Learning to Receive

Since becoming pregnant,  I have learned a lot of things.

The most shocking is how hard it is growing a baby.  I knew what we were up against with a newborn, toddlers, kids, etc. at least on some level from spending so much time with kids.  I did not realize the toll growing another human being would take.  Even knowing my mother had morning sickness (all day sickness) every day for 9 months with all 5 of us, I had a very prideful confidence that I would be glowing all the time while pregnant.

The funniest part of that is I have not thrown up once, never had a day with constant nausea, and I don't even have to run to the bathroom to pee all the time.  I simply don't want to eat meat and I am hungry a lot.  Those two things alone make me cry while eating breakfast often because I can't handle it.  Luckily God knew that alone was pushing me too far and protected me from the awful symptoms a lot of women experience.  

These symptoms of hunger and food aversions left me unable to do everything I used to do.  There was no way I was going to be meal planning, couponing, and cooking dinner.  Most of the time I would look at Shook and start crying when he asked me what I wanted to do for dinner.  I thought doing all the things I did pre-pregnancy qualified me a "good wife".  My husband came home to a clean house and hot dinner, so I was successful.

During this process, he had to begin cleaning, grocery shopping (I would gag while walking through Kroger), and figuring out dinner plans.  I had to begin receiving his help and love even when I couldn't do much in return.

I was and still am learning that my husband's love for me is not dependent what I can do for him.  The same way God's love toward me does not change based on how well I perform.  

Right now I am in a season of learning what it looks like to receive from my husband with no expectation from him for me to do anything in return.

It is good, hard, and humbling, but I have the best husband in the world. 

T-shirt Scarf

This is my first Pinterest Accountability post.  Basically, I like to waste hours of a day on Pinterest pinning things I will never attempt or look at again.  Here is the first step in actually doing some of these pins.

This pin appealed to me initially because I was just telling a friend of my need to purge some t-shirts.  I have a problem where everything begins to have sentimental value and then I never get rid of anything.  If I turn it into a super cute scarf though, problem solved!

If I were to post my step by step pictures, they would not compare to those who have already done this.  Here are links to their fabulous sites:

• http://www.kevinandamanda.com/whatsnew/crafts-projects/make-this-quick-n-easy-ringlet-t-shirt-scarf.html
• http://www.doughmesstic.net/2011/02/08/valentine-inspirationsand-my-tee-shirt-scarf/

Here are a few of my own iPhone pictures of my purple, black, and white scarf:

Baby Schuchter: Week 13/14

Baby Size: Peach/Lemon

How I Feel about being Pregnant: Way, way, way more excited about it now!  Since I am feeling better and slightly showing, I am getting excited about bringing another human being into the world.  The holidays only added to my growing excitement level since it made me think about what Christmas will be like next year. 

Symptoms: Still mild food aversions, head aches, and an urgency to eat right away in the morning

Food Cravings: Not really craving too much.  I still enjoy some great deep fried french fries though :)

Food Aversions: Chicken and ground beef

What I am Excited About: My friends finding out what they are having!  Also, I am excited about coming up with ideas for the baby's room.

Sweet Thing the Husband did for Me:  For Christmas this year, I had no idea what he was getting me.  We opened presents on Christmas Eve, and he had written me a 4 page letter.  Not only was it 4 pages, but it was hand written.  This is a big deal!  It showed me how well he knows me.  Receiving gifts does not always make me feel the most loved.  Knowing that he created something sentimental to encourage me and demonstrate his love for me made me feel incredibly loved.

He also went to the gym with me today and did not complain about it!

Boy or Girl: Now I think boy.  Really it is only because Shook can convince me of anything and I am super fickle.  Two of my friends are having girls and for some reason I think that decreases our likely hood of a girl.

Something I have Done to Prepare for the Baby: Coming up with ideas for our nursery!  I love forest animals for a good gender neutral theme.  There is also a special place in my heart for squirrels and knowing I could decorate my child's room with them fills me with joy.  Who doesn't love cartoon-like animals?

