Category Archives: Story Time

Slugs??

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 10 September, 2013 None comments

The other evening when my son was having a rough night I walked in to nurse him and as I’m doing so, I notice this “leaf” thing on the carpet making a mental note to grab it once I laid him back down. I glanced back up and it was now in a different position further away from me. As I watched it I was contemplating whether my eyes were freaking out on me, or if I was seeing this correctly. I got up and thought it looked a bit like a centipede. Gross, come on now why would such a thing be in the furthest part of the house? I ran out to grab my husband and he scoured the room looking for clues and nothing was to be had except that this was a slimy SLUG!

 

I understand the weather is changing but a slug, really? What is even more frustrating is that we have a Pest Control Company that comes out once a month to treat these things and I’ve noticed no difference for the most part. I walked outside and found 5 tree spiders hanging out in their webs and another one my husband walked directly into, that formed over night. Walking out the front door for church that morning we saw another “gi-normous” slug as well. We took care of it promptly as Cooper crawls around everywhere.

 

Now, this morning, I walked into the kitchen to make coffee and there was this film on my rug that lies below the sink. UGGGG okay now I am beyond frustrated. Something is wrong when you have more than one slug in your house in a 4 day period. It wasn’t spiders, although we have had a lot of them as well, one the size of a half dollar my husband killed the other night. He showed me a picture of it after he killed it and it was so large I jumped across the bed thinking it was still alive. Now spiders seem to be more common in the house, as I’ve never heard of anyone dealing with slugs. So…this morning I am waiting for three hours for the pest control to come back out and treat for all of these creepy crawlers.

 

I still haven’t found the slug from this morning and am pretty annoyed as my son gets into everything and I don’t want him finding this. Finally Pest control came out and treated very well. They said our vents outside were full of slug film and so he treated to prevent any further creepers from invading our house. At least there was an answer that helped my confusion subside a little bit.

 

Side note: While the pest control was out treating the house, I was making eggs for my son and I. To my surprise, I cracked an egg and there was blood and what looked like to me to be an embryo. I literally threw my hands in the air, looked at my son and said “we may have plenty more surprises the rest of the day, as this has all happened in the first couple hours of waking up.” The Pest guy looked at me as he was in the kitchen searching for the slug and then looked in the pan and said “that is disgusting, I can’t believe you just found blood in an egg.” GROSS I say!!!!!!

 

Paradise…

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 8 September, 2013 None comments

My husband and I were at a wedding a couple hours from home up near Mt Hood, OR. It was absolutely a beautiful location with Mt Hood in the background and so peaceful. On our drive back we had Mt Rainier across the river and Mt Hood behind us. Couldn’t ask for me, although I may happen to believe if you had this view everyday you would start to take it for granted.

Anyway, on our drive back Cooper fell asleep like a peaceful little man in the backseat as my husband and I enjoyed a peaceful drive home discussing life, love and the pursuit of happiness. Ok, not really but kind of. Our drive was full of a beautiful sunset as we followed the river home.

Take a peek…

Read more »

Continual Heath Problems

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 7 September, 2013 None comments

Could it be my thyroid, anorexia, cancer, hormones, or more? The dreadful word “cancer” is not something you want mentioned while sitting for two hours at the doctors office waiting for your blood to be drawn…

 

“It could be cancer” my Doctor mentions along with the dreadful fact that she doesn’t know what is wrong with me. The continual battle of losing 4-6 pounds on a biweekly basis has been not only a scary thing for my husband and I but also for my son whom I breastfeed.

 

The long drawn out process for the last year has been way more than anticipated. I figured having a child would be the biggest hump and moving forward would be the recovery process. For most people yes, but for me, it’s another story. Having the HELLP syndrome during delivery (if you haven’t read my birthing story, click here) has literally changed my life. Fourteen months later, many doctors’ appointments, blood work, stress, and constant weight problems have worn my body thin. I’ve seen many doctors, had many medical bills and much time spent “wasted” in the office while trying to entertain my little son.

