Crissyanna

Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Party 2012!!!!!

 52 Fridays, Beans, Bugs, Crazy Life, Faith, Joplin Tornado  2 Responses »
Apr 142012
 

Well, they say you make a grander entrance if you’re late…

Ultimate Blog Party 2012

I’m just being fashionably late. Yeah, that’s it! Really, life has been super busy the last few weeks and I have had no time getting this post ready at all! Two weeks ago, we got an unexpected blessing of a trip to the Women of Faith One Day in Wichita. That was a huge blessing in and of itself, and was totally a God orchestrated event for the weekend.

Here at Created for Home, I talk about homeschooling our two daughters, the Bugs (5) and the Beans (4). They are a lot of fun and it is such a blessing to be able to customize their education to how they learn. Last week, they decided they wanted some extra time off for Sabbath week next week so they did all of their school work for the week in two days. We then spent yesterday watching new communication lines be run on the electric poles. It was great.

I’m married to the most amazing man ever. HubbaHubba is my tech support, reacher of tall items and the absolute love of my life. We will have been married for seven years this July and a day doesn’t go by that I am not thanking God for the gift HubbaHubba is to me.

Occasionally I post a recipe for something that I’ve come up with that we all liked. I’ve made Smile Soup for the girls for lunch, and I worked out an incredible Chicken Italiano recipe. My husband begs for the Chicken Italiano on a regular basis. And the best part is, it is so simple and easy to make!

Our word for the year this year is Discipline. I started a 52 Fridays to a More Disciplined life series. And well, laugh at the irony, but I haven’t been that disciplined in writing every Friday with it. We spent most of the month of February sick and barely functioning which just got us all off kilter. Feel free to join in with us though! My friend Annette is writing for it on her blog too. Go check her out.

I live in Joplin and I’ve written some of what we went through last year with the tornado. I’ve been shying away from the topic, because well, after you live it for so long you are just sick of it. I mean, we live with destruction on a daily basis, had to revamp our lives totally because our normal was ripped from us, and I’m tired of thinking about it so I haven’t been talking about it much. I will say this sure has been quite the learning experience for us all. And God doesn’t leave you somewhere without a reason.

For fun, and to supplement the family I do quite a few book and product reviews. We have no extra money in our budget for fun things like my reading addiction, so I do book reviews to feed it. I haven’t been taking on as many book reviews recently with spring upon us though.

I also write about whatever topic I feel like needs to be addressed or if I just have to share something. A lot of times it is about how God has been working in our life and I just have to share it. We have been blessed beyond measure. While life hasn’t been easy for us, and according to the world’s standards, we are in poverty, we are rich. We’ve never gone hungry, we have what we need and a lot of extras have been provided by our loving God. We are also rich in faith and love. I wouldn’t trade it for any amount of money.

Thank you for visiting from the Ultimate Blog Party! Feel free to poke around a bit and maybe add yourself to my Linky Followers or sign up for email updates, follow us on Facebook or Twitter or even Pinterest too.

52 Fridays Week 15

 52 Fridays  No Responses »
Apr 132012
 

How are you doing in this pursuit of discipline? I am thankful to say that I am doing much better this past week. Actually two now.
mile marker for 15 miles on a desert road
Last week, I had some mad money and just wandered into the clearance tent at the store. I found on clearance a two pack of Leslie Sansone Walk at Home videos for 60% off! I was ecstatic! I started them this week and I think I have finally found something I can commit to! I feel great after doing one as opposed to being shaky and in pain after other videos. During the videos, she is uplifting and kind, not yelling and being mean. The people in the videos are dressed fairly modestly (no midriffs or short shorts or bra straps, still exercise clothing, but way better than other stuff out there). I can keep up with the pace and still feel like I am accomplishing something too. There is also no need to worry about finding any strange or expensive equipment and storing it! I find myself actually wanting to do the video each day! My girls like doing them too. Although, they don’t do the whole first mile and skip for it and I have tripped over them a few times, it still counts as P.E.

