seven

7 by Jen Hatmaker

7 is the true story of how Jen (along with her husband and her children to varying degrees) took seven months, identified seven areas of excess, and made seven simple choices to fight back against the modern-day diseases of greed, materialism, and overindulgence.

Food. Clothes. Spending. Media. Possessions. Waste. Stress.

 They would spend thirty days on each topic, boiling it down to the number seven. Only eat seven foods, wear seven articles of clothing, and spend money in seven places. Eliminate use of seven media types, give away seven things each day for one month, adopt seven green habits, and observe “seven sacred pauses.” So, what’s the payoff from living a deeply reduced life? It’s the discovery of a greatly increased God—a call toward Christ-like simplicity and generosity that transcends social experiment to become a radically better existence.

that's it in a nutshell. but where my journey will take me will far exceed trying to fit in a nutshell. i'm certain of it.

i'm sure some who read this will think i'm crazy for taking this step. questions will be asked such as, "why would you want to do that?'

read what jen wrote in the book....

...i've developed something of an immunity to sermons. typing that is embarrassing: it makes me sound so unteachable. teaching by example, radical obedience, justice, mercy, activism, and sacrifice wholly inspire me. i'm at that place where "well done" trumps "well said."

i want to live my life how jesus taught us through his word.

i want to sing a worship song on sunday or any given day in my car or in my home and actually mean the words i'm singing.

i want to hear a sermon or do a bible study where my knowledge is put into motion. 

i want the excess of my life to become much smaller so jesus can become much bigger.

i live in a place where i have been blessed with so much. but some of these blessings ahem, a lot of these blessings have become distractions and are being abused, by me!!

my pantry is full but i can't decide what we're gonna eat.

my clothes addiction is insane but i never have anything to wear.

i know the latest happenings on facebook but we haven't talked about how our day was as a family.

if i want an item, within reason, i buy it. period.

if there are leftovers from dinner, 9 times out of 10 they will end up in the trash. i don't like leftovers.

at any given time, 4 televisions can be running simultaneously in our home.

excess.

 i've asked kevin to join me in this. but i don't want to dictate to him how he needs to go about it. my journey is my journey and his journey is his journey. the end. i will have my boys going through it as well. and yes some months will be harder than others, but i think we're all ready.

i've also joined a group on facebook of fifty or so committed people. we'll all share in our experiences together. it will be good to know there are other families and individuals struggling and persevering through this at the same time as me.

so on august 1st food month will begin.

7 foods for 31 days. that's it. no more. no less.

 i'm still narrowing down my foods.

first it was salmon, greek yogurt, strawberries, blueberries, and quinoa for sure. with spinach, broccoli and tomatoes up in the air. but now, i'm rethinking salmon just because it's not as accessible as say chicken would be. but i still have 5 days to make this decision and you can bet it won't be final till that 5th day is here!

so i hope you'll follow along as i journal my way through the next 7 months. or maybe even better, you'll start a journey of your own!

only eight summers left

i was cruising blogs the other day and ran across this post.

how many summers do i have left?

with ethan it's 6. i'm counting this summer and the one after his senior year.

with eli it's 8.

to me, that's not long. not long at all.

it's so easy for me to come home from a long day of work and want to retreat to my bedroom and completely shut off from the real world.

facebook...

pinterest...

blogs...

television...

all play a part during my isolation.

but i want the boys to remember their summers at home as a time where i was fully present. there are memories to be made and moments to treasure. i don't want to be remembered as a mom who never played outside or who always had her nose in her smart phone or the computer.

we've talked of camping...

we'll definitely make a trip to six flags...

i would love to take the boys to centennial park...

and swing by the georgia aquarium...

and i'm sure we'll catch one of these....

but most of all, i just want to spend time with them. i don't have much longer. i want every minute of every day to count. it's hard. it's hard to be intentional. it's hard to be fully present in every moment. and sometimes it just doesn't happen. but i'll give it my best. and i'll do it because i know it matters.

how many summers do you have left?



life lately in pictures

we finished up our soccer season :)

kevin's dad actually dozed off during a game...the man can sleep anywhere!

eli graduated from fifth grade. no more kids in elementary school. yep...emotional wreck!

kevin had a basketball tournament for all of his wildcat alum. i think they all had a great time!

memorial day was full of cousins and friends. cooking out and homemade ice cream. but ethan accidentally dropped my camera so i only have a few pics. praise the lord for insurance!!!

this is a buffet we purchased awhile back off craigslist. of course it didn't look like this. it was stained a dark brown with brass knobs. but annie sloan's chalk paint and crystal knobs from hobby lobby can work miracles i tell you! so can these super cute lamps from hancock fabrics! and in case you're wondering, we're getting ready to paint our dining room. right now it's chocolate brown. but it will soon be desert castle...hence the sample above the trim.

our backyard is coming along. trees were cut down. new sod was laid. it feels so open now.

loving my covered porch. and see that blank space to the right of those windows....

well my aunt kathy has made the most fabulous sign for that space. it isn't quite completed (distressing and framing is next) but i couldn't wait to show you. it will definitely be my most favorite spot in this space...

just ordered this bedding for ethan's room. he'll be using kevin's childhood bed. can't wait to get started on his room!

and last but not least, i'm getting ready to start this study in a couple of weeks. kelly minter is such a relateable down to earth bible teacher. and i'm doing the study with some incredible girls, all eager to jump into God's word this summer and deepen our relationship with Him and with each other!

so there you have it....hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!!

obedience

most of us learn at an early age to obey our parents. or that's what we should do. and as we become christians and grow in our relationship with God, we learn we should  obey Him as well.

let's face it, there are times in our lives when we do this and there are times in our lives when we don't.

for me, it's so easy to obey when he's asking me to do something that comes naturally to me. it's in the out of my comfort zone issues that obedience becomes a problem.

i have a wonderful church family. every sunday you can always look across the isles and see people from all different walks of life. it's one of the things, as a partner with this church, i'm most proud of.  our motto, if you will, as a church is simple. to make christ known in the lives of people far from God. that's it. simple. to the point.

this morning was like every other sunday morning sort of. i got up. grabbed my coffee and started reading my bible. usually i'll sit and watch someone like charles stanley or david jeremiah on t.v. but i've started a read your bible in ninety days plan. so that's what i was doing. i've just started this plan so i'm still in the book of genesis. and this morning i was at the story of isaac and abraham. how God had asked abraham to take his son, isaac, and place him as a burnt offering before the Lord. remember that story? abraham did as God had said even though it was such an unimaginable task. he obeyed.

after some time had passed. i got ready. kevin got the boys up and had them moving around. then kevin left to go pick up a ball player that always comes with us to church. the boys and i usually head out on our own.

it never fails when we get in the car, my youngest son always asks if i'll turn the volume on for the particular movie he is watching so he can enjoy fifteen minutes worth of entertainment before we make it to church. and every sunday it never fails. i say no. we usually just listen to music. now he might have the dvd player on but no sound is coming from it. which was exactly the case this morning.

as we got closer to where our church meets,  i saw a man walking down the sidewalk pushing a grocery cart. older gentleman. jeans. t-shirt. truckers hat. and all of a sudden this feeling came over me. our motto rang out like a fire alarm in my head. but i kept driving til i made it to our church parking lot. still i could not get this man pushing a cart off my mind. did God really want me to ask him to come to church? is this what i'm suppose to be doing? picture me here and my comfort zone about a hundred miles away. get the point?

so i parked our car and sat in silence. the boys looked at me like why are you not getting out of the car? but i was frozen. should i go back? is the reason i'm feeling this way simply because it's what we've claimed as a church? God doesn't really want me to go back and ask him to come to church, right?

so in that moment of silence in my car, i asked "God is this really what you want me to do?' and without missing a beat, my youngest son spoke through the silence. "hey mama, you know if Mrs. Tuohy hadn't stopped the car that night to pick up big Mike, i bet he'd be dead by now."

eli had been watching the blindside on the way to church. and it was in that statement God told me what the answer to my question was.

the boys got out of the car and headed in. i picked up my phone and immediately called kevin, who hadn't made it to church yet. the tears were flowing as i told him everything that had happened in that small five minute span. he said he would go check to see if the man was still there and ask him if he'd like to join us today.

now i would like to tell you that this story ends where the man walked through the doors  a few minutes later with kevin and he worshipped with us and it was a beautiful thing. but he didn't. kevin found him. asked him if he'd like to join us. he said no. he was picking up cans to make money to pay a power bill. and that's what he wanted to do. the one thing kevin noticed when he reached him was the trucker's hat on his head that read...jesus is my boss.

today in His word i read of abraham's willingness to go to great lengths to obey God. and today in my life i acted upon something i truly believe God was asking me to do.