 

One of the first appointments in January was when my thyroid was off. I’ve never had issues with my thyroid but the more I found out, the more I was told it could be temporary and some women get post thyroid issues that do end up resolving themselves. The follow up appointment two weeks later resulted in my thyroid levels being normal; this confusing factor forced my doctor to send me to a specialist. She was very concerned that the weight kept falling off while we were in search of the real solution. In the meantime I had been keeping a food diary documenting my 3,000-3500 calorie diet a day. The issues clearly weren’t because I wasn’t eating enough, so in the meantime I was sent to a nutritionist to help eat a healthy diet while hoping to gain weight or at minimum, maintain. Having my son with me made attending doctor appointments not so easy, so I kept putting off the nutritionist as my main focus was to find out if I was dying of cancer.

 

I wound up at my general physicians office as it was taking way too long for OHSU to get me scheduled for an appointment. While at her office she did explain that many things could be happening in my body especially when a lot of trauma occurs. This conversation became harder and harder as I sat with her going over many options. She was very candid with me and said cancer unfortunately could be something that may be attacking everything good in my body causing me to lose weight so quickly. While my son is sitting in the stroller playing with some toys I tried to keep the tears from rolling down my cheeks. This sweet baby boy and my husband would be my motivation to fight anything that came my way. Having a husband who lost his father as a young boy makes me very cautious as to preventing to the best of my ability that my son wouldn’t experience the same thing, and that my husband wouldn’t experience another extreme loss. Ultimately knowing I don’t have the power and control, I do know the only thing I could do, would be to have a good outlook and do any treatments possible.

 

Now, we don’t want to jump the gun here, we don’t even know if this is something that is happening but let me start by saying NO ONE ever wants to have the beginning conversations to this topic. Why would I be any different? What would keep me from getting this deadly disease? These are questions I began to think about. I don’t really remember having this conversation with my husband immediately. I didn’t even tell him what was going on because I didn’t want to bring worry over nothing. A couple weeks went by as I was waiting for my blood results. They tested EVERYTHING possible in my blood. What a blessing, my blood work came back great.

“Healthy as an ox” says the Doctor. Well, that’s what we like to think. Now the reality is my weight loss still hadn’t been figured out. I’ve had extreme stressors the last year but at the same time I’ve kept a food diary that is pretty consistent, my blood work has come back normal for the most part so what could be going on. Well, a couple months passed throughout the beginning stages of the first doctor appointments and I found a lump under my chin. Was this the answer, was this the ongoing problem and I finally found it? I had my husband feel it and he was mortified how big it was and how it just poked out under my chin. Back to the doctors again……

 

This time, the doctor felt it and without a question said it was a lymph node. Now this isn’t always a positive thing to hear either. The reality is I had this lump for a few months before I realized it could be a problem.  When we couldn’t figure out my weight loss, I began to wonder if there was a correlation. She said to watch it for a month, sometimes when you fight a cold they can swell. I explained that this hasn’t changed in size; maybe bigger, but definitely not smaller. This grew a slight concern to her, but not enough to get an immediate ultrasound. So, I watched it, and watched it. Still nothing has changed. Now, this time I didn’t want to go back because an ultrasound would tell me if I need to worry. I put off going for quite some time until my husband finally expressed his concern and desire to simply know the answer. I made the appointment and of course with my luck they had to give me another referral to head to yet another location for the ultrasound. Now at this point, I am beyond exhausted and truly don’t want to mess with it anymore. This doctor reassured me it was probably nothing and that the main reason why I found it was due to the extreme weight loss. With my chipmunk cheeks previously I wouldn’t have noticed it but because of the ongoing issues she still advised the ultrasound.

 

Here we are 14 months after my delivery and 9 months since the beginning of all the doctor appointments and I still haven’t fulfilled the ultrasound. My last appointment definitely made me feel more confident that nothing was going on and simply the weight loss has made things more noticeable on my body.

 

All of this to say, I have had ongoing issues, but my biggest goal has been at minimum, maintain my weight and if possible put some pounds on. I’ve considered that my body may think this is the new “normal,” so I am accepting this fact while being cautious that I can lose weight very quickly and that this is something to be aware of and to conquer.

