miss October goals

Oh hello there, long time no see dear bloggity blog. After months of sweet and rarely subtle texts from Emmy urging me to blog, i am finally back. So here I sit with the windows open letting the crisp air in, a cup of piping hot Snickerdoodle tea, watching [my boys play] baseball with a sleeping dog on my blanket. October, you always treat me so nicely and this year appears to be no different. 

I wanted to join Emmy by posting monthly goals. For October...

Read a book

I go through cycles of reading nonstop and then not reading for months. Of course when I am on my reading sprees, I buy up lots of books which I never get to before my reading season ends. With the cooler weather, it's the perfect time to get lost in a new book. :)

Finish Walker David's birthday present 

My sweet friends Mallorie and David just welcomed Walker David into the world a week ago. I have a few things in progress to send him and his precious big sister - just need to finish up.

Purchase a few more Christmas presents

This is a new goal of mine this year: finish Christmas shopping early. Finishing my shopping early not only is better for me financially, it also allows more time at the end of the year for hot chocolate and Hallmark Christmas movies.

Order a 2015 planner

Emmy ordered hers. I've said 100x that I need to order mine, but keep forgetting to do it!

Do something creative with a pumpkin

I love fall. I love pumpkins (for decoration... I actually hate the pumpkin flavor). Every year I do something with a pumpkin: carve, glitter, paint, etc. I have so many fun ideas pinned, just need to find time to play!

Continue #100happydays posts

I joined the #100happydays challenge and started a tumblr to collect my posts. I'm really enjoing it and to keep it up! It's fun to find special happy moments every day and think it will be fun to go back and look at it. 

That's all I can think of right now and depending on my work schedule, may be difficult to accomplish - but that's why their goals and not requirements :)

-b

Throwback Thursday

Throwing it back to an October four years ago.  This would be Bre's last Homecoming before she became an alum!  Thrilled that she is coming "home" this month for a weekend of reliving college.  Which for us means  air pop popcorn, harassing Coach Husband & multiple Sonic runs.

Love you B!  You're my best friend.

Before the game & before skies opened up for the soggiest Homecoming game yet.

October Goals

This quote makes me want to curl up on a Sunday & re-read Anne of Green Gables

It's quite possibly my favorite month of the year.  October means fall has officially arrived & it's perfectly acceptable to bring out pumpkins, scarves & have fall scentsy burning in the house...even if it's ninety degrees outside!  Before I reveal this month's goals, a quick re-cap of September's goals & accomplishments.

order fall "happy everything" attachments
{excited owner of a football attachment, pumpkin attachment & turkey attachment}

have date night with my husband
so grateful for this time together, CH had a short Saturday practice the beginning of September and took me to dinner & a football movie, it was perfection

write our compassion child Emmanuel with updated pictures
love writing Little E :)

mop our floors {I hate mopping floors}

file the crazy mess at school

finishing touches on our guest bedroom

Goals for October are filled with more mundane tasks that unless I write down just will not be completed.

file the crazy mess at school

finishing touches on our guest bedroom

clean make-up brushes

catch up on ironing

start Christmas cards

keep attending barre classes

The house is officially decorated for fall & our pumpkin patch tradition that was established last year will be continued here soon.  Be looking for the post about my fall mantle inspiration and the finished product!

Happy Fall Y'all,

P.S. A huge congrats to Bre & the MLB team she is employed by for making it to the post-season this year!  So excited to be watching B & know y'all will do great things.  

The Best Riches

{apologies in advance for the super heavy, sappy, overly long blog post...short, quirky ones to follow}



Growing up my Daddy was constantly warning my brothers & I not to accumulate debt.  I remember family dinners where he would adamantly encourage to live within our individual means and take joy  in Jesus, our family & friends instead of swiping a credit card.

I never truly appreciated Daddy's wisdom until recently.  My parents were phenomenal at having intentional honest conversations about financial stewardship and how we are called to live as Christians in terms of our finances.  It is one of the lessons I am most grateful for now as an "adult" with my own household to manage.  When it came time for college my parents sacrificed to ensure I attended the only university I had any interest in but still maintained that I would have a personal stake in education.  I was expected to work part-time & my freshman year I took out some loans to cover the remaining costs of my education.  Looking back I realize I harbored some resentment that I worked afternoons and weekends to help finance the "extra" parts of my college experience but I am so grateful.  My parents were teaching me more than stewardship.  I was learning how to prioritize, multitask and balance a well-rounded, full life that has served me well as an adult.

Upon college graduation I carried, what in today's world, is a small amount of debt.  But after twenty-two years of being my father's daughter and an overwhelming conviction from the Lord to live a financial life that was honoring to Him I began to earnestly pay off my college loans.

Y'all I cannot accurately describe what a truly fantastic husband I have.  Once we were married Coach assumed the financial burden of my college loans with no complaining, no bitterness but with a heart ready to serve, lead & become one.  The past year of marriage he has sacrificed "fun" things he would have loved to take part in, worked an insane number of summer school house, lead our family with a quiet voice but a backbone of steel & kept me focused on the end goal...to be debt free before September 1, 2014.

We reached our goal two weeks before schedule.  Making that last Department of Education payment was as if a weight had been lifted off our shoulders.  God is so good y'all.  This financial freedom of knowing we are living with our means, owe nothing but most of all, that knowing that without the Lord's Divine Provision this would not have been possible is awe-inspiring.  First He blessed me with parents that lived out their faith in regards to finances & worked hard to keep my student loan debt low.  God handpicked a husband who knows how to lead & who feverentley pursues to honor Christ in this way.  And on top of all that, He provided us with careers that made our goal an attainable reality.

