busy bees

hey y'al! it's been a while since i posted, but it has been nonstop around here.

our weekend was packed full and this upcoming week doesn't look much different.

we started our weekend with a soccer tournament. my youngest plays on a local travel team. this weekend had us in monroe on saturday and athens on sunday. but i soaked up plenty of this glorious weather we've been having so it was all good!

saturday night we had date night with some of our very best friends. do you have that certain couple where your relationships seem so paralleled. both guys act pretty much the same and so do the girls. well, that's us with this couple. and i'm here to tell you, every time we go out with them...nothing.but.fun. the one word to describe our relationship with them is simply this...easy.

we tried a "new to us" restaurant called chops and hops that's located in a city right outside of athens . y'all we ate til we couldn't eat anymore. i mean kevin looked at the menu and ordered appetizer, main course AND dessert! whaaaaaa? he doesn't do that very often.

sunday we had an awesome worship service with our new church family. synergy church officially became our family a couple of weeks ago. but we've felt they've been our family since we first arrived  on their launch date of january 22 of this year.

we're getting things ready with our church team this week to, as lindsay (the cutest pastor's wife you've ever seen) posted on twitter, egg barrow county. and spread the word about our easter service which is sure to be amazing! we're stuffing plastic eggs to hand out in goody bags to everyone we come in contact with over these next couple of weeks.

 love being a small small part of this group of people so willing to put others before themselves.

on top of soccer practice for eli, spring basketball practice and a game for ethan, eli is making his acting debut in the high schools rendition of oklahoma. okay, he doesn't have a speaking role, but he is acting all the same!

he has practice three nights this week with the play running friday, saturday and sunday. he is beyond excited!

i am gonna miss saturday nights performance simply because i had already purchased tickets to go to girl's night live with kevin's sister and her church group. but let me tell you, i'm so excited! a very good friend of mine and i will be driving toward atlanta saturday for a little dinner and some girl time and i.cannot.wait. if you don't know what girls night live is...click on the link!

so that's my life past, present and future...in a nutshell. probably won't have time to do anything but breath for the next week but i'm embracing it with everything it has to offer. oh and btw, i did find a couple of new recipes on pinterest i thought i'd share with you.

ranch chicken tacos

monterrey chicken

 i think i'll try these this week and let you know how it goes! last weeks recipes were a huge hit!! especially the alice springs chicken!!

y'all have a blessed week!!



gathering 'round the table

dear lillie blog

hey y'all! i thought it would be fun to post our menu for the week again! and along with the pictures of the foods i will be preparing, i wanted to share a beautiful tablescape to go with them.

it's very important for us to sit down as often as we can and eat our meals together as a family. we work hard at this. and when i say "hard" i mean sometimes it's eight o'clock before we can all gather around our table for dinner...but we make that effort.

kevin is a coach so most of his days are long. and both boys are in sports. eli is playing travel soccer and ethan is playing spring basketball. our weeknights are full. and when i'm looking at the upcoming week, there are only a couple of things i look for when planning our meals.

one. is it easy.

two. will we like it.

i have tried a few of my pins from pinterest. some have failed. some were hits.

i saw a comment from another blogger the other day that does a "taste tested" board to let you know she liked the meal. i really would like to implement that. right now, i'm doing good just to type on this blog and briefly browse through pinterest.

anyway here are our meals for the week. i will tell you that i fixed the first one last night and it was a huge success!! and easy peasy!! let me know if you try any of these or if you have tried them and i shouldn't waste my time!

taco casserole

now i will say, i didn't use cottage cheese i just used more sour cream in this. it was deeeelish!!

outback alice springs chicken

baked spaghetti

hope you all have a great week!!



the luck of the irish

i think green is the best color in the rainbow. and it's no wonder it has a day all of it's own.

thought i would share some of my favorite greens from my favorite address.

i (heart) this look. and that dress would be an easy piece to use for fall and spring!

love a green field...this screams, "spring is here!!!"

avocados are my fav...this is the perfect summer salad!

you can't go wrong with this

love my toms...i would love them in this perfect green

open shelving and sage green cabinets. this is so bright and airy

perfect spring time family room

my favorite paint in my favorite color!

green shorts...a must have for my spring wardrobe

emeralds...love!

and who could forget the most famous green of them all....

the emerald city!!!

happy weekend and happy st. patrick's day!!!

(all the pics can be found here)

a dream redefined and being refined

remember in this post when i gave you a little background history of us, my family and me? in it, i told you how just a few short years ago we built our dream home.

 now back then, dream home meant BIG. enough space and then some. all the latest appliances. granite countertops. hardwoods throughout. high ceilings and heavy trim.

in the build of this "dream home" i got just about everything i wanted. you name it, i found a way to make it happen.

 i'll be honest with you. we didn't pray about this house before we built it. never even came to us that we should. but God already knew what would happen. He's kinda like that, you know. He had it all planned out.

we had no idea the market would tank. real estate would simply become a title i held, not a career i made money in.

but He knew. He provided.

He provided a way in which we could keep this "dream house". i had to go back to my former career in radiology. working five days a week.

these last few years God has shown me so much about myself. the good. the bad. and the extremely ugly.

i've learned my "dream house" really wasn't my dream after all. it was what i thought i wanted. you know, the whole bigger is always better scenario.  

yes, my dream has changed.
 i want my money (God's money) to count for something more than just a monthly mortgage payment.

i've realized there are some things we just.don't.need. i don't want my boys growing up thinking the things they surround themselves with is where they get their worth. i want them to know the One who gives it to them.

i want my house to be about the people inside, not the things inside.

last saturday kevin called me. "have you been praying about selling our house?" he knows over the last few years i've started to pray specifics. an agent had called him to ask if she could list our house. Huh?? do you realize how upside down we are right now in this house? do you realize we aren't gonna pay someone to buy our house from us? do you realize it will not be in your best interest to list our house?

he actually said all of those things to the agent.

truth is, i do pray about financial things. and truth is, even in this tough economy, if God wants our house to sell, it will sell.

so we'll take the first step and put it on the market. and pray. we'll pray for God's will, not our own. and we'll wait.

i'm so thankful He allowed me to go through these last couple of years. this has been such a refining process for me.

He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness. malachi 3:3


my study bible describes this verse perfectly:
in the process of refining metals, raw metal is heated with fire until it melts. the impurities separate from it and rise to the surface. they are skimmed off, leaving the pure metal. without this heating and melting, there could be no purifying. as the impurities are skimmed off the top, the reflection of the worker appear in the clear, pure surface. as we are purified by God, his reflection in our life will become more and more clear to those around us.

i know this was a small fire He put me through. i know He's not finished. there's more refining left to be done. but i have to know when He pulls me from the fires, i will be more like Him. and to me, that's so much more important.

i've got sunshine on a cloudy day

we had a bad set of storms come through georgia last night. this morning we woke up to our pool being filled to the rim with water. and it's still raining. there's nothing i love more than a wonderful outdoor space. but right now....you ain't gonna find that here.

we (or should i say "i") have plans for our outdoor living space. i have had them for a while now. kevin even bought me some fabulous cushions last mother's day for our patio furniture that sits on our covered porch...

i've yet to use them!

the main reason for that, is this girl...

she's our jack russell something or another mix. sweetest thing when she's not digging holes in our yard, chewing up our pool pump wires, tracking mud onto the patio...cuz she loves to run in the rain, basically when she's just.standing.still. the end.

i love our patio...really i do. i just wish i got to use it. here's a wide shot of it. take notice of the furniture. you can practically see it begging for cushions!

look at those empty seats and lovely mud stains...who wouldn't want to sit and drink coffee out here...oh yeah, ME!!

i will say when we (and i mean me) thought about the design of this space, the first thing that came to mind was an outdoor bathroom. we have a pool and in the summer time when kids are splish splashing around, i don't want them trottin' through my house all drippy. so this was the perfect spot for one!

the bathroom is behind the door in the far corner, see...

and the door to the right of it is our pool storage room...

it's perfect for our pool floats and chemicals. and for our frig that holds all of our favorite summertime drinks!!

and beside these two doors, hangs this cute little sign...

i snagged this on clearance at PB several years ago. all of our towels, the boys' swimsuits, goggles, basically anything wet hangs here after a long day in the pool.

you might be thinking, well that's not so bad. so you have empty chairs and stains on your concrete floors. but brace yourselves and check out this view....

this ground is completely saturated at the moment. the remnents of what use to be a playset lay over to the side. and an ugly trampoline is right smack dab in the middle as a huge focal point. see told ya.

pretty hopeless one might think. but not me. remember i have plans. i can see the bigger picture.

 ok, this is not where i was going with this post but i literally had God just speak to me so i'm gonna keep typin'. 

 the devil likes to tell us that things can't change. that we can't change. but the truth is the only thing  that doesn't change is God.

He doesn't change. but He has the power to change...

circumstances

situations

people

and you know what He says. you might think things are hopeless...but not Me. remember I have plans. I can see the bigger picture.

thank you God for a bigger picture in my life. thank you for loving me enough not to leave me this way. thank you for the plans that you've made. thank you for change.

ok. sorry but i truly felt God wanting me to share that. even if it was in the middle of this post!

 now, i do still want to show you some things i've found that i hope to incorporate into our outdoor space.

that muddy concrete floor will be replaced with tile pretty similar to this...

below are some fabulous garden stools that will fit perfectly as end tables and extra seating when needed.

and i really want to fill our patio with wonderful greenery. i think it makes all the difference in a space.

as for my yard, we definitely want to put in a firepit where the trampoline sits.

and i want the natural spaces in my yard to look more like this....

and this...

these are just some of the ideas i have for our outdoor living space. you can check out my pinterest board dedicated to spaces as beautiful as these. remember spring is just around the corner!!! Yay!!!

hope you have a wonderful sunny weekend, wherever you are and no matter what it actually looks like outside!