Funny Moment:  I may have mentioned this before, but since getting pregnant I cannot sneeze more than once or I make an extremely weird sound.  It basically sounds like I am throwing up, but its more of a cough.  I was cleaning up the explosion of presents that occurred from Christmas and was caught up in a sneezing fit.  Shook quickly turned around and expected to see me throwing up.  Nope.  Just sneezing.

Special Moment:  Hearing what two of my friends are having was very special.  It is fun to know more about their babies and makes me excited about our own.  While we are most likely not going to find out, I love going through this season of life with the majority of my friends and experiencing the same preparation and anticipation as them.

Baby Schuchter: Week 12

Baby Size: Plum

How I Feel about being Pregnant:  Much better!  With my symptoms under control, I can focus more on what life will be like when the baby comes.  This is more fun that the survival mode of getting through eating a meal!  This week feels like a turning point!

Symptoms: Extreme hunger in the mornings, feeling exhausted a lot, and food aversions

Food Cravings: Strawberries, hot dogs (I am ashamed of how many I have consumed)

Food Aversions: Chicken, ground beef

What I am Excited About: Planning our babymoon!  We want to go somewhere for a long weekend in March.  Looking at possibilities yesterday and thinking about where we might want to go is really fun!  It feels a little like planning our honeymoon all over again.

Sweet Thing the Husband did for Me: He is constantly making me food.  Usually breakfast because mornings are the hardest time of day for me.  I am dancing in a Christmas show right now and on opening night he brought me beautiful flowers.  Very sweet!

Boy or Girl: I really don't know anymore.  I was so convinced we were having a girl, but now I am wavering   We still don't know if we will find out the gender so we may have to wait awhile!

Something I have Done to Prepare for the Baby: Researching where I want to register.  If anyone has any strong opinions on this please let me know :)

Funny Moment:  While dancing in the Christmas show (its called Awaited), at the very end of our piece when going into the pose, my forehead collided with another dancers wrist.  I ended up with a very nice lump on my forehead.  What made it funny is that she did not know I was pregnant until after the causality occurred.  It is now a joke that she hit a pregnant lady.  I am 100% fine and officially with no knot on my head :)

Special Moment:  Last night Shook/David (David is his real name, Shook is his nickname, I use both) and I had a long talk about raising kids and how excited we are.  We are surrounded by awesome families who have been a great example for us.  We can't wait to work as a team in raising our kids!

Baby Schuchter: Week 10/11

Baby Size: Prune and Lime

How I Feel about being Pregnant: I am starting to get more excited!  I still feel sick here and there, but its fun now that the world knows!

Symptoms: Food aversions, random nausea, and weird (very weird) dreams

Food Cravings: Hot dogs, mashed potatoes, and strawberries

Food Aversions: CHICKEN

What I am Excited About: That everyone knows I am pregnant now!  It feels like a big celebration.  Plus, I am excited to be showing a little bit even if it does look like I am just gaining weight.

Sweet Thing the Husband did for Me: This morning he was beyond sweet.  Normally his only day off is Monday, but because of Christmas shows, he had to go in.  He knew I would be attempting to make dinner via the crock pot this morning and wanted to make things a little easier on me.  He made me pancakes  and woke me up when they were ready so I could eat immediately and also not eat another bagel.  It was amazing and then I could make our dinner with as little nausea as possible!

Boy or Girl: No idea.  I felt so strongly about having a girl, but now I am second guessing it!

Something I have Done to Prepare for the Baby: Made the baby an ornament!  It took way longer than it should have, but it sure is cute.

Funny Moment:  Lately when I sneeze my body reacts in a weird way.  On the first, I am fine.  On the second, I always either gag while sneezing or quickly clasp my hand to my fail in fear of throwing up.  Those second sneezes will get you.

Special Moment:  Telling the kids that I watch during the week about being pregnant was very special.  After I left for the day, their mom told me the girls kept acting like they were pregnant and talked about it all night.  So cute!

Baby Schuchter: Week 9

Baby Size: Green Olive

How I Feel about being Pregnant: Definitely excited and definitely ready for my symptoms to calm down. Only a few weeks away from the 2nd trimester!  Being pregnant, for me, is much harder than I imagined, but I know the baby is worth it!

Symptoms: Lots of food aversions and extreme hunger.  I only feel nauseous when I get really hungry.

Food Cravings: Mashed potatoes and fruit

Food Aversions: Meat and vegetables

What I am Excited About:  Getting to tell Shook's family about our baby!  We told them on Thanksgiving and it was great to feel celebrated.  Everyone was excited and very supportive!

Sweet Thing the Husband did for Me: Every day he is doing sweet things for me!  On the day after Thanksgiving we woke up and realized I had nothing to eat for breakfast.  He took a trip to McDonald's to get us something to eat and had to go back inside 3 times to get our order right (they never actually got it).  Regardless of the messed up order, it was tasty and my hunger was satisfied with greasy goodness.

Boy or Girl: I think a girl?  Though since coming up with some other names we would like I could see it as a boy also!

Something I have Done to Prepare for the Baby:  Thought of more baby names and also thought through what kind of birth I want to have.  I am excited that I don't know what I want to do yet.  I think this will help me be more flexible and open minded once this baby is delivered.  Most of the advice I have been given is hold whatever you decide with open hands.  If going natural doesn't work, it doesn't work, and then sometimes you just have to get a C-section.  My control over the situation is extremely limited and having the baby is the goal anyway!

Funny Moment:  Talking baby names with friends.  My sweet husband thinks it is fun to come up with ridiculous baby names.

Special Moment:  Telling Shook's family about the baby!  His grandparents have 9 children, uncountable grandchildren, and by June, 8 great grandchildren.  Babies are obviously celebrated and considered a blessing.

Baby Schuchter: Week 8

Baby Size: Raspberry

How I Feel about being Pregnant: Still excited!  Lucky for me, a lot of my friends are pregnant so it is fun enjoying this journey with other people.  By a lot, there are 6 babies that I know of being born in either May or June. I still think I will be more excited when this first trimester is over!

Symptoms: Still super hungry but nothing sounds good.  I only feel nauseous when I get very hungry.  Mornings are definitely the worst still.  I also have a very heightened sense of smell!

Food Cravings: Cheese ravioli and grape popsicles

Food Aversions: Red meat, anything I have to cook, vegetables

What I am Excited About: Talking about babies with my friends!  Also, telling people who we know will be very excited for us is great!

Sweet Thing the Husband did for Me: One night I woke up and felt really hungry and sick.  After much deliberation of whether or not to get a snack for myself, I realized if I stood up, I would probably get sick.  Lucky for me, my sweet husband was okay with me waking him up and asking him to get me a granola bar.  He was happy to do it and did not mind!

Boy or Girl: Still thinking girl!

Something I have Done to Prepare for the Baby: Restarted taking prenatal vitamins.  The gummy vitamins taste like candy and I love it!

Funny Moment: Telling one of my friends I am pregnant.  I always get really nervous before we tell someone so I kept making awkward eye connect with her then looking away.  I finally just blurted it out and she didn't believe me.  I probably need to come up with a smoother way of telling the news...

Special Moment:  Getting to shop for some maternity clothes and imagining what it will be like when our baby is really big!  Buying a few shirts made it at least a little more real that there is a baby inside me though it doesn't look like it (I hope).

Baby Schuchter: Week 7

I saw this idea on other blogs and have been consumed by reading everyone else's week by week updates.  They provide lots of hope and encouragement for me especially when I am not feeling so hot!  The first few weeks obviously are posted after the fact since we still had plenty of people to tell.  Hope its as fun for you as other people's were for me!

Baby Size: Blueberry

How I Feel about being Pregnant: Super excited!  It is all I want to talk about... so glad all my friends are also pregnant!  The extreme, nauseating hunger makes me feel pretty helpless, but symptoms mean you are still pregnant, right?!

Symptoms: Lots of hunger.  I will eat a full meal (when I can find something I will choke down) and be hungry an hour later.  I definitely have tons of food aversions.  Tiredness, nausea, and hunger are getting the best of me!

Food Cravings: French fries, macaroni and cheese, really any carbs

Food Aversions: Meat, hummus, carrots, and generally anything that is not a carb!

What I am Excited About: We got to hear the heartbeat!!!!!! Crazy that we got to hear it at 7 weeks.  This was my first appointment with a new practice and everyone there was so supportive.  It was great to be encouraged and ensured that its okay for me to do whatever I need to do to get through the first trimester.

Sweet Thing the Husband did for Me: He has been WONDERFUL through this whole thing.  He surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers earlier in the week.  He also has cooked a lot and also been okay with going out and getting me food whenever I need it.  I have often felt guilty with how much he has had to do while I am feeling sick, but he constantly reassures me that he is happy to take care of me and I can just rest.

Boy or Girl: I keep assuming the baby is a girl.  Especially with having two nieces, I would love to have a girl.  I loved having a cousin close to my age growing up and I want that for our kids!  Though a boy would be fun too :)  I just think its a girl!

Something I have Done to Prepare for the Baby: Read lots of things about babies.  Recently it has been the magazines I received at my visit.  I am super intrigued by making my own baby food, cloth diapers, and doulas, so the Google searches have commenced!

Funny Moment: When talking to my friend, Sally, who is due just one week ahead of me, we discovered we had very similar cravings.  I told her all I could think about eating was the pre-cut cantaloupe at Kroger.  Turns out she keeps craving the pre-cut watermelon at Kroger.  What is Kroger doing to pregnant women?

Special Moment: Can this be the same as my "What I am Excited About"?  Hearing and seeing the baby's heartbeat was very cool.  It is weird think that there are two hearts beating in my body!  It was exciting for us to send pictures to family and show them our blueberry!

Cookies Galore!

I love baking.

I don't always love cooking, but baking seems to be more my thing.  I love that in baking as long as you follow directions and measure carefully, it turns out!  Well, at least with the cupcakes and cookies I have made that is the case!  That may be a rookie statement, but for now I believe it!

Currently, I am on a cookie baking kick.  I made a lot of different cookies recently for hangouts with friends, so I thought I would share the ones I have made so far.

1. Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have never made chocolate chip cookies with any recipe other than this one.  My mom always made her chocolate chip cookies with the recipe on the back of the chocolate chips bag and it never fails!  Gotta love a classic chocolate chip cookie.

2. Cinnamon Sugar Butter Cookies

Yet another yummy cookie.  My dough would not go into a ball shape so I generously sprinkled the cinnamon sugar mixture on top.  Still good!  I also like my cookies super soft, so I often under cook them because who likes a hard cookie?  Turned out great!

3. Oatmeal Cookies

A friend's quote on these cookies, "These are the types of cookies you pass down the recipe to your kids!"  Guess where I found it?  On the back of Kroger brand Old Fashioned Oats.  I did add some chocolate chips to the recipe, but they were very good and gone immediately.

This is not the link I followed, but it is exactly the same with the exception that I used Old Fashioned oats and it turned out delicious.

4. Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I love chocolate and these cookies are chocolate plus some more chocolate!  I did not have any chocolate chunks so just used semi-sweet chocolate chips.  Some comments on the recipe suggested trying other varieties of chocolate chips which all sounded amazing.  Next time, I want to try them with mint chocolate chips or raspberry chips.  Yummmmm.

Learning from Others: Part 3

This is the final part to what we have been learning from others so far!

Have a vision for where you are going.

This has maybe helped us more than anything else when we have different ideas about a decision that needs to be made.  Having a common goal for where we are going allows us to take our individual opinions and set them up against this vision.

We ask: does this fit in line with our vision?  Most of the time it is pretty clear and definitely points out selfish motives right away.

Again, the family that helped train us for marriage had their own family vision and encouraged us to develop our's.  My husband wrote two drastically different visions and how our lives would play out in the next 15 years as a result.

One was if we just kept going along the path most people take and the other was a much more "going against the grain" vision.  It became very clear which one was best suited!