I’ve been doing fairly well in controlling what I eat recently also. It is strange, after you get used to not eating certain things on a regular basis, when you do eat them, you find they don’t taste as good as they used to. I still like a good chocolate, but I’m more discerning and only let myself have some really good chocolate instead of the cheaper stuff I used to eat. I find that if it is something that is really really good, I eat less of it as I am satisfied with the taste a lot faster. I think I just kept eating something of not as good quality in the hope that it would satisfy eventually. But some very good quality cheese when I’m craving cheese satisfies a lot faster than some lesser quality cheese. I want to suggest that if there is an item you like a lot but you find yourself consuming too much of, find a very high quality of it (yes, it will probably cost you more money at first, but if you eat less at a time when you do, you’ll save yourself money in the long run, and a lot of calories) and eat just a tiny bit of it instead a lot of a lesser quality version. You may be surprised (and for the record, I’ve found the cheese at our local Aldi to be of very good quality for the price. It is a discount store and their food is cheaper, but the quality is often the same or better than other stores in the area)

I’ve been reading more than I had been recently. I’ve been working at incorporating more scripture into my day. It has helped drastically to keep my focus off of myself.

The past week has been a major cleaning binge. It felt great to get some stuff taken care of in the house. I even went so far as to vacuum the ceilings. The allergy issues a few of us had been dealing with abated somewhat after I did so. I still need to take the vacuum to our room and do a few regular things for Friday today, but I honestly am not in much of a hurry. We had a storm system start through early this morning and I’m wiped out from it. The rain cleared a lot of the tree and grass pollen out of the air and it caused my sinuses to drain out this morning for the first time in weeks and I’ve been draggy from it.

Next week is Sabbath week for school. I told the girls on Monday that next week is and they started begging for extra time off (they learned of the local public schools’ spring break two weeks ago and were dismayed to have to do school when their friends were out for a week). So I told them they could have any extra days off they wanted, provided they did all their school for the week first. That lit a fire under them like you wouldn’t believe and they wouldn’t let me quit doing their history until I had read out loud all of it for the week. We finished off Bible too and worked on the phonics and math. Phonics got done for the week on Tuesday. They’ve enjoyed the days off. They’ve played a lot of playdough, dollies, house, done tons of free art. I’ve gotten a ton of extra house work done and am looking forward to next week for the official Sabbath week and getting a lot more accomplished in the house and hopefully start planning for a garage sale.

How are you doing in your pursuit for a more disciplined life? Are you finding you are able to get more accomplished? Have you reached any goals? Feel free to share so we can cheer you on and encourage you in your pursuit in a more disciplined life. If you want to write a post yourself, feel free to leave the link to it in the comments (it will probably be held for moderation but I promise I will get it approved as soon as it comes through) or just share in the comments if you don’t have a blog. We’re all in this life together. Let us encourage each other through this life!

Coincidence? I Think Not.

 Celebration, Christ, Crazy Life, Faith, family, Women of Faith  No Responses »
Apr 022012
 

Do you ever wonder if what you do matters? If where you go, if you choose to try to do this or that matters in the grand scheme of things or it really doesn’t matter? Do you wonder if God puts things in place for things to happen or if it all is just random? Do the little details of your life matter?

Life here had been coasting along and with the change of the seasons come the regular chores of spring. Cleaning up flower beds (actually planting them this year…), mowing the lawn, opening up the house, planning a garage sale. I’m sure you know how life changes with the dawn of spring from the sleep of winter. This past weekend we had planned on mowing and getting some work done around the house, going to small group Saturday night and church on Sunday. Nothing spectacularly out of the ordinary and blissfully our routine.

Well, God had other plans. And by other plans, I mean majorly differing from what we had decided on, and it was so obviously Him all the way.
To understand a bit, I am not a spur of the moment individual. Spontaneous for me is no more than three days of planning, and I prefer several weeks’ notice for events and such. I thrive on predictability, routines and structure. Friday, I was getting ready to use Twitter and I notice that Sheila Walsh tweeted right before I got on that she had some tickets to the Women of Faith One Day in Wichita on Saturday to giveaway. I had resigned myself to not going at all several months ago, though I really wanted to. In fact, it was one of those, we’ll not be able to afford it dismissals that I never even approached the throne with. Figuring I wouldn’t win, I texted HubbaHubba asking if I could try to win a ticket. He texted me back nearly immediately (which is rare when he’s at work, normally I don’t get a response for an hour or so) that if I won, he’d make a way to go out for the weekend. So I went out on a limb and tried. Low and behold, I get a tweet back offering me not one but two tickets. Here I was figuring too much time had gone since the offer of tickets and I had lost my chance and instead of not getting any, I was offered two! I texted HubbaHubba back right away to call his mom and see if it was ok if we came out this weekend (which of course it was, Grandmas always want their grandbabies around I’ve found out). I texted my chosen mom (you know, one of those ladies who is old enough to be your mother that just kind of takes you in sort of people.) to see if she wanted the extra ticket. Nana B (the girls call her Nana and well, why not just call her that on the blog). I knew I probably wouldn’t hear back from her for most of the day as she was at work.

