The current Bible study I'm doing,Brave by Angela Thomas, has a chapter about being undisciplined. I think it's a chapter that most anyone can relate to. I don't believe there is a single person whose disciplined in every area of their life. It was a chapter that really struck a chord with me, and when I completed that chapter, I sat down and made a list of 7 things that I can do during the day that will help with keeping my home and sanity in tact. I've been doing them for a few weeks now and I wanted to share them with you today. 1. Jesus Our first step, thought, action, etc should always be Jesus. Ok, I'll admit that when I open my eyes in the morning my first thought isn't about Jesus. It's usually- did I wake up before the girls. But, once I collect myself a little, I always try and pray for a few minutes. I find my courage and commit my day to God. I pray for His will to be done during the day and if that means rearranging my schedule, then so be it. When I skip this step, I usually do not have a good productive day. 2. Start Early I'm not a morning person. I've finally embraced this. I'm not the type of mom who's up before the kids, dressed, fed, and ready to go when their feet hit the floor. And that's ok. There are lots of women out there that can do that and it works well for them. It doesn't for me. But, once I'm up and going with the girls, I kill my day if I sit down right after breakfast is over. Because then I stay sitting and nothing gets done. I start on my to do list as soon as breakfast is over or as soon as we get home from dropping off at school. It gets the momentum going and I accomplish more. 3. The 10 o'clock Rule I saw this idea on another blog, and for the life of me, I have no idea which blog it was. (if you know, tell me and I'll credit this idea). If you menu plan like me, this isn't very hard to do. It's just simply knowing exactly what's for dinner by 10 am. When you do this, there's no surprises at 5pm when the meat is still frozen or you're missing a key ingredient. Also, if you're a working mom, or doing weight watchers, or counting calories, or really just want to take the stress out, I would say do this at 10pm the night before. Plan exactly what your meals will be for the next day and have things prepped and ready to go. If you pack your lunch for work or the kids lunch for school, have them partially packed and ready to go for the AM. 4. Write Stuff Down Yes, it's true. I feel so discombobulated when I know I was supposed to be doing or remember something but I have no idea what it was because I didn't write it down somewhere. I have a smartphone, but I'm an old school type of person. I have a good ole paper student planner that I use daily. But, if that's not your style, use your calendar on your phone, make notes, use smoke signals. Do something. Just write stuff down.
5. Have a Flexible Schedule We're semi scheduled during the school year just because of Emmy's school schedule. She goes to school 3 days a week, so we plan around that. But, normally we know that Wednesday is also Library day and Friday is grocery day. I schedule specific things on specific days so that life just runs more smoothly. I plan on doing this during our summer break too. Certain days will be different things- water day, library day, beach day, etc. A routine like this helps my girls too. They know exactly what's going to happen and when. Obviously, don't pin yourself down so much that you create stress with rigidity. If you have to switch things up, no big deal. This is life. It's fluid and not perfect. 6. Schedule Downtime in Your Day From 1pm-2pm there's a good chance I'm sitting in our big brown chair in the living room drinking a cup of coffee. And doing nothing except Facebook, Pinterest, or reading a book. And ya know what? That's ok. That hour and cup of coffee help me reset for the afternoon. If I take that hour to refresh then I'm good to go for the rest of the day. If your day is scheduled, work in some downtime. A few days a week I use this time as "quiet time" for my girls. I have specific toys, books, puzzles they only see during quiet time. Emmy uses this time to work on writing her letters or "homework" from school and Macie normally colors or looks at books. If I haven't worked it in earlier in the day, I use this time for my Bible study time. 7. Clean your "stress space" before bed. I HATE going to bed with a sink of dishes. My morning just runs so much more smooth when I come into a clean kitchen. When I'm trying to pull myself together for the day, it starts me off on the wrong foot when I walk into dirty clutter. So, I've been trying to make a point to get the dishes washed, the counters clear and clean, laundry off the floor (my laundry is in my kitchen), and my floors swept before I head to bed. Makes a big difference in the way my next day starts. Well, there ya have it. 7 things I do to help my most undisciplined life run more smoothly. Although, I don't want to leave this unsaid- There are areas of our life that may perhaps always be undisciplined. And discipline looks different for every person on the planet. But don't let the important things go. God gives us his strength and ability to conquer our undisciplined areas if we commit them to him. And it takes practice. We can't wake up in the morning, tell God we went to be disciplined and suddenly we are. It takes work and intention. And it's hard. But don't bypass it because it's hard. Take God's help and get victory over those areas. And I'm right there with ya. Happy Tuesday!