Even on our honeymoon this was helpful for talking through things that came up.  It gave us a common ground that we had already agreed upon to begin talking through things.

Since we are two selfish individuals trying to come together as one family, I am not sure how our conversations would go about hard topics.  We would not have a clear purpose for our marriage and would probably just try to constantly win arguments.

Don't get me wrong, I am still selfish and constantly just want to win.  This vision just helps me recognize that faster and try to move out of my self-centered mindset.

This is the main factor that has helped keep fights calm and feelings from getting too hurt. A vision gets you from just focusing on yourself and becoming more of an individual and rather, unites.

It has been fun adapting our vision and seeing how it affects our marriage so far!  Thank you to the families who impacted us in this area.  They get all of the credit!


Other posts in this series:
Learning to Learn From Other People
Learning from Others: Part 1
Learning from Others: Part 2

Pita Bread Pizza

A poor quality pic stitch picture of our dinner tonight!

This was quick, easy, and cheap!  Finally I am learning every night does not need to be gourmet.

 I found this recipe at $5 Dinners.   I have made two dinners from this site and both have been amazing!

I only made two slight changes.  Instead of cutting the pita bread in half, we left them whole to have a thicker crust pizza.  Second, we cooked them using our wonderful pizza cooker.  Basically it cooks the same as a conventional oven, but is way more fun.

The pizzas we made were:

• Pepperoni with homemade pizza sauce
• Barbecue Chicken
• Honey Mustard Chicken 

I had some shredded cooked chicken in the freezer, so this was super fast and fun to experiment with different possibilities. 

Learning from Others: Part 2

This one may be my favorite thing I have learned so far: the role of community.

I love this one initially because it keeps me from saying and doing really dumb things :)

I was told during our engagement that community to support you and know all your dirt is important.  This does amazing things for avoiding feeling isolated, weird, and confused.  We don't have a really great grasp on this yet, but we are learning!

Part of how I have learned this lesson is through simply hanging out with married people who are ahead of me.  This is a story I have heard from at least three different women in different friend circles, "I really wished he would do (insert whatever), but he didn't, so I nagged and complained, then told all my friends about.  What I learned was it is better to pray about it.  He ends up growing into an even better version of himself than my nagging could have ever accomplished."

This is what I love about good friends and good community.  I am not very smart when I get frustrated and mad.  My go-to would be to nag or gossip about it.  Having these different wives tell me their experiences gave me a complete gift.  If I am frustrated and after bringing it up nothing happens, leave God to work it out.

Those women are saving me a lot of pain and emotional breakdowns!

This is just one example of how just being around people who are vulnerable and honest has helped our marriage so far, and I can't take any credit for it.

We are definitely still figuring out what this whole community thing means.  What does it look like to have friends who know what you as a couple are struggling with?  Even more importantly for us right now, who are those people?

This is an area I am highly passionate about and can't wait to learn more about.

So far I know community is vital for marriage and has helped tremendously.  Now, comes really figuring it out!


Other posts in this series:
Learning to Learn From Other People
Learning from Others: Part 1
Learning from Others: Part 3

Learning from Others: Part 1

As I said in my last post, learning from other married couples has been super helpful in our marriage so far.  While it is difficult, and I don't always want to admit people are right, they kind of are!

The first area we gained a lot of counsel in was the lovely subject of money.

To start, both of our parents were wise with money.  This gave us a common norm which at least allowed us to be liked minded.

Another aspect that greatly helped us were our financial standings going into marriage.  Neither one of us had school loans or any credit card debt.  Definitely a blessing!  My husband did have a car payment while we were dating, but was paid off before we were even engaged.  The choices for him were: save up for a down payment, buy an engagement ring, or pay off his car.  He is definitely more wise than me and chose to pay off his car first so we would have less stress in the long run.  We ended up still getting married quickly, and I got a beautiful ring which came with no financial strain!

So that is the beginning of what helped us.

#1- Being 100% debt free.

This of course came from our parents' model of staying debt free and also from our friends who worked to also be debt free.

The next two pieces of advice we can take no credit for, and have nothing to do with previous wise decision making.