However, Nana had been using her cell for a few moments and saw the text come in. She had also decided that it wasn’t going to work out for her to attend One Day either this year. Well, as things turned out, her husband ended up helping a neighbor put in a fence this past weekend and she was suddenly free to go. Papa M gave his blessing for our “Girls’ Day.”

So, since HubbaHubba worked until nearly nine on Tuesday night, he got off early on Friday, which was a HUGE help since I hadn’t planned on having to pack anything. I realized it was a huge blessing that for some random reason, I did laundry a day early on Thursday. I never do our clothes on Thursdays. If I do any laundry it is typically kitchen towels or extras like afghans or curtains…And the dishes were all caught up for a change too.

We get packed, had dinner (meatloaf which I had already put together) and cooked up the meat I had defrosted for Saturday and left. It was a nice peaceful trip and the girls slept for a good part of it so HubbaHubba and I could talk uninterrupted. It was a nice trip to Wichita from Joplin. The weather was perfect for a car that has no air conditioning.

Saturday dawned and Nana B picked me up on the way to One Day. We are standing in line when we find several other ladies from the church I used to attend when I lived in Wichita and that Nana B attends, along with others that used to attend who were in town visiting that weekend. So, we get to sit with the group and have lunch together. It was an incredible day. I was filled spiritually, was with women that are like family to me and it was just a great day all around. Nana B and I agreed that everything just fell into place so perfectly for our day together, no matter how unplanned it was. From their neighbors deciding to put in a fence and needing help and splitting the cost, her having her cell even turned on at work that day and getting the text, me having had the laundry done a day early (which is amazing with two preschoolers), just “happening” to log into Twitter and seeing Sheila’s offer and being offered two tickets and HubbaHubba getting off work early on Friday.

Nana dropped me off at my mother-in-love’s house after such an incredible day and we thought nothing more of it. Until Sunday…

Grandma (my MIL) was getting ready to go teach her Sunday School class. The Bugs wanted to go with her, however, her sister was actually sleeping in and I didn’t want Beans woken up (she is a BEAR if she gets awakened before she’s ready). Their clothes were all in the room they were sharing and I knew if Bugs went in, Beans would wake up and it would be U.G.L.Y. Bugs wasn’t too happy with the decree that she would go and meet Grandma at church for services and miss Sunday School. Telling Bugs was hard, but I knew it was the right thing to do. You have no idea how right.

Beans wakes up finally and we’re getting her fed, Bugs dressed and taking our time as we had plenty to spare on a Sunday; which is totally abnormal for us. We were enjoying the slower pace in our preparations. I’m just stepping out of the shower when HubbaHubba bursts into the bathroom to inform me that the church called, his mom had fallen in the parking lot and cut her chin bad enough to need a trip to the emergency room for stitches.

Now, it just so happened that the person who witnessed her fall was the wife of a physician in the congregation and was able to get her help right away. Dr. Phil (no, not the guy on television…) was able to get a look at mom’s chin and decide that it needed stitches so he escorted her to the E.R. We were so grateful that the Bugs wasn’t there to watch her Grandma fall like that, and that she wasn’t there to be fallen on top of. Bugs is the sort of girl who would try to keep someone from falling and would have gone to try and catch her Grandma. That could have been really bad (Bugs hurt possibly severely, Grandma with a load of guilt, to even just witnessing it and the trauma would have been Bugs’ after).

We get loaded up and some clean clothes for mom (if you have ever seen a facial laceration, you know those BLEED) and head over to the ER. HubbaHubba then stayed with her while the girls and I went back home as the roast in the crockpot was needing removed and potatoes picked up for lunch (which turned into supper). We get to the house, and realize that I didn’t have the garage door opener nor did I have a set of keys to get into the house. By then it was this woman’s prerogative to really need the necessary so we head to Wal-Mart and call HubbaHubba for advice. He said he was fairly certain that he had left the back garage door unlocked after some yard work on Saturday. Only problem was, I was going to have to figure out how to open the privacy fence’s gate from the wrong side…And this gate belongs to a six foot privacy fence, and I’m short. Just a hair over five feet tall.

