Life Group!

Last night I went to my first "Life Group" meeting. It was so awesome. It is a small Christian women's group that my friend Camille invited me to join. I love, love, love my church. But I have not found a small women's group to be a part of, and I really wanted to find one. I just don't have many Christian friends to talk to. I know I need to learn from those that have walked the walk longer than I have. "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another". 1 John 1:7.

So, I'd like to start regularly posting a summary of my Life Group discussions. Here's the first! I think I'll try to stick to the one thing that strikes me the most during the discussion, to keep the posts from getting too long!

The foundation of our conversation was Matthew 11:30 where Jesus tell us: "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." We talked about how we often perceive life as being so hard, but God doesn't want our lives to be that way. We are to lay our burdens down and take up Jesus' burden - which is light.

Our discussion leader asked us all what seems to be hard for us. One woman asked another to answer that, saying that it seemed nothing was hard for her. She responded by saying that she doesn't view things in the dichotomy of easy or hard. It's all just her journey. This was amazing to me - I didn't think it was an option not to label every moment/ action/ task as easy or hard, or fun or not fun, or whatever. And I do think that self talk is hugely powerful, so if we tell ourselves "this is going to be hard" that has an impact on us - we are less likely to do it, and definitely more likely to be unhappy if/when we do. So I'm going to keep thinking about that, and try to put that into practice.

This especially makes sense when I think about the little things that lead me to procrastinate - studying, writing a paper, mopping. But it's trickier when we think about major things like a loved one falling ill. It seems there's no denying we'll smack an automatic "hard" label on those trials. It seems that it is almost unkind to label it any other way. If I say losing someone isn't hard, doesn't that make me a heartless wench? But the concern that evokes is really about what other people will think - not about what God will think. We don't want others to think we're heartless or that we didn't love the person. God knows how we feel, there's no hiding from him. If I'm a heartless person he knows that, if I'm not he knows that too.

Interesting stuff. I don't even think I can go so far as to practice what I'm preaching. I don't think I can say that it wouldn't be hard if I lost my husband. Makes me feel horrible to even consider it! But, I'm working on it. I don't want to care about what people think of me, just what God thinks of me. And God knows I love my husband, with increasing depth every day.

All in all, I'd say the hour I spent with my new Life Group was time well spent! God is so good, and so faithful!

Someone had too much time on their hands last night...

My babies!

The Christmas tree is up!

I put up our Christmas tree last night! And I am officially a crappy photographer. Maybe it's my dark house that makes it difficult.


Amzie and Buck were a huge help, as you can see here. That would be Buck's head peeking out from Amzie's butt. That's his favorite place to sleep.


Actually Amzie did help. He got the tree out of storage and put it up and helped me fluff it up.

It's so fun unwrapping the ornaments each year, because I forget what I have until I see them again. I'm not a believer in a tree that's decorated with some color theme, just to look pretty. I like ornaments that remdind me of something or someone I love.

We have several categories of ornaments. First the silly. Like this chihuahua on a sleigh.


Then we have the commemorative. This one is for Amzie's grandpa Herschel.


Then we have the ones with our names on them. This is important for us, because as kids we both had trouble finding things with our names on them! We still can't find Amzie, but we can find Lee, which is his middle name.


We have some ornaments that are just beautiful. This is one of a set of handpainted glass ornaments that Danza's mom gave us for our wedding gift. If I had to name favorites, it would be this set.


I have a couple that people have made for me. This one was painted by my mommy.

And I have some from my childhood, that hung on my family's Christmas tree. This one was my favorite as a little girl.


I sat up later than usual last night. The house just felt so warm and safe and beautiful. I had lit some candles, the boys went to bed early, the TV was off. The only light in the house was the tree, the candles, and one lamp. It was very peaceful. I've been having some trouble sleeping, but when I finally went to bed a little after midnight I laid down to a nice night of rest and woke up this morning ready to start my day. God is so good to me. I am very thankful.

Be blessed today!

Thanksgiving Festivities

It is a rainy Monday morning, after a long Thanksgiving holiday. But God is still good, so I'm happy. (Can you tell yesterday's church service was particularly uplifting?)