was the outcome of the task in either of these situations what i really needed to focus on? no. i believe that there are some things God will ask us to do just to deepen our capacity to obey Him and to build us into the people He wants us to become.

i feel in more ways than one, He is molding me and shaping me into who He wants me to become. and though it hurts sometimes. and sometimes it feels a little or a lot out of my comfort zone, i'm learning to be more and more obedient to Him.



jesus loves me this i know...

this has not been the week i had really hoped for. don't get me wrong, i've enjoyed spending time with my boys and being away from work.

but this week looked different in my head.

i had plans. we would finish most of our backyard. i would have friends over and we would lounge by the pool while the kids played. we would have cookouts. it was going to be a great week. let's just say, none of this happened.

our weather hasn't been the greatest this week. it hasn't been this cold since march. it has rained a lot and the ground is still soggy. i'll have a picture post of the things we did get to do this week later. but there's something i want to share with you today.

we came home last night from a scrimmage soccer game for my youngest son. i decided to sit down and peruse some of my favorite blogs. and one of my most favorite is bring the rain. i've followed angie's blog for a few years. i've read her book "i will carry you" and i got to see her at the women of faith conference this past year in atlanta.

in her recent post, she described something that i didn't even realize at the time i was doing. how her attention has been on everything but the One it needs to be.

i mean let's face it. life happens and our attention can easily be shifted to ...

soccer practices

having friends over

braves games

yard work

movie night

(well, this was where my attention was this week) 

i never want to paint a perfect picture of our family. there's a lot we do right and there's a lot we do wrong. we do have family devotion time every morning before the boys go to school and before kevin and i leave for work. but what we don't do is have our devotion time when school is out.

i had plans this week. and out of all of those plans, none of them involved making sure i had my quiet time with the Lord and so did the boys.

so when i read angie's post last night, i felt guilty. i felt like i'd had this whole week to really focus my attention on Him and once again failed miserably. now let me just say, angie's post is great. and you should really read it. but her honesty in her own life, really made me sit down and think about mine.

i want to do better with my quiet time. i really want to focus on having family devotions. school or no school. weekends or weekdays.

so this morning i decided i would get up and get our devotion book (jesus calling for kids) and my bible and i would have some quiet time with God. and this is what he told me...

do you know that uneasy, twisty feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you have to give a speech? or you're up at bat? or you're next in the dance recital? you worry if you'll be good enough, and if people will like your performance.

sometimes you can even get that uneasy, twisty feeling about Me. you wonder if you are doing enough to be worthy of My love. well, the answer is no. it doesn't matter how great you act or how many things you do to serve Me, you can never be worthy of My love.  no one can. but that's the greatest thing about My love--you don't have to be worthy. it's a gift--free and clear. you don't have to earn it. you just have to accept it.

so relax. do the best you can. and know that i will love you--no matter what!

let your face shine on your servant; save me in your unfailing love.

psalm 31:16

i was so thankful He reminded me once again, there's nothing i can do to make Him love me more. His love is unconditional. i want to please Him and do the right things. but even when i don't, His love never fails.

after reading this devotion, i realized i had read the wrong day. i read the devotion for april 19th instead of april 20th. coincidence?? i think not.

pulling weeds

i told you we've been working in our yard.

it has been and is going to be a long process.

and although i want it done now, i know these things take time.

 we've spent hours...

 pulling weeds.

laying down weed barriers.

 making sure everything has a clean foundation.

this whole backyard process has me thinking.

this is the exact process our heavenly Gardener uses to eliminate the weeds in our own lives.

he shows us the weeds in our lives that need to be pulled.

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts

psalm 139:23

he is our barrier. our protector.

my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior--from violent men you save me.

2 samuel 22:3

and he makes our foundation clean everyday.

Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning

lamentations 3:23

so just as i work tirelessly at pulling weeds in my backyard to make it exactly how i want it to be, God is doing the same thing in my heart. he's pulling weeds to reveal more of who he wants me to be.

are there weeds in your life that you need to allow him to pull?

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!!



