Love Dare - Day 18

Hello my wonderful readers. Happy Saturday! Welcome to day 18 of the Love Dare devotional, today's scripture is 1 Corinthians 7:2. Today's devotion is on kind of a touchy subject, sexual purity. The ideal situation would be that everyone be pure when they get married to their spouse and no one ever has an affair or anything, well Adam and Eve introduce sin into the world so there are such things as affairs and pornography. The quote from the devotional is "God designed marriage to keep us sexually pure." We have to look at it like sex is a wedding gift from God, he intends us to have sex with our spouse after they become our spouse. Culture does not agree with this notion and we have accepted that having sex before marriage is the norm, this where the problem lies. Also sexual impurity is not just physical, it can be emotional also through talking to someone and having an affair with them emotionally or by looking at pornography. If you and your spouse strive to please each other and pray for a healthy marriage together, God will take care of you as long as you look to him when times are hard.  

Love Dare - Day 17

Hello my wonderful readers. Today is day 17 of the Love Dare devotion and I love these couple on families because I was so blessed by God for him to bring me such a wonderful man and bless me with such a beautiful little girl. Today's scripture is Ruth 4:11-13, talk about a woman who was devoted and loved her husband's family more than anyone, amazing woman of God.  Today's devotion is a tuff one for me I'll admit, it's about loving your spouse's family. Now I have always been respectful and nice to my husband's family, I have never said anything rude to any of them even though sometimes they have to me. Marriage is a bridge to a new family and an opportunity to practice your Christian love. Love says you need to seek support and share life with your new family since they are apart of your spouse. I have a bad habit of letting little comments people make bother me, so when we leave a family gathering with my husband's family it's nothing but negative things out of my mouth as soon as we get in the car about so and so said this to me and so and so did this to me, it's a really bad habit to take it all out on my husband. I need to pray to be a better person in this aspect and not just start right in on his family as soon as we pull away from the gathering that he has had a nice time at, I need to learn to let it go and love and forgive as the Bible tells us to do of others. 

Recipe - Tortellini Salad

Hello my hungry readers. I have found the most wonderful pasta salad to make really easy for my lunches that has some veggie in it. It is tortellini pasta salad and it delicious. 

Ingredients:

3/4 cup sour cream

1/2 clove garlic chopped

3 teaspoons of dry ranch dip mix

9oz fresh cheese tortellini

2 tablespoons of crumbled bacon

3 cups fresh baby spinach 

1/2 cup grape tomatoes halved

Directions:

1. In a small bowl mix the sour cream, garlic, ranch dip mix, and the bacon (this is for the dressing, the longer it sets the better it is) 

2. Cook the tortellini as instructed on the package, let cool

3. mix the spinach, tomato halves, tortellini and dressing

4. Enjoy the wonderful yummyness! 

Love Dare - Day 16

Hello my faithful readers. Today's devotion has the scripture Genesis 1:28. The devotion today talks about families. God built families for adding and multiplying. It also talks about how He made marriage and "leaving and cleaving" to form a marriage of two people from two homes. God expects from us, Malachi 2:15, "godly offspring." A man should leave his mother and father and cling to his wife and she should do the same, I strongly believe in this subject from the Bible. At the end of the devotion it says to read Genesis 1:26-28, it's about families God made for us. After that it asks a couple questions: Is your marriage and children witness of God's goodness? Yes, He has given us life and that is a witness, He has also blessed us with each other and with our beautiful little girl; Does your worldview need to be altered to reflect the value He has given to you and your family? Yes, you can always improve your worldview about what God has given you in life. 

Love Dare - Day 15

Hello my faithful readers. Today's scripture is Ecclesiastes 4:9,12. It talks about a husband and wife together will fight against a godless culture and lead their family to that and just live for God if they do it together. We help each other and we add to each other's lives. Praying together as husband and wife, and as a family, brings prayer to a whole new level. At the end of the devotion it said to do a family project together where you have to work as a team from the beginning to the end of the project. The purpose of the devotion and project is to encourage each other along the way in the project and in life. 

