Neatly Scribbled

My family and I took our first camping trip of 2018 this past weekend.  It was also a first camp for our son Henry, 1.  This was Eleanor's fourth time, I believe. Here are some photos from our weekend getaway.

As human beings, are we designed to want?  If so, why?  Why am I and a lot of other people I know in a constant state of WANT?  As a follower of Christ when I read Timothy I am filled with HOPE.  I am hopeful and inspired and I long for what Paul describes as contentment.   1 Timothy 6:6-11 says this,  “ But godliness with contentment is great gain.   For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.   But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.   Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” My heart goes out to the people of Houston, Texas.  This sort of tragedy is something I hope no one would have to go through.  People have lost their clothing, their homes, their FAMILY.  O

On this journey towards simplifying, living with less and living within our means I have also taken the time to reevaluate the food we eat.  Most of our diet had consisted of eating out at least one to two days a week and then when we did eat at home it wasn't the greatest either.  Our cupboards were cluttered with snack cakes, chips, sodas, etc.  You get the point.  After having about enough of things flying out at me every time I opened the cabinet door, I decided to tackle what was on the shelves.  I started shelf by shelf clearing everything out and cleaning the debris.  I went through and got rid of expired items and also items that weren't adding anything to my family or their health.  Yes, even the snack cakes.  I went ahead and tackled the fridge from there, repeating my strategy from the cabinets. After putting the items from the keep pile back I noticed there wasn't much there.  Perfect time to make a list of what were some good staple items to add to the cupboa

Lately, I have given a lot of thought on what factors are controlling my life.  I've noticed my intense drowsiness, my lack of motivation, my everyday feeling of just going through the motions and I understand that this isn't what Christ wants for me or any christian.  I asked myself if the Holy spirit was guiding my life and decisions or if I was the one doing the guiding.  My answer?  I was guiding. I wasn't satisfied with this answer because I'm striving to live my life for Christ and not for myself.  My goal?  To reevaluate what I was dedicating my time and energy to.  I started by reading Paul's letter to the church in Galatia when he discussed whether the Galatians were living of the flesh, which they were, or living by the spirit, which they and every christian needs to be. I started my journey by listing out the fruits of following the spirit and how they applied to me or how I could better obtain them in my life on a daily basis. First was Love. What sh

Toward the end of July my husband and I decided to revamp our finances.  One day during the week I had a day to myself and I started looking around at all of the clutter that lie scattered around the house, and I thought to myself, "do we even use this stuff that we buy?"  The answer was irrevocably no.  I began to think of the money that was spent on this clutter that we don't use and spend our valuable time dusting.  Thousands of dollars I'm sure spent on unnecessary items that add no value to our lives, but we thought it was neat or pretty or smelled good and we spent ten to twenty dollars to take it home with us. At this point I knew we needed a drastic change in the way we viewed our money.  I began by watching Youtube videos and reading blogs.  Back in December I believe, my husband and I bought Dave Ramsey's Money Makeover book and of course it set idly on a shell gathering dust.  I grabbed the book, blew off the excess dust and cracked it open.  I took n

So, forgive me, I'm attempting to type a blog post via iPhone in one hand and a sleeping baby in the other. Lately, I have been reflecting on my lifestyle and I've come to the conclusion that I've made some wrong choices for my body, my health, my emotional state, and my family.  I've also come to terms with needing to make some major changes on a slow but steady pace. My first goal is downsizing.  To go a little further I'm talking about minimizing, decluttering, living with less excess in my life.  The excess I am speaking of is anything from too many pairs of shoes or scarves to too many magazine subscriptions. My husband and I have donated six large garbage bags of STUFF.  That seems like quite some excess to me.  Sadly, I am no where near finished or at the place I would like to be, but I will get there. If anyone else is interested in downsizing some clutter in their own lives I definitely recommend sproutandblossom YouTube channel and her blog, as well. T

In November I blogged about my bold intentions for December and in December I followed up with how I was doing on those bold intentions.   I enjoyed this process so much that I am back for another round with January quickly approaching.   I found that blogging about my intentions have helped me keep to them.   Since it’s the New Year, I’m allowing myself to jump a little further.  I am pregnant still and will be til March so I’m going to try to keep it simple since I will have a baby to look after soon.  A few of my intentions in December was to get more creative, read and write more, and do the things that I love.  I’m going to bounce some ideas off of these main intentions for January.   Keep blogging Read at least two books Walk more Take more photos Learn more about taking photos Enjoy myself I will keep you posted on these BOLD intentions.