That took ten minutes of pushing and finagling and going so far as to hold my phone up over the six foot gate to snap a picture of the locking mechanism (I’m grateful I didn’t drop the phone into the mud on the other side). It finally opened. And thankfully, HubbaHubba had left the back garage door unlocked so I didn’t have to drive back across town for keys or break in. I had visions of trying to explain to the fine officers of the Wichita Police Department why I was breaking into my MIL’s house with two preschoolers in tow…

We get the roast rescued, go back out for potatoes and get them peeled and then leave to wait in the E.R. parking lot to be there when Mom is released (found a shaded spot and we had grabbed the laptop so the girls could watch a movie while we waited). They insisted on x-rays to check for fractures in her jaw and head and her hips. Thankfully they all came back clear. Since it was so late and we were all ravenous, we ate at Spangles for lunch and had the roast for supper.

We hadn’t planned on a trip to Wichita last weekend at all. It was so spur of the moment for us, and yet, it was so obviously guided by the hand of God. HubbaHubba working late on Tuesday to get half of Friday off, laundry being done a day early, logging in to Twitter just in time to win tickets to One Day which caused us to have to go to Wichita then Mom having that oopsie moment tripping over one of those little bump things they put in a parking lot. We were there for her when she needed us.

Then God was so gracious on the trip back home last night. We left Wichita close to seven-thirty or so. Way later than we wanted, but then we were running late on everything after spending a half of a day waiting for stuff in the E.R. We had just gotten East of Wichita when suddenly there were two does in the road that we had to swerve into the other lane to avoid. It was a way closer call than I would have liked. Then, I was driving and just past Fredonia a coyote or wolf (not sure which, I can’t really tell them apart at night and HubbaHubba was playing a game on his phone and not watching) nearly met the bumper of our car. We also had to pull over for several fire squads that appeared out of nowhere. We ended up passing a field that was on fire (looked like a control burn that got out of control when the wind suddenly picked up). I was going to pull over close to Cherryvale to switch drivers, but as I approached the exit, I felt a nudge to just go on until Parsons. Since we had spent a weekend feeling those nudges and obeying them, I decided now wasn’t the time to stop. I do not know what we avoided by going on to Parsons before stopping, but I’m sure it was what I was supposed to do.

After we switch drivers and we’re a half hour from home, a cat dashed out in front of the car in the middle of nowhere. That cat has lived to see today (at least to my knowledge, if it decided to play chicken with anyone else it may not have been so “lucky”). God was surely making sure we arrived home safely. Though I will admit to being weary of the near misses, it just went to show how God is there all the time to help us through and guide us in what we should do and where we should go. He is most definitely in the details. Are you looking for Him there?

I Got to Attend Woman of Faith One Day!

 Celebration, Christ, Faith, Growth, Women of Faith  No Responses »
Apr 022012
 

I got to attend the Women of Faith One Day in Wichita on Saturday, thanks to a Twitter giveaway from Shelia Walsh. You have no idea how much of a blessing the event was, and how the entire weekend was orchestrated by God.

I loved going to the Women of Faith conference in Kansas City last November. I left there so filled with the things of God, I knew that One Day was going to be just as incredible. I wasn’t disappointed. The morning started off with worship by the same team who led in Kansas City. It was incredible and I could listen to them sing all day. The songs were delivered with enthusiasm and joy and excitement.

Ken Davis got to speak then. I had never heard him speak and I was blown away. He delivered truth in his message so well while being funny and so personable. I love the stories he shared and how they can be applied to our everyday life. He taught on why we should live life fully. To live life live. I know I’m guilty of being too scared to fully embrace the joy that can be ours in this life, as I’m sure many others have. I have lived my life timid of what truly living feels like. Scared I couldn’t handle it. terrified of liking it so much that I would never get to experience it more than once. The past several years have taught me that I cannot live my life in an insulated cocoon to shield myself from life. I have to break out and experience it to truly live. (And as an aside, I didn’t realize it, but we owned Ken Davis’ book Sheep Tales. My husband put it together for me on Saturday night and got so excited I got to see Ken live he got a bit jealous!)

Sheila then spoke on coming to God as we are. We are all broken people in a broken world and God doesn’t expect us to come to Him fully fixed. He is the one who will fix us. We can’t on our own. We are all broken in some way, even if we pretend we’re not. It was a message of hope for healing and a reassurance of the grace and loved offered to us. She shared from her past in dealing with clinical depression and how out of control her life became until she learned that God still wanted her and loved her with a love that is totally beyond our finite comprehension.

