Budgeting

I need some input from anyone willing to share. How much do you spend on groceries every month? I feel like all of our money goes to food, and I don't know if that is normal or if I should be concerned. For a family of 3 (and a baby) what is a good grocery budget? What do you spend? What do you buy? I don't think I'm willing to eat junk just to save money. I want to eat healthy, which is fresh produce and quality meats. Please share your story with me. Thanks

We're Baaack!

After 3 weeks away, Lucas, Sydney, and I are home! We've covered lots of miles, hit a few bumps in the road (one really big one, actually), and are glad to be back home. We can't wait to reconnect with our friends and get back to church.

Please Pray

Hello friends. Please pray for our friends whose brand new baby girl has been diagnosed with having Trisomy 13, a genetic disorder. You can click on their link The Talbotts on my friends list to read more about Elliana and her family. They are dear friends of ours, and I would appreciate your joining with us in prayer for them. Thanks!

Jane Eyre

A favorite past-time of mine is soaking in a warm bath (hot baths make me itchy) and reading a good book. Before my kids were born, I might spend 2 hours in the bathtub, then the water turned too cool and I had to get out. My mother-in-law really turned me on to reading when she shared her Francine Rivers "Mark of the Lion" series with me. I would read anything by her or by Ted Dekker. This week I have been able to get back to relaxing in the tub (though not for 2 hours). After a long, hard day, I was talking to my mom (whining to her is more like it), and she suggested I take a book to the tub and relax. The only book that I hadn't read in a long time was Jane Eyre (my copy from high school). I read a passage today that blew me away, and I want to share it with you...

"What a singularly deep impression her injustice seems to have made on your heart! No ill-usage so brands its record on my feelings. Would you not be happier if you tried to forget her severity, together with the passionate emotions it excited? Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity, or registering wrongs. We are, and must be, one and all, burdened with faults in this world: but the time will soon come when, I trust, we shall put them off in putting off our corruptible bodies; when debasement and sin will fall from us with this cumbrous impalpable principle of life and thought, pure as when it left the Creator to inspire the creature; whence it came it will return, perhaps again to be communicated to some being higher than man- perhaps to pass through gradations of glory, from the pale human soul to brighten to the seraph! Surely it will never, on the contrary, be suffered to degenerate from man to fiend? No, I cannot believe that: I hold another creed, which no one ever taught me, and which I seldom mention, but in which I delight, and to which I cling, for it extends hope to all;it makes eternity a rest- a mighty home-not a terror and an abyss. Besides, with this creed, revenge never worries my heart, degradation never too deeply disgusts me, injustice never crushed me too low; I live in calm, looking to the end."
-Helen from Jane Eyre

A Big Day

Today I celebrated my 6th anniversary with Matt. He took me to the Chophouse last night for dinner! He gets to go there from time to time with clients for work, and I am always jealous. How sweet to surprise me by taking me there for our anniversary! Today was also Mother's Day...my first as a mother of 2. My precious baby girl was dedicated to the Lord at church, and my parents came to be a part of that. It was great to spend Mother's Day with my mom and as a mom. Thank you God for the gift of my children and blessing me with such a loving husband!

What have we been up to?

Check out my babies

Thank you, Jana! Click here to see the beautiful pictures my friend Jana took on Monday.