Spiritual Battles

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 6 September, 2013 None comments

My girlfriend asked me recently to pray for her. She said she isn’t feeling peace in her life and with the Lord. She feels as though she is in a spiritual battle and asked how to practically obtain peace and how to give this up to God. My response, I Prayed for wisdom and said:

 

“Honestly friend, with everything going on in my life right now with Michael and I, I am realizing in the midst of the hurt and the pain life brings, we all live at this point; some sort of hurt. This is exactly where God wants us, to see the fact that we need Him. The only thing I can tell you that I’ve learned recently is to rest in the Lord and constantly pray throughout the day. Pray pray pray! Pray while you are cleaning, while you are cooking, and while you are playing with your precious little one. It is so hard, yet this is exactly what he wants from us, complete dependency on the Lord. Ask for belief in the midst of unbelief. I don’t know that there’s anything more practical to tell you. This is where faith comes in. We are all on our own journeys and God is refining us through the discomfort. We don’t see our need for him when life is perfect. Sometimes I have to pray that God will allow me to simply keep breathing. The world around us is one big spiritual battle. We choose not to see it on a daily basis but this is our reality as believers of Christ. This world is our temporary home and a place where we want the Lord to refine us as we enter our eternal home one day.”

 

My response came from a deep understanding that life has been challenging and beyond belief for me the last few months. I truly felt I could share my thoughts with her as I am simply reminding myself what I am learning in the midst of hurt and pain; I still feel peace and a true happiness. I looked at my husband the other night and told him I long for him to truly be happy. He expressed the same desire back. I looked at him as he looked broken and beat down and said I wish you could truly experience the happiness I am feeling. Circumstances around me are crumbling, crashing down as a giant wave hits the sand, yet the depths of my soul are still happy. I find peace and happiness reigning in my life, yet my circumstances in life are a complete disaster. I want to hide from the reality that life is messy, but how would I obtain this peace without going through the fire. God has purposely allowed my trials to fall through His hands, knowing I am longing to grow in complete dependency on our Savior. He’s refining me when I’ve got nothing left to offer but breathe flowing from my lungs; I keep breathing.

 

The reality is I could have never said this one month ago. My life has been incredibly hard yet God is allowing it to happen to strengthen me. I can tell you it hasn’t been pretty, I have fought with the Lord on this plenty of times and still do. I see my husband at the end of himself, nothing left to offer, everything is a mess and yet I long and humbly pray for his heart! I pray that God does a mighty miracle, yet as I pray, God is working in my life and using my husband to plant my feet in solid ground in holding to the truth I claim to believe. Simply put, I wish God wouldn’t use other people to strengthen me but it brings reality that in the midst of their hurt and pain, we still have something to learn through it.

 

Life is one big Spiritual battle that we choose not to see. Life doesn’t have to be hard and messy for a spiritual battle to be going on in your life. Every decision you make is either a blessing to the Lord or not. That simple! When you look at it like this, you start to realize how many decisions we make in a day and whether or not they are glorifying to God and those around us, or are they hurtful, demeaning, and selfish.

Moment of Truth:

What if we lived as though we saw the spiritual battle around us. I guarantee we would fall to our knees in awe. This world has so much to offer and at the same time we have angels fighting on our behalf against the enemy. What a cool thought! There is enough evil in the world that we already see, I truly don’t know that our minds could handle the spiritual world around us right now. Maybe that is why God has held it from us until we reach our eternal home.

 

Tillamook

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 31 August, 2013 None comments

Today we were headed out to the ocean while we encountered an accident that held us up for roughly 20 minutes. A little farther along we hit stopped traffic headed to Cannon Beach. We immediately made the decision to turn towards Tillamook as if we kept going than our options wouldn’t be there. We simply wanted a day to take our son to play in the sand for his first time. It’s Labor Day weekend and since most people leave for the weekend we thought Saturday we would be safe for traveling. Our beach trip turned into an adventure exploring new places we have never been before. We went to the Cheese Factory which was really fun for us as I learned that “Viola” actually is pronounced “why-la” as I was reading about the process of cheese I made a verbal assumption of pronouncing “viola” as it looks. My husband corrected me and then hysterically started laughing which in turn made me cry of laughter. We got quite the kick out of this as there were crowds of people to oversee this scenario.

 

I guess it is true you learn something new every day. Although this one was pretty funny as I was reading the words my head wanted to read “why-la” as it would flow with the sentence, although my brain corrected itself and read the word as it sounded which completely confused me even more. A quick moment of transition in my head made a great laugh for the day.

