A Special Gift from the Heart~ a Handmade Batik Quilt

I went to a church conference in October and one of my dearest and sweetest friends made a wonderful gift for me.  

I've known this gem of a gal since she was a toddler and she has grown up to be a beautiful lady, both inside and out, serving in the ministry with her husband as the pastor of a church.

Look at this precious gift~  a beautiful batik quilt!  

It was in the prettiest gift bag with some tissue paper and wrapped in a golden yellow bow.  

How precious this wonderful gift is to me and I am so honored that it is mine.

 The fabrics are wonderfully bright and funky.

It's at times like these when words simply can't express the kindness and gratitude of dear friends.   

 I do hope that I can convey how much I love and cherish this wonderful gift of friendship!

Thank you, my dear friend!  I am so grateful for your friendship!  

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Have a Lovely Day!

Pray without Ceasing~ Bible Journaling: Philippians 4:13

This post has moved to my new blog home,  Embracing the Lovely.

You can click over and see it here~
http://embracingthelovely.com/pray-without-ceasing-bible-journaling/

How I add my Cleaning Schedules to my Happy Planner

My Happy Planner has been getting lots of love in the past 4 months since I started using (and decorating) it.  

I love that it's so quick and easy to throw a weekly layout together in a few minutes and it allows me a small bit of creativity throughout my week.

In days past, I used to keep a home journal that kept track of my daily, weekly and monthly cleaning tasks.  It was ugly and it was boring.  Really boring. I've now incorporated it into my Happy Planner and love how it's portable and everything is in one place.

It's a joy to use every day.  

Here's my initial layout for the week of November 16th through the 22nd.

And here it is with all of my cleaning schedules inserted.

Every day I do my daily list as shown on the right side of my planner.   

In this list are the things that need to be done daily (or nearly every day).   

My daily and weekly lists are removable and can be used week after week.  I've been using this one for about 4 months so far.  

At left is my weekly chore list. Sometimes I don't get every task done so I like to think of it as a revolving list.  If I miss a certain chore that week I do it the next week, so I know that it will eventually get done sooner than later.  

With the weekly list at left and the daily list at right it makes everything easy to find and accesible.

I could clutter up my planner with a ton of individual tasks,  but I've found this is the easiest way to streamline my planning.  

When I'm finished with my daily routine (I still inadvertently call it a morning routine hence the MR) I simply I check it off.  

The same goes for my weekly routine which is abbreviated by WR.  

This weekly layout was inspired by a piece of scrap book paper that featured vintage looking tickets and I love the colors in it.  

Most of my accents were cut out by hand.

This tab/tip in/ insert is completely for decorative purposes but I can add a picture or quote in the future. 

And here are a few more decorative shots...

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Have a Lovely Day!

 Linking up with:  

Rosilind Jukik

Developing a Practical style in my Happy Planning

The month of October has been a bit of a drudge for me in planning and I'm simplifying my process to only use what I love.  

I'm thinking I'm less fond of stamping with icons/task stamps and prefer just to write my daily to do lists and items.
It seems that word stamps seem less personal to me.

(My exception to this would be my water stamps because I love them!)

I am still enjoying adding stickers as accents here and there.

For the week in October I did a Pumpkin inspired layout.  

And here's my November monthly view.  

For me,  I think I'm going to go for more simple inspirations. 

What are your favorite tools in planning to decorate your planner?  Are you a minimalist?  Do you love excess?  Do you enjoy stamps?  Enjoy writing by hand?

I'd love to hear what you LOVE! 

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Have a Lovely Day!!!

Worship Wednesday~ Psalm 23 with Shane and Shane

You know that worship music that the Lord reaches out and touches your soul through?  

That's how it's always been for me while listening to Shane and Shane.  

I discovered their music about 6 years ago when we were living in Korea and I traveled the country by train and bus with them playing on my Ipod. 

When my husband nearly died a few years ago,  their music, which is rooted in the Word of God, was such a great comfort to me to me in my most difficult of times.  I really cherish when the Word of God (in both text and song) was most precious in comforting my soul.