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.

the perfect prison

i have a confession. i've been in prison most of my adult life. it's not something i'm proud of but it's something i feel needs to be shared.

it's the prison of perfectionism.

does she look familiar? (monica from friends)

what about him?? (creepy husband from sleeping with the enemy...i can still hear that scary music that was always playing when he was close by!)

i ran a close race with these two.

everything in my world had to be perfect

perfect house.

perfect family.

perfect relationships.

perfect children.

perfect "look"

do you know how exhausting that is??

and the thing about it is as women, we are brainwashed by the world to think this way. look at the cover of any magazine.

models airbrushed to have perfect bodies. hair. clothes.

homes that have the perfect furniture. wall colors. lighting.

for me, it was an addiction. an obsession. it caused me not to be fully present at certain times in my life.

when having friends over i would constantly be thinking about all the cleaning i was going to have to get done when everyone was gone. or even before they arrived, was everything in its proper place. or i couldn't even have friends over because the house wasn't decorated exactly how i wanted or the yard wasn't landscaped just perfectly.

going out on dates was a whole other issue. was i wearing a cute enough outfit? was i having a good hair day? because let me tell you if those things didn't happen, it would set my mood for the night. i couldn't fully enjoy myself without having these thoughts in the back of my mind.

the stress of my boys having friends over to play. what kind of mess were they making? did they have to drag out every.single.blanket we owned and rearrange all the furniture just to build a fort that would be played in for a total of five minutes?

see the pattern???

this is what i've learned.....

my friends don't come over to see our house, they come to see us.

it's not what my clothes or hair or outside appearance looks like, it's the character of my heart.

i want my boys to enjoy having their friends over. i want them to enjoy using their imagination.

these chains are slowly being loosened. i still have more moments than i want where these "need to be perfect" feelings come right back. but i will say i'm not confined to this twenty-four hour prison cell anymore. although i do still visit it from time to time, it's just that...a visit!

visit the nester for more perfect imperfections!

joy in the anticipation

today, ash wednesday, is the beginning of lent and the forty days leading up to Easter. now I will say growing up I never heard a lot about this time of year. all I really knew was you had to give up something, repent a lot and try not to focus on yourself. pretty dark and depressing if you ask me.

 but over the years my attitude towards this season has changed.  there’s an anticipation that builds up with this time of year. i look at it now more like a time of preparation rather than a time of depression. in the same way advent helps me to prepare for Christmas, lent helps to prepare me for Easter and everything that it means.

lent has become a time to turn my focus back to God. to rejuvenate my prayer life. try new prayer practices. spend some time in silence with the Lord. doing things that connect me to Him on a deeper level.

 i know there are some things that have entered my life that take my time and energy away from my family and friends and even God. pinterest, facebook and my smart phone all come to mind.  but I don’t want my focus, during lent, to be on what i'm giving up. i’d rather it be on what I’ve been given.

quality time with my boys

a higher level of intimacy with my husband

a stronger relationship with our Lord.

yes, for me, lent is a time of soul-searching and repentance. but it’s also a time to start something new, to turn back to God and to remember all we have been given, and to begin again!

spring cleaning in my home and in my heart



this weekend was wonderful. it was filled with absolutely nothing. like i said, wonderful.

we don't get very many weekends like these. so i wanted to relish in the fact that i was staying home on a saturday and my schedule had not one thing written on it that i had to get done.

 i'm a very organized person.

 and i love nothing more than a clean home.

so i felt this would be the perfect opportunity to do a little spring cleaning.

even though our calendar says february , i feel spring is knocking at my door. in more ways than one.

our bed was stripped. the mattress was vacuumed. sheets were cleaned. baseboards and furniture dusted.

the glass around our shower was cleaned, inside and out. tub and toilet scrubbed. floors vacuumed and mopped...

countertops, cabinets and sinks were wiped down.

i will say i'm very lucky in the fact that my closet will hold all of my clothes. i don't have to worry about changing them out each season. but it still needs to be purged from time to time.

clothes were refolded and the ones that were halfway off hangers were put back in their proper places.

bookcases were thoroughly dusted....

...and the insides were organized.

it feels so good to have everything in my home cleaned. i love going from room to room seeing that evey item is put in its proper place.

and just like the spring cleaning that i do in my home, i feel there's a similar cleaning i need for God to do in my heart.

my closets, bookcases and dresser drawers get cleaned of all the unwanted items i have in them. and sometimes i forget i have a lot of unwanted items in my heart as well. sometimes i don't even realize they are there. until something is said or done and it triggers those items to hang front and center in my life....

worries

fears

anxiety

insecurity

comments

judgment

discontentment

so i'm really working hard on letting God clean out my heart. and just as i fill my closets and dressers back up with some things i love, God will do the same. but this time He will take the negative items that were taking up such precious and valuble space inside me and replace them with His love. His grace. His mercy. because i truly believe that everything good that is within us all comes only from Him.

so i'm breathing in real deep to smell that fresh clean spring air (with just a hint of clorox bleach) and i'm allowing God to get His rubber gloves and dust rags and mop buckets so that He can do what He needs to do in order to get this job done. and i know it won't be done in one saturday afternoon or even in this lifetime but it will all be worth it.