Love Dare - Day 14

Hello my faithful readers. Today is day 14 of the Love Dare devotion. Today's scripture is Genesis 2:18. The Lord made woman with having in mind that man needed a helper. A wife is a helper to her husband. Each role of a husband or a wife is dependent on the other's help to do it well. The primary purpose of marriage is to help your spouse be the best person they can be. At the end of the devotion today there was a couple questions to take away: Do you think you are a helper to your spouse? Yes, I do feel like I am a helper, I try to meet his needs whenever he needs it; How can you bless them today by helping them? I felt like I helped my husband today by making him lunch, breakfast and coffee to go to work this morning while he got ready, I made him dinner when he got home and did all the laundry so he had clean clothes to go to work. I feel these things help him out because that way he can just go work and come home and relax and cuddle the baby. Hope you liked this devotion I liked it especially today. 

Love Dare - Day 13

Hello my wonderful readers. Today is day 13 of the Love Dare devotion. Today's scripture is Genesis 2:24. When you are married, two flesh become one. God made woman from man so literally we are one. You are live as one under God when you are joined in marriage. Love brings you completeness. You are specifically designed to meet the needs of your spouse, God has made you that way. The Lord knew before you were even born that you would be with you specific mate and meet his needs with your talents and he would meet yours with his. You were literally made for each other under God's hand, and should live as one under God's hand. 

Love Dare - Day 12

Hello my wonderful readers. Sorry for the next post also being late. Day 12 of the devotion uses scripture Genesis 2:18. It also includes Proverbs 18:22 in the devotion. This devotion talks about how in marriage you should never be lonely with your spouse. God gives you the most intimate relationship with another person in marriage. Love bridges two lonely people together especially under God. God said man should not be alone so he made woman from him. My favorite quote from the devotion today was "loneliness should be absent" when talking about your marriage. You should never ever feel lonely in life if you are seeking God, then your marriage will follow how God wants it to so you will not be lonely. 

Love Dare - Day 11

Hello my wonderful readers. Sorry for the delayed post, we just had a family weekend. Here is day 11 of the Love Dare devotion! This day's scripture is John 13:35. The point of this devotion was that faithful and growing Christians make good spouses. If you are living in and with God it is better than any books and counseling on marriage ever. At the end of the devotion there are a few questions: What are your priorities for your marriage? Mine would be to put God first in our marriage and then my husbands needs next, How important is your walk with God? My walk is very important to me and marriage, Are you helping your marriage in this area or hindering it? I believe I am trying to help it but don't really know yet how much I am. I am going to work on my individual walk to better my marriage. 

Love Dare - Day 10

Hello my wonderful readers. Today is day 10 of the Love Dare devotional. It just keeps getting better and better to me and I feel the need to want more and more. Today's scripture is John 14:21. The message is pretty plain and simple but so complex in many ways too. We need to Love God. That's it that's the whole message haha. Now I love a couple of the scriptures it talks about in the devotion like 1 John 4:19, "we love because He first loved us." It's so awesome to know God loved me before I was even made! Wow! Also another good scripture from today is 1 John 4:16 it talks pretty much about how the words God and Love are interchangeable and I think that is so awesome, God is love! My favorite quote from today's devotion is "loving God is a wholehearted, lifelong adventure." I think this is so true, it takes a lifetime to find out what all God has to offer in life and where He will lead you, only He knows what will happen. We want to show Him love the best we can so I agree with the devotion's point of showing love to God by showing love to the spouse He specifically put you with. We love Him by how we treat, serve and love others around us all the time, especially our spouse. 

Love Dare - Day 9

Hello my wonderful readers. Today's scripture is 1 John 5:1-2. The point of the message is about Love of course. We should all use everything we have in life to worship God and no one else, not even our spouse. The more you love the Lord and show him you love Him the better you will love your spouse on a day to day basis. You should always place God as the center of your marriage, that way the love of God will motivate your life and marriage to be better. My favorite line from today's devotional is "keeping God first blesses your marriage more than any other practice." At the end of the devotion it always asks for you to do something like pray or read a scripture or answer questions, today it asked for you to read 1 John 4:19-21 and asked: "Why do we love God in the first place?" The scripture says we love God because he loved us first, plain and simple I think. We should love God like He loves us and all of the relationships that He has given us in life will flourish. 