They released a new album a few weeks ago and last week I was  blessed with the opportunity to worship with them. 

It was a very cozy setup with the simplicity of Shane Barnard on guitar and vocals, Shane Everett on vocals and their drummer.
No lights.  No excess. 

Just their wonderful voices singing tight harmony and lifting up the name of the Lord.  

Afterwards,  I had the joy of meeting them (actually for the second time) and sharing what a wonderful blessing their music has been to me.

If you'd like to listen to one of their songs from their latest release here is one of my favorites.   I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!  

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Have a Lovely Day!  

         

Low Carb Chicken Divan is Comfort Food at it's Finest!

You know that good home cooked comfort food that is associated with your childhood and brings back nostagia from days gone by?  Yup!  This is one of those recipes!

I've revamped this recipe from Paula Deen's and removed the high carb canned soups and bread crumbs replacing it with healthier dairy.  Who needs processed foods anyway?
My husband absolutely loved this and it will be a permanent fixture    
 3 pounds boneless chicken thighs, baked and cut into bite sized pieces   (I use the frozen bag from Kroger)  2 pkgs frozen broccoli (approximately 10 ounces each) thawed
1 cup mayonaise
1 cup sour cream  1 cup heavy whipping cream 1 teaspoon season salt  1/2 teaspoon cajun seasoning 1 teaspoon mustard 8 ounces grated shredded cheddar (swiss would be great!) 
2 Tbsp butter 1 cup Parmesan Cheese (canned)   
Grease 13 by 9 Glass Pyrex pan and preheat oven to 350 degrees Spread broccoli on bottom of pan.   Top with cubed chicken.   Whisk together mayo, sour cream, heavy whipping cream, mustard and spices. Pour sauce over chicken and spread out as evenly as possible.   Top with grated cheese.
Mix together butter and parmesan cheese and sprinkle on top of cheese.  
Bake 45 minutes or until bubbly and top is nice and brown.
Let sit for 10 minutes before serving!   I hope you enjoy this!  
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Have a Lovely Day!  

The Quality of Being Grateful!

It's no doubt that gratitude can change our attitude, our day and our lives. 

Instead of looking to the elusive dreams and wants of what we could have/should have it's nice to take a look at our loved ones and surroundings through eyes of gratefulness.  

What is it that makes you grateful today?  

We often overlook those wonderful things on a daily basis.  

I've been challenged by Jenn to share a few moments that have gotten me through this year.  I'd like to expand that to moments and things and I've got 10 of them to share with you today!

1.  Can I be grateful for gratitude?  
Seems a bit redundant, doesn't it?  

I am trying to cultivate a daily intentional effort to see past the mundane and see my life through new eyes!  

2.  Oh how I love music!  I play the guitar and piano and have a love of all things acoustic.  When I was a young girl, music moved me in a way that words couldn't and it's still the same today.  What can be better than poetry and music expressed as a song?  I love acoustic/guitar driven worship music that focuses on lifting up the Lord.

3. I've been delving into the world of paper planning and I can clearly see the improvement of my memory and calendar schedule.  I was trying to do the digital thing for years but it never reinforced those dates and times into my brain.  Writing my dates and to do lists on my monthly spread, on a weekly spread, and referring to it on a daily basis, has helped me see that my memory isn't as bad as I thought!  It really makes a difference for me!  

You can see my planning posts HERE.

4 Bible Journaling has become a wonderful way of worship to me.  I'm not artsy or craftsy but I do love to express myself.  

You can see some of my journaling HERE.

5  I love photography and I carry my camera with me everywhere I go.  I love to think creatively and see beauty in ordinary every day life.  Capturing that 'perfect' moment is something that I strive for and brings me great joy. 

You can see some of my work HERE. 

