Welcome to my weekly post I share a peek into our lives, talk about things I'm loving, share links to interesting articles or helpful ideas I've collected throughout the past week, and just talk about whatever is on my heart! 🙂
Kathrynne turned 13 this week! We celebrated with a fun birthday party at the trampoline park with some of her closest friends. I’m so grateful for the amazing gift she has of such good friends.
And I can’t believe that I am now the mom of a teenager! I’m excited about this new season of life. The older she gets, the closer we get and the more that I just love hanging out with her. So I think it’s only going to get better from here!
We had fun watching one of my friends 4 young kids on Saturday night so that she and her husband could go on a date. It was fun to have little ones at our house — something we don’t have very often!
We made banana muffins, played Hedbanz, the older girls made homemade slime with Kaitlynn, and we had fun banging on pots and pans with their one-year-old.
I love this photo! Some women long for flowers and chocolates from their man. I'll take this. Because it's almost as romantic to me as when he does the dishes!
This week, I wrote a post about my Completely Honest Experience with Le Tote.
And I also proclaimed my love for Roasted Vegetables.
Or because they decided to jump out and do it scared! And/or because they decided to believe that God was bigger than their fears and that He doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies those whom He calls.
One of my heart's desires is to raise kids who are confident in who God has made them to be and how He has gifted them. I love watching them develop their unique gifts and talents and seeing what makes them come alive.
Kaitlynn's teacher at her new school noticed Kaitlynn has a gift for hand-lettering so she offered to pay her $5 to do some lettering on their class plate.
You guys, I have to admit that I was kind of nervous that she might mess the plate up. (I mean, the students had already all signed it and put their fingerprints on it! What if they have to re-do the whole thing because she misspelled a word??)
Yes, I may have some insecurity and people-pleasing issues! But this girl didn't! She just sat down when she got home from school and got to work.
She never second-guessed her ability or whether she could do it. She just confidently did what she knows she's gifted at — and had fun doing it!
This girl inspires me to live out my giftings more confidently and to not shy away from doing things because I'm afraid of failure. I want to own the gifts God has given me and use them to glorify Him and bless others.
2018 Goals Update
Personal Goals
1. Read 100 non-self-help books that will build me up/encourage me/inspire me/recharge me. (Fiction/story-driven/biographies/inspirational living books/devotionals.) See the list of 44 books I plan to read this year.
**Progress: 5 books read so far (look for a book update coming tomorrow)
2. Read through the entire Bible.
**Progress: I'm using the Robert Murray M'Cheyne plan and am on Day 28 — yay!
3. Write one handwritten note to someone every week.
**Progress: 5 notes written total this year so far
4. Run 500 miles.
**Progress: 40 miles run so far
Marriage Goal
5. Go on an overnight trip with Jesse without the kids.
Family Goals
6. Read 10 books aloud with the kids.
7. Take the kids to South Africa.
8. Go on a family road trip.
Financial Goals
9. Save up to pay cash to finish off an office for me and workout room for Jesse and me in the basement in our new house.
10. Replenish our Emergency Fund (we dipped into it to replace my car when it got totaled because of the carpet beetle infestation.)
Business Goals
11. Increase our gross income from the business by 8%.
12. Launch 5 new courses.
**Progress: 4 Weeks to a More Productive Life launched in January and we're currently working on finishing Content Creation 101 — a new YourBloggingUniversity course!
Links You Should Check Out:
