a good week in blogland...

I love reading blogs. And man, oh man, my favorite blogs have been thowing out some lovely ideas and thoughts to begin the new year. Take a minute and check these out:

my cousin Elsa's pictures and words (the picture above is hers...)

marta's sharing of this memory keeper

beth's post on a BHAG

ali's use of her square punch

donald miller's thoughts on life as story

lovely, lovely, lovely.

the favorite gift I got

When I was eight years old I was sure my life would be complete if only I had the Ronco Food Dehydrator. I watched the infomercial religiously. I had it memorized. I wished myself to be one of those two little girls pulled from the audience to test Mr. Popeil's fruit roll-ups. A Food Dehydrator was on my Birthday and Christmas list for years on end, but my mom kept commenting how much cupboard space it would take up and that we could revisit this topic one day when I had my own cupboards.

Well, I have my own cupboards now. And not only that, but I have a fabulous mother-in-law who reads my blog posts and figured it was time I start dehydrating. I unwrapped this gift and yelled, "TWENTY YEARS! Twenty years I have asked for this food dehydrator!" Marlene had done some research and read that Ron Popeil's dehydrator actually got poor performance reviews (the horror! you mean infomercials don't always sell top quality?!!) She said this Nesco came highly recommended. I called my mom later that evening to tell her the joyous news of the sweet reunion of me and my dehydrator and she just laughed and laughed, happy my dreams had been fulfilled.

Rory immediately took it to the kitchen and made banana chips. Currently I am looking up recipes for fruit roll ups. I'll keep you posted. We've got many good days ahead.

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credit due to: Template: Laurie Pecotte, Digi paper and elements: Crystal Wilkerson

the favorite gift I gave

digi paper and supplies from Crystal Wilkerson

For Christmas, my two-year-old niece asked for princess stuff. Now I know a tutu isn't really princess attire, but it is immediately what I thought of because princess' are pink and fluffy and so are tutu's. So I went online and found this no-sew tutorial. Super easy, and SUPER fun to make. I made Ruby's tutu and then another for my 1-year-old niece, Penny. And then I decided that since I had Sara's name for christmas, there might need to be matching mama-daughter tutu's this Christmas. When Ruby opened her gift she started yelling, "Cool Princess! Cool Princess!" Then she put her tutu on and continued, "I'm a cool princess! Look, I'm a cool princess!" She kept her tutu on for the next five hours. So did her good-sport mama. :)

I'm Believing God.

I can't explain how excited I am right now. I just ordered Believing God and figured out how we get our homework and watch the videos. I was looking through the homework sheets, and I CAN'T WAIT TO DO THIS STUDY AGAIN!! Believing God is so full of hope and life purpose and God's specific call on each of our lives. Seriously, this is going to be good.

After a few emails it was decided that Believing God is the way to go this time around. Maybe it was just that people liked Beth's hair better in this study. I don't know. But I am excited that this was the pick.

At this point there are eight of us who are in, plus a team of eight girls who go to Bible College together. (Ladies! I want to meet you! I think Amanda and Lindsey are the greatest and I would LOVE to sit in on your conversations each week as you do this study together. Please leave comments on Sunday's when we all post what we're learning. I'm expecting great things from our God.) So stinkin' fun how God works. I used to babysit Amanda who then came to work for me at the camp I worked at in Alexandria, Minnesota. And she and another favorite staff person have a group of college friends who are doing this study in tandem with us. I love this.

So here are the instructions to get started:
Right click on this link Believing God and scroll down to "Open in New Window" (This way you can see these instructions AND do what they say...)
1. First click on System Check and make sure you have Adobe Acrobat on your computer.
2. Then click on Enroll Now
3. (This all really should be self explanatory from here on out...just keep following their instructions like you would anything else you would order online.) Click on Enroll Now on this next page
4. Fill out all of the information (name, address, credit card info etc..) With tax, the study came to $25, for me. Continue to Checkout.
5. Oh, I guess I could keep spelling this out, but it really should be pretty self-explanatory. So, if you have any questions just drop me a line.

I will start on SUNDAY, watching the video that day, and beginning my five days of homework anytime after that. Some weeks I do all five days of homework in one sitting, other weeks I spread it out. Just depends on how life rolls.

Once you've ordered everything, hang tight until Sunday. And then we'll begin. If you're still deciding, no worries. There is still time. But, if this is not the right season for you, my hope is that you might still join in the conversation each Sunday, leaving a comment, adding your two cents.

I'll leave you with the five statements we are going to grab hold of all throughout this study:
1. God is who he says he is.
2. God can do what he says he can do.
3. I am who God says I am.
4. I can do all things through Christ.
5. God's word is alive and living in me.

I'm Believing God.

three random things

1. Drove by the bank on the way to work today. The electronic scrolling sign said, "-14 degrees." And then it scrolled up and said, "Need a vacation loan? Inquire within." A+ for their marketing.

2. When we were driving home on Saturday we had this conversation: "one year ago today we were driving our uhaul to Nebraska." "wow. was that a year ago today? exactly?" "yep. exactly." "When does our lease expire then?" "oh, good point. today." "do you think we should renew? because I think we should see if there is a bigger apartment on the non-parking lot side available for the year. maybe ask Jerry when you call him next." "okay."

Fast forward three hours when we're home and bringing our suitcases in. Rory calls Jerry. Jerry says apartment across the hall is open and unlocked...we could go see it. We go. We tell Jerry we like it. Jerry says it's yours...just be out of #305 by Tuesday morning so it can be painted. I say, "we're going out with your brother on Monday when he's in town for business." Rory says, "we better get moving then."

So we moved our apartment on Sunday in six hours. The apartment we moved to is literally right across the hall, and every single possession was moved in 2 laundry baskets from one cupboard to another cupboard across the way. In the world of moving, this is the way to do it. No stairs, no moving trucks, no boxes. A+ for efficiency.

3. I'm really excited about the interest for joining the Beth Moore study. If you're on the fence, give it a whirl. You're basically only committing to taking some personal quiet time each day for yourself. And that can only be a good thing. A+ for growing in faith.