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If you've followed my blog for a while, you can probably guess what I'm going to say at the beginning of this Menu Monday post. I can't believe it's already past the middle of January. I know this year is going to be fast, but man! It's flying by already! If you saw my post on Friday, you know that I started a Definintely.Maybe. Facebook Page. I wanted a space that would be a little more conducive to conversation. It's easier for direct communication. If you get a chance, head over and "like" it so we can stay in contact. I mentioned a few weeks ago about wanting to memorize a different bible verse each week this year. I figured I'd start posting which verses I'm memorizing here on Monday's. I figured that since Monday posts were committed to physical food it was a great time to add the spiritual food as well. Our Daily Bread! So, this week's verse is... Isaiah 40:28- Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. I hope that you'll join with me in memorizing this week's verse!
Ok, so onto this weeks menu. This is the first week in a long time that I've planned 7 meals at home. We have a busy week, something going every day except the weekend, so I needed to find meals that worked for each night and the time we had. So, here it is... Monday- BLT's. Aaron's off tomorrow for MLK day and this was one of his requests. It's easy and good. I'm all for it. Tuesday- Chicken Alfredo Pita Pizzas. I made BBQ chicken pita pizzas last week and they were so good. I've never made pizza with pita bread, but it was really good! So, we're doing it again! Wednesday- Ranch Pork. This is one of my favorite meals for 2 reasons. First because it's soooo good, but secondly, because it's easy! Pork chops, cream of mushroom, a little milk, and a half a packet of ranch dressing mix. Cook in the crockpot until the pork is tender. Serve over mashed potatoes. SOOOO good! Thursday- Spaghetti. By now I'm sure you're not surprised to see this on the menu. Emmy has asked for it every day since we had it earlier this week. I'm all for it- cheap and easy. Friday- Cowboy Meatloaf. I fixed this for the first time a few weeks ago, and Aaron asked for it again this week. It's a rather complicated recipe, so when I get the chance to get my recipe page updated, I'll add it. Saturday- Sweet and Sour Chicken. This was another Aaron request. Kind of. He asked for chicken and rice and this is what I thought of. This will be new for me, so we'll see how it goes! I found this recipe here. I'll report back next week on if it was a success! Sunday- Taco Salad. Also another Aaron request. Which everyone in our family enjoys. Yum! There ya have. The plan for the week! I haven't grocery shopped yet, that's on the calendar for tomorrow. I hope that everyone has a great Monday! Oh man, what a great weekend we had! And unfortunately I have an extreme lack of pictures! Saturday we took the opportunity to start a new tradition with our kids. We had a yummy dinner of just appetizers and then we baked and decorated cookies and delivered them to some families in our church along with a Christmas carol or two. We had so much fun! The girls liked delivering the cookies and seeing familiar faces and Aaron and I were glad to be teaching them that Christmas isn't all about recieving! I'm looking forward to being able to do this every year with the girls! Yesterday we had a great simple Christmas service at Church and then spent the rest of the day relaxing as a family. I know I said this on Friday but I'm overjoyed at how our holiday season so far has been simple and relaxing. It's given us the opportunity to focus on the important things. Today!!! It's Christmas Eve! This is my favorite day! Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas, but the anticipation of Christmas Eve is my favorite. We're taking advantage of free admission at the Indianapolis Children's Museum and meeting friends there for a day of fun! Then we're heading to a Christmas Eve service at a church here in town. Then home so I can go on a wrapping spree! We've kept no wrapped gifts under our tree because, well, they wouldn't stay wrapped very long. So, that's what I'll be doing tonight! Menu MondayI planned meals for Tuesday through Sunday. After Christmas we'll be getting into our new normal routine. Aaron starts his regular work at the Post Office and we'll have more of an idea of what his schedule will be like. Emmy's out of school until early January so we don't have to worry about packing lunches right now, so my grocery shopping was rather easy. I did a stock up shop this week so the fridge and cabinets are full!