Obviously we will not remain debt-free for the rest of our lives.  With the Lord's timing we will purchase a home, perhaps new cars etc. but our prayer moving forward is that we use our finances to honor the Lord & not ourselves.  We are able to focus on what makes us truly rich now...the relationships with those around us, our relationship with each other & most importantly, our relationship with Christ.

September Goals--Mrs. Style

September brings back routine which my heart has desperately needed and y'all, I can hardly wait for fall to arrive in full force.  I have started my fall preparations with the order of new Scentsy bars, moving my fall clothes to the front of the closet & scouring Hobby Lobby to add to my fall decor.  High school football is in full swing and Coach Husband is fully entrenched in the X's & O's of Friday Night Lights while I am loving on my new kindergarteners and waiting for it to be cool enough for me to open the house windows!

 My goals are a hodgepodge for the month of September...

order fall "happy everything" attachments

have date night with my husband

write our compassion child Emmanuel with updated pictures

mop our floors {I have mopping floors}

file the crazy mess at school

finishing touches on our guest bedroom

Who else is ready for some cooler Southern temperatures & everything pumpkin?

June Goals

Well y'all, the school year ends in 4 {school day} wake-ups.  It's crazy to think how the year has flown by!

There is so much to do over the summer to prepare for the next school year both personally & professionally.  I've already started my School Things to Finish This Summer List.  It currently has 32 items on it and I'm adding daily.

Anyways...I have June Goals!

1. Complete the June Ab Challenge {Meagan & I are headed to the beach in August}

2. Create the Family Budget Binder

3. Yearly Check-Ups

4. Cleaning Schedule for the house

5. Who is My Teacher Class book

6. Sew a table skirt for my school desk

7. Update Classroom Library List & book boxes

8. Care package to Little Brother who is starting his internship this summer!

Lots to do! Lots to do!

diy: state nail art

So, I've been meaning to post this DIY since October, when I completed it.  I even had a post started, but for some reason I never finished it. Nothing like a day snowed-in to prompt me to finally share my state nail art decor! :)

The Midwest was slammed today buy a lovely February snow storm. It has snowed all. day. long. Seriously, all day. The dog and I just ventured out to discover it is now snowing icy flakes, making it look like glitter is raining down from the twilight sky - which made this glitter & Ke$ha loving girl's night! However, I digress, that is not the reason for this post!

I had seen these state nail art designs on Pinterest and decided it was something that I could do. Since I have considered 3 states home, I wanted to represent each state and city in my new apartment. 

My finished products!

Here's what you need:

• A piece of wood (the size I used is 14"x14")
• Wire nails (5/8" x 18)
• Cotton twine
• Printed outline of state
• Needle-nose pliers
• Hammer
• Picture hanging wire
• Construction paper/glitter (optional)
• Paint or stain for wood (optional)

A picture of my nails so you know what to look for at Lowes! :)

1. Decide if you want your board stained or painted. You will obviously want to do this before you start nailing into it. Luckily my Dad had 3 spare boards in his shop that he was able to cut to size for me, which I then stained to match some of my other furniture.

2. Cut out your state outline and tape to the center of your board. 

3. Start hammering! You will want to nail around the outline of your state. I found it easiest to use my needle-nose pliers to hold the nail in place and straight, as well as to help me with my spacing - it also prevented me from whacking my fingers with the hammer :) Tip: One mistake I made, that I later had to go back and fix, was positioning my nails to close together. It is okay to leave some distance between them, and it will actually make your life easier when you start with the string. Don't worry - you will still achieve your look! 

  

4. >optional<  If you decide to have a heart representing a certain city, now is the time to nail that in. I cut a heart out of construction paper and taped it to the location on my state, then hammered the nails in just like step 3. Tip: Unlike the outline, the more nails you can fit into the heart outline, the better. You will pull the string from the outline to the heart and the more nails you have in the heart to wrap the string around, the better.

5. Once you have your nail outline finished, you can carefully remove your paper outline. You may have to use some tweezers to get tiny pieces of paper that might have been nailed through.

Outline complete!

6. String time! Pick your starting place and tie off your twine. For me, I started in the upper right hand corner and worked from the outline of my state to the outline of the heart and back. This part honestly just takes practice - I had to restart my stringing multiple times. You will need to strategize in order to evenly distribute your string connections among the heart nails. Also, try to wrap in the same direction on each nail, just to keep the look consistent. Tip: If your state has weird areas, do whatever you need to do to make it work. In the bootheel of Missouri I ended up cutting my string, going between the state outlines, and then starting fresh in a new section. There are going to be some areas of your state where you need to take your string outline to outline, rather than outline to heart. As long as you like the look of it, then it's a-okay.

7. Because I like glitter (as we covered earlier), I decided I wanted to spruce up my heart area of my state and really make it stand out. I took the same piece of construction paper I used to make my heart outline, covered it glue, sprinkled on some glitter and then wedged it back between the nail outline. I did not affix it to the board in anyway, the construction paper sits nicely wedged between the heart nail outline. (Sorry, I get too excited with glitter to take a picture!)

8. Lastly, install some picture hanging wire to the back and admire your craft! :) 

I have gotten several compliments on these and am really proud of how they turned out. I was also pleasantly surprised that this was a fairly easy project to complete. I was able to complete all 3 of mine in an evening while catching up on my DVR recordings!