 

After the Cheese Factory we headed towards a couple beaches that were packed and the temperature dropped 10 degrees. We decided we would keep driving until we found a beach Cooper could actually play on. We ended up at Rockaway Beach which actually was very large and spacious. Lots of puppies running around, picnics to be had, and little ones building sand castles; this was the perfect stop. Cooper had lots of wiggles to get out as he had been in the car far too long. We parked the stroller up against a log and laid a blanket out for some lunch. He was so overjoyed with all his new surroundings that he possibly couldn’t find the time to eat a couple bites. Daddy ran in the ocean with him, chased a few waves, built sand castles and made a puddle that he decided was the perfect spot to sit. He LOVED the beach.

 

His diaper was soaked, heavy and filled with sand. He had sand everywhere including his little eyes, we ended the day with him crying from the sand in his eyes as we tried to change him into jammies (pj’s) for the ride home. We knew he was good and worn out and would sleep really well. It was such a joy to take our son to the beach and watch him see all new things and expand the little brain of his. Precious, priceless and wishing I could bottle up these moments.

 

We got home about 7pm and little man desperately needed a bath, food, and bed. We accomplished this while I scrambled to throw dinner on for Michael and I. While Michael bathed him I decided to make a quick chicken pot pie with leftover rotisserie chicken that needed to be used.

 

Oh my goodness, this was absolutely amazing!!! Definitely a great crust and fillings with magnificent flavors.

For the recipe visit: http://delightfullydoable.net/?p=177

Nothing is Wasted

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 26 August, 2013 None comments

Nothing Is Wasted


This song was sent to me by my mom this afternoon while I was sharing how I am really struggling with the current circumstances in life right now. We are having sewer problems in our new house, my battery light in my car came on today while we are trying to sell it, my husband’s current circumstances, and being new parents and newly married still interfere with our everyday lives. It’s a very tough spot to be in when there is nothing, absolutely nothing you can do to change it. Literally in the midst of the fire being refined; rather than sitting back and letting life pass me by and letting it “be wasted.”

This song was all I needed to be reminded that life is not wasted as long as we seek Jesus and his best interest for our lives. Truly gaining a perspective of who this “God” is that I claim to believe in. Life truly is not worth living if I didn’t know Jesus; it’s honestly too difficult for me at times to keep moving ahead. It’s the little things God blesses me with during the day, that reminds me that there is more to this life and more than my piddley concerns at the moment. The challenge is keeping this perspective while trucking through each day, hour, and minute.

I really struggle watching my husband completely and utterly unhappy with his career. It’s a challenge to sit back and watch him go through the depths of despair and not being able to change anything. That is simply where trust comes in. I have to believe that there is something for us as a family to learn while going through this. Life is not easy and was never promised to be easy. My only words of encouragement to my husband unfortunately are, “do what you can, to keep the best attitude as possible.” This is my only hope. We can only change our attitude because circumstances crumble around us all day, everyday.

My deepest desire is that my husband would know the depths of my love for him. I hurt and cry for him a lot recently. I wish I could change his circumstances, perspective and happiness. I can’t! I feel completely helpless and all I do is cry for him and recently have experienced physical pain watching him truck through the muck. We each have our own journey to live out; we have the opportunity to make it the best we can or we can choose to make it miserable for ourselves. I see him choosing roads I can’t believe he would choose because it only makes the path longer and more bumpy. Unfortunately we all have to battle through our own junk and learn on our own; we’ve all been there and sometimes we are always still there. I can advise all I want, but ultimately he has to see it clearly to make the decisions that are going to change for the good; I can’t do it for him. Many days throughout my life he will stand by my side and say/feel the same way as I travel that bumpy road. Even watching him, is a learning experience for me as well. Nothing goes wasted as a husband and wife travel the road of life together. We experience moments of ease, but they are quickly eclipsed by the reality of this harsh world. Everyone lives here; at some point of pain.

I guess this is all part of being married, you experience complete happiness, adventure and glorious monuments together, but at the same time you experience the deep pain, heartache and trials as well. Knowing I can only sit back and watch from the sidelines is never an easy task but a faithful task. I will stand by him through the mire and muck while he takes his journey as a 34 year old individual, husband and father. Just as I will travel my journey as a 27 year old individual, wife and mother; trusting the Lord will see us through.

Nothing is wasted! I long to live through these trials with that attitude!