Monday- Spaghetti. I figured I'd fix the girls favorite dinner on such a special day. Tuesday- We're having chili with Aaron's family during our Christmas celebration so we'll probably just end up making sandwiches for dinner. Wednesday- Taco Salad. Aaron found a new recipe in one of our Weight Watchers cookbooks so I'm trying that. If it's good or if I change it up a little, I'll link it up on my recipes page. Thursday- Chicken Pita Pizza. Also another recipe Aaron suggested out of the Weight Watchers cookbook. This one is a little out of the box for us so we'll see how it turns out! Friday- Green Beans, Sausage, and Potatoes. A staple in our house. And easy. Perfect winter meal. Saturday- Sandwiches. Easy easy. Sunday- Chicken N Noodles. Another family favorite and total comfort food. We're supposed to get a pretty big snow storm sometime this week, so I figured I'd max us out on the winter food this week! I hope that everyone has a great Christmas Eve! I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend! I know we did. We celebrated with Aaron's family and then I shopped till I dropped! I planned to blog on Friday but never found the chance! Well, Thanksgiving is over and that means Christmas! And at our house, that means family visiting from out of town! Because of schedules, we're celebrating Christmas with my parents and sister and her family this weekend. I'm also excited because my parents have been storing our Christmas decorations and I've really been wanting to decorate. On Thursday, we will finally! Because of family coming in, I only planned 3 meals for this week. It was a very easy plan. Emmy asked for one, Aaron asked for one and suggested the other. Thursday and through the weekend we'll plan with my mom when she gets here. Monday- Spaghetti. Emmy's been asking and asking for it and I've been out of spaghetti noodles. So, tonight I finally got some. So finally Emmy will get her spaghetti. Tuesday- Green Beans, Sausage, and Potatoes. This is one of Aaron's favorite meals. And I love it for 2 reasons (beside the fact that it tastes good!) #1- it's easy. It's cooked in the crock pot. And #2- it's quite possibly the easiest recipe I fix. Wednesday- Sausage and cheese omlettes. We love breakfast for dinner and it's been a while since we've had it. Plus, for some reason I've got 3 dozen eggs in the fridge. So, omlettes it is. Ok, so a little bit of a Holiday and Weekend Recap in pictures.... #1- Getting back into a bit of a routine. I'm working on a bible study with a friend and seriously folks, this is one of the best studies I've done so far. It's called No Other Gods by Kelly Minter. #2- I've been able to be in my happy place some this weekend. I've been working on some crafts and projects for the living room redo, and a few small things for the kitchen. #3- Yesterday was the Hubs birthday. The girls insisted on having a tea party with him yesterday morning to celebrate! Well folks, we're getting closer on the living room. The truth is that right now, our furniture is in layaway, and it probably will be for quite a while. So a big living room reveal will be a long way off, because our ugly furniture just won't do this room justice. So, I'll give sneak peaks here and there as we get things put together. I'll post a few more sneak peak pics as we get stuff done. Have a happy Monday!
