Modern Country

Welcome to my humble adobe! I love to get a sneak peak of other's homes on their blogs, and I thought I'd return the favor to you. Please know that I am no decorating genius.  I do not have a knack for choosing colors nor does style just naturally flow out of me. In fact, after my husband and I first got married I promptly painted our bedroom walls the exact matching colors of our duvet comforter! It didn't turn out very well. Two years ago I learned that I really loved the shabby chic style and from there decorating got a little easier. I finally had an overarching idea to work around. However, it was over lunch with a friend last week that I learned that my interior design efforts of shabby chic really portrayed a more modern country look. But I can live with that! I am, as you know, a farm girl in the making. 

Now, without further ado, come walk through my family room and dining area with me. My prayer over these walls is that they may serve to be a foretaste of heaven to my family and all others who grace through our front door.

Want to know how I did that?

• The pillows are from Pottery Barn
• The lantern is from Kohls
• The table and sofas are from craigslist
• The "Love One Another" artwork is a DIY project made from pallet wood (similar pieces may be gracing Etsy soon, stay tuned)
• And the curtains, they are my favorite find! The curtains are actually tablecloths I found (for a steal) while shopping at HomeGoods.

Training - Day 2

Knowing that our family was going to be out of the house until 6 tonight, I decided that I needed to hit the pavement this morning. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are my training days. Today's training was a repeat run from day 1 (5 minute warm up walk, 20 minutes of 60 seconds running + 90 seconds walking), 5 minute cool down walk). The air was fresh (praise God for weather in the 60's) and my body felt good, but a few minutes into the running portion and things got hard. Maybe it was the added weight of my daughter and her stroller, or maybe that's just what exercise feels likes :) as a girl who hasn't exercised for a long time I wouldn't know the difference! My left side pained a bit near where I had my ovary sugary back in October, but I'm assuming that must be normal. I pushed through to the end and added another 2.07 miles to my shoes.

Today I am thankful for:

• The added energy I have from all this exercising! Running every other day and doing Body flow on the inbetweenies (yoga+Pilates) is really helping my body to feel good. At dinner last night, a time where I'm normally using every last cent I have to get dinner on the table, I was joyfully dancing with my daughter and laughing with my husband. 
• The beautiful fall like weather that God blessed me with during my run. Running when it's 80 degrees outside = no running at all. Running when it's 60 degrees outside = pleasant fun.
• The sweet melodious sound the crickets made during my cool down. While they weren't actually harmonizing with my mp3, it was enjoyable to hear the worship music and the sound of God's own creation praising Him.

Couch to 5K - Day 1

Let's get one thing clear- I am not a runner. In High School I used to dread the mile, and the only time I ever ran more than a mile was in college when I joined the JV Rowing team (I managed to run 3 miles and promptly quit a few weeks later). So why in the world then would the title to this post read Couch to 5K? The simple answer is because it's for life.

On September 28th the Farmer and I will be running in our first family 5k. The event is a fundraiser for the Hope Clinic for Women. The clinic is a local, pro-life, christian organization that provides prenatal care, diagnostic testing, and counseling for women. Many young girls come to the clinic for the first time pregnant and considering abortion. However, with the help and services provided by the Hope Clinic Staff the girls often change their minds and choose to protect the lives of their unborn children instead. I have personally met with the director of the clinic and can testify to the great impact this facility has on the lives of Nashville families and children. It is a fantastic place. It is a cause I strongly support. And it is a great opportunity for me to finally put some action behind my convictions, even if it's just a small way of doing so. 

Today I put on my running shoes, downloaded the C25K app, and started my training. According to the app I'll be training 3 days a week and will be ready to run 3 miles in a month and a half! Today's workout was a 5 minute warm up walk, 20 minute 60 second run & 90 second walk, and a 5 minute cool down walk. It wasn't that hard and I was surprised by how good it felt to sweat that much. We'll see what happens though when the run time dramatically increases the the walk time dramatically decreases :)

I'll keep you updated with my progress!

In the meantime...

If you're a Nashville local would you consider joining the Farmer and I in the race? We'd love to do this event with you and your family! If you're not local (and even if you are) would you consider sponsoring us by donating to the clinic? You can register and donate to our team by clicking here. 

Have you ever run a 5k before? What are your best semi-athlete tips?

Sunday Sweetness

Every once in awhile, we need to stop and celebrate.

Today I am thankful for Sunday afternoon naps, baby overalls, and chocolate cake. 

My weekdays with my baby girl are sweet, but the weekends home with her & her daddy are even sweeter.

Cheers to Sunday!

Art credit goes to Curly Girl Design . I love her store and could spend hours reading through all of her cards. The way she combines her artwork and poetic phrases is inspiring, uplifting, and often times just what a girl needs to put a smile on her face!