Thanksgiving dinner was AWESOME. Amzie and Sue did a few things Wednesday because Sue had to work on Thanksgiving day. So Amzie made most of our dinner by himself. I did dishes between naps. We had awesome stuffing that he makes from scratch with real chicken, which was a new thing for me when I first had Thanksgiving dinner with the Wennings. Amzie cooks the turkey himself, puts in a brine (spelling? idea...) the day before, and it so tender. And he makes a really good cranberry salad with apples and walnuts.


But this is what it looks like after you eat it all...


Somehow the members of my family either managed to not notice the lady with the camera or be very confused by it...I think this picture is a riot.


And this is Amzie with the first of too many glasses of scotch that he had over the evening. Amzie can talk a blue streak when he's had a few drinks in him. But he remains ever cute and wonderful. Scotch is his new thing. I find it horribly disgusting.


And ok, Amzie came up with THE BEST use of leftover turkey ever. He made what he jokingly called Amzie's French Turkey soup, inspired by one of our favorite soups - French Onion. The soup was made with wild rice and who knows what else, but it was good. And instead of the croutons on top like in French Onion he put the leftover stuffing! And then for he put this leek and morrel cheese on top, and baked it in the oven. Oh....my....goodness, but it was wonderful. He was upset by my picture taking because he said the presentation wasn't good - we should have used our orangey plates, but they were all dirty.

And now we embark on the Christmas season. Yay! I wanted to put the tree up over the weekend, but that didn't work out. But it's going up tonight, for sure. Pictures to follow...

Have a great week!

Couple of cute things for a Tuesday morning

Look at these adorable porcelain shell tea lights! They are affordable and available here. Nate Berkus says everyone should have something from the sea around their home and I never really bought that, because I'm more of a mountain girl than a water girl. But I have since found that I like things related to the sea and oceans for my bathroom. So, these would be a nice addition in there.



I want to do some framing of random stuff for the main wall in my living room, so I'm searching for some inspiration regarding that. Here's something I found on Etsy, that is unfortunately sold out, but gives me a good idea nonetheless. I think this would be cute for a manly hunter man and a girly girl living in a cabin together.
And this puppy pencil sharpener poops pencil shavings. Nuff said. Available here.



I got the haircut yesterday, by the way. Didn't take pictures last night, so that post will have to wait. I got a little bob with bangs. I think it's cute, but the jury is still out.

Getting my hair cut today...

I've been trying to grow my hair out. This is a horrible process. And I need a decent transition haircut at this point. It is thick and unmanageable and just generally bad. So I went to the style gallery at http://www.ukhairdressers.com for some ideas.

This is the closest to what I have now, with the flippies in the back. But I am sick of it.

I would like to get back to a haircut I used to have, which was a bob where it was longer in the front. This type of thing might transition well to that. But I'm afraid my hair might be so heavy that this would not work. Not sure...

This is similar, but less heavy. And right now I have some shorter bangs in the front still, so this seems to work with that. I think this could be the winner...


I am tempted to cut bangs and make a cutie pie bob. But I don't think Amzie likes me with bangs.




Frankly, I have always loved this type of bob, but my hair is unlikely to be this sleek. Ever.


Feel free to give advice before 1:30 today, or forever hold your peace. :)

couch...couch...couch...that word sounds weird if you say it over and over

Ok, so new thoughts about the couch. Danza made some good comments, but I think that based on additional research there is essentially very little hope that I could cover a couch myself with a patterned fabric. I'm not positive I could do it with a plain fabric, so I'd say patterned is out. And to be honest, I'm kind of a flake and it is highly likely that I would be sick of the pattern within a month.

So now I'm thinking I should just get a plain slipcover if I can find one to fit, in a neutral color, and then make pillows out of these types of fabrics.

That same website that I found those fabrics on also has some great pillow patterns. And I'm sure I could wip up a pillow or two or ten.