Moment of Truth:

Jesus says to ask and believe with faith and we will receive. We don’t have to put in all the “what ifs” and “buts” into this truth. God will be true to His Word and I will believe in a “freedom” day for our family. The Bible says we have not because we ask not, and I think we often don’t get what we ask because we don’t truly believe. I will choose to believe today even when my heart doesn’t feel it. James chapter 1 in the bible says we must believe and not doubt, I will trust and hang on to those words and believe nothing is wasted.

Do we see God?

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 30 July, 2013 None comments

“Fear has so captivated our minds we don’t even recognize it anymore. It’s just how we think. We live paralyzed, afraid to stand out yet also afraid of being invisible, afraid of something terrible happening yet also afraid something good will never happen. We live afraid of people and we think all of these thoughts are normal. We don’t live seeing God, we live seeing worst-case scenarios.” (Jennie Allen, Chase)

I am involved with a bible study at our church on Tuesday mornings. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all the studies I’ve been through thus far. But…this one in particular is not on any focus except MY heart towards God. We are only in it two weeks now, and I’ve already felt compelled to change my heart and attitude on so many levels.

Believing God is real is a great attribute, but believing comes from the heart. Are we living as though we believe what we say, are our actions speaking our truths, are our lives following in harmony with our words? These are hard questions for each of us to ask ourselves. Whether you believe in God or not, contemplate those questions and see if your life is showing a path that is aligned with your heart. We can talk the talk all we want, but when life gets out right difficult, is our talk following our walk? If we believe God is real and that he is with each and every one of us; wouldn’t we live differently? Do we confess an intellectual belief in God or is He real enough to impact our circumstances?

Fear is not something little. Fear is something that impacts us at our core if we will choose to recognize it. Every one of us struggles with fear on some level. Fear of abandonment, fear of finances, wealth, fear of being noticed or unnoticed, fear of accomplishments, fear of not being good enough, fear of fitting in, fear of losing, fear from past circumstances, and fear of failure. This could go on and on. Every one of us has a level of fear within us that may be recognized or may not be, but should be dealt with. This fear can be captivating taking away your life, or it could be less harmful and be the deciding factor for steps you take during the day, week, month and year. You will only get as far as your fear allows you. Fear is hindering us from the things we are meant to accomplish.

We need courage to stand firm in what we know to be true. But fear is so paralyzing that it becomes a massive hurdle to jump over. Our greatest fears and failures tend to be our greatest strengths if we allow them to be. Sometimes we can make God out to be too perplexing. The basis of facing our giants needs to stem from acting in correlation with who God says he is, not who we say God is. This is a big difference. Each day has a task set before us; God has a plan with us each and every single day. Do we realize this, not really? To be honest I do not approach each day in the manner that God would probably wish I would. Most the time, I probably approach the day how I wish to approach it rather than stop and see what God has in store for me. What if we took a minute to just stop for 30 seconds even, and ask God to direct our steps today? God’s plan is so much greater than our plan and often looks very different than how we envisioned. But His plan is so much better and often goes beyond what we imagine, only to make us stop and be thankful.

Do we live protectively over our lives and fear what we may lose. The reality is we could lose everything no matter how hard you protect your things. God ultimately has the power to take things away to put our perspective back on him, or to teach us during the hard times so that we don’t put our possessions above God himself. “Fear is rooted in unbelief, and unbelief is sin.” (Jennie Allen, Chase Study, pg 49) Courage is fundamentally the fight for faith. Going back to our hearts desires. You fight for what you believe every day in some manner or another. We see people every day on television fighting to the very core of themselves proving there isn’t a god. The fight against same sex marriages, abortions, women’s rights, and much more. These people fight to the depths of themselves for something that is temporary. This fight won’t carry us to heaven and gives us a purpose that feels worth fighting for. Being seen in the naked eye for something that is too complex is why fear overtakes. God alone will make us brave and brave for the right things, things that will last eternally. We ultimately become a salve to our fear. That’s a scary thought to me, our mind is so powerful and we get so lost by our own fears we do not know which way is up anymore.

In the blink of an eye our lives begin to pass us by. Our lives grow so quickly, our kids we never had but always wanted are leaving for college, our 30th anniversaries are right around the corner, retirement accounts becoming more in the forefront of our minds, helping parents through hospice and the transition of life where they become a helpless babe again. All of these things are a part of life and are hard, sad, tough and yet so exciting. These stages are great to watch the kids grow and become their own little person, fall in love, have their own babies, but the transition of life starts as a helpless babe and unfortunately takes us right back around to being completely and utterly helpless again.