6  In March of 2013 I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.  I know for many it's a horrible disease with tragic side effects but for me it's been a means to a positive end.  I've been able to control my blood sugar levels by diet and my glucose numbers are within normal parameters without any meds or insulin.   I've also lost 45 pounds as a result of changing my diet.  I'm not glad to say I have diabetes but I am glad that it's caused me to re-evalulate my health and life and make positive changes while avoiding side effects.  

7  Clean Eating has been a game changer for me and has revolutionized my life.  I was once plagued with asthma, bronchitis, acid reflux, an ulcer, bad knees and being overweight.  I still have about 30 more pounds to go but upon changing my diet all of those symptoms and sicknesses that are mentioned above have gone away.  I never realized that what we put into our bodies has such an incredible effect on how they function.  AMAZING!  

8  My wonderful family (both my real family and church family) has been such a blessing to me!  I am so grateful for them!  

9 Words cannot describe how much I love and appreciate my husband.  We've been through so much together and I am so honored to be his wife and companion of over 25 years.  He is a wonderful man!

10  My wonderful family (both my real family and church family) has been such a blessing to me!  I am so grateful for them!  

11  I know this list is 10 things but I'm going to throw in a bonus because this last one is the most important to me.  I am so grateful for the Love of God.  Time and time again the Lord has proven Himself faithful in so many ways.  His wonderful mercy has lifted me out of the depths of despair and He has done wonderful miracles for me.  

I've got a daily gratitude challenge going over on my facebook page so please join me!

If you'd like to get updates from my facebook page please click HERE to follow and get notifications.  I'd love to hear from you here on the blog as well so please leave a comment!

Have a Lovely Day!!!

This post was inspired by a Secret Subject Swap with the following participating bloggers.  Stop by and say hello to them!

Baking in a Tornado 

The Momisodes

Spatulas on Parade 

Sparkly Poetic Weirdo 

Southern Belle Charm 

Never Ever Give Up Hope 

The Lieber Family Blog 

Rena's Word 

Dinosaur Superhero Mommy 

The Bergham Chronicles 

Confessions of a Part Time Working Mom

Someone Else's Genius 

Climaxed 

The Angrivated Mom 

"

                

Cheesy Cauliflower Cups

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Grease your muffin tins well and for best results line them with parchment paper.  

One Cauliflower, riced 

1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese 

2 Tbsp softened butter (not melted) 

2 large egg yolks

1/4 cup almond flour

1 tsp Korean Chili Powder

(reduce the amount if you are using ordinary chili powder or add to taste) 

1 tsp Cajun or Creole seasoning

8 ounces grated pepper jack cheese 

My cauliflower measured out to a bit over 4 cups.  

(if you're not sure how to rice a cauliflower click HERE)

Combine cauliflower, butter, egg yolks, parmesan cheese and almond flour till well mixed.  If you are using larger eggs you might have to add some more parmesan cheese so the dough isn't to wet.  

Divide 'dough' between 12 muffin tins.  

Press down and make a well in the center with a spoon or a measuring spoon.  

Bake at 350 for 20ish minutes or until nice and golden brown.  

Add shredded cheese and return to oven to melt.  

These are very delicate.  I used a knife to remove carefully. 

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Have a Lovely Day!!!

How to 'Rice' Cauliflower

A staple ingredient in low carb eating is cauliflower.  

There are great things that can be done with it and it's the base for many delish dishes such as Cauliflower Fried Rice (pictured below)

and Cauliflower Bread. (also pictured below)

 If truth be told, ricing a cauliflower can be a little messy, but it's worth it for the healthy (and tasty) results)

So without furthur adieu...

Break your cauliflower apart and cut of the hard stems.

Throw them in your food processor and pulse till they are a rice like texture.  You probably will have to remove the larger pieces and throw them in the next batch. 

The pieces will be smaller than rice.

Place in large glass bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Place in the microwave for 5 minutes.  

Voilla!  Riced Cauliflower! 

Now you can sneak some veggies into your dinner without anyone being the wiser!

A quick video of how I rice cauliflower.  Turn down the volume since it does get quite loud when I turn on my mini food processor.  

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Have a Lovely Day!!!