Population: Me

The lyrics below really have been speaking to me this week:

In my own little world it hardly ever rains
I’ve never gone hungry, always felt safe
I got some money in my pocket, shoes on my feet
In my own little world
Population: me

I try to stay awake during Sunday morning church
I throw a twenty in the plate, but I never give ’til it hurts
I turn off the news when I don’t like what I see
It’s easy to do when it’s
Population: me

What if there’s a bigger picture?
What if I’m missing out?
What if there’s a greater purpose
I could be living right now
Outside my own little world

when i Stopped at a red light, looked out my window
I saw a cardboard sign, said “Help this homeless widow”
And above that sign was the face of a human
and I thought to myself, “God, what have I been doing?”
So I rolled down the window and I looked her in the eye
i thought how many times have I just passed her by?
I gave her some money then I drove on through
And my own little world reached
Population: two

Father break my heart for what breaks Yours
Give me open hands and open doors
and Put Your light in my eyes and let me see
That my own little world is not about me

What if there’s a bigger picture?
What if I’m missing out?
What if there’s a greater purpose
That I could be living right now
and i know theres a bigger picture
I dont wanna miss it now
i know theres a plan and a purpose
I can be living right now
Outside my own little world

I recently heard this Matthew West Song on Klove and absolutely love it and was so convicted by it. Isn’t that how we live so often in the world of population: me? I know I do. I wish I could say I was more selfless and cared so much more for others but I would be lying. I want to but I get caught up in the entanglements of this life and my world so easily.

I love the line where he says he saw the widow holding up the sign and above the sign was the face of a human. It kind of reminds me of Jesus. He was all about the individual. We can’t change the world all at once or make a difference in everyone’s life. But we can make a difference and notice one person at a time.

Oh Lord, forgive my selfish heart and open my eyes to the ways I can notice and love those around me even if it’s just one person everyday. Turn my eyes upward and outward instead of inward. My world is of little consequence in the grand scheme of things. Give me greater Heavenly perspective. Amen.

Homeless for the Holidays

I received a free screener copy of a Christmas movie a few weeks ago so I could watch and review it. I’ve seen it in the Family Christian Store magazine so I figured it couldn’t be that bad. I am usually skeptical of these type of low budget films and don’t care for them too much.

However, this one had a really good message. No, the acting won’t win any academy awards and there were some cheesy, over the top moments. But overall, I thought it was well done and a good family movie.

The premise of the movie is what happens in the life of a man and his family when he loses his job and finds himself homeless for the holidays. It touches on some great truths about the way men and women think. It deals with the pride of a man and his desire to provide for his family. How much is too much and what is really important? What is a man willing to do to provide for those he loves? It deals with the insecurities of a woman and how important it is to be supportive of your husband.

Most importantly it speaks of the issue of generosity and how much of a blessing we can truly be to others, even when we don’t have much to give. It was certainly a challenging message but a great reminder of what Jesus calls us to do. And not just this Christmas season, but always. We are called to give generously and to love others. How often I fall short of that!

So despite the weak moments in this film I would recommend it as a great tool for reminding yourselves and your kids of what the truly important things are in this life. And even better is if you are able to put into practice the truths brought to life.

Go check it out at: http://homelessfortheholidaysmovie.com/

1st Things 1st

Life has recently gotten away from us. Oh we've been living and busy but some important things got pushed to the back burner. I could make up excuses. Our schedules have changed, we have more going on at night, we're too tired. Like I said, excuses. But God really convicted me last week that we needed to make a change. I feel like he was telling John the same thing in a different way.

When we were dating we would pray together on the phone. When we were engaged we would pray together almost every night. When we first got married we did devos and prayed quite frequently. And then the past few months is when life got away from us. We both know how important it is for us to be praying together. Personal time with God is important too, but praying together is a special time when we are spiritually connected and laid bare before God and each other. It's key to the health of our marriage.

So God prompted my heart to mention that I miss praying together and John agreed. We came up with a new schedule and so far so good. We've been getting up a little earlier, both of us, so that we can pray before breakfast and before work. This seems to work better for both of us because we are fresh and not tired from a long days work. It is so refreshing to start off the day that way.

I am telling you this not to brag, but to be an encouragement. There are so many things in this life that we can't do. We can't fix everyone's problems.  We can't even fix our own problems most times. We can't heal people. We can't be there for everyone all the time. We can't be everything for our spouse. We can't be everything for our family. We need help. We can't always give of our time or money to help others. But we can pray. And it's one of our best spiritual weapons against the enemy. And when we pray together it unites us in serving together.