#2- Live off of one income.

This is a tough one.  My husband works at a church, which implies a church income.  We aren't poor, we aren't starving, but we also aren't living without some sacrifices.  Our vision behind this one came from a handful of friends who were already married and tried this out.  Some did this for the first year of marriage and saved the other spouse's income.  In the second year of marriage, they then felt incredibly blessed to have such freedom in finances and they had a pretty nice down payment for a house!

Our vision was slightly different.  Since we are looking to start a family early, we knew getting locked into a hefty mortgage or higher standard of living would fail miserably once my income was taken away.  I want to stay home with our kids, so learning to live off of one income makes it normal for our marriage.  In the mean time, we are saving a lot more with the money I bring in, and we are learning be to disciplined.  Hooray!

#3- Live below your means.

This is the culmination of the first two.  Again, this was not our idea :)  We trained under a family during our engagement and this was a reoccurring theme.  We learned by living below your means you  are significantly less likely to enter into debt.  A sudden car problem, medical bill, or leaky faucet won't tip the scale.  We decided what this meant for us by creating a budget and seeing what we could afford.  Next, we made decisions which would keep us under that budgeted amount.  Yes, we could afford a nicer apartment, but we love our's and we can always afford the rent.

So how are we doing with it?

We are still debt free and living off of one income.  We are currently struggling to keep our grocery bill below our budgeted amount, but that is why I am learning to coupon and shop wisely!  We have not had any fights over money, though I do get a little stressed sometimes :)  I am the more frugal out of the two of us, so I can get a little high strung over nothing

That is at least where we are so far!

What decisions have you made with money that set you up for greater success later?

Other posts in this series:
Learning to Learn From Other People
Learning from Others: Part 2
Learning from Others: Part 3

Learning to Learn From Other People

Sums up why my mom made me learn to drive in a graveyard.  She was wise.

I have always considered myself a person who must learn things the hard way, even if someone advises me in the correct way to go about something.  There are tons of excuses I could share that would maybe justify my actions, but really when I don't listen to people that are much wiser than me, I'm just a stubborn fool.

Mostly these sensible, unappreciated people were my parents.  Whether it was learning to drive, studying for school, or dating, the situations resulted in a humbling, apologetic, "Okay...  you were right."

Now that I am married, I should maybe grow up a little and stop holding onto my pride.

My next few posts are devoted to the lessons I am trying to avoid learning the hard way and rather actually listen to people!  David (Shook) and I were proactive in our engagement to learn as much as we could about marriage.  We wanted to prepare and start it off well, but as someone  told me, "Nothing prepares you for marriage like marriage."

While we couldn't anticipate a lot of it, soaking up the advice given to us from other married couples has been A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.  I attribute our lack of bickering, blow up fights, and all together confusion to people way smarter than us.

Stay tuned for the super practical and foundational ideas that were given to us.


Other posts in this series:
Learning from Others: Part 1
Learning from Others: Part 2
Learning from Others: Part 3

Learning to be a Wife

First photograph as a wife! 

As in most situations in my life, I like to do things out of order.  Give me a to-do list, I'll get it done in some scatterbrained sequence.  Unloading a dishwasher, I will remove some on top, then bottom, then forks, back to bottom, etc.

Blogging appears to reflect the above.

This post should have been first.


My real reason for a blog is because my husband and I made the decision even before our engagement that we wanted  our marriage and future family to reflect God's design for these things, even if that means "going against the grain" and looking weird.

One of the biggest decisions this affected was my job.  I went to school for Elementary Education and graduated this past spring.  Right before student teaching began he proposed and that's when the decision making began!  Our wedding date was set for July 20 of that same year.

We started considering what would be best for our marriage.  The question evolved: would our marriage be better or worse if I committed to full time teaching?  For us, the answer was worse.

At this, we discussed other options for what I would do with my time.  Some of the options included tutoring, teaching assistant positions, even apprenticing at a florist to learn how to make flower arrangements (I kind of really like flowers).  After talking with a family who invested in us a lot during our engagement, we knew the best decision was for me to work for that family as a training opportunity to learn how to be a wife and mother.