The media lately has been so full of death. Maybe this isn’t something new, but has caught my attention more recently. My heart is so broken for people who lose a loved one, go through a tragic scenario, and live and lose. These people have no hope, constantly searching their whole lives for purpose and meaning. My heart aches for the emptiness, sadness, depression, drug and alcohol abuse, broken marriages and broken families. These are hard things for me. I have an incredible amount of compassion for these heartaches. I’ve realized the hunt for something greater displays a life of emptiness so clearly through our celebrities; overdose and suicide. It brings life back into perspective; what’s our goal every day? Are we fighting to simply make it through the day, or are we blessed with life that no matter our circumstances we want to glorify God, be a light to friends and family and embrace each day as it was our last. We never live as though this is our last day. How many times do you walk out the door, hang up the phone or drop your kids off at school wishing the conversation ended different? I do often unfortunately, and I long to change this. My attitude is my biggest pitfall. I recognize this but need to not only proactively work on it, but need to change my hearts attitude for this to be an effective change.

I heard once, “our hearts display our true beliefs,” we live as though our hearts believe, not as though our minds believe. Did you catch that? Our hearts speak and display our true beliefs, meanwhile our minds tells us what we want to believe and what we ought to believe but our hearts do not follow. They are different. I’m not suggesting this is an easy fix, I’m working on this daily trying to convince myself I understand I have a poor attitude while the next breath I’m reinforcing my bad attitude. It’s not something we can magically change; it’s something that takes the strength of ourselves leaning on our Heavenly Father to help break our hearts in order that we may see things differently. We can try and try all we want, but I am living proof that it takes more than my sinful, selfish self to truly change the nature that we are all inherently selfish beings. If we weren’t, this topic wouldn’t be so challenging. Dear friends, we are all on this journey together. Let’s embrace the reality that in the midst of beauty we are all selfish and need help and accountability from those around us. Lean on the Lord today and see how your perspective changes. Choose to see God.

Longing to grow my “first” garden

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 27 July, 2013 None comments

I’ve been so excited to plant my first garden but at the same time I haven’t been able to embark on this territory. Considering our house just sold and if I had started it, the new neighbors would be receiving the wealth. Not that leaving these goodies behind for the new owners is a bad thing, but having to start all over was not really exciting for me, especially since this would be my first garden.

 

Our new house has an incredible garden area full of weeds; looks like a meadow actually. Some of our friends came over to see the new place and the work we had done, they brought us a bunch of herbs that I was so excited about. Although I wasn’t sure how to care for them and how often they would need a drink, I decided this was the first steps.  To ease myself into it, I left these herbs on my front porch for two weeks keeping it simple; a drink of water once a day. We left town for the 4th of July and when we returned my herbs were definitely struggling to stay alive. I did think ahead and put them in our flower bed to allow the automatic sprinkler to help water while we were gone; even though this wasn’t enough water, I had hoped they were still salvageable.

 

I had a concern of losing the life of my herbs considering I have never had a garden before and I’ve killed many items I’ve been responsible for previously. Getting married to my husband allowed me to start on this adventure. He had about 5 live plants in his house that I took responsibility for; he’d often question if they were getting watered, which was a good reminder that they needed a good, long drink. I started getting in the habit and even though they have had their rough moments in life I’ve managed to grow them quite well.

 

With that being said, I’ve transplanted two of my 6 herbs and they have literally flourished. The other three of the four are actually hanging on to life pretty well, they were hanging by a thread but have managed to start producing well enough that I can transplant them now. The last one unfortunately is gone. Dry sticks are really all that remains. This was my cilantro, I love cilantro, either I’m too lazy to throw it out, or I have some hope still, that in the midst of the desert it may actually still have some life somewhere in that dirt.

 

Tonight was the second time I’ve been able to use my herbs, it was very exciting. The meadows on the other hand will have to wait till next year. There is a lot of work that needs to be done and more dirt will need to be brought in. I’ve realized that the inside of the house is my main focus right now until the sun returns next spring.

