We Got the House!

We are so excited! My favorite part of this house is the view. It's right on the river, literally! I can just imagine Cooper running into the river and he would be down stream! This is the view from the side of the house. I am so so excited!

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New House!

Quick update! We looked at the house we like again today and put in an offer this afternoon! They have until Wednesday to counter. We are so excited!

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Priorities

We all have different responsibilities in life. I am a Christian, a wife, a Pastor's Wife, a nurse, and a student.

I struggle with how to do all of these well, not just get by. As I visit other blogs, and read about other women, I feel I am way behind in how I am managing my life

Jesus says in Matthew 6:33 "But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

As we all carry our different roles and responsibilities, the only way to do them successfully we must first seek God and His direction. I have found when I am most spending quality time in the Word, that I get the most done.

With this in mind, I plan for on for the next couple of weeks post more about my priorities. I hope you join me on the journey.

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Looking for Recipes

My new hobby is searching through Kraft Foods for new recipes. My favorite show is Top Chef. I love it (while Joe does not; He says it makes him hungry). I sometimes wish I could cook like those on the show but what makes me appreciate Kraft is it uses everyday ingredients! I have a whole list of recipes I want to try. Go check it out!

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Memory Monday

Psalm 62:5

"For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence,for my hope is from him."

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Shopping For a House

Joe and I have been shopping for a house. It's difficult to find exactly what we want in the area we want, and the price we want, which comes with the shopping for a house.

We definitely want a three bedroom house with a good size yard for our dogs, 2 full baths (which is where we get hung up) and pretty much move-in ready (because Joe and I are not handy people).

We found houses that meet some of the above but not totally but today we saw a house that was pretty perfect except it had 1 1/2 baths. It has good sized bedrooms and a cute kitchen and waterfront property on the Muscatuck River. Our next step is to go back to our lender who pre-approved us and see where we are. So maybe sometime soon we will have a NEW house!!

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Happy Valentine's Day!

Make sure to spend it with those you love!

I just put our Pot Roast in the oven tonight for our VDay Meal (because I refuse to get out in that mess on V-Day on a Saturday). Joe left me some potted tulips before he left for basketball this morning which are beautiful!

Here's to our first married Valentine's Day!

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Practicing Hosptality: Chapter 1

Lindsey at Passionate Homemaking is doing on-line study on the book Practicing Hospitality by Pat Ennis & Lisa Tat­lock. I bought this book previously but never read it so I thought now was a good time to open it up. If you don't have this book, make sure to check it out!

The first chapter helps us spiritually prepare to be biblically hospitable. They offer a word guide to help us check our hearts and motives.

A Person of Christian Character Who Practices Hospitality Is:

H - Humble
O - Obedient
S - Sincere
P - Prayerful
I - Interested in Integrity
T - Trustworthy
A - Adopted into God's Family
L - Led by the Spirit
I - Instrumental in Producing Righteousness
T - Thankful
Y - Yielded

With my husband being a Pastor, hospitality is something I need to show and get better at. I know how to prepare food and set a table but how to offer the biblical principles of hospitality is something I need to study more.

Lindsey offers 2 questions for discussion.

1. What char­ac­ter qual­i­ties do you believe are the most impor­tant to cul­ti­vate in prepar­ing to prac­tice hospitality?
I open my house once a week to teenage girls in my Bible study and the purpose is to produce righteousness there, but I know that in other instances, I can be more purposeful in producing righteousness to all those who enter my home.

2. Which of these are you lack­ing and how can you begin cul­ti­vat­ing it more purposefully?
I think I need to be more sincere when we have unexpected guests or when girls come early to my study. My emotions are all over my face and when I am unprepared, I am sure I am not the most sincere in my attitude.

Don't forget to get the book and join the study!

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Memory Monday

When I first started this blog, I started doing Memory Monday where my goal was to memorize a verse per week. As you can see by the lack of Memory Mondays in the last few months, I haven't done so well.

But, it's never too late to memorize God's word! God wants us to hide His word in our heart, and memorization is a great tool! Here is what John Piper says about memorizing scripture

So here is Memory Monday!

1 Corinthians 1:12

"For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you."

Will you memorize it with me?

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Look Where Those Ears Have Been

Bella has long ears. I want her ears to be all the way to ground, like Lady on Lady and the Tramp.
They can sometimes hard to maintain, and Joe is really good at keeping them brushed. But the best part of her long ears is you can see what she has done throughout the day. When end of her ears are wet, she just had some water. Most times, we find strange things, like candy, kitty litter, and food bits she found in the trash. Her ears always give away what she has been into or what's shes done.

But as you pick something out of her ears, she looks at you with her big cocker eyes and you can't help but forget to get mad at her. I'm a Bella pushover




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Studying Ephesians

On Monday nights, I host a Bible Study at my house for about 7-8 girls in the youth group. We meet for food, fellowship, and of course diving in the Word. I chose Ephesians to study because it is one of my favorite books of the Bible.

We have spent the last three weeks studying the first chapter. I used many resources to study this book but my favorite has been John MacArthur's commentary on Ephesians. It's been a great time in my spiritual life to look closely at Paul's letter. I feel it is important to look closely at scripture in it's context to really discern how to practically apply it to our lives. I think the girls are getting truths out of the lessons also.

The most important thing is that you read the Word of God. What encourages me about scripture is that God reveals truths in scriptures even if we have read them hundreds of times. That's why God describes His Word as living and breathing.

What are you studying in the Bible?

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Current Craft Projects

I wanted to show my current crafy projects.

This first picture is a blanket that I have been working on for months. In this picture it is wrapped up so it is four times longer. I am crocheting it with a single crochet stitch.


I just started this scarf. I got the pattern here. I like because it the stitches look like the are running diagonal.

I like working on two projects (or sometimes more) because when you get bored of one, you just go to the next! What are you working on?

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New Blog Design

Do you like my new blog design? Hilary at Simply Yours Designs did it for me! Make sure to check her out!

I decided to change the name of my blog with the blog design. I think I am already on my new life so I thought a name change was due. Living Joyfully is how I want to live my life. I know that my God is the ulitmate giver of Joy so I need to reflect that.

If you want to make sure you catch all updates, you can hit the subscribe button on the left where you can enter your email address or become a follower of my blog!

Let me know what you think!


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God is GOOD!

Lately at work, we haven't been as busy as we have previously been. I could tell our office manager seemed stressed to have so many nurses on staff when we weren't as busy. I knew that I, being the newest would be the first to go if she needed to let someone go. But today, a nurse, who was hired right before me, decided to become a traveling nurse. This allowed me to pick up an extra three hours a week, and not be so stressed of our situation. God is Good and faithful to His people! We are studying A Woman After God's Own Heart on Sunday nights. In chapter two, she said "If God didn't provide it, I didn't need it!" This is something I am really trying to take hold of.

On a side note, my poor Betsy, the Beetle (my car), hasn't been doing so good. We thought she needed a new battery (which we got) and she still isn't happy. We hope we can get her figured out soon!

And look out for some new things on my blog!



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