Scott McIntyre was there also. And now I have to make a confession. I had never heard of Scott McIntyre until Saturday. How is that possible you ask? Well, to start, I’ve never seen an episode of American Idol. Ever. It has never held any interest for me. And it is hard to watch it if one doesn’t have a television. We haven’t owned one in the seven years we’ve been married and really we don’t miss it. Scott’s story of living life blind and what he’s learned from it and then from going into kidney failure and needing a transplant. He is just a regular guy who has been through a lot, learned on who to depend on and who was blessed with a great musical ability. Watching Scott play the piano was simply amazing. I can’t get anything musical to flow from my fingers and I can read music…it was so uplifting to see a young man (am I really that old now to be calling Scott McIntyre a young man?!?!?!) living life sold out to God when most people would think that because of his circumstances he should be cursing Him.

I left One Day full to overflowing. It was a great day with a bunch of ladies I hadn’t seen in ages, getting filled spiritually, having a ton of fun and worshiping God. It was an incredible day and I was so blessed to be able to attend.

Thank you so much Sheila for the tickets!

52 Fridays Week 14…

 52 Fridays, Crazy Life, Faith, family, finances, Growth  No Responses »
Mar 302012
 

Sometimes the journey seems to stretch forever into the desert like the picture above. It feels like the road will never end while you are driving through a desert with mountains (as attested on our trip to California and back last summer, when this pic was taken.)

Yes, I’ve been AWOL…Way too often. And for that, I apologize. I have no good reason as to why I haven’t been writing on 52 Fridays. Aside from the fact that I hate admitting defeat, which well, I have spent the last two months feeling defeated in nearly everything I have tried. I believe I’m coming out of the slump now finally (it is quite cyclical with me) and life is coming back on a more even keel.

I have been getting snatches of scripture through the day. Not like a real good sit down and dig into the Word time, but a verse or two here or there which is typically something that causes me to think on it for awhile.

I have been making better food choices. In fact, I no longer even crave chocolate or sweets at all. For two months we had a salad with nearly every meal, until I got burned out on lettuce salads. I’ve been making fish once or twice a week and a lot of chicken, much to the chagrin of HubbaHubba who loves his beef and pork. I do work that in once or twice a week too.

I haven’t been doing the 30 Day Shred at all. I’ve checked out Leslie Sansone’s Walk Away the Pounds twice now from the library but each time it has come home with me, someone gets sick and I don’t have the time to do it. I will get this whole exercise thing straightened out someday… And find something I like to do in the process.

I did read Reshaping It All by Candace Cameron Bure and Darlene Shachat. It was a nice cheerleading book on making those changes and even changing your mindset and thought patterns in your quest for better health. You do have to change the way you think in order to change your body and your life. You can’t live a life of defeat and expect to be successful in anything. Your attitude does play a larger role in your life than you think it does.

HubbaHubba and I are taking Financial Peace University through our church. This week was week 4. It will totally transform the way you think of money. For the last several years, I have felt so confined by living on so little (let’s just say even the government thinks we are poor). While the only debt aside from our mortgage is the last half of my student loans, and we were doing decent, we will be doing well before too long. This class has given us hope for the future even if we never make above the official poverty line. While this class has also opened up some issues for me in regards to having mad money of my own and being able to spend it on whatever I want (a whole ‘nother story) it has been good for us. I am having to deal with stuff from the past, my husband and I are on the same page (we typically were, just it was never totally written down) and we are so excited for the future. If you have the opportunity to take this class do so, no matter what your financial standing is. If you are debt free, living paycheck to paycheck, in debt up to your eyeballs, it doesn’t matter. Take this class. It has given us hope and excitement for what is possible, even while living on a thread bare shoe string budget. In fact, we are looking at getting the Financial Peace Junior kit for our homeschool with the girls. I want them to learn what I was never taught growing up and to not be shackled the way I was in regards to money.
Another thing, the house has been picked up more since Christmas. The dishes are washed, you can normally see that I do have a living room floor, I’ve been vacuuming more and I typically have the laundry put away. This last week with some things going on, I did get the laundry washed, it was just wasn’t totally put away. I intend on getting that caught up shortly.

Well, I have several things to be working on so I suppose this update needs to close. How are you doing on your goals for this year? Stalled out? There is hope and you can start working on them again. Are you going well towards your prize? Let us know so we can cheer you on and encourage you.

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