British tradition of wearing hats to certain events, including weddings and I understand wanting to make a fashion statement but these last two hats, seriously?!? Why would you want to look like a cartoon at such a glamorous event as the Royal Wedding? I would have gone with something a little more classic and elegant and less... crazy. 

Sight... I wish I could wear hats, but sadly I'm just not a hat person... However, I like the idea of hats, that has to count for something.

Menu Monday

First things first: It has been a crazy week and an even crazier weekend!
Next, this week's menu:

Monday: Homemade lasagna with salad and garlic bread
Tuesday: Moroccan grilled chicken kabobs with Moroccan roasted veggies and Israeli couscous
Friday: Roast beef with mashed potatoes, gravy and carrots
Sunday: Omelets

I know that's not a full week of food but the nights that are omitted are that way because I'm not cooking.

More blogging to come soon, but for now it's time to sleep!

Blessed

I have to admit that there are a lot of times in the business of my life that I forget to count my blessings. Yesterday was a reminder of just how blessed I am. We celebrated Mother's Day and a birthday with my husband's family (my family was out of town, not on purpose, it just happened that way) and it was really wonderful- lunch out and then a simple, family and close friends gathering that evening~ completely perfect!

Long before I even knew who I would marry, I began praying for my future husband's family to be godly, kind and loving people. I know, weird. I had heard stories of in-laws that were less than great and decided that I would pray that God would bless me with wonderful in-laws. Guess what? The Lord answered my prayers and has given me the BEST in-laws in the world! And I'm not just talking about my husband's immediate family, but his grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins and so on. I absolutely could not imagine marrying into and being part of a more wonderful, more Jesus-loving family that this! They are such a blessing to me!

God has also blessed me with a WONDERFUL husband! I had also been praying for a godly husband, lest you think that I only prayed for good in-laws. And once again, the Lord has showered blessings and grace upon my life (shocking, I know). My husband loves the Lord Jesus with all that he has, he loves me and provides for our family (the two of us and our kitties) and he loves my family. He is such a blessing to me!

In Matthew 7:11 Jesus says, "If you the, being evil, know how to give good girts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!" I am a daddy's girl, always have been and always will be. I know my dad loves me but when I think about how much he loves me and how much my husband loves me, I cannot help but think and realize that my Heavenly Father loves me even more and it blows my mind! My Father in Heaven continues to shower blessings upon my life in all kinds of forms and each time I am amazed. Amazed by Grace. Amazed by Love. Amazed by Provision. My God is Amazing.

It is easy to get caught up in looking at the works of God's hands and forget that it is He we are to worship, not the things that He does. And it is equally as easy to look past to works of His hands at the day-to-dayness of our lives and get bogged down. There's laundry. There's cooking. There's cleaning. There's homework. There's work. There's... the list goes on and on. But I want to stop and take inventory of where I am in my life and the blessings that have been rained down from my Heavenly Father and in taking inventory, I find that I don't want to worship what He has done but that I want to worship Him.

My life is not perfect. My house is not clean (not all the time). My cooking doesn't always turn out like I plan it. My laundry pile is getting bigger (true fact). But I wouldn't trade even one dirty sock or poorly cooked meal or anything else to have another life. This life and this place God has me in my life journey with Him is mine, it is a blessing He has given me and I wouldn't trade it for all the clean dishes or vacuumed rugs in the world. I love me life! I love my Lord who gave it to me!

Shannon

PS: The Menu for this week:
monday~ smothered chicken breasts wrapped in bacon and beef over rice with steamed green beans
tuesday~ (friends coming over- yay!) shrimp appetizer, beef stir-fry over rice and homemade cheese cake for dessert
saturday and sunday~ pizza quesadillas and ? (I'm one meal short right now)

Wedding

What a crazy week! I can honestly say that I am glad it's over! No school for 3 months! I can clean my house! I can bake and cook! I can decorate our home! Yay! So excited!