 

Pancakes Please

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 24 July, 2013 None comments

Ugh, so frustrated. This morning was our day to get lots of little projects done around the house; new house that is. We literally had many items on our list and many items on Home Depots list as well. We woke up, had coffee, and took off to Home Depot before little man went down for his morning nap. We spent a good $500 on items to get a bedroom fan, kitchen faucet, texture, hinges, blind, and backsplash samples just to name a few. Needless to say, we got home with very hungry bellies. I wanted to make something quick so I could begin my list of projects while Cooper was asleep. I decided to make pancakes as we really love fluffy pancakes and eggs. Simply easy and definitely not fancy.

So, far it all sounds great right? I already had a mix from the store but while I was cooking them decided I should look at the ingredients. Let me tell you, this was so annoying; pancake mix should be a simple 4 ingredient mixture. While of course, anything store bought these days has to have chemicals and at least 10 ingredients; and lo and behold, it did. We ate them….yes we did, although while they were cooking I was adamant to make a pancake mix to have on hand from here on out.

We went camping last weekend with another friend and she brought her homemade pancake mix. I must say it was very good although anything is good while camping. It’s entirely too simple to actually not make our own pancakes, so much so, that I feel crazy for not already having done this. Mark my words, today will be the last day of eating yummy chemicals, I mean, store bought pancakes.

Please, if you are reading this, please make your own mix. It’s too easy not to! Click here for the recipe.

 

What is “Love”

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 29 June, 2013 None comments

What is Love

Yes you, my husband. I can’t begin to explain the depths of my love to you. I know I fail and say hurtful things. I know I’ve let you down, hurt your heart, and spoken out of line. I know my approach is not always the best, but please believe me when I say I will always strive to be a better woman, wife and mother. My deepest desire is first and foremost to express my love on a daily basis that is unspoken. A love that goes beyond words and action, but simply is the basis of who I am and how I act with you. This is my heart’s desire.

I have reached the point in my life of complete contentment. Contentment on a level of having everything I truly need. I have the love of my life to share in every adventure we go on. Good and bad, trial and error, heartache and happiness. I have the best baby boy with big blue eyes who holds my heart so dear. This truly is all I’ve ever wanted and I have it. It’s mine, my childhood dreams come true. My heart it happy. Beyond this I have a blessed life living in suburbia in an upscale, safe and quite neighborhood. I have a beautiful house, car and many other material things that have blessed our lives. These things I am fortunate to have and undeserving. This isn’t the issue though. These material things will never be the basis of my happiness and will never define who I am; Tiffany Joy Cook.

All my childhood I dreamt of the day of being married, having babies, and living happily ever after. I have accomplished my biggest dream of life. 26 years it took me to finally reach the end goal. I’ve made mistakes and plenty of them, I have drove down roads I wish I hadn’t, I had many worldly experiences that I wish I could erase but through these challenging, difficult disappointments, I have also realized not to dwell on them but to become a stronger woman through it all. The innocence I hold now is a pure love for the fact that forgiveness reigns and circumstances don’t define a person. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”Oh, how this is beyond true. But not only do I want to become stronger through trials and tribulations, I want to become a woman who is viewed as blessed no matter her circumstances and will make something positive out of a negative. A woman who loves her Lord and Savior more than anything and whose life reflects that to the best of my ability. I long to be an example to my child and most of all you; strengthen you, encourage and help you through difficult pain in life and the joyous moments as well.  This person that I am describing and the job it holds to accomplish this task is not an easy one, but is a road worth traveling.

We chose the hard path initially. Getting pregnant after dating a couple months and then getting married. Seems to be a common approach in our lives. We not only should embrace this factor about ourselves but laugh through the crazy times. Life will continually throw curve balls, how will we choose to dodge them. Shall we hide in a corner and cover ourselves as we get annihilated, jump gracefully through the air and understand it will pass, or shall we take off running in the opposite direction and leave the arena pretending we can escape. I want to stand firm and fight the battle jumping through hoops trying to avoid as much pain as possible while embracing the learning opportunities through each hoop we jump through. I want to look back at the end of my life and feel as though I fought for the things that mattered, not the things that will be left behind. At the end of my life I will stand face to face with God in hopes to hear “well done, my good and faithful servant.” This is my desire. I do not want to hear how I wasted my one shot at life and sought after all the wrong things.

I love you Michael John! You are my joy!