Fabrics for couch covering

Danza so kindly sent me to ReproDepot.com to look at fabric and I found some really nice stuff
This one is my favorite, but it may be too much for a couch covering? How can one tell? Supposedly the biggest flower is 6.5 inches wide. Seems ok. Thoughts? Anyone? Anyone?



I would personally love a polka dot couch, but somehow I think I might get objections to this? Maybe pillows with this fabric?


The problem with these is that they are not listed as ones best for covering couches. Here is one that is suggested for that use though...


It is $85.75 per 81 1/2 inch repeat though. Not sure I can't do better than that. But I'm just trying to get ideas at this point.

The Gong Show!

Last Friday night was the annual Gong Show put on by the Black Law Student Association. The first year of school I promised myself that I would perform once before graduating. Since this is my last year of school, this was my last shot. And thankfully, I took it! I did not get gonged, thankfully. Actually, we took first place!

My husband took these pictures, so he focused on me mostly. Aww. But here are a couple with the whole band in the picture. The drummer is Jon, the bass player is Josh, and the guitarist is RJ. They are all 3rd year law students as well. They are also all amazing musicians. It took them about 5 minutes to learn the song, which was Susan Tedeschi's It Hurt So Bad.


Here is my shaking my thang during the guitar solo!

And here we are in the ugly sing! I love it!

But wait, it gets even uglier! I think this was the part where my friend Chris said she thought I was going to start crying. Hehehe.
It was a good night - for the most part. Singing on stage was a true dream come true. I sing in my car most days, imagining being on stage. But I did kind of screw up too. I was nervous before going on. Not really that bad, but just a bit tense. So, what I should have done is thought of my favorite scripture, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Philippians 4:6. But I didn't do that. I had beer. Two of them before going on, I think. And then I was on such an adrenaline rush that I had a few more. Now, I did not get sloppy drunk like I have in the past, but I did drink too much.

But, once I realized where I went wrong - in drinking to alleviate anxiety as opposed to asking God for help - I asked for God's forgiveness, and I know that he gave it to me. So, it's all good. Well, God is good anyway. :)

Neck Warmers

I'm crocheting myself an afghan right now. It's cream colored and looks like a basket weave. I'll post progress pictures when I have more than 8 rows...

I also like to have smaller projects going on at the same time to satisfy my need for immediate gratification. Danza told me about some neck warmers for sale at one of the local boutiques. I still haven't made it there to check them out, but I found free a pattern for this online here.


So I think I'm going to get to work on that. I also this on Etsy, which I think is the kind Danza was describing to me. I think I can make up my own pattern for this type.



Don't you just love yarn?

Yay husband!

Ok, so I've been buying myself flowers once a week. I got the bright idea that the husband should buy me the flowers once a week instead. Naturallly I shared this idea with him. He did not like it. But, HE DID IT ANYWAY!


I was kind of hoping he would come in with a smile on his face, kiss me, and gallantly had me the flowers. Instead he had a seriously frowny face and he thrust them at me, saying only "here." Oh well, I'll take it. Thanks husband!

Cheap progress!

Ok, still working on the house in small ways that I can afford. Here are the latest things...

I brought these plants inside because it is officially cold outside. We'll see if the dogs try to eat the plant sitting on the ground. Those are my photo albums sitting there, not looking very attractive. But I really like having them accessible. That storage thing is filled to the brim with yarn.


We have a ridulous amount of cookbooks, enough to fill a full sized bookshelf. I did a little organizing of them a couple nights ago. On the top of the shelf on the right side I have some pottery Amzie bought me, with pencils from the old Wennings store in one cup and baby's breath in the other. I like it. And then there's the Wenning's clock from the old meat packing plant. The pineapple wine box was my mom's. The bottom shelf is our game shelf.

These pictures kind of suck. But I made a wonderful find, I think, yesterday! I almost bought verfy similar placemats at Relish for $13 each, and I found these at TJ Max for $3 each! They are a pretty green and I like that texture as opposed to cloth. I'm attempting to put some color in the room, and to do something attractive to an otherwise unattractive coffee table. I want to put some mini pumpkins and squash in this bowl. Wonder where I can find those? And then after Thanksgiving I want to put some shiny round ornaments in there.