I also think it helps in a marriage because it is a place of transparency. Hopefully you don't intentionally hide things from your spouse, but you can't hide from God. And if you are really open to Him when you pray together you will be surprised at the things God shows you. After all He knows us better than we know ourselves.

So I challenge you to try it out. But you have to be intentional about it. And feel free to check up on us. We're definitely not perfect. So I hope we can keep it going too!

Sometimes you just gotta get away

Two weekends + two road trips = too much fun!

A few weeks ago John and I headed out to Kansas for one of my friends wedding. It was a 9 hour drive one way. And two more hours to the wedding. So I figure if I add it all up we spent nearly a complete day in the car. 22 hours. Oddly enough, we both really enjoyed it. Here's some highlights at lightning speed:

1. BBQ, yum. John really liked it. And I had not had ribs in forever.

2. The food at the wedding was really delicious. 

3. Chik-fil-a. I am so excited they are opening one near us. It tasted so good and they gave us a sample of their new peppermint shake. Soooo good! Can't wait to go buy one. It's the little things.

Ok so beyond food, there were other really fun things:

4. Meeting up with an old friend who we rode to the wedding with. Yay for Sara.

5. Shannon's wedding was beautiful!

6. Laughing, singing and talking with my best friend for 18 hours

Last weekend we went our separate ways. John headed to a men's retreat in Indiana with my brother in law and dad, and us ladies (me, mom, and sis) went to Kenosha, WI for a shopping trip, and boy did we. We shopped til we dropped. Saturday we started out with a Panera breakfast and I just have to say that I absolutely LOVE their asiago cheese bagel. So the day started out great. We shopped at the outlets from 10-4. And then went to Cracker Barrel for a much needed hearty meal. Played phase 10 at the hotel and hit the hot tub before crashing. Sunday we visited the Jelly Belly warehouse and got some free samples before heading to Gurnee Mills and doing more shopping. I think I wore my family out but it was some much needed shopping therapy for me.  I did find some great deals, though I did not get as much Christmas shopping done as I had hoped. Oh well. 

A beautiful sunset greeted us as we pulled into the hotel. I had to snap a shot.

At the Bass store with my sis. Pretty warm for the North Pole.

We didn't completely fill the back of Jen's car but we did have quite a bit

No more traveling for a little while. But we do have a Christmas road trip to North Carolina planned so that should be loads of fun.

Fall Changes

This fall season has been wonderfully mild overall and gorgeous as usual. I love the changing leaves. I don't however love the colds that have been going around. I've been fighting with a cold for a few weeks now. I think I am winning, but you just never can tell with these persistent little guys. I think John has begun to get a little congested as well. Hopefully he will fight better than me. 

The squirrel that hangs out on our patio. We named him Wally. He likes to run up and down the wood from our place to the neighbors above us and back down again. 

We've had Star Wars on the brain recently. We had a Halloween party this weekend that we were dressing up for. I had found some discounted Star Wars costumes at a garage sale a few years back so we decided to dress up as a Storm Trooper (me) and Darth Vader (John). It was alot of fun. In preparation we watched the original Star Wars trilogy between last weekend and this one. I hadn't watched them through in quite some time. They were still good. It does boggle my mind though how one trilogy can have such a huge impact on our culture. 

For the same Halloween party I tried to make some cheesy breadsticks to bring. They were called Ooey Gooey Witch Fingers. The picture looked cool so I gave it my best shot. I've never made homemade dough before and I don't think it came out quite like it was supposed to, but I went ahead anyway. They did taste ok but most of the cheese snuck out of the dough while cooking. Sneaky cheese. Anyway, so they were not quite as ooey and gooey, but they did look like witch fingers, or monster fingers. I enjoyed them anyway. 

Next weekend we are going to Kansas for my friends wedding so we only have a 4 day work week. Work has been crazy so I need to work hard for these 4 days. Yay for 4 day weeks. 

Victory for the Customer!

I have definitely been an avid fan of couponing and money saving blogs especially since I have been married. It has been a learning process but I have come so far. I am still no where near as good as the people whose blogs I read, but I am still able to get excited when I can get alot of items for a really good price, or even free.