If we go to school since we are 4 to be well equipped for whatever profession we choose, I realized how important it is to train to be a wife and mother even more.  I want to be a great wife and mother above being great in a career.

This is what we felt was best for our family given our situations, personalities, and where God has us.  Nothing wrong with a great career, but I did not have the capacity for both at the time of our wedding.

This where the blog came from!  I know absolutely nothing about being a wife.  This serves as a way to document what I am learning, gain wisdom from people who are ahead of me, and hopefully, help women who are in a similar spot as me.

Learning to Go Kroger-ing

Yes, that is the exact pleasantly relaxed smile I express when deciding which bagels are the best value. 

The original title for this post was, "Learning to Grocery Shop", but because of my amateur status in buying groceries, I figured there would be plenty of posts in the future as I learn this art.

Since my husband and I are on a strict budget (or attempting it), cutting on groceries is HUGE.  Luckily, the family I work for is an amazing model for how to be modest and smart with food shopping without eating rice and beans every night.  Still... this is a struggle for me.

I am not sure I understand how people save monumental amounts with coupons because most of them are either for things I don't buy or are for name brands in which the generic is still cheaper. Though my determination for figuring out this money saving trick has not yet faltered!

My other issue is the amount of time it takes me to grocery shop.  I am often the annoying customer asking employees where very obviously placed food items are located because I cannot find them.  This is followed up by me jogging through the store with my big, loaded-down cart apologizing to everyone because I need to get home soon.  I also like to examine the price per ounce for everything... it is kind of embarrassing how long it takes me to make it around the store (alright, about 3 times around the store).

 One win in grocery shopping I experienced this past week occurred at Kroger with their "Buy 10, Save 5" sale.  In my first shopping rendezvous, I carefully planned which items from this sale were a good deal and how many of each to get.  I felt successful, but once arriving home realized how big of a deal this was!  Pasta seriously was $0.47 for a box and the Kroger brand is normally $1.00.  At this, I jumped back in my car the next day and bought 10 boxes of varieties of pasta and saved us a lot of money on pasta for probably the next 6 months or longer.  I picked up a couple other things I forgot, but saved 61%!

For us, we want to have the flexibility to be generous and a blessing to people.  At the same time, I very much value eating well and taking care of our bodies.  By learning how to save money on groceries while not sacrificing our health, I hope to allow our family to give more freely.

This is definitely an adventure and a whole new territory for me.  And please, by all means, if you have any insight into this, tell me what you know :)

More to come!

Learning to Host

I have been completely intimidated by the idea of having people over for dinner.

For me it was a struggle to not feel like my worth was found in how well I can cook.  I am learning how to balance being hospitable and a blessing, without my motivation being to impress in hopes people will like me.

I started out the week with an extravagant meal idea... that I had never even near cooked before.  Maybe at some point its great to try new recipes with friends, but when I don't even know the basics--probably not.

Here is the link to what I actually made:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/baked-ziti-ii/detail.aspx

 Our menu was:
-Salad with cranberries and sun flower seeds
-Baked Ziti
-Garlic Bread
-Left over top layer of our wedding cake :)

Everyone loves Italian food, plus if we did not have help eating our wedding cake, I would have taken the entire thing down.

It turned out amazing and since I had made it before, I knew I would be successful with the added bonus of it tasting good.

While it turned out great, I did have a hiccup in the midst of making the Baked Ziti.  I was all into mixing my ingredients before really reading the instructions.  After I had plopped the whole thing in the pan, I read "lightly grease the pan". Lovely.  Since I am a rule follower, I proceeded to dump the whole thing back into the bowl, wash the pan, dry the pan, spray the pan, and transfer the whole thing back into my nicely greased pan.

In the end, we had lots of fun eating, drinking, and playing games with our almost new neighbors.

I learned the whole reason we did this in the first place was to connect with friends.  Being a blessing by serving our friends good food is definitely important, but our first priority was to deepen a friendship.  Maybe that is a key to being hospitable...