These are the votive holders that Danza bought me for my birthday. I bought some yummy Hazlenut candles to put in them.


Cheap progress is good! I also bought these large stone vase that I think I'm going to put sticks in. Sounds crazy, but I saw Nate Berkus do it and it was cool. But it was dark outside when I got home with the thing, and I don't go outside my house in the dark. Some of my neighbors freak me out.

All in all, I spent less than $15 and made some nice changes in the house this week!

Turn down the high beams

Thanks to Chalene Johnson, I learned about Dimrs and now I might want them. At any rate, I love the name. Not so much the spelling, because I hate "cute" misspellings. I wonder if these work. Chalene says they do, and she hasn't lied to me yet...

This week's lunch

In the past I've gotten discouraged about trying to eat healthy because Amzie does the cooking. But then I realized that he just cooks dinner. I'm in charge of my breakfast, lunch, and snacks. So I can still take charge of those meals and snacks.

Breakfast has always been easy. I usually alternate between toast, yogurt with granola and berries, and oatmeal. I do fruit for my morning snack, and something with protein and carbohydrates for my afternoon snack. For the last few weeks I've been cooking something Sunday nights that I can take for my lunch through the week.

I've been getting recipes from You On a Diet. The name of the book isn't the best, because it isn't a "diet" it's just a book about healthy eating with recipes in it.

This week I made a tofu stir fry. Here's what I put in it: onion, garlic, red pepper flakes, yellow and red bell peppers, broccoli, bean sprouts, cilantro, green onion, sesame seeds, baked tofu, sesame oil, a little fish sauce, and soy sauce. I'm serving it over a whole grain brown rice blend. It was easy to make, of course, or I wouldn't be making it. Mostly I've been making soups, but then I saw this and thought it looked yummy. I haven't eaten it yet. Maybe I shouldn't have posted it until I made sure it was edible...

A Corydon Cookout

After I finished taking the MPRE Saturday I drove down to Corydon for my father-in-law's birthday cookout. The husband had already driven down because he had to work at the Masonic Lodge chicken dinner that was going on all day Saturday.

My mother-in-law got a cake and put my and Amzie's names on the cake too, because we didn't get birthday cakes this year! We forgot to buy candles. Paul turned 61, so we used the 6 from last year and a toothpick for the 1. So all in all, a very strange birthday cake.

Here is Paul and his shiny new watch. Amzie thinks the watch is so ugly he'd be embarassed to be seen with Paul wearing it. It's getting returned.


Amzie built his usual raging bonfire that burned into the next morning.


This is our friend Beau who plays the guitar and sings. I also played and sang, marking my public debut! Beau has been playing since the 6th grade though, so he is obviously much, much better than I am. But he was encouraging to me and showed me a couple things.

This is Sue, my mother-in-law, trying to get Amzie's cousin's baby to look at the camera. It didn't work. She was mesmerized by the fire.

This is Sue freaking out that the little girl was about to run into the mesmerizing fire. Hehehe.

My dog Lyric thinks children look tasty. She was particularly interested in eating this child because it repeatedly referred to her as kitty cat.


It was a fun, but not well attended, event. I ate two hot dogs, which I am rather ashamed of. But I'm proud of myself for playing my guitar and singing in front of people. I think now that I've done it once, it will get easier from here on out.

This Friday I'm singing at the law school Gong Show. I've got a guitarist, a bass player, and a drummer - all very talented. I'm singing Susan Tedeschi's "It Hurt So Bad." Here's hoping I don't get gonged.

Just a couple things.

I want Amzie to make me something like this. This is from Brocade. No idea where to put it, but I like this because you could put books insome of the openings, pictures in another, a potted plant in another...This is also from Brocade. I like the green again, and the white, and the formality of the chair. I aways like a mix of things - some comfy, informal stuff mixed with more formal stuff.



I love this throw from Anthropologie. My current throws are shitty afghans I've made. Need new ones...

Alright, I'm out. I have to study for the MPRE now. Boo.