Yay!! It's Thanksgiving week! I love the holidays! And I love that my meal plan for this week was rather short. I planned Mon- Wed and that's it. I did my grocery shopping last week, so I most of what I'm cooking this week is from the pantry. As usual, recipes are linked to my recipes page. Monday- Chicken N Biscuits. Easy peasy. And my kids eat them. Tuesday- Spaghetti. Don't really need much explination for this. Wednesday- French Onion Burgers. Always a favorite in our house. Thursday of course is Thanksgiving, which we're celebrating with Hubs family. I'm making cheesecake for that. Friday I didn't plan anything. Not sure what the plans are for this day yet so we'll probably just order in or eat out. And Saturday is Hubs 30th birthday celebration dinner! Some people know this about me, but if you don't, I'll put it out there. Music is a big thing for me. I played a few instruments (not well) in jr. high and high school and I'm not musically inclined in the way of acutally playing it. I love to sing and that's about all I do. But I listen to music constantly. I listen to all types of it. Normally, I wake up in the morning, feed my kids breakfast and music goes on. Sometimes it's on all day. It wouldn't be uncommon to find the girls and I having a dance party in our kitchen on any given day. Over the last few days there's been one song in particular that I find myself listening to more often than most others. Sometimes on repeat. I wanted to share it with you today in hopes that maybe it would bless you as much as it has blessed me. I wanted to see if I could find the music video, and there wasn't one. I'm not going to upload just the song, so you'll get the lyrics instead. Which is the important part anyways.... Times by Tenth Avenue North
I purposely listed the lyrics in 2 columns because I wanted you to be able to see how the song is written. It's written as a call out to God. It's someone reaching out to God and God's response to that person. I believe 100% that the Bible is God's written word to us. But I also believe that God has blessed some very talented song writers and speaks through them as well. I know He's been using this song to speak to me almost hourly the last few days! I hope that maybe sometimes the truth of this song will bless you too! Lyrics posted here. Monday! Monday! Monday! I don't really dislike Monday's. I feel like my week normally goes so quickly that I can't complain about the begining of a new weeks. This week is rather slow on the social calendar so I've got meals for every day. Our church is having our Thanksgiving Feast on Sunday, so I don't have a meal planned for that day, although I am fixing green bean casserole and cheesecake. So, I don't totally get out of cooking for it. I'm trying a new recipe this week. I'll link them up to the original recipe or to my recipe page. Monday- Pierogi Casserole. I fixed this 2 weeks ago and it was delish! But don't think for a minute that this will help out your calorie count for the day. This is RICH comfort food! But oh so yummy! Tuesday- Chicken Spaghetti. This is my new recipe for the week. I've heard people rave about this recipe so I'm very excited to try it! Wednesday- Fried Chicken. It's been so long since I've made my mom's fried chicken. Sorry, no recipe for this, it's kind of a family thing! Thursday- Sandwiches. This was Aaron's request. I have been not putting this on the menu because he takes sandwiches for lunch to work, but when I asked him for ideas for this week's menu, this is what he asked for. Thursday is going to be a very busy day for us, so I'm good with easy dinner too! Friday- Biscuit Pizza. This is easy easy easy and pretty tasty actually. The girls love them because they're easy for them to eat. Emmy loves fixing her own. Saturday- BLT's. Pretty straight forward. And actually, we're not tomato eaters in this house, so normally we eat BL's. I use turkey bacon for a little extra calorie cut. Sunday- Fishers Point Thanksgiving Feast Extravaganza! Not a complicated menu this week, and I was able to get all the groceries we needed for this week and next for about $70. I had a lot of these ingredients on hand. Next week's menu will include Thanksgiving! Oh my time is flying! What a crazy weekend! We were busy busy busy! But, I'm glad it's Monday. I'm ready to be back in a routine. My parents where here over the weekend and normally when they're here, we end up with a lot of leftovers. So, my menu this week will include a lot of leftover meat and things. There are only a few things that I'll have to pick up from the grocery store. I like weeks like this! Monday- Chicken Salad. We have leftover baked chicken and Aaron and I have both been craving