The LORD will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest. Psalm 85:12



waiting for the blooms



we have beautiful knockout roses in a huge flower bed in the front of our home. every season it seems there are more and more blooms that come. but when the season of blooming is over we prune them down to just the bare branches. kevin takes the hedge trimmers and in one, sometimes two swoops, they are cut down.

even though our winter so far has been mild. and it has been only in the past couple of days that i've really felt this season come upon us. in my heart, i feel winter is in full force. it's cold. it's dark. it's dreary. it hurts.

but even in the darkness of these days, i see God's light shining all around me. to guide me. to keep my focus on what or rather Who it needs to be. i cannot begin to tell you what He's teaching me in the midst of my pruning. i'm learning about forgiveness, trust, kindness, patience, faith and hope. just to name a small few. 

He has spoken directly to me so much over the last week. bronson, the lead pastor at synergy church, was preaching out of mark chapter two this past sunday. a story of how the faith of four friends brought a paralyzed man to Jesus. and the faith it took for the man himself to get up on his own and walk with no one there to carry him. sometimes my faith is so small, i need the faith of others to carry me to Him. and then there are times where He will ask me to trust in Him and stand on my own faith, with no else around.

then just yesterday i was watching joyce meyer on tv. she was telling the story from john chapter eight. the woman had committed adultery and the people had brought her to the temple, before jesus to be stoned. and before jesus said a word to any of them. he bent down and started drawing in the dirt. what???? i'm thinking come on, say something to them. don't just kneel down and play in the dirt! well, joyce goes on to explain her interpretation of this action. before jesus spoke a word, he wanted to listen to his father. he wanted to hear what his father had to tell him about the situation. oh good grief!!! how many times have i talked and talked and talked without first stopping to listen to what God is telling me?  too.many.to.count.

he's spoken to me not only in these two stories, but also through friends and family. i had a friend i was confiding in just the other day. and when we got ready to hang up the phone, she said, "i'm going to pray for this situation. right now" and i knew in my heart that the minute we hung up the phone she was talking to God for me. do you know what that feels like??? to know that someone will actually be praying for you. that it's not just words they say for comfort. that there is action behind them. He's teaching me to be that kind of friend to others.

yesterday i shared with kevin everything that i was learning in this season. i feel like every direction i turn, He is  right there. talking to me. teaching me. it has come in many different forms. friends. preachers and bible teachers. family. His Word. i'm trying really hard to keep my heart opened and listen. sometimes it's a struggle. but i could not be more thankful for what He's shown me. i'm filled with empty branches. and just like those roses, i feel like i have been cut down in one swoop. but i know that a season of pruning is always followed by a season of blooms. and right now, that's what i'm waiting for.

I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. John 15:1-2

are you ready for some football???

um, me...i don't really care. i mean don't get me wrong. i love my georgia bulldawgs and saturdays in athens tailgating with friends. but when it comes to the nfl, i haven't paid much attention. now i will have to say, this year was a little different. i have been a tebow fan since his days with the gators. i love how he puts God first and gives Him the glory in all aspects of his life. i even read his book through my eyes.  my oldest son ethan, wanted a number fifteen gator jersey but his daddy, being a university of georgia graduate and die hard dawg fan,  wasn't about to let a university of florida jersey come through our front door. so he had to wait til tebow went to the nfl. he received his broncos jersey this past christmas.

now even though i don't care who plays in the superbowl this sunday, i do love the commercials and the halftime shows. and one of my favorite things to do is fix finger foods and veg out in front of the t.v. and graze for four hours straight!

did you know that americans eat more on superbowl sunday than any other day of the year?! y'all that includes christmas and thanksgiving!

well, let me tell you...if you are throwing a superbowl party or you're like me, and just love snacking on finger foods, then pinterest is the place to be!

here are some of the goodies i'm thinking of trying this weekend while becoming part of the statistic...

charleston cheese dip

mini buffalo chicken bites

peanut butter cup brownies

chocolate cookie and caramel peanut butter bars

so that's what i think i'll attempt...any good recipes you wanna share??

y'all have a great weekend!!