Recipe - Apples and Dip

Good day my wonderful readers. Hope all of your weeks are going good. Mine is! :-) I have been trying to eat better just so I have enough energy to get through the day with my little one, so here is a little snack I have come up with that is filling and tastes good too. You just get a small bowl and put two parts peanut butter (I like chunky, personal preference) and one part brown sugar. Mix it together and dip your apples in it. It was so good and filling and got me through until the next small meal. 

                                        

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Eating kind of healthy isn't too bad haha. Loves. 

Love Dare - Day 8

Hello my wonderful faithful readers. Today is day 8 of the Love Dare. I am getting more excited as time goes on to be doing this devotion. Today's devotion starts with Matthew 22:37 "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart." It all comes down to Love is best when God is first in your life. The problem in life now with people is they love their spouse more than they love God. Loving with everything you have, God first, is the greatest thing you can do in life. God has given you no higher calling in life than to love with everything you have. You are made by God to love like nothing else can, and you should take advantage of that whenever you can. My favorite quote from the devotion today is "let every breath be an opportunity to learn how to better love the God who first loved you." I want to put God first in my life and then my spouse because then I can serve my spouse better as a wife. 

Love Dare - Day 7

Hello my wonderful readers. We are wrapping up the first week of the Love Dare. I am so very excited with the things that I have learned so far while doing this devotion and excited for what is coming in the future. Today's scripture was Ephesians 3:17. Today's devotion talks about planting seeds in healthy soil, kind of like how your family gets along in your household. Love is the healthy soil in a household. A home filled with love is good for all that live in it. Your spouse for sure will flourish in a loving home over a not so loving home. Fill your home with love and your spouse and your children will flourish in life. At the end of the devotion it asked some questions: How will your mate be affected by living with you in the future? I'm hoping my spouse will be affected in a positive way in life by living with me, I just need to work on filling our home with love over all else. Will you dare to create a loving environment for your spouse to grow and create in? I believe I am going to try to create a loving environment and with God's help it will happen. 

Love Dare - Day 6

Hello my wonderful readers. Day 6 of the Love Dare starts with the scripture of 1 John 3:11 which pretty much says love one another. The devotion is about loving your spouse. Everyone longs to be loved by someone. The Lord puts you with your spouse on purpose, you are the only person that can fulfill their needs and they are the only person that can fulfill yours. In marriage Love is your primary responsibility. My favorite quote from this devotion was "when your spouse deserves your love the least, that is when they need it the most." My husband isn't always my favorite person but I'm learning when those times come that he is my least favorite person is when I need to love him the most and show him the most love. I feel if you show your spouse only love in a fight with them they will show you love back because love is contagious. This is something I am continuing to pray for is the Lord to show me what real love is, teach me to be a loving person and teach me to only show love to my spouse, especially when we are in disagreement. 

Love Dare - Day 5

Hello my faithful readers! Sorry this post is a little late today. Today's devotion was geared toward men I feel more than women but it could be for a women on what kind of man they should have in their life. Today's scripture was 1 Timothy 1:7. The devotion was a little short, mostly it said that real men embrace love and don't run from it. Real men love like Jesus loves. Real men will use love to drive their lives, not like boys who just run from love. Love is not just for women, it's for real men as well. Love should drive your life at all times! You should be a man who uses love to drive your life or you should be a woman who finds a man that drives his life with love, just as Jesus did with his life. Just keep praying that the Lord shows you was real love is and how to be a loving person. 

Love Dare - Day 4

Hello my faithful friends! Today we have reached Day 4 and I am just getting more and more excited each day. Today's verse is Romans 13:8-10. Today's devotion talks about loving one another. If you love God truly you will not sin against Him. If you love one another truly all will be forgiven between you. The best sentence in today's devotion was "When love fills a woman's mouth, she encourages her family instead of tearing them down." I have been trying so hard to be that woman for my husband and now my daughter. I want to encourage them out of love and not be so critical of them. The main point of the devotion is in verse 9, all commandments "are summed up in one command: Love your neighbor as yourself." Love fulfills all of God's laws he has given us, we should be lucky that it is that easy to fulfill them all by just loving one another. In every situation LOVE should be your first response, that way you will never have any regrets on how you handled the situation. I am going to try so hard to encourage out of love and respond with love first before all else in every situation. 