Prayer - ACTS

As a Christian woman, I know I ought to pray. I ought to love to pray. How fantastic is it that the words spoken from my heart can be heard by the ears of the almighty Lord?! And not only heard by Him, but also treasured and considered important by Him. Yet, even in spite of knowing those facts I still have an ugly truth to confess: prayer can be hard for me. No matter how hard I try, the number of times I have fallen asleep while praying can be counted on more than two hands.

Enter Susan, a good friend of mine who once shared how much the ACTS prayer acronym changed her own prayer life. ACTS stands for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. It's a sweet little tool to help facilitate prayer with the Lord.  You start with adoring the Lord and worshiping Him. Then confess and repent of the sins in your life. Next, thank God for the blessings He has given you. And lastly, pray to the Lord for yourself, your family, and the other people in your life. About a year and a half ago I started using this as my own prayer tool, and today I can stand in agreement with Susan that the Lord can really use this simple prayer acronym to add a lot of beauty and intimacy to one's prayer life with Him.

Below you will find how I specifically use this tool in my prayer time. I hope it's helpful to you! I share this not out of legalism, for there are many ways to pray and worship the Lord, but out of a heart of encouragement. More than anything sister, I pray that you walk away from this blog post being reminded of how much God longs to hear your voice rise up to him in prayer. 

I keep an ACTS prayer journal and use scripture in some sections to help guide my thoughts. The journal is separated into four parts and looks something like this:

PART ONE: Adoration

• As I read through the bible I bookmark different bible verses on my phone that praise/worship/define who God is and then write them out in the journal. Then during my prayer time I simply read this verses out loud to the Lord as praise and worship.
• A few verses in my Adoration section include:
• Hosea 6:3 "Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to use as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth."
• Isaiah 45:7 "I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and calamity, I am the Lord, who does all these things."
• Isaiah 37:16 "O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth."

PART TWO: Confession

• Here I list out different commands the Lord has given us in case I need some help remembering how I have sinned against the Lord in my life and where I need to repent (although more often than not sister I don't need any help in this area, my heart is so prone to sin that my confessions just comes flooding out)
• A few scriptures I include in this section:
• Exodus 20 (List out the 10 commandments)
• John 15:12 "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."

PART THREE: Thanksgiving

• In this section I have an active list going of all the things I'm thankful to God for. 
• A few highlights on my list include:
• 12. Thank you for the surprise of my baby sleeping in this morning and the extra time I got to spend with you
• 13. Thank your for a husband that loves me so much that he calls me in the middle of the day
• 19. Thank you for creating sweet juicy peaches that I can eat straight off the tree
• 23. Thank you that you created my body to work and for the joy I received  from sweating over hedging the bushes this morning

PART FOUR: Supplication

• There are a whole bunch of ways to do this part. I keep on going prayer lists (separated by a bunch of pages) for each different family member and for other various things. I often like to use scripture as an outline for my prayers in this section.
• Examples of my pages/scripture prayers include:
• Family Prayers
• 1 Thessalonians 2:11-12
• Lord please exhort, encourage, and implore my family through your holy spirit to walk in a manner worthy of you - you who blessed us by choosing us to be a part of your kingdom and glory
• Marriage Prayers
• James 1:19
•  Lord, please change the Farmer and my hearts to be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger; for our anger does not honor you nor do you any good.
• Prayers for my Husband
• Colossians 3:23-24
• Father, in the Farmer's  job and at home please kindly remind him and bless him with a desire to work as for you and not for men. Help him to work for you Lord Christ. 
• Prayers for my Daughter
• Jani Ortlund, my pastor's wife, wrote a beautiful blog post on how to pray for your princess and this is what I use for the most part when praying for Hannah. Are you the mother of a son? Jani also wrote this post on how to pray for your little prince.
• My Personal Prayer List Page
• Prayers for Others
• When I tell friends I will pray for them, I typically add their specific prayer to a list I keep going in this section of my journal. Some days I pray through the entire list, and other days I might only hit one or two. When I see the prayer get answered (like a friend becomes pregnant!) I write how the Lord answered the prayer along with the date (it's exciting to actively see Him answer prayers again and again). 

Now your turn! Do you have any helpful prayer tips? Let's encourage each other.

Disclaimer: I don't use this journal to pray everyday nor do I always pray through every section of the journal when I do use it. I am not legalistic about this and I pray that you aren't either. In fact, one day I might set the journal aside all together and find I need a new way to encourage prayer with the Lord. This is a just a tool that the Lord has used to bless my own prayer life. Ultimately, He is the one who makes our prayer life with Him sweet/intimate and encourages us to pray.