Last night, my husband had to run sound for a wedding at our church so I did the only natural thing... I tagged along! :) You'd think I'd be sick of weddings since I've just gotten married, but no, I'm not. I have weddings to attend for the next two weeks and I'm SUPER excited! All that having been said, in honor of recent weddings (including the royal wedding) and the upcoming weddings, I am posting a few of my favorite weddings photos!

My dress! Wish I could wear it again!

I love shoes!

My wonderful friends! So blesses they could be part of that day! 

One of my favorite pictures of my husband!

As kids, we used to try and do this without getting caught...

Yes, that's a sound board... we spend a lot of time there.


Hope you enjoy these picture!

Also, partial menu from this last week:

monday: shrimp etouffee with garlic bread

tuesday: homemade chili w/ grilled cheese sandwich
{the chili recipe can be found in "The Pioneer Woman Cooks" by Ree Drummond}

Happy Week Beginning!

Shannon

First Day at Home

Yesterday was my last day of regular classes! So, in honor of this great event I did some cleaning. I know, probably a little anti-climatic but it's true. I didn't spend the whole day cleaning, just part of it. And as it turns out, I felt soooo much better after I had finished cleaning! Amazing with a little time with rubber gloves and a scrub brush can do!

It had been a while since I had really scrubbed and cleaned. This isn't to say that we haven't cleaned in a while, because we do light cleaning regularly, but today was about serious, scrub-the-day-lights-out-of-the-soap-scum day. Through the process of cleaning I remembered that there are some really wonderful resources out there that have made my cleaning time easier... And naturally, I wanted to share them here! :) They are as follows:

1. Real Simple Magazine
2. Ok, this is related the no. 1 but it really is wonderful and thus deserved it's to be mentioned separately. {HERE}
3. This isn't exactly cleaning, but it does fall in the general cleaning-and-organizing category of life. Check out the website {HERE} and the book can be ordered {HERE} my mom has this book and she LOVES it!

Tomorrow, during all the royal wedding coverage I will be catching up on laundry and doing homework. I am of the opinion that Royal Weddings make homework and laundry much better!

The menu from dinner

Tonight's menu was as follows: homemade potato soup with chicken caesar salad. The catch is that we don't have a grill yet and since most of the time you eat grilled chicken on a caesar salad, my task was to come up with a way to cook the chicken that didn't involve a grill... I decided to bake it... and it turned out really yummy! I will post the recipe soon :) The down side is that when the hubby and I went to the grocery store yesterday we didn't double check the amount of caesar dressing in the fridge... yeah, you know where this is leading- enough dressing for 1 salad, not two. I managed to turn the bottle upside down and get the last little bit of caesar dressing for my salad, but it was a sad day. Even sadder than that was that I pouted. Yes, pouted like a 4 year old. Sad, right? Yep. I am blessed that my husband (who BTW offered to go out and get more dressing, but I said no because there was some seriously nasty weather in our area) didn't hold my pouting against me :)

FYI: I am planning on adding a few new pages to the blog: food, crafts, and inspirations. At least for now, I may add some more soon. Anyway, that's all for now! Oh! And I'm almost done with school for the next 3 months!

Returning to the fold

Well, I'm back! Ok, that's kind of a misnomer... I have been around but I haven't been posing... Confession time: I went to the dark side. I tried a wordpress blog. There, I admitted it. I haven't used it all that much but the times I did use it I discovered that it was just too complicated and for right now I'm coming back here :) Ok, we can all have a happy moment because I have left behind my rebellious ways and returned to the light.

Now, on that note, there's a lot that's happened since I posted last. 1. I got married! I though this appropriate since my last post was all about getting engaged and planning the wedding! 2. Disney anything is great for a honeymoon! 3. I'm about to be 1 semester away from college graduation! 4. We have a kitten! (Actually, the kitten is his/ours and the cat is mine. My wedding present from David was to bring my cat with me and she's definitely my cat, not ours.)

I am hoping to post more regularly and add some new things to the blog. I've done a lot more cooking and baking lately, so expect some posts about that :) And there there's all the craft-type projects that I've done/will be doing, expect posts here too :) Anyway, that's as up to date as I can get at this moment.

SE