Love Dare - Day 3

Hello my faithful readers. We are on day 3 of the awesome Love Dare devotional. Today's verse that goes with the dare is one of my favorites 1 Corinthians 13:13 

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

The greatest thing in life and especially your marriage is love! The strongest thing in your marriage is the love you have for God first then your spouse. The book says "marriage hinges on love" that is an awesome way to look at it. Today is tells about how if you striped your marriage down all that would remain is love, and that would be all you would need to rebuild your marriage. Love can help you to forgive your spouse for anything they have done wrong to you, with God's help of course. Love can just heal, even the worst marriages. I believe this! When I was just engaged to my husband, him, my mother in law and me got into a huge fight about something that wasn't even worth fighting over, it took all the love I had for him to keep going with the engagement and eventually marry him. Love is still healing that wound I got from that huge fight and it will continue to heal it every day it will get better. Love is the great healer when done under God. 

What Are You Watching?

Good day my wonderful readers! Being a new stay at home mom I have had a lot of time during feedings, daytime and late night, and nap times to watch some shows that I have always wanted to watch. 

The first one I watched was Gilmore Girls, the whole series. I watched it on Netflix. I loved it! It makes me wish that me and my daughter have the same relationship they have. 

The second show me and my husband actually watch together and have been watching for awhile. We bought the first couple seasons on Amazon and then watched the last season on TV when it was actually on. It just started a new season, and it's looking so good. The show is Downton Abbey. I love British life and everything that goes with it, I also love that time period that it takes place in. I can't wait to see what happens next on the show. 

The third show I have been watching on Netflix is Once Upon a Time. I have only watched the first two seasons. The third season is next for me then I will have to figure out how to watch the first part of the fourth season before it comes back on in March. I love all the old fairy tales and seeing them kind of come to life is awesome. I love the way the show kind of adds onto the fairy tales making them "real". It's just great to me and makes me want to just keep watching over and over. 

I am looking for more shows to watch. Let me know if you have any suggestions for me. Loves. 

Love Dare - Day 2

Hello my faithful readers. It's Day 2! Off to a good start by doing more than one day haha. Today's devotion really focused on 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. It asks you to read those verses but replace "love" or "it" with your first name, then pray to God to make it a reality. If you don't know the verses here they are:

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." NIV

I love these verses and always have. I did what it asked and every word I said I felt like I wanted it to be true. I want to be all those things to my husband, daughter and others. I want to love like that, with all those qualities. I know there are a couple more than others that I need some serious work on like: being not easy to anger and keeping no record of wrongs. That is the number one thing I think that I have a problem with in my marriage is keeping a record of wrongs Aaron has done, even down to forgetting something at the store. I believe that is one of the worst habits you can have and I want to strive to break it! Also in today's study it asks "What would Love drive you to do in your marriage?" I had to think hard about this one, Love would drive me to not point out every wrong first and foremost. Love would drive me to not have such a bad attitude when Aaron doesn't do something my way. Love would drive me to not be so selfish. Love would drive me to encourage Aaron more. Love would drive me to be more patient. Love would drive me to love myself more. Love would drive me to love Aaron more. And ultimately Love would drive me to love God more. 