chicken salad so I'm going to fix more and we'll go light tonight with chicken salad sandwiches. I use chunked chicken, halved grapes, chopped pecans, diced red onion, and chopped celery. I use a little bit of Miracle Whip light and some pepper. It's soo good! Tuesday- BLT's - We have leftover bacon, so I figured why not have BLT's. We love them and they are E-A-S-Y! Especially if the bacon is already cooked! We don't like tomatoes, so we really only eat BL's. I'll only have to get some lettuce and we'll be set! Wednesday- Wednesday we'll be eating at Chick-fil-A. Thursday- Grilled Chicken. We've been eating a lot of grilled chicken this summer. I love it, and I've got a ton of frozen chicken breasts in the freezer, so I'll probably do grilled chicken kabobs. I marinate it in Italian dressing and grill away! I'll get some fresh veggies to grill with it! Friday we're having a girls all nighter at our house and the guys from the youth group are going to play laser tag. I haven't decided yet what we're having. I don't really want to have pizza, but I'm not sure yet. We just had a super busy weekend and we're heading into a super busy week! Eek! It's Monday again! Man, I feel like the weeks are going so fast! Although, ask me again on Wednesday and I might not feel like that. This week is going to be C-R-A-Z-Y! We have something going on every night but Thursday. My folks are coming in on Friday though, so I'm sure Thursday will be plenty busy. Because my parents are coming on Friday, I only meal planned for Mon - Thurs. Aaron and I will be at a youth function on Fri night so my folks will figure out what they will eat. Then once my folks get here we'll work out something for Saturday and Sunday. They're also watching thier calories so we'll all be eating healthy! Monday- Green Beans, Sausage, and Potatoes- This is one of Aaron's favorites and I like it because it's a crock pot meal! Tuesday- I'm going to be at a baby shower for a sweet friend at church on Tuesday, so Aaron will be taking the girls out for dinner for a Daddy/Daughter date night! Wednesday- Turkey Sandwiches- Wednesdays are always exceptionally crazy. Aaron comes home from work and picks us up and we head straight to youth group. Normally, I feed the girls before we leave and then I make sandwiches for Aaron and I to eat on the way there. Thursday- French Onion Burgers - I figured we need to have at least 1 regular meal this week. I like french onion burgers. They are an easy take on hamburgers and they are yummy! I just fix hamburgers in a skillet on the stove. When they're almost done, I add a can of low sodium french onion soup and let them simmer for a few mins. Plop on a bun, add a slice of cheese, and ta-da! Since it's a rather simple week, I was able to do all of our grocery shopping for about $65 dollars. I did some shopping at ALDI like I always do, then we hit up Meijer where they were doing the 10 for $10 sale. Then I finished up at Walmart. Disclaimer! Always make sure you check your prices before you jump feet first into 10 for $10 sales. If you aren't brand specific, a lot of time store brands are cheaper than the $1 price (ie- We got Meijer brand pudding for $.86 instead of $1 for Jello brand). Also, Marshmallows at Aldi were only $.76 cents instead of $1 at Meijer. The concept of 10 for $10 is great and we did get some great deals (Aunt Millie's Cinnamon Raisin English Muffins for a buck!) but sometimes it's deceiving! I'll leave you with this recipe I found on Pinterest this week. (Pinned here). I think this might be my post 5k reward after my race in Sept. It looks soooooo good! It's a vegan recipe too! I'm not a vegan, but I know there are great benefits to it. So, you can't really go wrong with this right!? It's Menu Monday here at Definitely.Maybe. I grocery shopped on Thursday last week, so my menu has been done for a few days. This week we're having one of my favorite meals, Chicken Pot Pie! I used up the last of the gift card I'd been shopping with the last 2 weeks and this was a true pantry week, so I've got a repeat meal from last week. We'll be on the run on Wed, so I picked something easy. I'm only planning through Thursday because Friday is payday and I'll just go ahead and do my shopping on Friday because Saturday and Sunday are super busy days for us! Menu for June 18-June 21 Monday- Chicken Pot Pie- This is a super simple recipe. I use a bag of frozen veggies, a chicken breast that already cooked and chunked up, 1 can of cream of chicken soup, and 1 can of cheddar cheese soup. I mix it all together with some garlic powder and a little bit of oregano and pepper. I use Bisquick Heart Healthy Baking Mix for the top. It's a family favorite. Tuesday- Ham and Cheese Calzones- I have frozen loaf of uncooked bread in the freezer that needs to be used. I'll pull it out, let it thaw and proof, pound it out and then cut it into pieces large enough to fill with ham and shredded colby jack cheese. Then seal off the edges with a fork, cut 2 small slits in the top, brush with an egg white, and bake at 350 until golden brown. Also a family favorite. Wednesday- Turkey and Cheese Sandwiches- We'll be busy at campmeeting on Wed so I'm doing something quick. Thursday- Spaghetti- I already had all the ingredients for this, so it's an easy meal that I didn't have to purchase a thing for! Weekend Recap
