Ecclesiastes 3:1

Psalm 18 1-2 I love you, Lord you are my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety.

This verse was comforting to me this morning when my mind was spinning. The Lord is my rock and has proven to be faithful in holding my family and I under his comforting wing and gently showing us the path He has for our lives.

During our 5 years of marriage Joe has had 3 jobs and they have all been for very small companies. He was an Athletic Director/PE & Health teacher/Basketball coach for a very small christian school when we got married. When the school unexpectedly closed the following year my brother in law Ben was right there (literally) offering him a job the very day he found out the school closed. He worked as a computer tech for a few years for Ben and really enjoyed the work however he realized that he didn't enjoy it enough to benefit Ben by going back to school to become a bigger asset to the future of the company. Once he realized this Drew approached Joe about becoming a partner in his construction company. The Lord has provided work every single day that Joe and Drew have been working together! One week in January they didn't have work and Joe got a stomach virus and couldn't have worked anyway!

Joe started recently feeling the weight of working for small companies when our insurance went up $200.00/mo and we were struggling to find health insurance that we could afford. Did you know that private insurance is nearly impossible to afford if you want to have babies? Well it is for us anyway! He has always been concerned that we don't have any sort of retirement started to speak of and how physically demanding his job is.

One day Joe was talking to my dad about possibly finding a different job with more long term stability (hopefully) my dad mentioned a position withing Duke Energy (which is who he works for as well as my Uncle and his wife and my Grandpa Glenn did also). Joe was very interested and called the manager of the position.
He has since met with the manager and found out that they hire for the position yearly but he has to go back to school to finish his Engineering degree which he started at Cedarville 6 years ago and then switched to sports management. Going to Cincinnati state (which is what he recommended) it will only take Joe a year to complete! He also had lunch with one of the CPC guys (which is the position he wants) and was VERY excited about what the guy had to say about job satisfaction.

Joe will not be able to continue working with Drew while he goes to school because he will be full time day classes which is a huge bummer. However his sister serves at Hofbrauhaus and enjoys it very much and we found out this morning that she got Joe a position there! He met the manager this morning and found out that training starts today! Yikes! So he had to scramble around and make that work so that he could do a few hours of training each day this week.

Lately

Our new target opened last week and I missed it! I was major bummed that I heard no chatter about huge deals at the grand opening in all of the penny pinching websites that I follow. Actually all I did hear about it was that it is more expensive than the old Target in Florence!
Well I have been itching to go find out first hand and properly introduce myself so that we could get more acquainted. Today was just the day, after tuesdays sunny warm tease and then 2 days of rain I was ready to get out of the house. So with my small list in hand and a huge need for a new broom before small group tonight (our old broom met an untimely death by taking the brunt of a spilled bottle of peanut oil, yuck!) we headed out. Annie fully appreciated the giant red decorative concrete balls out front and I appreciated the extra wide front child seat that allowed me to sit Mia's car seat in horizontally therefore allowing me to see over her and her to interact with her sister in the basket in front! We wandered aimlessly around the new maze and picked up a few things along the way. All in all I was pleased although only shopping for things like a $3 grill brush and $1 pack of hangers I wasn't able to do much price comparing. I was bummed that because its a new store there were not any clearance racks! Oh well.

Impulse buy of the day. I have always wondered about Almond milk and whether I would like it or not. You would think that with all the thrifty shopping I have been doing I would wait to impulse buy with a coupon, but I guess thats why its an impulse... anyway I stumbled across Silk Dark Chocolate Almond Milk. Hmmmmm yes please! More than $3 for a half gallon but whatever, it was my chosen treat!
After attempting to treat Annie and I (using a gift card of course) and being told that there was no Orange Mango Smoothie available at the Target Starbucks and switching my order to Strawberry and being told that the banana order had just arrived and all the bananas were frozen in storage, I quickly changed my mind on the purchased treat and opted to make one of my own at home.
When we got back I threw a ridiculously over ripe, downright brown banana into the blender with a few ice cubes and 8oz of Dark Chocolate Almond Milk Oh. My. Goodness! Heaven! It was AMAZING! Kind of what I figure some sort of frappe would taste like if I had ever gotten one in my life. And its good for you from what I understand which leads me to my next point.

Feeling very convicted about my eating habits for a few weeks now (an entire bag of valentines m&m's in one day anyone?) and a button literally popping off of my jeans one day last week, I decided it was time for some serious action! I prayed about it, journaled all of my thoughts about the sinful part of how I was treating food, and checked out some books by Michael Pollan from the library on eating more natural foods, I asked the Lord for His help in a serious feeling of an uncontrollable idol and addiction in my life.
After failing miserably that very evening with a giant purple dinosaur shaped rice krispie treat (thank you Nickys 1st birthday leftovers) I have gone a whole week with eating no processed, yucky fake factory prepared foods. I have eaten at least 4-5 servings of fruits and vegies daily, consumed tons of water until I now crave it, and successfully only had sweets on a weekend day and they were home made (thanks for the yummy cookies mama)!!! I feel amazing! I exercised 4 times and I lost 2 pounds! It was surprisingly easy with healthy options in the house! I also experimented with making my own wheat thins, cheese its, and bread! Normally in a week I would have made cookie dough & brownies that I would have consumed all of by myself! I am involved once again in the produce co-op so I have lots of options
and "I'm feelin' good"!

What's Up With Me?

Making: Chicken Tacos

Laughing at: Annie dancing on the coffee table "like Dave"

Seeing: How much healthier I could be eating

Hearing: Basketball (it's March and the madness is considered a national holiday worthy of purchasing one month of cable television in order to watch it!)

Tasting: Emerald walnut granola breakfast mix

Smelling: Nothing really although my hubby says it smells like a dirty diaper in here

Feeling: Tired and ready for bed

Reading: In defense of Food by Michael Pollan

Wishing: That I would go take these scratchy contacts out

Loving: Weekends with my hubby and rainy day excuses to lay around

Craving: Chocolate of course but I am fighting it... for now :o)

Liking: that I am back in the produce co-op and have a kitchen full of yummy food

Anticipating: My new shed and raised garden

Thinking: That I am going to get carpel tunnel if I keep trying to type while laying on the couch on my back with the computer haphazardly propped on a pillow :o)