Love Dare - Day 1

Hello my faithful readers. I know you have all heard of the Love Dare and have all seen the movie Fireproof (if you haven't seen it, you should, it's one of my favorites!) but I decided to do the Love Dare devotional and I thought I might share my experience with you as I go along. I don't know if it will be a once a day share or a once a week share, we will see what I time I get with my 2 month old.
Day 1
I did day one before I went to bed and I do think the morning would be a better time to do this sort of thing, like start your day with it instead of ending it with it. The dare was to ask the Lord to teach me what real love is and to make me a loving person. I feel like becoming a mother recently the Lord has taught me a lot of what real love is and made me a loving person to my daughter, but I know I need to be a more loving person to my husband first and foremost and to other people. The Lord says to love thy neighbor like you love yourself (Mark 12:31). I always have such a hard time with this one in general because I am not easy to forgive people for things they do to me. For example: we moved about a year ago (10 months ago) only 2 hours away from our friends and family and no has really come to visit besides our parents and one friend came one time after our baby was born. Me and my husband have struggled with this fact that none of our other "friends" have come to visit us when we have driven miles and miles to weddings, bridal showers, baby showers, house warmings, etc. for them. I feel this is something that the Lord has brought up recently to teach me to be a more loving person by continuing to go to things and not to some things but not hold it against the person in love if they don't come to visit us. That is what I have taken away from Day 1 and I will continue to pray about it and learn so much more hopefully about being a loving person and what real love is.

Bouncing Baby #30 - 2 1/2 Month Update

Good day my wonderful readers. Today I thought I would share a little update with our little girl and with me and how motherhood is going. 

Penelope is almost 3 months old, I can't believe how fast time has gone by since she was born.  She is now 11lbs and pretty long too, I'm hoping she is taller than I am when she gets older haha. Her two month check up when wonderful she is growing just as she should be. A two month check up means also that she has to have her first set of shots. Her shots I think hurt me more than they hurt her haha, I cried almost as much as she did. She didn't get a fever or anything from her shots so that was good. Shortly after her shots we all got a cold, Penelope first, then me and then Aaron. As I write this, Penelope is doing better just has a cough left, I'm almost better with some congestion left and Aaron is still not feeling great. Penelope coughing and congestion sounding breaks my heart. She has been spiting up whole bottles at a time and since she is so little there is really nothing we can give her. All we can do for her was run the humidifier and use saline in her nose and use the rubber bulb sucker to get the stuff out best we can. But doing these things with a little love and lots of prayer has made her get better little by little so I am glad. One thing she has learn to do is hold her head up which is amazing to me to watch a little human grow in this way. 

Being a mother has been the hardest thing I have ever done in my life that's for sure. And this cold has been the hardest thing we have dealt with as parents so far, especially since we are both sick as well. I love her so much and don't want her to be sick and hurt but when I can't really do much except let her ride it out, it's hard to watch. Emotionally my hormones are slowly going back to normal but aren't quite there yet so I am sometimes all over the place still just like when I was pregnant, which is hard on Aaron. I am working on it though, trying to control them for me and for him. Well enough about me and all that. Hope you enjoyed the update on our little family. Loves. 

Hello 2015!!!

Good day to my beautiful readers! I can't believe it is 2015 already, it's crazy to think about that. We spent New Year's Eve and are spending New Year's Day taking care of our sick little one, her first cold followed her first set of shots so it has been a hard couple of days but it's getting better. 

I just wanted to try to set a few resolutions for the new year of 2015:

1. Take better care of myself. 

I think if I take better care of myself physically, emotionally and spiritually it will help me to take better care of Penelope in so many ways and feel that I am doing a good job as a mother. My plan for this one is to do better at praying and reading my Bible for the spiritual part. Emotional part I think that going out and socializing with people that actually talk back to you will help so much, so I signed back up for the Moms group at church, also in this emotional category would count my marriage, which I am going to try and help to make even better each day of the new year. And last but not least physical category, I am going to set very small goals one by one to try and get healthier, especially since the doctor told me I need to be a lot healthier to have another baby in the future, so why not start now. 

2. Reach out to my friends and family more. 

My plan for this one is to just text, Facebook, etc. all the friends and family that mean the most to me as much as possible even if it is just to say hi, how are you. I think this will build relationships better with those people.

3. Post more to my blog, maybe even find a definite direction.

My plan for this last goal is to write more. I think this will help with the first goal of taking care of myself because my blog is a way of letting stuff out and putting myself into something. I am going to really pray hard at what direction my blog should go or if it should just stay how it is and just post more.

Here is a couple pictures of us ringing in the new year as a family of three this year. 

I hope you had a wonderful and safe New Year's and happy 2015! Loves for the new year!