We had a nice relaxing weekend around these parts. Saturday morning, I had breakfast with one of the girls from our youth group and then when I got home, I fixed the kids lunch and we headed out to to pool. We had a great time swimming and enjoying the beautiful weather! Later on in the night we noticed that Macie seemed to be having some trouble breathing. I packed her up and headed off to MedCheck. When we got there, it packed and they told me we'd have to wait almost 2 hours. I said no thanks and headed to the ER. 4 hours later and absolutely no answers I brought her home and put her to bed. She was exhausted. Yesterday was another nice relaxing day. We had a great time celebrating Aaron. He opened his gift from the girls yesterday morning before church. Then we headed out to church. After church I made pancakes for lunch, then we all took a nap. We grilled out later on for dinner then we all watched Toy Story 3 for the first time. Oh man, I thought it was a little intense for a kid at some points, but it was still good. Definitely cried at the end. After the kids went to bed, I spent sometime ironing and getting ready for the upcoming week! All in all, it was a great relaxing weekend! We enjoyed it. It will be a long while before we have that much free time on a weekend again! Well, this week is a little special. Normally, this is a big buy week and next week is pantry week, but because money is really tight for the next 2 weeks, this week and next are both pantry weeks of sorts. I did do minimal grocery shopping. I needed to spend less than $40 for this week and a friend gave me a few great suggestions on facebook. I only purchased a few things and ingredients from each meal will carry over to the next day. There is no new recipe this week. Didn't want to spend the money on a whole new list of ingredients. So, here goes, my menu for this week... Monday- Spaghetti - meatless with whole wheat noodles. First time I'll serve whole wheat so we'll see how it goes. Tuesday- Biscuits and gravy- I'll be making the biscuits and the gravy. I'm using Bisquick mix I already had for the biscuits and making the gravy from scratch. Wed- Grilled Chicken Sandwiches- This will be a somewhat special night. Aaron and I are heading to camp where our youth group is for the night. I'll be fixing the sandwiches ahead of time and taking them with us so we can eat on the way. Nothing special, just marinated grilled chicken breasts. Thurs- Sloppy Joes- A little generic I know, but I got just a plain old can of Manwich and a lb of extra lean ground beef. I usually make my own sloppy joes, but I didn't have all the ingredients and didn't want to buy them all. Friday- Mini pizza's- We'll be using the left over buns from sloppy joes, the pizza sauce from the spaghetti, and some of the sausage I'll reserve from the biscuits and gravy as topping. No one ever complains about pizza in our house. We eat it in every form. Saturday- grilled cheese- nothing fancy. Sun- pancakes- easy and cheap. Weekend Recap We had a great weekend! On Saturday we headed downtown for the PBS Kids Day in the Park. Characters from some of Emmy's favorite shows were there along with some cool games and exhibits. We took a picnic lunch and enjoyed the time together! Yesterday, we had a great church service (which you can listen to here). We came home and enjoyed a little bit of rest time and then got brave and decided to move Macie's crib into Emmy's room. She had been sleeping in our room still and we were ready to have our space back! We only have a 2 bedroom, so this was our only option. It took about an hour from them to fall asleep and in that hour Aaron and I were probably in there 10 times laying them back down and shushing them, but all in all I was surprisingly pleased with the first night. They both slept peacefully through the night and so did Aaron and I!
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HEY, I'M JESSICA!
Christian. Wife. Mommy. Daughter. Pastor. Friend. Saved.Redeemed. Beloved.
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