I recently had read that the new Gain dish soap was on sale at Walmart for $.97. There is a $1.00 of coupon that is around too making these free. I had been to Walmart twice and completely forgot about the coupon until last Saturday. I picked up a few items I needed and was happy to see the Gain still on sale so I picked up that too. Unfortunately for me my cashier would not accept the coupon for $1 off because it was over the $.97. Really? I told her that I know she could do it. (I read like 3 blogs where people bought like 8. I knew 1 was completely acceptable). I asked her if she could just adjust it down then instead of giving me the $.03 extra that proctor and gamble will give them back anyway. She said she would have to check with someone.


She walked away and came back a minute later and said "No, I can't do it." I was already too frusrated at that point to make a bigger deal about it. I honestly don't think she asked anyone. So I asked her to remove the item and I paid for my stuff and left. Honestly, I was way more upset than I needed to be. But it was the principle! I had to know what the deal was and if I was in the right or not so I would know for the future. I might not have been so upset if this wasn't the second time I have had trouble at this Wal-mart. The first time the cashier and even a manager was telling me that my coupon said buy one get one free, even though it said FREE. Sometimes they really just need to read the coupon. Do I really look like I am trying to pull a fast one? I must.


I checked their corporate coupon policy online and did not really state anything about overage with coupons. So I did what any frustrated customer does these days. I wrote a letter via their website to corporate addressing my confusion, the specific incident and how I do not appreciate being treated like a criminal. I sent it off and felt better that I had done my part.


Last week I was pleasantly surprised to be contacted via phone by the manager of the Wal-mart I go to. She was very apologetic and expressed that it definitely is their coupon policy to take those coupons. She said their were had a meeting about it and were having another with cashiers and managers to address coupon policies. It was good to hear from her. Even though I wasn't able to use the coupon before it expired it just felt good to be acknowledged and armed with knowing that next time I will stand my ground and have management backing me up. 


Victory for the customer!

Our Wrigley Adventure

We were blessed by some new friends to get to go to the last home game at Wrigley Field this year to watch the Cubs game. It was a chilly day and I certainly felt more like I was bundling up for a football game than a baseball game. Nonetheless we were prepared to go and have a good time.

We met up with our friends and took the train down there. We got in, got our seats and settled in for some typical Cubs baseball. The Cubs were losing 4-0 in the first inning. Before we even had a chance to eat things were looking sad. John and I each got a hot dog and shared a bag of peanuts, typical ball park food. Gotta love it!

As the game went on it did slowly get better and the Cubs began making a slow come back. It got a little exciting and definitely made the cool breeze less noticeable. Overall, we were just having a fun time at the ball park hanging with some new friends and enjoying America’s favorite pastime. That was, until after the 7^th inning stretch. It was about that time John started not feeling too good.

He left to go to the bathroom, like one typically does when your stomach is churning. Only a few moments passed and an Usher came and got me to tell me my husband was sick and they were taking him to first aid if I wanted to come. Of course I wanted to come. So we all took a field trip to first aid. Not too exciting down there but at least everyone was nice. I found out when we got there that John never made to the bathroom, but he was able to find a garbage and throw up 3 times. He was also incredibly cold and had the chills. It was like an episode of the Twilight Zone. I am usually warming myself up on John, not the other way around. His hands were icy. Crazy!

So we just stayed in first aid til the end of the game. John was not looking or feeling so hot (both literally and figuratively). We met up with our friends and had to make the trek back to the car. I felt so bad for John because there weren’t too many options since we had walked and taken the train. He was a trooper though and made it. Not without another trip to the garbage can outside the train station, but at least he made it. Since he just got another round out of his system we figured he could make it to my parents house which was much closer than going all the way home. The bad thing is that we had his car, which is manual and I can’t drive. I felt so helpless because I couldn’t even drive him.

We did make it to my parents house and John just crashed on the bed. He was so cold and ill. We warmed him up with some blankets and hot tea. He rested. It was pretty evident that he was in no shape to drive home so I had to leave him at my parents over night while my dad gave me a lift home. He did throw up one more time before I left and then his temp went up, so that was good. It was hard saying goodbye to my husband and leaving him there sick. I wanted to be there taking care of him. But I know he was in good hands and there wasn’t anything more I could do.

The next day he slept in late and was feeling much better. He was able to work and able to eat dinner. He still seems to be recuperating some of his strength and his stomach is still a little sensitive but he is getting better everyday. We are guessing it must have been food poisoning from something he ate. It must have been from the game, his hot dog? Who knows. Either way, we’re happy he’s doing better and I think it’s a good thing we won’t be going to another game this year. It’s always an adventure!

He’s all better now!